At least three of the four dialogues in this early collection by John O'Loughlin are fairly lengthy open-ended disputations on morality, astrology, and history, each with a particular angle of its own which is contested and justified over several pages, though not without a certain amount of discursive freedom. No doubt, this was Mr O'Loughlin's retort, partly inspired by a perusal of Diderot, to the fixation on essays which tends to characterize contemporary civilization, and it merits more respect than at first meets the eye.