A Draught of the Blue — F.W. Bain / Francis William Bain

An Essence of the Dusk, by F. W. Bain receives enthusiastic praise from Mr. E. V. Lucas, the author of the latest life of Charles Lamb, and the editor of the works of Lamb. This gentleman has written a letter to the London Bookman, moved thereto by the delight he took in the first-named tale. In it he says:
Mr. Bain's An Essence of the Dusk I find delightful, partly for its own wistfulness and beauty, but even more for the impetus it gave me to return to its six predecessors, earn of which I have since read again, in their true order, beginning with A Digit of the Moon.
The last is, I think, perhaps the least of the series; but its companions are its only rivals. There is a tenderness, a richness of color, a warmth of passion, and an elemental understanding of men and women in these books which one does not as a rule look for in English literature or associate with Scotch professors of mathematics. The series seems to me to place Mr. Bain on an eminence isolated and unique; and I think that some of the prose in the introductions, where he writes frankly in his own person, ranks with the best of our time. But no words that I can write can fittingly express the fascination which these books have for me.