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 'DISCOURSES IN AMERICA'

VERY one will welcome another volume of causeries from the hand of our only English master in this branch of literature, Mr. Matthew Arnold. Notwithstanding the attempts of many would-be imitators, he alone possesses the lightness of touch, width of view, sanity of criticism, and individuality of style which are needed to give permanent value to what seems at first sight to be merely a form of the higher journalism. The combination of these qualities is rare enough to account for the influence possessed by the men in whom they occur. Mr. Matthew Arnold in England, M. Renan and M. Scherer in France, and Mr. Lowell in America, almost exhaust the list; and of all the masters of the causerie Mr. Matthew Arnold is in some respects the most influential in England, for reasons which may well engage our attention after we have made a few remarks on the present instalment of his work.

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