There are many editions of the more familiar essays of Macaulay, especially those that have formed a part of school and college reading courses. The essay on Milton, unfortunately prescribed in college preparatory work, is one of the poorest. Those on Clive and Hastings, also often prescribed, are among the best. It is the prevailing fashion to underrate Macaulay as a critic, as it was perhaps in his lifetime the fashion to overrate him. He is lastingly powerful and invigorating, a great essayist, if only because he knows so well what he wishes to say and knows precisely how to say it. He is not subtle, not poetic, but his clear large intellect is still a bright light through the many-hued mists of Victorian criticism. JOHN MILTON (1608-74). _Areopagitica, etc._ Milton’s prose is difficult to read and only a little of it is worth reading except by the student of Milton and the student of history. The noblest passages of Milton’s prose have been collected in a single volume, edited by Ernest Myers, and published by Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. JOHN MUIR. _The Mountains of California._ _Our National Parks._ JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (1801-90). _Idea of a University._ _Apologia pro Vita Sua._ An admirable volume of selections, edited by Lewis E. Gates, is published by Henry Holt & Co. Newman’s “Apologia” belongs properly in our list of Biography, but it is really an essay in defense of certain of his ideas. Owing to the fact that Newman’s work is largely religious controversy and discourse directed to practical rather than artistic ends, his literary power and the beauty of his prose have not won him so many readers as he deserves. BLAISE PASCAL (1623-62). _Provincial Letters._ In the English translation of Thomas M’Crie. WALTER HORATIO PATER (1839-94). _The Renaissance._ _Appreciations._ The finest English critic of his generation. Contrary to a current impression that Pater is for the “ultra-literary,” most of his work is clear and simple; the essays on Wordsworth and Coleridge are the best to which a reader of those poets can turn. JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900). _Sesame and Lilies._ _Crown of Wild Olive._ _Queen of the Air._ _Frondes Agrestes._ There are fourteen volumes of Ruskin in _Everyman’s Library_. “Sesame and Lilies” and “Frondes Agrestes” (selected passages from “Modern Painters”) have been often reprinted. The best of Ruskin’s prose is very beautiful, the worst is tediously prolix. He regretted that his eloquence took attention from his subject matter, but like Carlyle, he lives by his eloquence and poetry rather than by his opinions and teachings. SYDNEY SMITH (1771-1845). _The Peter Plymley Letters._ _Essays._ In one volume, published by Ward, Lock & Co. After Swift, perhaps the wittiest English essayist who used his keen weapons in the interests of justice. RICHARD STEELE (1671-1729). _Essays_ from the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_. Steele is usually found with Addison in selections from the _Spectator_.