Page:Lectures on the French Revolution of John Acton.djvu/395



NATION. " It is no exaggeration to say that Lord Acton's Essays are the book of the season, and that their publication is an event. Their author stood in the first rank of Gelehrte. His reading was immense, his memory unfailing. He added to his learning a considerable knowledge of affairs and an almost passionate moral energy. The former kept him in touch with life, the latter with principle ; he lived in the world of men without descending to its level ; he raised and inspired. The works of such a man are of public, it is not too much to say of European, interest. "

MORNING POST. "Nobody can read these two volumes, so massive in their learning, so moving in their grave and eloquent appeal, without feeling the moral grandeur of the life of which they form the most adequate com- memoration. Only one of the papers printed in this collection, an address upon the causes of the Franco-Prussian War, positively sees the light for the first time, but we question whether any one of the other essays was known to the general reading public, or whether there are ten historical experts in the country who had tracked Lord Acton through the many devious periodicals in which he deposited the results of his genius and industry. These volumes, then, to all intents and purposes form a new book. It is to them, and not to the 'Cambridge Lectures,' that we should look for Lord Acton's most finished literary work, for the expression of his deepest convictions upon the most pro- found problems of faith and morals, and for the most convincing proofs of the wide span of his interests and the inexhaustible arsenal of his knowledge. They enable us to understand the animating conception which guided his life of arduous toil, and indicate the lines of a historical apologetic for the Catholic Church more just, original, and profound than any which the writers of the Ultramontane School have offered. "

DAILY TELEGRAPH. "There is so much of fine thought and brilliant expression in these volumes, and so diverse a variety of themes, that it is difficult to do more than indicate the treasures which they offer to intelligent readers."