“To ‘Indagator,’ ’Investigator, ‘Incertus,’ and the rest of the pack, that are so importunate about the true localities of his birth,—­as if, forsooth, Elia were presently about to be passed to his parish,—­to all such church-warden critics he answereth, that, any explanation here given notwithstanding, he hath not so fixed his nativity (like a rusty vane) to one dull spot, but that, if he seeth occasion, or the argument shall demand it, he will be born again, in future papers, in whatever place, and at whatever period, shall seem good unto him,—­

    “‘Modo me Thebis, modo Athenis.’

“ELIA.”

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Lamb excels as a critic.  His article on Hogarth is a masterly specimen of acute and subtile criticism.  Hazlitt says it ought to be read by every lover of Hogarth and English genius.  His paper on “The Tragedies of Shakspeare, considered with Reference to their Fitness for Stage-Representation,” is, in the opinion of good judges, the noblest criticism ever written.  The brief, “matterful” notes to his Specimens of the Old English Dramatists are the very quintessence of criticism,—­the flower and fruit of years of thoughtful reading of the old English drama.  Nay, even his incidental allusions to his favorite old poets and prose-writers are worth whole pages of ordinary criticism.

Therefore I do not see what reason or excuse Talfourd could have for not publishing the critical paper on De Foe’s Secondary Novels, which Lamb contributed to Walter Wilson’s Life of De Foe.  The author of “Robinson Crusoe” was a great favorite with Lamb, and his criticism of “Colonel Jack,” “Moll Flanders,” etc., was written con amore, and is, perhaps, the very best thing ever said about those remarkable works.  Those who have read Lamb’s letter to Wilson, dated December, 1822, and therefore know how admirably he could write of the author of the best and most popular book for boys ever written, will be right glad to read his

* * * * *

ESTIMATE OF DE FOE’S SECONDARY NOVELS.

“It has happened not seldom that one work of some author has so transcendently surpassed in execution the rest of his compositions, that the world has agreed to pass a sentence of dismissal upon the latter, and to consign them to total neglect and oblivion.  It has done wisely in this, not to suffer the contemplation of excellencies of a lower standard to abate or stand in the way of the pleasure it has agreed to receive from the master-piece.

“Again, it has happened, that, from no inferior merit of execution in the rest, but from superior good fortune in the choice of its subject, some single work shall have been suffered to eclipse and cast into shade the deserts of its less fortunate brethren.  This has been done with more or less injustice in the case of the popular allegory of Bunyan, in which the beautiful and Scriptural image of a pilgrim or