ld, if anything, rather overdo the
discretion that is the better part of biography; certainly in the result
one gets what might be called a close rather than an intimate study of a
figure that in life was already almost legendary. If any man of our time
was fittingly named great this was he--alike in his single-minded
patriotism, his success and that touch of austerity which no anecdotes of
exceptions can wholly disprove. In surveying his career of merited triumphs
one remarks how often it was given to him--as at Omdurman and Pretoria--to
redeem early disaster, and one feels again the pity of it that he might not
live to see his noblest task accomplished at Versailles. No doubt the last
word upon KITCHENER OF KHARTUM cannot be written yet awhile; in the
meantime here is a book that will have its value as history hereafter, and
is to-day a grateful tribute to one who nobly deserved gratitude.

* * * * *

Personally speaking, I could find it in me to wish that Mr. MAURICE HEWLETT
would consult a good man about the Saga habit, which appears to be growing
upon him, to the loss (or so I think) of all those who were lovers of his
more human and companionable fiction. But I repeat that this is no more
than individual prejudice, based on the fact that these Norse chronicles
(of unpronounceable people in prehistoric times) leave me singularly cold.
This apart, however, _The Light Heart_ (CHAPMAN AND HALL) may be admitted
an excellent sample of its kind. It is all about the friendship of
_Thorgar_ and _Thormod_, with the former's untimely death, and the
punctilious attempts of the latter to fulfil his social obligation in the
matter of exterminating the slayers of his friend; also, as second theme,
the love of _Thormod_ for _King Olaf_, and the ending of both of them--and
of the tale also--in the heroic battle of Sticklestead. One way and
another, indeed, you seldom saw a short book that contained more bloodshed,
or in which love-making (oh, Mr. HEWLETT!) played a smaller part. There was
a "slip of a girl" in the early chapter of whom I had hopes, but sterner
business caused her to be too soon eliminated. Skill and learning _The
Light Heart_ has in plenty, and an engaging suggestion of the early
artistic temperament in the character of _Thormod_, fighter and song-maker.
But I fall back on my old complaint of being left cold; and that I should
suffer that way from the work of Mr. HEWLETT gives you the