Page:The spirit of place, and other essays, Meynell, 1899.djvu/122

adv THE RHYTHM OF LIFE AND OTHER ESSAYS Sixth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. CONTENTS THE RHYTHM OF LIFE : DECIVILISED : A REMEMBRANCE : THE SUN: THE FLOWER: UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM: THE UNIT OF THE WORLD : BY THE RAILWAY SIDE : POCKET VOCABULARIES: PATHOS: THE POINT OF HONOUR : COMPOSURE : O. W. HOLMES : J. R. LOWELL : DOMUS ANGUSTA : REJECTION : THE LESSON OF LAND- SCAPE : MR. PATMORE'S ODES : INNOCENCE AND EX- PERIENCE : PENULTIMATE CARICATURE. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS Full of profound, searching, sensitive appreciation of all kinds of subjects. Exercises in close thinking and exact expression, almost unique in the literature of the day. The Athenaeum. Both in delicacy of unhackneyed thought and charm of style these essays are the most stimulating that have ap- peared since Mr. Stevenson delighted us with his Virgini- Ibus Puerisque. To appreciate them is a step forward in education. We are conscious as we read that henceforth we shall look on life with a finer perception and more discriminating eyes. The Guardian. I am about to direct attention to one of the very rarest products of nature and grace a woman of genius, one who I am bound to confess has falsified the assertion I made some time ago that no female writer of our time had at- tained to true " distinction." . . . Mrs. Meynell has shown an amount of perceptive reason and ability to discern self- evident things as yet undiscerned, a reticence, fulness, and effectiveness of expression, which place her in the very front rank of living writers in prose. At least half of the volume is classical work, embodying as it does new thought in perfect language, and bearing in every sentence the hall- mark of genius, namely, the marriage of masculine force of insight with feminine grace and tact of expression. Mr. COVENTRY PATMORE in the Fortnightly Review. Mrs. Meynell packs into two or three little pages enough thought to equip most modern writers for a lifetime. The St. James's Gazette. The dominant quality of Mrs. MeynelPs prose is reticence. The prophet of silence and rejection, the herald of absten- tion and pause. . . . " The Rhythm of Life," " Decivil- ised," " Composure," are masterpieces in little, and they stand not alone in excellence. The Pall Mall Gazette. Gracious essays, packed with thought and vibrile with wit. The Bookman.