recollection goes, the faintest allusion to the drinking of tobacco (as it was then called), in the whole body of his writings. Now all these omissions are significant because conspicuous; always, in studying genius, we learn as much from what it has not done, as from what it has done; and if research should succeed in arranging these neglects from any common point of view, it is possible that something new might still be said about Shakspeare. But, to return to _Daniel Deronda_. A day or two after George Eliot's death the _Saturday Review_ contained an elaborate editorial summary of her work. For some special ends, permit me to read so much of it as relates to the book now under consideration. "_Daniel Deronda_ is devoted to the whimsical object of glorifying real or imaginary Jewish aspirations. It cannot be doubted that so fantastic a form of enthusiasm was suggested by some personal predilection or association. A devotion to the Jewish cause unaccompanied by any kind of interest in the Jewish religion is not likely to command general sympathy; but even if the purpose of the story had been as useful as it is chimerical and absurd, the inherent fault of didactic fiction would scarcely have been diminished.... It is significant that when George Eliot deliberately preferred the function of teaching to her proper office of amusing she sacrificed her power of instruction as well as her creative faculty." Of course, in general, no man in his senses thinks of taking in serious earnest every proposition in the _Saturday Review_. It is an odd character which long ago assumed the role of teasing English society by gravely advancing any monstrous assertions at random and laughing in its sleeve at the elaborate replies with which these assertions would be honored by weak and unsuspecting people. But its position upon this particular point of _Daniel Deronda_ happens to be supported by similar views among her professed admirers. Even _The Spectator_ in its obituary notice completely mistakes the main purpose of _Daniel Deronda_; in declaring that "she takes religious patriotism for the subject," though as I have just indicated, surely the final aim of the book is to furnish to two young modern people a motive sufficient to make life not only worth living but fascinating; and of the two distinct plots in the book one--and the one to which most attention is paid--hinges upon Gwendolen Harleth's repentance, while it is only the other and slighter which is concerned with what these papers call religious patriotism, and here the phrase "religious patriotism" if we examine it is not only meaningless--what is religious patriotism?--but has the effect of dwarfing the two grand motives which are given to _Daniel Deronda_; namely religion and patriotism.