THE STUDENT LIFE _William Osler_ 128 THE DECLINE OF THE DRAMA _Stephen Leacock_ 145 AMERICA AND THE ENGLISH TRADITION _Harry Morgan Ayres_ 153 THE RUSSIAN QUARTER _Thomas Burke_ 160 A WORD FOR AUTUMN _A. A. Milne_ 173 "A CLERGYMAN" _Max Beerbohm_ 177 SAMUEL BUTLER _Stuart P. Sherman_ 187 BED-BOOKS AND NIGHT-LIGHTS _H. M. Tomlinson_ 210 THE PRECEPT OF PEACE _Louise Imogen Guiney_ 219 ON LYING AWAKE AT NIGHT _Stewart Edward White_ 229 A WOODLAND VALENTINE _Marian Storm_ 236 THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY _George Santayana_ 241 NOCTURNE _Simeon Strunsky_ 246 BEER AND CIDER _George Saintsbury_ 253 A FREE MAN'S WORSHIP _Bertrand Russell_ 263 SOME HISTORIANS _Philip Guedalla_ 278 WINTER MIST _Robert Palfrey Utter_ 291 TRIVIA _Logan Pearsall Smith_ 297 BEYOND LIFE _James Branch Cabell_ 304 THE FISH REPORTER _Robert Cortes Holliday_ 316 SOME NONSENSE ABOUT A DOG _Harry Esty Dounce_ 331 THE FIFTY-FIRST DRAGON _Heywood Broun_ 338 MODERN ESSAYS AMERICAN LITERATURE _By_ JOHN MACY This vigorous survey of American letters is the first chapter of John Macy's admirable volume _The Spirit of American Literature_, published in 1913--a book shrewd, penetrating and salty, which has unfortunately never reached one-tenth of the many readers who would find it permanently delightful and profitable. Mr. Macy has no skill in vaudeville tricks to call attention to himself: no shafts of limelight have followed him across the stage. But those who have an eye for criticism that is vivacious without bombast, austere without bitterness, keen without malice, know him as one of the truly competent and liberal-minded observers of the literary scene.