great. Love stories are best done by women, as in "Mr. Gilfil's
Love Story"; and, perhaps, in an ordinary way, by writers like
Trollope. One may defy critics to name a great English author in
fiction whose chief and distinguishing merit is in his pictures of
the passion of Love. Still, they all give Love his due stroke in
the battle, and perhaps Mr. Stevenson will do so some day. But I
confess that, if he ever excels himself, I do not expect it to be in
a love story.

Possibly it may be in a play. If he again attempt the drama, he has
this in his favour, that he will not deal in supernumeraries. In
his tales his minor characters are as carefully drawn as his chief
personages. Consider, for example, the minister, Henderland, the
man who is so fond of snuff, in "Kidnapped," and, in the "Master of
Ballantrae," Sir William Johnson, the English Governor. They are
the work of a mind as attentive to details, as ready to subordinate
or obliterate details which are unessential. Thus Mr. Stevenson's
writings breathe equally of work in the study and of inspiration
from adventure in the open air, and thus he wins every vote, and
pleases every class of reader.



THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY



I cannot sing the old songs, nor indeed any others, but I can read
them, in the neglected works of Thomas Haynes Bayly. The name of
Bayly may be unfamiliar, but every one almost has heard his ditties