Aside from its aphorisms, the style of _Feverel_ is essentially clever, but by no means so artificial as that of Meredith's later novels. If a stage direction seem occasionally over-elaborate, as: "Adrian gesticulated an acquiesced withdrawal," others are felicitous, as: "At last Hippias perspired in conviction," or: "He set his sight hard at the blue ridges of the hills," or, of Ripton draining a bumper at a gulp: "The farthing rushlight of his reason leapt and expired. He tumbled to the sofa and there stretched." There are fine passages, too, of description, like those concerned with the boyish adventures of Richard and Ripton, the Ferdinand and Miranda meeting of hero and heroine, the temptation episode, and the storm in the German forest by night. "Up started the whole forest in violet fire. He saw the country at the foot of the hills to the bounding Rhine gleam, quiver, extinguished.... Lower down the abysses of air rolled the wrathful crash; then white thrusts of light were darted from the sky, and great curving ferns, seen steadfast in pallor a second, were supernaturally agitated and vanished. Then a shrilling song roused in the leaves and the herbage. Prolonged and louder it sounded, as deeper and heavier the deluge pressed. A mighty force of water satisfied the desire of the earth." Admirable, also, are the mere hints of background given in a flashing phrase that conjures up the scene: "Look at those old elm branches! How they seem to mix among the stars!--glittering prints of winter." Taken all in all, _The Ordeal of Richard Feverel_ may be reckoned as Meredith's masterpiece. "My old conviction grows stronger," writes Le Galliene, "that it will be _Richard Feverel_ and perhaps no other of his novels ... that will keep his name alive in English literature." Certainly, Meredith has here allowed to his characters a charm of personality that later he tends to sacrifice in stressing their purely typical traits. He shows here a fire of sincerity rarely afterwards burning so brightly. He is less the mere essayist and more the lyric and dramatic tale-teller. He has set forth with skill the elements of a large problem, confirming the truth of Chesterton's remark that he combines subtlety with primal energy, and criticizes life without losing his appetite for it. FRANK WADLEIGH CHANDLER. UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI. THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL CHAPTER I THE INMATES OF RAYNHAM ABBEY Some years ago a book was published under the title of "The Pilgrim's Scrip." It consisted of a selection of original aphorisms by an anonymous gentleman, who in this bashful manner gave a bruised heart to the world.