every other occupation that was not an absolute duty. The principal defect of the _Life_ is that the plan--a portion of narrative, and then a body of letters--is too rigid and mechanical. But the narrative is exceedingly good, giving within moderate compass a clear impression of Arnold; and the letters are well selected and full of interest. MINOR HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. [Sidenote: Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867).] Sir Archibald Alison was the son of a clergyman who won a name for a work on the _Principles of Taste_. Alison practised at the Scottish bar, became Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and was knighted for his services to literature. His _magnum opus_ is a _History of Europe during the French Revolution_, which he afterwards continued to the accession of Napoleon III. It is laborious and honest, though not unprejudiced. Disraeli sneeringly said that 'Mr. Wordy' had proved by his twenty volumes that Providence was on the side of the Tories. [Sidenote: John Hill Burton (1809-1881).] John Hill Burton, best known as the historian of Scotland, was an industrious man of letters, who wrote on many subjects,--_The Scot Abroad_, _The Book Hunter_, and _The Age of Queen Anne_, as well as the _History of Scotland_. The last is the work of a capable and careful writer rather than of a great historian. Burton is sensible and dispassionate, and he has collected and put into shape the principal results of modern research as applied to Scotland. [Sidenote: John Forster (1812-1876).] John Forster was a laborious but somewhat commonplace writer. He was the author of a _Life of Goldsmith_ (1848) and a _Life of Sir John Eliot_ (1864). But his most valuable works are two biographies of contemporaries, the _Life of Landor_ (1869) and the _Life of Dickens_ (1872-1874). Forster had little power of realising character, and the subjects of his biographies are never clearly outlined. His _Life of Dickens_ has an importance beyond its intrinsic merits, because it is the most authoritative book on the great novelist. [Sidenote: Walter Farquhar Hook (1798-1875).] Walter Farquhar Hook was a prominent clergyman, whose doctrine, that the English Roman Catholics were really seceders from the Church of England, caused a great stir when it was first promulgated. His vast design of the _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_ (1860-1876) was ultimately executed in twelve big volumes. The plan was too large and the characters treated too multifarious for really good biography, but it is solid and valuable work. [Sidenote: Sir John William Kaye (1814-1876).] Sir John William Kaye wrote two meritorious books of military history, _The History of the War in Afghanistan_ (1851), and _The History of the Sepoy War in India_ (1864-1876). The latter, which roused some controversy, was left unfinished at Kaye's death, and was afterwards completed by Colonel Malleson. [Sidenote: Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861).]