Year: 1868

| exercise any serious influence on the current


of eventsp True, undoubtedly true Victoria
| win never lead revolution, will never pub
lish Q cyclopedia, may never even square the
circle, and therefore why should she write.
| She will perceive her error. She will doubt
| less admit oil this and acknowledge at once


and frankly her own great inferiority TO this
great critic, this


Bookish biockhesd ignorantiy read


MIN loads OF learned lumber in his head
And yet many viii be glad that she wrote


and take pleasure In what Is written, not


merely as 1t exhibits queen in the retirement


and ease OF domestic circle, but a. 1t COM


municates positively happy thoughts and car
ries the contagion Of contented hours. at Ia


delightful" said one Of the Highland servants,


"to be with people who are always content"
And SO it is, as every man and woman will
echo and this whether we are with the con-
tented ones bodily or follow the record Of
their thoughts. We will take that Highlander
as an exponent Of the general worlds wisdom
of the people against all the cyclopedists
together. What is the use Of trying to make
men wise If 1t be not to make them happy


And If they can be happy sometimes by


shorter cut who shall despise this but the fel-


low whose lumber of pretencs and learning


has shut from his sight the real object Of effort.


There are great many books not "overbur-


dened with brains" which yet promise to out
live any particular repository Of shifting
opinions and changing knowledge. There, as
instances are cinderella" and 'Little Red
Riding Hood" and "Jack the Giant Killer" and
"Tom Thumb"-books that have made more
happy hours in the world and have had more
readers-have In fact been better successes-
than all the tones Of weighty reasons taken
together. Indeed, II We may judge OF the
many failures in this sphere of intellectual
effort that men of genius have made, Of the
repeated vain attempts to put every sort Of
knowledge In this dress and on this level, we
must conclude that the ability to write books
without 'superduous sense" is the rarest Of all
abilities that men or women have.


The Queens last book Is most perfect speci-
men Of this sort Of writing. II not only has
no "superfuous sense" in it, from the cyolo-
pedia standpoint, but that is its very excel
lence. 1t is, like the nursery tales themselves,
q happy escape from all that. It is, as its
editor says, "mainly confined to the natural
expressions of mind rejoicing in the beauties
ofnature, and throwing itself, with delight rem
dered keener by the rarity Of its opportunities,
into the enjoyment Of life removed for the mo-
ment from the pressure of public cares" II is
the record of queens holiday trips into fairy
land Of mountains and lakes and preposter-
GUS fellow wants it to have 'imperial dignity"
As model of the literature of simple thought
the direct, honest, undisguised expression of q
pure nature, the little volume has no rival on
the shelves. And whether we sit in fancy as
the Queen reads the 'Lady of the Lake" TO
Albert, "dreadfully sunburnt," or whether
with them both we watch the islands on the
Scottish coast, "entirely covered with sea gulls,
which swarm in thousands and thousands, quite
whitening their sides !" whether we climb
the hills, call all the royal family nicknames,
except "dear Albert" help 'qittle vicky"
with her lessons, or gallop on Highland ponies
through the rain, we feel all the time that We
are with people who are making the most Of a
holiday in pure and happy spirit, and it Is .
sort Of fairyland surprise to remember at last
that we have been all this imo in company
with the Queen Of Great Britain and this
pure and fresh effect Ia the success Of the book.