Those early “Plain Tales from the Hills” were fine, and “The Light that Failed,” and the rest showed that in Kipling we had a man of virile force, great observation and picturesque power. But it seems to one who looks for the sense of permanence in an artist’s choice of subjects and style of treatment that the furore over the “Jungle Stories” is simply the exaggeration that is meted out to every established literary favorite in a mere strain for novelty. There is nothing really permanent about this literary twist of investing the wild beasts with human traits and speech, and although it is doubtless well done, it does not support the contention of some critics that Kipling is the most significant and robust writer in English today. This is not denying Kipling’s universally acknowledged abilities, it is merely pointing out that he is striving more for immediate effect than for the substantial art that would insure his place in the great body of standard English literature. A Good Cause Needs a good writer to support and advocate and present it. A Bad Cause Needs a better writer to make it appear as good as the best. A writer of experience, ability and versatility is desirous of finding employment in some journalistic capacity. He prefers to advocate a damnably bad cause for good wages than a good one for bad. Address, HARDUP, care FLY LEAF. Meditations in Motley. By WALTER BLACKBURN HARTE. I have met with no volume of essays from America since Miss Agnes Repplier’s so good as his “Meditations in Motley.”--Richard Le Gallienne, in the London “Realm.” Mr. Harte is a litterateur of the light and humorous sort, with a keen eye for observation, and an extremely facile pen. His style is quaint and interesting. He has original ideas and always an original way of putting things. The writer if not quite a genius, is very closely related to one. There is a sly and quiet humor everywhere present. We hope that the author will soon sharpen his quill for more work of the same kind.--New York “Herald.” “Meditations in Motley” reveals a new American essayist, honest and whimsical, with a good deal of decorative plain speaking.--I. Zangwill, in “The Pall Mall Magazine” for April, 1895. The reader gets out of this book a good deal of the satisfaction which he finds in the essay-writing of the good old days of the English essayists. He will be reminded in many ways of that happy time, for he will gain the sense of leisure, independence of democratic opinion, a willingness to be odd if one’s oddity is attractive, a touch of the whimsical, and a good deal of straight-forward and earnest thinking. One is often reminded in reading these pages of Hazlitt. Mr. Harte understands the art of essay-writing.--“The Outlook,” New York.