Produced by Chris Curnow, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) By Miss Repplier. BOOKS AND MEN. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. POINTS OF VIEW. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK. POINTS OF VIEW BY AGNES REPPLIER [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1891 Copyright, 1891, BY AGNES REPPLIER. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. CONTENTS. PAGE A PLEA FOR HUMOR 1 ENGLISH LOVE-SONGS 30 BOOKS THAT HAVE HINDERED ME 64 LITERARY SHIBBOLETHS 78 FICTION IN THE PULPIT 105 PLEASURE: A HERESY 136 ESOTERIC ECONOMY 166 SCANDERBEG 189 ENGLISH RAILWAY FICTION 209 * * * * * “Scanderbeg” is reprinted from “The Catholic World” by permission of the publishers. POINTS OF VIEW. A PLEA FOR HUMOR. More than half a dozen years have passed since Mr. Andrew Lang, startled for once out of his customary light-heartedness, asked himself, and his readers, and the ghost of Charles Dickens--all three powerless to answer--whether the dismal seriousness of the present day was going to last forever; or whether, when the great wave of earnestness had rippled over our heads, we would pluck up heart to be merry and, if needs be, foolish once again. Not that mirth and folly are in any degree synonymous, as of old; for the merry fool, too scarce, alas, even in the times when Jacke of Dover hunted for him in the highways, has since then grown to be rarer than a phœnix. He has carried his cap and bells, and jests and laughter, elsewhere, and has left us to the mercies of the serious fool, who is by no means so seductive a companion. If the Cocquecigruës are in possession of the land, and if they are tenants exceedingly hard to evict, it is because of the connivance and encouragement they receive from those to whom we innocently turn for help: from the poets, and novelists, and men of letters, whose plain duty it is to brighten and make glad our days.