Roundabout Papers.  By W.M.  THACKERAY.  New York:  Harper & Brothers.

We had scarcely finished reading this admirable volume of essays when news of the author’s death was transmitted across the sea.  And now we are to look no longer at our shelf which holds “Vanity Fair,” “Fendennis,” “The Newcomes,” and “Henry Esmond,” and think of the writer’s busy brain as still actively engaged over new and delightful books destined some day to claim their places beside the companion-volumes we have so many times taken down for pure enjoyment during the last twenty years.  Do you remember, who read this brief notice of the man so recently passed away, a passage in one of these same “Roundabout Papers,” where this sentence holds the eye half-way down the page,—­“I like Hood’s life even better than his books, and I wish with all my heart, Monsieur et cher confrere, the same could be said for both of us when the ink-stream of our life hath ceased to run”?  Only they who knew Thackeray out of his books can believe that this desire came earnestly from his heart to his readers.  He was a man to be misunderstood continually; but his record will be found a noble one, when the true story of his career is told.  His greatness as an author, his striking merit as an artist in the delineation of character, can never fail to be rightly estimated; but few will ever know the thousandth part of the good his generous deeds have accomplished in the world,—­deeds done in secret, and forever hidden from the eye of public-charity hunters.  His life had struggles, many and crushing; but with a noble fortitude he pursued his calling when sorrow held down his heart and wellnigh had the power to palsy his hand.  This is no place for his eulogy; but we could not notice the publication of his latest volume without thus briefly recording our tribute to the author’s memory.  Since the death of Macaulay, England has sustained no greater loss in the ranks of her literary men.

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