The subject is an interesting one, and it is treated with very
considerable ability. Mr Ritchie has the valuable art of saying many
things in few words; he is never diffuse, never dull, and succeeds in
being graphic without becoming flippant. Occasionally his strength of
thought and style borders rather too closely on coarseness; but this
fault of vigorous natures is counterbalanced by compensatory merits--by
an utter absence of cant, a manly grasp of thought, and a wise and genial
human-heartedness. The book is a sincere book; the writer says what he
means, and means what he says. In these half-earnest days it is a
comfort to meet with any one who has "the courage of his opinions,"
especially on such a subject as the "London Pulpit."--_Daily News_.
"One of the cleverest productions of the present day."--_Morning Herald_.
"Mr Ritchie is just the man to dash off a series of portraits, bold in
outline, strikingly like the originals in feature and expression, and
characterized by bright and effectual colouring. We have here
photographed a group of the most distinguished pulpit orators of the
metropolis, of all religious denominations and sects."--_Civil Service
Gazette_.
"The style of Mr Ritchie is always lively and fluent, and oftentimes
eloquent. It comes the nearest to Hazlitt's of any modern writer we
know. His views and opinions are always clear, manly, and
unobjectionable as regards the manner in which they are set forth. Many,
no doubt, will not agree with them, but none can be offended at them. As
we have already remarked, Mr Ritchie does not write as a sectarian, and
it is impossible to collect from the treatise to what sect he belongs.
The tendency of these sketches is to introduce into the pulpit a better
style of preaching than what we have been accustomed to."--_Critic_.
"Mr Ritchie has written in a graphic, nervous, and most just
spirit."--_Court Circular_.
"Written in a fluent and easy style."--_Weekly Times_.
"The personal sketches will engage attention; for the author has
evidently been a close and attentive observer."--_News of the World_.
"Mr Ritchie's pen-and-ink sketches of the popular preachers of London are
as life-like as they are brilliant and delightful. The thought of
producing them was a happy one, and has been carried out in the volume
before us with much agreeable animation. The collection of silhouettes
herein presented to our contemplation will be especially acceptable, we
conjecture, to our country cousins, as a guide among the more generally
known of the metropolitan ecclesiastics. It will be perceived at a
glance that the writer has familiarized himself with the subject, before
undertaking its treatment. Chapter after chapter brings the popular
preachers of the Capital before our mind's eye in a sort of stately
clerical procession."--_The Sun_.
"Without going so far as the late Sir Robert Peel, and saying that there
are three ways of viewing this as well as every other subject, it will be
allowed that the clerical body may be contemplated either from within one
of their special folds, and under the influence of peculiar religious
views, or in a purely lay historical manner, and, so we suppose we ought
to say, from the 'platform of humanity' at large. The latter is the idea
developed in Mr Ritchie's volume, and cleverly and amusingly it is done.
One great merit is, that his characters are not unnecessarily spun out.
We have a few rapid dashes of the pencil, and then the mind is relieved
by a change of scene and person . . . He displays considerable
discrimination of judgment, and a good deal of humour."--_The Inquirer_.
"There is considerable verisimilitude in these sketches, though they are
much too brief to be regarded as more than mere outlines. It is
possible, however, to throw character even into an outline, and this is
done with good effect in several of these smart and off-hand
compositions."--_Tait_.
"It is lively, freshly written, at times powerful, and its facts
carefully put together. It bears the stamp of an earnest spirit, eager
in its search after truth, and strongly set against affectation and
pretence of every sort."--_Globe_.
"Some of the sketches are very good."--_Literary Gazette_.
"They are penned in a just spirit, and are of a character to afford all
the information that may be needed on the subjects to which they refer.
The author's criticisms on preachers and preaching are candid, and for
the most part truthful. This book ought therefore to be
popular."--_Observer_.
"They are written with vigour and freedom, and are marked by a spirit of
fairness and justice--an admirable trait, if we recollect how much the
spirit of partisanship governs such strictures as a rule."--_Weekly
Dispatch_.
"A sketch of the comparative force of the religious denominations in
London, and notes upon the chief popular preachers, orthodox or
dissentient, republished from a newspaper--we think the Weekly News and
Chronicle. The book, which is written in a sufficiently impartial
spirit, will interest many people, and offend few."--_Examiner_.
"In this volume we have within a moderate space pen-and-ink sketches of
most of the popular preachers of the metropolis. We are bound to say
that they are drawn with fidelity, and that the admirers of each Sabbath
orator whose mental lineaments are placed before us will easily recognise
the prominent features of the original. Although brief, they evince
discrimination and talent; a fluent style being one of their chief
recommendations, not much space is devoted to each. The writer only
reviews the most striking characteristics, and his sympathies are
manifestly with those who display most liberal and manly tendencies in
their religious expositions."--_Sunday Times_.
"What Mr Francis did some few years since for the parliamentary orators
of the age, Mr Ritchie has in the volume before us effected for the
pulpit orators of the day. In brief but graphic delineations, he gives
daguerreotypes, as it were, of the living manners of the chief popular
preachers of various Christian denominations."--_The Church and State
Gazette_.
"This is a second edition of Mr Ritchie's smart little sketches taken
from the life of the most noted metropolitan preachers. The outline is
bold, rather than minute and diffuse; now and then character is seized
with remarkable fidelity; whilst the genial spirit which generally
pervades the volume takes from occasional passages approaching censure
anything like the sting of bitterness. There is scarcely a page that
does not give the reader faith in the sincerity of the
writer."--_Manchester Examiner and Times_.
"His sketches are characterized by a boldness, freedom, and vigour, which
are rarely to be met with in works of that class. He is no
hero-worshipper, but he shows that he has a keen appreciation of the
higher forms of pulpit eloquence." _The People_.
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