Chapter VII: Lord Jeffrey

THE CRITICAL WRITINGS OF FRANCIS LORD JEFFREY.

_In One Volume 8vo., with a Portrait._

From a very able article in the North British Review we extract the following:

"It is a book not to be read only--but studied--it is a vast repository; or rather a system or institute, embracing the whole circle of letters--if we except the exact sciences--and contains within itself, not in a desultory form, but in a well digested scheme, more original conceptions, bold and fearless speculation and just reasoning on all kinds and varieties of subjects than are to be found in any English writer with whom we are acquainted within the present or the last generation. ... His choice of words is unbounded and his felicity of expression, to the most impalpable shade of discrimination, almost miraculous. Playful, lively, and full of illustration, no subject is so dull or so dry that he cannot invest it with interest, and none so trifling that it cannot acquire dignity or elegance from his pencil. Independently however, of mere style, and apart from the great variety of subjects embraced by his pen, the distinguishing feature of his writings, and that in which he excels his cotemporary reviewers, is the deep vein of practical thought which runs throughout them all."