from the expert to the amateur only too uncommon in these
days.

KNOX. - Knox, the second in order of interest among the
reformers, lies dead and buried in the works of the learned
and unreadable M'Crie. It remains for some one to break the
tomb and bring him forth, alive again and breathing, in a
human book. With the best intentions in the world, I have
only added two more flagstones, ponderous like their
predecessors, to the mass of obstruction that buries the
reformer from the world; I have touched him in my turn with
that "mace of death," which Carlyle has attributed to
Dryasdust; and my two dull papers are, in the matter of
dulness, worthy additions to the labours of M'Crie. Yet I
believe they are worth reprinting in the interest of the next
biographer of Knox. I trust his book may be a masterpiece;
and I indulge the hope that my two studies may lend him a
hint or perhaps spare him a delay in its composition.

Of the PEPYS I can say nothing; for it has been too recently
through my hands; and I still retain some of the heat of
composition. Yet it may serve as a text for the last remark
I have to offer. To Pepys I think I have been amply just; to
the others, to Burns, Thoreau, Whitman, Charles of Orleans,
even Villon, I have found myself in the retrospect ever too
grudging of praise, ever too disrespectful in manner. It is
not easy to see why I should have been most liberal to the
man of least pretensions. Perhaps some cowardice withheld me
from the proper warmth of tone; perhaps it is easier to be
just to those nearer us in rank of mind. Such at least is