589 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY 1 i Scad. THE DIAL A Semi-Monthly Journal of - Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information VOLUME LX JANUARY 6 TO JUNE 8, 1916 CHICAGO THE DIAL CO. 1916 - (I/ 7] { 503588 INDEX TO VOLUME LX PAGE . . 262 274 461 . . · 279 · 376 . . Joseph Jastrow Grant Showerman E. D. Adams St. George L. Sioussat Isaac Joslin Cox Richard T. Ely Percy H. Boynton Irving K. Pond Herbert Ellsworth Cory Benj. M. Woodbridge Chauncey Brewster Tinker Frederick W. Gookin Charles Leonard Moore Payson J. Treat Raymond Pearl H. M. Kallen Allan Nevins. . . . ACADEMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD, THE ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, THE WRITINGS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY, A CENTURY AND A HALF OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, AN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF AMERICA'S INCORRIGIBLE YOUTH ARCHITECTURE, A MONUMENTAL HISTORY OF ARISTOCRACY, SENTIMENTAL BELGIUM'S AGONY BRONTE SISTERS, THE VERSE OF THE BUDDHISM IN ART CLASSICS, THE “WANING” CLIMATE, THE EFFECTS OF, UPON CIVILIZATION "COLYUMISTS," THE PRINCE OF COSMIC SYSTEMS AND PHILOSOPHICAL IMAGINATION CROWDS AND CROWD-PSYCHOLOGY ECONOMIC INFLUENCES IN THE FORMATION OF AMERICAN PARTIES ENGLISH JOURNALIST, RETROSPECTS OF AN ESSAY IN ENGLAND, THE . FACT, TRUTH, FICTION, AND THE STORY FICTION, RECENT . 169 18 329 541 72 67 546 71 466 157 120 465 . . . . . . . . · 506 • 203 . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Y. Thomas 212 Percy F. Bicknell 375 Tucker Brooke 164 H. W. Boynton 3 Edward E. Hale 30, 78, 122, 214, 280, 336, 383, 424, 473, 507, 552 Benj. M. Woodbridge W. W. Comfort Carl Becker . 160 Fiske Kimball . 502 H. W. Boynton . 359 F. B. R. Hellems 114 Frederick Starr . 328 Alex. Mackendrick 117 Waldo R. Browne 277 Arthur C. L. Brown 504 William B. Cairns 313 Edward E. Hale . 259 Charles H. A. Wager . 371 Charles Leonard Moore . 405 Frederic Austin Ogg 69 Percy F. Bicknell 417 J. Paul Kaufman 275 Norman Foerster 112 J. C. Squire 6, 99, 194, 316, 408 John L. Hervey 49 Frederic Austin Ogg 549 T. D. A. Cockerell 17 Louis James Block 21 Benjamin Brawley 445 H. W. Boynton . 141 Grant Showerman 421 Theodore Stanton 52, 146, 263, 362, 450, 525 Charles Leonard Moore 191 . . FRANCE, A New HISTORY OF FRENCH VERS LIBRISTES, STUDIES OF GERMAN HISTORIANS AND THE GREAT WAR GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, A MATURE VIEW OF IDEAS, SEX, AND THE NOVEL "INDIA, PASSAGE TO MORE THAN” INDIAN TRIBE, ANNALS OF A FAMOUS INTELLIGENCE AS A MORAL OBLIGATION INTER ARMA CARITAS IRELAND, THE GREAT SAGA OF JACOBITE, MEDITATIONS OF A JAMES, HENRY JOHNSON, LIONEL, THE POETRY OF LAUGHTER, THE BROOD OF LIBERTY, RECONCILING GOVERNMENT WITH LITERARY LIFE, LEISURE HOURS OF A LITERATURE, A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE, INTERPRETATIONS OF LONDON, LITERARY AFFAIRS IN LONGFELLOW, THE “DISTINCTION” OF MONROE DOCTRINE INTERPRETED, THE MUIR, JOHN, IN THE LAND OF FLOWERS AND ICE MUSIC, A PANEGYRIC OF NEGRO IN AMERICAN FICTION, THE NEW WAYS AND THE OLD PERSON PAINTING AND THE PUBLIC PARIS, LITERARY AFFAIRS IN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . PERSIAN INFLUENCE, THE, ON EUROPEAN LITERATURE . 129-61 ( iv INDEX PAGE · 467 . . . . . . . PLAYS, RECENT, TYPES OF REALISM IN POE'S EARLY YEARS, New NOTES ON POETRY, RECENT . RACE, THE LONG CHILDHOOD OF THE READING FOR ENJOYMENT REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD IN EUROPE, THE ROLLAND, ROMAIN, AS CRITIC ROMANCE, THE GAMBLE, AND THE GREAT STAKE ROMANTIC PLAYS, RECENT SARANAC, THE GENIUS OF SHAKESPEARE POTPOURRI “SHAKSPERE," THE CASE AGAINST SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION SOUTH AMERICA AS A COMMERCIAL FIELD STAEL, MADAME DE, CULTURAL Mission Of “STAND-PAT" REPUBLICAN, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A STRATHCONA OF CANADA TENNYSON'S REPUTATION, THE GROWTH OF TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS OF A YOUNG POET VICTORIANS, THE PASSIONATE WAR AND RELIGION WATTS-DUNTON AND HIS CIRCLE WOMAN, A MANY-GIFTED Homer E. Woodbridge Killis Campbell Raymond M. Ilden . T. D. A. Cockerell Charles Leonard Moore Fred Morrow Fling Edward E. Hale II. W. Boynton Homer E. Woodbridge Percy F. Bicknell Samuel A. Tannenbaum Samuel A. Tannenbaum Alex. Mackendrick. Mariano J. Lorente M. Goebel. Edgar E. Robinson Lawrence J. Burpee Clark S. Northup Percy F. Bicknell Charles Leonard Moore Vida D. Scudder Percy F. Bicknell Percy F. Bicknell . 143 24, 330 . 205 . 97 19 167 491 75 . 110 536 208 . 418 121 22 500 207 423 165 523 . 379 . 272 326 . . . . . . . 1916 ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SPRING BOOKS CASUAL COMMENT BRIEFS ON New BOOKS BRIEFER MENTION NOTES AND NEWS TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS LISTS OF NEW BOOKS 287 8, 55, 101, 150, 196, 266, 318, 366, 410, 453,494, 528 32,79, 125, 171, 216, 283, 338, 385, 427, 475, 509, 554 37, 85, 176, 221, 343, 390, 430, 478,512, 558 38, 86, 129, 177, 222, 286, 345, 391, 431, 480, 512, 559 39, 130, 224, 346, 481, 560 39, 87, 130, 178, 224, 301, 346, 392, 432, 482, 513, 560 CASUAL COMMENT .. 152 PAGE American-Scandinavian Foundation, The.. 529 Americas, The Alliance of the. 367 Angell, President, and His Breadth of Culture. 366 Authorship, Unionized 531 Authorship in an Alien Tongue. 56 Belgian Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Reconstruction of.. 410 Bibliography, A Contribution to... 497 Blue Grass State, Love of Literature in the. 199 Blue Pencil, The... 454 Book Business, A Hopeful View of the...... 322 Book-Fair, Echoes from the Great International. 104 Book-Reviewing, The Rewards of... 266 Book-Standardization 58 Bookbinders' Trials and Tribulations. 321 Bookman, A Gifted.. 152 Bookselling, Problems in... 366 Books, Outworn, How One Library Disposes of Its. 455 Books, Stupid Legislation about... 199 Books, Two Ways to Induce a Love of the Best. 151 Books that May Run the Blockade. 11 Books versus Bombs ... 496 Bookshelves in Evolution. 411 Capitals, On the Subject of.. 529 Captain of His Soul, The.. 411 Carmen Sylva, An Anecdote about. 320 Chapin Library, The, at Williams College. 369 Collecting, The Increased Cost of.. 198 College Verse 412 PAGE Collegian's Diary, A...... 367 Comic Journal, Forty Years of Our Oldest. 103 Copyright Business, Our.... 152 Correspondent, A, of the Old School. 411 Crabbe Revival, A.. 197 Criminal Shedding of Ink. 9 Criticism, Nutshell 321 Cumulation," The Useful Art of. 531 Darius Green and His Flying Machine," The Creator of 199 David Grayson, The Real....... 455 Diary, A Notable.. Dramatic Company, A Famous Old. 453 Dramatic Critic, Half a Century a... 319 Dwight, Ex-President 529 Education, A Realistic Conception of... 497 Education, A Year's Progress in.. 60 England, The Year's Literary Harvest in.. 105 English, The Retirement of a Veteran Professor of.. Fallacy of the Times, A.. 496 “ Fallen at the Front " 318 Fiction, A Note on New.... 456 Fiction, The Function of. 200 Fiction, The Geographical Classification of. 319 Fitting the Verb to the Noun. 496 Free Verse, The Wherefore of.. 366 Gallagher and Van Bibber, The Creator of. 412 Government as Publisher, The.. 56 Grammar, A Question of.. 495 .. 413 INDEX V 529 60 97 PAGE Harper, the House of, Removal from Franklin Square of 453 " Harper's Weekly," The Demise of. 496 History of the Future, The.. 11 Horace, The Much-Edited. 268 Howells in Characteristic Vein... 369 Humor, Kindly, as an Attribute of Culture, 150 Humorous Aspects of a Serious Calling. 494 Humor's Place in Poetry. 267 Important Articles, A Prospective Series of. 10 Information Society, A Mutual... 368 Intellectual Narrowness, A Foe to.. Irrationalities of the Printed Page, Some. 8 Irvington's Infant Library... 367 James, Henry, Decoration of... 60 James, Henry, Early Literary Likings of. 268 Jane Austen Centenary Celebration, A... 200 Journalism's Increasing Dignity as a Profession. 495 Joy-Reading 455 Juvenile Classic, A Much-Quoted. 530 Kipling, A French... 201 Labrador, Libraries in.. 198 Language, A Far Northwestern Word in Defence of Our 104 Language, Dead, Resuscitating a.. 151 Language-Making in the Trenches. 454 “ Liberry," The Child and His .. 412 Librarians' Shop-Talk of Half a century Ago.......... 102 Library, A Public, with a Distinctive Name... 321 Library, Municipal Reference, A day at the Telephone 323 Library, Public, A Year's Work of Our Greatest. 318 Library, The Finest Private, in the World.... 56 Library and Police, Coöperation between..... 369 Library Building, The Short Life of a...... 150 Library Legislation, A Year's.. 103 Library Literature, A Familiar Theme in. 57 Library System, A Foreigner's Tribute to Our.. 11 Lincoln Manuscripts, A Gift of.. 412 Linguistic Theory and Practice. 55 Literary Rarities Turned to Charitable Uses.. 456 Literary Work, A Half-Century's Record of Good.. 102 Literature, A Call for Cheering... 269 Literature, A New Use for Discarded. 60 Magazine, An Intercollegiate.... 61 Magazines, Mortality among..... 455 Masefield in America.. 104 PAGE Military Training, Polite Letters and. 103 Myth, The Explosion of a Prettily Pathetic... 11 Novel in the Public Library, A New Justification of the 8 Novelist-Librarian, A 196 Novelist's Prime of Life, The... 269 Paper Famine, An Averted.. 322 Paper Famine in England, The Threatened. 269 Permanent, The Search for the... 528 Philologist, A, and More than a Philologist. 453 Plots, Concerning 57 Pocomoke Way, The.. 153 Poetry, A Vast Storehouse of. 151 Poet's Opportunity, The...... 59 Poets, Prohibitions for. 153 Poland, Academic Freedom in... 196 Post-Victorian Literary Antics.. 454 Preparation (not Preparedness ") 322 Prescriptions, Nauseating 322 Pseudonyms That Cling 59 Public Expenditures and the Greatest Returns. 319 Publishers, A Favorite Plan with... 59 Publishers' Ethics 101 Publishing Term, A Much Abused.. 197 Reading with the Most Relish. 368 Rockefeller Foundation, The Report of the. 60 Room for Improvement.. 323 Roumania, The Queen-Poet of. 267 Safety First," The Author of.. 495 Schoolboy, From an Old.... 10 Shakespeare, The First Fine Careless Rapture over. 101 Shakespeare: What He Thinks of His Plays.... 530 Shakespeare Tercentenary, Best Way to Celebrate the... 368 Simplified Spelling, The Shifting Sands of.. Socrates, The Authority of..... Soft Answer That Turneth away Wrath, The. 495 South, The Literary Outlook for the. 10 Statistics, Dry 456 Superlative, The Overworked. 320 Tolstoy's Later Diaries. 200 Translations, The Inadequacy of. 9 Trowbridge's Successful Plays. 197 Utopia's Quadricentennial 494 Word Fitly Spoken, A. 201 Word-Formation, A Fearful Possibility in.. 201 06 of a .....58 58 1 . AUTHORS AND TITLES OF BOOKS REVIEWED “A Book of Belgium's Gratitude 558 "A-B-C Books 559 Adams, Alexander A. Plateau Peoples of South America 511 Adams, Charles Francis. An Autobiography. 461 Adams, John. The Great Sacrifice... 881 Adler, Felix. The World Crisis and Its Meaning. 380 Alvord, Clarence W., and Carter, Clarence E. Hlinois Historical Collections, Vol. X...... 427 "American Whitaker Almanac and Encyclopedia,” 1916.. 343 Anesaki, M. Buddhist Art.. 546 Antrim, Ernest I. Fifty Million Strong.. 430 "Aristotelian Society, Papers of the " 222 Ashley, Frederick W. Catalogue of the John Boyd Thacher Collection of Incunabula. 35 Atherton, Gertrude. Mrs. Balfame.. 282 Atkins, Gains G. The Maze of the Nations. 382 Ayres, Leonard P. Cleveland Educational Survey. 339 Babson, Roger W. The Future of South America. 121 Bailey, Liberty H. Standard Cyclopedia of Horticul- ture, revised edition, Vol. IV.. 478 Bangs, John K. From Pillar to Post. 386 Bassett, John S. Life of Andrew Jackson, revised edition 558 Batiffol, Louis. Century of the Renaissance..... 506 Baty, Thomas, and Morgan, John H. War: Its Conduct and Legal Results 34 Bay, J. Christian. Denmark in English and American Literature 35 Beard, Charles A. Economic Origin of Jeffersonian Democracy 212 Belloc, Hilaire. Elements of the Great War: The First Phase 84 Beman, Lamar T. Selected Articles on the Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic.. 36 Benson, Arthur C. Brontë Poems. 67 Beresford, J. D. H. G. Wells. 32 Bernstein, Henry. The Thief.. 467 Beyerlein, Franz Adam. Taps.. 470 Birmingham, G. A. Gossamer.. 337 Bloomfield, Meyer. Readings in Vocational Guidance. ... 176 Boswell, Foster F. Aims and Defects of College Education 128 Botsford, G. W., and Sihler, E. G. Hellenic Civilization 33 Bourne, Henry E. Revolutionary Period in Europe...... 19 Bowers, Claude G. The Irish Orators...... 554 Bragdon, Claude. Projective Ornament. 85 Braithwaite, William S. Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1915 335 Brighouse, Harold. Garside's Career 471 Brooke, Rupert. Letters from America. 165 Brooke, Tucker. Common Conditions, new edition. 479 Brooks, Charles S. Journeys to Bagdad... 125 Brooks, Van Wyck. America's Coming-of-Age. 18 Brown, R. W. How the French Boy Learns to Write.. 429 Buchanan, Thompson. A Woman's Way... 468 Bullard, Arthur. Diplomacy of the Great War.. 338 Burgess, Gelett. Romance of the Commonplace. 428 Burgess, John W. Reconciliation of Government with Liberty 69 Cammaerts, Emile. Belgian Poems. 74 Canby, Henry S. College Sons and College Fathers. 37 Carrington, Hereward. True Ghost Stories .... 86 Carver, T. N. Essays in Social Justice... 216 Chalmers, Stephen. The Beloved Physician. 110 Chamberlain, George A. John Bogardus.... 383 Chamberlain, Houston S. The Wagnerian Drama. Chambers, Robert W. Athalie.. 31 Chesterton, Gilbert K. Poems. 25 85 vi INDEX .. 217 PAGE Guiterman, Arthur. The Laughing Muse... 28 Gulick, Sidney L. The Fight for Peace. 382 · Hague Conventions and Declarations 558 Hammerton, J. A. The Real Argentine.. 477 Harbord, Maurice A. Froth and Bubble. 429 Harré, T. Everett. Behold the Woman !. 473 Harrington, Vernon C. Browning Studies... 82 Hart, Albert B. The Monroe Doctrine..... 549 Haskins, Charles H. Normans in European History. 341 Hearn, Lafcadio. Interpretations of Literature.. 112 Hervieu, Paul. The Trail of the Toreh. 471 Hewlett, Maurice. Frey and His Wife. 553 Holme, Charles. London: Old and New. 512 Holt, E. B. The Freudian Wish.. 174 Holt, Edwin B. The Concept of Consciousness. 120 Holtzclaw, William H. The Black Man's Burden 511 Hopkins, Florence M. Reference Guides ....... 430 “How Diplomats Make War" 79 “Hudson Shakespeare," new school edition... 512 Huidekoper, Frederic. Military Unpreparedness of the United States Huneker, James. Ivory, Apes and Peacocks. 34 Huntington, Ellsworth. Civilization and Climate. 466 Hustvedt, S. B. Ballad Criticism During the 18th Century 509 Hyamson, Albert M. Dictionary of Universal Biography 479 Hyde, Grant M. Newspaper Editing.. 343 Jackson, Thomas G. Gothic Architecture in France, England, and Italy.. 502 Jaeck, Emma G. Madame de Staël. 22 Jastrow, Joseph. Character and Temperament.. 80 Jastrow, Morris. Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria. 284 Jefferson, Charles E. Christianity and International Peace 382 Jepson, Edgar Alice Devine... 474 Johnson, Lionel, Poetical Works of.. 371 Johnson, William S. Prayer for Peace. 27 Johnston, Mary. The Fortunes of Garin. 78 Jones, Jefferson. The Fall of Tsingtau.. 82 Jordan, John C. Robert Green.... 427 Jourdain, P. E. B. Cantor's Contributions to the Found- ing of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers... 480 Jung, C. G. Psychology of the Unconscious. 555 Keeler, Harriet L. Our Early Wild Flowers. 559 Kelly, Marshall. Carlyle and the War.. 476 Kimball, Fiske. Thomas Jefferson and the First Monu- ment of the Classic Revival in America. 340 King, Basil. The Side of the Angels.. 836 King, Leonard W. History of Babylon. 428 Knowles, Lees. Letters of Captain Lutyens.. 477 Kropotkin, P. A. Ideals and Realities in Russian Litera- ture, new edition 284 Kussy, Nathan. The Abyss. 383 Lanier, Clifford A. Sonnets to Sidney Lanier. 29 Lauriat, Charles E. The Lusitania's Last Voyage.. 36 Laut, Agnes C. Canadian Commonwealth..... 285 Leacock, Stephen. Essays and Literary Studies........ 510 Lee, Sidney. Life of Shakespeare, new and enlarged edition 536 Leonard, R. M. Oxford Garlands ... 512 Leonard, William E. Socrates, Master of Life 888 Leslie, Shane. The End of & Chapter... 476 Lethbridge, Alan. The New Russia. 219 “ Letters from Old-Time Vassar 428 Lewis, Edward. Edward Carpenter. 387 Lewis, Edwin H. Those about Trench.. 384 Lindsay, Vachel. Art of the Moving Picture. 274 Lindsey, William. Red Wine of Roussillon. 75 Linn, Edith Willis. Alcott Letters .. 217 Lippmann, Walter. The Stakes of Diplomacy. 219 " Loeb Classical Library” 844 Loisy, Alfred. The War and Religion.. 881 London, Jack. The Little Lady of the Big House.. 473 London, Jack. The Star Rover... 30 Lounsbury, Thomas R. Life and Times of Tennyson.. 423 Lowell, Amy. Six French Poets... 208 Ludovici, Anthony M. A Defence of Aristocracy. 541 Luther, Martin, Writings of, Vols. I and II. 221 McAlpin, Colin. Hermaia.. 21 McGee, Emma R. Life of W J McGee. 558 MacHarg, William, and Balmer, Edwin. The Blind Man's Eyes 424 McGiffert, Gertrude H. A Florentine Cycle. 26 Mackay, Constance D'Arcy. The Beau of Bath. 76 MacKaye, Percy. A Substitute for War. 85 PAGE Christ and Peace" 382 Christensen, Arthur. Politics and Crowd Morality. 126 Clapp, Edwin J. Economic Aspects of the War. 175 Clement, Ernest W. Short History of Japan.. 35 Colby, James F. Sketch of English Legal History. 218 Colcord, Lincoln. Vision of War... 334 Cole, George W. Book-Collectors as Benefactors of Public Libraries 222 Coleman, George W. Democracy in the Making. 342 Comfort, Will Levington. Lot & Company.... 30 Conkling, Grace H. Afternoons of April. 332 Conrad, Joseph. Within the Tides ..... 216 Conway, Martin. The Crowd in Peace and War. 465 Cook, Albert S. Literary Middle English Reader. 221 Cook, Edward. Delane of The Times. 478 Cooper, Lane. Methods and Aims in the Study of Literature 387 Crane, Frank. Adventures in Common Sense. 430 Crawford, William H. The American College. 285 Crile, George. Mechanistic View of War and Peace. 175 Cross, Arthur L. History of England and Greater Britain 36 Curzon, Lord. War Poems .... 24 Darton, F. J. Harvey. Arnold Bennett.. 32 Dawson, Miles M. The Ethics of Confucius. 128 De Morgan, Augustus. A Budget of Paradoxes, second edition, edited by David E. Smith.. 157 Dench, Ernest A. Making the Movies ... 344 Dobell, Bertram. The Close of Life... 29 Douglas, Mona. Manx Song and Maiden Song. 26 Drake,' Maurice. The Ocean Sleuth. 425 Dunn, Joseph. An Ancient Irish Epic Tale. 504 Eastman, Mary H. Index to Fairy Tales, Myths, and Legends 35 Eckman, George P. Literary Primacy of the Bible.... 389 Elliott, Charles N. Walt Whitman, limited edition.. 344 Elson, Louis C. History of American Music, revised edition 390 Erskine, John. The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent.. 117 Ervine, St. John G. Jane Clegg. 472 Ervine, St. John G. John Ferguson.. 472 Essen, Léon Van der. Short History of Belgium..... 220 Evans, Maurice S. Black and White in the Southern States 341 "Everyman's Library" 344 Fabre, Henri. The Hunting Wasps.. 220 Farnol, Jeffery. Beltane the Smith. 78 “Father Payne" 283 Feuillet, Octave. The Fairy. 76 Ficke, Arthur D. The Man on the Hilltop. 28 Fish, Carl R. American Diplomacy... 376 Flaccus, Louis W. Artists and Thinkers.. 511 Fleming, William K. Dreams and Realities.. 25 Foerster, Norman and Others. Essays for College Men, second series 37 Foraker, Joseph B. Notes of a Busy Life. 500 Ford, Henry J. Woodrow Wilson... 555 Ford, Worthington C. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Vols. II to V.. 279 Freiburg, Victor 0. Disguise Plots in Elizabethan Drama 340 Friedländer, Israel. Jews of Russia and Poland........ 389 Fuehr, Alexander. The Neutrality of Belgium... 73 George, Edward A. Twelve Apostolic Types of Christian Men 510 George, W. L. Anatole France. 126 George, W. L. The Strangers' Wedding... Gide, Charles, and Rist, Charles. History of Economic Doctrines 558 Gildersleeve, Basil L. The Creed of the Old South. 477 Glasgow, Ellen. Life and Gabriella.... 282 Goddard, Henry H. The Criminal Imbecile. 36 Goldsmith, Peter H. Brief Bibliography of Books on Latin America 86 Gollancz, I. Parlement of the Three Ages, new edition.. 176 Goodchild, George. Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Gift Book 176 Gowin, E. B. The Executive and His Control of Men.. 127 Grasshoff, Richard. The Tragedy of Belgium... 73 Green, Horace. The Log of a Non-Combatant. 73 Greenlaw, Edwin. Familiar Letters..... 176 Greenwood, G. G. Is There a Shakespeare Problem ?.. 208 Griffin, Grace G. Writings on American History, 1913.. 35 Griffis, William E. The Mikado.... 283 Grinnell, George Bird. The Fighting Cheyennes....... 328 Guilland, Antoine. Modern Germany and Her Historians 160 ... 215 INDEX vii 81 PAGE MacKaye, Percy. The Immigrants 76 Mackenzie, Compton. Plashers Mead. 122 Mackintosh, Alexander. Joseph Chamberlain, revised and enlarged edition.. 217 McLaughlin, Andrew C., and Hart, Albert B. Cyclopedia of American Government 169 McLeod, Irene R. Songs to Save a Soul. 331 Maeterlinck, Maurice. Poems 24 Magnus, Leonard A. Tale of the Armament of Igor.... 387 Martin, Mr. and Mrs. John. Feminism. 557 Masefield, John. Captain Margaret... 509 Masefield, John. John M. Synge. 285 Masefield, John. The Faithful 77 Maspero, G. C. C. Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt.. 83 Matthews, Brander. Molière, cheaper edition... 478 Matthews, Brander. Shakspere as a Playwright, cheaper edition 478 Meinhof, Carl. Introduction to the Study of African Languages 342 Middleton, George. Criminals 469 Miller, Alice D. Come Out of the Kitchen l.. 507 “Modern Essays 221 Moore, Benjamin B. From Moscow to the Persian Gulf 476 Mordell, Albert. Dante and Other Waning Classics.. 71 Morgan, James. In the Footsteps of Napoleon... 127 Morris's “ Pilgrims of Hope," Longman's Pocket Library 512 Moulton, Richard G. Modern Study of Literature. ..... 275 Muir, John. Travels in Alaska... 17 Murray, Gilbert. The Stoic Philosophy. 390 “Musicians' Library 344 Nathan, George J. Another Book on the Theatre. 172 Neihardt, John G. The Song of Hugh Glass .. 333 Nelson, J. A. The Embryology of the Honey Bee... 37 Newboldt, Henry. Aladore 79 Nivedita, Sister. Religion and Dharma. 385 Noble, Edward. The Bottle-Fillers.. 383 Norris, Mary H. The Golden Age of Vassar. 428 Noyes, Alfred. The Lord of Misrule. 330 O'Donnell, Elliott. The Irish Abroad. 81 Oldroyd, Osborn H. The Poet's Lincoln. 86 “Omar Khayyam," illus. by Mera K. Sett. 559 “On Staying at Home" 176 Oppenheim, E. Phillips. An Amiable Charlatan.. 426 Orth, Samuel P. Readings on the Relation of Govern- ment to Property and Industry.... 430 Osborn, Henry F. Men of the Old Stone Age... 205 O'Sheel, Shaemas. The Light Feet of Goats. 27 Palmer, Alice Freeman A Marriage Cycle. 29 Pattee, Fred L. History of American Literature. 32 Patterson, Charles B. The Rhythm of Life. 390 Pears, Edwin. Forty Years in Constantinople. 173 Pennell, Elizabeth Robins Nights.. 417 Phelps, William Lyon. Browning.. 82 Phillips, Henry A. The Universal Plot Catalog. 390 Phillips, Stephen. Armageddon 76 Pierce, John A. Masterpieces of Modern Drama.. 479 Pinski, David. The Treasure... 470 Pollak, Gustav. Fifty Years of American Idealism...... 175 Pooley, A. M. Secret Memoirs of Count Tadasu Hayashi 172 Pound, Louise. Folk-Song of Nebraska and the Central West 86 Powys, John C. and Llewellyn. Confessions of Two Brothers 388 Powys, Theodore F. Soliloquy of a Hermit. 218 Pratt, James B. India and Its Faith... 114 Prentice, E. Parmalee. Mysterium Arcæ Boulé. 173 Quaife, M. M., and Others. Collections on Labor and Socialism 38 Reed, Earl H. The Dune Country. 510 “Reports on the Violation of the Rights of Nations". 72 Rhead, Louis. American Trout-Stream Insects......... 557 Rhodes, Geoffrey. Mind Cures .... 389 Rice, William G. The Carillon in Literature... 478 Richards, Laura E., and Elliott, Maud H. Julia Ward Howe 326 Richter, Gisela M. A. Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes 479 Riley, W. A., and Johannsen, O. A. Handbook of Med- ical Entomology 88 Rivers, W. H. R. History of Melanesian Society.. 339 Robie, Virginia. Historic Styles in Furniture, new edition 558 PAGE Rolland, Romain. Above the Battle.. 277 Rolland, Romain. Michelangelo 168 Rolland, Romain. Some Musicians of Former Days.... 167 Roman, C. V. American Civilization and the Negro.. 342 Rostand, Edmond. The Romancers.. 76 Sabatier, Paul. Lettres d'un Francais á un Italien.... 381 Sanborn, Kate. Memories and Anecdotes... Sandwick, Richard L. How to Study and What to Study 343 Schinz, Albert, and Underwood, George A. Bibliography of Mediæval French Literature... 35 Sheldon, Edward. The Garden of Paradise. 75 Sherard, Robert H. The Real Oscar Wilde. 475 Sherrill, Charles H. Modernizing the Monroe Doctrine.. 551 Shivell, Paul. Stillwater Pastorals..... 332 Sidgwick, Ethel. The Accolade... 337 Sinclair, May. Journal of Impressions in Belgium... 73 Sinclair, May. The Belfry..... 280 Smith, Preserved. Conversations with Luther. 390 Solovyof, Vladimir. War and Christianity... 379 Stephens, Ethel. American Popular Magazines. 478 Stephens, James. The Rocky Road to Dublin. 332 Stephens, Winifred. French Novelists of To-day. 172 Steward, T. G. The Haitian Revolution, second edition 558 Stirling, Mrs. A. M. W. A Painter of Dreams.......... 343 Sturgis, Russell, and Frothingham, A. L. History of Architecture, Vols. III and IV.......... 829 Sullivan tighe, Francis o. The Portion of a Champion 553 Swem, Earl G. A Bibliography of Virginia... 390 Tarkington, Booth. Seventeen 426 Taussig, F. W. Inventors and Money-Makers 125 Taylor, Henry 0. Deliverance... 475 Taylor, James M., and Haight, Elizabeth H. Vassar.. 84 Teasdale, Sara. Rivers to the Sea... 333 Temple, William Church and Nation.. 382 Terry, Charles S. Short History of Europe. 386 Thomas, Joseph. Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, fourth edition. 222 Thomson, J. A. K. The Greek Tradition... 283 Tilney, Frederick C. The Appeal of the Picture.. 421 Tipple, Ezra s. Francis Asbury... 479 Tompkins, Juliet W. The Seed of the Righteous.. 508 “ Towards Ultimate Harmony 379 Treitschke, Heinrich von. History of Germany in the 19th Century, Vol. I.... Trudeau, Edward Livingston. An Autobiography, “University Debaters' Annual”. 36 Vachell, Horace A. Quinneys'. 469 Vachell, Horace A. Searchlights. 469 Van Dyke, John C. The Mountain. 555 Verhaeren, Emile. Belgium's Agony. 73 Walker, Hugh. The English Essay and Essayists. 164 Wallis, Louis. Sociological Study of the Bible. 418 Wallis, Louis. The Struggle for Justice.. 418 Walpole, Hugh. The Golden Scarecrow.. 123 Walsh, William S. Heroes and Heroines of Fiction.... 37 Ward, Clarence, Medieval Church Vaulting... 37 Ward, Harry P. Some American College Book-Plates.. 127 Watts, Mary S. The Rudder....... 552 Watts-Dunton, Theodore. Old Familiar Faces... 272 Waugh, Arthur, Reticence in Literature.... 478 Waxweiler, Emile. Belgium, Neutral and Loyal. 73 Webster, Henry K. The Real Adventure.... 214 Westervelt, W. D. Legends of Gods and Ghosts........ 343 Wharton, Edith. The Book of the Homeless. 386 Whicher, George F. Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood 128 Whiteing, Richard. My Harvest. 375 Whitman, Stephen. Children of Hope.. 507 Widdemer, Margaret. The Factories.. 334 Willson, Beckles. Life of Lord Strathcona.. 207 Wilson, Woodrow. On Being Human...... 478 Winchester, C. F. How to Know Wordsworth... 556 Witmer, Lightner. The Case of Dr. Scott Nearing..., 171 Wood, Eric F. The Writing on the Wall.. 344 Wood, Leonard. Military Obligation of Citizenship.... 85 Wright, John C. Stories of the Crooked Tree.. 37 Wright, Willard H. The Man of Promise... 552 Yost, Casper S. Patience Worth.... 556 Young, S. Hall. Alaska Days with John Muir. 17 ..... 160 . . 110 viji INDEX MISCELLANEOUS 40 .. . . 416 PAGE "Arabian Nights." The, and the English Novel. Robert Calvin Whitford 270 Art, Extrinsic Values in. Olin D. Wannamaker. 107 Avery's History of the United States, Index to... 513 Baconian Antics.- Coriolanus's Slip of Memory. Samuel A. Tannenbaum 153 Baconian Methods of Controversy. William Dallam Armes 413 Baconian to the Defence, A. E. Basil Lupton. 65 Bibliography, Slipshod. W. H. Miner... 459 Bolton, Sarah Knowles, Death of. 224 “ Books and Pamphlets Published in Canada 391 “ Books to Grow On" (Buffalo Public Library) 480 Bryant Controversy, The Last of the. Harriet Monroe 16 Carnegie Library School of Pittsburgh, Catalogue of.. 480 Cervantes Publishing Company, The.... 178 Colleges and American Mediocrity. Zelia.. 61 Diphthongs, A Final Word about. Wallace Rice. 65 Diphthongs, Still More about. Frank H. Vizetelly. 15 Dodd, Frank Howard, Death of. 87 Education and War. Albert E. Trombly. 201 “ English Writer, An Almost Forgotten." Helen Minturn Seymour 324 Eyestrain and Literature. George M. Gould. 12 Folk Poetry, An Interesting Bit of. Nelson Antrim Crawford 13 Folk-Song, Christmas, Variants in a. Vera Annette Price 66 Folk-Song, The “Twelve Days of Christmas." Gertrude Richardson Brigham, Chauncey B. Tinker, Emily F. Brown, Charles D. Platt, and Edwin Herbert Lewis 108 "Free Verse" Defined. Robert J. Shores.... 370 Garnett, James Mercer, Death of.... 223 “Hamlet” and Advancement of Learning." Samuel A. Tannenbaum 497 “ History": A New Quarterly Journal. 481 Homer in English Hexameters. Bayard Quincy Morgan 532 Homeric Hymn to the God of Battles. John L. Hervey.. 323 Information Wanted, Ernest W. Clement..... 416 Jacobs, Joseph, Death of........ 178 James, Henry, Tribute to... 345 Japan, Literary Honors in. Ernest W. Clement. 15 Japan, Some Notes from. Ernest W. Clement. 156 Japanese Palindromes. Ernest W. Clement. 499 Justin Winsor Prize, Announcement regarding the Year's 392 Knight, William Angus, Death of.. 286 Letter to a Dead Author. Mary B. Swinney.. 460 Library and Police, Coöperation between. Drew B. Hall 460 Longfellow and Mendelssohn. Nathan Haskell Dole.... 155 Longfellow's “ Evangeline," Historical Inaccuracies in. Erving Winslow 105 PAGE Markham, Clements Robert, Death of 178 Masefield as a Dramatist. H. G. Montillon. 202 “ Mice and Men." William Chislett, Jr.. 156 Moody's Thammuz," Sources of. William Chislett, Jr. 870_ Negro in Literature, The. Garland Greever.. 531 New York State Library Reports (1913 and 1914) 480 « Oh God! Oh Montreal!" J. C. Squire.. 202 Oh God! Oh Montreal! Wm. H. Dau. 16 Ontario Library Association's Selected List of Books " 223 Open Shelf, The " (Cleveland)....... 480 Photo-Miniature, The " 391 Poe's First London School. Lewis Chase. 458 Poe's First School in London, More Notes on. Lewis Chase 499 Poetry, New, Capitals and the. Raymond W. Pence, . 109 Poetry, New “ Old." Alfred M. Brooks.. 534 Poetry Review of America" 391 Proofreader, The American 513 Publisher, A Word from the. T. Fisher Unwin. 66 Quarterly Bulletin " (Providence) 480 Riverside Public Library Pamphlet.. 481 Rockhill, William Woodville, French Tribute to.. 178 Schwab, John Christopher, Death of.... 87 Shake-speare," Bacon and. Harold S. Howard. Shake-speare," “ Shakspere" and. Samuel A. Tannen- baum 456 Shakespeare in Japan. Ernest W. Clement. 535 Shakespeare Problems. E. Basil Lupton.. 271 Shakespeare Tercentenaries of 1916 and 1864. Emily F. Brown 325 Shakespeare's Dramatic Directness. Charlotte Porter... 64 Shakspere" Shake-speare Again. E. Basil Lupton 66 “ The vs. 535 Spoon River," In Praise of. R. S. Loomis. 415 Spoon River," More about. Orvis C. Irwin. 498 Spoon River," One Reader's Reactions to. Orvis C. Irwin 325 Story Hour, The” (Jacksonville Public Library) 286 Trowbridge, John Townsend, Death of.. 178 “Untented," Further Interpretations of. H. E. Warner and Edith S. Mitchell...... 271 Untented," The M ng of. A. H. McQuilkin... 156 Untented” in “ King Lear," The Word. Samuel A. Tannenbaum 63 “ We Moderns " and the Broom. W. H. Johnson. 61 Whitman, Walt, Some Recently Discovered Poems by. R. Emory Holloway 369 Women in the Bookstores. Margaret Armstrong...... 14 . 66 sal tir THE DIAL A FORTNIGHTLY JOURNAL OF Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information i FOUNDED BY FRANCIS F. BROWNE Volume LX. No. 709. CHICAGO, JANUARY 6, 1916 10 cts. a copy. 82. a year. EDITED BY WALDO R. BROWNE HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY'S New and Recent Publications Recent Books Ready January 15 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU By Stephen Chalmers Every reader-especially the thousands who owe their lives to his discovery of open air treatment of tuberculosis--will find boundless inspiration in this authorized and absorb- ing life story of the man who tamed the great white plague. Illustrated. $1.00 nel. THE WORLD DECISION By Robert Herrick A record of observations and experiences in France and Italy during 1915. by one of the foremost American novelists. For keenness of vision, brilliancy of style, and sustained interest it would be hard to find its equal. $1.25 net. ON ALPINE HEIGHTS AND BRITISH CRAGS By George D. Abraham, author of "The Complete Mountaineer" A graphic account of the author's recent experiences on the Dolomite peaks, amongst which the war is now raging, and of adventurous ascents on the Swiss Alps and in Wales. 24 illustrations. $2.50 net. THE BOTTLE-FILLERS By Edward Noble A vivid story of actual life at sea on a tramp steamer. "It is real salt and spindrift, real man's diet. If you want the sea as the sea is when a living is being wrung from it, then get 'The Bottle Fillers.' "-London Globe. $1.40 net. THE ENGLISH POEMS OF GEORGE HERBERT Edited by George Herbert Palmer Professor Palmer's well-known edition of the poems of George Herbert, the only complete and authoritative version, hitherto obtainable only in a three volume edition, can now be had in a convenient, single volume, attractively bound in limp leather. Pro- fessor Palmer has written a new and important introduction especially for this edition. $2.00 net. Late Fall Publications THE LIFE OF LORD STRATHCONA By Beckles Willson The authoritative biography of the maker of modern Canada. 2 vols. Illustrated. $6.50 net. FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM Edited by Gustav Pollak A collection of the most significant articles published in “The Nation" during the last fifty years. $2.00 net. VAN DYCK HIS ORIGINAL ETCHINGS AND HIS ICONOGRAPHY By Arthur M. Hind An authoritative and complete account of the great painter Van Dyck's work in the field of etching and engraving. Limited edition of 400 copies for sale. $5.00 net. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HAY By William Roscoe Thayer "Easily the most impor- tant and most interesting of the season's output in biography." -Independent. 2 vols. Illus- trated. $5.00 net. 12 large printings. JOHN MUIR'S TRAVELS IN ALASKA A graphic and thrilling account of the great naturalist's exploration along the coast of Alaska. Fully illustrated. $2.50 nel. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY By William F. Bade А new and profoundly interesting interpretation ns the development of the moral as shown in the Old Testament. $1.75 nel. THE NORMANS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY By Charles H. Haskins This is the first attempt to tell the connected story of Norman achievement in the various parts of Europe. "A particularly instructive work on a neglected historical period." -Detroit Free Press. $2.00 net. -Fiction- DAVID PENSTEPHEN By Richard Pryce “A novel of extraordinary insight into the soul of a woman and the heart of a child.". Boston Transcript. $1.35 net. THE SONG OF THE LARK By Willa S. Cather “A novel that you would do wisely to make a note of a sort of indigenous western American version of The Di- vine Fire.'"--Life. $1.40 net. BOSTON HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY NEW YORK I 2 [Jan. 6, 1916 THE DIAL “No More Enthralling Book Has Been Written for Years” ORDEAL BY BATTLE By FREDERIC SCOTT OLIVER “The first great book on the war. No more readable book, none more enthralling, has for years been written. It deals, and deals worthily and greatly, with the mightiest issues ever known to the world. By one of those rare men in whom hard thinking and clear writing go together. Abounds in personalities and examples. Alive and luminous; adorned with portraits, enriched with studies of character and performance.' -N. Y. Tribune. “A big book and a valuable book. A stirring appeal, able, eloquent, vigorous and sincere. Here at last is a man who has a definite thesis to maintain." - The New Republic. New American Edition Just Ready, $1.50. THE MILITARY UNPREPAREDNESS OF THE UNITED STATES By FREDERIC L. HUIDEKOPER A book that is absolutely essential to a clear and unbiased opinion of one of the greatest problems facing us as a nation to-day. All men who have the welfare of our country at heart should read Mr. Huidekoper's statement of facts and his sane and practical program for national defense. “Every American should read this book.”- N. Y. Tribune. $4.00. A MECHANISTIC VIEW OF WAR AND PEACE By DR. GEORGE W. CRILE “Of the many, many war books, nothing more striking has appeared than this."—N. Y. Globe. “A novel theory based on Dr. Crile's expe- riences at the front. -N. Y. Times. "A remarkable book."--Medical World. "Interesting, suggestive and illuminating." -Phila. North-American. “Decidedly worth reading."--Boston Globe. Illustrated, $1.25. VISION OF WAR By LINCOLN COLCORD In the same noble and understanding spirit in which Walt Whitman sang of the Civil War, Lincoln Colcord here sings of the greatest war in history. “In this great poem Mr. Colcord has produced the most important piece of literature of the year. A national ode unequalled in its chastise- ment, its love and its hope. -Boston Transcript. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50. THE WAY OF MARTHA AND THE WAY OF MARY By STEPHEN GRAHAM A book that reveals the fundamental ideas and ideals of a great nation. Here is a beautiful and understanding picture of the Russian people-not of the Czar and the autocrats—but of the millions who make up the real source of Russia's power, among whom Mr.Graham has lived for many years. 'Visualizes a real Russia. the ability to write such a book is not given to many men. -- Boston Transcript. $2.00. . “Our Greatest National Heroine" THE LIFE OF CLARA BARTON The Angel of the Battlefields By PERCY H. EPLER “A human document of the utmost importance and interest."--Chicago Evening Post. "Its pages strike deep into the heart."—N. Y. Times. "Nothing less than thrilling. a wonderful life and a wonderful work and few can hear of them without envy and emulation.' -N. Y. Sun. “An interesting and inspiring account of a noble life.”—N. Y. Herald. $2.50. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Publishers, New York THE DIAL A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information. Vol. LX. JANUARY 6, 1916 No. 709 . - 66 CONTENTS. PAGE FACT, TRUTH, FICTION, AND THE STORY. H. W. Boynton 3 LITERARY AFFAIRS IN LONDON. J. C. Squire 6 Caprices of the Rare Book Collector. A New Study of Oscar Wilde.— Sir Sidney Lee's “Life of Shakespeare " in a New Edition.- The Late Stephen Phillips. CASUAL COMMENT 8 A new justification of the novel in the public library. Some irrationalities of the printed page.- Criminal shedding of ink. The in- adequacy of translations.- From an old schoolboy - The literary outlook for the South.-A prospective series of important articles.— Books that may run the block- ade.- The explosion of a prettily pathetic myth.—A foreigner's tribute to our library system.—The history of the future. COMMUNICATIONS 12 Eyestrain and Literature: An Illustrative Case. George M. Gould. An Interesting Bit of Folk Poetry. Nelson Antrim Crawford. Women in the Bookstores. Margaret Arm- strong. Literary Honors in Japan. Ernest I. Clem- ent. Still more about Diphthongs. Frank H. Vize- telly. The Last of the Bryant Controrersy. Harriet Monroe. “Oh God! Oh Montreal!" W m. H. Dall. WITH JOHN MUIR IN THE LAND OF FLOW. ERS AND ICE. T. D. A. Cockerell 17 AMERICA'S INCORRIGIBLE YOUTH. Percy H. Boynton 18 THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD IN EU. ROPE. Fred Morrow Fling 19 A PANEGYRIC OF MUSIC. Louis James Block MADAME DE STAEL'S CULTURAL MIS- SION. M. Goebel . 22 RECENT POETRY. Raymond M. Alden . 24 RECENT FICTION. Edward E. Hale 30 BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 32 American literature, 1870-1892.- Critical es- timates of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Wells.-- Records of “the glory that was Greece.”- Martial law versus Magna Charta.- Impres- sionistic studies in art and literature.-An outline of Japanese history.- Some notable bibliographies. Psychological studies of three murder cases. - How the “ Lusitania” went down.-A text-book of English history. BRIEFER MENTION. 37 NOTES 38 TOPICS IN JANUARY PERIODICALS 39 LIST OF NEW BOOKS . 39 FACT, TRUTH, FICTION, AND THE STORY. Might it not straighten out matters for us a little, I sometimes wonder, if we were to throw overboard some of our verbal ballast, for instance, the word “fiction” and the word "novel " ! The first would probably sink of its own clumsy weight, and trouble us no more; and the other, when we had let it out of its gilt cage, would skitter off into the thin air where it belongs, and we should not have that pet to take care of in the future. Very likely we should miss them at first; but what a relief to discover, as time went on, that we were no longer fuddling ourselves and others with talk about "realistio fiction," and (shade of Boccaccio!) “novels of ideas, and such strange cattle! What luxury to be, as it were, alone on a wide, wide sea, with no critical baggage aboard but a few simple words like “story” and story-telling”! How much easier, when we fell into the in- evitable discussion of So-and-so's latest, to make out what the other fellow might be talk- ing about! How much more possible for him to get an inkling, now and then, as to what we were driving at! The muddle we have got into over this whole business of “fiction” is amazing, when one thinks of it., Poetry is a still more boggy theme, to be sure,— let us hasten to turn our backs on it. Fact, truth, fiction, the real, the romantic, the ideal,- are these live words? Or are they dead counters, to be shuffled about as we will ? It was a long time ago that Pilate clinched his immortality by merely inquiring, What was Truth? A good many centuries later somebody -- was it Byron ?- remarked that It was stranger than Fiction. But we are now being earnestly assured on many hands that Fiction is at least as true as Truth. And barking at our heels, while we try to engage each other in quiet literary conversation, is the rude word "Fact," demanding that some one shall pay it a little attention, and tell us what it is, and where it came from, and what it is doing at the party. Now the truth is, fact is often fiction but let us pause for a moment, and advance with every appearance of caution. 21 . . . 4 (Jan. 6 THE DIAL new I suppose the meaning of Pilate's famous mind as one of those human experiences which inquiry was, “What is the deep and abiding we rightly try to keep in their places as mere reality in life! Every man must answer items of sordid and sickening fact. It will that for himself in a way, and does answer it. not do to dwell upon them and magnify them : He has various aids in formulating his an- that way madness lies. Many such facts, it is swer,- experience, observation, religion, even true, are now employed as a basis for the art. But of course Byron was n't thinking of thing called fiction, or for the "story" in the an abstraction. What he meant was simply journalistic sense. But for the art of story- that the things that happen, the facts of expe- telling, they do not exist. rience, are often more strikingly improbable You see what we win by narrowing our than the things that are imagined. We all vocabulary. We all vocabulary. When we speak of a story, we know this is true,— we need only read the are thinking of something fairly concrete and newspaper's to have it brought home to us intelligible. For a story, if it is worth telling, every week. Coincidences happen, bits of is a thing organic, or at least composed. It lurid incident take place before our eyes, hangs together, has a beginning, a middle, which a theatre audience would laugh at. and an end,-- has, above all, a meaning. There are interventions of chance, feats of Read a tale in the Arabian Nights, or in heroism, eventualities so startling that no Boccaccio, and you have the story in its manager of melodrama or “movie would essence. You may expand or vary it indefi- dare ask an audience to credit them. Here is nitely, in substance or in meaning, and yet one that, because I heard of it at first-hand, not change its nature. If the golden material made more impression on me than if I had is there, the size of the product is largely (I read it in a newspaper. It is literally true, I don't say altogether) a question of arrange- know that; and it is utterly preposterous,- ment. Every story has, perhaps, its natural, ; you could not make a story of it that anybody or preferable, scale. But I confess myself would believe. An undertaker was leaving pretty skeptical as to the value of all our talk home for two days. There was a sick woman about a distinct and art of the short at a neighbor's boarding house, a stranger in story. Many of the best stories of our time - the village. The landlady was afraid the are in the short form. But is this true alto- woman would die while the undertaker was gether because they were preordained for that away. He said she might be laid out in his form, or partly because the longer form which own parlor till his return: his wife is used we call the novel has been so generally di- to things and does n't mind, though she will verted to other uses than the uses of story. be alone in the house. He returns late the telling? Having been a reviewer for many second night,- he is not expected home till years, I may own that, for my part, I have morning. There is a light in the parlor. He been unceasingly engaged in extricating my- lets himself in, finds the sheeted figure he has self from the labyrinths of modern “fiction" half-expected, uncovers the face with a pro- by hanging to the clue of the story. fessional hand: it is his wife. Now the mere I don't mean by this the "plot.” What, fact is easily explained; but there is no use then, do I mean? How do I know a story in explaining such a thing — for the purposes when I see one? What is a "good story," I " of the story-teller. It is too preposterously giving the phrase its highest possible mean- neat in its tragic irony. ing? Well, I shall content myself with saying This happened some years ago, two miles les that I think I have -- and that very many of north of my desk. Only the other day, two us have a natural instinct about that, if we miles south of it, there was another incident do not permit ourselves to be robbed of it. which for bitter squalid pathos no "natu- But many of the people who use the extended ralist' could overmatch : the death, in every story form, or something like it, and many of circumstance of meaningless horror, of a the people who praise them for having writ- negro washerwoman. I shall not tell that ten something other than a story under cover thing. If the other incident had its element of that form, are very busy trying to rob us of artistic irony too complete for credibility, of just this instinct. To begin with, they ask this one (am I here betraying a creed out- us to believe that a novel is something differ- worn ?) is quite as complete in its disability ent from a story, and that it is something for sane interpretation. It remains in my bigger and better. I believe that the great : -- 1916) 5 THE DIAL a (6 > sons. novels are first of all great stories, and that interpreting narrative, as definitely inspired, we love them for that, however much we may and at its height as purely wrought, as a admire them for other things. And if I be- poem or a statue. As for Mr. Dreiser, nature lieve that “Pride and Prejudice" and "The gave him the story-telling instinct, and he Rise of Silas Lapham are great books, as happened to find his material in his own back well as “Ivanhoe” or “ The Scarlet Letter," it yard. In his first book, “Sister Carrie," that is because I believe that,- scale, manner, intel- instinct asserted itself to good purpose, though lectual, moral, æsthetic, and other accessories at times it nearly lost itself among the rub- apart,— they are all great examples of the bish. In his latest novel, “ The Genius,'” it is story-teller's art. quite gone, buried somewhere under the moun- It is for this reason that I deplore our tain of malodorous litter upon which Mr. servility in the presence of sundry set and Dreiser still broods with innocent and earnest unduly emphasized distinctions - as between devotion as a hen will brood her clutch of realism and romanticism, between the novel pebbles long after you have taken her last of incident and the novel of character or of egg from her. To such futile employment the fact or of ideas. These distinctions are all grosser realistic illusion, which, if Mr. Sher- useful enough as far as they go. But it is not man likes, we will call naturalism, may bring necessary to bow down to them as before a even a born story-teller. row of idols. There is infinite gradation in I have said that the great story is purely these matters. The attempt to draw hard and wrought. I mean that it is sound as to sub- fast lines has got criticism into such a mess stance and well-knit as to structure. Only that we are now fain to pull ourselves out the short tale need be close-knit, and then with the aid of monstrous categories like largely (as with the play) for extraneous rea- “romantic realism,” realistic romance," and Jean-Christophe" is a great story no So on. more in spite of than because of its many A good deal of light is thrown upon one of volumes. The excellence of "Joseph Vance “ " the places that have been darkened by this as a story is in no way compromised either by sort of counsel in a recent "Nation” article its length, by its digressions, or by that air by Mr. Stuart P. Sherman. His immediate of negligence upon which Mr. De Morgan so object is a searching--and scorching -- analy- ingenuously plumes himself. When Mr. Kip- sis of the books of Mr. Theodore Dreiser. ling made his famous declaration about the Mr. Dreiser, of course, is a professed realist. nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal He is out after the truth with a small t; no lays, he was justifiably challenging the critics gloss of imagination or theory is to sully with who wish (or are supposed to wish) to tie its gold the pure tin of his pages. Mr. Sher- down artists with petty rules. But not one man points out the fact that, like all realists of those ways, however unruly, can afford to who are in any sense whatever story-teliers, be really lawless. Even the tribe has its Mr. Dreiser's work, instead of a ruthless standards, or at least its touchstones. How- camera-process, represents a clear and con- ever it vary in size or pattern, in color or sistent (if paltry) interpretation of life. texture or stitch, our good story is a web well There is no such thing," says Mr. Sherman, knitted, and not a chance jumbling of parti- "as a cross-section' or 'slice' or 'photo-colored threads. Mr. Joseph Conrad's stitch graph' of life in art - least of all in the real- is singularly intricate, but there is no doubt istic novel. The use of these words is but a about the firmness of his fabric. Even Mr. clever hypnotizing pass of the artist, em- Henry James -- but the interests of neutral- ployed to win the assent of the reader to the ity now urge that we be chary of attempting reality of the show, and, in some cases, to to reduce that expansive Briton to a nutshell. evade moral responsibility for any questiona- And if an immense variety of pattern and ble features of the exhibition. A realistic weft is available for the true story-teller, novel no more than any other type of novel there is not less surely a vast choice of mate- can escape being a composition, involving pre- rials. The simpler and more primitive (but conception, imagination, and divination.'' not on that account despicable) forms of yarn And what does this mean but that, as we or tale deal naturally with incident and type are saying, the novel, in so far as it is a work rather than with sustained action and the of art, is, for a' that and a' that, a story: 'an development of character. We have a right 6 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL a - I am to insist, in a general way, that the longer the books at the great auctions have been well story,— the longer we are asked by the story. maintained, and in some cases have beaten teller to associate with his persons,— the more records. At first sight puzzling, this fact is justified we shall be in expecting them to find not inexplicable. Persons with modest in- that they are real beings, and not mere types comes, on whom, by virtue of their numbers, the book-trade in the larger and more popu- or mouthpieces; that the action shall be inter- lar sense must depend, are feeling the eco- esting because it has to do with them — in- nomic pinch, and are, for the most part, stead of their being simply puppets necessary inclined to think of books as dispensable luxu- for its carrying on. To be sure, a puppet is ries. But the collectors of rare books are a an admirable thing in a puppet-show; and a small and peculiar class. In the first place, puppet-show, or its written equivalent, is a they are normally well-to-do, and still have pure if rudimentary vehicle for the story- money to play with in spite of the present teller. The exasperating and maddening thing raids on their pockets and appeals to their is the sort of fiction, or figment, in which mere patriotism. And in the second place, they are puppets are connected with an action demand- such slaves to their hobby that they would go ing real characters. I suppose more long nar- on buying as long as they had a penny left. ratives are offered us, year in and year out, To what the passion can lead a man is shown which deserve to be condemned on this ground of Henry Ryecroft.' in the late George Gissing's "Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft.” Gissing in his early than on any other. Sham characterization is days, when he lived in a garret and read a chief mark of what Mr. Wister has called Æschylus, used often to have to consider the the "quack-novel”; and a disheartening fact question of book versus meal. Standing be- it is that so many of our confirmed story. | fore a beautiful old volume in a shop-window, readers — though not, I am sure, most of he would poise his last sixpence in his hand them — are satisfied to accept, under the and wonder whether to do without the book or well-sounding label of “fiction,” these empty for, he argued, if he bought the book he would go without his dinner. The book always won; ” travesties of human action and character. As for the rest of us — which means, have it a week afterwards, but on sont les diners d'antan? Had he been more prosper- happy to believe, the great majority — if we ous, no such trifles as Armageddon would could get rid of the muddle of terms, and stop have restricted his bids at auctions when first harping upon differences of taste as to unes- editions of North's " Plutarch” or Sir Thomas sentials, should we not find ourselves pretty Browne came up. That is what the book- comfortably agreed as to what we really ask collector is like. And beyond this, there is of of our writers of prose narrative? We ask, I course the influence of the American pur- chaser. American competition is the factor suggest, such a handling of sturdy fact or that has sent the prices of books, as of pic- creative fancy as shall illumine some aspect tures, up so enormously in recent years; and of human truth of the truth that is truer that factor is still operative. Americans ap- than either fact or fiction. To such a narra- pear to be buying more freely than ever; we tive, however colored by personal observation, may be said, in a sense, to be bartering Folios thought, or imagination, I like to think the for Munitions of War. The more valuable fine old word “story” may be fitly awarded the book the more American competition for as a symbol of merit. it becomes operative. H. W. BOYNTON. I was talking on the subject a day or two ago to one of the best London dealers in incunabula and other rare books. He spoke of the large American purchases; at the same LITERARY AFFAIRS IN LONDON. time he complained that American buying CAPRICES OF THE RARE BOOK COLLECTOR.- A was unsystematic and capricious. He could New STUDY OF OSCAR WILDE.— SIR SIDNEY never make sure, he said, what he would place in America; few Americans appeared to spe- LEE's “ LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE IN A NEW EDI- cialize in a particular type or period of book. THE LATE STEPHEN PHILLIPS. Possibly this is true; I know nothing about (Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.) it. But one may say of collectors all the It is a noticeable thing that though pub- world over that one cannot quite make out lishing has been so badly hit by the war and why they collect what they do collect, and the ordinary second-hand book trade has also why they do not collect what they do not col- suffered, the prices fetched by old and rare lect. With first editions of famous authors - TION.- 1916) 7 THE DIAL 66 It the case is fairly clear: the forces of intrinsic rian editor of “The Times," J. M. Hone's , interest, rarety, and age produce a compre- monograph on W. B. Yeats (much more sensi- ( hensible resultant. What I am thinking of, ble and full of matter than most books on rather, are books which are collected solely, contemporary authors), Boyd Cable’s “Be- or principally, because they are early or very tween the Lines” (about the best book of war- rare, or because of the beauty of their print. sketches yet published), G. K. Chesterton's With the earliest books of all, date is, perhaps The Crimes of England," the seventh edi- not unreasonably, the most important factor. tion of Sir Sidney Lee's “Life of Shake- But it is impossible to account on any ground speare," and R. H. Sherard's “The Real of reason for the habits of collectors who pro Oscar Wilde.' Wilde's friends appear to fess to specialize in beautiful books. Fashion | think this last subject inexhaustible: the seems to govern them completely. They get British Museum authorities will soon have to hold of the idea of Aldines; they rush for build a new wing to house the mounds of Aldines. But Aldus Manutius was not every- monographs on Wilde that every year pro- body; and, though Aldines are often beautiful duces. The latest, as these books go, is a good books, there are others. Why should Elze- one. It is quite uncritical, and scarcely dis- virs have had their vogue, and books printed tinguished in point of style; but the per- at Basel (save for a few Erasmuses) be given sonality of the hero comes through, and many the go-by? I have bought recently two most of the anecdotes are new. It contains one glorious Basel folios.- Erasmus's Annota- great gem, for which not Wilde but Mr. tions to the New Testament (printed by Fro- Sherard is responsible. Contemplating the ben with marginal cuts by Holbein) and enormous reverence that they have for Wilde Polydore Virgil's History of England, - for in Germany, Mr. Sherard suddenly wonders a few shillings a piece. Why do so few people what would have happened had Oscar still (though a number of Germans have begun been alive. Surely, he asks, had Wilde's eye specializing in this field) intelligently collect been upon them the Germans would never the beautiful Italian books of 1500-1530? have risked his disapproval by committing the Why are French printers like Stephanus so excesses of Louvain and Rheims ? No! the neglected? Why, indeed, do not the biblio- prospect of reproaches from such a quarter philes pay some attention to our few good would have checked and chilled them! English printers? Some years ago a man only remained to argue further that a word wrote a book about John Baskerville, the from Wilde would have stopped the war. But eighteenth century Birmingham and Cam- this step Mr. Sherard leaves to his reader. bridge printer, who used beautiful type and As for Sir Sidney Lee's book, what can one (almost as important) paper which has kept do but stand before it with that measure of white. The result was a sudden rush for humility and awe with which a pigmy tour- Baskervilles. But why not collect the books ist contemplates the uptowering mass of the of his predecessor, Jacob Tonson, who not Pyramid of Cheops? For seventeen years Sir only printed well but usually illustrated his Sidney has been adding and adding to it, books with most entertaining engravings? | incorporating every new fact which can con- Tonsons are, of course, common. You can ceivably be brought into relation with Shake- find them in every shop: you can buy for speare's life or work, until now we have example, his great “Prior” or his admirable something which is less a book than a public “ "Lucretius" for five shillings or seven-and- monument. It would be possible to burlesque six. But if all who profess to care for digni- the kind of research in which he disports him- fied book-production began to collect Tonsons self. Group after group of people, - Strat- - it would soon be found that the supply of ford tradesmen, lawyers, authors, publishers, good copies of his volumes is not inexhausti- and peers,— have been, in the process of ble, and prices would certainly not remain at years, brought into use in the effort to build their present level. Foulis of Glasgow is up a hypothetical life for the Elusive Bard, another eighteenth century printer who de- until one feels that, by the time ten more serves the honor of being collected; his years have passed, the index of the then cur- small classics are charming little books. But rent edition of Sir Sidney's “Life” may pro- I suppose that if I persist in this sort of vide a complete census of the inhabitants of propaganda, I shall end by raising prices England in the reigns of Elizabeth and against myself ! James I. Almost any contemporary docu- Recent books worth mentioning — though ment may be made to have its bearing. If, in some of them at least, will certainly have 1575, Anthony Jones of Stratford sold a been published on your side-are Sir Ed- dozen herrings to Peter Piper of the same ward Cook's monograph on Delane, the Victo- town for two shillings nine pence, the fact : 8 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL - may well illuminate something in the elabo popularity. His best play was “Paolo and . rate argument; and, after all, every man Francesca," and he did one or two slight then living was or was not Mr. W. H., and lyrics (such as “Beautiful Are the Dead ”) every woman was either dark or fair. But it which anthologists may use. is a change to come to a great mass of hard J. C. SQUIRE. facts, however trivial, after the deluge of London, Dec. 20, 1915. “æsthetic" appreciation of Shakespeare, and the endless attempts to deduce “The Man” (failing any more trustworthy sources !) from CASUAL COMMENT. his Works. Sir Sidney Lee makes no bones A NEW JUSTIFICATION OF THE NOVEL IN THE about his own proclivities. He is a "dryas- PUBLIC LIBRARY is offered by Mr. Montrose J. dust," and proud of it,- a thorough and Moses in the New York “Evening Post." We painstaking and extraordinarily sensible dry- are all familiar with the prominently dis- asdust. The result is that he is anything but played bargain in the shop window, a display dry. His judgments on controversial points that is hoped to win custom for other goods are always worth having, though, like all also in the same emporium. Apparently with Shakespearean controversialists, he tends to this in mind Mr. Moses writes, in the course think that 1 probability + 1 probability = 1 of his article, "In Defence of Novels," as fol- certainty. But his accumulation of facts is so lows: “Let us suppose that Mr. Tax Payer enormous and his detail so precise that his had had his way -- that the buying of novels book would be fascinating reading even if one had been ruled out of the public libraries sys- took no particular interest in Shakespeare at tem, what would have happened? One of two all and did not care whether or not he was things: either there would have been a greater Bacon. As a work of reference concerning buying of novels among the people, thus en. Shakespeareana, this book with its appendices couraging the output of fiction, or there would have sprung up a greater number of fiction ographies of all the more important aspects libraries than there are, run strictly on a com- of the Shakespeare Question. I observe - I had not observed it before — that by a tragic found itself, therefore, working against a sys- mercial basis. The public library would have coincidence one of the witnesses to Shake- tem which was reaping benefit through its speare's Last Will and Testament bore the neglect, and which was counteracting the pub- surname of Shaw. I also had not realized lic library's source of influence by keeping before that the German taste for “Unser away from it a great many people who, unless Shaxpur” developed very early. Two of it had novels to offer, would never go in. Shakespeare's plays, in a very mutilated Most libraries look to the novel as a means of form, were published in a German translation exploiting other books.” It is undoubtedly true in 1620, only four years after the dramatist's that such a novel as Erckmann-Chatrian's death. “Conscript” has prompted many a reader to The death of Stephen Phillips would have make a serious study of the Napoleonic wars, been much more widely noticed ten years ago. and other romances have suggested other From 1899 to 1905, when his early poems and branches of research; but it is questionable dramas - "Marpessa,” “Christ in Hades," ” whether whether “most libraries” (which may be “ Herod, Paolo and Francesca,” and so on taken to mean most librarians) consciously were being published, all but the most level- maintain that commercial attitude toward headed critics were raving about his genius. their fiction department which seems to be He was, they said, another Webster, another indicated in the foregoing. Novels have their Wordsworth, another Milton, even another own independent virtues, as do other books; Shakespeare. In sober truth, he was a man like beauty they may be their own excuse for of sensibility, with a liking for words and a being. knowledge of the stage, who had nothing new SOME IRRATIONALITIES OF THE PRINTED PAGE, to say and no new way in which to say it. minor departures from that correctness in Almost everywhere in his verse you may see detail which every author and every printer that his memory is dominating - his memory ought to strive for, are brought to mind upon of either the melody of Tennyson or the reading, with considerable entertainment and march of Milton. The success of the pleasant hearty approval, Mr. Charles Fitzhugh Tal- imitator was as transient as it was great; and man's amusing “Atlantic” article, "Accents of late years (he has been ill, and writing Wild.” Though the writer claims for himself poorly, too) he occupied the unenviable posi- uniqueness in his irritation at the carelessness tion of the man who has survived his early with which accents and umlauts and similar 1916] 9 THE DIAL 66 diacritical marks are commonly used, many into an upright position the man who has another observer must have noted with the slipped and fallen, and who needs at the mo- same vexation this lack of scholarly accuracy. ment nothing so much as to be left for a What accents are used in foreign words, and brief space to catch his breath and rally his where they are placed, seems to be regarded powers. An instant's reflection ought to as a matter of indifference, with an easy as- make clear, whatever one's attitude toward sumption that the more we have, the better; war in general, that now, when a large part some at least are likely to land in the right of the world is rapidly bleeding to death, or place if we throw them in with sufficiently to exhaustion, the danger of attack upon this lavish hand. A very carefully edited New country is reduced to a minimum; and that York newspaper persisted for some time in now, of all times, is the proper season to cher- recording the military movements of one Gen- ish some reasonable expectation of success in eral Joffré, which was not unpardonable, the age-long endeavor to devise a practicable though a little surprising. In one of the most substitute for war as a means of settling inter- popular of current war books, Mr. Frederick national disputes. national disputes. Let us at least wait and Palmer's “My Year of the Great War," he see whether some league to enforce peace may writes, in referring to the Kaiser and Berlin: not take promising shape when the battle- “Not far away one had glimpses of the white smoke at present filling the air shall have statues of My Ancestors of the Sièges Allée, cleared away. On higher grounds than mere or avenue of victory," and he so likes the look expediency and common sense there is of of this impossible thoroughfare that he intro- course much to urge against what the panic- duces it again on the next page, and still mongers call “preparedness.” Never before again on the one following, although he is has there been offered so fine an opportunity describing an actual sojourn in the German to show the world that our traditional policy capital and must have seen in print the word in things military comes near to being the one Siegesallee” more than once. But there right policy to pursue. Never before has this is a French word “siège” (which has nothing country had such a chance or been so well to do with “victory”) and there is a French able to assume leadership in a worthy cause. word “allée"; therefore he thinks to improve But here is no place for detailed argument or on the Kaiser's German by making the august for indulgence in long-winded moralizing. Hohenzollerns adorn the “Sièges Allée." An Let it suffice to quote the words of Isaac Dis- irrationality of a different sort reveals itself raeli, written a century ago, but never so in the following current news item, the news- applicable as now: “War has corrupted the paper, however, being blameless: "Five thou- morals of the people, and has occasioned them sand cards mailed from the White House last to form horrible ideas of virtue." evening read as follows: Mr. Woodrow Wilson and Mrs. Norman Galt, née Edith Bolling, announce their marriage,'” etc. Most THE INADEQUACY OF TRANSLATIONS, even the of us, not so fortunate as to be presidents’ best, is undeniable. Consequently one is not brides, have to wait until after birth, some- prepared to criticize as altogether extravagant times a whole week, or even longer, before the language of a writer in “The Unpopular acquiring a prefix to our patronymic. Review” who, discussing “The Way of the Translator,” goes so far as to assert that "the translation of literature is a meddling ---an CRIMINAL SHEDDING OF INK, advocacy through irreverence, a sacrilege. It is this because it the printing press of doctrines or policies is impossible, and it is impossible because it is fraught with evil, may be less horrible than this." Again, in the same strain, he says: criminal bloodshed, or on the other hand 'Literature is art, and art is emotion. Emo- it may be worse than any single act of vio- tion is inspiration, a divine thing, the most lence if it incites masses of men to excesses delicate and the most sacred in human ex- of brutality. The number of pens in this istence. . . Translation is meddling with in- country at present engaged in urging the spiration, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.” necessity of immediate preparation for war He is also moved to exclaim : “ The older (though they may call it simply armed de- generation may thank God for bringing them fence) is beyond counting; and this frenzied into the world in time to go to college before activity illustrates, apart from all questions every housetop in Jerusalem became a pulpit of ethics or of expediency, that habit of false for some sophomore or state legislator preach- and hasty reasoning which Herbert Spencer ing in bad grammar the glories of the superfi- found typified in the involuntary impulse cial and the shameful waste of the deep things that makes an onlooker bestir himself to jerk 1 of God.” Impassioned eloquence we have . 10 [ Jan. 6 THE DIAL here, surely, and if it turns but a single of war dispatches, even official ones. The reader to the serious study of one great work whole letter of which a small part is here of foreign literature in the original, it will given prompts one to quote, for the benefit of not have been wasted. At the same time, schoolboys now groaning under what may even though oranges and figs ought to be seem to them an unbearable linguistic grind, eaten ripe from the tree if one would get their the Virgilian tag, “Forsan et hæc olim memi- full flavor, it would be absurd for us of nisse juvabit.” But what can those words colder clime to deny ourselves oranges and mean to the schoolboy until long after he has figs altogether. To be consistent, moreover, left school? the writer should have called it an irrever- ence to attempt to read in the original any THE LITERARY OUTLOOK FOR THE SOUTH pre- work not written in one's mother tongue; for sents itself to that loyal Southerner, Professor only the native Italian can fully understand Archibald Henderson, as highly promising. and enjoy his Dante and his Petrarch, only His Phi Beta Kappa address at Tulane Uni- the Spaniard càn thoroughly appreciate Cer- versity last June has been printed in pam- vantes and Calderón. Translations, except phlet form, and no Southerner can read it of scientific treatises, business letters, or other without rejoicing in his birthright, no North- technical matter, are always inadequate; yet erner without some momentary regret at hav- they have their uses and sometimes their very ing been born north of Mason and Dixon's conspicuous virtues. What would English line. Although, as Professor Henderson ad- literature (to push speculation no further) be mits, the Hall of Fame on University Heights like to-day if all English writers had been has but one of its fifty-one tablets devoted to obliged to go to the Hebrew and Greek for a distinctively literary genius of the South their knowledge of the Bible, or forego such Edgar Allan Poe (and he was born in Boston, knowledge entirely? of English parentage) — appreciation of good literature and a fondness for the classics were FROM AN OLD SCHOOLBOY, a graduate of the early developed in the southern States, though same preparatory academy as the present the call to authorship failed to make itself writer, these few sentences from a letter ad- heard there long after the North had pro- dressed to the school principal offer them- duced writers of more than local repute. But selves for quotation : "Somehow tag-ends of with the South again resuming something memories bob up unexpectedly. Yesterday I of its old political leadership a quickening of was trying to translate, with the aid of a other activities, including the writing of dictionary, a French official war communiqué, books, is looked for. “To-day, as we stand when some French word suddenly called up upon the threshold of this new era,” declares the picture of Mr. Davis sitting back in his the Phi Beta Kappa orator, “there must come chair before his class and making an alien to all of us a sense of joyous elation, a leaping language fairly live. His knack of making of the blood, that it is given to us to live in boys think in French and read their texts such a country.” Surely, in that spirit, if in through French eyes was marvellous. Anyany, is high-hearted literature produced. one who has heard him illuminate and vivify l'Abbé Constantin' by the little phrases and A PROSPECTIVE SERIES OF IMPORTANT ARTI- remarks he drops out in passing, cannot escape CLES is announced by the “Wisconsin Library without having learned much more of French Bulletin.” Believing that a lively interest in than is in the textbooks. Is Mr. Hecker still American public libraries exists throughout at Roxbury? I hope so. Although I have the library profession, together with a very worked in about fifteen different cities since prevalent ignorance on the same subject, the I left school, and have left a part of my per- editors of the "Bulletin" are planning a suc- sonal effects in each one, I still have in my cession of ten papers from experts, to be trunk the card index of Latin idioms with published in its columns during the present which he used to make sight translation of year, dealing with leading American libraries. Cicero mere child's play. I shall never forget First, Mr. Walter M. Smith, librarian at Wis- how he hammered those idioms into our heads, consin University, is to enrich the January one by one, and then drove each idiom home number with an account of Wisconsin libra- with a final witty remark. After we had ries, including the activities of the library learned those few-score idioms, reading Cicero commission, the university library, the his- at sight was much easier than reading the war torical library, the college, normal school, and news of to-day.” No doubt Cicero, accom- public library, as they are to-day performing plished rhetorician though he was stuck their several functions in that State. closer to the truth than the present-day writer cago libraries will next be handled by Miss 1916) 11 THE DIAL . Louise B. Krause and Miss Renée Stern, after as a councillor of the court of Nîmes) who which will come an article on Greater New were able and willing to assure him a com- York libraries by Miss Josephine A. Rath- fortable old age. Consequently he was no bone. The author of “ The American Public little vexed by the report, spread abroad by Library,” Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick, St. Louis's a journalist who interpreted his simple mode well-known librarian, has promised to write of life as an evidence of poverty, that the ven- about "American Public Libraries Which We erable naturalist was suffering actual want. Should Know.” After this series it is hoped The display of obtrusive solicitude and vulgar to offer a second on the more important libra- curiosity caused by this and like reports was ries of other countries. exceedingly disagreeable to their victim, who resorted to various devices for the avoidance BOOKS THAT MAY RUN THE BLOCKADE now of a hateful publicity. After all, there was maintained by the all-powerful British navy pathos in his later experiences, but not the against free commerce on the part of her ene- pathos of poverty. mies are specified by Sir Richard Crawford, A FOREIGNER'S TRIBUTE TO OUR LIBRARY SYS- commercial adviser of the British Embassy, TEM is always gratifying, as tending to prove in a communication to the foreign-trade ad- that not invariably do "they order this mat- viser of our Department of State. Books in ter better in France,” or even in Germany. German or other language, from the enemies Such a testimonial is made public in a New of Great Britain, and of a philosophical, scien- York journal, in the form of a letter ad- tific, technical, or educational character, will dressed to its editor in these terms: “Sir: be allowed to pass if destined for universities, May I be permitted, as a stranger in a strange a colleges, or public bodies. Applications for land, to offer through the medium of your the transmission of such freight should be hospitable columns a word of appreciation of vouched for, in respect to the good faith of the excellent service furnished by the New the applicants, by some official authority. York Public Library! The attaches thereof The Librarian of Congress has volunteered to know me not from Noah's niece; yet on more act as this authority, and applications from than one occasion have I consulted them, even those institutions desiring to import books by telephone, regarding more or less recondite otherwise subject to detention should be sent matters. to him. Ever have my queries been an- After satisfying himself of the swered with courtesy, with accuracy-yea, — applicant's good faith, the Librarian of Con- with erudition. And it seems but meet that gress will give his official voucher, the appli- I should herein and hereby offer my acknowl- cation will be forwarded to the foreign-trade edgments. Emanuel Elzas.” To Europeans, adviser of the State Department, who in turn familiar with the deliberation of their own will send it to the British Embassy at Wash- library officials, the American quickness of ington with an unofficial request that a permit response must come as a delightful revelation. a for the shipment of the books in question be issued; and after a sufficient interval the THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE, if we are to books may actually be received. Thus is war believe Mr. Edgar R. Harlan, Curator of a fertile producer of red tape as well as of Iowa's Historical Department, will be re- other negatively valuable things. corded very largely on cinematograph films. Mr. Harlan is said to have collected already THE EXPLOSION OF A PRETTILY PATHETIC more than fifty thousand feet of such films, MYTH sends its reverberations from France to on which are photographed local events of im- our shores. Mr. Alvan F. Sanborn writes portance occurring within the last three years ; from Paris to the Boston “Transcript" that and these ten miles or more of graphic his- the late Henri Fabre, variously known as the tory are to receive regular additions, so that insects' Homer, the Lucretius of Provence, the Iowa schoolboy or schoolgirl of the future and (with gentle humor) the Sherlock Holmes will learn the recent history of that state by of the bugs, was very far from being desti. sitting in front of a screen and keeping his tute, or anywhere near it, in his latter days. or her eyes open. Of course this is no new Prizes in some abundance had been awarded application of the cinematograph. We have him by the French Academy and the Academy all seen some late memorable events, including of Sciences, and these prizes took the form of perhaps battle scenes in France or Flanders, cash, sometimes to the amount of five thou- pictured on the screen. Other studies besides sand francs. His books, too, developed a history — surgery, for instance - are now ad- ready sale as their author's fame spread, and vantageously pursued with the aid of moving his family connections included persons (such pictures. - 12 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL « ever.'” And raise my hot eyes to the angry sun, COMMUNICATIONS. That will go down too soon." EYESTRAIN AND LITERATURE: AN ILLUS- “During much of his stay in Vienna his health had TRATIVE CASE. been bad, a reason for his wishing to come home.” (To the Editor of The DIAL.) “Serious trouble with his eyes caused him to forego For nearly a score of years I have persistently writing for several months. He seems to have suf- fered from what later oculists diagnose as eyestrain, directed the attention of literary and medical men which caused headaches, nervous dyspepsia, and de- to the fact that what oculists call eyestrain has two pression.” morbid effects upon literature: it paralyzes lit- “Health so seriously impaired that the doctor told erary creativeness and morbidizes what is created. him he must lie off all summer.” But it seems that I have labored in vain, at least “ At Schlangenbad, took the baths and was assured so far as concerns my most prized literary journal, by Dr. Bauman, who looked him over, that there THE DIAL. I have, I judge, shown that a large was nothing serious. At Schwalbach, Dr. Carl Genth number of literary men have in the past been examined his eyes, and 'saw no organic trouble what- afflicted in this way. At last, in the case of John Hay, we had an instance of positive and convinc- “While travelling through England and the Conti- ing clearness; but your reviewer of Mr. Thayer's nent, he was more quiet than in Cleveland.” For a “ Life and Letters” (issue of November 11, 1915) month or so on his return to Cleveland he “imagined not only makes no mention of this striking and he felt better,” but “the other day I had the most pitiful fact, but traces Hay's “ desertion” of lit- ridiculous attack I have ever had — I thought I was dead for half an hour. The doctor said it was noth- erature and his unproductivity to his “mood and ing at all serious — simply the effect of a cold. But not the want of inborn ability." I feel rickety yet. I have been trying my best to get In order to make clear that the cause of Hay's to work again, with very indifferent success." literary unproductivity was not due to inethical I have only one aspiration in life, to get out of lapse and want of literary idealism, will you spare office and stop having the headache.” me one or two of your pages for some quotations “I am still not well, and the doctor tells me not to which will show that your reviewer should at least be worried if I take a month more to get well in." have more than mentioned his biographer's oft “ Manitou Springs or Colorado Springs became repeated citation of the real cause? henceforth his chosen resorts for recuperation.” At college there are two reasons why such an “I saw some doctors who told me without collusion intellectual and ambitious young man as Hay that if I would stay in Paris 40 days and take douche would illustrate industry and good scholarship. baths I would be well. They were both great swells and the coincidence of their views rather struck me. How was it? Let us consider these quotations I remembered also that it took exactly the same time from Mr. Thayer's book: in Noah's day to cure the world of most of its infirmi- “ He was never seen 'digging,' or doing any other ties by the same method; and so, like an ass, I gave act or thing that could be construed into hard study." up, or rather, postponed, my trip to the South and “ Throughout the autumn and winter, Hay experi- went through my douches, with, of course, no result enced that disenchantment with the world, etc. whatever. I went back to my doctors, and reported. One said: It coincided with one of his periodic fits of melan- Better stop your douches! Go to Cannes cholia." and amuse yourself! You will soon be all right. Forty francs! Thank you! Goodbye! If my health returns I do not question but that I “ The other said: Eh bien! Instead of six weeks, shall work out of these shadows." take three months of douches. Take them in Cannes, “I can bear -- but I am sure to die soon." if you like, or in Nice; and with that he gave me an “There seems no doubt that he suffered from poor entire change of drugs;- forty francs! Thank you, health that winter." bon voyage! There was nothing Noachian about three months, so I came away determined to do noth- Throughout Hay's life, and throughout the lives ing he told me." of the great majority of those who read and write I have been so inert and lifeless since I came over a great deal, there are constantly recurring demon- here [Paris] that I have not written a letter except strations that such near use of the eyes produces on the stimulus of receiving one. I have never been not only diseases of the eyes, but more decided so idle in my life. It was of set purpose, and I think it has been wholesome." diseases of the brain, of the general nervous and nutritional systems. Witness a few quotations “I was still rather miserable and at last went to two doctors, W. B., an American Egyptian, and the referring to the dozen or more years from the age famous C., the same day. They both advised the same of thirty-eight to that of fifty. Soon after taking thing, douche baths, tonics, and bromides.” up editorial charge of the “ Tribune,” he writes: " At your age Carlyle suffered precisely as you do, see with what eyes are left me, and write till deep, nervous depression, persistent indigestion and the time of the stereotypes comes,” etc. loss of sleep — a general disaster and irritation of the “When Hay's own health was impaired, by night entire nervous system. His misery seems to have been of the keenest character. Yet he lived to be 86 years work on The Tribune, his abandonment of journalism followed.” of age, and the last 25 years of his life were com- paratively healthy and free from pain.” “ Loose the fierce band that binds my tired brain; “Like the fever patient who, on his recovery, finds Give me the melting heart of other years." the morphine habit fixed upon him." “In life's high noon “I do not know that I have much hope of ever Aimless I stand, my promised task undone, improving my health, but the doctors give me the 60 9) << - 1916 ] 13 THE DIAL 64 usual futile assurance that I will be better out of "All the Doctors tell me I am going to get well but Washington in the summer time.” that it will be a matter of some months yet." “I had even written a few pages when I was struck “My doctor is an austere Bavarian, and does not with partial blindness. I have had numerous doctors mince matters. I asked why Rixey and Osler never at me almost ever since hope by taking it easy discovered the hole, or rather bump, in my heart. this summer to be well next fall.” He said:—Perhaps they did not want you to know “My old foe, the headache, is lying in wait for me, it; or perhaps they could not find it. There are few but I hope to get free. I write with great labor and men in the world so sure of their affair as I am.'" difficulty — my imagination is all gone — a good rid- It is now known by many oculists, and by more dance. "I shall never write easily and fluently again." | patients, that scientific correction of the defects of "I found myself breaking down with the nervous shape and function of the eyes of literary work- fatigue of writing and copying. I therefore hired a stenographer. It is a great gain." ers would not only avoid a vast deal of their suffer- ings, but would insure a greater and better "I am sick abed — but the Doctor thinks I am gain. ing on him and will be out of his hands this week.” literature. In none is “the mood” at fault, nor " the want of inborn ability," but primarily the "I have lost 10 pounds since June. I want to get done with this work” i. e., the Lincoln History. unhealth of the eyes, and following this the sick- ness of the nervous and general systems. “When Hay was driven to dictation — the foe to durable writing — he further depersonalized his style.” GEORGE M. GOULD. “ There are lots of pretty things in this rickety old Atlantic City, N. J., Dec. 24, 1915. planet, if we could only have the enterprise to look for them and the nerves to enjoy them. But — eheu AN INTERESTING BIT OF FOLK POETRY. fugaces — I ought to have done my enjoying while the day lasted.” (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) “I shall work, not because I feel like it, but because Folk literature is always attractive, but I have I hate it, and because I feel that my time is waning." seldom come across a more pleasing bit of it than From the age of fifty on, as all oculists know, a Christmastide poem which was given to me orally the loss of accommodation, or the progress of and which, at least so far as I have been able to presbyopia, causes greater suffering and a greater ascertain, has never been printed. The woman who inability to write and read. The following quota- furnished it to me learned it from her mother nearly tions bear ample witness: half a century ago, and the mother in turn seems to have obtained it in England. It is evidently one "1 am a worthless creature destitute of initiative.” variant of a rather ancient original, as a poem hav- “ The doctor tells me I have thermal fever, the re- ing similar structure and embodying some of the sult of the baths." same images was used by a group of English singers “My fool of a doctor has discovered another mortal in this country several years ago. The latter, I malady in me, which tickled him very much, and dis- gusted me.” think, has likewise remained unpublished. “I get up with the impression that I will drop to The poem suggests, as will be observed, an pieces during the day." English origin. The conception of the twelve days "All I lack is a stomach to eat and drink withal, of Christmas belongs to northern Europe, this being eyes to see withal.” due, of course, to the fact that the period from "I am filled to the lips with the amari aliquid of Christmas Day to the Epiphany in the Christian age and infirmities." year was a substitute for a similar period observed "I feel as though I should not look at anything in late pagan times in honor of Odin and Freyja. much longer. I am getting a very bad pair of eyes The vocabulary of the poem is thoroughly English, on me." as are also the ideas, indicating that the work is not “I have developed two or three more mortal dis- a translation from another Germanic language. eases since I came here and am going to New York The origin of the poem, I should say, was in mid- next week for Vivisection. . . There is nothing like dle or lower class society — probably the former being given up by the Doctors. It is a certificate of rather than among the nobility. The line, longevity." “His health, never robust, became more and more “ Eleven lords a-leaping,". precarious under the strain (of routine office work). shows almost as naïve a conception of the aristoc- More than once he was on the verge of breaking racy as do the counting-house king and the bread- down." and-honey-eating queen of the Mother Goose rhyme. “ His health did not permit him to return to Wash- The other gifts enumerated suggest somewhat the ington until October, 1900.” mercantile magnificence of a Renaissance burgher. * My short remnant of life, of little use to my The poem runs as follows: friends, and none to myself.” “On the first day of Christmas “ His gradually failing health.” My truelove sent to me “His health visibly declined for several months A beautiful juniper tree. showed such alarming symptoms that his physicians prescribed for him a complete rest from official duties “On the second day of Christmas and treatment at Nauheim.” My truelove sent to me “I tried to walk this afternoon, but it was tough Two turtledoves, work. By going very slowly and stopping often I was Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. able to cover about a mile — but the pain does not “On the third day of Christmas pass away as it used. It continued all the way home.” My truelove sent to me He went to take the cure at Nauheim. Three French hens, CC 14 (Jan. 6 THE DIAL Ten men a-hunting, Nine fiddlers fiddling, Eight ladies dancing, Seven swans swimming, Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the twelfth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Twelve bulls a-roaring, Eleven lords a-leaping, Ten men a-hunting, Nine fiddlers fiddling, Eight ladies dancing, Seven swans swimming, Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree.” NELSON ANTRIM CRAWFORD. Manhattan, Kan., Dec. 27, 1915. . Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the fourth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the fifth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the sixth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the seventh day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Seven swans swimming, Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the eighth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Eight ladies dancing, Seven swans swimming, Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the ninth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Nine fiddlers fiddling, Eight ladies dancing, Seven swans swimming, Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the tenth day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Ten men a-hunting, Nine fiddlers fiddling, Eight ladies dancing, Seven swans swimming, Six chests of linen, Five gold rings, Four colored balls, Three French hens, Two turtledoves, Sitting in a beautiful juniper tree. “On the eleventh day of Christmas My truelove sent to me Eleven lords a-leaping, WOMEN IN THE BOOKSTORES. (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) The book-buying season is over for a year. Not until another Christmas comes round will the Gen- eral Public, which depends on libraries and avidly devours the cheaper magazines, have any appre- ciable use for the bookstores. Meanwhile, let us adjure publishers, booksellers, college women, and all others interested in the survival of the private library and the resuscitation of the book trade, to recall, re-read, and ponder upon Mr. Earl Barnes's article in the August “ Atlantic Monthly," entitled “ A New Profession for Women." The new pro- fession is the ownership and management of book- stores, to be run on a very limited capital, by means of a benevolent « on sale” arrangement, made possible by intelligent publishers' interest in increasing their terminal facilities. I have, to be sure, scant faith in the publishers' seeing with Mr. Barnes's eye in this matter. His main proposal strikes us a fantastic piece of chivalry to woman, that would soon put all the present book men out of business and leave the matter in a sorrier mess than it is now. But the value of women as bookclerks -- intelligent women, if not college-trained - is another matter. Incidentally I would suggest to Mr. Barnes that the best prac- tical training for an educated woman who contem- plates running a bookstore is to help run one. The popularization of the woman bookclerk is an innovation I strongly advocate. This Christmas I bought part of my books in a country bookstore, where the proprietor's daughter, a college gradu- ate, is the presiding genius. This woman knew what books she had. She could furnish intelligent information about what she had not. She was acquainted with everybody in her town; and her suggestions to local buyers were valuable and val- ued. This woman loves books and people; she puts her personality into the business of book- as 1916) 15 THE DIAL 1 Dec. 28, selling, in a fashion at once typically feminine and three other female educators. Moreover, such a essential in a business that cannot be taken imper- scientific scholar as Dr. Takamine, of New York sonally. Her eager, patient, ingenious service City, was also honored. And, most interesting of made that subsequently furnished by the men in a all, posthumous honor was conferred upon the city store seem capable and willing, but very cold late Koizumi Yakumo, who is no other than and stodgy, unsuggestive and unenterprising. Lafcadio Hearn! Posthumous honors were also Why don't you have some woman here?" I asked conferred upon other literary celebrities, or educa- the proprietor, a man known in the trade for his tionalists, like Dr. Neeshima, founder of the intelligent and successful management of his Doshisha University; Mr. Obata, a former presi- business. Why, I do n't know," he returned dent of Keio University; Mr. Fukuchi, a well- indifferently. “We had one, one Christmas. She known journalist and playwright; Dr. Nakamura, disliked climbing the ladder to the upper stock- translator of Smiles's “ Self Help"; and other shelves. We never tried another; it's contrary to lesser lights of literature. Moreover, although the tradition." Now most book-buyers are women. list of peerage honors is not yet published, it is Naturally they will establish closer, more helpful known that Dr. Yamakawa, President of the Impe- relations with saleswomen than with men. Women rial University, Tokyo, and Dr. Hozumi, emeritus read more than men; they are usually defter at law professor of the same university, and author “skimming." Women are enthusiastic, and enthu- of works in English on of works in English on "Ancestor-Worship,” will siasm is contagious. Therefore we believe that the be honored with the rank of Baron. This is by educated woman's ability to increase book-buying, no means a complete list; but it is sufficient to by intelligent service in bookstores, is worthy show that, in Japan, “them literary fellers” are serious consideration from all persons interested in not deemed unworthy of high Imperial honors. the issue. MARGARET ARMSTRONG. If republics are proverbially ungrateful, the sin 1915. of ingratitude cannot be laid at the door of the Empire of Japan. ERNEST W. CLEMENT. LITERARY HONORS IN JAPAN. Tokyo, Japan, Dec. 17, 1915. (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) I am not sure, but I think that it was the late STILL MORE ABOUT DIPHTHONGS. Senator Matt Quay, at any rate it was some old (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) political "boss," who referred disrespectfully, In connection with my letter printed in your ungrammatically, and even profanely to "them issue of Dec. 9, and the reply appended thereto, d- -d literary fellers." He meant certain lit- may I ask your indulgence to say: erary men who had taken an active part in politi- (1) That a discussion on the use of ties, or liga- cal affairs in opposition to some of his pet schemes tures, on certain phonetic symbols, to bring out or favorite methods of political pull. Anyhow, he diphthongal characteristics, is not one of phonetic expressed most vigorously the idea that such men values, no matter how many reams of paper or were not worthy of honor or even of respect. columns of print Mr. Wallace Rice may use in try- I am glad, however, to be able to call attention ing to prove to the fact that, in Japan, " literary fellers” are (2) That the alphabet recommended by the Com- considered worthy of the Imperial favor, even of mittee of the National Education Association, for Imperial honor. The scholar, whether in politics use in dictionaries and reference books, in Febru- or out of politics, is one whom “the king delight- ary, 1911, is a very different thing from the eth to honor.” For example, it may be noted that Standard Phonetic Alphabet recommended by the many coronation honors were conferred upon American Philological Association and the Spelling scholars and educators. And a special provision Reform Association in July, 1877, but Mr. Wallace of the Constitution enables the Emperor to ap- Rice ably confuses both. point men of erudition to membership in the House (3) That the practise of all the great dictionaries of Peers. may be ascertained by consulting the keys to the Among scholars and educators recently honored symbols which they use to indicate pronunciation. with decorations by the Emperor, in connection This is to indicate the diphthongs to which I re- with the Coronation ceremonies, we find Presidents ferred by using symbols that show the diphthongal Amano and Kamada of Waseda and Keio Univer- characteristics already mentioned by (a) plain let- sities, Tokyo; Dr. T. Harada, President of Dosh- ters in combination; (b) dots and dashes and isha University (Christian), Kyoto, and author of curves and curlicues above and below the letters; “ The Faith of Japan"; President Naruse, of the (c) especially designed symbols or Anglo-Saxon Woman's University, Tokyo; Hon. S. Ebara, head letters, as the edh and thorn. Here permit me to of Azabu Middle School, Tokyo; Dr. K. Ibuka say that more than two thousand years ago, Seneca (Presbyterian) and Dr. S. Motoda (Episcopa- taught that “ Practise is better than precept." No lian), principals of Christian Middle Schools in matter what precepts Mr. Wallace Rice may draw Tokyo; Professor Saito, author of text-books in from the work of Dr. Murray's assistants, the fact English grammar; Mrs. Yajima, formerly princi- remains that the practise followed by Dr. Murray pal of a Presbyterian girls' school in Tokyo, and was to use symbols which indicate diphthongal President of the Japanese Woman's Christian characteristics. it so. » Temperance Union; Miss Ume Tsuda, head of a (4) That nowhere in my book do I individually girls English normal school, Tokyo; and two or say “most phoneticists analyze this sound as a com- 16 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL a bination of t and sh,” as Mr. Rice asserts. It is (12) Finally, that having provided Mr. Wallace true that the words appear upon page 291 of the Rice with an argument, I do not feel that I should book, but there they are quoted from the edition of be further obliged to find him an understanding. “ Webster's International Dictionary,” copyrighted FRANK H. VIZETELLY. 1900, and reissued as “ Webster's Revised Un- New York City, Dec. 23, 1915. abridged Dictionary,” copyright 1913. (5) That in 1791, John Walker started a discus- sion on the meaning of the word diphthong. Now, THE LAST OF THE BRYANT CONTROVERSY. one hundred and twenty-five years later, Mr. Rice (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) digs the skeleton of this discussion out of its grave I do not wish to strain your hospitality by and tries, very clumsily, to clothe it with flesh. No demanding further space in the Bryant contro- matter what Mr. Rice may think this word means, versy. Mr. Hervey wanted facts: I gave them, the fact remains that it has been defined by men and since he cannot controvert them, he takes up who know. two or three of your columns in sarcastic ques- (6) That, although challenged to “promptly tioning of my motives, ability, etc. That is not my withdraw? my “ statement that one of the mean- way of conducting a discussion. I do not question ings of the word diphthong is a combination of two Mr. Hervey's ability, or his sincerity and disinter- consonants in one syllable,'" because Mr. Rice says estedness, in his defence of Bryant. But since he at least, no such meaning attaches to the word in will not credit me with, if not ability, at least sin- the New English, the New International, the Cen- cerity and disinterestedness, I must request you tury, the Standard,” and other dictionaries which and your readers to believe that I have been actu- he tells us are all I have had time to consult,” I ated in this matter, not by an impious malignity most respectfully decline to do so, and rest my case against the “mighty dead," but by certain ideals upon the following facts:- of my own which even Mr. Hervey has no right to The Standard," 1913, (p. 715, col. 3) says: question. The case of Bryant seems to me not "diphthong, n. 3. A combination, especially an individual but typical. As a young poet wrote to intimate one, of two consonants in one syllable.” me recently: “I now see that Bryant is a symbol Murray's “New English Dictionary," 1897, of everything that we moderns must sweep aside." (, (vol. 3, p. 383, col. 3) says: “diphthong, sb. (To forestall Mr. Hervey's rage or laughter over this (d) Applied to a combination of two consonants we moderns” and “ sweep aside," I must in one syllable (consonantal diphthong), espe- plead that youth should be allowed a little arro- cially such intimate unions as those of ch gance, and that this particular young poet proves and dg." his idealism by sacrifices for his art which Bryant “ Webster's New International Dictionary," at his age, by Mr. Hervey's admission, did not 1909, (p. 628, col. 3), says: “diphthong, n. 4. make.) A combination of two consonants in one syllable, But if Mr. Hervey and I have arrived at an esp. when blending intimately, as ch in chop." impasse about Bryant, I trust we may be more (7) Pitiful as my position concerning th may fortunate on the subject of Mr. T. S. Eliot's seem to Mr. Wallace Rice, the fact remains that we “plagiarism” in the October number of " Poetry." use the letters t and h in combination to represent It happens that I was familiar with the Meredith two sounds. This is one of the points which the sonnet whose final line so neatly pointed Mr. N. E. A. Committee on Phonetics sought to distin- Eliot's brief satire. As the very point of its use guish when it recommended the use of ligatured was the fact that it was quoted, it never occurred symbols. Two hundred and seventy years ago Ben to me and no doubt I speak also for the poet - Jonson, in his “ English Grammar," drew attention to risk a delicately humorous situation by attempt- to this double use. Said he,“ Th Hath a double and ing to intrude therein anything so obvious as quo- doubtful sound, which must be found out by use of tation marks. speaking and in this consists the greatest diffi- HARRIET MONROE. culty of our alphabet, and true writing.” Chicago, Dec. 28, 1915. (8) That notwithstanding Mr. Rice's assertion that Dr. Wm. T. Harris “ was not a phonetician," the fact remains that Harris was teaching phonetics “OH GOD! OH MONTREAL!” in St. Louis in 1858, one year before Mr. Rice was (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) born, and employed a phonetic alphabet in doing Meticulosity is perhaps an over-rated virtue; still, so in the public schools of St. Louis in 1866, when the dead and the devil should not be deprived of Mr. Rice was barely out of kilts. their just dues. Your British correspondent in the (9) That Henry Sweet never wrote any book enti- issue of THE DIAL for Dec. 9, (p. 550), credits tled "A Primer of English Sounds” and that, Samuel Butler with the memorable and side split- therefore, I can scarcely acquaint myself with its ting verses of which the refrain is “Oh God, Oh “ earlier paragraphs." Montreal.” (10) That Henry Sweet ceased to be the “ most In behalf of the dumb shade of the late William eminent of living phoneticians in English " April Henry Hurlbert, I reclaim for him the honor of its 30, 1912! authorship. (11) That Mr. Wallace Rice is altogether too WM. H. DALL. modest. Washington, D. C., Dec. 22, 1915. 6 O . 1916 ] 17 THE DIAL respond to the appeal, and in some poor meas- The New Books. ure attain his freedom to enjoy. So far as at present appears,“ Travels in WITH JOHN MUIR IN THE LAND OF Alaska" is John Muir's last book; indeed, he FLOWERS AND ICE.* was not able to complete it before his death. To call John Muir a naturalist is literally If other manuscripts exist, the fact seems not exact, but misleading; to call him a literary to be known. The work consists of three man seems grotesque. This sane, fundamen- parts, one dealing with his first trip, that of tally normal man defies classification, fitting 1879, the second with the trip of 1880, and the into none of our artificial categories. He did third, unfinished, describing the voyage of not write for the sake of writing; the greater 1890. The descriptions relate not only to the part of his rich life remains unrecorded. He scenery and wild life, but also to the Indians, did not study nature as a scientist, with the for whom Muir had the most genuine regard. principal purpose of adding new records to These simple folk are shown to be capable of the accumulations of the past. Highly cul- great degradation, under the influence of tured, eminently civilized and modern in one whiskey and other products of “civilization"; sense, he nevertheless regarded the world so but at their best, they may be nothing less naïvely that he reminds us of some prehistoric than heroic. Thus among the Stickeens the being, endowed with every human faculty, doctrine of the atonement, which seems remote but unhindered by custom and tradition. In and vague to most modern Christians, was his writings, he constantly describes natural readily accepted as the most natural thing, phenomena as the work of God, and with for they understood it as part of their lives. simple pantheism identifies the contemplation Not many years before there had been a feud of nature with communion with the Almighty. between the Sitkas and the Stickeens, and a It is this directness, this reliance on immedi: situation arose not wholly unlike that now ate experience, which gives so much charm to existing in Europe. A Stickeen chief shouted his descriptions, and removes him so far from across the lines that he wished to parley with the professional writer on the one hand, and a Sitka chief, and when the latter appeared rarely quotes other writers; the great white not go to the salmon-streams or berry-fields glaciers and the flowery meadows remind him for winter supplies, and if this war goes on neither of the classical poets nor of the trans- much longer most of my people will die of actions of learned societies; there is little to hunger. We have fought long enough; let come between him and his experiences. us make peace. You brave Sitka warriors go There is a natural tendency for an ordinary home, and we will go home, and we will all set out to dry salmon and berries before it is scientific worker, such as the present writer, too late." The Sitka chief replied: “You to feel a certain impatience with John Muir. Notwithstanding all his contributions to our may well say let us stop fighting, when you have had the best of it. You have killed ten knowledge of the glaciers, and his illuminating more of my tribe than we have killed of yours. descriptions of northern life, he seems to fall Give us ten Stickeen men to balance our short of making and recording a thousand blood-account; then, and not till then, will we little discoveries which lay ready to his hand. make peace and go home.” “Very well," re- ' Passionately fond of plant life, having a good plied the Stickeen chief, “ you know my rank. knowledge of botany, might he not have given You know that I am worth ten common men us a mass of exact information on the distri- and more. bution of plants in the far north, in regions Muir adds: Take me and make peace." John This noble offer was promptly which few botanists, if any, have visited! Alaska is so vast, there is so much work to be accepted; the Stickeen chief stepped forward done, and every real contribution is precious. bands. Peace was thus established, and all and was shot down in sight of the fighting Criticism of this sort is really unreasonable, made haste to their homes and ordinary work. for a man cannot be all things at once. Muir That chief literally gave himself a sacrifice for developed his nature on its strongest side, and his people.” It may be that to stop the Euro- we may be more than content that he was able pean carnage it will be necessary to sacrifice, to see so keenly, to love nature so warmly, and not the lives, but the positions or political to communicate some measure of his emotions prestige of certain chiefs; but no one expects to us. Less endowed than he, we nevertheless such sacrifices to be made without compulsion. * TRAVELS IN ALASKA. By John Muir. Illustrated. Boston: Dr. S. H. Young is the missionary who Houghton Mifflin Co. accompanied Muir on his first two Alaskan trated. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. journeys, and who owned the little dog the ordinary scientific man on the other . He he said: "My people are hungry . They dare : : а ALASKA DAYS WITH JOHN MUIR. By S. Hall Young. Illus- 18 (Jan. 6 THE DIAL 6 “Stickeen," which Muir has immortalized. of danger signals and wondering what they He now tells the story from his point of view, mean. This is a commonplace of the day. and the twice-told tale only gains in interest Emerson foreshadowed it; Moody stated it from repetition. Self-revealing as Muir's own fairly in Gloucester Moors." In such narrative is, we gain something new from strait any book is welcome which promises a another, regarding him objectively. Even chart of the seas, or even a dead-reckoning of had there been no Muir, Dr. Young's book the recent course. So the reader who likes would have held its own as an excellent con- to consider himself thoughtful will snap up tribution to the literature of travel. Selecting Mr. Van Wyck Brooks's “America's Coming- a single quotation, we take his account of the of-Age." death of Tow-a-att, a chief of the Stickeens: At the outset the book is exhilarating. The “ The Hootz-noos, maddened by the fiery liquor opening chapter on “' Highbrow' and 'Low- that bore their name, came to Wrangell, and a pre- brow,' based on a remote yet visible past, liminary skirmish led to an attack at daylight of discusses the chasm between the cultured that winter day upon the Stickeen village. Old idealist and the man of action, expounds Tow-a-att had stood for peace, and rather than Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin have any bloodshed had offered all his blankets as as determinants of American character, “in a peace offering, although in no physical fear him- self; but when the Hootz-noos, encouraged by the their amazing purity of type, and in the seeming cowardice of the Stickeens, broke into apparent incompatibility of their aims," and their houses, and the Christianized tribe, provoked fetches up with the conclusion that traditional beyond endurance, came out with their guns, Tow- American education has done so little to a-att came forth armed only with his old carved bridge the gap that the modern university spear, the emblem of his position as chief, to see man is forced to choose between futile ideal- if he could not call his tribe back again. At my ism and the sordidness of commerce. With instance, as I stood with my hand on his shoulder, this well generalized and measurably true he lifted up his voice to recall his people to their dilemma before him, the reader, thoroughly houses, when, in an instant, the volley commenced on both sides, and this Christian man, one of the interested, looks ahead to find the way out; simplest and grandest souls I ever knew, fell dead but he never gets out, for the remaining chap- at my feet, and the tribe was tumbled back into ters triumphantly lead up to the Q. E. D. - barbarism; and the white man, who had taught “there is no escape.” the Indians the art of making rum, and the white With reference to Our Poets," over whom man's government, which afforded no safeguard he skims in the second chapter, Mr. Brooks against such scenes, were responsible.” speaks in the habitual American self-dis- There is a good map in. Dr. Young's book, paragement which he himself condemns in but none whatever in Muir's, a lamentable his concluding pages. Emerson, Thoreau, omission. Both books contain excellent illus- Poe, and Hawthorne are imperishable posses- trations from photographs. sions; but they “have not had the power to T. D. A. COCKERELL. move the soul of America from the accumula- tion of dollars." The exertion of such a power would, of course, have been a fine AMERICA'S INCORRIGIBLE YOUTH.* achievement; but the implication in the in- The absorbing subject of world discussion dictment is that some other men have exerted just this power over some other nations, for the next generation is bound to be inter- that America has remained ignoble while rationalism, and the dominant issue the familiar issue between master-morality and other peoples have become ennobled. It is a low retort, but in reply to the typical Amer- slave-morality. It will be the old question of ican comment it is hard not to ask who the whether to struggle with Carlyle for the fortunate nation is. If Emerson failed in apotheosis of government, or to dream with Emerson toward the golden age of universal America, did Carlyle succeed in England, or self-fulfilment. Europe has long been ready for Nietzsche in Germany, or Taine or Hugo in the discussion, because all over Europe the idea France? It hardly seems so. of statehood has been clearly, though variously By the time Walt Whitman has been conceived. America, on the other hand, dur- reached in the third chapter a disqualifying ing a half century of reckless security has formula has denied all hope to all other Amer- drifted into a befogged calm in which the icans. “Those of our writers who possessed a engines have been checked to quarter speed, vivid personal talent have been paralyzed by while all the crew are listening to a confusion the want of a social background, while those who have possessed a vivid social talent have • AMERICA'S COMING-OF-AGE. By Van Wyck Brooks. York: B. W. Huebsch. been equally unable to develop their person- 9) New 1916) 19 THE DIAL 66 alities.” One begins anew to test the neat that a roman candle is a brilliant light but a generalizations, and to think back to preced- poor thing to go to bed by. We are forced to ing chapters — as apparently Mr. Brooks did apply to "America's Coming-of-Age” what - not do. So when he finds (p. 112) concerning its author says of Whitman's output, that in Whitman that "in him the hitherto incom- its latter part it is “increasingly marred by patible extremes of the American tempera- much pomposity and fatuousness." ' ment were fused,” the reader recalls that it Yet this much should be said in valedictory has already been asserted (p. 80) of Emerson comment on the admirable closing chapter: that the upper and lower levels are fused in Mr. Brooks contends that an intelligent un- him,” and he is surprised to find that Emer- derstanding of American life can be acquired son has degenerated in thirty-two pages into only by means of genuine discussion; that the inhabitant of a fastidiously intellec- discussion can thrive only where there are tual . . shadow world." real issues; and that clear issues can be de- From this point on, Mr. Brooks is no longer fined only when there has been created “a disturbing; but he continues to be interesting resisting background” against which the as the miles gloriosus of the comedy. He thinker can project his ideas. Mr. Brooks asserts that the writers of popular novels — presents an issue — that the constructive lit- “immitigable trash ” — could make literature erature and philosophy of the "highbrow out of American life, even though no one else must be based on a recognition of economic has finely succeeded. He shows his contempt fact, the stamping-ground of the “lowbrow.” for the clergyman and the professor, but yet He presents it vigorously enough to arouse greater contempt for the men who have aban- opposition. If he can go on increasing his doned teaching and preaching. Because Re- audience --- and his opposition - he may pro- — - form is only a corrective, he turns it to scorn mote that conflict of ideas which will educate with the dictum that its ideal is the attain America toward the coming-of-age to which ment of zero. He scouts Emerson's American he now looks forward with so little confidence. choice of “Representative Men,” but he ap- PERCY H. BOYNTON. plauds Carlyle's group of “Heroes ” — made in England. He even -between dashes - denies humor to Mark Twain. But he makes his best hit when he lays low the author of THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD IN "Inspired Millionaires " for not being logical. EUROPE.* Mr. Lee should be careful; he is making hon- One hundred years ago last June the Con- est thinking in America nearly impossible; he gress of Vienna completed its work, closing thinks on three or four levels at once; he that extraordinary chapter in European his- knows nothing about life. This is interesting tory known as the French Revolution. Dur- because on reading the earlier chapters it had ing the twenty-five years that lay between the occurred to us that Mr. Lee might represent a opening of the States General in Versailles in new and commendably American point of May, 1789, and the assembling of the Congress view. Then suddenly the sin of Lee is laid of Vienna in October, 1814, the social institu- bare. He is not a Socialist. tions of France had been transformed and Now we begin to understand why Mr. those of the surrounding peoples largely modi- Brooks reduces all civilization to three men fied as the result of the upheaval in France. in a tub, and America's coming-of-age to the The great significance of the French Revolu- maudlin inebriety of a youth who is at once tion, opening as it did a new period in Euro- celebrating marriage and majority. We un- pean history, a period of equality before the derstand, but we do not approve, for we feel law, of nationality and constitutional govern- that it would have been franker of Mr. ment, was early recognized, and men busied Brooks to declare his thesis instead of exe- themselves with recounting its history. To cuting a flank movement on civilization by judge by the large number of works that disqualifying all non-Socialists from any title crowd the shelves of our libraries, one would to intellectual respect. be justified in saying that the last word had It is unfortunate that in the end his suc- been written on the subject, or should have cession of lyric utterances should be so in- been written. The truth is that only the sur- effectual, for he has not only a gift of brilliant face of the subject has been scratched, and speech, but a real though unbridled power of the scholarly investigation of the history of generalization. We are reminded, as we blink the French Revolution is a thing of our gen- before his pyrotechnic pages, of the profound eration. The explanation is not far to seek. utterance of Professor Kittredge — whom he would rule out as a detached "highbrow" > * THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD IN EUROPE (1763-1815). By Henry Eldridge Bourne. New York: The Century Co. 20 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL Until the present generation of historians, maker. For something like a quarter of a historical writing was largely dominated by century, Professor Bourne has been a close the tradition that history is a branch of lit- and critical student of the revolutionary erature. The older historians of the revolu- period, and especially of the French phase of tion,— Thiers, Michelet, Lamartine, Taine,- it; a good part of the scientific studies pub- were not scientifically trained specialists, but lished in this country on the revolution has literary artists whose ambition was to paint a come from him. He is acquainted not only brilliant picture of the revolution as a whole. with the monographic work on the period, but Their knowledge of the sources was limited, with the sources on which these monographic their use of them uncritical, and their exposi- works rest. The general reader, looking for tions superficial and untrustworthy. Their an introduction to the revolutionary period, works attracted the general public, and were could find no more trustworthy guide than extremely popular; their defects were known this volume. only to the few. It was the revolt of these It was a large canvas that Professor Bourne few that was to open the path to sound his- undertook to fill, and he has filled it with torical writing. They realized that the busi- unusual success. The limits of the period are ness of the historian was to ascertain the the close of the Seven Years War and the truth concerning man's social evolution, and Congress of Vienna. Within this period took that this task of ascertaining and presenting place the greatest revolution in European the truth was a thing of such infinite diffi- history. In twenty-seven chapters, beginning culty that no human life was long enough to with "The People and the Old Régime" and make possible a thorough scholarly investiga- ending with “The Restoration in France and tion of the whole period of the French Revo- Europe,” Professor Bourne describes the state lution. It became clear to them that a sound of Europe on the eve of the revolution; the synthesis of the whole revolution must rest course of the revolution in France, with the upon a continuous series of monographs, the reconstruction of French institutions; the work of scholars who aspired to do no more struggle between France and Europe, with than could be done thoroughly and critically. the rise and fall of the Napoleonic empire. Thus the historical work upon the revolution It is especially his treatment of the changes entered upon a new stage, that of the scien- wrought by the revolution in France and in tific monograph. The sound knowledge of the Europe that distinguishes Professor Bourne's revolution thus acquired soon discredited the volume from its forerunners. Chapters like older histories, but did not give birth to any those “Revolutionary Reorganization,” new and comprehensive expositions of the “ The Finances and the Church,” “ Imperial- revolution as a whole. To the uninitiated, To the uninitiated, ism and Bankruptcy,” and “The Continental historical writing had entered upon a period System,” revealing as they do the author's of anarchy; the historian appeared to have acquaintance with the best monographic work lost his large vision, and seemed to be inter- on the topics, are not to be found in other ested only in microscopic research. This was, short works on this period. The chapters are of course, not true, and from time to time a not only new and fundamentally important, new synthesis has been attempted to mark the but they are well done. We do not mean to progress that has been made and to make | imply that the volume as a whole is beyond accessible to the public the results of the spe- criticism; Professor Bourne himself would be cial investigations. This is the justification This is the justification the last to claim that. He could not lean on of Professor Bourne's volume on “ The Revo- monographic work where such work does not lutionary Period in Europe." exist; and when such aid fails, the work of It is supposed to be a college text-book, but the scholar necessarily becomes superficial. It it is something more than that: it is without would not be difficult for the specialist to pick doubt the best brief account in the English | flaws in the part of the present work with language of the French Revolution and the which he is familiar; it would be more diffi- Napoleonic period. That is not equivalent to cult for him to construct a sounder synthesis saying that it contains the last word on the of the whole subject than Professor Bourne revolutionary period, and that it will not in has given us. time be outgrown as the monographic litera- One of the best things in the volume is the ture on the period increases; but what we bibliography,-a sufficient proof of Professor wish to say is that Professor Bourne's book, Bourne's wide reading and excellent critical better than any other volume of the same size, judgment. It is not a potpourri of all that acquaints us with the present state of sound has ever been printed on the subject, but a historical knowledge on the period he treats. carefully selected list of the best monographs It is not primarily the work of a text-book and the most important sources, such a list on 1916) 21 THE DIAL as could be made only by the trained scholar found in them. The end of art in both cases who has familiarized himself with the litera- lies within itself, and utilitarian considera- ture through long years of study. Some titles tions have nothing to do with it. are missing, but on the whole it is incom- In his chapter entitled “The World of parably the best bibliography on the period Expression,” Mr. McAlpin says: , of the revolution to be found in any single • Now, where there is expression, it is obvious volume of the same size. that there must be something expressed. And the FRED MORROW FLING. man of art, while obedient to the constitutional law of art itself, is free to draw upon entire ex- istence for his subject-material. Broadly speak- ing, all reality may become the artistic model for A PANEGYRIC OF MUSIC.* expression. . . Now since art, however creative, cannot but reflect reality, we shall find reality The author of “Hermaia” considers music exercising a reflex influence upon the domain of as the ultimate and comprehensive art; the art itself. Thus if we set the world of idealism other arts,- architecture, sculpture, painting, and realism alongside of each other, we shall be and poetry, lead up to music, and find their able to read off the features of reality as reflected consummation in it. Music is the latest art in the mirror of man's artistic consciousness. But to appear in the progress of mankind, because since man is neither more nor less than his own it is the most complex, the most intimate, the consciousness, we may say that art is the ideal most embracing. Mr. McAlpin gives to this expression of real experience. Art, then, may be said to be the reflection of total existence. We art the precedence which he believes to be its right, and the major part of his book is de- shall view, therefore, the world of art as one mas- sive, organic unity." voted to an explanation of its importance and position. This explanation is presented with This world of art, the idealization of ex- a completeness and skill that leave little to be istence and experience, has its divisions, just desired. as the realistic world of being and life has its divisions. These divisions are, of course, The point of view which the author holds will be made clear by the following quota- coördinate, and the divisions of art corre- spond to those of reality. tion: “ The world of art is total reality appearing in «• The man is only half himself; the other half the imagination - from plastic art, which reflects is his expression.' So writes Emerson; and, need- appearance, to music, which is the ideal reflection less to say, we are here concerned solely with this of that which underlies appearance. And if we other half of man. And that, moreover, in a very consider how creation was built up from the specific sense, since much of his expression is, inanimate to the animate, and how the realm of strictly speaking, not necessarily of the artistic. creativeness has been built up from the arts of Yet not only man, but nature also, both animate plasticity to music, the progress from stones to and inanimate, abounds with expression. And souls in the real world will not appear greater that too, quite apart from purposes of utility. It than the progress made from the pictorial art, is beauty for its own sake. We conclude, there- through poetry, up to the tuneful art, in the ideal fore, that this same initial and divine impulse, world. . which cannot but create the beautiful, reappears Roughly speaking, painting expresses man's body, poetry his mind, while music is ex- in man as a spiritual necessity. Indeed, he alone, pressive of his soul. They are, respectively, the amongst sentient creatures, has built up for him- physical, mental, and spiritual arts,— material- self a self-contained world of beauty. And within ism, mentalism, and moralism in the language of this universe of art we shall discover order and beauty." arrangement, such as is discoverable in any other department of existence where the principle of It will be noted that there is here no men- development has wrought it up into an indepen- tion of architecture or sculpture. These seem dent activity. Thus with man art becomes expres- to be excluded from the author's considera- sion for its own sake." tion of art as art. He nowhere gives what The “expression for expression's sake" may be regarded as sufficient reason for this theory of art is diametrically different from remarkable omission. In one place he says: the "art for art's sake" theory. The empha- “Now, respecting the above [the world of art], sis in the former is placed upon the content; it need hardly be said that we treat of the main in the latter it is placed upon the form. The outstanding branches of beauty alone, such as former distinctly proceeds upon the assump- automatically allot themselves to the major king- doms of reality, so we shall have nothing to say tion that all art has something to say; while about either decorative art, or even architecture in the latter is entirely satisfied with outline and this connection. Plastic beauty, which, analogous color and rhythm for the pure pleasure to be to the manifold in material nature, covers so wide an area, will be here represented by painting A Study in Comparative Æsthetics. By Colin McAlpin. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. alone.” • HERMAIA. 22 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL The exclusion of architecture and sculpture cord. It reveals ideally the underlying oneness of from “a study in comparative æsthetics' all spirits. It does not speak so much of the per- seems scarcely warranted, and appears to sonal sense of self which limits and estranges, but rather of the higher impersonal sense of divinity result from an over-appreciation of certain within." theoretical considerations which are, perhaps, The author's thesis is maintained through- susceptible of a larger and more inclusive out his large volume with unflagging vigor interpretation. and insight. The whole realm of the know- Accepting, however, what seems the author's rather needless circumscription of his theme, tion to furnish arguments and illustrations. able seems to have been put under contribu- we find his triple differentiation of value and Music has never received an exposition loftier importance. He confines the plastic arts to or more elaborate. Fully half the volume is painting, and he thus describes the field and given up to the supreme art, as is but just function of the pictorial art: from Mr. McAlpin's view. The diction almost “Painting is, then, universal art in its infancy. bewilders in its richness and profusion. The It deals with the objective, and satisfies the early reader may not be willing fully to accept the dawn of the artistic mind with palpable pictura- author's conclusions, for poetry lies very close bility. It is, as we have already seen, the first mental act in art. First of all the outer world to most of our hearts. Mr. McAlpin acknowl- beats on our senses, and is followed by the awak- edges that poetry spans both the inner and ening of the inner mind. The child attends pri- outer spheres; and he calls the drama, ideal- marily to the visibly external. And similarly the ized with music, the chief achievement in art. painter attends solely to the object, while later on But the sweep of the analysis, the movement the poet will be seen to think about it. The of the thought, the cumulative force of the painter only imagines, while the poet both thinks argument, bear on irresistibly to the conclu- and imagines.” sion. The book is a significant contribution The second stage in the development of to the subject of which it treats, and musi- universal art, as our author sees it, is poetry. cians will find in it justification for their “In passing now from painting to poetry we highest claims. LOUIS JAMES BLOCK. pass in reality from visible things to invisible thoughts; from image to imagining and from symbol to sentiment; from similitude to simile, and from figures to figures of speech. Or again, MADAME DE STAËL'S CULTURAL if painting be æsthetic perception, then poetry MISSION.* becomes literally æsthetic apperception. And in this translation of the beautiful, we are enabled A book of unusual interest to the student to lay hold of, as material for art, that immeas- of comparative literature is Professor Jaeck's urable wealth of suggestion which arises from the 'Madame de Staël and the Spread of Ger- artistic apprehension of apparent experience ex- man Literature." The author has traced the ternal to ourselves. Indeed the poet can add his diffusion of German culture and letters in own personal consciousness or maybe his private France, England, and America, as well as experience to the artistic material of the painter. German influence upon the literatures of What, therefore, was merely suggestion in paint- these countries. Curiously enough, the book ing, becomes now the actual matter of artistic expression. Poetry thus mediates between paint- “De l'Allemagne,” appears just a century after Mme. de Staël's ing and music: painting is the artistic reproduc- those in which the latter was written. To the "De l'Allemagne," in times as war-like as tion of external experience, music the artistic reproduction of internal experience; poetry the France of 1813, decadent in literature and artistic reproduction of both in organic unity." lulled into a sense of superiority by the suc- Music, expressive of the supreme internal cess of her arms abroad, the new Germany experience and ascending to heights which are and German literature of "De l'Allemagne inaccessible even to poetry in its best estate, was a revelation. Professor Jaeck's book not is at once the final and all-comprehensive art merely emphasizes anew the fundamental If it cannot idealize nature as painting does, ideas of "De l'Allemagne," but also describes it can give the sentiment of nature with end- the effect of its message upon the world. It less suggestions, as painting cannot do; if it ought to be of peculiar interest at this time, cannot give human life in its infinite phases and in a country where Germany is as little as poetry does, it can give the universal splen- understood as it was in the France of 1813. dor in which both nature and man live and After outlining briefly the state of the move and have their being, as poetry cannot. knowledge of German literature at the close of the eighteenth century, the author takes “ Music is therefore the expression of our spir- itual consciousness. It breaks up at once that * MADAME DE STAEL AND THE SPREAD OF GERMAN LITERA- By Emma Gertrude Jaeck, Ph.D. With portrait. New social segregation which is the cause of moral dis- York: Oxford University Press. TURE. 1916) 23 THE DIAL > up successively Mme. de Staël's revolt against forces in the French character. As her coun- French classicism, her interest in German try's need was pressing, she considered it her literature, and the genesis and writing of duty as a patriot to show France these quali- “De l'Allemagne.” The chapter on “ Essen- ties in Germany and its culture. She thus tials of German Culture in 'De l'Allemagne became not only the first great interpreter of is possibly the most noteworthy in the book. the spirit of the new German culture, but It takes on a special significance when we she became also the inaugurator of a new appreciate that the ideas it embodies were cultural life. expressed by a Frenchwoman educated in the It is the second part of Professor Jaeck's atmosphere and traditions of French classi- book that offers the greatest amount of new cism. Realizing the decadence toward which material, especially in regard to the history the intellectual and moral life of France was of American literature. The author has set drifting, Mme. de Staël became one of the herself the task of pointing out how through most penetrating and fearless critics of “De l'Allemagne German literature, hith- French civilization. In “De la Littérature erto unappreciated because of great tempera- considérée dans ses Rapports avec les Institu- mental differences, became an active force in tions sociales," written as early as 1800, she the world. She has assembled as witnesses had already pointed out the results of eight- an imposing number of writers distinguished eenth century materialism and rationalism in their national literatures,- Gautier, Mus- upon the intellectual and social life of her set, Sabatier, in France; Coleridge, Scott, , country. French literature, in her opinion, Byron, Carlyle, in England; Ticknor, Ever- . was menaced not only by monotony, frigidity, ett, Emerson, and Longfellow, in America. and sterility, but by forces even more to be These and countless others have paid tribute feared,-irony and ridicule. All sentiments to the inspiration they received from German and actions were gauged by these criteria of literature. In American literature, particu- the fashion; until love, enthusiasm, relig- larly, from its earliest beginnings to the pres- ion,- every sentiment except selfishness, ent time, scarcely a writer can be found who was undermined. In this book, Mme. de has not at some period of his career felt the Staël did not hesitate to maintain that such force of the German spirit. Bancroft's words conditions were the result of a false philoso- of seventy years ago have lost none of their phy of life. force: “ It cannot be denied that German At the beginning of the nineteenth century, literature has come to exercise a great influ- in the disappointment at the apparent fail- ence upon the intellectual character of Eu- ure of the French Revolution, a feeling that rope and America. We may lament over this humanity had arrived at a stage of senility fact or rejoice at it, according to our several was becoming general. Searching for the points of view, but we cannot disguise from fountain of youth that might rejuvenate ourselves its existence." It is in recalling this European civilization, which was in effect to America, in a day when there is a tendency French, Mme. de Staël at length discovered to reject all things German, that Professor it in the poetry and philosophy of Germany. Jaeck has done her greatest service. It would “In the writings of the Germans," she re- be unfortunate, indeed, were we, in the words marks in “De l'Allemagne," " we seem to feel of Mme. de Staël, to erect a Chinese wall a new youth arising." In order to find the around American literature in order to pre- secret of the youthfulness of German litera- vent the penetration of any ideas from with- ture, she carefully analyses the new German out. As she well said, “In all countries the culture which, unknown to the rest of the hospitality which welcomes foreign thoughts world, had developed during the eighteenth and sentiments brings good fortune to the century and which culminated in a fresh host." M. GOEBEL. ideal of man and a new attitude toward the world. The basic feature of this attitude, and of the German mind in general, is what she calls the latent and forceful enthusiasm of Dr. Theophilo Braga, ex-president of the Portu- the German Gemüt. It is here that the imagi- guese Republic, has written a preface to an an- nation, the idealism, and the religious feeling thology of Portuguese poems which will shortly which characterize German literature and be issued by the Oxford University Press under philosophy are rooted. With deep psycho- the title “ Portugal.” The translations into En- With deep. psycho- glish of the fifty selected poems have been made logical insight Mme, de Staël recognized that by Mr. George Young; the arrangement is chrono- a rejuvenation of character and culture could logical, beginning with ballads of the Moorish come only if enthusiasm, imagination, feeling, occupation and ending with revolutionary songs morality like those of Germany became living of the present day. 24 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL - RECENT POETRY.* English verse form while avoiding strongly marked rhythms which would be foreign to The most distinguished name on our list of his material. It appears from a remark in recent verse is that of Maeterlinck; but the the Preface that he is disposed to dislike the poems are not new, save in their English “In Memoriam stanza in its iambic form, form, being in fact translations of the con- and to think it improved by an occasional tents of the early volume called “Serres change to trochaic cadences; and, though I “ I Chaudes," - it is annoying that Mr. Miall cannot share his prejudice, I gladly admit does not give us its exact date. They ante- that he has obtained some charming effects date, therefore, all but the very earliest of the by the experiment. One example of these is, , plays, and carry us back to the days when the I think, the best of the lyrical versions in the beautifully colored but obscurely outlined collection; it is called "Heart's Foliage": symbolistic work of Maeterlinck was winning “ 'Neath the azure crystal bell the attention of the world of letters. The Of my listless melancholy “Hot Houses” will seem familiar enough to All my formless sorrows slowly readers of “ The Princess Maleine" and “ The Sink to rest, and all is well; Seven Princesses,” even though they may not “Symbols all, the plants entwine: have seen the poems in French. Here is the Water lilies, flowers of pleasure, same stage-setting, of Palms desirous, slow with leisure, Frigid mosses, pliant vine. “flowers without a hue, Lilies that under the moonlight fade, “ 'Mid them all a lily only, Moonlight over the meadows laid, Pale and fragile and unbending, Fountains far on the sky-line blue; " Imperceptibly ascending In that place of leafage lonely and the same succession of poignantly stirring “Like a moon the prisoned air but wholly mysterious occurrences: Fills with glimmering light wherethro' "All the lovely green rushes of the banks are in flames Rises to the crystal blue, And a boat full of wounded men is tossing in the White and mystical, its prayer.” moonlight! A second volume of translated verse is by All the king's daughters are out in a boat in the Lord Curzon,- in this case representing a storm! And the princesses are dying in a field of hemlock!” variety of sources. The leading poems con- The difference is chiefly that of form, and cern the present war, and are from the Bel- one is interested to note the effects accom- gian poet, Cammaerts; here one is likely to plished by English versions of the two chief turn first to the dreadful New Year's Prayer metrical types used by the poet: the “In better called a Curse - addressed to the Memoriam ” quatrain, and free rhythms German army, which has already been widely which oddly employ the cumulative cata. reprinted, sometimes under the mistaken im- loguing method of Walt Whitman for the pression that it was original with the trans- fragile materials of Maeterlinck. Mr. Miall's lator. I do not find much significance in any I translations leave almost nothing to be de- of this group of versions; the style of the sired. He holds faithfully to the characteris- noble lord does not lend itself readily to the tic Maeterlinckian blend of simplicity and difficult union of fervor and directness of subtlety, of the colloquial and the elaborate: speech which is demanded for subjects of cur- ; and he is also singularly happy in keeping to rent public concern, and his rhythm and rhyme sometimes lead him from the straight POEMS BY MAURICE MAETERLINCK. Done into English and narrow way with unhappy results, as Verse by Bernard Miall. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. WAR POEMS and Other Translations. By Lord Curzon of when he renders Kedleston. New York: John Lane Co. POEMS. By Gilbert K. Chesterton. New York: John Lane Co. “Et que vous erriez éperdus comme des bêtes” DREAMS AND REALITIES. By William K. Fleming. London: by Erskine Macdonald. MANX SONG AND MAIDEN SONG. By Mona Douglas. Lon- “Fear drive you like brute beasts that squeal." don: Erskine Macdonald. More agreeable are the miscellaneous transla- A FLORENTINE CYCLE, and Other Poems. By Gertrude Hunt- ington McGiffert. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. tions forming the second part of the volume, PRAYER FOR PEACE, and Other Poems. By William Samuel Johnson. New York: Mitchell Kennerley. which represent the age-long recreation of THE LIGHT FEET OF GOATS. By Shaemas O'Sheel. the cultivated Englishman — the rendering of York: The Franklin Press. THE LAUGHING MUSE. By Arthur Guiterman. New York: classical beauties in verse of his own tongue. Harper & Brothers. Even here there are few specimens which I THE MAN ON THE HILLTOP, and Other Poems. By Arthur Davison Ficke. New York: Mitchell Kennerley. should not suppose could be paralleled in SONNETS TO SIDNEY LANIER, and Other Lyrics By Clifford most of the vicarages of the kingdom. Per- Anderson Lanier. New York: B. W. Huebsch. THE CLOSE OF LIFE: THE APPROACH OF DEATH. By Bertram haps because of pleasant memories of the ode Dobell. London: Privately Printed. in other days, I find most appealing Lord A MARRIAGE CYCLE. By Alice Freeman Palmer. Houghton Mifflin Co. Curzon's rendering of Horace's New Boston: 1916) 25 THE DIAL NIT “ Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campus," the alternating rhythms of which are not un- skilfully imitated in lines like these : “Who can tell if the gods will increase by the grant of to-morrow What has been counted to-day? Greedy thy heir, but of all thou hast given the self that thou lovest Nought can be carry away. Once thou art perished and gone, and, high on his stately tribunal, Minos has uttered thy doom, Eloquence, goodness, and birth, Torquatus, will not avail thee E'er to return from the tomb." Mr. Chesterton's new volume is opened by a portrait which gives real joy in its rep- resentation of the robust and whimsical personality of the author. For a current En- glish collection, the work of a journalist, it is rather noticeably lacking in matter that con- cerns the war. The greater portion is devoted to poems of love, religion, and the social and political themes which inspire Mr. Chester- ton's familiar editorials. This last group con- tains some trenchant satire such as one would hopefully look for — the best of it worthy of a Dryden or a Canning. I have found chief joy in some lines addressed to the Rt. Hon. Walter Long, though I know nothing what- ever about the Right Honorable gentleman save that he once uttered some words on revolution which drew Mr. Chesterton's blade from its scabbard : “If I were wise and good and rich and strong Fond, impious thought, if I were Walter Long – If I could water sell like molten gold, And make grown people do as they are told, If over private fields and wastes as wide As a Greek city for which heroes died, I owned the houses and the men inside - If all this hung on one thin thread of habit, I would not revolutionize a rabbit! Most of the religious lyrics are Christmas carols; and they take us back to the ardent singing of Crashaw, though touched always with the consciousness of man's most recent struggles for and against his traditional faiths. “ The child that played with moon and sun Is playing with a little hay,”- this is the old conceit of the Catholic lyrists; but a moment later comes the paradox of the modern Wise Men: “So very near the Manger lies That we may travel far.” The finest of these carols is called “ The House of Christmas," and I am sorry that I can find space here for only the concluding stanzas: “ This world is wild as an old wives' tale, And strange the plain things are, The earth is enough and the air is enough For our wonder and our war; But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings, And our peace is put in impossible things Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings Round an incredible star. “ To an open house in the evening Home shall men come, To an older place than Eden And a taller town than Rome; To the end of the way of the wandering star, To the things that cannot be and that are, To the place where God was homeless And all men are at home." Very different are the religious lyrics of Mr. William K. Fleming. In entering his little volume we pass from the region both of ardent passion and intellectual strife to one of mysticism and of peace. His Christmas carol is of the simple joy and faith of child- hood; his deeper notes of the quiet hopes of the soul seeking its native country. Without salient achievement of any kind, his verse is saved from mere obviousness by the dignity of the personality it represents, and by an almost impeccable taste. That is, it main- tains the best traditions of the Anglican lyric of the spirit. A good example of its capacity to represent at once its writer's pleasure in the visible and the invisible world is found in the poem called “ Essex in March": “ The long, lean hills of Essex, and the grey Salt marshes, and a wind that all the day, With chant of thousand tongues, Roared thro' the high elms on its coastward way. “And in my heart a voice that cried to me: •O'er thy trim fields of life, immune, unfree, There peals the Song of songs, Of souls insurgent for their native sea.'' The same publisher who brings out Mr. Fleming's verses has initiated a series called “Little Books of Georgian Verse," under the editorship of Miss Gertrude Ford. One may suppose that it is intended in some sense as an answer or antidote to the series issued by 60 ) Walter, be wise! avoid the wild and new, The Constitution is the game for you. Walter, beware! scorn not the gathering throng, It suffers, yet it may not suffer wrong, It suffers, yet it cannot suffer Long! But the surprises of the volume, to those who know Mr. Chesterton only as essayist wield- ing humor, satire, and paradox as his hourly weapons, and have not realized the roman- ticism and lyricism that underlie his nature, will be found in the poems on love and relig- ion. There is a Marriage Song, for example, in which paradox and hyperbole are satu- rated with passion : “Why should we reck of hours that rend While we two ride together? The heavens rent from end to end Would be but windy weather; The strong stars shaken down in spate Would be a shower of spring, And we should list the trump of fate And hear a linnet sing." 26 [ Jan. 6 THE DIAL or the Poetry Bookshop, for it is brought out in Light on the crags, where the cattle roam together similar inexpensive brochures, yet appears to In the glory of the dying day.” be more conventional and discreet in both For American verse I turn first to the col- form and content; and Miss Ford lays em- lection of Mrs. McGiffert's poems, opening phasis (in her Introduction) on a desire to with “A Florentine Cycle.” To speak truly, discover poets representing the continuity of it is a volume of the type which tends danger- the English tradition, the line of Milton ously to tempt the reviewer to shut his eyes and Wordsworth and Tennyson, — as distin- to its many points of excellence. It is too guished from "iconoclasts with studied striv- long, to begin with: it is long without rea- ings after originality.” To some of us this son; it might as well have been much longer, declaration of principles sounds wholly rea- more happily - half as long; it im- sonable; yet of course, in considering how it presses one as containing all that the author works out, one is brought face to face again has thought of committing to verse day by with the perennial problem of art,- how to day for many, many days. She has travelled represent the sound tradition and at the same widely, and wherever she has gone a series of time make an individual offering worthy of admirable quatrains has recorded her impres- distinct attention. I regret that Miss Ford sions; she has studied the history of the should not have found verse of more distinc- regions she has passed through, and been tive intrinsic significance than that contained fascinated to find that all the proper names in the two opening issues of the series. One thus turned up can, with a little dexterity, is by Lieutenant C. A. Macartney, of the be wrought into her quatrains. She has “New Army," and we cannot avoid the suspi- looked on the cherubs of della Robbia, on the cion that we are invited to look on his poems Torso Belvedere, on a silver bowl of Cellini's, more sympathetically because he is a young on an Alsatian village, and for each has had hero of the hour; the other is announced as a pleasant thought which she has expressed in the work of a girl of sixteen, and again there what may be truly if tritely called well- is an inevitable disposition to judge it as re- chosen words. As companion in travel, or markable under the circumstances. In Lieu-correspondent, I should suppose her charm to tenant Macartney's verses I find little that be rather notable. But one seeks almost in leads me to do more than wish him well. The vain for the lyrical intensity, the really pene- other collection, by Miss Mona Douglas, is trating imaginative flash, which alone will decidedly more interesting. The author is a justify beyond question the making of so Manx girl, evidently of delicate sensibilities much verse, or no, I do not mean the mak- for all the aspects of nature, and with a more ing of it, but the printing or the reading of than ordinary gift for metrical expression. it. Mrs. McGiffert thinks well - clearly and One hopes, of course, that her work will tell firmly, as well as pleasantly, and there are us something distinctive of her special en- epigrams and sonnets which are admirable vironment, and there are bits of Manx legend for their outline and their definitiveness. and Manx landscape which she has caught up For example: with a true sense of their values; in general, "A fleeting rose-bud crave eternal life, however, she has been learning from litera- With its own loveliness unsatisfied ? ture rather than life, — and this is quite as it Is perfume of its passing not enough Has one least rose-bud ever really died ” should be in her 'prentice days. It is as promise and suggestion of more distinctive But even this quatrain suggests a notable work hereafter that the little volume is to be defect of the writer's verse, considering that valued. And perhaps Miss Ford purposes standpoint of fine formal artistry: her pov- one is driven to look at it so largely from the frankly to make use of this new series as seed-plot and testing-ground for poetry which erty of rhymes. The greater portion of the . is to be viewed as potentiality rather than collection is in quatrains, and I have not achievement; if so, we can heartily, approve rhyme in the odd-numbered lines. This is no noted a poem in which she completes the it. I find the most attractive of the verse thus far given us to be in these stanzas from trifle; for the whole story of our verse goes to show that, while you may use the imperfect a lyric in Miss Douglas's collection, called “Moods": abcb quatrain without harm in a loosely wrought, simple poem in ballad or similar “Dawn on the hills, and a breeze across the heather, Lark-songs that fall from the solitudes of blue; style, if you seek the effect of closely wrought Haze on the bogs with their tufts of golden feather, perfection, of cameo, etching, or epigram, you And a light that makes the whole world new. must not leave lines unrhymed as if through · Dusk on the hills, and the shadows on the heather, the mere negligence of completeness. Despite Ripples of flame on the waters far away; this imperfection of form, I choose as an - (6 1916) 27 THE DIAL 66 - especially pleasing example of Mrs. McGif- natured satire of the verses on the weather- fert's imaginative art this bit of interpretive cock Egoist — a kind of new Chanticleer who fancy on "The Brook": believes he controls the winds — and the “A rush of twisted waters through the glen, dainty humorous philosophy of the address Eager and valorous it delves and hews; to a sparrow in the Luxembourg Gardens. A Future City waits to flower its banks, The drawback is that the writer either can- So it must wisely choose! not trust his taste or does not care to, and “ It leaps, it dances on its dainty way; allows compositions to slip into the volume, That spot is for cathedral arch, and there and lines to slip into compositions, oddities Some day will rise great deathless marble heights, So must it have a care! ” of vocabulary and grotesque violences of ” Diametrically opposite in its effect is the imagery, like "Yggdrasil's pollen omnific" and “This pullulating spawn of man that collection of poems by Mr. W. S. Johnson. fouls the rotting earth” — together, as I have From the standpoint of the purist it is some- - , thing of a hodge-podge,– bits of inspiration said, with some mere journalistic doggerel, from Whitman, bits from Browning, bits of Perhaps Mr. Johnson does not care whether current science and sociology versified with they grieve or not, so long as he says his zest but not with unerring taste, a jolly vigorous say. I should add that the “Prayer Parisian villanelle and a ballade or two, to- for Peace," which gives title to the volume, is gether with popular verses that move swiftly an exposition, in vivid imaginative form, of and cheaply in Kipling-like journalese. But there is the real stuff of poetry here: the the notion that strife cannot be put away in interpretation of vital experiences by an a universe which is evolving through strife toward perfection. For this reason it has eager nagination that transfigures them, for the moment, to something of widely appealing already won the approbation of Mr. Roose- significance. The unity of the volume, so far velt, and may perhaps be made into a tract as it may be found, lies in that type of relig- by the Navy League. ious sense which is perhaps of closest kinship The name of Mr. Shaemas O'Sheel invites to poetry — the Spinozistic conception of in- us to look in his verse for a fine Irish zest and dividual experiences as bubbles on the surface irresponsibility in the enjoyment of both of the divine firmament of waters. Mr. beauty and action, and we are not disap- Johnson expresses this most eloquently and pointed. He calls Mr. Yeats his master, and at the same time most definitely in the fine at times, like him, seeks to catch and imprison harangue of Lachesis in the poem called the beauty of the “Rose of the World”; but "Beyond Our War": he has not his master's sureness of ear and “For That which suffers is the Joy of God, of touch, so that his more delicate workman- Forever widening and. quickening; ship, though not unappealing, can hardly be And That which strives is but the Peace of God thought memorable. But I have taken real That passeth understanding.–As bubbles they rise, The works and wars and wonders of the world; pleasure in a frankly American harvest song And in the verity of the crystal sphere of “Thanksgiving for Our Task," and still They show as worship. Mine are the Eyes of Life! more in the buoyant rhythm and garrulous I see it all — and Life is worship only! . feeling of this lyric called "A Night on the “ The marble pants with art's immortal breath; Hill" : Ascetic vision hunger-dreams to death; The clutching talon and the rending claw “Once when the grey night held more of clouds than Act the red ritual of evolving law: of stars, And each is worship only – And the wind was swift and cold, and full of a troubling cry, “I see the chestnut glaze its winter bud, I quenched my lamp and opened the door and Atom slay atom in the fevered blood, dropped the bars An earthworm draw a leaf beneath the sod, And went forth into a meadow, past fields of shud- A poet love his failure up to God: dering rye, And each is worship only. And over a moor that ghastly lay under a ghastly sky, And I ran with a stumbling run that the wind might “And millions, throbbing with the throbbing drum, blow more bitter by, Hear the Great Call; and millions yet to come Shall follow by the charnel road of strife And I fell in weary delight by an old ash clenched Through hate to love, through passionate death to And I trembled a-thrill with cold, and was content life: to lie. And this is worship only." I cannot here do myself (and the reader) the with scars, “And the glory of God's wild mirth was revealed to pleasure to represent Mr. Johnson's lighter And I saw how the elements played at a game vein, but commend unreservedly the good- through space, me, 28 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL place. And the wind was mad with a vast impetuous glee, at no real climax either of action or feeling. And a starry laughter broke on the sky's pale face; It depicts a somewhat mysterious monk in a White naked runners in the dark, the clouds a-race, And virginal snowy dancers veiled in lace; mountain convent, who, after darkly hinting And an ancient laughter roared through the rocking that he had that within him which he could tree, not bring himself to reveal, at length found And ripples of youthful joy sang the flowers of that voice and (says the poet) “Poured forth such speech as from no other man And I lay like the mossy rock on the side of the hill, I ever heard, nor like shall hear again." And the spin of the rolling world was a dizzy thing, And I heard in a moment, when the winds were sud- This promises much; but all that transpires denly still, is that the young monk had led a life which The cheery and lusty song that the huge tongues vacillated between the ideal of contemplation sing- and that of action, and that now, being irre- The tongues of flame leagues deep in earth's hollow- ing; trievably imprisoned in the monastery, he was Far off I knew the great seas leaped in a ring; dying of hopelessness because neither ideal And I rose with joy in my heart and peace on my had been fulfilled. One must think the poet will, And sought the fire on my hearth, and my home's to have been singularly unfortunate if he had enfolding wing.” never heard speech more remarkable, both in Mr. Arthur Guiterman has collected in content and form, than this of Theodorus. What he feels that he has gained is a view of The Laughing Muse” many merry verses which have already been enjoyed in various " Man's life, and its strange pitifulness; so sweet periodicals. Of these the cleverest is that That memory makes the heart to overflow: So bitter that men turn from it, as turned which opens the volume, “The Quest of the This soul beside me, to the world of dreams: Riband,” the account, in antique ballad form, So fleeting, that the darkness hovers close of a shopping expedition undertaken by a Even while the seeker pauses to debate The better path, or turns to mourn in vain mere man in a modern department store. A choice regretted, and the days go by Since this is quite too long to be represented Bearing what still remains." here, and since our subject is contemporary And the languorous and purposeless disillu- poetry, I choose for an example of Mr. Guiter- sionment of this conclusion seems to animate man's not wholly thoughtless raillery this (if that is not too vigorous a word) the great account of “The Young Celtic Poets": part of Mr. Ficke's volume. Sometimes he “ Their hearts are bowed with sorrow, compares himself, with pride decorously They love to wail and croon; They shed big tears when they sigh, 'Machree,' veiled in a sweet sadness, with those who have Floods when they sob, ‘Aroon!' settled down to a contented theory of life, " For the Young Gaels of Ireland who have determined all that life should Are the lads that drive me mad; be", sometimes he admits to being “weary For half their words need foot-notes, of being bitter and weary of being wise"; And half their rhymes are bad." sometimes he forecasts the late autumn when The admirers of Mr. Arthur Davison Ficke's it will only remain for him to poetry, among whom I have often been glad 'clasp, with weak and thankful heart, to count myself, are likely to experience some Whatever faded blossom there apart disappointment in reading his latest volume. Can ease my smart.” It contains some fine things, notably the Elegy | All this is skilfully, much of it beautifully, on Swinburne, which attracted some attention done; and I am far from assuming that Mr. at the time of its publication in a periodical; Ficke identifies himself with these various but as a whole it cannot be said to mark prog- wise and bitter and weary and generally dis- ress either in the matter or form of the writer's illusioned and disillusionizing singers. But art. The two leading poems are in narra- if he is to give us a collection of dramatic tive blank verse of a kind of Wordsworthian monologues, he should admit among his cast, and, while here also there are exceed- dramatis personæ some of a more heartening ingly good lines, I do not find Mr. Ficke's sort. This I say, foreseeing that it will again blank verse sure-footed or persistently effec- be charged — as has been done already — that tive. The title-poem, giving the story of a I count no poetry first-rate which does not madman who crucified himself through a pas- teach sound doctrine; and I cannot here pause sion to save the world, is certainly not unmov- to explain how it is that I mean something ing, but it must be admitted to be the sort of quite different, apart from doctrine alto- tale which is legitimately moving only if gether. But in leaving Mr. Ficke's volume, known to be true, and hence not well fitted for since I am unwilling to represent the Swin- poetic fiction. The other narrative, called burne elegy by a few lines only, and since in * At St. Stephanos," disappoints in arriving a review not long ago I quoted one of his 66 1916 ] 29 THE DIAL admirable sonnets, I shall here set down this For these poems Mr. Edward Howard Griggs slight but hauntingly perfect lyric, called writes a brief memorial introduction, with an “ The Three Sisters": account of the friendship of the brothers Sid- “Gone are those three, those sisters rare ney and Clifford Lanier, and the sacrifice With wonder-lips and eyes ashine. which the younger made for the older and One was wise and one was fair, more gifted, in yielding up his own hopes And one was mine. of a life devoted to letters. The opening “ Ye mourners, weave for the sleeping hair sequence of sonnets is the monument to this Of only two your ivy vine. friendship,- of uneven excellence, wrought For one was wise and one was fair, always with love and sometimes with skill. But one was mine." The finest of the sonnets, beginning, “ Thou I turn finally to a group of three little vol- magic breather of the silver flute," which umes of posthumous verse, all of distinctively reproduces rather remarkably the Elizabethan personal character, whose interest and value flavor, has flavor, has already won friends through are in some measure frankly dependent on the periodical publication. personal relation. The first is made up of verses written in his latter days by the late Professor George Herbert Palmer has now Mr. Bertram Dobell, the London bookseller, followed up his notable memoir of his wife, publisher, and literary amateur, whose per- after more than seven years, with a collection sonality was familiar to many Americans; of the verses found in her desk. The greater they are brought out for private circulation portion of them were planned, he tells us, as by his son. The theme of these poems is the parts of a “Marriage Cycle"; and he has end of life, and what it means for one to sought to arrange and entitle them with a whom eager activity seems the one essential view to their place in this plan. The result of living, and who feels no assurance that is bound to impress us not so much as a work there is to be any continuance of such indi- of art as a new view of the rich personality vidual activity. Mr. Dobell's spirit was Stoic, which was revealed and interpreted in one of and his poetic method somewhat coldly ex- the most remarkable of American biographies. pository, yet with a dignity and sincerity The theme of the series of poems is best which caught something of the attractiveness stated in Professor Palmer's own words, as that lies in the stern and sombre veracity of “the significance of marriage, blended as it Blair's verse, or Dr. Johnson's. Witness these always was in her mind with religious expe- quatrains of the eighteenth century not rience and the enjoyment of nature”; and merely in manner but in mode of thought, on its primary value lies in the veracious repre- the dread of senile decay: sentation of this triune devotion. It cannot “ A ruined castle of all life forlorn; be claimed that the greater number of the A temple by a barbarous host profaned; poems would be certain to seem distinguished, A Venice of its power and glory shorn; apart from our knowledge of the writer; for A stony desert where abundance reigned; Alice Freeman Palmer did not have precisely "Such sights as these are sad, yet not so sad the mind or the pen of an artist. She touched As 'tis to see a noble mind's decay: and expressed life with directness, rather than A Marlborough doting, or a Swift grown mad; A fiery soul to ashes burnt away. with imaginative interpretiveness -- if there be such a word. Yet this is only a question “Strike me down rather in the flush of life, When hopes are high and every prospect fair; of degree; and there are compositions in The soldier slain in the fierce battle-strife this volume which beautifully show "emotion Buys cheaply his release from pain and care." recollected in tranquillity” and committed to It happens that the next collection, made of enduring form. Choice is difficult, but these the posthumous poems of Clifford Lanier, fur- stanzas from the poem called “ The Glory of nishes a strikingly contrasting treatment of the World” are true to the theme and the the same theme of old age, viewed now by one mood of the whole sequence: who is both romanticist and man of faith: "O summer night beside the soundless sea, “Gold in the morn; silver shine at noon; O golden hour for my dear Love and me! Gold after noon; new soft lights beam, The past, the future, are at one with thee! Whereof the heart of youth may merely dream: Pearl, amber, lucent sard are in yon gleam. “O witching world, with beauty never guessed! In circles ever moveth life around, Light of the east, dead splendors of the west, Without decline; eve puts no term nor bound; I lock you fast forever in my breast. Age at old portals is await For that new scene beyond the gate. “I know your wondrous meaning; for one stands This little grain of life was sweet: how grand Beside me, at the touch of whose dear hands The planetary round of God's new land!” My whole heart leaps to life and understands." . 30 (Jan. 6 THE DIAL This is the normal simplicity of the writer's which at its best is not one of the finest things method. But now and then she turns to the of art, instead of an effort (successful or not) more elaborate figuring of an experience, as at one of those aims which have always been in the perfect allegory of this poem, complete the mark of a great man of letters. in six lines, whose art is reminiscent of I prefer the other view,-- even reckoning George Herbert's: without Mr. Comfort himself, if that be neces- “I said to Pain, ‘I will not have thee here! sary,- and shall assume that he had (subcon- The nights are weary and the days are drear sciously, if you like) an idea, and that the In thy hard company.' power of his idea moulded his conception even He clasped me close and held me still so long I learned how deep his voice, how sweet his song, of horizons and adventure. This idea is that How far his eyes can see.” there is a finer life than that of grabbing and The editor sums up his impression of the chief getting, making money or at least taking it values of his wife's verses in a reference to from others, or perhaps really only noting down in a book that you have done so, scour- the “art of transmuting our usual and neces- sary experiences into occasions of wonder, ing sea and land to make an addition to the romance, and gladness." And this is not a bad right side of the ledger. It may seem that word on which a critic or a reader of poetry tainly the case; still, it is interesting to see this doctrine is nothing new, which is cer- may pause. RAYMOND M. ALDEN. the form it will take in the mind of an adven- turer, a joyous seeker of wide-spread wonder of new horizons, a lover of women and the RECENT FICTION.* sound of the sea. We shall not tell just what form it does take; that is the story, and we It is hard to avoid what the publishers say think that in the hand of Mr. Comfort it about a book, and the ingenuous mind would makes an impression that will be remembered. ask, Why do so? It would seem as though Mr. Jack London's “The Star Rover" is they ought to know better than most what the also a book founded upon an idea. As to just author is trying to do. In writing of “Lot & what that idea is, there may be difference of Company,” the publishers speak of Mr. Will opinion. In fact, it may well be thought that Levington Comfort as being “among the best Mr. London bodies forth in his imagination writers of romance and adventure," and add: more than one “fundamental idea." If we “Never has Mr. Comfort written a novel in turn once more to the publishers for informa- which is heard so clearly the sound of the sea, tion, we shall gather that the plot rests upon man's love for woman, and the song of the the conception of the "supremacy of mind joyous seeker, going on day after day to the over body." This idea is undoubtedly to be wonder of new horizons." Now if those de- found in the book, and may be thought funda- lightful things show the intention of the mental, in that the full structure of the book author, his book sends his readers off on a false track. is built upon it, or dominating, in that it The net impression of "Lot & controls the development of the story. The Company” is not that of a tale of romance and adventure,- in fact, there is not really ing, a man serving a life sentence in the Cali- novel gives the experiences of Darrell Stand- very much romance and adventure in it, in fornia State prison at San Quentin. the ordinary understanding of those words, He but rather of a book in which a man had proved incorrigible, and according to the something very especial to say to the world. mode of dealing with incorrigibles in that It is not specifically the story of the joy institution he was given not only solitary con- ous seeker always coming on new horizons,- again as one would normally understand the jacket.” Mr. London describes with his ac- expression, but the story of a man who was customed vigor the horrible conditions which applying himself very definitely to a search for prevailed in the prison and the relentless something he was absolutely determined to vigor with which the officials quelled the find. There are horizons and adventures, it is slightest breaches of discipline. Laced in a true; but it is a pity to give the idea that straight-jacket, then, in solitary confinement, they are the great thing, for then the reader Darrell Standing is told that it is possible for will fancy he has a good example of something body. He tries the experiment and succeeds. one to release the mind from the prison of the * Lot & COMPANY. By Will Levington Comfort. New York: With his first success he vaults beyond prison THE STAR ROVER. By Jack London. Illustrated. New York: roof and California sky, and is among the stars. In the shortest possible time he is away ATHALIE. By Robert W. Chambers. Illustrated. New York: D. Appleton & Co. star-roving for long ages. Hence the name of - George H. Doran Co. The Macmillan Co. 1916) 31 THE DIAL 2 the book, and hence the view that in such free- minor matter, when compared with the great dom of mind from body we have this funda- question we have just noticed; and Mr. mental idea. But all this is but a beginning. Chambers seems absorbed in the greater ques- As time goes on, another thought becomes tion rather than the less. more prominent. Darrell Standing ceases to The general character of Mr. Chambers's rove among the stars, but when his spirit ability is so well known that one need not do leaves the prison of the body it passes into the more than refer to it. He is undoubtedly able bodies of other men in whom we feel it had to present a picture of the gay and glittering, at one time previously lived. So he becomes, rather external and semi-public, life of New first, Count Guillaume de Sainte-Maure; then York at the present day,—the life where Jesse, a boy who goes with the immigrant home means an apartment, where dinner train which was ambushed by the Mormons means a restaurant, where amusement means at Mountain Meadow; then Adam Strang, the theatre, and where business may or may who was shipwrecked in Korea, the lover and not mean anything at all. Doubtless there are husband of the Lady Om. Then he is Ragnar phases of existence in any large city more or Lodbrog, the northern legionary in the Roman less like the life which Mr. Chambers presents. garrison of Jerusalem at the time of Pilate; I always take the liberty to doubt privately then he becomes Daniel Foss, a native of Elk- whether there are many young ladies of per- ton, who sailed for the Friendly Islands and fectly correct and beautiful character who was cast on a desolate island where he lived spend their evenings and sometimes their for many years. He becomes Ushu, the pre- afternoons habitually with some high minded historic man who takes for his mate Igar, the and fine natured young man of wealth and race mother. But always at some crucial time position without a thought of anything be- he returns to his “ jacket,” whence he passes yond friendship. Whether there be such is by a natural series of events, until he finds not important just now; more to the point is himself finally in the death cell waiting for it that Mr. Chambers, having in mind a fine the day of execution, where he writes the book idea and wishing to present it in his own we read. It is this latter idea, the conception way — which is, of course, not the way of the of the transmigration of souls,—the idea that Society for Psychical Research or any other the living spirit inhabits first one body and such body,— has rather unfortunately allowed then another, sometimes retaining a hazy his idea to be so overlaid with other things recollection of earlier phases of existence,—that few will get more than a suggestion of that seems to be the dominating conception what it is. It does no injustice to Mr. Cham- of the book, rather than the more general bers to think that he has a deep sympathy, if notion, which perhaps includes it, of the not perhaps a settled belief, in the thought supremacy of mind over body. which here and there rises in his pages. We Mr. Robert W. Chambers, in his novel enti- must rather regret that he allows his unde- tled "Athalie," has also had thoughts that lie niable gift for the gay, the light, the spark- rather deep beneath the somewhat superficial ling forms of existence to fill the mind so that life which the book otherwise portrays. A the net impression of the book can hardly be story “of a girl who was strangely clairvoy- | to give one more than a slight idea of what ant," the volume is said to be (again by the seems really an important matter. Or if the publishers); and such it is, for Athalie Green- subject be the serious one of the continued sleeve did possess the power which is com- existence and relation of ourselves to those monly called clairvoyance (whether it really whom we have once loved and lost, why should exists or not), and indeed was thereby very it be advertised as something connected with fortunately enabled to earn her living at a crystal balls and announcements in the news- time when she found herself unable to do so papers ? in any other way. But to speak of the idea There may be those who will think it merely of this book as clairvoyance, or of Athalie as humorous to spend so much space in talking a clairvoyant, gives one a false notion; for of ideas in connection with the work of these really it would seem that Mr. Chambers is not authors. If it be so, we believe that the fault so much concerned with the experiences of a (such as there may be) must lie with the girl of marked or singular power as he is with authors and their publishers. If the “ideas” the much greater matter of whether those are not to be taken seriously, if mention of who have passed out of physical life can and them be merely a device to make people fancy do still remain near the scenes of their former they are reading something worth while, if experience and with the persons of those we have really something meant to stir the whom they have loved. Whether or not a blood rather than to stimulate the thought, girl be a clairvoyant appears to us rather a then why this allusion to, even insistence on, 32 (Jan. 6 THE DIAL SO the other thing? To tell the truth, we rather writing. It is not strange, therefore, that he fancy that these able writers are only toying finds much to praise in Artemus Ward, Whit- with ideas, thoughts, conceptions - or, as we man, Mark Twain, and Joaquin Miller. might almost call them, whims, fancies, no- “ “Ramona " is "an exquisite work of art," “" tions. Mr. Comfort doubtless has much at and gives its author “a place indeed with the heart the conception of a finer life than that two or three best writers of American ro- of America to-day,- we wish he had sought mance"; and the stories of Kate Chopin - a to work out the positive side as definitely as name possibly not known to every reader he has the negative. Mr. London is obviously are “equal to the best that has been produced using his " fundamental idea” as a literary in France or even in America.' On the other means. That he does not really believe the hand, he has little but judicially phrased con- experiences of Darrell Standing are more tempt for Bayard Taylor and Aldrich and than fancies, is clear at the very beginning. Mr. Henry James. Even those who dissent The star-rover in his first flight is impressed most sharply from his judgments will, how- with the idea that he must touch each star ever, value his criticisms for their frankness with a glass wand; which shows, of course, and consistency. Some objection may be that there was no reality in the flight, nor is raised to the bringing in of authors whose there more reality in the later scenes. Of Mr. distinctive work was done before the year so Chambers it need only be said that while he definitely set forth in the title. A student of has treated his subject with delicacy and the “Biglow Papers" and "The Fable for reserve, he has turned the real interest of his Critics” may be astounded to learn that book (as far as we can see) in quite another “Lowell, much of whose early heart direction. and soul had been given to Europe, discov- It is perhaps a tribute to the attractions of ered America in this same Centennial year the intellectual life, or the spiritual, that such [1876]"; and in view of the author's thesis books should appear before the public as hav- that the distinctive characteristics of his ing something to say on “ideas.” We hope period are traceable to the Civil War, it seems that their readers — who are doubtless people hardly fair to include Mrs. Stowe, Timrod, who enjoy the world of adventure or the and others of their time, and even to devote a world of gaiety or both — will be attracted to long section to Thoreau on the naïve ground that other world so different from that with that “in spirit and influence . . he belongs which they are familiar, and yet so closely to the period after 1870." A few vagaries related to it. If they are so attracted, they like this stamp the author as just a little of will have no difficulty in finding competent a special pleader. The few noticeable slips. guides. EDWARD E. HALE. such as the statement that Marion Crawford wrote no short stories, come from a tendency to be sweepingly dogmatic. But on the whole, the work is scholarly, and — granted the crit- BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. ic's assumptions as to what American litera- The title of Professor Fred ture ought to be – logically sound. Full and literature, Lewis Pattee's latest book, “A sympathetic recognition is given to the work History of American Literature of the South since the War, and the sections since 1870" (Century Co.), seems to threaten dealing with Southern writers are especially a catalogue of story-writers and poets of well done. to-day; but the preface reassures the reader with the promise that only writers who did Two volumes in the new “Writ- distinctive work before 1892 will be included. ers of the Day" series (Holt) The quarter-century following the Civil War provide us with handy brief is now far enough in the past to make possi- studies of Mr. Arnold Bennett and Mr. H. G. ble an evaluation of its literary output, and Wells. The former is discussed by Mr. F. J. it is fortunate that the first attempt at such Harvey Darton; the later by Mr. J. D. Beres- an evaluation has been made by a scholar with ford. Attractive in binding and letter-press, an established reputation for careful and compact — each volume runs to bout 130 thorough work in American literature. Not pages --- and “done, not by literary hacks, but all students will agree with all of Professor by fellow-craftsmen of a younger generation, Pattee's judgments. His critical standards distinguished for imaginative work," as the may be inferred from some of his pet aver- advertisement recites, these little handbooks sions — the baneful influence of Keats, “Long- should be well received. While the average fellowism," "so conventional a thing as a reader who has a natural craving for Bos- sonnet," and indeed all carefully elaborated wellian gossip may meet with some disap- . American 1870-1892. 6 Critical estimates of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Wells. 1916) 33 THE DIAL an pointment in their subject matter, the reader sive. “In the first place, its intention is to who likes to study his author more technically make accessible those sources of the history and to analyze and discuss his work, will be of Europe and of the near East which are of better pleased. That is to say, although each prime importance for the understanding of of these volumes is introduced as "a biog- Western civilization. In the second place, raphy and a critical estimate," the biography both by the treatment of these texts and by is in each instance negligible: eight pages in special studies it covers the work of modern the “Bennett," three in the “Wells,' suffice; scholars in these fields. It is, therefore, a ,” the real “vital facts,” it is assumed, appear guide both to the original documents and to in the more or less elaborate analysis of recent criticism. The material, furthermore, each novelist's literary achievement as re- is given in English translation, in order that corded in subsequent pages. Of the two stud- Of the two stud- it may be readily accessible to students and ies, that of Mr. Bennett strikes us as the readers who do not have that knowledge of clearer and more satisfactory, although per- classical and other foreign languages which haps there is no good reason for such a con- is essential for specialized research." Profes- trast. Mr. Darton identifies the subject of sor James T. Shotwell of Columbia has been his study intimately with the spirit of that selected as general editor, and the history “domicile of origin," the Staffordshire district workers of America will feel that the choice which this novelist has made familiar to the has been felicitous. The volume before us, world. Mr. Bennett “is a Five Townsman edited by Professors G. W. Botsford and keen, interested, exceedingly shrewd, very E. G. Sihler, deals with “Hellenic Civiliza- practical and efficient, limited in certain di- tion”; and we have no doubt that it has rections, rather coarse-fibred in others.” He proved a more difficult task than will any of also declares that, like his fellow Five Towns- its successors. It is the old story of an men, Mr. Bennett is “high strung," embarras de richesse, and Dr. Shotwell has epithet that the reader will find explained forestalled the critic by writing: “The selec- satisfactorily. The chapter on the Five tions have been made, not for specialists, but Towns, by the way, is one of the best in the for those who are interested in general Hel- book, and contains a capital description of the lenic culture. Nothing could be easier than topography of Stoke-on-Trent, with a map for to suggest the lengthening or shortening of the complete identification of places men- passages and the addition or substitution of tioned in the novels of the Five Towns. Natu- other selections. No two scholars could agree rally, Mr. Beresford can hardly perform a as to what is absolutely best for a volume of similar service for his hero – he insists, far the kind; and those who have coöperated in its preparation can only hope that it may in more strongly than Mr. Darton, that his some degree contribute to an understanding hero is a hero; but rather confines his effort of the spirit of ancient Hellas and add to the to asserting the normality of Mr. Wells and interest in her culture.” It remains to be of Mr. Wells's vision. He sees him as said, however, that while the general level of garding all life from a reasonable distance.” translation is high, a few of the renderings He maintains the superiority of the romances are simply villainous from the side of ade- to those of Jules Verne, and regards Mr. Wells quate English. (Vide pp. 190, 191, et al.) . as second to none as a writer of romances The bibliographies, again, are generally ad- of this type. He is less certain of Mr. Wells's mirable; but any reviewer with a sense of position as a novelist, but feels no hesita- humor will note with a kindly smile some of tion in the claim that he is one of the great the inclusions and omissions. Professor Paul writers; and that alone, among the novel Shorey, apparently, has written nothing on ists of the day, he has used his perfected art Plato that is worthy of recording beside the for a definite end. He has pointed the possi- contributions enumerated. The index is fair, ble road of our endeavor. He has set up the but in a book of this nature it might well ideal of a finer civilization. have been more extensive. If we may assume that “Hellenic Civilization represents the In view of the rapidly grow material form of the series, we shall have a Records of “the glory that ing responsibility of American set of large and clearly printed books, run- war Greece." scholarship, it is particularly ning to about seven hundred pages each. pleasing to greet a volume of the ambitious Eighteen volumes have been definitely listed series now being issued by the Columbia as in preparation, and others will be an- University Press under the general title of nounced later. It is to be hoped that the “Records of Civilization." The aim of the general editor and his collaborators will not series is as praiseworthy as it is comprehen- allow themselves to be hurried, and that this - re- 34 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL a Martial law versus ) laudable undertaking may prove not only a ing the fact that the King's Courts are still genuine contribution to the progress of his- open and that his writs still run throughout torical study but also an honor to American the realm. Liberty of the press, it is affirmed, scholarship is “in a precarious condition, it hangs by a thread.” Never in the history of England, One of the most substantial of we are told, has the executive assumed such recent contributions to the lit arbitrary power over the life, liberty, and Magna Charta. erature of international law, property of British subjects. . “The net of renewed interest in which has been stimulated restriction is now so finely woven, so ingen- by the great war, is a volume entitled "War: iously designed, that it enmeshes every activ- Its Conduct and Legal Results" (Dutton), ity of the citizen. The military authorities by two well known English scholars, Profes- can .. deport the whole population of any sors Baty and Morgan. Their treatise is note- town or village from one part of the country worthy in being perhaps the only work which to another. They could totally close all the undertakes to state the legal effect of war public houses throughout the United King- upon the local or municipal law - in this dom for every hour of the day for the whole case, upon the law of England. It does not period of the war. . . They can on mere sus- pretend to be a study of the questions of in- picion arrest any one without warrant and ternational law to which the present war has can equally without warrant enter any house given rise, although some of these are touched by day or by night. They can punish with upon, notably where the provisions of the penal servitude for life any journalist who Hague Convention regarding the laws and speculates as to the plan of campaign . . and customs of war are compared with those of with six months imprisonment if he criticizes the German war manual (which, by the way, the dietary or accommodation of the new Professor Morgan has recently translated into recruits.” They can stop any citizen, close English). The present work is devoted any road, or compel the whole population to mainly to an exposition of the effect of war keep indoors. “We must leave the reader to upon contracts, the status of alien enemies, judge for himself whether this 'parliamentary trade with the enemy, personal liberty, lib- despotism' which recalls nothing so much as erty of the press, and, in general, the status the kind of legislation hitherto exclusively re- of the civil population as a whole throughout served for uncivilized protectorates, is either the realm. It is based largely on the decisions necessary or wise.” Such is the régime under of the English and American courts; but the which the English are living to-day; yet treatment is non-technical and to a remarka- England, although “at war, is not in a ble degree popular in character. There is a “state of war,”. a distinction which the critical examination of all the important authors regard as sound and fundamental. emergency war legislation enacted since the outbreak of the present conflict, and the text Mr. James Huneker has been Impressionistic of this legislation is reprinted in an appen- fortunate in the title of his dix of more than one hundred pages. While and literature. latest volume, “Ivory, Apes and stating that "we are all united in the convic- Peacocks" (Scribner). Whether intended in tion that never was a cause more just or a an ironic sense or not, it suggests both the war more righteous," the writers have sub- qualities and the limitations of the essays. jected the measures of the government to a Mr. Huneker continues, of course, to devote severe criticism, and applied to them the himself to the “modern” and “ultra-modern” strict tests of legality in a way which it may European movements in music, literature, and safely be assumed would not be tolerated if art. The new volume discusses such men as it were attempted in Germany. Their criti- Schoenberg, Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and cism of the Defence of the Realm and Press the Italian Futurists, as well as Whitman, Censorship Acts, and the regulations issued Dostoieffsky, Tolstoy, and Vermeer. in pursuance thereof, is particularly severe. critic, Mr. Huneker's distinction is his frank These drastic measures are declared to be un- impressionism,- his eagerness, in spite of ex- precedented because they create new offences perience and sophistication, before every new and make them punishable by a procedure work of art. Critics,” he says, “are like unknown to the common law. The effect, we prize-fighters, they must keep in constant are told, is for some purposes “to deprive the training else they go 'stale."" His conception whole civil population . . of the right to trial of art is that of Schopenhauer: “Art is ever by jury and to enable a court-martial to sen- on the quest, — a quest, and a divine adven- tence any one contravening those regulations to ture”; and this conception he holds in com- penal servitude for life." This, notwithstand- mon with most of the men whom he writes studies in art As a 1916) 35 THE DIAL . about. Mr. Huneker is himself thoroughly as well as Dutch were allowed to trade at “modern.” He dislikes and fears (half. Nagasaki (p. 94); the bombardment of for- seriously) the music of Schoenberg, and he eign ships by the Shimonoseki forts occurred thinks that the Futurists “have mistaken in 1863 (p. 104); the Satsuma indemnity their vocation. They should have been musi- was £25,000 (p, 104n.); Oyama appears as cians or writers, or handle the more satisfac- Omaya” (p. 130); it is not correct to state tory, if less subtle, cinematograph.” But he that Great Britain agreed to the revision of refuses to reject either Futurism or Schoen- the treaty in 1894 as the result of Japan's berg. "I should n't be surprised if ten years overwhelming defeat of China, for the treaty hence Arnold Schoenberg proves quite as con- was signed before the war broke out (p. 132), ventional a member of musical society" as nor can it be said that the treaties of 1911 Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. He "included no limitations upon the commercial quotes approvingly Gauguin's remark that “a autonomy of Japan," for the conventional painter is either a revolutionist or a plagia- tariff in the British treaty must certainly be rist.” The masterpieces of the past produce considered such (p. 146). These suggestions, in him a feeling of melancholy. Other days, few in number and of minor significance, other plays. And that is the blight on all really indicate with what care Mr. Clement academic art.” One wonders how long this has compiled this serviceable outline. quest and adventure can be kept up without exhaustion, without realizing that our “mod- Eight bibliographies, each mer- ernists” are most of them living too much on Some notable iting fuller notice than it is here bibliographies. their temperaments. What one misses in Mr. possible to give, bear convincing Huneker's criticism, and in the modern move- evidence of the continued activity of those ments in all the arts, is character,— that con- self-effacing scholars who scorn delights and cern for the permanent which meant so much live laborious days for the noble purpose of to Goethe, himself a seasoned adventurer. adding to a very necessary branch of refer- Mr. Huneker's zest, however, is unfailing. ence literature. Two members of the French And his style, - clever and epigrammatic to a department at Smith College, Dr. Albert fault, often irresponsible (the composer of Schinz and Dr. George A. Underwood, edit “The Rosecavalier" "always makes hay for use in this country M. Lucien Foulet's while the Strauss shines "), sensuous at times, “Bibliography of Medieval French Literature with great power of evocation,- serves ad- for College Libraries" (Yale University mirably a critic whose main interest is in the Press), a pamphlet of thirty pages. Mr. J. overtones of temperament. Christian Bay has prepared for the Danish- American Association a bibliography entitled A text which may be considered “Denmark in English and American Litera- An outline of an “irreducible minimum” is ture," an octavo of nearly one hundred pages, Japanese history. presented by Mr. Ernest Wilson published by the above-named society at 30 Clement in his “Short History of Japan” N. Dearborn St., Chicago. Miss Grace Gard- (University of Chicago Press). In one hun- ner Griffin is the compiler of “Writings on dred and fifty pages he has outlined fifteen American History, 1913,” being the eighth hundred years of recorded history, and has annual number of the series originated by her found space for references to social condi- and now published by the Yale University tions, literature, and art. As the more impor- | Press. It is a work involving much research tant authorities are cited, the reader may and a high degree of bibliographical skill. easily turn to the more extensive works. Half From the Boston Book Company comes an the volume deals with the period before 1603, "Index to Fairy Tales, Myths, and Legends," and the remainder treats of the Tokugawa compiled by Miss Mary Huse Eastman, of the Shogunate and the Meiji Era. The appen- Wilmington (Del.) Institute Free Library. dices include an account of the physiography It is a subject and title index, followed by a of the Empire, with lists of the provinces by "list of books analyzed,” arranged under the circuits, the prefectures, the emperors and authors' names. The scope of the work may empresses, the shoguns, the regents, and the be inferred from the fact that this concluding Japanese name periods. The volume also con- list fills fifteen pages of fine print. To Mr. tains a map of present-day Japan. The work Frederick W. Ashley, Chief of the Order is well done when the limitations of space are Division of the Library of Congress, we are considered. A few errors, however, should indebted for a handsome quarto “ Catalogue be corrected in a text which will have wide of the John Boyd Thacher Collection of Incu- use. Hideyoshi's letter to the Governor of the nabula.” This collection is intrusted by Mrs. Philippines was delivered (p. 78); Chinese Thacher to the custody of the Library of > 36 [Jan. 6 THE DIAL How the 66 Congress, and the present full and scholarly his attentions, and is now in prison for life; enumeration and description of its riches will though twenty-four years of age, he has exer- greatly facilitate its intelligent use by those cised for the last twelve years only the men- desiring access to it. An eleven-page biog- tality that he had developed at the time of his raphical sketch of Mr. Thacher is prefixed. crime. The social menace of such cases is the The Government Printing Office issues the theme of Dr. Goddard's monograph. The con- work. "A Brief Bibliography of Books in tribution is peculiarly valuable in showing English, Spanish and Portuguese, Relating to how the recognition of abnormality is an ex- the Republics Commonly Called Latin Amer-pert matter. To the layman the criminality is ican, with Comments" (Macmillan), by Mr. far more conspicuous and abhorrent than the Peter H. Goldsmith, Director of the Pan- imbecility. The different play of the "sex" American Association for International Con- factor is convincing. The masculine trend ciliation, is comprehensive without being for action and the play of violent emotions exhaustive, briefly but intelligently annotated, shows itself in the pathological manifestations. and has the further merit of wasting no space on works hopelessly difficult of access. Noth- Strikingly at variance with the ing is included that will not be found in the “ Lusitania" findings of the official inquiry libraries of New York. About three hundred went down. are Mr. Charles E. Lauriat's ob- titles are embraced in this well-selected list. servations on the occasion of the sinking of From the H. W. Wilson Company we have the “Lusitania.” In fact, he himself says in two useful works for debaters. “ Selected his book, "The Lusitania's Last Voyage" Articles on Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic,” | (Houghton), that they “are as diametrically compiled by Dr. Lamar T. Beman, has abun- opposite from those of Lord Mersey's Court dant bibliographical references and a pre- as they well could be." But it is evident to liminary outline of both affirmative and nega- any impartial reader that Mr. Lauriat re- tive arguments. The bibliography fills thirty- mained cool and calmly observant from the four pages, the argumentative selections selections moment the torpedo struck the ship on which nearly five times as much space. The book he was a passenger, to the end of that appal- forms one of the “Debaters' Handbook Se- ling catastrophe. As one proof of his remark- ries.” In the “University Debaters' Annual” able freedom from anything like panic, the for 1914-5 (the first of a promising series) are follower of his brief but clear narrative notes found arguments for and against the Monroe his allowing himself just enough time, as the Doctrine, the increase of our army and navy, vessel was rapidly listing to starboard, to go the minimum wage, government ownership of below to his stateroom, walking in the angle telegraph and telephone, the single tax, and formed by the floor and side wall of the pas- socialistic control of the means of production sage, and secure certain personal belongings and exchange. From college and university from his luggage. It is already known how debates these arguments are taken, but they intelligently and fearlessly helpful he was in represent considerable scholarly application saving other lives besides his own. Briefer and are accompanied by sufficiently full bibli- than was Mr. Lawrence Beesley in narrating ographies to enable the reader to pursue the the tragedy of the “Titanic," Mr. Lauriat re- subjects further if he so desires. counts events of a similar but more startling nature, in which he himself figures, modestly In his volume entitled “The enough, as an actor of some importance. The Psychological studies of three Criminal Imbecile” (Macmillan), report of Lord Mersey's court of inquiry is murder cases. Dr. Henry H. Goddard analyses added, and some significant extracts from the three remarkable murder cases. The criminal “Frankfurter Zeitung" of May 9 are given is in each case a boy of low mentality, show- in both German and English. The whole con- ing by test the development of about a ten or stitutes not only a "document" of historic eleven year old child, in actual age, sixteen, interest, but a thrilling narrative of the nineteen, and twenty-four years. The aggres- greatest disaster of its kind. sive sex-impulse enters, or the mere negative one of suggestibility under another's power. The obvious purpose of Profes- The first boy killed his school teacher; the A text-book of sor Arthur L. Cross's “History plea of imbecility was admitted, mainly upon English history. of England and Greater Brit- the basis of psychological tests. The second ain” (Macmillan) is to fit the demands of a case was involved, and showed the hypnotic text for advanced classes in colleges and uni- type of influence; a verdict of murder in the versities. For such a purpose the book fur- first degree was rendered. In the third case nishes a good basis. It is a fresh treatment the young man shot down a girl who refused of the subject in a large volume of over eleven 66 ) 1916) 37 THE DIAL " а. hundred pages, supplied with very good maps shown in its compilation; here and there, perhaps, and competent references to other works and excessive industry, as where he writes of Ahasuerus sources. Professor Cross brings his narrative and Cartaphilos and the Wandering Jew, in three up to February, 1914,— within six months of separate paragraphs, but with no cross references, the beginning of the European war. The no sending of the reader to the longest and best of book comprehends the history of England, the entries, that under “ Wandering Jew.” On the other hand, some defect of industry seems to be re- and its expansion into greater Britain, within sponsible for the omission of the Seven Champions fifty-seven chapters, and employs the topical of Christendom, Emerson's “sacred Seven” which method of presenting the subject-matter. It many a reader of “ Brahma” has puzzled over. touches the political, social, and literary de- Not far from four hundred double-column, fine- velopment of the country in due proportion. print pages are given to Mr. Walsh's fruitful and The paragraphs dealing with literary history, interesting theme. however, suggest a less confident acquain- Professor Henry Seidel Canby's “ College Sons tance with the sources than those dealing with and College Fathers” (Harper) is a new and sane political and industrial development. The discussion of the much-mooted question of college book aims at the presentation of facts in the education. Professor Canby looks at the question light of their significance and historical suc- from the standpoint of the teacher, the student, and cession, and makes slight attempt to appraise the student's parents, and he maintains a rare bal- events or interpret the spirit and character of ance between sympathy and detachment in his the English people. It is probably the most treatment of each of these classes. Everywhere he satisfactory text-book in its field for college shows mature thought and insight, nowhere snap courses thus far written by an American judgment or sensationalism. He is human through- scholar. out, and because he is human he deals with essen- tials. “The Undergraduate Background," " The Colleges and Mediocrity," and “ Current Literature BRIEFER MENTION. and the Colleges " are a few of the chapter-headings that provoke attention and suggest the importance The process of development of the honey bee of the matters discussed. from the egg through the larval stage is described Mr. John C. Wright, of Harbor Springs, Em- with much technical detail in “ The Embryology of the Honey Bee” (Princeton University Press), by met County, Michigan, has industriously collected Dr. J. A. Nelson, expert in bee culture investiga- neighborhood and published them under the title, score or more of the native legends of his tions in the Bureau of Entomology in the United “ Stories of the Crooked Tree.” This semi-mythi- States Department of Agriculture. The work is of value to scientific bee culturists, and will form a cal tree, known in Jesuit missionary annals as “ l'Arbre Croche," is supposed to have stood in or welcome addition to the libraries of colleges and near what is now Middle Village, and has an universities, since it gives a very full and connected interesting legend of its own to explain its crook- account of the development of a highly specialized edness. Other characteristic Indian folklore is representative of that most important group of not wanting to fill out Mr. Wright's volume, and animals, the insects. A full bibliography and an the author has added the necessary historical com- ample index, as well as abundant illustrations, add mentary, with an abundance of full-page illustra- to the book's value as a work of reference. tions from photographs. He has had previous A second series of " Essays for College Men,” experience in work of this sort, and his present under the editorship of Messrs. Norman Foerster, book is a notable contribution to the legendary Frederick A. Manchester, and Karl Young, has lore of our aborigines. (The Lakeside Press, Har- been issued by Messrs. Holt. It maintains the high bor Springs, Michigan.) level reached in the preceding volume. “What Is The Princeton idea, less to contribute to knowl- a College For?” by President Wilson, “Academic edge than to aid in its assimilation, finds notable Leadership” by Mr. Paul Elmer More, and “ The expression in Mr. Clarence Ward's “ Medieval Religion of Humanity” by Hon. Arthur James Church Vaulting," lately added to the “ Princeton Balfour are titles which indicate that many of the Monographs on Art and Archæology” (Princeton essays selected are admirably suited to the purpose | University Press). The few novel views are con- of the series. But the wisdom of including such an fessedly subordinate to the purpose of the work, essay as The American Scholar” may be ques- which is “ to give in a compact and systematic form tioned. That college men should know it will not a thorough résumé of all the principal forms of be disputed; but it is so easily accessible already vaulting employed in the middle ages.” The study that one begrudges it space in a volume of this kind. of origins and motives, however, is too attractive to Another useful reference book comes from the permit the author to forego it, in spite of the limi- indefatigable pen of Mr. William S. Walsh, and tations of his systematic formula; and many of his this time it has to do with “ Heroes and Heroines most interesting observations deal with questions of of Fiction, Classical, Mediæval, Legendary” (Lip- such a character. In fulness and logic of presenta- ” pincott). Thus it forms a companion volume or tion the book adequately fulfils its purpose; while supplement to his similarly entitled work dealing unhackneyed photographs, clear typography, and with modern fictitious names. Much industry is becoming form make it a pleasure to read. > a 38 (Jan. 6 THE DIAL > NOTES. by train or motor to the battle lines in France and Belgium. A second volume of short American plays by Mr. Percival Wilde is announced by Messrs. Holt. A timely and important biography is announced by Messrs. Dutton in “ Eleutherios Venizelos, His « Life and Gabriella " is the title of a new novel Life and Work," by Dr. G. Kerofilos, to appear by Miss Ellen Glasgow which Messrs. Doubleday, in a translation by Miss Beatrice Barstow. The Page & Co. will publish this month. author is said to be an intimate friend of his sub- “ The First Hundred Thousand,” by “ Ian Hay' ject, and has accompanied him upon some of his (Captain Ian Hay Beith) is announced for pub- diplomatic missions. lication this month by Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Co. Appropriate to the Shakespeare Tercentenary, Dr. C. Carroll Marden, for several years past to be celebrated this year, is the announcement of the editor of “Modern Language Notes," has a dramatization in five acts of Mr. John Bennett's resigned that position in order to devote himself to “ Master Skylark," a story of Shakespeare's youth his special field of Spanish studies. which has been a prime favorite with juvenile Two new war books announced by the Bobbs- readers for several years past. The Century Co. Merrill Co. are Mr. Frederic William Wile's will publish the work. “ The Assault” and Professor David Starr Jor- A most sensible and convincing statement of the dan's “ The Ways to Lasting Peace.” anti-militarist position may be found in a pam- Mr. E. Byrne Hackett, for the past six years phlet just issued by the World Peace Foundation director of the Yale University Press, has resigned of Boston, under the title, “ Preparedness - for that position to become manager of the Brick Row What?” Dr. Charles H. Levermore, president of Print and Book Shop, of New Haven, Conn. Adelphi College, is the author. The pamphlet may "Industrial Leadership," by Mr. H. L. Gantt, be obtained free of charge from the publishers, and one of the foremost exponents of the Taylor sys- should have the widest possible circulation. tem of scientific management, announced for A biography of the late Booker T. Washington January publication by the Yale University Press. rsity Press. by Messrs. Lyman Beecher Stowe and Emmett J. “Some Elderly People and Their Young Scott, is announced by Messrs. Doubleday, Page Friends," by Miss McNaughton, which Messrs. & Co. The work was begun several months ago, Dutton will have ready shortly, tells a story in and most of the material was gathered with Dr. which there are two groups of characters, of dif- Washington's authorization. Mr. Scott was his ferent generations. lieutenant at Tuskegee and his intimate friend. A new edition, revised and enlarged and pre- The same publishers also announce another inter- sented in a single volume, instead of two as hereto- esting biographical work for early Spring, when, fore, of “The Development of European Nations, ical publishers, they will issue the autobiography in conjunction with Messrs. Lea & Febinger, med- 1870-1914,” by Dr. J. Holland Rose, will soon be of the late Dr. Edward L. Trudeau. issued by Messrs. Putnam. “ Traffic Control in Cities," a vital topic of ever- “The Correspondence of Gray, Walpole, West, increasing importance, has a seven-page list of and Ashton (1734-1771)," edited by Dr. Paget references devoted to it in the December issue of Toynbee, in two volumes, which the Oxford Press is to publish immediately, will include, in addition “Special Libraries,” which also contains the cus- to the new letters, a number of unpublished poems tomary amount of other interesting matter. and translations by Gray and West. One of the “ The Family as a Social and Educational Insti- two pieces by Gray, according to a pencil note tution," by Dr. Willystine Goodsell, which Messrs. by Walpole, was " written when he was very Macmillan have ready for immediate publication, young probably his earliest extant effort in is a review of conditions and changes in the - and is a translation (sixteen lines) from family from early Greek and Roman times until the “ Thebaid” of Statius. 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By Fiske Kim- ball, Ph.D. Illustrated, large 8vo, 48 pages. Pri- vately printed. Paper. Roma: Ancient, Subterranean, and Modern Rome in Word and Picture. By Albert Kuhn, O.S.B.; with preface by Cardinal Gibbons. Part XII, illustrated, large 8vo. New York: Benziger Brothers. Paper, 35 cts. net. BOOKS OF REFERENCE. University Debaters' Annual, 1914-1915. Edited by Edward Charles Mabie. 12mo, 534 pages. “ De- baters' Handbook Series." H. W. Wilson Co. $1.80 net. An Historical Atlas of Modern Europe, 1789-1914. With an Historical and Explanatory Text by C. Grant Robertson, M.A., and J. G. Bartholomew, F.R.S.E. 4to. Oxford University Press. Newspaper Editing: A Manual for Editors, Copy- Readers, and students of Newspaper Desk Work. By Grant Milnor Hyde, M.A. 12mo, 365 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50 net. A List of Books on the History of Industry and In- dustrial Arts, January, 1915. Prepared by Aksel G. S. Josephson. Large 8vo, 486 pages. Chicago: The John Crerar Library. Paper. 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BROWNE SOME IMPORTANT SCRIBNER BOOKS THE MEANING OF EDUCATION BY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER President of Columbia University This book gives the views of one of the foremost of this country's educators on the history, scope and aims of education; its relation to the growth of the individual and of the com- munity; its relation to inheritance and environment; the relative values of various kinds of knowledge; training for vocation; the kindergarten, the secondary school, the university, and countless other aspects of this intensely important subject. The Boston Herald: "The book is of interest not only to the teacher but to the intelligent layman, awake to one of the most important questions of the day, that is here treated in an eminently sane, practical manner. $1.50 net a 11 VIVE LA FRANCE! By E. 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MONTGOMERY The completely up-to-date authority on Auction, giving recent interesting changes in the game, which have been made necessary by, the elimina- tion of the informatory spade and the acquisition of the new bidding values. An ideal treatment of the game-clear, brief, and authoritative. $1.25 net Vasa," 19 BOOKS CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE اے مل 46 (Jan. 20 THE DIAL T HE articles by Willard Huntington Wright, which appear each month in The Forum, are the first constructive, purely aesthetic art criticisms to appear in America. Mr. Wright's aesthetic rationale is neither personal nor merely scholastic; it is founded on definite knowledge of emotional apperceptions and reactions, and adheres to the facts recorded by the leading European scientists and psychologists who have made a profound study of subtle and complex problems of aesthetics. Mr. Wright's criticisms mean more than mere transient records and opinions. They possess a philosophic and educational appeal which is stimulating and interesting even to those not particularly concerned with painting. Mr. Wright is neither a teacher nor a detractor. You will not be concerned as to whether you personally agree or disagree with him. But you will be stimulated. You will be set thinking. You will find that there are more possibilities of aesthetic enjoyment than you are aware of. You will have new viewpoints opened up to you. Mr. Wright is accomplishing something new and highly important. He has lifted criticism out of its old rut of dogma and prejudice and sentimentalism, and has placed it on a solid foundation from which all art lovers — no matter how divergent their tastes — will gain a clearer and profounder vision. Dr. Christian Brinton says that Mr. Wright's art criticism “is a vindication of the metaphysical method as applied to aesthetic inter- pretation. 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The Century Co., 353 Fourth Avenue, New York City. GENTLEMEN: Please find enclosed $4, for which send THE CENTURY for one year, beginning with the February number to Name Address. Dial--16-1 48 [Jan. 20, 1916 THE DIAL THE WORKS OF JOHN MASEFIELD “Mr. Masefield comes like a flash of light across contemporary English poetry. ... His work possesses the dash and force, the spirit and temperament of life itself."-Boston Evening Transcript. Mr. Marefield's THE FAITHFUL A Tragedy in Three Acts “Picturesque and strong as drama, it is yet more remarkable for its literary qualities. Written in rarely pure, simple, and pregnant English, it is rich in dramatic point and passages of genuine poetic beauty. The poetic value of the piece resides in its general conception, in its imaginative, concise, expressive prose and occasional interludes of heroic or plaintive lyrical verse, some of which is exquisite. : . A striking drama. A notable work that will meet with the hearty appreciation of discerning readers.”—The Nation. "The best play Mr. Masefield has written. Based upon episodes in Japanese history, its situations are simple and dramatic the dialogue almost Attic in its intensity.”—The London Spectator. “A powerful work a distinguished contribution to modern dramatic literature." - Philadelphia Ledger. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50 Other Plays and Poems by Mr. Masefield PHILIP THE KING AND OTHER POEMS "Cannot fail to increase the already great reputation of John Masefield as a poetic dramatist. Full of poetic imagination and dramatic force."--The Nation. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50. THE EVERLASTING MERCY, and THE WIDOW IN THE BYE-STREET "Mr. Masefield is the man of the hour, and the man of to-morrow, too, in poetry and in the playwriting craft." - John Galsworthy. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50. JOHN M. SYNGE A FEW PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS THE DAFFODIL FIELDS New Edition. "Neither in the design nor in the telling did, or could, 'Enoch Arden' come near the artistic truth of 'The Daffodil Fields.'”-Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Cambridge University. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50. "The kind of description that would have pleased Synge-being quite free from sentiment or any kind of heroics.”—The Independent. Boards, $1.50. THE TRAGEDY OF POMPEY THE GREAT "He is no statuesque Pompey, spouting prose lines masquerading as poetry. Masefield has given us Pompey the man. He has made human the men who surrounded the old Roman."-The Pittsburgh Post. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50. THE STORY OF A ROUND- HOUSE AND OTHER POEMS New and Revised Edition. "John Masefield has produced the finest literature of the year."-J. M. Barrie. "Ah! the story of that rounding the Horn! Never in prose has the sea been so tremendously described."-Chicago Evening Post. Cloth, $1.30. Leather, $1.50. A MAINSAIL HAUL As a sailor before the mast Masefield has traveled the world over. Many of the tales in this volume are his own experiences written with the same dramatic fidelity displayed in "Dauber." Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.50. SALT WATER BALLADS No living poet has caught the wild beauty of the sea, and imprisoned it in such haunting verse. John Masefield has done in these poems what many consider his finest work. Cloth, $1.00. Leather, $1.50. Now in the Press — Ready in February GOOD FRIDAY, AND OTHER POEMS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Publishers, New York 1 THE DIAL A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information. PAGE Vol. LX. JANUARY 20, 1916 No. 710 THE.“DISTINCTION” OF LONGFELLOW. CONTENTS. A few seasons ago, when a celebrated trans- THE “DISTINCTION" OF LONGFELLOW. John L. Hervey 49 Atlantic pianist returned to America for the LITERARY AFFAIRS IN PARIS. (Special first extended tour that he had undertaken Paris Correspondence.) Theodore Stanton 52 here in a number of years, an Olympian critic CASUAL COMMENT. 55 | bitterly complained because of his placing Linguistic theory and practice.-- Authorship upon his programmes certain of the composi- in an alien tongue.- The finest private library in the world.— The government as publisher. tions of Mendelssohn. "An artist," the re- A familiar theme in library literature.- viewer wrote, "acclaimed the first of living Concerning plots. The shifting sands of pianists, owes it to his public to offer it some- simplified spelling.–Book-standardization.- The authority of Socrates. The poet's op- thing of greater distinction than outmoded portunity.- A favorite plan with publishers. specimens of an invertebrate art which, in - Pseudonyms that cling.--A year's progress these days, should be consecrated to the young in education.- The Report of the Rockefel- ler Foundation.- A new use for discarded ladies' boarding-schools and not obtruded literature.— Mr. Henry James's decoration. upon the mature musical intelligence," - or – An intercollegiate magazine. words to that effect. But there was balm left COMMUNICATIONS 61 in Gilead. For not long afterward another “ We Moderns" and the Broom. W. H. Johnson. eminent trans-Atlantic virtuoso who visited The Colleges and American Mediocrity. these shores offered to the public a “tone- Zelia. The Word “Untented” in “King Lear.” poem " in which a contemporary composer had Samuel A. Tannenbaum, M.D. endeavored to depict the emotions which the Shakespeare's Dramatic Directness. Char- passage of a reverberant express-train over an lotte Porter. A Baconian to the Defence. E. Basil evidently rudimentary railway had aroused Lupton. within his breast. Tumultuous indeed was the A Final Word about Diphthongs. Wallace resultant repercussion, and correspondingly Rice. Variants in a Christmas Folk-Song. Pera surging was the enthusiasm of our critic, who Annette Price. asserted with conviction, almost with passion A Word from the Publisher. T. Fisher Unwin. or as near passion as an Olympian critic THE VERSE OF THE BRONTE SISTERS. may allow himself to betray,—that the public Chauncey Brewster Tinker . 67 (very obviously of “mature musical intelli- RECONCILING GOVERNMENT WITH LIB- gence”) was vastly indebted to the executant ERTY. Frederic Austin Ogg 69 for his interpretation of this distinguished THE “ WANING " CLASSICS. Charles Leonard example of the new art-forms with which mod- Moore 71 ern pianistic literature was being enriched. BELGIUM'S AGONY. Benj. M. Woodbridge 72 We can never sufficiently marvel, I think, at RECENT ROMANTIC PLAYS. Homer E. Woodbridge 75 the critical capacity to take its artistic pleas- RECENT FICTION. Edward E. Hale ures painfully. From modern art it seems, BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS . 79 preferably, to demand a paralyzing punch The evils of secret diplomacy.- The psychol- upon the solar plexus, after which it most de- ogy of individual differences.- A book of lights in being dragged by the heels to the top- reminiscent gossip.-Irish emigrants in many lands. — Two, fresh introductions to Brown- most turret of the artist's ivory tower and ing. The fall of a German outpost in violently precipitated therefrom. The critical China. The relation of insects to disease. anatomy being admittedly indestructible, it Fiction from ancient Egypt.- Mr. Belloc's then, having gathered itself together and war history: the first phase.— The story of Vassar.- Wagner as a dramatist.— Militar- picked itself up, hastens off to blacken paper ism in America. to the effect that it has been its privilege to BRIEFER MENTION 85 assist at a most distinguished performance. NOTES 86 “Distinguished !” — potent word ! “I think LIST OF NEW BOOKS 87 - therefore I am,” said Descartes. “It is dis- 689 78 . . 50 (Jan. 20 THE DIAL 9 tinguished - therefore it is,” says the Olym- their respective pantheons, they occupy, and, pian critic of poem, painting, or polyphony - above all, the " distinction” which, in Olym- of anything that aspires to consideration as an pian estimation, they enjoy --- or, rather, lack! artistic achievement. “Y-e-e-s," feebly as- It is not, necessarily, complete, for such par- sents the bourgeois bystander (who, as we all allels never can be; still, the seeker for simili- know, forms the indispensable background of tude will not fail to discover it should he Olympian criticism), shuddering lest he make compare the music of Mendelssohn with the a mistake, “but how am I to know what is poetry of Longfellow. Both are character- distinguished from what is n't?” “How in- ized by a spontaneous purity, sincerity, and deed?” is the response. “To be frank, you “ To be frank, you sweetness, an exquisitely poignant emotional cannot. But I am here to instruct you. Fol- sensibility, an innate serenity and inimitable low me, and possibility of error is eliminated. because quite unaffected grace; by fineness of For instance - -." And the next lesson ensues. fibre, delicacy of timbre, and instinctive . I have just been studying one of these avoidance of things repulsive and repellent. lessons, and I confess to a doubt — to a doubt Both poet and composer possessed effortless that swells to a suspicion of the infalli- mastery of their technical resources, and are — bility of my Mentor; who, in this case, is notable for the ease at which they sustained discussing the poet Longfellow. To be par- themselves at their own levels and the rarity ticular, he is offering what he terms a “Por- with which, appreciably, they fell below them. trait of Longfellow"; and, as the finishing Each is devoid of eroticism but instinct with touch thereof, he pronounces him to have love, as we contrast it with the implications of been, as a poet, utterly destitute of "dis- 1 passion, though in this respect Longfellow's | tinction." Of Longfellow the man something range is wider and his touch more vibrant. different, he thinks, may be averred. One can As their accomplishments were similar, so even disceru that he is rather pleased to be also were their limitations — limitations from able to record that Longfellow was, humanly which they themselves would never have pre- speaking, a truly distinguished gentleman; sumed to claim exemption, for their unpre- and he bestows on him various approving tentiousness was complete, the “immodesty of phrases which must, to his benignant shade in genius” being foreign to their natures. Both its serene place upon Parnassus, be indeed also possessed extraordinary personal charm, most comforting. But of Longfellow the and they remain incontestably among the best- poet –! Up go the Olympian eyebrows; the beloved makers of music and poetry that yet Olympian nostrils dilate, and very palpably have lived. If this correspondance has never they sniff; and the Olympian hand, with a before enforced itself, take down your Long- weary gesture, altogether eliminates the au- fellow and re-read “Voices of the Night" and thor of "My Lost Youth," "Palingenesis," others of those so familiar and so felicitous and “A Psalm of Life” from his distinguished lyrics, and then once more scan the scores or consideration. It is done with an assured harken to the audible music of “Songs with- inexorability that is final. But if the reader out Words”; turn again the leaves of “ Evan- happens to have a portrait of Longfellow geline," "Hiawatha," “ Tales of a Wayside * hanging upon his library wall (as some bour- Inn," or " The Golden Legend," and then re- , geois readers who have not yet balanced them- call the harmonies of the “Midsummer Night's selves upon the most vertiginous aiguilles of Dream” overture, “Fingal's Cave," “Sea- the New Parnassus possibly still have) he will Calm and Happy Voyage,” or “Elijah.” raise his eyes to the pictured face and, as I It has become one of the established canons have said, he will have his doubts, and his of Olympian criticism to depreciate both the doubts will swell into suspicions. But not sus- poet and the composer. But this depreciation, picions of Longfellow,—suspicions of the while it may be “distinguished,” cannot de- Olympian and oh, so distinguished, critic! grade them; because, happily enough, both In my opening paragraph I alluded to a Longfellow and Mendelssohn wrote, not for composer -- Mendelssohn; for, as I ponder critics, but for lovers of poetry and music. It his case and that of Longfellow, I find be- merely indicates, in the depreciators, a lack of tween them a quite predicable parallelism : sympathy, an insensibility, a delimitation, a in their lives and works, the places which, in sort of tone-deafness, for which they are, after 6 1916) 51 THE DIAL > all, most to be pitied. To the lover of Longfel. really is! How infinitely precious, how peren- low and Mendelssohn, it may become rather nially pleasure-giving, how perdurably, thril- tiresome at times, and rather sad; until lingly, sentiently alive! Why cannot they he remembers that nowadays the beaker of art emulate Mr. Pennell, who finds first Pitts- is not dipped, ordinarily, into the Castalian burgh and then the Parthenon subjects that spring, but filled from a siphon - or even inspire him to the production of masterpieces ? from a beer-pump! There is a great deal of In Longfellow's case it happens, as a fur- fizz and foam at its brim and something ther curious commentary, that this so purely (usually bitter) beneath, to be gulped down at and so surely “classical” poet has been, since a single swallow lest it gag the thirsting - first his voice was lifted, the chosen singer of - soul I was going to say, but perhaps throat youth. If you will turn to the newly pub- would be more accurate. There is also a great | lished volumes of Lafcadio Hearn's “Inter- deal of fizz and foam in what I may call the pretations of Literature - an unexpected Neo- or Beyond-Olympian criticism now flour- retrieval of gold and gems from the grave - ishing; to one of whose oracles we owe the you will there find a chapter on Longfellow statement (in a brand-new volume of superior which, coming as it does from a man recog- finality) that Longfellow's voice is that of nized as the finest literary artist identified “a barrel-organ”! An example of tone-deaf- with modern American literature and one of ness not so piteous as it is out of all whooping. the finest ever identified with any, should give The Olympian - or, more correctly, the some of the depreciators pause; so replete is Brahminical — critic is much given to fulmi- it with reverence, with love, and with appre- nating against those who discuss one of the ciation. In its course Hearn says that the boy arts in terms of another. To him music, let us who does not love Longfellow is, in a vital say, is music, and poetry is poetry, and it is way, deficient in poetical sympathy; and that quite a monstrous thing to mix or mingle them a man who, having loved Longfellow in his in any way. But one making no pretensions youth, afterward depreciates and sneers at to the critical estate, who began writing about him, is defective in his organization. To be a poet by referring to a musician, may be sure, this was written some fifteen years ago,- allowed to pursue his parallel between the two. which, as time goes nowadays in the Garden It may be recalled, then, that Hans von of Poesy, is a very long while. . Would Hearn's Bülow, who was, in his early career, one of the rapport with Longfellow have found such original Wagnerian propagandists, and, in his unequivocal expression had it been granted latter days, was among the first to hail with him to survive another decade and witness enthusiasm the compositions of Richard what it has brought? what it has brought? Was it his misfortune Strauss, pronounced Mendelssohn's “Songs to pass from the literary scene before its without Words" as immortally classical as the poetical structures began to be erected in the lyrics of Goethe. Similarly, I chanced to read, Perpendicular Style; before the gargoyle had not long ago, the verdict of a critic of like become greater than the cathedral, the mas- breadth and catholicity, who pronounced the caron more than the vase; before the organ lyrics and sonnets of Longfellow the most was supplanted by the steam-calliope and the enduringly classical poetry to which America harp by the horse-fiddle? Or was it rather has yet given birth. incalculably his good fortune! I will not pre- I am well aware that the use of the adjective tend to say. But of this I am sure,—that “classical” causes many people to see red, youth, in its essence, is unchanging, immortal. metaphorically speaking. That is, if I may What it has always loved, that it will always be permitted a Celticism, they see something continue to love. And those of us who are so which they think ought to be red but from happy as to retain our youthfulness of spirit, which, they imagine, all vestiges of color have our early sensitiveness and sympathy, to the carefully been removed and life replaced by "grand climacteric” and beyond, will con- petrifaction. Which is, indeed, most lamenta- tinue to cherish the poetry of Longfellow in ble, most melancholy. Because, on account of our hearts, irrespective of the dicta of Olym- this unfortunate habit of mind they are miss- pian criticism. For what is the necessity of ing, in a literary sense, half their lives! If “ distinction " to that which we love? they only knew what a classic, a true classic, JOHN L. HERVEY. > > 52 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL OF sons. 1 > “ It does not suffice to be virtuous; one must LITERARY AFFAIRS IN PARIS. also act virtuously. But Romain Rolland has done everything to produce the contrary effect. At the EXCESSES OF FRENCH NATIONALISM.- THE AT- beginning of the war, he could claim to be igno- TACKS ON ROMAIN ROLLAND AND COMTE DE rant of its causes and its authors. At that time GOBINEAU.- A FRENCH-AMERICAN POET, THE he could write with serenity . Au-dessus de la LATE STUART MERRILL.— AN ANECDOTE Mêlée.' But the invasion of Belgium and the divulging of the diplomatic documents should have JOHN HAY. made it impossible for him to remain any longer (Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.) at Geneva, far from France which needed all her One of the greatest misfortunes of the pres- His plain duty was to aid in creating the ent war is the check which it has given to the atmosphere of heroism necessary for the triumph expansion, so well under way, of a sane inter- of the cause of humanity. But he preferred to shut himself up in his ivory tower and sow doubts nationalism and the consequent increased de- as to the beauty and the grandeur of the efforts of velopment which it has given to a narrow, the Allies. I am quite ready to believe in his sin- excessive, unhealthy, military nationalism. cerity, but I deplore the way in which he shows it. Two striking examples of this evil present If he is unable to discover the motives and the themselves at this moment in the world of meaning of the grand international tragedy, he French letters. I refer to the attacks on and might at least keep still. But he is guilty, unin- defence of Romain Rolland and Comte de tentionally, of the crime of demoralizing a group , Gobineau now going on, even beyond the boun- of youths who, influenced by his quasi-heroic atti- daries of France, in reviews, newspapers, and tude, show an unseeming indifference as to the con- conversations. sequences of the war, which in the end must be the triumph of good or evil, the saving or the loss of Perhaps it is not going too far to say that humanity." the person who has done most to make Romain The only child of the late Père Hyacinthe, Rolland known is Dr. Paul Seippel, a Swiss Lieutenant Paul Hyacinthe Loyson, whose Protestant literary critic, born in Geneva but mother and wife were, by the way, both Amer- now professor at the Zurich Federal Poly- icans, and who is now an interpreter in the technic School, who has travelled in America army, has been especially severe on Romain and written a book on our country. It should Rolland. His "Un Appel à Romain Rolland," be noted that “Jean-Christophe" is more in “La Revue" for November, is one of the appreciated in Switzerland than in France; strongest arraignments of Rolland that has and when some two years ago the French appeared. Its spirit is summed up in these Academy awarded it the Literature Prize, Dr. lines which I have just received from Le Seippel published a triumphant article which Havre, where Lieutenant Loyson is at present: did not have its equal in France. Now, Dr. “I have long loved and admired Romain Rol- Seippel is the author of another book which land, and it is for this that I deplore more than has made a certain noise, “ Les Deux Frances," most persons that the folly of pride has precipi- in which he shows that he neither understands tated him into the absurd. By remaining outside nor values what he calls “la France noire, of his native land during the war and by refusing that is, catholic and traditionalist France, nor in what he writes - he alone, he absolutely alone, "la France rouge," — that is, revolutionary of all men of all parties — to proclaim the good and free-thinking France. So when Professor right of France, he has magnificently proved this Seippel praises a French writer, one may con- right." clude that this writer represents an excep- Lieutenant Loyson is about to publish tional France, which is neither "black" nor “Etes-vous Neutres devant le Crime?” "red," - a writer who cannot be completely (Paris: Berger-Levrault), an answer to “Au- liked or comprehended in the France of to-day dessus de la Mêlée.” At the head of the vol- and who, consequently, must feel himself ume will appear the following letter from rather out of place in his own country. So Emile Verhaeren, which I am here able to here may be found the cause of much of the make public for the first time and which shows criticism to which Romain Rolland is sub- plainly how this well-known Belgian poet jected at this moment, and the cause also of stands in the Rolland controversy : many of his own acts which have increased this “ All that I wrote in 'La Belgique Sang te' tendency to find fault with him. shows how happy I am, in these dark days when Let me give some specimens of these criti- right is sabered by the reiters and cuffed by the cisms, which I take from letters to me or from emperors, to offer you a proof of my esteem. The conversations, of course with the permission highest and the proydest ideals set up on this present war is a wicked war. It is aimed at the of the writers or speakers. M. Jean Finot, earth by men since they have thought and worked editor of "La Revue," says: for the public weal. It should be hated; there - . > 1916) 53 THE DIAL should be no tergiversation in the name of a cold one of the noblest-minded men I know, and whose and culpable neutrality. One's hands should not broad Europeanism and spirit of equity are ad- hold scales when the adversary holds a sword. I mirable to behold. It is permissible to entertain am consequently with you, and, notwithstanding different views as to the wisdom of his decision to all the friendship which I have for Romain Rol- remain in Switzerland during the war and to try land, I will not permit myself to take the side of and place himself above the contending parties. his error.” But one should bear in mind that Romain Rolland Some of his French critics have gone so far has no military duties to perform, has no brother as to liken Rolland's case to that of Dom or son in the army, and is in bad health, and con- Morin, a French priest now residing in Mu- sequently in a much better position than most of us to assume this attitude." nich, who has come out squarely for the Ger- mans. But this is very unfair to Rolland, as In the meanwhile Rolland has done nothing Dom Morin's case is wholly different. He is to defend himself. Comte Fitz-James, the one of those ecclesiastics who look upon the French dramatic critic, who has just returned Church as their true country, superior to their to Paris from a visit to Switzerland, where he terrestrial country; so, when the separation met Rolland, tells me that the latter feels very of Church and State came about in France, keenly the way he has been treated in France, Dom Morin emigrated to Bavaria, one of the where the incriminated articles have been nations where the Catholics are best treated, published, when published at all , only in a and there he was when the war broke out. It garbled form,” and the charge is repeated in would be much nearer the right to compare the preface to the volume just out, which gives Rolland's conduct with that of the German them exactly as they were originally printed poet, Hermann Hesse, who at Berne is using Mêlée" (Paris: Ollendorff, 2 francs) is now in the “Journal de Genève." "Au-dessus de la his pen exactly as Romain Rolland is using his at Geneva. in its fifteenth edition, which would seem to indicate that commercially these attacks have And now let me give the opinion of two not been bad for Rolland. I have just finished witnesses for the defence, which, like the fore- going statements on the other side, are here reading the book, one of the most interesting and notable that the war has produced, and published for the first time. M. Alcide Ebray, I fail to find in it sufficient ground for the long time foreign editor of the “ Journal des rough handling which the author has received Débats" and later French Consul General at from his own countrymen. Rolland was in New York, writes me: Switzerland when the war began," where he is “I do not think that Romain Rolland can be now doing excellent work," Dr. Seippel writes justly accused of being anti-French. He appears me from Zurich, “in the War Prisoners Bu- to me rather to be one of those men, of whom reau at Geneva.” Furthermore, in these arti- there are not a few in France, who have a mixed cles, he has always made a marked distinction or hybrid mentality. In ordinary times persons like Romain Rolland can manage to keep alive in between Prussian militarism and the grand them these two spirits; they can even use for old Germany we all admired and loved. The good the bond uniting these two different mentali- first he condemns as severely as anybody, but ties. But in war times, their position becomes the latter he refuses to deny; and the justifica- difficult. They try to play the part of conciliator, tion of his course he finds in this “grand line and be just and impartial, with the result that from Emerson," which he gives in the original they please nobody. This is just what has hap- English: "Nothing is more rare in any man pened to Romain Rolland. In France he is treated than an act of his own." But what M. Paul as a German and in Germany he is considered to Souday said to me the other day seems to be too lukewarm for the German cause. His case, therefore, seems to me more interesting from the apply here. "I find fault with Romain Rol- psychological than from the patriotic standpoint.” land,” says the literary editor of “Le Temps," It will be remembered that until rather " because he assimilates France to Germany. But the latter has attacked us and we have had recently Romain Rolland was professor of the to defend ourselves. Again, the mental state history of music at the Sorbonne, which chair of our intellectuals should not be likened to he filled with rare distinction until, run down that of those of Germany, where practically by an automobile and gravely injured, he all approve the conduct of their government. resigned the post to the great regret of the But it is perfectly sure that if France had faculty. Here is the view taken of his present attacked Germany and violated the neutrality attitude by one of his former colleagues, Pro- of Belgium, a large number of our intellec- fessor Henri Lichtenberger, who was last year tuals would have protested,- the very oppo- exchange professor at Harvard : site of what has happened in Germany." But “I find that many people here in France are that these articles and this book have exerted extremely unjust towards Romain Rolland, who is considerable influence for good is well proved 54 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL 99 - a by an example which has come under my own or on the “Revue Hebdomadaire," which can- eye. Comte Fitz-James said to me the other not be too severely censured for having per- day: “I had finished a volume on the war mitted such an offence to the living and the 'Les Ennemis Intérieurs' — and was on the dead. In the “Revue Hebdomadaire of point of giving it to my publisher, when the November 27 the grandson of Comte de reading of Romain Rolland's book decided me Gobineau, M. Clément Serpeille, an intelligent to entirely remodel my manuscript. I still say young littérateur, publishes a brief and digni- what I said before, but with an attempt to fied reply to M. Masson, who follows with some attain the grandiose spirit of moderation set comments which do not at all remove the stain before the world by Romain Rolland." of his first article. Here is the place to quote a remark made to me the other day by a The attacks on Comte de Gobineau are of a French authority on things German, whose still more virulent kind than those on Romain name, however, had better not be given: Rolland, are far less excusable, and offer a “Whatever Frédéric Masson writes on Ger- prime example of nationalism gone mad; for man affairs is utterly without any value, for the man has been in his grave since 1882, and he is a Germanophobe, as unreasonable and as his crime of pro-Germanism dates from the absurd, it seems to me, as the Gallophobia of early fifties,- fifteen years before the war of the most ridiculous Pan-Germans. Every 1870, and sixty years before the present con- time I read an article by Masson or Louis Ber- flict. But this does not prevent his being torntrand, I am thrown into a state of exaspera- to pieces in the most savage and vulgar fash- tion. They make us the laughing-stock of all ion by a certain category of Frenchmen. neutrals." When the war came, the surviving members If one would know what intelligent and of the Gobineau family were quite prepared to au courant Frenchmen think of Gobinean, one see their father and grandfather severely should read the three articles by M. Paul taken to task for his now famous “ Essai sur Souday, which appeared in “Le Temps" some l'Inégalité des Races Humaines" (Paris : (Paris: two years ago; two years ago; “La Vie et les Prophéties du Didot, 1853-5, 4 vols. in 8), where, in a word, Comte de Gobineau,” by the young journalist the German race is placed at the head of civ- of “Le Figaro,” M. Robert Dreyfus, perhaps ilization. M. Jean Richepin led off with a dig the best book to give one an idea of the per- in one of his newspaper articles, and was fol-sonality and the intellectuality of Gobineau, lowed by a contribution which appeared in where the frontispiece, a portrait of him, de- “Les Anales” from the pen of M. Herriot, picts a highly cultivated man with a good head mayor of Lyons, who accuses Gobineau of and aristocratic features; and “La Philoso- being the cause of the war! Thereupon, the phie de l'Impérialisme," by Baron Ernest eldest daughter of Gobineau, Baroness Gul- Seillière, member of the Institute, a substan- dencrone, who inherits much of her father's tial study of the philosophy of Gobineau's life literary ability, rushed to his defence in the and works. Then one will have a fair idea of columns of “Le Temps," where she contended this remarkable man and one will wonder still that his theory had been misunderstood, and more at the impertinence of this Masson tirade that he really held that the true and purest and vulgarity. Teutons are the Scandinavians and even the Anglo-Saxons, whereas the Germans of to-day This spirit of excessive nationalism finds an are more or less strongly affected by Slavic efficient corrective in the presence among the infiltrations. But this questionable apology did contemporary writers of France of a small but not prevent M. Frédéric Masson from coming brilliant and active element of foreign-born to the rescue of the nationalist position with men of letters, who see well beyond the borders an extraordinary article which appeared at of their adopted country. One of the most the head of the "Revue Hebdomadaire" of admirable of this group has unfortunately October 16, and which for a glaring instance just died. I refer to the American poet, Stuart of ultra-nationalism and general “cussed- Merrill. I knew his father, who, in the latter ness ” has seldom been equalled. Mme. Ser- | seventies, was the blind lawyer of our Amer- peille, the youngest daughter of Gobineau, ican colony, a learned, gentle-spirited man; tells me that the manuscript as originally but I' made the acquaintance of the talented handed to the editor was even worse, and that son only when he had already become a recog- M. Fernand Laudet toned it down considera- nized French poet. The last time we met was bly before giving it to the printer. But just at a Washington's Birthday banquet here in as it stands it is a disgraceful piece of work, Paris, when I, as toast-master, called upon which does not reflect credit on the French Francis Vielé-Griffin, Francis Viele-Griffin, our other French- Academy, of which the author is a member, ! American poet, to read an original ode in 1916) 55 THE DIAL is : 6 honor of the Father of his Country, while “ Curiously enough, the paper came just as I Stuart Merrill led in the applause. And it is was translating, or at least trying to translate, Vielé-Griffin who to-day sends me for THE into English verse one of Merrill's poems, which DIAL this admirable estimate and eulogy of had struck my fancy. He is pretty hard on my our old and common friend : so-called poetry, but I suppose it richly deserves all the censure which he bestows on it. I trust, “ In the first letter I ever had from Stuart however, that Stuart Merrill will find my transla- Merrill, dated New York, April 13, 1887, he ex- tion worthy of the original. Let me know if he presses his æsthetic dream of the young poet: ‘I does." am not the only American who is trying to endow How like John Hay this was! And his for- the French alexandrine with a little of the enchant- ing music of English verse; for you are, are you giving generosity is all the more admirable not? a disciple of Swinburne. Ah! don't deny it, when we recall what is brought out in Profes- for you need not be ashamed to admit that you sor Thayer's recent excellent biography of are the disciple of that incomparable master, just Hay, that it was one of the dreams of his early , as you might avow your being the disciple of manhood to become above all things a great Wagner, without losing any of your own proper poet. THEODORE STANTON. genius. To express the idea by words, to suggest emotion by the music of these words, such are, Paris, Dec. 30, 1915. I think, the alpha and the omega of our doctrine.' ' From the start, Stuart Merrill was, to use his own words, the poet of sonorities and splendors.' CASUAL COMMENT. It is in his volume, ‘Les Fastes,' that he merits this title. In the works which followed, he showed LINGUISTIC THEORY AND PRACTICE never quite himself, without losing any of his verbal virtu- harmonize even in the writings of the most osity, to be the landscapist of the horizons of Fontainebleau, Grez, and Marlotte, where he often painstaking. Some little verbal or gram- spent his summers. His gorgeous music lent itself matical or syntactical defect will be found to to the sincerities of the popular song, and in 'Les mar the otherwise perfect page of the most Quatre Saisons' it is the triumph of life, at once careful purist. But if perfection were attain- calm and passionate, of the laborious poet whose able instead of being always just beyond our window opens on the grand highway of France. reach and seductively inviting pursuit, what Although Merrill bad travelled much, he trans- zest would there be left in living? On the lated, like the painters of Barbizon, like Manet editorial page of an esteemed journal pub- and Corot, only the landscape and atmosphere of lished in the cultured city of Boston there was the valley of the Seine. He is a true French poet. recently printed an excellent plea for the . “ The generosity and nobility of Merrill's nature necessarily inclined him towards human suffering, preservation of our language in all its wealth and he lived in the hope of seeing the dawn of of resources from innumerable fountains of justice and fraternity, when the horrible butchery supply, in all its fine distinctions and grada- of the present hour surprised him in the midst of tions, both verbal and grammatical. Espe- his dream. He was suffering from heart-disease, cially did the writer deplore the indiscriminate and still hopeful, he died from the terrible emo- use as synonyms of words not synonymous, tions in the midst of which we are now living, his instancing “would” and “should” (but unac- eye fixed on the victory of justice and right. In countably making no mention of “will ” and fine, one of the best poets of a time which is rich in grand lyric bards, Stuart Merrill has passed shall”). Always timely and never uncalled- away surrounded with the affectionate admiration for in a carelessly speaking and writing world of his peers and the esteem of those who enjoyed are such reminders of our besetting sins of his intimacy, for the man in him was as noble as speech. Video meliora proboque, deteriora the poet was delicate, and the kindness of his sequor, is the shame-faced confession of even heart equalled the idealism of his thought." the best of us, including the excellent news- The fact that Merrill's wife was a Belgian paper in question; for this same editorial and that he lived much of the year in the section was disfigured by such looseness of suburbs of Brussels strengthens Vielé-Griffin's expression as the following, referring to the intimation, shared by us all, that the war term “preparedness" and the different mean- hastened his end. ings given to it by different authorities: "Mr. Some twelve years ago while I was writing Roosevelt's definition is a more extreme one a letter to John Hay, there was placed on my than most Americans of any other party." table a French periodical containing a critique For a more violent ellipsis one might have to by Merrill of Hay as a poet. I sent it to Wash- hunt far. In the same paragraph occurs "the ington by the same post as my letter, and proposition to nominate Mr. Roosevelt for , in due season came a reply from the busy President," wherein the use of “proposition Secretary of State, which closed with this in the sense of "proposal ” (a very frequent paragraph: and even classic substitution is to be noted > 9 56 (Jan. 20 THE DIAL 1 66 with at least mild disapproval. Since we have that not the least of the benevolent ends held the two words, why render our language so in view by the belligerent Teutons is the sup- much the poorer by making them interchange-planting of that decadent tongue. All this is able! In America almost everything is now depressing, not to say humiliating, to an denotable by this much-abused term. For ex- English-speaking person; but we may still be ample, in “Wolfville Nights” we read: “He thankful that our language is not yet incapa- could call a coyote or a fox, or even so fitful ble of effective use in so eloquent and enter- an' nervous a prop'sition as a antelope." taining an article as that with which Herr Chamberlain has favored us. AUTHORSHIP IN AN ALIEN TONGUE, in a lan- guage acquired with more or less effort after THE FINEST PRIVATE LIBRARY IN THE WORLD, childhood, is not often brilliantly successful; that of Mr. Henry E. Huntington of New but there are not wanting a number of con- York, has recently assured itself of this pre- spicuous instances of such success. Marcus eminence beyond doubt or cavil by a notable Aurelius, though born and bred in Rome, and increase to its treasures through the addition speaking Latin as his mother tongue, wrote of the collection hitherto owned by Mr. Fred- his • Meditations” in Greek. Blanco White erick R. Halsey of the same city. About (José Blanco was his name in his native three-quarters of a million dollars is rumored Spain) did not emigrate to England until he to have been the price paid by Mr. Hunting- was thirty-five years old; yet, besides other ton for the Halsey library, which itself is the writings in his adopted language, he gave to fruit of thirty-five years of assiduous expert English literature one of its finest sonnets. collecting in Americana, early English litera- Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen came to this coun- ture, nineteenth-century first editions, rich try from Norway at the age of twenty-one, bindings, and other precious rarities obtainable and made English his chief medium of expres-only by persons of wealth. Mr. Hunting- sion as an author. The Dutch novelist known ton's rise to fame as a book-collector is com- as “Maarten Maartens” wrote almost exclu- paratively recent. It began with his purchase sively in his adopted tongue. Mr. Houston of the E. Dwight Church library for a million Stewart Chamberlain, famous on two conti- and a quarter dollars, or some such fabulous nents for his remarkable work, “The Founda- amount of money; the next event was his tions of the Nineteenth Century,” is a Briton securing of the Beverly Chew collection at a by birth and early training, being the son of figure said to have been a round half-million ; a British admiral and the grandson of a Brit- and soon afterward occurred the famous Hoe ish naval captain, and apparently the last sale and Mr. Huntington's purchase of the person to renounce his Briticism. But all the first printed book, the Gutenberg Bible, at a world knows, as he has taken pains to let it price never before paid for a single work, know, that he is now, and long has been, even fifty thousand dollars, with other rare works, more German than the Germans. Not only all amounting to a quarter-million dollars. has he written chiefly in German, his master- Judge Russell Benedict's fine collection of piece above-named being in that tongue and Revolutionary War books and other volumes translated into English by another hand, but of great value next fell a prey to Mr. Hunt- he now turns against his native language, to-ington's collectomania; and, finally, the Hal- gether with all things English, in a fury of sey library was secured. With no new worlds partisanship for German and Germany such to conquer, so far as he can see for the pres- as only a convert can show toward the per- ent, this multimillionaire bibliophile will now versities and depravities of his unregenerate have his entire library catalogued by Mr. past. In an utterance addressed to the mis- George Watson Cole, whose bibliographic skill guided people of his native land, and pub- was notably shown in the Church catalogue, lished in The International Review," he and then he ought to be entitled to a few glorifies the nation that has produced a weeks' vacation from collecting and railroad- Treitschke, a Nietzsche, and a Bernhardi, and ing in order to become acquainted with his books. heaps extravagant praise upon its language. "Germany alone, of all the nations," he as- THE GOVERNMENT AS PUBLISHER seems to sures his readers, “ still guards a living treas- have undergone a change of heart. It is mend- ure, one capable of development, unfathomable ing its ways and stopping some of the waste as is everything which comes from God. that has in the past rendered it notorious as It is her language.” That our own language the most recklessly uneconomical of printing has a quite contrary origin he all but tells us and distributing establishments. Though the in so many words, and he evidently believes congressmen are not yet all sufficiently self- > 1916) 57 THE DIAL restrained in placing their oratorical efforts he has printed his essay in a twelve-page before the eyes of their constituents, which pamphlet; and the title has the good old means a lavish use of the franking privilege familiar ring. It is this, " The Place of the and the virtual waste of thousands of pages of Library in the University.” The writer is printed matter, there has been considerable known for his able and learned treatises on reform in the practice of sending out docu- pre-historic libraries and other abstruse bibli- ments with no assurance that they will be othecal subjects, and his systematic treatment appreciated by the receivers, or even opened by of any theme engaging his attention is also them. The sale of such documents has been known. Therefore one is prepared to find him greatly increased, the charge being only ordering his present discourse under logically enough to pay the cost of mechanical produc- arranged headings, and clearing the ground tion, which is likewise enough to make them with all needful with all needful (and perhaps some not valued and put to a good use when they reach strictly needful) definitions as he goes along. their destination. In a single decade the an- The university is defined, the various kinds of nual sales have mounted from five thousand university students are enumerated, several dollars to forty times that amount. As a pub- pages are given to the methods of teaching; lisher of periodicals that circulate on a busi- then the library is defined, the nature of the ness basis, the government has built up what university library is considered and also its would be considered, under private manage- methods of imparting instruction, a section is ment, an immense trade. Nearly two-score devoted to Systematic Staff Teaching: regular publications of this sort are now Book Arts and Library Schools," and, finally, issued, ranging in price from twenty-five cents the place of the library in the university — a year, the modest subscription fee asked for which is what we started out to learn — is "The National Weather and Crop Bulletin," specifically considered in a page and a half, to five dollars a year, the charge for the patent- with a brief sum of the matter" as a wind- office “Gazette," a large and fully illustrated up. So scholarly a treatment of so scholarly weekly. Price-lists of its numerous and ever- a theme should give pleasure to all scholarly increasing publications are circulated by the readers. government, the post-office department aiding greatly in this work of publicity, and com- CONCERNING PLOTS there has been some re- mendable effort is being made to bring the cent discussion aroused by Mr. Arnold Ben- particular pamphlet or book or periodical and nett's remarks on the subject in his book, " The the person whom it should interest and profit Author's Craft." He says, for instance, that into contact with each other. Many valuable the plot is good when you want to make sure treatises, having each sixty or perhaps more what will happen next. Good plots set you pages of print, are obtainable at as low a cost anxiously guessing what will happen next.” as five cents apiece; but (and this should be Cordial assent is given to this by most readers, carefully heeded) an enclosure of postage while others as heartily dissent, maintaining ) stamps will not secure any of these publica- that the best novels are those that hold the tions. Uncle Sam does a cash business. interest so completely from page to page that there never enters the reader's head any A FAMILIAR THEME IN LIBRARY LITERATURE is thought of what is going to happen next; and "The Place of the Library in The the disputants wax warm in support of their blank may be variously filled in, but the gen- respective views, not suspecting that they may eral sense remains much the same. Sometimes be arguing at cross purposes.' There are, in it is "the community" that is considered in respect to plots, two very obvious kinds of its relation to the library, at others “the novels, those with plots and those without public school system,” or “the educational them. He whose chosen fiction is of the class " scheme,” or it may be, with a wider scope, well represented by “The Woman in White” “ modern life.” Dr. Ernest C. Richardson, finds his pleasure in being kept “anxiously Librarian of Princeton University, prepared | ing what will be the next turn in the intricate guessing what will happen next," in wonder- a paper for presentation before the Interna- maze of the plot, and will have but a poor tional Conference of Librarians at Oxford, but the war upset the plans of that confer. curiosity in this way. On the other hand, the opinion of any story that fails to pique his , ence, as it upset so many other plans, and novel-reader whose favorite book is “Don there was no conference, consequently no Quixote,” with all its looseness of method, its paper read by Dr. Richardson or anyone else. inconsistencies and self-contradictions, its However, the Princeton librarian's labors almost total lack of structural coherence, will were not by any means to be thrown away; get no satisfaction from the ingenious and 66 a » 58 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL 6 elaborate fabrications of Wilkie Collins. To erature, the waste space in a large book-stack him they are nothing but tiresome pieces of necessarily amounts to considerable; and if a mechanism, mere machinery without a spark congested city library that is planning an of life. The plotless novel, like “Wilhelm extension to its stack has to pay several hun- Meister” or “ Jean-Christophe," and the novel dred dollars per square foot for the needed with a plot, like “The Leavenworth Case" or additional ground, it becomes a matter of “The Danvers Jewels,” are so dissimilar in practical economy to figure out a possible kind as to be hardly more comparable, one scheme whereby all the books on a particular with the other, than an alligator and a tuning- subject may be made to dress their ranks with fork. no marked irregularities of height in any one of those ranks. What is the most convenient THE SHIFTING SANDS OF SIMPLIFIED SPELLING and in every way desirable book-size for polite are almost as treacherous as the sliding banks literature, for natural science, for art-works, of the Culebra Cut. When once the mania, and for the various other departments of for re-making our written speech has seized a printed matter, will probably never be deter- person, there is no certain limit to its rav- mined by any common agreement; and so ages. Like other passions, the zeal for ortho- there will always be a place in the reading graphic reform grows with indulgence, and world, especially in the library world, for no two schools of reformers, scarcely any two such laborious treatises as that which has just individual reformers, can agree as to when come from the pens of the Herren Doctoren the curb should be applied. The “Simplified Rudolf and W. Angermann on “Normal Speling Sosieti” of England has very lately Book-size and Normal Story-height” (“Nor- made a further advance in heterodoxy and malbuchgrösse und Normalgeschosshöhe") become the “Simplifyd Speling Sosyeti,” and The problems in least common multiple and its bi-monthly periodical, “The Pioneer ov greatest common divisor suggested by the mere Simplified Speling," has been transformed title cannot here be discussed; but that the into “The Pyoneer ov Simplifyd Speling, whole theme is eminently congenial to the which is no longer "publisht bi ” said asso- German type of scholarship no one having any ciation, but “publisht by”-a curiously un- acquaintance with that scholarship will doubt. intentional return to partial sanity. Among | Little hope is there of practical results-per- the “distingwisht authorz” of the past whomhaps they are undesirable anyhow — from it proudly and prominently mentions as sup- such researches, but it may be well to have the porters of the reform, it names James Russell theory of the matter worked out, once for all, Lowell, perhaps having in mind certain with Teutonic thoroughness. Harrassowitz, numerous passages in “The Biglow Papers,' of Leipzig, publishes the work. as for instance Birdofredom Sawin's declara- tion: “ This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur, an' ef it worn't fer THE AUTHORITY OF SOCRATES, as a true wakin' snakes, I'd home agin short meter"; patriot and eloquent advocate of patriotism, ” or Hosea Biglow's pronouncement that “ef is invoked by “The Spectator” in an attempt any thin's foolisher and moor dicklus than to bring the “shirker” to his sense of duty in militerry gloary it is milishy gloary." A short this hour of his country's danger. It quotes cut through the acknowledged irregularities from the “Crito" considerable portions of the and difficulties of our highly composite lan- dialogue between the Laws and the imprisoned A few lines will illustrate guage may or may not be desirable; but, sage of Athens. granted this desirability, where is the Colonel the remarkable aptness of the citations for Goethals to engineer the work and safeguard the present purposes of Lord Derby and the the channel from landslides (if such safe- others associated with him in guiding the for- guarding be in any wise possible)? On the tunes of imperilled Albion. Here, in Jowett's whole, the old orthographic route around the translation, are one or two sentences uttered other horn of our dilemma (forgive the mixed (if we may accept Plato's word for it) twenty- metaphor) is likely to prove the safer. three centuries ago, the pronouns “she” and “her” referring to one's country: "And BOOK-STANDARDIZATION, not in respect to when we are punished by her, whether with inner content, but as to outer form, has long imprisonment or stripes, the punishment is to been the dream of librarians and others inter- be endured in silence; and if she lead us to ested in making a given amount of book-space wounds or death in battle, thither we follow hold a maximum number of books. With vol- as is right; neither may anyone yield or re- umes of all sizes to provide with shelves, and treat or leave his rank, but whether in battle with many sizes even in a single branch of lit- or in a court of law, or in any other place, 1 1916) 59 THE DIAL a (6 cance. he must do what his city and his country always something impressive to the book- order him; or he nfust change their view of buyer in the name and uniform appearance of what is just; and if he may do no violence to a set. The "Pigskin Library” or the “Five- his father or mother, much less may he do vio- foot Shelf” or the “Great Captains Series ” lence to his country." Whether one side with looks so trim, so imposing even, in its entirety, Socrates (speaking here as the Laws) or with that many a casual inquirer for a single num- Mr. Jack London, in respect to a citizen's ber is led into the purchase of the whole row, obligations in military matters, the undying whether or not there is any likelihood of vitality, the unfailing freshness or modern his ever reading the entire series. A new ity, of the classics, find in the quoted passage library,” in this special sense of the word, another striking illustration. The master- is about to appear in London and, presumably, pieces of literature are masterpieces chiefly in New York also, its name to be "The Museum because they never lose their present signifi- Library,” and its contents to embrace anno- tated selections from the chief works of the nineteen British authors whose names so con- THE POET'S OPPORTUNITY has come. One spicuously show themselves to anyone entering thousand dollars in gold will be paid “ to the the reading-room of the British Museum. On persons who write the best verse on Newark," the circular walls of that famous resort of the announces the editor of “The Newarker,” and studious are inscribed the names of the fol- he thus continues in characteristic vein:. "Ilowing lights of English literature: Chaucer, say persons and not poets, for everyone can Caxton, Tyndale, Spenser, Shakespeare, Ba- try; and I say verse and not poetry, for if no con, Milton, Locke, Addison, Swift, Pope, poetry is offered then verses will win the Gibbon, Wordsworth, Scott, Byron, Carlyle, prizes. No good poetry on Newark has yet Macaulay, Tennyson, Browning. To each of . been written; the field is quite clear, the bars these will be devoted a volume containing a are down; the grass is fresh and green, and biographical study of the author in question, a , , if there is no Pierian spring, perhaps the bibliography of his works, and an annotated prizes will make good the lack. ., . Consider selection from his more important writings. A also, O Poets, that in her 250 years Newark twentieth volume will be added for good meas- has not been idle, but has lived an active life, ure, and will contain noted studies of all the varied in a thousand ways, and filled with nineteen authors from famous pens. The last incidents which need only to be touched by a author on the list will open the series. “Rob- man of vision to take on at once the dramatic ert Browning: A Synthetical Anthology” is air. Indeed, no city in the country, no mat- to be edited by Mr. George Goodchild. ter how romantic and full of color its history may seem to be, has a past more full of the episodes about, which good poetry may be PSEUDONYMS THAT CLING, fitting so well that the real name is all but forgotten, are woven; a present more complex, more full of conflicting movements, more deeply touched few in comparison with the many that have been assumed and then have fallen into dis- by human passions; and a future more abounding in possibilities quite epic in their use. Such pen-names as George Eliot, Mark range than this same hitherto unsung Newark Twain, Pierre Loti, Anatole France, are of a on the Passaic. If any poet of foreign parts permanence such that even the scrupulous does not believe what I say, let him come and cataloguer often consents to recognize them look and learn.” Finally, it is added: “We at the expense of the honestly inherited patro- have in the library several dictionaries of nymic. On the other hand, who now would rhymes and many good books on how to tell ever think or speak of Thackeray as “Michael poetry when you see it; none, alas! on how to Angelo Titmarsh," or even of Dickens as write it." The prizes are offered by the Com- Boz"? Charlotte Brontë is known to thou- mittee of One Hundred on Newark's 250th sands who would hardly recognize her as Anniversary, 1666-1916. “ Currer Bell," and Dr. J. G. Holland is now never referred to as "Timothy Titcomb." Of the foregoing pseudonyms there is one that A FAVORITE PLAN WITH PUBLISHERS, and one most persons are inclined to regard as a real that has its undeniable merits, is the issue of name, -- "Anatole France.” Indeed, even the books in sets or series that sometimes are logi- informed speak habitually of “Monsieur Ana- cally formed and hold together by a certain tole France,” just as they speak occasionally natural and recognizable affinity, but at other of "Mr. Norman Angell.” But the illustrious times have less excuse for their existence and Frenchman's father was one Noël Thibault, a are artificial in their structure. But there is poor bookseller with a shop on the Quai Mala- 66 1 60 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL . TE . quais, close to the Seine and not far from the not read my verses." “ It is unnecessary," Pont Neuf, the Louvre, and Notre Dame. The said Dryden, "you canriot beat this,'' – and elder Thibault was nicknamed “Père France" showed him a check for a hundred pounds. by his regimental comrades, and the son Seriously, the Rockefeller Foundation seems turned the jest to account in the choice of a to be a most laudable and useful air. Dur. pseudonym that has become known around ing the past year it contributed about a the world. In private life he is Jacques Ana- million dollars to Belgian Relief, and a mil- tole Thibault. An early desire to become lion and a half to other objects. It has been famous, not as an author, but as a saint, is regarded with a good deal of suspicion by chronicled in the records of his childhood. Congress; but there does not seem to be any- Vying with St. Simeon Stylites in mortifica- thing in it to be frightened about. In the tion of the flesh, he took up his station on top finances of nations, as they show to-day, even of the kitchen pump, only to be promptly one hundred million dollars is a mere baga- deposed by an unsympathetic maid servant; telle. With the provisions against the ac- and cutting open the seat of a chair to pro- cumulation of funds, and practical national cure himself the wherewithal for a hair shirt, control of the governing board, there would he was ignominiously whipped and put to bed. not appear to be any danger to the State in It was fame of a less sanctified though of a the charity. It is well enough to look a gift not less enviable character that had marked horse in the mouth; but when the steed has him for her own. proved its speed and bottom, skepticism ought to cease. The gratitude of the Belgian suffer- A YEAR'S PROGRESS IN EDUCATION finds its ers ought to weigh down any jealousy of this encouraging summing-up in Commissioner Fund. Claxton's annual report for our national De- partment of Education. While Europe has been busy undoing, so far as possible, the A NEW USE FOR DISCARDED LITERATURE, such work of centuries of educational and indus- as old books, useless pamphlets, back numbers trial and other effort, this country has con- of magazines, stale newspapers, is predicted tinued its constructive labors in reclaiming as by a German scientist, a certain Professor wide an area as might be of the barren do- Mehner, who gives utterance to some charac- main of ignorance. Among things achieved in teristically German advice in the columns of this field Dr. Claxton enumerates the revival the “Hamburger Nachrichten.” Not only, he of interest in the kindergarten, greater care urges, should all waste paper be saved as being for the health of young pupils, longer terms excellent material for bedding cattle, thus re- of school activity, better pay for teachers, leasing as fodder the straw commonly used for school-attendance laws in certain States hith this purpose, but, more than that, processes erto without them, the adoption of a larger may be discovered that will ere long make unit of rural school administration in several paper itself available for fodder; and thus the States, a raising of the standard of prepara- very literature that has fed readers' minds in tion required of teachers in some States and town and country will soon afterward feed an extension of the means necessary for their bodies in the form of beefsteak, roast furnishing this preparation, and, finally, in- beef, veal cutlets, milk, butter, and cheese, creased differentiation of work and adjust through the transmuting medium of paper-fed ment of studies in schools of all grades, to cattle. But why not turn the literature di- meet the needs of children of varying ability rectly into nutritious and appetizing food for and the vocational life of the community con- the table? Surely, nothing is impossible to cerned. This is a far better showing than German efficiency under the present spur of many a European minister of education will necessity. be able to make for the year just closed. MR. HENRY JAMES'S DECORATION, only a THE REPORT OF THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDA- short half-year after his renunciation of TION is not exactly a literary production; but American citizenship in favor of English, there are times when literature must take a must be gratifying to him as proof that his back seat. Two English noblemen once quar- talents are not unappreciated in the land of relled as to which of them could write the best his long-time residence and recent adoption. verses, and they agreed to refer the dispute to It will be recalled that last July, when he John Dryden. One of them dashed off a few decided to become a Briton, he explained his lines on a piece of paper and handed it to action as prompted by a desire to lend such Dryden, who immediately declared that he aid and comfort as he could to England in had won. “But," said the other, "you have her hour of trial by throwing in his lot with 66 1916) 61 THE DIAL 9- Ind any of her people. It was a frank and manly state- the broom on the prose style of Cicero. To-day, so ment of his position, and the Order of Merit far as we know with certainty, we have but a now given to him by an appreciative sover- handful of scattered fragments of Pollio's prose, eign will certainly not be begrudged him by together with three words of his poetry cited by a any of his admirers. It is no small honor to Roman grammarian, while the prose of Cicero re- wear a decoration that has adorned a Mere- mains an influence of enormous power in the style dith in the past and is worn by a Morley, a of all the great literary tongues of the modern Indo-European language family. One does not Bryce, a Trevelyan, and a Hardy, in the pres- want to be harsh, and yet it needs to be said that ent. Instituted as a mark of especial distinc- all talk of “sweeping away " the art of the past tion for military or naval service, or for in order to make room for the new is merely the notable contributions to art, literature, or whine of incompetence. Whence does the new science, the order includes at present but artist propose to sweep the art of the old ? Not eleven civilian members, so that its bestowal out of his own system, for it most assuredly is not on Mr. James ought to gratify him more than there to be swept. Not out of the affections of the would an invitation to enter the far more rest of us, for the door of our hearts and minds is not open to the self-appointed literary sweep who crowded company of knights or baronets- comes on that errand. Whether the “ We Mod- that is, of course, if he cares for such things erns" school has any real message to the present at all; and not to care for them is to be either age remains to be seen, but if so, let it rest assured more or less than human. that the present age has æsthetic and intellectual capacity entirely sufficient to absorb that message without any necessity of emptying out the treas- AN INTERCOLLEGIATE MAGAZINE, with the ures of the past. The sensible course for the artist peremptory title of "Challenge," is to make who feels himself an innovator is to offer his goods its appearance in the periodical world next at their face value and take his chances, but if it month, under the auspices of Columbia Uni- has to be one or the other, he will consult his own interests by coming with an apology rather than versity. Editorial and business representa- a broom. tives will be, or have been, appointed at the The very idea of “sweeping away leading universities and colleges throughout the old time classics is puerile. They became the country, and the magazine ought to find “classics ” by going down with their art into the interested readers at almost every seat of deeper regions of the human soul and attaching learning and to promote intercollegiate good themselves to that in man which is not of the fellowship. In the words of the prospectus, moment but of the ages. Men and women who Challenge ” will make its purpose" to stimu- occasionally go down into similar depths will meet late the free expression of opinion among them there, now one and now another, and hold American students, to the end that each delightful and profitable converse with them. Out of that depth they will never be swept, for into American college and university may become that depth the militant with the broom on his a conscious and informed intellectual democ- shoulder will never enter. racy." Great things are evidently hoped for W. H. JOHNSON. by the courageous young organizers of this Granville, Ohio, Jan. 14, 1916. promising enterprise; and to youth and en- thusiasm all things are possible. THE COLLEGES AND AMERICAN MEDIOCRITY. (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) A great deal is being written at present upon COMMUNICATIONS. the nurturing of mediocrity in college, and it has been suggested that much better results might be “ WE MODERNS” AND THE BROOM. attained if the conscientious college professor did (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) not centre his attention so exclusively upon knock- We are told in your columns of a young poet ing into shape the vast majority of the not who says, “ I now see that Bryant is a symbol of especially endowed, but would direct his energies everything that we moderns must sweep aside.” If more particularly upon those who show unusual the young“ poet " who feels that way reads these talent or genius, – that is, if we are to get any- columns, let him rest assured that the sooner he where that is really worth while in the world of turns the broom to the more urgent task of sweep- letters and thought. ing aside his own conceit the better will be the That America as a whole is deplorably mediocre, chance that he will one day be an old poet. No not to say degenerate, in matters of taste in litera- great school of art, literary or otherwise, has ever ture, music, and art, goes without saying. It is, yet begun by sweeping away that which has once indeed, an age of “ successful mediocrity.” But gained a vital hold on the affections of the people. just how the devoting of especial attention to tal- Asinius Pollio, a would-be “modern” of the ent and genius in college is going to right the expiring Roman Republic and early Empire, tried matter, the present writer fails to see. 62 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL 6 In the first place, those who are peculiarly few rules about style; then tries to size up every- endowed do not require, as a rule, the special body according to the standards he has been guidance of a professor, who is as likely as not taught. The only criticism worth anything is that to be as mediocre in his tastes as any of the mass which can perceive the power and beauty of the of individuals outside of college. I remember, not forward-looking which transcends past standards, long ago, to have heard of a professor who told and this requires a genius for criticism or appre- his students that “Milton was n't in it with the ciation. • Faithful Shepherdess””; and of another who held Woe to the genius who falls into the clutches of that “Robert Browning never said anything that this young critic! If the genius happens to be so Lord Tennyson had not said and said better.” | lucky as to find a publisher with the strength of The bad taste in this latter statement is in not mind to publish anything which is not exactly like being able to appreciate each of these poets for everything else published by everybody else, his own especial gift of personality, instead of that is, which is not in the prevailing style,-- he slighting one because he is not exactly like the will find himself doomed by the trained young other. Bad taste of this sort, implying narrow- critic, who will probably confess with pride and ness of judgment, is just as prevalent among col- exaltation that he finds this new writer obscure.” lege professors as it is among those outside of Nothing seals the fate of a genius so effectually as college, - if not more so. Furthermore, such snap to have mediocrity say it cannot understand him. judgments help to make the mass outside mediocre, Suppose, by any possible chance the publisher while no student of genuine talent or genius would or the editor gets hold of a genius in critical work, be in the least affected by them. and this benighted genius flatters himself that But admitting these instances to be exceptional, after a few years of experience he will be able to and that perfect judgment in matters of taste command a better price for his labors. He will exists among the majority of college professors, eventually learn his mistake, for he will find him- the problematical genius could at best only be self dismissed in favor of the cheap young trained saved some wearisome journeys in barren regions college man. So the college training plays into the of literature or art by the wise warnings of these hands of the mercenary publisher. The training Elders in the halls of learning. It is difficult to counts for everything, genius and experience for see how any amount of special training could nothing. increase the genuine creative faculty or the innate Perhaps it is a temperamental weakness in us good taste of genius, for these are the things with Americans that we seem to take the utmost pride which genius is born, and they grow by their own in writing ourselves down stupid. Noble and impetus. Did any college professor instruct Keats beautiful music we call “ heavy"; psychological that it was the proper thing to admire Greek drama, in which gripping problems are powerfully mythology? On the contrary, the learned critics portrayed, we call " high-browed.” We must have of the day facetiously spoke of his having versi- something simply amusing. Philosophy, or poetry fied Lemprière's Dictionary. It is hard to say enriched by philosophical truth, is quite too pro- where in this worthy dictionary Keats could have found for our mean little brains to grasp. And found the masterly interpretation of Greek myth we are proud of it, and anyone who says he likes which he has put into “ Hyperion." these things is either a bogie or a poseur. What talent or genius really needs is apprecia- It sometimes looks as if stories written in slang tion and support after it has left the protecting phraseology, moving pictures, and Victrola per- arms of the Alma Mater. formances would run out all other forms of litera- Where will it find such appreciation and sup- ture, drama, and music. We must have things to port now? The publishers are not at all inter- read in which we need not be seriously interested. ested in whether a writer is a genius or not. They We must have “shows” that do not appeal to our want something that will sell; and having a sense of the artistic, but to our delight in perfectly mediocre public to deal with, and being also medi- obvious mechanical contrivances. We must have ocre themselves, every trained mediocrity that twice-baked music in bits because we get fidgety comes out of college stands a better chance of if we are obliged to sit through a whole concert or being heard than the one genius. Music publish- opera. ers will even refuse to look at compositions which The real problem, then, with which the college they are told show unusual originality. professor has to deal is how to educate mediocrity Again, if the newspaper or magazine editor so that, instead of being so desperately in love with wants a critic, he asks the candidate, not if he is itself, it will aspire to an appreciation of some- thing better than itself,- or, at least, different capable of forming luminous and broad-minded from itself. judgments upon the books he is to review, but if he is a trained college man. The genius, if he is to thrive, must have his Therefore, criticism appreciators; but the question is, how in an age in this country is for the most part a farce, for where a premium is put upon training as against the trained young college man, who is only that innate intellectual superiority can he find them? and nothing more, has neither had sufficient expe- for it is a condition of things in which he is more rience of life nor done enough individual reading likely to be scorned as a freak than appreciated. to form sound judgments. He starts in with a It is not for me to suggest to college professors handful of courses in literature, in each of which how this problem is to be met. I suspect it is he has read selected masterpieces, perhaps having more of a social or moral problem than a purely specialized in one man for a degree, and with a intellectual one. 1916) 63 THE DIAL It is certainly mixed up with the ideal of democ- If the college professor is able to convince his racy,— which revolts against the idea of innate students that what the world, and America in par- superiority, and welcomes the paramountcy of ticular, needs is a fine frenzy of enthusiasm, that training, because it posits equal capabilities in such appreciation is as much to be honored as everyone. Once arriving at this point, it is an genius itself; and also if he can convince them of easy step for mediocrity to regard itself as the the silliness of congratulating themselves upon superior of genius.' Can it be that we like to read their own weak brain power --- often the result of stories in which we cannot be seriously interested sheer laziness or lack of aspiration,- he will be because we like to feel superior to the writer; that paving the way for the transformation of medioc- we like movies because enthusiasm for the rity into a genius for the highest appreciation in actors and the author are put on an impersonal relation to the creators of distinguished beauty. plane, and we as persons can thus feel superior? Ages of development have gone to the evolution The same with the Victrola,- our superiority is of the human brain. It is true that intuition and safely isolated by the mechanical contrivances. emotion have probably remained almost pristinely And how much we feel like super-men and embryonic during this process, and it is time to super-women, when we candidly admit we do not pay attention to these other faculties of the human. enjoy “heavy" (that is grand and noble) music, spirit. or" high brow" plays! In fact, I think Nietzsche Perhaps by dancing we may be bringing our somewhere expresses approval of such an attitude emotions to a point where they may begin a of mind. Perhaps it will dawn upon a democratic healthy development. Perhaps psychology will world some day that there is no greater joy possi- open out the way whereby our intuitions may ble than that of the appreciation and enthusiasm grow; but we must not let our last gain make our for great and beautiful and nobly powerful things. first gain futile, for we are creatures of mind as The two highest functions of the human mind are well as of heart and soul. ZELIA. the one which is capable of creating beauty and Boston, Mass., Jan. 8, 1916. the one which is capable of appreciating beauty. Every human being has the power innate within THE WORD “UNTENTED” IN “KING LEAR." him to create beauty in some form,-- not neces- (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) sarily art. It may be moral beauty, a beauty of service, mechanical beauty, etc. In this sense there In the generally accepted interpretation of a pas- is no mediocrity. sage in “King Lear" (I, 4,307, Rolfe's edition), Every human being has also latent within him there is a striking instance of what Professor Lid- the power to appreciate beauty. Developed to its dell has well called "botching Shakspere.” Lear, highest capacity this power is almost a more won- in cursing Goneril, says: “ Th’ untented wound- derful gift than genius itself,- or rather, it be- ings of a father's curse Pierce every sense about thee!" comes a genius for sympathy and enthusiasm for The word "untented," as here used, has all that is great in art, noble in thought, ideal in never been satisfactorily explained by either com- morals, marvellous in science. Its kingdom is mentator or lexicographer. Schmidt and almost all wider than that of genius. There comes with it a editors of this play say that a " tent” is “ a probe joy which is perhaps quite equal to the ecstasy of for searching a wound" and that “untented” means the creator in art. “not to be probed by a tent; incurable.” Some So-called mediocrity, then, when it leaves col- editors go a little further and say a tent is lege should be able to look forward to a time when of lint, or other material, used in searching a it can say, like Cleon,- wound.” Dyce says that “untented woundings “I have not chanted verse like Homer, no — wounds not yet treated — or so severe and Nor swept string like Terpander, no — nor carved deep that they will not admit of being treated — by And painted men like Phidias and his friend: the insertion of the surgeon's tent," and that “to I am not great as they are point by point. means “ to search with tent, to probe.” But I have entered into sympathy Phin adds “ unsearchable" to the other definitions With these four, running these into one soul, of “ untented"; and Hudson's gloss is: “too deep Who, separate, ignored each other's art. to be probed." Say, is it nothing that I know them all! ” The dictionaries are no nearer the truth than the To which might be replied: “Yea, verily, so commentators. Worcester defines the word as not well hast thou done that thou shalt sit with Homer tented, not having a tent applied”; Ogilvie's Impe- and Terpander and Phidias on the slopes of rial Dictionary as “not having a medical tent Parnassus.” applied; hence, not having the pain. lessened "; On the other hand, the genius must be modest. Johnson's as “having no medicaments applied "; ” His superiority is only in one direction. He cre- the Encyclopedic Dictionary adds “not dressed” to ates, it is true, a beauty of the imagination; but the other definitions; and so on. The medical there are others who create a beauty of the mind, knowledge of Skeat's Etymological Dictionary is no or a beauty of the spirit. And above all, there are better, for there we find: “ Tent, a roll of lint used those, his greatest need, who dwell in the land of to dilate a wound. See Nares. Properly a probe; sympathy and appreciation. the verb to tent is used for to probe." But this is unnecessary advice to the true genius The eighteenth century editors also found the in any department of effort, for it is only success- passage difficult of explanation. Pope changed fully trained mediocrity, as at present constituted, *untented” to “untender," thus following one of which is unbearably conceited. the Quartos. Theobald, quoted by Furness, said it 6 a roll " are tent" 64 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL in . а bethan usage 66 means meant « a wounding of such a sharp, inveterate is one of those multitudinous trifles of invention nature that nothing shall be able to tent it, i. e. that speak eloquently of the characterizing and search the bottom, and help in the cure of it.” humanizing genius of Shakespeare. Steevens, also quoted by Furness, missing the sig- In my brief notes on the “cunning” of “ Shake- nificance of Theobald's explanation, says that “ un- speare's little changes" and his “human touch, tented woundings may possibly signify such wounds quite beyond Plutarch” in this passage (“ First as will not admit of having a tent put into them." Folio Edition” of “ Coriolanus,” pp. 174-5, 178-9), W. J. Craig, in his excellent edition of the play, I also brought to bear upon these changes another after a careful consideration of the passage little fact not noticed by your correspondent, the question, accepts Nares's explanation: “Unap- fact that the poet keeps back until now the faint- peased, not put into a way of cure as a wound is, ness mentioned by Plutarch, earlier, before the when a surgeon has put a tent into it.” The most close of the battle: “ Then they prayed Martius surprising explanation of all, as coming from a that he would retire to the campe, because they physician, is that of Dr. Bucknill, who says: sawe he was able to doe no more, he was alreadie Untented appears to mean, not to be tented,' so wearied with the great woundes he had upon wounds the bottom of which is not to be reached." him." All these interpreters have forgotten that the term Shakespeare dramatizes here at one clear and “ tent" was applied not only to a probe, for the rapid stroke the historical, physical, and psycho- purpose of searching a wound, but also to a piece logical facts upon which he builds the climax of of some medicated material, lint or sponge, intro- this scene and the stage mechanics of its exeunt. duced into an abscess cavity for the purpose of The Roman general, instantly granting the boon stimulating healing; to stimulating ointments just asked for the benefactor, gives the order used in the healing of wounds; and to a cylindrical “ deliver him, Titus." To carry out the order, roll of some absorbent material, usually of lint, in- Titus asks “ Martius, his name?” This question troduced into wounds and retained there--for the brings out the reply: “ By Jupiter, forgot: I am purpose of absorbing the acrid and purulent dis- wearie, yea, my Memorie is tyr'd: Have we no charges of the abscess or fistula. In other words, a wine here?" His general's comment is clear and tent is what is now commonly called a drain, and direct. It reinforces this explanation by Corio- untented - in accordance with a common Eliza- lanus that he forgot because his very capacity to undrainable, not capable remember within his wounded head was faint for of being emptied of its purulent contents, not ceas- loss of blood. Cominius notices that the blood has ing to discharge pus." Stated medically, Lear is ceased to flow, is drying, a token of its exhaustion cursing Goneril with chronic purulent ulcers affect- implying the need of care and nourishment. So he ing all her organs of feeling. This is certainly far says, The bloud upon your Visage dryes, 'tis - more vivid than wounds that are too small or too time It should be lookt too: And thus deep or too sharp to admit of the introduction of a they go off stage. probe or tent or medicament. Besides, such wounds The trouble with a more involved and round- do not exist. Even a superficial examination of about explanation of the dramatic fitness of this any medical work of the sixteenth or seventeenth climax and this exeunt is that it falsifies them. It centuries will suffice to confirm our definition. The is against the dramatic sincerity of the scene and curious reader may consult Clowes's “ Treatise on the characters and the direct and sufficient explana- Gunshot Wounds," 1596, (passim,- referred to by tion elaborately to suppose thát Coriolanus forgot, Craig), any translation of the works of Hippo- as your correspondent puts it, because he scorned crates, or the book entitled “Natura Exenterata; to remember a name that “would have suggested or Nature Unbowelled," London, 1655. We cannot, his benefactor's “ plebeian origin." in concluding, refrain from quoting a very inter- If this were designed by Shakespeare he had esting passage, illustrating the use of the word the skill to make it plain. Why did he take pains “ tent,” in “ The Muse's Looking Glass," a play by rather to reinforce the explanation offered? Why Randolph (1638): “ The land wants such As dare should a dramatist who is sure of touch and master with vigour execute her laws; Her festerd mem- of his purpose go about to make it dark and bers must be lanc'd and tented." double? SAMUEL A. TANNENBAUM, M.D. Remember, too, that he prepared earlier for a New York, Jan. 11, 1916. special loss of blood in the head. This dauntless hero took his wounds headlong, confronting the foe. His face was scarcely recognizable in I, vi. SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMATIC DIRECTNESS. It appears as if it were flayed. It needs to be (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) verified as his by the sound of his voice. In the I am one who did notice the point of fact your present scene, he says that when he has washed correspondent in a recent number of THE DIAL and his “ face is faire those about him may be brings forward as one usually ignored by editors, enabled to perceive whether he blushes at their concerning the minor incident in Plutarch used by praise or no. Shakespeare with his transfiguring touch in The assertion remains to be proved, moreover, “ Coriolanus," I, ix, 94ff. that merely because the benefactor is poor he is To make Coriolanus forget the name while therefore a plebeian. remembering the deed of a benefactor, at a time What sequitur is there in that for an audience? when most men would be full only of themselves, | What sequitur is there in that for a patrician soul come. 19161 65 THE DIAL like that of Coriolanus, who is so un-American, shall we say ? — at least so not at all up to date as in this very scene to despise a mercenary measure- ment of his own worth? The idealistic scorn of the material coming out in the hero's characteristic refusal to “take a Bribe to pay my Sword " shines rather in an inten- tionally enhancing light because the Volscian bene- factor whom he remembers is poor of purse and noble of nature. There was nothing to be got by the request he makes for him. Shakespeare selects from Plutarch for special mention here only those facts about him that suit and serve the scene. The other details, that he had been rich (therefore was not a plebeian we could with more reason suppose if it were worth while to go into that irrelevancy) and was now a slave of war — all these details were simply needless or inconspicuously implied in the statement of Coriolanus that he once lay at his house,-“ He usd me kindly, He cry'd to me: I saw him Prisoner; But then Aufidius was within my view, And wrath o’rewhelm’d my pittie: I request you to give my poore Host freedome.” In this scene, evidently, sympathy with the nobleness of the hero is all Shakespeare wants from his audience. Later, when he sits in gold and when his friendliness with Volscians against his country is to his discredit, there is there as here no taint of mere money return suffered to blacken him. CHARLOTTE PORTER. Boston, Mass., Jan. 10, 1916. don the document containing Shakespeare's An- swer to Interrogatories in a petty lawsuit in which he was a witness, unwittingly proved con- clusively that the actor was unable to write, be- cause his name is written by a law clerk in law script, and the deponent made his mark beneath the signature. Mr. Tannenbaum is greatly displeased with Mr. Baxter for distinguishing between the actor's name, Shakspere, and the author's pseudonym, Shakespeare or Shake-speare; but Mr. Tannen- baum's displeasure does not alter the fact that the difference does exist, and it exists quite as clearly as the difference between Tannenbaum and Rosen- baum. The article as the ual sneering sugges- tion that all Baconians are insane, though it is doubtful whether Mr. Tannenbaum would have dared to say this of von Bismarck if he had been in Germany during the heyday of the Chancellor's power. "E. BASIL LUPTON. Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 10, 1916. 66 A BACONIAN TO THE DEFENCE. (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) The authorship of the Shakespeare plays is undoubtedly the greatest of literary problems, and it cannot be belittled by an article such as the review in your columns by Mr. Samuel A. Tannen- baum, of Mr. James P. Baxter's solid work on the question. The reviewer seems to have made a special study of the facts connected with Shakespeare's applica- tion for a coat of arms, and he is enabled to correct Mr. Baxter on one or two minor points regarding the application. His triumphant manner of doing this might lead anyone to suppose that he believed he had thereby established his hero's claim to the authorship of the plays. Another point on which Mr. Tannenbaum lays special stress is the praise of the Shakespeare works by various con- temporary writers. In using this argument he quite ignores the fact that none of these writers, with possibly one exception, identifies the author with the Stratford actor, and this possible excep- tion is by no means a clear exception. The phrase "our English Terence " suggests a pseudonym, if the Terence plays were the work of Caius Laelius. Mr. Tannenbaum's reasoning would be paralleled by stringing together a number of passages in praise of George Eliot's novels, and proceeding to argue that the author of the novels must have been a man of that name. Dr. Charles William Wallace, who some few years ago discovered in the Record Office in Lon- A FINAL WORD ABOUT DIPHTHONGS. (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) Always, when the follower of Schopenhauer's “Art of Controversy” finds himself with no hole to hide in, his procedure is that of the cuttle- fish — the beclouding of clear water with much ink. So far has Dr. Vizetelly carried the process that it is needful to restate the issues he has so confused. These are: “ Our present letters do not show the diphthon- gal characters of ch, sh, ng, th and zh.” (“Essen- tials of English Speech," by Frank H. Vizetelly, page 290.) I take it this means that the sounds indicated by the italicized letters were diphthongal in Dr. Vizetelly's best understanding of the subject at the time the book was written. Every one of the great dictionaries has decided that the sound of these letters [those italicized above) is diphthongal.” (Ibid, page 291.) This seems to state in plain language that all the great dictionaries actually set forth that the sound of these letters is diphthongal. These are the points at issue, these and these alone. In contradiction of Dr. Vizetelly's state- ments I arrayed against him every dictionary. Not daring — and he dares much — to deny their authority, he preserves a brilliant silence on both the points at issue, which must be taken as a tacit confession that he is wrong. This settles the con- troversy. It only remains for him to correct his book, quite useful in several other respects, in the light of the understanding that, I am sure, once imparted, will slowly dawn upon him - surely, but slowly. His letter to THE DIAL of Dec. 9, 1915, Dr. Vizetelly opened by observing of his book that his “ remarks . were written to bring out the fact that .. the diphthongal characters of the digraphs ch, ng, sh, th, and zh, would be better indicated by ligatured symbols than by plain letters." Having arrayed against this restatement of the diphthongal characters of all these digraphs, except ch, every - 66 (Jan. 20 THE DIAL > phonetic authority, quoting volume and page, it throughout life; throughout life; these errors, however minor, I pleases me to find him citing not one authority shall not have to repeat or ignore by way of prov- against that array in his letter of Jan. 6, 1916,- ing my possession of understanding. 6 not one. As he has cited pretty nearly everything WALLACE RICE. else he could think of which does not bear directly Chicago, Jan. 11, 1916. upon this point, I take it that he is on his dilatory [With the publication of the above letter way to conviction that he is wrong. And he is grotesquely wrong. For he has chosen the use of the controversy between Mr. Rice and Dr. digraphs to represent elementary sounds as an Vizetelly must terminate, so far as THE DIAL excellence of the alphabet he is apologizing for, is concerned, as we are unable to devote fur- when it is a weakness. It may well pray to be ther space to the subject.— EDITOR.] defended from such a friend. This, too, will eventually come to him. VARIANTS IN A CHRISTMAS FOLK-SONG. A paragraph, “(4)," in his latest letter requires (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) attention as bearing upon the main question and not upon matter wholly extraneous. In it Dr. In the January 6 number of THE DIAL one of Vizetelly says: “nowhere in my book do I indi- your correspondents, Mr. Crawford, quotes “ The vidually say 'most phoneticists analyze this sound Twelve Days of Christmas” at length. He says [that of ch] as a combination of t and sh,' as Mr. the version was given him orally and that he has Rice asserts. It is true that the words appear never seen it in print. By a curious coincidence upon page 291 of the book, but there they are these verses were published as a children's game by quoted from the edition of Webster's Interna- Mr. George E. Johnson in the December (1915) tional Dictionary The italics are the good number of “Something to Do,” an excellent new Doctor's; as usual when he italicizes, it is to shout juvenile magazine. something that he ought not to whisper. Here the Mr. Johnson gives a slightly varying version book follows the quotation from Webster with a which it is interesting to compare with Mr. Craw- sentence of his own, “ This being the case, let us ford's. His final stanza is: be guided by the expert phonetist." “ This being " “ The twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to the case," it might seem to those with under- me, standing, can mean only that Dr. Vizetelly does Twelve lords a-leaping, eleven ladies dancing, ten pipers piping, individually say what his letter with equal explicit- Nine drummers drumming, eight maids a-milking, ness denies he has said individually, while the seven swans a-swimming, words "expert phonetist mean nothing more or Six geese a-laying, five gold rings, four colly birds, less than that the authority quoted is, in his indi- three French hens, vidual opinion, an authority which has his indi- Two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.” vidual endorsement. Possibly, however, judging Mr. Johnson's “twelve lords a-leaping are not by other positions he has taken, his categorical so absurd with “eleven ladies dancing, ten pipers statement that the case is “this " signifies that he piping, and nine drummers drumming.” Indeed, individually believes it different. What his per- it seems quite natural behavior under the circum- sonal views on the subject of ch chance to be at stances! this moment, provided he has any, is a matter for It is amusing to note how the oral transmission smiling conjecture. has changed the “four colly birds” of the one Only less confusing are Dr. Vizetelly's partial verse into the “ four colored balls” of Mr. Craw- quotations from three dictionaries, ignoring five ford's, and even the “six geese a-laying” into others, regarding the meaning of the single word “ six chests of linen." diphthong. No one doubts that the words conso- VERA ANNETTE PRICE. nantal diphthong mean a blending of two conso- Bucyrus, Ohio, Jan. 12, 1916. nants in one syllable.” That is not the point in issue; the noun without its modifying adjective means only“ a blending of two vowels in one A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER. syllable.” The use of the noun and adjective in (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) the definition from the “New English Dictionary," I have been interested in reading the review, in quoted in parenthesis, emphasizes the point; so your issue of Dec. 9, of Mr. Lewis's book, " Sport, do the two instances of use brought forward to Travel, and Adventure." If anyone is to blame for support it. This is no less true of the citations not including stories and adventures of every trav- from the other two dictionaries. If Dr. Vizetelly eller, it is the Publisher! Mr. Lewis, a member of had quoted the instances of use or had allowed my staff, had the opportunity of quoting from over their weight to enter his understanding, he might one hundred and fifty volumes published by this have admitted the correctness of my position. He house, and therefore all the books from which he might, I say; there is nothing in his controversial has quoted bear my imprint. If you will refer to method to make me think he would. the Bibliography, you will note that the Editor has As for the rest, it is without the issues. Where quoted from fifty-four books. In several instances I have been corrected in errors of fact when the the books are by American authors for whom I haste of an instant reply compelled my reliance have published in England. upon impressions rather than demonstrable facts, T. FISHER UNWIN. I am thankful, as I have been for correction London, Dec. 29, 1915. 1916 ] 67 THE DIAL > the press. (G The New Books. the complete revelation of it, you must know the Brontë story. Now it is for its connection with this story THE VERSE OF THE BRONTË SISTERS. * that most readers will open Mr. A. C. Benson's reissue of the poems. They are by no means There was a time in Victorian days when new to the world. The sisters -as every one readers slaked their thirst for an innocent knows — put forth their first volume of verse melodrama with the novels of Charlotte in 1846; the verse has been reissued in various Brontë, when her hysterical rhetoric, the forms, and additions to it have appeared at plaintive heroines, and their black-browed various times. Mr. Benson, who has had suitors (of mysterious past) moved readers to access to the Brontë papers, can add but little strange and deep emotions. Those days are that is new: six poems by Charlotte, two by gone, and with them the peculiar thrill. The Emily, and five by Anne. This is hardly an demoniac laughter of "Jane Eyre" and the event in literary history, for the poems now nun-like spectre of “ Villette" stir us no first published contain nothing particularly longer, or, at most, move us to irreverent significant, and a perusal of the entire volume though indulgent mirth. And yet, despite will but remind the average reader that the the changes of literary fashion, there has been Brontës have become very old-fashioned. The no decline in the Brontë stock. The age which poems, with one or two notable exceptions, allows George Eliot to moulder on forgotten derive their interest not so much from their shelf has preserved the fame of Charlotte and intrinsic merits as from the significance lent practically created the fame of Emily Brontë. them by the circumstances out of which they Volume after volume about them issues from spring. Their works are published in sumptuous "library editions"; their lives are The Brontës were all, by common inheri- written by Mr. Shorter, M. Dimnet, and Miss tance, versifiers; none of them was a poet, Sinclair; there is a “Brontë Society," with its though Emily and, at times, Anne produced own series of publications; the microscopic poems. The lack which is felt throughout the romances, in the fabrication of which the sis- work of them all is that of discipline. There ters passed away a lonely hour of girlhood, is surely some subtle hereditary relation be- fetch magnificent sums in auction-rooms; the tween the vice of Branwell's life and the vice moors of Yorkshire have become “the Brontë of Charlotte's style. In the poems, as in the country"; and now Mr. Benson, gathering up novels, emotion is everywhere astir, but it all their verse, puts forth a volume entitled is crude, frequently callow, self-conscious, The Brontë Poems." wholly uncontrolled, and always plunging The Brontës, in a word, have become a fad. into language, wreaking itself upon expres- a They have entered a sphere with Chatterton, sion, set down hurriedly in all its rawness, Blake, and Byron, where interest in an au- never, by any chance, recollected in tranquil. thor's literary work merges into a larger but lity. With the Brontës, to experience an emo- perhaps less legitimate interest in his whole tion is to express it. They consume no smoke, and therefore a collection of their verse must story, his life and environment, and mere literature is viewed in the light of the whole. always remain a somewhat murky record of The explanation is simple enough. The their riot of emotionalism. After reading Brontë story challenges the imagination. It them for a while one longs for the profes- is as though the spirit of Byron had mingled sional touch again, and turns to Landor or to with that of Miss Alcott, and then projected Mr. Bridges, to Hellenism and discipline and itself against the bleak background of the an experienced artist's control of technique. northern moorland. There is a bitter realism The atmosphere may be colder, but it is clearer. in the story at times, suggestive of Balzac or The nocturnes and études of the even of Zola, but the whole is softened by the Brontës are passionate and moving, but the spirit of girlhood and is solemnized by the performer is for ever striking a false note. atmosphere of a brooding fate. To much of Emily, for example, can write about the stars this Emily Brontë gave enduring expression in a really beautiful and affecting way: in “Wuthering Heights" - crudely, to be “I turned me to the pillow then sure, but with amazing power. Charlotte To call back night, and see Brontë, forgetting her pedagogic primness, Your worlds of solemn light again expresses it at moments, but never fully. For Throb with my heart and me.” She could write that, and then she could add : Selections from the Poetry of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell Brönte. Edited, with Introduction, “ The curtains swayed, the wakened flies by Arthur C. Benson. With portraits. New York: G. P. Put- Were murmuring round my room, * BRONTE POEMS. nam's Sons. 68 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL 66 1 Imprisoned there till I should rise, For verses such as Anne Brontë's our free- And give them leave to roam." thinking times will have but little use; they The same slovenliness of technique, the same will prefer those of Emily, for there is more passion spoiled by rawness, appear in the resistance in her and therefore more passion. poems of Charlotte. Her lyric, "He Saw My . “ The abiding gloom of her poetry will seem Heart's Woe,” now printed for the first time, natural enough to those who know her life- might come straight from the most lurid pages history; but it is always to be remembered of “Jane Eyre”: that the despair which broods over poems “ Idolator I kneeled to an idol cut in rock, springs not so much from the fear of physical I might have slashed my flesh and drawn my suffering, which was hers in large measure, as heart's best blood, from a certain horror at the misery of the The Granite God had felt no tenderness, no general human lot. In her powerful lyric, shock, How Clear She Shines,” she says: My Baal had not seen nor heard nor under- “The world is going; dark world, adieu ! stood.” Grim world, conceal thee till the day; There are the diction and the emotions with The heart thou canst not all subdue which the pen of Jane once acquainted us; Must still resist, if thou delay! you may find it in your heart to wish the pas- sage tempered down, but you cannot deny its While gazing on the stars that glow passion - and then, suddenly, all sinks into Above me in that stormless sea, prose and bathos: I long to hope that all the woe Creation knows is held in thee!" “Now Heaven heal the wound which I still deeply feel; This is the essential mood in her verse, this Thy glorious hosts look not in scorn on our rather than the more pagan tone of the fol- poor race; lowing poem (given in its entirety): Thy King eternal doth not iron judgment deal One On suffering worms who seek forgiveness, pause upon the brink of life, Before it breaks in headlong strife, comfort, grace." Upon its downward road; Of all the Brontë group the one who came One insight through the waters clear, nearest to self-restraint was Anne. She, the Before their pictures disappear gentlest of them all, craves direction and con- In the fierce foaming flood.” trol, finds it in her Christian faith, and sub- But there was one experience which shat- mits herself to the higher power. Her verse tered Emily's life-long sadness, and lifted her is prevailingly religious, her moods less to a plane of solemn joy, and that experience stormy than Emily's, her notes few and sim- was death. In her last lines, “No Coward ple, reminiscent of eighteenth century hym- Soul Is Mine,” she transcended herself, and nals and, in particular, of the poetry of lifted her dying voice in a pæan of faith William Cowper. Her verses to the memory from which the note of desperation has been of that poet are something more than a young banished by the calmness of eternity; and, girl's sweet tribute to a favorite; they are though the verses have been hackneyed in instinct with the very spirit which she ad- every anthology and in every essay on her mires in her master, and it is pleasant to feel work, they must be quoted once again as a that among all the verses written in his honor measure of all that was best in her and as none would have gratified the recluse of Olney gathering into one piercing ray all the broken more than these. It is the spirit of Cowper, The last two lights of her earlier verse. stanzas of this poem are these: moreover, that moves in what is almost cer- tainly the best poem she ever wrote, the Though earth and man were gone, And suns and universes ceased to be, “Prayer,” which ends, And Thou wert left alone, “I cannot say my faith is strong, Every existence would exist in Thee. I dare not hope my love is great; But strength and love to thee belong; “ There is not room for Death, Oh, do not leave me desolate. Nor atom that his might could render void : Thou - Thou art being and breath, “I know I owe my all to thee; And what Thou art may never be destroyed." Oh, take the heart I cannot give! That is an utterance destined to survive. In Do thou my strength — my Saviour be, the opinion of the present writer it is even And make me to thy glory live!” destined to survive that popular creed of the If the name of Anne Brontë is to live in present hour in which it is asserted, with verse, it must, as she foresaw, be in some such more force than conviction, that man is the simple way as this. master of his fate and the captain of his soul. 1 1 1916) 69 THE DIAL - Thus the poetry of the Brontës is prevailpraisal of the efforts of sundry European ingly meditative. Their function is contem- peoples in the same direction, and concludes plation, not creation. To them the poet is not with a sketch of the experiments of the kind a maker of images, a teller of tales, a dreamer which have been, and are being, made in a , of dreams, or even the idle singer of an North and South America. So far as geo- empty day. Their concern is ever with the graphical range is concerned, the one striking commonplaces of the human heart, its fears, omission appears to be the English self- its faith, its sorrows and its plaintive hopes. governing colonies. It would seem that in None of the Brontës ever escapes from the any account of the evolution of liberty under prison-house of self, and the constant recur- law the constitutional systems of Canada, rence of such words as “dungeon and Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa “thrall” is significant of a profound defect should be accorded a not inconspicuous place. in their poetry, self-absorption. This lack is No one of these names, however, even appears the more remarkable in three poets who were in the index of the present volume, although also novelists. You will search their volume practically every Latin American country is in vain for any evidence of that shaping there mentioned. power of the imagination which conceived the It was to be expected that the history of the fabric of "Wuthering Heights" or for any of relations of government and liberty in Asia “ that dramatic vision which created Paulina and Africa would be recorded quickly. The or Adèle. And because of this lack of imagi- two chapters devoted to the subject comprise nation — for such in a very profound sense it less than one-eleventh of the book, and are is - the poetry of the Brontës will always be taken up chiefly with summaries of recent the possession of a very few, and will remain | political movements in Japan, China, Persia, a body of verse interesting chiefly as a lyric and Turkey. It is the author's opinion that commentary on a group of lives, which, in in the two continents mentioned the best their sadness, their isolation, and their sense efforts to harmonize government and liberty of powers half-realized, mingle the gentle are those which have been made in the Moham- with the heroic and bring, at times, the actual medan states, and that “had the subjects of very near to the high levels of tragedy. these states been wholly Mohammedans by CHAUNCEY BREWSTER TINKER. their own choice and conviction it is not im- possible that these states might have gone much farther in this great work than they RECONCILING GOVERNMENT WITH have." The hope is expressed that the 'Turks LIBERTY.* may yet attain the desired reconciliation. In describing the efforts of Europe to har- Many histories of human government have been written, and several histories of human monize government and liberty, the author naturally follows the order of chronology, liberty. It has remained for an American scholar to attempt a history of the age-long and moving on to the establishment of the beginning with the Greeks and the Romans efforts of men to reconcile government with constitutional systems at present operative in liberty. It may be doubted whether any the various states. Of the Greeks he is American is more adequately equipped for obliged to say that, on account of their con- the performance of such a task than is Pro- founding the state with government and fessor Burgess. To a full knowledge of com- their recognition of no sphere of individual parative government, accumulated through a immunity against governmental power, they long life of study and teaching, he adds a notably independent spirit and an exception- clearness that there was a problem of the did not even perceive with any degree of ally keen judgment. Whether or not the in- terpretation of men and events which he gives the Romans, it is pointed out that very early, kind here being considered. With regard to appeals to one as valid or final, one may rest assured that it is based upon carefully ascer- in the drawing up of the Twelve Tables, there was the most complete solution of the prob- tained facts and conscientiously framed con- lem of reconciliation which the world to that clusions. time had produced, but that in the subsequent The sweep of Professor Burgess's book is , almost as broad as the recorded history of the history of the Republic, and especially of the race. The volume opens with a survey of the Empire, the good beginning that had been made was not followed up. It is maintained effort of Asia and of Africa to “solve the that, contrary to a widely prevalent impres- problem," advances to a comprehensive ap- sion, in the political arrangements of the • THE RECONCILIATION OF GOVERNMENT WITH LIBERTY. By primitive Germans (as described by Tacitus) John W. Burgess, Ph.D., Ju.D., LL.D. there appears no approach to a solution of the > New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 170 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL problem, and that in the Germanic states of constitution save the Swiss, it is asserted, the earlier Middle Ages there was scarcely “confounds the sovereign body with the Gov- more approach to it, save in Anglo-Saxon ernment or some part thereof in such a way Britain, and there only in the earliest days. as to leave no sphere for Liberty into which A detailed review of the history of the the Government may not, in some manner and Middle Ages fails to disclose the condition degree, intrude.” Furthermore, the indis- sought; and a chapter on the growth of the criminate extension of the suffrage in the national monarchies in the fifteenth, six- various countries has been adding steadily to teenth, and seventeenth centuries demon- the tyrannical character of the legislative strates that in this great era liberty, even bodies; and the universal exaltation of the more completely than formerly, was sacri- popular branch of the legislature, by intro- ficed to government. In a somewhat prolonged ducing in effect the unicameral principle, is survey of "the Revolutions" - beginning accentuating the tendency. with the English Civil War in the seven- “In a single sentence, the unicameral Legisla- teenth century and closing with the inaugu- ture with the existing electorate moves along ration of constitutionalism in Russia decade towards the socialistic state and the socialistic ago - it is maintained that, while in this state does not recognize any sphere of Individual period fairly adequate safeguards of the indi- Immunity defined and guaranteed by the Constitu- vidual were established as against the execu- tion against the powers of Government. I cannot, tive, none of consequence were created as therefore, consider the present constitutions of the against the legislature. And the author European states as offering any satisfactory solu- pauses to expound the idea that a legislature tion of the great problem of the reconciliation of may be just as despotic and as oppressive as Government with Liberty. Liberty is sacrificed to Government in them all." a monarch can ever be. A legislature, he says, can be depended on to protect the indi- In his closing chapters the author turns to vidual “the effort of America." So far as the United States is concerned, it is shown that, “ only where the suffrage is limited to men of intelligence, character, and means, and eligibility until recently, at any rate, the country ex- to a seat in the legislative body is conditioned hibited a fuller measure of reconciliation of upon the same qualities. Where universal suf- government and liberty than does any other frage is the source of legislative mandate the State in the world. The completest harmo- legislative authority is a far more consummate nizing of the two great interests would have despot than any king or prince has ever shown required some readjustments, but no radical himself to be. Against such a legislature the indi- vidual is in the most helpless condition possible . upwards of twenty years ago there set in a or revolutionary changes. But, unfortunately, It has rarely any sense of justice and is almost never influenced by considerations of mercy. It change, and since that time the trend has readily becomes the instrument through which been rather steadily in the wrong direction. brute force tyrannizes over intelligence and thrift, This shift came in consequence of the adop- and seeks to bring society to an artificial dead tion of an imperial policy abroad (incident to level. Until a political system shall have provided the Spanish War) and of a paternal pro- the means for protecting the individual in his con- gramme at home. Evidences of it which the stitutional immunities against this most ruthless author cites include both of the recently organ of government, it will not have solved our adopted amendments of the Constitution: the great problem. It will, even, in its transfer of the balance of governmental power from the executive Sixteenth, which liberates Congress from all to the legislature, have placed a more formidable limitations in dealing with the property of obstacle in the way of its solution.” the individual, and the Seventeenth, which In the constitutions at present operative in servative structure of the Senate. removes the safeguards arising from the con- . * It is Europe, Professor Burgess finds little ap- high time,” Professor Burgess declares, “ for proach to a solution of the problem in hand. us to call a halt in our present course of Upon all sides he seeks evidence of the ex- increasing the sphere of Government and de- istence of a sovereign power, “organized back creasing that of Liberty.” In Latin America of both Government and Liberty, indepen- the situation is found to be distinctly favora- dent of both, supreme over both, the origina-ble. ble. Six states - Argentina, Brazil, Colom- tor of both and the determiner of their bia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela — have relations to each other." Without some such made the declaration of individual immuni- primal and perpetual authority, we are told, ties against governmental power a most im- there can be, at best, only a truce in the con- portant part of their constitutional law, and flict between Government and Liberty. The have vested in judicial tribunals power to results are not flattering. Every European protect the realm of individual immunity 6 1916) 71 THE DIAL against encroachment by any branch of gov- terranean existence for a time; but it almost ernment. In the reconciliation of government certainly comes back or up. There must al- with liberty these six states have gone well ways be changes of opinion, revolutions. But beyond Europe. If their political civilization the business of a revolution is to revolve, and is backward, it is because of the character of it generally finds itself back in the same their populations, not because of the theory' place. Take the ideal of feudalism, which of their public law. Argentina, it is declared, Mr. Mordell thinks particularly obsolete. Two contains all of the factors necessary for a sat- years ago it did seem to be comfortably bur- isfactory solution of the problem of recon- ied. But it has pushed aside “ the ponder- ciliation. ous and marble jaws wherein we saw it quietly FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG. inurned," and has made a great struggle for existence. We all hope that it will be driven back into the tomb; but of its present vitality THE “ WANING " CLASSICS. * there cannot be a doubt. It is the same with If Mr. Albert Mordell had come ten years religious ideas, Catholic or Protestant. The earlier with his book on · Dante and Other booming of the cannon seems to have deepened Waning Classics,” we might have praised him the notes of the church bells all over Europe. for having the courage of his conviction; we And occultism, supernaturalism! If a flood might have wondered at his audacity in try- of books on such subjects is any indication, ing to displace a mountain range with the these dreams or illusions of man are coming push of his single shoulder. But opinion has back with a rush. It is quite possible that moved rapidly of late. It is now pretty some of us may live to see witches burned well understood that every new Novelist or again on Boston Common. Dramatist of the Dismal is superior to Shake- Even, however, if ideas can be permanently speare; and that all the Illuminati of Irregular pushed aside, execution, the projection of Verse are better poets than Milton. The real great figures, the painting of wonderful heroes of criticism are those who cover the scenes, the mighty or mysterious use of lan- retreat of the disgraced classics. guage, must retain their hold on the human Why cannot the modernists live and let mind. If we have no other use for the great live? Do they think that by eating their writers of the past, we must go to them to grandfathers they will acquire all their virtue | learn how to write. With the possible excep- and reputation? It was not always so. Lit- tion of à Kempis, all those on Mr. Mordell's erature presents the spectacle of a long pro- catalogue of incorrigibles were great execu- cession of great writers holding by each tants. He allows Dante two great episodes others' robes, and, incidentally, with their and a few minor passages, and dismisses the hands in each others' pockets. Virgil pays rest of his poem as useless lumber. Well, Homer the flattery of continuous imitation. Alfred de Musset said the same thing, and To Dante, Virgil is the highest type of human Landor and Leigh Hunt turned from the reason, Milton bows to “blind Thamyris Florentine in sheer disgust. Such antipathies and blind Mæonides." Even the leaders of must always occur. But by the great and rival school, the earlier rationalists and real- continually increasing voice of criticism, ists, were true to their forbears. Voltaire Dante is hailed as the man who has said more held by the Greek tragedians. Pope and Dr. profound things, painted more vivid pictures, Johnson edited Shakespeare and praised him than any one else has ever done in an equal nobly. The great writers of the last century,- space. To object to the horror, the painful- Goethe, Hugo, Scott, Tennyson,- prostrated ness, of many of these pictures seems illogical themselves before their predecessors. Thacke- in a writer who thinks so well of the work of ray wanted to black Shakespeare's boots. In Zola and Dostoieffsky. These later tragedians general, every one who has become an idol has placed their infernos on the earth, whereas been an idolater. Dante concentrated his in a region of their It is mainly the ideas of the writers whom own. Their effect on our feelings, we should Mr. Mordell attacks, their views of life, the think, would be the same in either case. Mil- cosmogonies and religious ideals which they ton is another poet who condenses human embody, which he thinks effete, foolish, unfit experience and vision. There is probably for contemporary consumption. We do not more picture and music to the page in him believe that any great thought or speculation than in any one since. Mr. Mordell objects which has entered the world can die. It may to the figures of Sin and Death. To us they be driven aside, and compelled to lead a sub- seem almost unparalleled in imaginative vigor. Even in the long later stretches of “ Paradise • DANTE AND OTHER WANING CLASSICS. By Albert Mordell. Philadelphia: Acropolis Publishing Co. Lost,” which because of a lack of interesting 72 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL - > matter are tiresome, there is always the high BELGIUM'S AGONY.* level of diction, the movement of a great tide of verse. Mr. Mordell does not find any mes- Neutrals are constantly finding ground for sage of importance in Pascal's “ Thoughts. optimism in the fact that all the belligerent They do not pretend to be a system,- they nations in the present war are exceedingly are only scattered sparks, many of which, anxious to justify themselves before the su- however, have kept alight to the present day. preme court of public opinion. Frankly, any. The great Pascal is the Pascal of the “ Provin- one condemned to read much of the polemic cial Letters,” who ought to appeal to Mr. that has been raging since the war began has Mordell because he was a liberalizer, a revo- need of keeping this consolation before his lutionist, a miniature Luther. Indeed, he eyes. To the neutral American mind the ver- dealt a deadlier blow to Jesuitism than dict in the case of the violation of Belgium Luther did to Catholicism. Is Bunyan negli- has never hung in the balance. We accepted gible? Is the man who stamped a number of the first statement of the German chancellor, images or visions,— the Slough of Despond, and have seen no reason to change our deci- the Giant Pape in his Cave, Vanity Fair, the sion. Yet both sides continue to thunder Delectable Mountains,- so firmly on the mind diatribe and recrimination. Both sides quote of his race that literature and art have been Goethe's words: “Truth must constantly be incessantly repeating them ever since,- is re-stated, for falsehood never ceases to whis- such a writer a nobody? We do not believe per in our ears." As applied to much of the it. And St. Augustine! The Catholic Church "literature" (with apologies to that noble is largely founded upon him, and the Catholic word) on the subject, this citation seems al- Church is surely a present verity. Besides, most blasphemous. most blasphemous. It is probably impossible the very germ of all modern philosophy, at this time for any of the belligerents, at Descartes's “I think, therefore I am,” is in least, to utter that truth of which Goethe St. Augustine. This alone would make him spoke. A rapid survey of a few of the recent important. discussions of the Belgian case must suffice Mr. Mordell has the real reading which here. makes a full mind; he has a trenchant style Not long after the outbreak of the war the and a lawyer-like expertness in putting his Belgian government appointed a commission It is unpleasant to have to differ so to investigate the alleged violation of the totally from him. But what would he have? rights of non-combatants. The reports of this If, like Prospero, we must bury the Book of commission, sifted from the testimony of eye- the Magic of the Past, and accept the mod- witnesses under cross-examination, are heart- ernists at their own valuation, what guaran- rending; evidence can be found in them to tee have we that to-morrow there will not be substantiate all the atrocities with which we a crop of neo-modernists who will declare the are only too familiar. Let us hope that they others antiquated. If we regard what is tak- are greatly exaggerated; but the proclama- ing place in art to-day, this is exactly what tions of the German General Staff are hardly will happen. Novelists will be as soon out of reassuring. For instance: “In future the “ date as newspapers, and poets will hardly localities nearest to the place where similar outlast the full moon that inspires them. Per- acts [the destruction of a railway line and manence of fame, what we are accustomed to telegraph wires) take place will be punished call literary immortality, will be a jest. We without pity: it matters little if they are presume the modernists are out for perma- accomplices or not.” Louvain and Belgian nent fame. Criticism ought to, and mainly villages in ashes are a terrible commentary on does, concern itself with contemporary pro- this pitiless punishment. duction; but it ought also to hold fast by what it knows to be abiding. and of the Laws and Customs of War in Belgium. London: CHARLES LEONARD MOORE. BELGIUM, NEUTRAL AND LOYAL. The War of 1914. By Emile Waxweiler. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. THE TRAGEDY OF BELGIUM. An Answer to Professor Wax- weiler. By Richard Grasshoff. Illustrated. New York : G. W. In two volumes of “ Notes of a Busy Life" Dillingham Co. Mr. Joseph Benson Foraker has sketched his expe- THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM By Alexander Fuehr. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co. rience of three years in the Union Army, three A JOURNAL OF IMPRESSIONS IN BELGIUM. By May Sinclair. years on the Bench, four years as governor of New York: Macmillan Co. Ohio, and twelve years in the senate of the United THE LOG OF A NON-COMBATANT. By Horace Green. Illus- trated. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. States, dealing with political events of importance BELGIUM'S AGONY. By Emile Verhaeren. Boston: Hough- and with many national characters met in connec- ton Mifflin Co. BELGIAN POEMS. tion therewith. The work is promised for January Chantes Patriotiques et Autres Poèmes. Par Emile Cammaerts; translated by Tita Brand-Cammaerts. publication by Messrs. Stewart & Kidd Co. With portrait. New York: John Lane Co. case. * REPORTS ON THE VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS T. Fisher Unwin. 1916) 73 THE DIAL Last December M. Emile Waxweiler wrote tions from English and American jurists. His from Switzerland a book which, published arguments seem scarcely disingenuous to the simultaneously in French and German, has lay reader, who is inclined to hope that the been widely read in Europe. The title of the jurists concerned would disavow this applica- American edition, “Belgium, Neutral and tion of their thought, and observe that the Loyal,” gives a fair idea of the contents. devil, under stress of necessity, can quote There is nothing really new in the book; but Scripture. at least the author is to be congratulated for It is pleasant to turn from these contro- having maintained, nearly always, a tone of versial volumes to one or two books which moderation. Even in the concluding chap- | have value as human documents. In her ter,- a discussion of the German methods of "Journal of Impressions in Belgium," Miss * ” war,— he deliberately refrains from citing the May Sinclair tells with no little humor the testimony of eye-witnesses, which, he realizes, experiences of a British Red Cross Corps in may often be exaggerated; he confines him- its infancy. It was given to her to see little self instead to a discussion of the German or nothing of the actual fighting, and she military manual and its remorseless applica-relates only what she has seen or felt. Her tion to Belgium. account holds the reader by the lively por- Herr Richard Grasshoff's "The Tragedy of trayal of the members of the Corps, and the Belgium " is more painful reading. It is an reaction on them of the scenes behind the abusive answer to M. Waxweiler, and falls by firing lines. When one lays down the book, its own violence. The book attempts to prove one knows the whole staff as thoroughly as one that the Belgian government has only its own knows any of the characters of Miss Sinclair's treacherous machinations to thank for the novels; and they are people whose acquain- national calamity. The government is accused tance is even better worth making. of having deliberately encouraged a guerrilla In “The Log of a Non-Combatant," Mr. warfare which obliged the pacifically disposed Horace Green gives a vivid account of the Germans to stern measures of repression. The adventures of a newspaper correspondent in object of the government is stated as having the midst of the fighting and in Germany. probably been to supply to its official commis- He came into intimate relations with Belgian, sion material for fabrications in regard to out- British, Dutch, and German soldiers, and rages committed by German soldiers. The later with the German people. His anecdotes reader wonders, on finishing the tirade, what are keenly interesting in themselves, and illus- connection the contents have with the title. trate national and personal characteristics There is nothing to indicate that the book is that stand out even in the stress of war. As a translation: if, as one suspects, it is the he was bent on missing nothing, and was not same author's “Belgien's Schuld " in English always provided with all the necessary cre- dress, the new title, apparently meant to dentials, time never hung heavy on his hands sweeten the pill for American readers, will for lack of excitement. In an appendix he scarcely tend to increase our confidence in the discusses briefly the discusses briefly the “atrocities," and is in- argument. clined to believe that the reports of unpro- Mr. Alexander Fuehr's “The Neutrality of voked personal outrages have been greatly Belgium has at least the merit of being writ- exaggerated. ten in judicial tone. The book attempts to prove, first, that England has always been the In reviewing Zweig's study of Verhaeren power behind the Belgian nationality, that she for THE DIAL some weeks ago, I wrote of the has unscrupulously used the smaller nation poet's last works: “This singer of force, of for her own ends, and that, before the out- universal energy working with common inter- break of the war, Germany had sufficient evi- est toward cosmic progress, finds a higher dence that Belgian neutrality had become a ideal still — the union of humanity by uni- dead letter. (For which, see the Brussels | versal love and admiration which joins men documents.) Second, that the treaties pro- in their common purpose and musters indi- viding for Belgium's neutrality have, by the viduals and nations into a common cause law of nations, been void for many years, and the striving for the onward march of life. have been so considered by England; third, We need not wonder if his bitterness knows that even had any treaty been in force, Ger- no bounds to-day." The volume entitled many would have been justified in invading “Belgium's Agony" is the first expression of Belgium under the particular circumstances. his feeling to reach America. The English The particular circumstances are, of course, version, well executed in spite of occasional the famous German necessity. The author, a slips, contains a short notice of M. Ver- doctor of law, supports his position by cita- | haeren's earlier work, and three war poems : 74 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL war not yet translated. The first and best of slender volume of "Belgian Poems" by M. these poems, "La Belgique Sanglante,” is Emile Cammaerts will not, we trust, pass un- filled with the spirit of his last ante bellum noticed in the hurly-burly of war books. The verse, and foreshadows his great disillusion, poems are published in French, with transla- It strikes poignantly the key-note of the book, tions of varying success on the opposite page. which, with its brief but loving sketches of It is to be hoped that translators of foreign Belgian landscape and homes before they were poets will more generally adopt this form of laid waste, throws over the present horror a presentation, which has long been used in lurid light that no official report could give. France for the classics. Most of the English From the devastation two sentiments arise in versions are due to Madame Cammaerts. The Belgian hearts: first, pride in their country's collection contains songs, Christmas heroism and the firm faith that she will carols, and poems of love and domestic emerge with a strengthened ideal; second, a felicity. Perhaps the most striking feature of bitter hatred of the ruthless invader. them all is their directness and simplicity. The last chapters form a terrible indict- The poet feels this quality, and says, as he ment of that invader. In M. Verhaeren's Verhaeren's explains the purpose of the book (the proceeds view, Germany has a barrack-bred culture but are to purchase tobacco for the Belgian sol- no civilization, for civilization means a sense diers) : of honor that outbalances egotistical interest, “ J'ai mis ici des naïvetés a spiritual force which is the negation of Dont les moqueurs se gausseront. brute force. Germany's awful and sinister Ma lyre tinte d'une corde, mon vers cloche d'un mission is to let loose her hordes upon Europe, pied whose ideals have left her far behind. For Et je n'ai guère d'inspiration. the sake of world-domination she must crush the individual life of other nations, and de- J'ai mis ici mon coeur tout nu stroy all art, past and present, that is not Que m'importe qu' on raille! her own. She would mould genius itself in Pourvu qu' Ils fument une pipe de plus her 'own image. She believes her organized Sous la mitraille." culture to be the last word of modernism, and The spirit of the war poems is that robust forgets that the religious tyrants of the dark joy in the consciousness of moral strength ages tried to impose it by not dissimilar meth- that rings through M. Verhaeren's work. ods. At bottom the only difference is that the Here is a stanza from a stirring marching one tyranny was religious, the other is civil. song, "Le Drapeau Belge": As Spain of the sixteenth century, imbued “Rouge pour la pourpre héroïque with the spirit of Africa, sowed in each of her Noir, jaune et rouge - soldiers the lessons of cruelty, so Germany Noir pour le voile des veuves to-day, imbued with the spirit of prehistoric Noir, jaune et rouge - Asia, inculcates terrorism as a potential offen- Et jaune pour l'orgueil épique sive weapon. There is no more honor or Et le triomphe après l'épreuve." chivalry; but only treachery, cruelty, and One of the most striking of the patriotic lies; the enemy's every action is known to pieces is the following, entitled "Les Renforts “ cloak a crime. Germany's utter indifference de la Mort": to ideals is revealed in the attitude of her “Il est une armée mystérieuse statesmen toward international relations. Qui ne saurait périr, Even when she presented her ultimatum to Et dont les ombres silencieuses Belgium, she came prepared for huckstering, Hantent notre souvenir. talking of profit and loss as on the stock exchange. Finally Germany's effort to spread C'est l'armée de ceux qui sont morts her culture, born of the past, is diametrically En maudissant les Allemands, opposed to "the spirit of to-day, wrought of Et dont les invincibles renforts pride and liberty, wrought of human reason Vengeront le sang innocent." and human idealism, wrought of an emotion Those who would turn aside from the horror infectious and splendidly dangerous, which is and hatred of war will prefer the last two- little more than a hundred years old, and the thirds of the volume. For them let us cite in strength and brilliance of which time has not closing this stanza from “L'Enfant”: yet brought fully to light.” Such, in sub- "O, mystère, mystère de ton âme d'enfant! stance, is M. Verhaeren's bitter indictment of Combien j'ai honte de si mal deviner, the invaders of his country. Combien je rougis d'être grand Lovers of poetry should welcome an intro- Auprès de mon bébé!” duction to another Belgian bard; and the BENJ. M. WOODBRIDGE. - 1916) :) THE DIAL . 75 > RECENT ROMANTIC PLAYS,* sen's, has simplicité, and not, like Mr. Shel- don’s, simplesse. Mr. Sheldon's simplicity, as Perhaps the most conspicuous trait of re- well as his plot, is over-elaborated. The charm cent drama, viewed as a whole, is the ten- of such a story is a delicate and evanescent dency toward wide experimentation. In this thing, respect our time resembles the latter part of “ Frail as are the wings that grace the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Then, as now, there was a keen and rapidly growing popular Even great literary talent, combined with the Thistledown or butterfly.” interest in the theatre, which drew writers of all sorts, including some whose natural gift best will in the world, cannot catch it and was far from dramatic, into playwriting. magnify it and embody it for us on the stage. Novelists like Lyly and Greene, lyric poets Only a master of what Addison called “the like Peele, satirists like Nash, moralists and fairy way of writing" could hope to touch it classical scholars like Jonson and Chapman, living dramatists, Hauptmann alone, perhaps, Of were all driven into dramaturgy.' Then, as now, determined attempts were being made could succeed in the task. It is no mean to use the drama for educational and moral praise of Mr. Sheldon to say that he has not purposes. Many of the experiments were entirely failed,- that though he has loaded abortive, but all were more or less instructive his story with details, he has contrived to keep as to what can and what cannot be done in a little of its wistful charm. But he is not at a play. Nothing could furnish better evi- his best in this kind of writing; he is inclined dence than this wide experimentation that the to make his mermen and mermaids talk, as drama to-day is intensely alive. Our poets, Addison says, “like people of his own species, novelists, reformers, and social philosophers and not like other beings, who . . think and would not be trying to reach or move the talk in a different manner from that of world through an art which was in a mori. mankind." bund or decadent state. It seems reasonable Mr. William Lindsey's “Red Wine of to hope that the present rather chaotic condi- Roussillon” takes us back to the twelfth tion of the drama may issue in some great century in Provence, — the time of trouba- and permanent achievement. The strongest dour and crusader. Raimon, Count of Rous- current is undoubtedly in the direction of sillon, has for two years been absent in the realism; but there are eddies and cross- Holy Land, and is reported to have fallen in currents worth taking into account. What- battle, He was sent thither to do penance ever the triumph of realism, it will always be for a deed of violence; in love with Sere- one of the functions of the theatre to take us monda, he had slain her bridegroom at the away from the commonplace world into some altar, and forcibly married her. In his land of enchantment. It is perhaps rather absence she has fallen in love with his young significant that Mr. John Masefield and Mr. friend Guilhem, a nobleman and a trouba- Edward Sheldon, both of whom started out as dour; but Guilhem declares his love only realists, have turned in their latest plays to after they have received apparently certain romance. news of Raimon's death. At the very moment Mr. Sheldon, indeed, has gone or tried to of his declaration, Raimon has arrived in the go — all the way to fairy-land. "The Garden “ The Garden village, and is on his way to the castle. Sere- of Paradise" is a much amplified dramatic plified dramatic monda begs Guilhem to flee with her, but version of Hans Christian Andersen's story refuses; and to save the situation, it is agreed because of his friendship with Raimon he of “The Little Mermaid.” Its prose is grace- ful, but a little too everydayish; the story that Guilhem shall pretend to be in love with cries out for the diction and harmony of her sister Guida. But the jealousy of Sere- verse - or else for a prose which, like Ander- monda, who perceives that Guida really loves Guilhem, is aroused; and when the trouba- By Edward Sheldon. York: The Macmillan Co. dours are entertaining the household after RED WINE OF ROUSSILLON. By William Lindsey. Boston: dinner, by a preconcerted signal she com- THE BEAU OF BATH, and Other One-Act Plays. By Con- mands Guilhem to declare in his song his love stance D'Arcy Mackay. New York: Henry Holt & Co. for her. The catastrophe is only postponed THE ROMANCERS. By Edmond Rostand. Translated by Bar- rett H. Clark... New York: Samuel French. by the intervention of the priest Aimar; it THE FAIRY. By Octave Feuillet. , Translated by Barrett H. Clark. New York: Samuel French. finally involves the death of the lovers and of The IMMIGRANTS. By Percy MacKaye. New York: B. W. the madly jealous count. Except for a little Huebsch. By Stephen Phillips. slowness in the exposition, Mr. Lindsey has New York: John Lane Co. handled his plot well, making the most of its THE FAITHFUL. By John Masefield. New York: The Mac- The crisis scene, * THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. New Houghton Mifflin Co. ARMAGEDDON. strong dramatic moments. millan Co. 76 (Jan. 20 THE DIAL 66 in which Seremonda, by the sign of suddenly for amateurs, but they would furnish oppor- breaking her fan, forces her lover to a public tunity for the most finished professional declaration, would be impressive on the stage; acting. and others, such as the return of the count, The convenient and inexpensive series of and his appearance at the castle after slaying “ The World's Best Plays,” edited by Dr. Guilhem, are almost equally strong. The Barrett H. Clark, includes translations by the play is written in blank verse, which though editor of two French plays which trifle agree- it falls short of greatness is vigorous, flexible, ably with romantic motives,— Rostand's “The and free from affectation of archaism,- a Romancers and Octave Feuillet's The far better medium than prose for a story of Fairy." The former is so well known in this kind. The characters, even the minor America as to need no comment here. The ones, are distinct and individual. Yet in latter is a graceful one-act piece the scene of spite of these great merits, the play somehow which is a cottage on the border of the leaves one a little cool. The reason, I think, enchanted forest of Broceliande. The fairy, is that the interest is not sharply focussed; one rather regrets to say, turns out to be an the emphasis is divided too evenly among the ingenious young lady who wins her lover by principal characters, with the result that means of very natural magic. though we sympathize with them all, we do Mr. Percy MacKaye's lyric drama, “The not sympathize intimately or passionately Immigrants," is the libretto of an opera, the with any of them. The most attractive figure music for which has been written by Mr. Fred- is that of Guilhem, but he is presented to us eric S. Converse. The theme is strikingly less fully than either of the others. expressed in the speech of Noel, an American Verse far more sensitive, and exquisitely artist, as the immigrant ship enters New adapted to its purpose, is that of Miss Con- York harbor: stance D'Arcy Mackay in "The Beau of Bath, “ America, dear motherland of men, and Other One-Act Plays." This little vol- Age after age lodestar of immigrants, ume contains six short dramatic sketches, Hark to these peoples crying in the mist! written in rhymed couplets of exceptional fin- Here where you loose your cities on the sea, ish and charm. They present incidents, real Leviathans of lightning-spire on spire, or fancied, in the lives of famous eighteenth Palace and hanging garden of the waves, century people. Beau Nash, old and broken, Whose spacious splendors house the lords of is playing solitaire beside the grate on Christ- life mas Eve; he falls asleep, and in his dream Here, under all, cramped in their vitals, swarm The seekers after life the Lady of the Portrait comes down and the slaves of toil, talks with him of their old unspoken love. With hearts of yearning. O remember these And feed the awful hunger of their hearts !” Fanny Burney is caught by her uncle revis- ing the manuscript of "Evelina," after he A group of Italian peasants, gay and poor, has been telling her of the success of the are beguiled by a commercial agent, who uses book, and has promised that she may read a moving-picture show as bait, to leave their it if he thinks it proper for her. Avis Linley, homes and seek better things in America. years ago disappointed in love through the They are helped by the young artist, and ex- interference of her brother, helps her niece ploited by the agent, --- a beast who attempts to elope with Richard Brinsley Sheridan. All to seduce the girls. They find sweatshop of these situations are lightly and charm- labor, wretched food and quarters, and at last ingly sketched, with a keen sense of dramatic imprisonment and death. Mr. MacKaye is values; but the best of the pieces are the last necessarily handicapped somewhat in treating two, “Counsel Retained" and "The Prince the theme by the requirements of the operatic of Court Painters." In the former Peg form. Scammon, for instance, the agent, loses Woffington takes refuge from her admirers in reality when he begins to sing in lilting meas- an open casement, and finds herself in the ures,- a strange siren! But though the piece , shabby chambers of Edmund Burke, then poor does not represent the author at his best, it and unknown. In the second, George Rom- contains eloquent verse and a number of ney, broken, ill, and forsaken by his court attractive lyrics. friends, asks for charity at a cottage door in The recent death of Stephen Phillips lends the country, where lives the deserted wife of a melancholy interest to what is probably his his youth, still proud of his fame and faithful last play. On the whole, in treating of war, to his memory. Neither at first knows the the realists have the better of it. "Armaged- other; and their gradual recognition is pre- don " is a strange and sad fulfilment of the sented with extraordinary delicacy and dra- fears expressed in "A Poet's Prayer" (pub- matic skill. The plays are intended primarily I lished in “New Poems,” 1907): - : 1916] 77 THE DIAL “ Desert me not, when from my flagging sails courage fails him, and he dies on the sword of Thy breathing dies away, and virtue fails, Kurano. Then, over the grave of Asano, the faithful receive and execute the Emperor's And I, from splendour thrown, and dashed from sentence upon themselves. In its motives of dream, revenge, pretended madness, and the rejection Into the flare pursue the former gleam. of love through consecration to a terrible duty, the play obviously recalls Hamlet." Else shall thy dreadful gift still people Hell, But Kurano is troubled by no doubt or hesi- And men not measure from what height I fell." tation; he waits only till the moment of No criticism of "Armageddon” could be more opportunity, then swift as meditation or the exact or more severe than this prophecy. thoughts of love he sweeps to his revenge. In Even to the letter it has been realized. Mr. style and feeling, the play is closer to classic Phillips still had vigorous rhetoric at his com- tragedy than to romance. No death takes mand; he was visited still by intermittent place on the stage. There are only two scenes, gleams of poetry. But in this play he has between which the action alternates: the open “peopled Hell” (the scene of the prologue country near Asano's castle, and a room in and epilogue) with demons who speak not in the palace of Kira. The atmosphere through- the large accents of his Prometheus, but in out is one of gloom, unrelieved except by the the rant of Tamburlaine. triumphant fulfilment of vengeance. The play is written in grave and quiet prose, aus- “ Arise now, Massacre! Thou favorite daughter, Got in adultery 'neath a moody moon, terely simple; yet through it there swells a Awaken to the smell of infant blood!” mighty and restrained rhythm, as of a distant and muffled drum-beat, breaking at the end "Into the flare" with a vengeance! The into the trumpet-call of the Herald who scenes which represent Germany at war are sorry caricatures. The best part of the play sage of death. brings to Kurano and his warriors the mes- is the scene in which the French, Belgian, Only a great poet could create a prose like this,- sonorous in its very plain- and British generals express their national points of view; and even here the inspiration accurately right in its reticences and its over- ness, charged with profound feeling, and flags, and drama is sacrificed to rhetoric. Against a background of early eighteenth tive song which are scattered through the play tones. The fragments of grave and medita- century Japan, Mr. Masefield's “The Faith- are woven into the very texture of the style. ful” tells a story of cruel wrong and revenge. They are not external ornaments: they fre- Asano, a noble and enlightened Daimyo who quently express the deepest emotions of the has devoted himself to his people, has strug. singer. singer. Thus Chikara, son of Kurano, after gled long against the aggressions of his he and his father have resolved that the hour enemy Kira, an upstart lord who has grown of vengeance has come, sings: rich and powerful at the expense of his neigh- bors. By coldly calculated treachery, Kira Sometimes, when guests have gone, the host provokes him to an act of violence which remembers Sweet courteous things unsaid. brings upon him the condemnation of the We two have talked our hearts out to the embers, Emperor's envoy, and death. Asano's friend And now go hand in hand down to the dead." Kurano is prevented by a device of his wife's The theme of the play is best expressed in from being present at the fatal meeting. On Kurano's “death-poem,” — which is a single hearing of it, he devotes himself, his son, and sentence: “Evil is very strong, but men who a handful of Asano's followers to the sacred will give their lives are stronger." Revenge duty of revenge. He puts away his wife, who to Kurano is not merely a personal matter; might hinder him in his purpose, and to it is the redressing of a great wrong. It is blind suspicion he feigns madness. The the Dark Tower of Childe Roland's quest; to wives and children of his followers slay them- selves to leave their lords unhampered in the which the way leads through a desolate and cruel region; for which, though it is ugly in great design. All Asano's friends are driven into outlawry. At last the moment arrives. itself, all human bonds must be lightly sun- Kira is once more visited by the Emperor's dered, and life itself is a trivial price, to be envoy; and confident in the sanctity which paid exultantly. Dark as is the tragedy of the Presence gives to his palace, sends away pressing, but, like that of all great tragedy, the story, therefore, its total effect is not de- his guards. Kurano and his followers sur- uplifting. Mr. Masefield has written admira- prise him as he is dallying with a woman, and ble poems, but none finer than this dramatic magnificently courteous, request him to kill poem in prose. himself with the dagger of Asano. Kira's HOMER E. WOODBRIDGE. : 78 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL 1 1 1 1 RECENT FICTION. great lady; of the troubadour, Garin of the Golden Isle, and the Princess of the Fair Ever since the immense popularity of Goal; also of a man and a woman living in “Waverley,” the historical novel has had a far away Provence during the Crusades, when sort of prescriptive right to be. Scott showed life was far more broken up and mixed than clearly how delightful it was to read, and the we think who view it through the simplifying novelists soon found out how delightful it media of history and recollection of history. was to write. I believe it was Gibbon who It is a well-written book; like “The Witch, pointed out that any honest gentleman who it has less of the semi-lyric note than some of wanted to write a book could write a history, Miss Johnston's books, and therefore (we for there was the subject matter all ready to would say) more of a definite matured char- hand. In like manner, anyone who wanted to acter. It is a fine book, and not to be vaguely write a novel had at once some sort of interest undiscriminating we add that it is not one of ready-made in the charm and color of some the few finest. It may be that Miss Johnston bygone time. It is true that ideas conven- lacks the intensity of imagination necessary tionalized a good deal, especially in the mat- to fuse everything in one great impression. ter of mediævalism; knights, ladies, squires, She often appears to us a little too medita- pages, outlaws, friars got to be stock charac- tive, contemplative, for a great novelist,- , ters which became wearisome, while the imita- more like an essayist on the one hand, or a tion of mediæval language became an imbecile lyric poet on the other. jargon, which even Stevenson called tush- If Miss Johnston's book is a fair try at the ery." Into this placid convention Mr. Mau- best that an historical novel can be, Mr. Far- rice Hewlett tossed "Richard Yea-and-Nay," nol's “Beltane the Smith” is a very different which surprised and delighted people with the matter. It may be that the author would not idea that life in the Middle Ages was as real wish to have his book thought of as an histori- as at any other period. cal novel, and it is certainly true that it is Miss Johnston's "Fortunes of Garin is a nothing of the kind. But just as surely as novel of the later type. It is not lacking in " The Fortunes of Garin” derives from the romance, but it has reality as well. Reality, sound and fine idea in "Ivanhoe” and “Quen- . in this case, is not a question of historic accu- tin Durward,” so does “Beltane the Smith racy,--though general accuracy is good, prob- derive from what in itself was (and still is) ably necessary; it is a question of vitality: good in the hand of a master and an original . One must conceive of the thing in terms of mind, and yet slight and childish in the hand life, which doubtless demands knowledge. So of one who handles it merely as one would Miss Johnston realizes her setting and her handle the puppets of a marionette show. It characters, the great cathedral, the feudal is no harm (and indeed it is most delightful) castle; the squire and the jongleur, and all for a child to be enthralled at the first imagin- the rest of the stately pageant or panorama ings of knights and outlaws, tournaments and which passes before us. They must be real greenwoods; but it is hardly worthy the time places and people, and not vague conventional of an adult reader to continue through pages forms and figures coming from an imagination of imaginings suggested thereby. stimulated by readings and dreamings. Miss That there is something more in "Beltane Johnston has been most successful; from the the Smith " is undeniable, but that something very beginning one feels that here is a ro- is a hindrance rather than a help. It con- mance that might be of our own day, except cerns the serious side of the book, however for the strange and curious garment of the foolish it may seem to anyone to imagine that body and the soul of the men and women there is one. Nobody need bother to run a therein. Yet it is not absolute realism. Such tilt with a man who really tries to present the a book probably must be always somewhat labors of a young fellow who devotes his life decorative, conventionalized though not con- to making a bad world good. Such people ventional. We can hardly know that life so are too rare in life, and it is good to read of well as to permit the utterly true truth. It them. But the trouble with “Beltane the must always be rather like a fine tapestry than Smith is that it is not genuine; it is a mere like an absolute picture. sham. Beltane is not a young man versed in Such a book is a real achievement. This woodcraft and ancient philosophies”; there one is the story of the poor squire and the is not a single line in the book which shows any woodcraft or philosophy on his part or trated. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. Illustrated. the part of the author. He is not a young man who goes forth in the service of Jesus By Henry Newbolt. Illustrated. Christ with the (mistaken) notion that the - * THE FORTUNES OF GARIN. By Mary Johnston. Illus- BELTANE THE SMITH. By Jeffery Farnol. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. ALADORE. E: P. Dutton & Co. New York: 1916) 79 THE DIAL - main thing in His message was "that He familiarity with old forms and old literatures. came 'not to bring peace on this earth but a We may not like it: when he says that the sword.' For good cannot outface evil, but hermit threw his crumbs out to dunnocks strife must needs follow." He is but a blun- and finches " we may prefer some other dering young fellow of the type of hero names for the birds, — dyke-snowler, for in- brought into painful prominence twenty-five stance, or the more familiar hedge sparrow. years ago by Mr. Stanley Weyman. He is no The words or phrases may not be really more genuine than the jargon in which his archaic: “cot and lot, barn and balk," says story is told. Nor does the author take his the book; we never heard the latter phrase, own figures seriously; he knows there is noth- but if not remembered it is a good imagina- ing to them, and makes no attempt to realize tion. If the book says “laylock bushes” it is any of the superficial sentiment that occa- a pleasure to remember that current Ameri- sionally occurs to him, or even the various canisms are often descended from English situations which he imagines. Helen, Duchess dialects. So all the way from the idea at the of Mortain, goes out at night into the wood to very core to the language on the very out- seek the young smith whom she had kissed side,- one may test the book and find it ring that afternoon in a little visit she had made true; one may find something that actually to the greenwood for that purpose. A good arose in the mind of the poet and therefore while afterward, Beltane, who has been wan- makes the mysterious effect upon our own dering about with the same Helen under the minds. disguise of a young knight, finds out who she So much, though it leaves out all but inner- is on seeing her as she comes out of a wood- most kernel and outer shell, should be enough land pool and lets down her hair. In neither to send to the book most of those who would be case does Mr. Farnol give us any idea that likely to enjoy it. Sir Henry Newbolt is best we have more than one of the ordinary events known to us as a poet; everyone knows his of life, in “that period when Love and Valor "Admirals All.” His poetic romances are not were life's mainspring." so well known, but they are equally well It might seem that much the same sort of grounded in an intuitive perception of some thing should be said of Sir Henry Newbolt's of the things that are great in life. · We “Aladore.” But among many differences be- ought to mention, also, the drawings of his tween the two books, there is this one, which, sometime co-worker, the Lady Hylton (with would be enough were there no others: in apologies for our own affectations of lan- “Aladore" the author has really in mind as guage), which are very much in the spirit of the chief thing the spiritual quest of his hero, the romance. EDWARD E. HALE. and takes the imaginative form which he does take merely as a form; while with Mr. Far- nol's book the reverse is the case,-- he takes the form and mentions a spiritual quest as a BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. substance which he now and then feels is "How Diplomats Make War" needed to give reality, and the result is, that (Huebsch) is the title of a book while in “Beltane the Smith " have much diplomacy. recently published which many conventional bashing and blundering with no of its readers will feel has appeared at the significance at all, in “Aladore" we have some moment when it was most required. Amidst very singular pregnant conceptions in the the high pressure of emotionalism in which form of imaginative though sometimes whim- sane judgments are at a premium, and sical action. Beltane going forth to right the strong opinions on one side or another are wrongs of Pentavalon at the behest of his regarded as inevitable, it is well to be re- father turned hermit is a figure of no real minded that quarrels between nations, as significance. But when Ywain goes forth between individuals, are usually due to from his estate with the child, it gradually “faults on both sides.” The “British states- ” dawns on us that in his search for something who is the anonymous author of this more satisfying than wealth and power he is book has collected a mass of evidence drawn really guided by the freshness and sincerity from the various manifestos of the warring of his own youth. countries as well as from the parliamentary The thing shows even in language. It is reports of questions addressed by British not necessary to say that “Aladore” is written members to the Prime Minister and foreign in any form of the English language that ever secretary; all going to show that undue was actually spoken or written. But even if secrecy as to the commitments of the govern- not, Sir Henry's dialect is a dialect of his own ment had been preserved during the half- (like William Morris's), the result of actual | dozen years preceding the outbreak of the The evils of secret we man 80 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL war. The indictment is indeed a serious one. of temperaments, and the pseudo-sciences of The whole principle of democracy is involved phrenology, physiognomy, and palmistry, not in the question as to whether it should be to mention the older astrological speculations. possible for the government of a country to Recently it is manifest once more in the commit its people to ententes and alliances numerous attempts, by a "mental diagnosis," that may lead to international conflict, with- to predict for the individual the pursuit for out the full knowledge and consent of the which his talents best fit him. These attempts representatives of the people. To admit the very largely ignore the plasticity of the mind, legitimacy of such irresponsible action is to and the consequent adaptability of the indi- throw away the only guarantee we possess vidual to a varying environment. They as- against the evil of autocracy and to abandon sume at the outset that the mind is a rather the entrenchments of popular liberty that rigid mechanism, and that the individual must have been laboriously erected during the last fail unless he promptly finds his particular hundred years. The chief service which this niche in the social and business worlds. These book renders to those who wish to see all attempts all masquerade under the title of round the problem of the original causes of “efficiency," a term which, as someone has the war, lies in its suggestion that there is a said, “should no longer be permitted in polite case for Germany as well as for Britain and society without a chaperon.” Of recent books her Allies. The author supplies statistics on the psychology of individual differences, with a liberal hand, going to prove that the one of the best is Professor Joseph Jastrow's estimates for army and naval enlargement Character and Temperament” (Appleton). and construction on the part of the Allies It will convince the reader that there is not as during the past few years have been consid- yet any trustworthy short cut from theory to erably in excess of Germany's, and that Mr. practice. practice. General psychology gives a good Churchill's proposal for “a naval holiday" as outline map of the main features of the human between Germany and Britain, while France mind. This must be filled in with numerous and Russia were increasing their armaments, details in order to afford an account of the was one that Germany must necessarily have human diversities included in the terms " char- declined. If it is true that, without the knowl- acter” and “temperament.” Of these Profes- edge of the people's elected representatives sor Jastrow gives a qualitative account. In and in spite of questions repeatedly asked and the babe a functional trait is little more than answered in the negative, the Cabinet com- the strength and direction of an instinct. This mitted themselves to certain courses of action remains as its foundation, but it later develops that could only be interpreted by Germany into a generic reactive tendency or a factor as a policy of isolation and unfriendliness, modifying such a tendency. At this higher then the British people should know of it, level of development, human traits are de- and decide once for all whether their parlia- scribed in the text, though brief mention is mentary institutions are for the future to be made of the instinctive root of each one, made secure against the recurrence of such except perhaps in the intellectual traits such violations of the first principles of constitu- as the sense of detail, aptitude for construc- tional government. Believers in the laws of tion, power of abstraction, “gift” in language causation cannot regard the hatred in which or mathematics, originality, shrewdness, “com- Britain is held by Germany as without ade- mon sense,” etc. The conclusion is drawn that quate foundation, and an attitude of diligent the differences in traits between men and heart-searching would undoubtedly be the women, and between white, black, or red races, most becoming one for the people of the are comparatively small and overlap. The United Kingdom. The time has come when widest differences are individual ones. Indi- nations, like individuals, must learn that not vidual white men of similar ancestry and only is honesty the best policy, but that open- environment differ from each other in any one ness and sincerity and friendliness produce ability more, for example, than the average like feelings in other nations, and that day. difference in that trait between men and light is the one sanative influence under women. Yet differences small in amount may which the germs of suspicion and distrust and be large in effect. What factors or elements hatred will never develop. of a trait are due to heredity and what to environment or training? In answer to this The psychology Doubtless the most widespread question some physical “unit characters” are of individual psychological interest is that named; but it is thought "hardly plausible differences. shown in the observation and though not impossible that musical ability, like comparison of the widely differing traits of eye color, is a factor absent or present, through individuals. From it have sprung the doctrine | the absence or presence of factor in the germ. 6 > 1916) 81 THE DIAL With even more complex traits, such as math- looked as if snow had fallen on them." Here ematical ability or a keen moral sense, the is Alcott: Alcott made some most remark- probability grows still less." While deferring able statements, as : . . We each can decide somewhat to the extreme opinion that there is when we will ascend.' Then he would look no such thing as general intelligence, Profes- around as if to question all, and add: 'Is it sor Jastrow inclines to the view that there is a not so? Is it not so?' I remember another of common aptitude for different types of mental his mystic utterances : . When the mind is work, and a common fund of energy at whose izzing, it is thinking things. Is it not so? Is a expense mental work is done. The tests of the it not so?'" Whitman discusses, in his own laboratory are not, perhaps, so successful as way, and in the presence of Frances E. Wil- those of life in determining individual differ- lard, the subject of temperance: “He declared ences, yet the former tests give us hope of that all this total abstinence was absolute rot eventual success. Possibly the greatest dif- and of no earthly use, and that he hated the ference among men is that of energy and its sight of these women who went out of their emotional counterpart, courage. The differ- way to be crusading temperance fanatics. ing mental traits of the sexes are discussed at After this outburst he left the room. Miss length, and also the relation of character to Willard never alluded to his fiery criticism, the environment. The attentive reader will did n't seem to know she had been hit, but find that the book supplements the outline chatted on as if nothing unpleasant had oc- of general psychology in many important curred. In half an hour he returned; and respects. with a smiling face made a manly apology, and asked to be forgiven for his too severe So sound a critic as E. C. Sted- A book of remarks." There are too or three other pas- reminiscent man pronounced one of Miss gossip. sages of equal interest,— but all too few. Kate Sanborn's books“ breezy and fascinating," and perhaps he was not ex- Mr. Elliott O'Donnell's “The travagant. But one wonders what he would Irish emigrants Irish Abroad” (Dutton) is an have said of her “Memories and Anecdotes' in many lands. extended account of what the (Putnam). Certainly it is breezy; but more sons of Erin are doing in various parts of the than that cannot be said for it. It is the world, with an introductory chapter on the thinnest of gossip,- so thin that even large conditions which forced the Irish to seek type, and illustrations, and gratuitous quota- homes in foreign lands. The author finds his tion do not succeed in impressing the reader. countrymen almost everywhere; but the It might serve as a substitute for an idle hour greater number of Irish emigrants appear to of reminiscence with a garrulous and egotis- have settled in English-speaking countries,- tic old friend; but it hardly deserves to be America, Great Britain, and the self-governing called a book. These are hard words; yet British colonies. In the seventeenth and softer ones are not easy to find. Referring to eighteenth centuries, the many rebellions the criticism offered by a professor at Dart- against English rule in Ireland led to a con- mouth, Miss Sanborn writes: "I needed his siderable migration to the Continent, espe- precautions about spreading myself too thin, cially to France, in the armies of which Irish about being less flamboyantly loquacious, and exiles, in thousands, found service; to the subduing my excessive enthusiasm and emo- history of this interesting movement, and to tional prodigality." Yes, and this popular the achievements of the Irish in France, the lecturer and writer of books needs his precau- author gives several chapters. Mr. O'Donnell's tions, at this late day, more than ever. Her work is somewhat encyclopædic in character, language is shabby in an age when all writing and contains a great mass of important infor- tends to the journalistic; she tells mere noth- mation ; but, unfortunately, he has not always ings with infinite and wearisome" breeziness been careful to verify his statements, and con- (“ gusto” would not serve for her flitting sequently many errors have found their way mood); she has not even mastered English into the book, particularly into the chapters grammar (witness, for example, the confu- that deal with the Irish in our own country. sion of “who” and “whom " on pp. 65 and We are told, for instance, that Irish settlers 145). In her favor is the wide experience came to America “in the seventeenth century, she has had in her work, in many States of the when about a thousand, mostly Puritans from Union. She has seen, not without shrewd all parts of Ireland, went to Maryland under ness, one or two of the greater and many of the leadership of John Winthrop, and, in the lesser lights of her day. Here is Bryant: 1630, founded Boston, which has been Irish in , “What an impressive personality; erect, with the main ever since.” It may be true that white hair and long beard; his eyebrows eighty per cent of the American Revolution- 6 > 82 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL 66 . - . Two fresh introductions - ary army in 1782 was composed of Irish- sing Browning's theory of poetry, his aim and Americans, but we should like to see the method, his leading ideas, his fondness for evidence. With the statement that “there are paradox, and the nature and basis of his few names in history deserving of more optimism. Hence it is an agreeable, as well praise” than that of Andrew Jackson, we do as an instructive, volume for the general not wish to quarrel, though it seems an exag- reader as far as it goes. But, since the pur- geration. But it really does startle one to read pose seems to have been to include only such that Mr. Bryan ran for president as the "ad- poems as could be given entire, we have noth- vocate of monometallism as opposed to the ing of “The Ring and the Book," almost present system of bimetallism.' It is also nothing from the dramas, and nothing of interesting to note that the story of the Irish “Paracelsus" except some of its lyrics. To find in South America is made part of a chapter on fault with a writer of so much humor, charm, “famous Irishmen in the United States of and knowledge as Dr. Phelps is somewhat America." Americans of Irish ancestry will ungracious; nevertheless the question arises : be interested in Mr. O'Donnell's book; but it Can anyone really “know" a poet without is possible that some of them will object to his considering his masterpieces? Are these not statements that when the Irish parliament needed to justify Dr. Phelps's own statement: becomes a reality, Ireland will “bury the bury the “With the exception of Shakespeare, any hatchet for good,” and that " in the present other English poet could now be spared more crisis — the Great European War- the sym- easily than easily than Browning "1 - Professor Har- ? pathy of every true-born Irishman in the rington's book is derived from lecture courses United States is entirely with England and given to college students. It is frankly her Allies." academic in type, bristles with foot-notes, is divided into almost endless heads and sub- When Robert Browning died, heads. Consequently it is a book for the stu- twenty-six years ago, the ques- dent, rather than for the general reader, - a to Browning. tion heard most frequently and reference book for the library shelf, rather discussed most hotly in literary circles was than a volume for consecutive reading. For this: Will Browning's poetry, live,— will the the purposes indicated, it is admirable. For next generation give him as high rank as is example, it would be difficult to find a more given him to-day? There were those who helpful 'discussion of “The Ring and the were ready to assert that it was the Browning Book" than in the fifty pages given to it here. societies that had made Browning's reputa- Professor Harrington calls this work “the tion,-an opinion worthy to stand by the side Pr most soul-satisfying piece of literature I have of the statement of the Stratford coach-driver ever read. In spite of all its defects :. by who said to the present reviewer: “We do n't think much of Shakespeare in this town; it's in its marvellous grasp of human nature, it its passion, beauty, and wealth of color, and the Americans that have made Shakespeare.' can be compared only with the great operas. Time has settled the old doubts; and how- ever much lovers of poetry may differ as to "favorite poets," few indeed will deny that The expulsion of the Germans The fall of a the world's verdict writes Browning's name German outpost from Shantung by the Japanese, very near the top of the list. But this is not though insignificant in compari- to say that he is as easy to read as some son with many of the other operations of the others; it makes considerable difference difference Great War, may prove to be one of the most through what poems of his you approach him, important in its after-effects. "Mr. Jeffer- a fact which has been recognized by numer- son Jones, the only American civilian eye- ous writers of "Introductions to Browning witness, who accompanied the Anglo-Japanese during the past quarter-century. Two excel force, has described the episode in “The Fall lent guides have lately appeared, - Professor of Tsingtau" (Houghton Mifflin Co.). The William Lyon Phelps's “Browning: How to story is not a very thrilling one. The garrison Know Him” (Bobbs-Merrill Co.), and Pro- of forty-five hundred was doomed from the fessor Vernon C. Harrington's "Browning first, and the delay in forcing the issue was Studies (Badger). Although the two books due to a desire to save life or, we are told, to have the same purpose, they are quite different political conditions in Tokyo. Yet one must in type. To the general reader, Dr. Phelps's regret that lives were sacrificed, and that the volume is the more interesting. Though attractive German outpost in China had to be scholarly, it is not pedantic: foot-notes there demolished by friend and foe. More interest- are none. Fifty well-chosen poems are pub- ing than the account of the military operations lished entire, to furnish material for discus- are the comments of the author on the viola- in China. 1916) 83 THE DIAL > tion of Chinese neutrality by the Japanese, on which insects bear to disease in man. The the subordinate position of the British con- first of these, often omitted in treatises of this tingent, and on the lack of sanitation and dis- kind, deals with arthropods which are directly cipline in the Japanese force. A considerable poisonous, including the biting, stinging, net- portion of the volume is devoted to the general tling, and vesicating insects, mites, and spi- situation in the Far East, especially as regards ders. Then the truly parasitic mites, ticks, the recent Sino-Japanese treaties. Mr. Jones lice, bugs, flies, mosquitoes, midges, fleas, and is a severe critic of the late Japanese diplo- chiggers are discussed, as well as those which macy, and he apparently must be numbered occasionally temporarily adapt themselves to among the journalists who have adopted a pes- life on or in the human body. The most simistic view of China's future. One of his important chapters are those which deal with chapters is entitled “The Passing of China as flies as carriers of typhoid fever, fleas of the a Sovereign Power,” and he is of opinion that plague or "black death,” and mosquitoes of "at half-past 1 o'clock on the morning of Sun- malaria and yellow fever, ticks of Texas cattle day, May 9, China, the oldest nation in the fever and relapsing fever and the fatal spot- world, passed under the virtual domination of ted fever of man, lice of typhus, and the Japan. But in the last chapter we learn that tsetse fly and fleas of the widely spreading "New China .. gains strength day by day.” sleeping sicknesses of man and other mam- " Mr. Jones also believes that the real issue mals. mals. Possible but not proved relations of between Japan and the United States is not insect agency for the transmission of infantile immigration but the attitude of the two gov- paralysis, leprosy, pellagra, and cancer are ernments toward China; but happily "there discussed but not accepted. There is a synop- is no real ground for apprehension, no real tic key for the determination of the insects cause for alarm in the relations existing be- concerned, a helpful chapter on household tween the United States and Japan. If fumigation, and an extensive bibliography “The Fall of Tsingtau " runs into a second which omits some of the more important edition it is to be hoped that the publishers memoirs and includes others of slight conse- will include a map, for surely there are some quence. The illustrations are well chosen, and readers who cannot easily turn to a large- generally well executed. The book deserves scale map of the Shantung Peninsula. wide distribution as a concise and comprehen- sive manual of medical entomology suitable The growth of knowledge re- alike for the physician, the school, the general The relation garding the relations of insects library, and as a text-book for university to many forms of disease has classes. been so great in the past fifteen years that earlier entomological treatises are wholly in- The historical novel crops out Fiction from adequate in their presentation of this aspect four thousand years ago on ancient Egypt. of the relations of the arthropods, the greatest papyri bearing the tale of an of the groups of animals, to human health and Egyptian courtier, Sinuhe, who had adven- welfare. Indeed, the available material in tures in Palestine long before the Hebrew this field is now so abundant and so varied nation existed. The eastern Mediterranean that the merest presentation of the impor- situation a thousand years later appears in the tant principles involved in these relationships, ostensible (or actual?) report of an Egyptian ) of the more salient facts, and of the most priest, Wenamon, who had been sent to the striking illustrations, will in itself make a Lebanon to procure cedar for a sacred barge. book of considerable size. It is in the selec- Half way between these in time, Thutiy, a tion and condensation of such material that general of the pharaoh Thutmose III, is pic- the “Handbook of Medical Entomology tured as capturing Joppa by a stratagem sug- (Comstock Publishing Co.), written by Pro- gestive of Ali Baba and the forty thieves. fessors W. A. Riley and O. A. Johannsen of These and other types of Egyptian tales - a Cornell University, notably excels. The per- marvellous sea yarn, talking mummies, prodi- spective of relative values so difficult to estab- gies worked by magicians are assembled in — lish in the infancy of most great advances in M. Maspero's “Popular Stories of Ancient knowledge is here not only adequately deter- Egypt" (Putnam). This volume, translated mined but also well maintained throughout by Mrs. C. H. W. Johns from a revision of the the work. The author discusses the growth of fourth French edition of 1911, furnishes the knowledge of insect transmission of disease, most complete treatment of the subject now rather too briefly in the matters of recent available. Even stories preserved only piece- . history, and then proceeds to the systematic meal and at second hand by Herodotus and discussion of the several types of relationships later writers are included. M. Maspero, in a of insects to disease. а. - a - 84 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL very readable Introduction, establishes con- texture, brings out in sharp relief the salient nections between the composite plots of these features of a very complex situation. Indeed, earliest known tales and more familiar epi- the judicious reader may sometimes wonder sodes in the Old Testament stories, the Arabian if the whole matter is not being made too clear Nights, and elsewhere, at the same time show- and easy for his readier comprehension. Mr. ing that their atmosphere and setting here are Belloc passes over the preliminaries of the thoroughly Egyptian. The "revision" of the war with a few pungent, slightly dogmatic, French edition is almost imperceptible, except statements. Like many another, he is con- that two useful indexes (lacking in the vinced that while Germany's military prepa- French) have been added. Each story is ration had been continuous in a general way accompanied by an apparently complete bibli- since the establishment of the Empire, she ography; but some important additions since had been making specific preparations for the 1911 remain unmentioned, among them Vogel present war three years beforehand. The sang's voluminous commentary on “The bulk of the book deals with the military move- Lamentations of the Fellah." This same tale, ments down to Sept. 5, 1914, the eve of the to M. Maspero apparently a mere “take-off" battle of the Marne. The author's specialties on the sorrows and volubility of the Egyptian are statistics and strategy. He has much to peasant, has been well interpreted by Profes- say about the relative sizes of the opposing sor Breasted in his unnoted “ Development of armies, and believes that the Germanic forces Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt" greatly outnumbered the Allies in the early (1912) as a social tractate in disguise appeal- stages of the war. In the matter of grand ing for a more just officialdom. The transla- strategy, the fight on the western front tions of the tales from the Egyptian depend hinged on the efficacy of the French forma- rather on M. Maspero's keen intuition, his own tion known as “the open strategic square, extensive studies, and his familiarity with against the German long line with its envel- modern Egypt, than on the grammatical prin- oping process. This somewhat technical mat- ciples which have been worked out, chiefly by ter is delightfully elucidated with the aid of German scholars, in the last decades. Occa diagrams. Those who read “ The First sional loss of coherence and of accuracy in Phase" will await eagerly the forthcoming detail results. Some points — for example, volumes of Mr. Belloc's work. the name and location of the vale to which Bata fled (in the “Story of the Two Brothers," The most recent volume in the p. 9), the nature of the ka, and the meaning of "American Colleges and Univer- of Vassar. the epithet “true of voice” applied to the dead sities Series" (Oxford Press) is (p. 84) — are better explained in other ways a history of Vassar by President Emeritus than those here adopted. Inconspicuous foot- Taylor and Associate Professor Haight. The notes seem inadequate for distinguishing the authors present their facts from a point of actually surviving portions of the tales from view distinctly that of administrators; stu- skilfully paraphrased restorations of lost frag- dent activities are not omitted from the story, ments. Any translation will involve some but they are somewhat slighted, and less atten- slips or misunderstandings. Mrs. Johns has, tion is given to the influence of student and however, as in her previous translations of alumnæ criticism on the college development other worth-while books, well reproduced the than strict fairness demands. Nevertheless, spirit of M. Maspero's suggestive volume. the book is interesting as giving an account of early days at the pioneer among American Mr. Hilaire Belloc is known to colleges for women,- days that have just been history: the the American public as an essay- so enthusiastically recalled in the celebration first phase. ist, an historian, and the bril- of the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. liant mentor of the still more brilliant Mr. Feminists, educators, students, and the gen- G. K. Chesterton. It may not be so well eral public will all find matter for thought in known that he is a military critic of some this condensed history of yesterday's phase in repute, with a respectable term of service the great struggle for women's freedom. Fifty in the French army behind him. He has years ago the founders of Vassar (Matthew projected a history of the present European Vassar was but one of a group of far-sighted conflict in six volumes, collectively entitled enthusiasts) established a broad and sound “ The Elements of the Great War," of which basis for “female” development; they empha- we now have “The First Phase” (Hearst's sized the need for physical training - horse- International Library). The book is one of back riding and dancing, as well as walks and unusual interest, for the author's lucid and calisthenics ; they insisted on “æsthetics," and logical mind, more French than English in its a broadly conceived study of music and paint- The story > Mr. Belloc's war > 1916] 85 THE DIAL Militarism in : ing; they cried out upon all forms of superfi- attitude of adoring discipleship to the great ciality; they pled with more conservative master. But there would seem to be no ade- teachers and parents for the right of the quate reason why this early work, never very Young Person to know the larger world; they perspicacious and now hopelessly out of date, stood unswervingly for non-sectarianism, and should be offered at this time to the English- for a genuine democracy in the college life speaking world. The translation, moreover, is that in some of the later days of Vassar has turgid and Teutonic, and gives one a most been in danger of being forgotten. The strug- unfair impression of the author's really ad- gles and inspirations of the sixties, the hard- mirable gifts, which he has revealed elsewhere, ships and depressions of the seventies and as a German stylist. eighties, the triumphant growth of the nineties and of the first decade of this century, are President Hibben, in his In- faithfully recounted, though, as has been troduction to Major-General America. said, not quite fully. Nothing is made, for Wood's “The Military Obliga- instance, of the awakening spirit among the tion of Citizenship” (Princeton University students of some eight years ago, or of the still Press), assures us that General Wood pos- more recent developments in faculty organiza- sesses expert knowledge and that it is availa- tion that bid fair to put the college among ble in this volume. However, the book is fearless modern experimenters with the best neither original nor profound its chief au- of new scientific methods in education, a posi- thorities are General Upton and Old Light- tion which she certainly held at the beginning Horse Harry Lee; its argument for pre- of her career and which she should as cer- paredness is not different from that of the tainly, after the middle years of consolidation innumerable inexpert communications on the and organization, not hesitate to seize upon subject in our daily press. General Wood again. To an alumna who reads between the wants an army “sufficient for the peace needs lines of the book, it is this unspoken hope for of the nation," an adequate navy, adequate the future that remains as the clearest mean- reserves, a good militia, and trained volun- ing to be drawn from the account of what has teers or citizen soldiers. He believes in uni- been accomplished in the past by unquestion- versal compulsory service similar to that in ing faith in woman's potentialities for a large Switzerland or Australia. But he does not and free self-realization. approve of "militarism," and he defines that much-used and little-understood word as fol- “The Wagnerian Drama" lows: “Militarism .. means the condition (Lane), by Mr. Houston Stew. under which the military forces of a nation art Chamberlain, is a translation demand and secure special recognition, both of the writer's first book, "Das Drama Rich socially and officially, and exercise an undue ard Wagners," which was published in 1892. influence in the conduct of the civil affairs of There is nothing on the title-page to show that the government, both at home and abroad." it is not a new book; the only indication that What is “undue influence” to an expert? it is a translation is a note on page 94 signed “ The Translator." Yet if the reader does not realize that the book dates back nearly a quar- BRIEFER MENTION. ter of a century, he must inevitably wonder In an attractive little book entitled “ Projective why the author says an undisputed thing in Ornament” (Rochester: The Manas Press), Mr. such a solemn way. Mr. Chamberlain's main Claude Bragdon, the architect, suggests a new thesis, so tediously reiterated, is that Wagner “form language" for the decorative arts, to be , was not the reformer of the opera but the developed from geometry. He maintains his thesis creator of the “Word-Tone-Drama" (sic). more successfully by means of illustrations than by That Wagner attempted to fuse drama and his text. This volume, added to Mr. Bragdon's music is now a commonplace of knowledge; « Primer of Higher Space,” and “ The Beautiful that he succeeded as a dramatist to anything Necessity,” will suggest to the decorative artist like the degree that Mr. Chamberlain claims, many new and beautiful, as well as artistic, forms of design. few will be willing to concede. “Die Meister- singer von Nürnberg" is the only work of his Not often does one find so much sane and con- which could maintain itself as a drama alone; structive thinking in so few pages as is contained in Mr. Percy MacKaye's "A Substitute for War" it assuredly ranks among the best of German (Macmillan), previously printed in the “North comedies. Mr. Chamberlain has in recent American Review.” War is picturesque; peace is years married a daughter of Wagner, and has drab. If peace is to replace war, it must be made taken up his residence at Bayreuth. It may handsome. This is to be done by organizing the be presumed, therefore, that he is still in the armies of peace, and by properly symbolizing their Wagner as a dramatist. (6 » 86 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL " 6 functions by utilizing the arts of the theatre and NOTES. of pageantry to make them fascinating. The Panama Canal, a peace enterprise, captivates the A book of memoirs by Lord Redesdale will imagination. Why cannot other constructive proj- shortly be issued in two volumes by Messrs. Dutton. ects of society be made equally appealing? The Mr. Harold Bell Wright's new novel, “ When a rich fruits which followed a pageant at Saint Man's a Man," is scheduled for August publication Louis in 1914, produced under Mr. MacKaye's by the Book Supply Co. personal direction, convince him that it can and “ The Silver Spoon” is the title of a forthcom- should be done. ing novel by Mr. Reginald Wright Kauffman, to be “ The Poet's Lincoln," consisting of “ tributes in published by Messrs. Moffat, Yard & Co. verse to the martyred President," is compiled and A variorum edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, published by that zealous and well-informed Lin- colnian, Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd. He has col- edited by Professor Raymond M. Alden, will soon lected in his two hundred and sixty pages many be published by the Houghton Mifflin Co. more Lincoln poems of merit than most of us sus- Mr. Charles G. Washburn has written a biog- pected to be in existence. To trace them and, in raphy of Mr. Theodore Roosevelt which the Hough- many cases, their authorship, must have been a ton Mifflin Co. announce for February publication. task. Dr. Marion Mills Miller contributes a valua- Held to Answer by Mr. Peter Clark Macfar- ble introductory chapter on “ The Poetic Spirit of lane is announced by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. Lincoln," and the Lincoln portraits and other ap- as their leading spring novel to be published some propriate illustrations are many. Mention should time next month, be made of the worthy purpose of the book,-"to The title of Mr. Owen Johnson's new book, deal- assist in preserving the collection of memorials ing with his experiences with the French in the now contained in the house in which Lincoln died, war zone, will be “ The Spirit of France.” Messrs. 516 Tenth Street, Washington, D. C.” The vol- Little, Brown & Co. are the publishers. ume is published by the editor, at the above Mr. Hugh Walpole, who has been serving with address. the Red Cross on the Russian front and witnessed Many a shudder, for those who enjoy shudder- the retreat from Galicia, has embodied his expe- ing and are credulous enough to be made to shud- riences into a romance which will be entitled “ The der, may be had at small cost by purchasing and Dark Forest." reading Mr. Hereward Carrington's "True Ghost Two historical accounts to come shortly from Stories (Ogilvie), a collection of curious tales the press of Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Co. are from such sources as the “Proceedings of the “ Petrograd: Past and Present” by Mr. William Society for Psychical Research," W. T. Stead's Barnes Steveni and “ A Thousand Years of Rus- “Real Ghost Stories,” and Mr. Robert Dale Owen's sian History by Mrs. Sonia E. Howe. “Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World." Mr. Carrington, who is an experienced ghost- The story of the Roosevelt Scientific Expedition to South America has been written by Rev. J. A. hunter, intersperses original matter in the way of Zahm (H. J. Mozans) and will appear this month explanation and suggestion, and gives to his book that serious and plausible air which will make it with the Appleton imprint under the title of all the more acceptable to the class of readers “ Through South America's Southlands.”' The second volume of the memoirs of the naturally attracted by its title. An appendix is devoted to “the phantom armies seen in France," Russian writer Serge Aksakoff, comprising “A and another to “historical ghosts." A short Family History ” and “ Years of Childhood," has bibliography of miscellaneous ghost literature been translated into English by Mr. J. D. Duff closes the book. and is promised for early issue by Messrs. All scholars interested in folk-song, all Middle- Longmans. Westerners, and all who enjoy things human, A new edition of “ Why We Punctuate; or, should find much instructive entertainment in a Reason versus Rule in the Use of Marks,” will be new number of the “Nebraska Ethnology and issued early in February by the Lancet Publishing Folk Lore Series." Miss Louise Pound, Associate Co. of Minneapolis. This work was published Professor of the English Language in the Uni- anonymously (“ by a Journalist”) nearly twenty versity of Nebraska, has prepared a syllabus of years ago. It has now been entirely rewritten. “The Folk-song of Nebraska and the Central Mr. Robert Bridges has edited “ The Spirit of West,” which will be followed later by a complete Man," an anthology in English and French from collection of words and music. There is consid- the philosophers and poets, which Messrs. Long- erable technical value in this collection, providing mans have in press. The book is a new kind of as it does material for the study of the variations anthology, the quotations, prose, and poetry mixed in common folk-songs. Besides this, the indig- together, being arranged in context, to exhibit the enous songs, such as “I Want to be a Cowboy," aspects of life on a spiritual basis. “ The Little Log Shanty on the Claim," “ Bury Me Announcing that they have become Mr. Gran- Not on the Prairie,” "The Horse Wrangler,” ville Barker's American publishers, Messrs. Little, “ The Kinkaider's Song," and the famous dog- Brown & Co. will reissue next month in separate gerel of the Cat Creek Glee Club, give the pam- volumes three of his best plays, “ The Marrying of phlet an interest that will not fail to appeal to the Ann Leete," “The Voysey Inheritance," and general reader. » > “ Waste.” The same firm will supply 66 The 1916) 87 THE DIAL 66 66 sor. Madras House” and “ Anatol,” and will also bring and Neo-Classic criticism. The present collection out a new edition of “Prunella," by Laurence extends from Wordsworth's essay on “ Poetry and Housman and Mr. Barker. A new book from Poetic Diction" (1800) to Lowell's essay on Mr. Barker's pen will be announced shortly. Wordsworth (1875). Another forthcoming volume "A Short History of Europe," by Mr. Charles in the same series is an anthology of English Sanford Terry, is announced by Messrs. Dutton. Prose -- Narrative, Descriptive, and Dramatic," From the same house will come A Chant of Love compiled by Mr. H. A. Treble, whose selection for England, and Other Poems” by Helen Gray ranges in period from Thomas Malory and John Cone, "In Pastures Green" by Mr. Peter Mc- Lyly to George Meredith and Robert Louis Arthur, and “English Railways: Their Develop- Stevenson. ment and Their Relation to the State" by Mr. Professor John Christopher Schwab, librarian Cleveland Stevens. of Yale University, died on the twelfth of this Among some of the more interesting novels month at the age of fifty years. He was born in announced for publication within the next two or New York City, entered Yale with the Class of three months are the following: Frey and His 1886, and after his graduation studied a year at the Wife," by Mr. Maurice Hewlett; “ The Belfry," University of Berlin and another year at Göttin- by Miss May Sinclair; "John Stane," by Mr. gen. In 1890 he became instructor in political George A. Chamberlain; “Mrs. Belfame," by economy at Yale, and in 1898 was made a profes- Mrs. Gertrude Atherton; and “ The Rudder," by In 1905 he was chosen university librarian Mrs. Mary S. Watts. and he held that position until his death. Dr. A new serial by Mr. William Dean Howells will Schwab was the author of two books, “ The His- begin in an early issue of the “ Century Maga- tory of the New York Property Tax” and “ The zine." It is called “The Leatherwood God," and Confederate States of America,” contributed to the story, set in the backwoods of Ohio, is that of many economic periodicals, and was a member of the American and British Economic Associations a religious imposter who proclaims himself first a and the American Library Association. He was prophet, then the Messiah, and finally, announcing that he is God, is almost convinced of his divinity arranging for a pageant next autumn in celebra- to have been secretary of the committee which is by the worship of deluded believers. tion of the 200th anniversary of the coming of A cumulative volume of all the numbers of Yale to New Haven. “ Information," a monthly digest of current events, is in preparation by the R. R. Bowker Co. for In the death, on January 10, of Frank Howard early issue. It will be a complete review of the Dodd, head of Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., the history and happenings of a momentous year, American publishing trade loses one of its promi- forming a supplement to the latest encyclopædias. nent members. Mr. Dodd had been in the pub- In the arrangement of contents the alphabetical lishing business from the time of his graduation plan will be preserved with ample cross references from Bloomfield Academy in 1860 until his death. to allied topics. He was born in Bloomfield, N. J., and entered “Nights: Rome, Venice in the Æsthetic Eight- business with his father, M. W. Dodd, who founded ies; Paris, London in the Fighting Nineties," is a publishing firm in 1839 in Brick Church Chapel, Printing House Square. In 1870 he succeeded to the title of an immediately forthcoming volume of reminiscences by Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell, the business, and with Mr. Edward S. Mead with illustrations from photographs and etchings founded the present house of Dodd, Mead & Co. He was President of the American Publishers' by Mr. Joseph Pennell, which Messrs. J. B. Lip- Association for a number of years, was active in pincott Co. will publish. It gives interesting many civic organizations, and was a member of accounts of Beardsley, Henley, Henry Harland, the Chamber of Commerce and a Trustee of the Whistler, and other literary and artistic friends of New York Kindergarten Association and the the Pennells. Greenwich Savings Bank. As president of the A new edition of de Vogue's book, " The Rus- publishing house he established "The Bookman," sian Novel,” is announced by Mr. Alfred A. Knopf. in 1896, and “ The New International Encyclo- This notable work, which has passed through a pædia," in 1902. dozen editions in France and has been translated into almost every European language, tells of the origin, rise, and progress of the novel and the cir- cumstances by which it became the specific means LIST OF NEW BOOKS. of forming modern Russia, freeing the people and [ The following list, containing 77 tilles, includes books educating the governing classes. The work deals received by The Dial since its last issue.] more especially with Pushkin, Gogol, Tourguéniev, Dostoieffsky, and Tolstoy, and was chiefly instru- BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY. mental in winning for its author a seat in the An Autobiography. By Edward Livingston Tru- French Academy. deau, M.D. Illustrated, 8vo, 322 pages. Double- day, Page & Co. $2. An addition to the “ World's Classics” is prom- A Short History of Belgium. By Léon Van der Essen, LL.D. Illustrated, 12mo, 168 pages. Uni- ised in a collection of “English Critical Essays versity of Chicago Press. $1. (Nineteenth Century)," selected and edited by Mr. Alcott Memoirs. Posthumously compiled from Edmund D. Jones, who hopes to follow it with a papers, journals, and memoranda of the late Dr. Frederick L. H. Willis by E. W. L. & H. B. 8vo, companion volume representative of Renaissance Richard G. Badger. $1. 108 pages. 88 [Jan. 20 THE DIAL The Beloved Physician: Edward Livingston Tru- deau. By Stephen Chalmers. Illustrated, 16mo, 74 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1. A History of South Africa: From the Earliest Days to Union. By William Charles Scully. Illus- trated, 12mo, 327 pages. Longmans, Green, & Co. $1. GENERAL LITERATURE. Journeys to Bagdad. By Charles S. Brooks; illus- trated with original wood-cuts by Allen Lewis. 8vo, 140 pages. Yale University Press. $1.50. Li Romans dou Lin. By F. C. Ostrander, Ph.D. 8vo, 154 pages. Columbia University Press. Book-Collectors as Benefactors of Public Libraries. By George Watson Cole. Illustrated, 8vo, 66 pages. Chicago: Privately Printed. Paper. Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology). Collected and translated from the Hawaiian by W, D. Westervelt. Illustrated in color, etc., 12mo, 263 pages. Boston: George H. Ellis Co. The Penny Ante Club: A Partial Record. By Arthur J. Shores. 12mo, 89 pages. New York Editorial Service. $1. VERSE AND DRAMA. The Tale of the Armament of Igor, A. D. 1185: A Russian Historical Epic. Edited and translated by Leonard A. Magnus, LL.B. With_frontispiece, 8vo, 122 pages. Oxford University Press. Ode on the Opening of the Panama-Pacific Inter- national Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. By George Sterling. 8vo, 16 pages. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson. $1.75. Omar Khayyam. Illustrated by Mera K. Jeff. Large 8vo, 15 pages. Cambridge: Galloway & Porter. Yosemite: An Ode. By George_ Sterling. Illus- trated, 8vo, 16 pages. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson 75 cts. Tempted in All Points: An Historical Play in Three Acts and Three Visions. By Ralph Hall Ferris. 12mo, 157 pages. Boston: The Gorham Press. $1. Gladys Klyne, and More Harmony. By Charles Lynch. 12mo, 75 pages. Boston: The Gorham Press. $1. Circe: A Dramatic Fantasy. By Isaac Flagg. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 178 pages. East Aurora, N. Y.: The Roycrofters. The Day of Battle: An Epic of War. By Arthur Thrush. 12mo, 60 pages. London: Erskine Mac- donald. Paper. A New Drama: A Tragedy in Three Acts from the Spanish of Don Manuel Tamayo y Baus; trans- lated by John D. Fitz-Gerald, Ph.D., and Thacher H. Guild, A.M., with introduction by John D. Fitz-Gerald. 12mo, 152 pages. New York: The Hispanic Society of America. Verse. By Adelaide_Crapsey. 18mo, 95 pages. Rochester, N. Y.: The Manas Press. $1. The Evanescent City. By George Sterling. Illus- trated, 8vo, 16 pages. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson. 75 cts. Oxford Garlands. Edited by R. M. Leonard. New volumes: Songs for Music; Epigrams. Each 16mo. Oxford University Press. Per volume, 25 cts. On the Lake, and Other Poems. By Elizabeth Rey- nolds. With portrait, 12mo, 142 pages. Richard G. Badger. si. Laurentian Lyrics, and Other Poems. By Arthur S. Bourinot. 12mo, 30 pages. Toronto: The Copp, Clark Co., Ltd. Paper. FICTION. Life and Gabriella: The Story of a Woman's Cour- age. By Ellen Glasgow. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 529 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.35. Clipped Wings. By Rupert Hughes. With frontis- piece, 12mo, 404 pages. Harper & Brothers. $1.35. The Eternal Magdalene. By Robert H. McLaughlin. 12mo, 300 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25. Peter Bosten. By_John Preston. 12mo, 352 pages. Omaha, Neb.: Published by the author. Dollars and Senne: A Story in Four Acts. By Otto J. Kraemer and Lester W. Humphreys. With frontispiece, 12mo, 109 pages. Boston: The Gor- ham Press. $1. PUBLIC AFFAIRS.- POLITICS, SOCIOLOGY, AND ECONOMICS. Fifty Years of American Idealism. By Gustav Pol- lak. 8vo, 468 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $2.50. The Monroe Doctrine: An Interpretation. By Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D. With map, 8vo, 445 pages. Little, Brown & Co. $1.75. Civilization and Climate. By Ellsworth Hunting- ton, Ph.D. Large 8vo, 333 pages. Yale Univer- sity Press. $2.50. Irrigation in the United States: A Discussion of Its Legal, Economic, and Financial Aspects. By Ray Palmer Teele, M.A. With map, 12mo, 253 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50. The Social Legislation of the Primitive Semites. By Henry Schaeffer, Ph.D. 8vo, 245 pages. Yale University Press. $2.35. A History of the Family as a Social and Educa- tional Institution. By Willystine Goodsell, Ph.D. 8vo, 588 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. An Application of the Teachings of Christ to the American Japanese Problem. By Herbert Flint. 8vo, 36 pages. Lawrence: University of Kansas. Paper. American Municipal Progress. By Charles Zueblin. Revised edition; illustrated, 12mo, 522 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. BOOKS ABOUT THE GREAT WAR. The Russian Campaign, April to August, 1915: Be- ing the Second volume of "Field Notes from the Russian Front." By Stanley Washburn. Illus- trated, 8vo, 348 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. Ordeal by Battle. By Frederick Scott Oliver. 12mo, 437 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.50. The Invasion of America: A Fact Story Based on the Inexorable Mathematics of War. By Julius W. Muller. Illustrated, 12mo, 352 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25. Vive la France! By E. Alexander Powell. Illus- trated, 12mo, 254 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1. Hyphenations. By Herman Ridder. 12mo, 268 pages. New York: Max Schmetterling. Belgium and Germany: Texts and Documents. Pre- ceded by a foreword by Henri Davignon. Illus- trated, large 8vo, 132 pages. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons. Þaper. RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. The Boy Scout Movement Applied by the Church. By Norman E. Richardson, Ph.D., and Ormond E. Loomis. Illustrated, 12mo, 445 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50. Encient Living. By Edward Earle Purinton. 12mo, 363 pages. Robert M. McBride & Co. $1.25. Manual for Training in Worship. By Hugh Harts- horne, Ph.D. -8vo, 154 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1. My Christ. By Carl D. Case, Ph.D. Illustrated, 12mo, 169 pages. Griffith & Rowland Press. The Book of Worship of the Church School. Pre- pared by Hugh Hartshorne, Ph.D. 8vo, 170 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. 55 cts. The Struggle for Justice, By Louis Wallis. 12mo, 57 pages. University of Chicago Press. Paper, 25 cts. EDUCATION. The American College. With introduction by Wil- liam H. Crawford. 12mo, 194 pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.25. Teaching Literature in the Grammar Grades and High School. By Emma Miller Bolenius, A.M. 12mo, 337 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. . $1.25. A Beginner's Psychology. By Edward Bradford Titchener. 12mo, 362 pages. Macmillan Co. $1. How the French Boy Learns to Write: A Study in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue. By Rollo Walter Brown. 8vo, 260 pages. Harvard Uni- versity Press. $1.25. Financing the Public Schools. By Earle Clark. “ Cleveland Education Survey." 16mo, 133 pages. Cleveland: Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation. Studies Introductory to a Theory of Education. By E. T. Campagnac. 12mo, 133 pages. G. P. Put- nam's Sons. 90 cts. Asmus Sempers Jugendland: Der Roman einer Kindheit. Von Otto Ernst; abridged and edited by Carl Osthaus. 16mo, 305 pages. D. C. Heath & Co. 60 cts. Schuld, and Other Stories. By Ilse Leskien; edited, with notes, vocabulary, exercises, and an ap- pendix, by Bayard Q. Morgan, 12mo, 154 pages. Oxford University Press. 40 cts. The Fall of Troy, Adapted from Vergil's Aneid. Edited, with introduction, notes, and vocabu- laries, by W. D. Lowe, Litt.D. With frontis. piece, 16mo, 96 pages. Oxford University Press. 40 cts. 1 1916] 89 THE DIAL Latin for the First Year. By Walter B. Gunnison, Ph.D., and Walter S. Harley, A.M. Illustrated, 12mo, 329 pages. Silver, Burdett & Co. Caesar's Gallic War: A Vocabulary. Compiled by George G. Loane, M.A. 2mo, 61 pages. Oxford University Press. 40 cts. Everyday Number Stories. By George B.