AS an essayist, Edmund Gosse shows the same delicacy of touch and subtlety of thought which made him a special favorite among the “parlor poets” of nineteenth-century England. He was born in London, September 21st, 1849, and began his professional career as a newspaper writer. The publication of his “Madrigals, Songs, and Sonnets” in 1870 suggested the great ability he has since demonstrated, not only in his “New Poems” and “English Odes,” but in his essays,—a volume of which entitled “Seventeenth-Century Studies” was published in 1883. He became Clark lecturer at Cambridge University, and his lectures delivered there were collected and published in 1885 in a volume entitled, “From Shakespeare to Pope.” He is a favorite contributor to English reviews, and many of his best essays have appeared in them.