The chapter On the Antiquity of Jests, with its suggestion of an International Exhibition of Jokes, is capital.  Such an exhibition, Mr. Matthews remarks, would at least dispel any lingering belief in the old saying that there are only thirty-eight good stories in existence and that thirty-seven of these cannot be told before ladies; and the Retrospective Section would certainly be the constant resort of any true folklorist.  For most of the good stories of our time are really folklore, myth survivals, echoes of the past.  The two well-known American proverbs, ‘We have had a hell of a time’ and ’Let the other man walk’ are both traced back by Mr. Matthews:  the first to Walpole’s letters, and the other to a story Poggio tells of an inhabitant of Perugia who walked in melancholy because he could not pay his debts.  ‘Vah, stulte,’ was the advice given to him, ’leave anxiety to your creditors!’ and even Mr. William M. Evart’s brilliant repartee when he was told that Washington once threw a dollar across the Natural Bridge in Virginia, ‘In those days a dollar went so much farther than it does now!’ seems to be the direct descendant of a witty remark of Foote’s, though we must say that in this case we prefer the child to the father.  The essay On the French Spoken by Those who do not Speak French is also cleverly written and, indeed, on every subject, except literature, Mr. Matthews is well worth reading.

On literature and literary subjects he is certainly ‘sadly to seek.’  The essay on The Ethics of Plagiarism, with its laborious attempt to rehabilitate Mr. Rider Haggard and its foolish remarks on Poe’s admirable paper Mr. Longfellow and Other Plagiarists, is extremely dull and commonplace and, in the elaborate comparison that he draws between Mr. Frederick Locker and Mr. Austin Dobson, the author of Pen and Ink shows that he is quite devoid of any real critical faculty or of any fine sense of the difference between ordinary society verse and the exquisite work of a very perfect artist in poetry.  We have no objection to Mr. Matthews likening Mr. Locker to Mr. du Maurier, and Mr. Dobson to Randolph Caldecott and Mr. Edwin Abbey.  Comparisons of this kind, though extremely silly, do not do much harm.  In fact, they mean nothing and are probably not intended to mean anything.  Upon the other hand, we really must protest against Mr. Matthews’ efforts to confuse the poetry of Piccadilly with the poetry of Parnassus.  To tell us, for instance, that Mr. Austin Dobson’s verse ’has not the condensed clearness nor the incisive vigor of Mr. Locker’s’ is really too bad even for Transatlantic criticism.  Nobody who lays claim to the slightest knowledge of literature and the forms of literature should ever bring the two names into conjunction.  Mr. Locker has written some pleasant vers de societe, some tuneful trifles in rhyme admirably suited for ladies’ albums and for magazines.  But to mention Herrick and Suckling and Mr. Austin Dobson in connection with