Such a story might have been very cynically treated; but it is not so done, the whole tone is kindly and consolatory, and the disenchanted man submissively takes the lesson, and understands that things far away are to be loved for their own sake, and that the unattainable is not truly unattainable, when we can make the beauty of it our own.

Indeed, throughout all these two volumes, though there is much practical scepticism, and much irony on abstract questions, this kindly and consolatory spirit is never absent.

There is much that is cheerful and, after a sedate, fireside fashion, hopeful.

No one will be discouraged by reading the book; but the ground of all this hopefulness and cheerfulness remains to the end somewhat vague.

It does not seem to arise from any practical belief in the future either of the individual or the race, but rather from the profound personal contentment of the writer.