the careless public that negative fact.

_Notes from Books_ followed within a few months, but met with a less
cordial reception. Of the four essays comprised in this volume, three
are reprinted contributions to the _Quarterly Review_, being
criticisms on the poetry of Wordsworth and Aubrey de Vere; and
worthily do they illustrate--those on Wordsworth at least--Mr Taylor's
composite faculty of depth and delicacy in poetical exposition. Of
Wordsworth's many and gifted commentators--among them Wilson,
Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Lamb, Moir, Sterling--few have shewn a
happier insight into the idiosyncrasy, or done more justice to the
beauties of the patriarch of the Lakes. With Wordsworth for a subject,
and the _Quarterly Review_ for a 'door of utterance,' Mr Taylor is
quite in his element. The fourth essay, on the _Ways of the Rich and
Great_, is enriched with wise saws and modern instances. Its
_matériel_ is composed of ripe observation and reflective good sense;
but the manner is objected to as marred by conceits of style--a sin
not very safely to be committed by so stern a censor of it in others.
His authoritative air in laying down the law is also occasionally
unpleasing to some readers; and great as his tact in essay-writing is,
he wants that easy grace and pervading _bonhomie_ which imparts such a
charm to the works of one with whom he has been erroneously
identified--the anonymous author of _Friends in Council_. But, after
all, he is one of those writers to whom our current literature is
really indebted, and whose sage, sententious, and well-hammered
thoughts may be profitably, as well as safely, commended to every
thinking soul among us.

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