MACLISE'S CHARACTER-PORTRAITS

THERE is much in the function of criticism which absolutely needs time for its final and irreversible settlement. And indeed some systematic reference to past things, now at length presenting clearer grounds for decision, seems a not undesirable section in any critical journal, which finds itself necessarily at the constant disadvantage of determining the exact nature of all grain as it passes with dazzling and illusive rapidity through the sieve of the present hour.