We have never experienced a greater shock in our book reviewing than that which came to us when, on turning from Melville’s description of the Arctic regions, we were told that Paradise had been found[D]—at the North Pole. It will be a long time before the public mind with its present ideas of the Pole will be willing to consent to this conclusion, even if President Warren is able to advance still more skillful arguments than he yet has in proof of his theory. And the arguments are skillful. He has quoted high authority to prove that Eden conditions once existed on every portion of the earth, and first of all at the Pole; he has done his best to remove our prejudices against a night of six months by showing that not more than “four fortnights” is the probable length of the night there; he shows us that palæontology teaches that life first began at the polar regions, and quotes the mythical lore of Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Buddhist, Greek, and Roman, to support his theory. The hypothesis is certainly entertaining, and this attempt at demonstrating it contains some very probable arguments. A book bearing the title “Personal Traits of British Authors”[E] is sufficient of itself to win the attention and awaken the interest of all book lovers, but when, on turning its leaves, it is found that these traits have been noted and given to the world by other authors, the desire to know what they are is doubled. What great men think and say about other great men is a matter of interest to all well informed persons. That pardonable, commendable curiosity to know “what about” earth’s gifted ones, that lurks in human hearts, has a sort of double chance to satisfy itself with such an arrangement as this. The persons of whom this book treats are seven in number: Scott, Hogg, Campbell, Chalmers, Wilson, DeQuincey, and Jeffrey. In a tabulated form all the leading events of their lives are given. Several pages are devoted to sketches of each one, all filled with exquisite little pen pictures, drawn by master hands at widely differing periods, and from widely differing scenes in life, giving the greatest contrasts in attitudes, words, and expression. Indeed, one has hard work sometimes to make himself believe they were intended to represent the same person. It would be difficult to find a finer collection of character studies than Mr. Mason has given in this volume.