io but a
product of the laboratory of life, associated with
every deep human concern, and allying itself
with the great causes of religion and politics and
the conflict between the ideals of individual
liberty and social justice. What would Juvenal
mean to us were he deprived of the temper
with which he denounced the corruptions of the
declining Empire? What would remain of
Swift were the burning passages of indignation
stricken out of his record? What was it but
the note of indignation that gave Rousseau the
power to impel a revolution of the social order,
or Burke the power to smite the besotted con-
science of a government intent upon the oppres-
sion of the American colonies and thus recreant


342
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
to the hard-won principles of human liberty,
with the passionate cry: "The question is not
whether their spirit deseryes blame or praise,
but what, in the name of God, shall we do with
it?" It was the indignation of Mazzini that
unloosed the regenerative forces that redeemed
Italy from the bondage of foreign tyranny and
made it a nation; it was the indignation of Hugo
that opened men's eyes to the monstrous inner
significance of the Second Empire and made it
a loathsome memory of the past. As Lord
Morley once pointed out, such writings are more
than books, being acts, and it is the indignation
which inspired them that gave them the vis viva
of their irresistible impact upon what seemed
to be the firmly established order of things.
Shelley's Greek patriot hurled his dying words
of defiance at the Turkish oppressor,
"Then held his breath, and after a brief spasm
The indignant spirit east its mortal garment
Among the slain — dead earth upon the earth 1"
And it was the driving power of Shelley's in-
dignation, concentrated in such foci as "Queen
Mab," " The Masque of Anarchy," and " Hellas"
that made it possible for Brandes to say of him
that his life, begun in August, 1792, "was to
be of greater and more enduring significance in
the emancipation of the human mind than all
that happened in France" during that fateful
month. It is, indeed, to the poets that we must
go for the most impassioned and moving ex-
amples of that indignation in whose presence
wrong cowers and spiritual darkness is overcome.
The last great voices of indignation in English
poetry were those of Tennyson and Swinburne
— Tennyson with his:
"Bring the old dark ages back without the faith, with-
out the hope,
Break the State, the Church, the Throne, and roll
their ruins down the slope.
"Authors — atheist, essayist, novelist, realist, rhyme-
ster, play your part,
Paint the mortal shame of nature with the living hues
of Art,
"Kip your brothers' vices open, strip your own foul
passions bare;
Down with Reticence, down with Reverence — forward
— naked — let them stare.
"Feed the budding rose of boyhood with the drainage
of your sewer;
Send the drain into the fountain, lest the stream should
issue pure.
'Set the maiden fancies wallowing in the troughs of
Zolaism,—
Forward, forward, aye and backward, downward too
into the abysm."
Swinburne with his:
"Bow down for fear, then, England; bow
Lest worse befall thee yet; and swear
That naught save pity, conscience, care
For truth and mercy, moves thee now
Td
1913]
343
THE DIAL
nation has not yet completed its task, but it is
working in the national conscience, and the
outlook is promising. Meanwhile, it is cause
for congratulation that the noblest of our recent
poets— perhaps of all our poets—was wrought
to white heat by this monstrous wrong, and
gave us one of the finest examples of indigna-
tion in English poetry when he wrote his "Ode
in Time of Hesitation."
"I dare not yet believe! My ears are shut!
I will not hear the thin satiric praise
And muffled laughter of our enemies,
Bidding us never sheathe our valiant sword
Till we have changed our birthright for a gourd
Of wild pulse stolen from a barbarian's hut;
Showing how wise it is to cast away
The symbols of our spiritual sway,
That so our hands with better ease
May wield the driver's whip and grasp the jailer's
keys.
« Tempt not our weakness, our cupidity!
For save we let the island men go free,
Those baffled and dislaureled ghosts
Will curse us from the lamentable coasts
Where walk the frustrate dead.
The cup of trembling shall be drained quite,
Eaten the sour bread of astonishment,
With ashes of the hearth shall be made white
Our hair, and wailing shall be in the tent."
A certain amount of prejudice is necessary
for the effective manifestation of indignation.
We mean, of course, prejudice in the good ety-
mological sense of fixed judgment determined,
not by passion, but by a clear intellectual envis-
agement of the evil in view, and of its probable
consequences if permitted to prevail. The time
for passion is after the judgment has been
reached, not during the process of its formation.
After that, indignation cannot burn too fiercely,
or express itself in terms too severe. Prejudice
in the bad sense is born of passion at the start,
or at least of some unreasoning dislike, if not
of some desire for personal advantage, and its
causes will not bear close scrutiny. A great
deal of spurious indignation, the outcome of this
sort of prejudice, finds voice all about us, in
religion, in politics, and in sociology, and often
the utterance is so vehement that it deceives all
but the few whose ears are trained to catch the
note of intellectual insincerity. If ever the indig-
nation of bias is justifiable, it is as a weapon in
the warfare against the fanatic, whose own bias is
so unreasoning that it would pull down the very
pillars of the temple if by so doing it might
accomplish its petty purpose. The fanatic is
constitutionally incapable of "playing fair,"
and the workings of his unbalanced mind
practically force the defenders of civilization to
resort to exaggerated statements of their cause.
Extremes of affirmation must sometimes be met
by extremes of denial, and the spirit of calm
deliberation which would gladly say: "Come,
let us reason together," finds itself forced to
abandon temperance because it is sure to be
taken by the enemy as implying a confession of
weakness. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" would not
have ceased to be a mere book, and become one
of the great facts of history, if its author had
been willing to parley, and to weigh dispassion-
ately the plausible defences of slavery that came
from the rostra and pulpits of the Southern
States. It was the virtue of that flaming fiction
that it saw only one side of its subject, but pre-
sented that side so intensely that the conscience
of the nation was effectively aroused.
It sometimes happens that indignation of the
most righteous and salutary sort needs to be
expended upon objects that do not seem at the
time to deserve such reprobation. The philo-
sophic mind looks far ahead, and realizes that
eternal vigilance is indeed the price of liberty,
which as a practical precept means nothing to
the masses of mankind. It discerns the under-
mining and corroding influences in thought and
life when their destructive work is just begin-
ning, and is up in arms before the multitude
has taken alarm. To these watchers from the
masthead the world owes more than it knows,
and their indignation, which often seems dis-
proportioned to its exciting cause, averts many
a shipwreck of ideals. That wise man, Lord
Acton, never wrote wiser words than when he
said, speaking of the example of Washington
and Hamilton in our national life: "It teaches
that men ought to be in arms even against a
remote and constructive danger to their free-
dom; that even if the cloud is no bigger than
a man's hand, it is their right and duty to stake
the national existence, to sacrifice lives and
fortunes, to cover the country with a lake of
blood, to shatter crowns and sceptres and fling
Parliaments into the sea."
THE NEW BRONTE LETTERS.
On July 29, 1913, more than a year after the
appearance of my book, "The Three Brontes," the
editor of the London "Times" published, with
every circumstance of advertisement, four letters of
Charlotte Bronte to M. Constantin Heger—all that
remains of the correspondence. The originals are
now in the British Museum, the gift of M. Heger's
son, Dr. Paul Heger, to the nation.
One of them is torn in two and mended again.


344
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
It might have been more decent if M. Heger had
finished his work of destruction (if it was his work);
but since he did preserve the letters and they passed
from his keeping to his son's, no other course was
open to Dr. Heger than, in his own words, "to offer
them to the British Museum as the official custodian
on behalf of the British people." The responsibility
for their publication rests with the editor of "The
Times."
The letters were written after Charlotte's final
return from Brussels in February, 1844. They are
dated respectively July 24,1844, October 24, 1844,
January 8,1845, and November 18 (?), 1845. Ex-
tracts from three of them are given by Mrs. Gaskell
in her "Life of Charlotte Bronte." It is not known
whether she had the letters in her hands, or whether
she merely used such discreet selections as were
given to her. Possibly Mrs. Gaskell may herself
have made discreet omissions. As they now stand,
unaltered and unabridged, they throw considerable
light on that obscure and contested point of "tragic
passion." So much light that, personally, I think
they ought never to have been given to the world.
But, since Mr. Spielmann has seen fit to give
them, I am bound to unsay much that I have said,
and to admit that some passionate element, inno-
cent and unconscious, was, for all its innocence and
unconsciousness, present unmistakably in Charlotte
Bronte's feeling for her " Master." All that I wrote
on this subject was written more than two years
before the appearance of this additional evidence.
I was then entirely justified in maintaining that, as
far as "tragic passion" goes, we have no evidence
to prove it, and that what we have points all the
other way.* And if I said that tragic passion was,
on the evidence, improbable, I nowhere said that it
was impossible. Sir William Robertson Nicoll, in
his letter to "The Times" of July 30, says: "It
has been very seriously and ably argued that Miss
Bronte's regard for M. Heger was nothing more
than an ordinary friendship. To suppose it went
further is 'pitiful and silly.' ... It will now be
seen that those were right who took another view."
You seem to hear a certain note of triumph, as if
he said, "Aha! who was right and who was wrong,
after all?" And it was necessary to remind my
critic that I never said that Miss Bronte's regard
for M. Heger was nothing more than an ordinary
friendship, that, on the contrary, I was at some pains
to show that it was a most extraordinary one.
Well, I own that the now positively notorious
passage about Charlotte's "peace of mind" may,
after all, have referred to "Miss Bronte's regard
for M. Heger"; and that when Charlotte says that
day and night she finds neither rest nor peace; that
if she sleeps she is disturbed by tormenting dreams
in which she sees her Master, "always severe, always
grave, always incensed " against her; when she says
that the poor have not need of much to sustain them
— they ask only for the crumbs that fall from the
* " The Three Brontes," pp. 82-95.
rich man's table, but that if they are refused the
crumbs they die of hunger; and that to forbid her
to write, to refuse to answer her, would be to tear
from her her only joy on earth, to deprive her of
her last privilege; and that when day by day she
awaits a letter, and when day by day disappoint-
ment comes to fling her back into overwhelming
sorrow, then fever claims her, she loses appetite and
sleep, she pines away,— we have here the language
of subconscious love-sickness underlying a perfervid
intellectual passion. And if any room for conjecture
yet remains, there can be no doubt as to Charlotte's
state of mind when she assures M. Heger that his
"deux discours prononces a la distribution des
prix de l'Athe'ne'e royale" are worth the PensSes
de Pascal and the complete works of Bernardin
de Saint Pierre.
But we have no business to read what she says.
Her case raises a large question of literary ethics,
of the public's "right to know," of the biographer's
right to publish what was never meant for publica-
tion. In the innumerable discussions that followed
the appearance of these letters it was abundantly
evident that to the ordinary decent man and to the
ordinary decent woman Mr. Spielmann's act did
not appear the fit and beautiful thing it appears to
him and to Sir William Robertson Nicoll. Had
any ordinary decent man found himself with these
letters of Charlotte Bronte's in his hands, nothing,
I think, would have induced him to give them to
the world. He wouldn't have cared a rap about
defrauding the public of its "right to know." He
would have considered that the public has no right
to know about Charlotte Bronte dead what Charlotte
Bronte living would have died rather than make
known. Of course, you have the notorious case of
the Browning letters which may be pleaded as pre-
cedent, but publication of even this unique corre-
spondence was regarded by many scrupulous people
as more or less an outrage against perfect decency.
Still, it may be said that if the Browning letters had
not been given to the world the world would have
been considerably the poorer by their loss. They
stand as the expression of a unique and perfect
passion. You will not find in them one word which
either Robert Browning or his wife could have
wished not to have written. Whether they would
have wished them to be published is another matter;
but in no sense was Mr. Browning dishonoring his
father and his mother when he gave their love-
letters to the world.
This cannot be said of the love-letters (if they
are love-letters) of Charlotte Bronte. True, there is
nothing in them dishonoring to the writer; but there
is much which she would have wished not to have
written. They are not the expression of a perfect
love, acknowledged and crowned. They are the
pitiful, almost abject cry of a passion — secret, unac-
knowledged, incomplete, such passion, as, with all
its innocence, abhors publicity. To have published
them simply as they stand is to have done their
writer a gross wrong. To publish them with the


1913]
345
THE DIAL,
accompanying editorial comments is to add insult to
injury of the dead. Nor can I find in them any
excuse for their publication. There is nothing
unique about them. They are not, as Sir William
Robertson Nicoll thinks, "priceless." They are the
expression of a very ordinary love-sickness, writh-
ing under its veil of intellectual passion. They add
nothing of any value to our knowledge of Charlotte
Bronte, even supposing that we had the right to
know.
Many harsh things have been said of Mrs. Gas-
kell's indiscretion, and it may be admitted that
where other people were concerned she was, even
for a biographer, more than usually indiscreet; but
in all that related to Charlotte Bronte she was a
perfect example of that loyalty which the living owe
to the dead. As we do not know whether she had
access to these letters, we have no evidence for sup-
posing that she guessed Charlotte Bronte's "secret."
But we can be pretty certain that, had she guessed
it, she would have died rather than give it to the
Press. This inability to do the indecent thing may
make a poor biographer and a poorer editor — that
depends on what you consider to be the important
truth about an author. Mr. Spielmann, referring
to Mrs. Gaskell's extracts from the letters, says
rather gratuitously that "they have — inevitably,
no doubt, at that time, for the biographer's peculiar
purpose — been garbled in a manner rare in a
frankly and candidly conceived narrative," so that
"the real burden and significance of the corre-
spondence are thus ingeniously and successfully
concealed." Now, if, as Mr. Spielmann admits to
be possible, Mrs. Gaskell "had no part in it," if
she " sever had possession of the letters themselves,"
she was hardly responsible for the garbling. What
then was her peculiar purpose? What was it that
she so ingeniously and successfully concealed? If,
on the other hand, she did have possession of the
letters, her purpose of concealment was plain. She
suppressed, that is to say she discreetly omitted,
all that she considered she was not at liberty to
reveal. She concealed deliberately the secret which
her sense of honor told her she had no right to
know.
But the modera editor is not worried by any of
these scruples. And so, after all these years, we
have Charlotte Bronte's poor little secret dragged
into the daylight for all Fleet Street to gloat over.
We have headlines in the papers: "Pathetic Heart-
Cry," "Hysterical," "Six Months' Silence." We
have a "Vindication of Charlotte Bronte " by Sir
William Robertson Nicoll. We have reporters
interviewing biographers in the hope of extorting
an opinion on the great discovery that, after all,
Charlotte Bronte had a heart; we have Sir William
Robertson Nicoll and Mr. Clement Shorter both
declaring stoutly — almost too stoutly, as if they
were champions of a lost cause—that they honor her
all the more for writing these letters; we have the
editor who gave her away protesting with a supreme
stoutness that the secret he has exposed was entirely
innocent, — as if Charlotte Bronte's innocence was
ever seriously called in question; we have a tre-
mendous display of chivalrous emotion all round;
and we have decent average people feeling nothing
but the sickness of disgust.
Mr. Spielmann in his leader says (and it sounds
very noble): "It is impossible for any but the
stupidest to feel a. prurient curiosity about these
emotions which she has so innocently laid bare . . .
to discuss them one needs a purity of thought and
language equal to her own."
This would be all very well if Mr. Spielmann had
not drawn our particular attention to the fact that
M. Heger had scribbled the address of his bootmaker
on the margin of Charlotte's last and most passionate
appeal; it is more than suggested that M. Heger
was entirely indifferent to these outpourings; we
are, in fact, invited to look on while an unhappy
woman gives herself, with every letter, more utterly
away, and to note well the coldness and propriety
of Monsieur. We have Mr. Spielmann's most
uncalled-for editorial rendering, "hysteric or neu-
rotic," for "exalt6e," that word with which M.
Heger in his "affection presque patemelle" is
supposed to have reproved her.
And so the real secret is out. It is not a vindi-
cation of Charlotte Bronte at all; it is a vindication
of M. Heger. Under all the urbanity, all the pro-
testing, all the manly chivalry, the reiterated state-
ments of what was never doubted, the real motive
is apparent. Dr. Heger, tossing back to the British
public these torn fragments of Charlotte Bronte's
heart, endorsed with the address of M. Heger's
bootmaker, is not concerned with Charlotte Bronte.
He is purely and simply defending his father. That
bootmaker's address is to stand as a perpetual proof
that M. Heger was innocent of any, even the faintest,
response to Charlotte Bronte's "passion."
Now, nobody ever seriously suspected either
Charlotte Bronte or her master of any attachment
that was not wholly innocent. And but for the pub-
lication of these letters the question might have
lain over till the day of judgment. As it is, in try-
ing to prove that his father was indifferent to the
verge of brutality, it seems to me that Dr. Heger
has tried to prove too much. He has still to explain
why the letters were preserved; why, in particular,
that last letter lay in M. Heger's waistcoat pocket
so handy for the bootmaker's address. Dr. Heger
states in writing to Mr. Spielmann about the letters
that "there have never been any others than those
I send you." And yet Charlotte, writing in Octo-
ber, 1844, asks M Heger if he heard from her at
the beginning of May and "again in the month of
August." On the 18th of November, presumably
1845, she says: "It is now the 18th of November;
my last letter was dated (I think) the 18th of May."
In the first of the four letters, dated July 24,1844,
she says: "Ah, Monsieur! I once wrote you a letter
that was less than reasonable, because sorrow was
in my heart. I will do so no more." It may be
that this letter was never sent, but there are still


346
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
three letters unaccounted for. And as the six
months' regulation apparently did not come into
force in the beginning of what Dr. Heger calls "the
one-sided correspondence," we may presume that
there were many more letters sent than he supposes.
And we have still to wonder why Madame Heger
disapproved of the "one-sided correspondence" so
strongly that her husband had to propose to Char-
lotte that clandestine arrangement which Charlotte
very properly refused to adopt* More than all,
we are left wondering why, if the master sus-
pected his pupil of a regrettable passion for himself
(and it is more than suggested that he did suspect
her), why on earth did he make that scene, described
in one of Charlotte's earlier letters, when she was
anxious to return to England, and he implored her
to remain? That is not the conduct of an honorable
man suspecting a woman's regrettable passion for
himself, neither is it the conduct of a man altogether
indifferent to that woman; though it may very well
be that of a man innocently unaware of the nature
of his own feeling and of hers.
And the theory of complete indifference is irre-
concilable with the evidence of the letters them-
selves. Can anybody whose judgment is not en-
tirely warped by a theory really think that Charlotte
Bronte, proud, reticent, self-distrustful to the last
degree, — the Charlotte whom we know in all her
other letters, — would have let herself go to such an
extent, would have appealed so humbly, so almost
abjectly, to a man whom she knew to be com-
pletely indifferent to her? If there is nothing dis-
honoring in Charlotte's feeling for M. Heger, if,
with Mr. Speilmann, we are to " admire her all the
more for it," why should there be anything dishon-
oring in M. Heger's possible feeling for Charlotte
Bronte? Why should n't we admire him all the
more for it? There is nothing admirable in the
figure that he cuts on the hypothesis of complete
indifference. It is conceivable that he should have
seen fit to end a rather trying correspondence on
grounds far other than indifference; that his feeling
evaporated gradually, and that he became bored
with Charlotte's letters, is also conceivable. What
his precise feeling was nobody will ever know; but
that he began with indifference is contrary to the
little, the very little, that we do know.
What is more: on the total evidence I am con-
vinced more than ever that until the moment for
her final departure from Brussels, until the "scene"
that M. Heger made, Charlotte had no "feeling"
for him to speak of. I see no reason to modify any-
thing that I have written in reference to the periods
preceding her return to England in 1844. It was, I
suspect, that scene that woke her up, that started
the whole train of the longing that finds expression
in the four letters,— longing accentuated to torture
by the loneliness and tragedy of her surroundings,
•According to the statement Charlotte made to Miss
Fastitia Wheelwright, he asked her to address her letters to
The Athenee Royale instead of to his home, on the grounds
that the correspondence was disagreeable to his wife.
longing that was finally appeased when her genius
woke also and came into its own.
However that may be, it does not, I take it,
greatly matter. What greatly matters is the genius
that appeased her; and the publication of these let-
ters does not affect in the least my main contention
that that genius owed nothing to her " master," that
(in spite of her brief obsession) it was independent
of all that he could do to her or make her feel.
The proof is the use, the deliberate and unimpas-
sioned use, it made of him.
Tou cannot have it both ways. If you insist that
the figure of M. Paul Emanuel is a portrait from
the life, you may measure the extent of her inde-
pendence by her amazing mastery of the material
at her hands. M. Heger may have been able to
say, "I was adored once." But M. Paul Emanuel
is the portrait, not of a god, but of a mortal, exposed,
if you like, in all the charm, but also in all the
weakness, the vanity, the pathos, of his mortality.
May Sinclair.
CASUAL COMMENT.
The pursuit of learning under difficulties
well-nigh inconceivable in this luxurious age is what
we find in tracing the beginnings of Amerian scho-
larship. Some of the "old boys" among our college
graduates can even now recall the sufferings endured
in poorly heated and dimly lighted recitation rooms,
the bleakness of barn-like dormitories, and the
insufficiency of appetizing food furnished at the
college "commons." But no man now living can
describe as an eyewitness the crudities of Harvard's
first building, where the ground floor was devoted
to academic uses, religious and literary exercises,
and the purposes of refectory, kitchen, and buttery,
while above were students' quarters, mere cells of
the rucfest sort. Though clapboarded and shingled,
the building was far from weather-proof, and more
air than light was admitted by the windows, which
were only partly glazed, oiled paper serving else-
where to let in a few of the sun's rays and keep out
the "coarsest of the cold," as Artemus Ward said
when he hung an old hoopskirt over his chamber
window at a country hostelry in mid-winter. Not
even the most rudimentary of table-equipment was
supplied at the college eating-room. His own knife
and fork were carried with him by each student when
he went to dinner, and after he had finished he
wiped them on the table-cloth. The first president
of Harvard, the Rev. Nathaniel Eaton, could have
given points to Wackford Squeers on the best way
to abuse and cheat ingenuous youth. Even his
usher, Nathaniel Briscoe, he nearly did to death by
his brutal treatment. But he met with his deserts,
being excommunicated by the church and ending
his days in a debtors' prison in England. Mr.
Arthur Stanwood Pier brings these half-forgotten
details to our attention in his readable book, "The
Story of Harvard."


1918]
347
THE DIAL
Those who have no use for public libraries,
though the library stand with hospitably open doors
in their very street, are more in number than libra-
rians like to believe, and more in number than they
will be, it is to be hoped, a few years hence. The
"Library Occurrent," issued quarterly by the Indi-
ana Public Library Commission, says, editorially:
"Once in a while a librarian is found who actually
believes, or says she believes, that her library
reaches all of her community that it can serve; that
everybody knows about the library, and makes use
of it, or if he does not make use of it, has no use
for it. Of course, no library's registration list will
bear out any such statement, but the librarian of
this type can explain away any questions on that
score with a wave of the hand — that's the most
important part of her reply—and a statement that
'the children all have cards and they take books
home to their parents.'" Some significant figures
from five Indiana cities with good libraries are
printed, in proof of a too-common ignoring of one
of the most valuable privileges open to the citizen.
At Plainfield a little more thaa half the inhabitants
are strangers to the library, so far as can be ascer-
tained; at Hartford City nearly three-quarters know
not its benefits; at Muncie the record is about the
same; at Fort Wayne more than two-thirds of the
residents are recreant; and at Indianapolis not far
from nine-tenths are equally blind and deaf to their
own best good. In general, the larger the city, the
smaller seems to be the proportion of card-holders
and library-users. . . .
Coordinating English with other studies,
and thus making it appear less remote from the in-
terests and tastes that govern a student's selection
of the particular course to be followed by him in
laying the foundations of his education, the English
Department at Harvard is this year making an ex-
periment that is thought to promise good results.
Hitherto the twenty small sections in first-year
English have each been composed of about thirty
students, grouped together with no regard to their
special lines of study. By the new plan, adopted in
accord with President Lowell's desire for a greater
coordination of studies, there will be but nine sec-
tions, each section embracing a group of students of
similar tastes and pursuits. Thus there will be four
divisions of those taking courses in civil government,
three of those following the call of philosophy, one
of those electing history, and one composed of
classical students. Assigned readings and required
themes will have some reference to these several
lines of study. At the same time, however, a partial
continuance of work under the old plan will furnish
means for comparing the two methods and for deter-
mining whether the innovation is productive of the
hoped-for good results. Professor Greenough, of
the English department, says of the new plan: "It
is hoped that by the new arrangement English com-
position may be thought of as standing less apart
from man's other studies than often seemed to be
the case under the older plan. The mixed sections
will not be given up or their number greatly dimin-
ished unless the new plan clearly proves its super-
iority. It has not been attempted before, so far as
we know, and it will be very encouraging from every
standpoint if it succeeds."
A SUCCESSFUL TEACHER OF ENGLISH LITERA-
TURE, supposing English literature to be a teachable
subject, is not to be found in every institution of
learning. Dartmouth College was distinguished and
fortunate in enjoying the services and the inspiring
presence of one who seems to have been able to treat
this subject pedagogically and yet not instil a lasting
hatred of it in his pupils. Professor Charles Francis
Richardson, who died on October 8 at Lisbon, N. H.,
in the prime of his useful life, is best known to gen-
eral readers as the author of "The Choice of Books,"
which has given pleasure and profit to hundreds of
young persons eager to know the best that has been
thought and written by the great ones of the past.
His "Primer of American Literature," his two-
volume work on American literature, his novel,
"The End of the Beginning," his book of poems,
"The Cross," his "Study of English Rhyme," and
the various products of his editorial industry, have
had fewer readers. He was born at Hallowell,
Maine, May 29,1851. was graduated in 1871 from
the college to which he gave the best years of his life,
was editorially connected with "The Independent,"
"The Sunday-School Times," and "Good Litera-
ture" in the years preceding his call to Dartmouth,
and for twenty-nine years was a successful and be-
loved teacher of his favorite subject at that college.
Not even President Emeritus Tucker was more
popular with Dartmouth men than was the professor
whom they had long ago humorously nicknamed
"Clothespins." A sentence from one of his last let-
ters may partly indicate why he was so universally
liked. "Somehow," he wrote to Colonel Melvin O.
Adams of Boston, -'the boys that you like, you like
better and better as the fugacious years fly by."
A SAD LACK OF GOOD BOOKS FOR GIRLS is one of
the manifold ills with which the modern world has
to contend. This is not saying that the ancient
world was any better off in this respect; its condi-
tion was undoubtedly much worse, since there seem
to have been no books at all for the amusement and
recreation of either girls or boys. Miss Clara W.
Herbert, head of the children's department of the
Washington (D. C.) Public Library, contributes to
the Springfield " Republican " some of the results of
her experience in ministering to the literary needs of
girls, and takes occasion to lament that "at present
there are hardly thirty girls' stories which add any-
thing to her [the girl] mentally." She has found
that "it is almost impossible to make the average
girl read a story not laid in the present time and in
surroundings and circumstances similar to her own.
Historical tales, and those dealing with life in other
lands, are not generally popular, as are the stories


348
[Nov. 1
THE DIAL
of school and neighborhood life, or those in which
the heroine assumes charge of the family daring the
illness, or after the death, of one of the parents.
Authors have learned that this is a popular basis for
girls' stories. Thus the difficulty is to give to the
girl books in sufficient numbers, satisfying this real
need of hers—and she will not read them unless they
do meet this need in some way — and still give her
anything that will be stimulating intellectually."
Thankful indeed must the writer of juvenile books
be that the boy's craving makes him interested in a
wider range of subjects: history, biography, travels,
science, invention, and discovery may all be worked
up acceptably in stories or other books for boys. Here
and there, too, one finds a girl who has a healthy
appetite for boys' books and turns away disdainfully
from the Elsie Dinsmore series. On the whole, there
seems to be a field open for arousing fresh interests
in girl readers and for supplying the books that shall
touch upon those interests in an attractive way.
Training for citizenship, with all the aid that
reading and lectures and class-room instruction can
render, is too obviously advisable to call for any
argument in its favor on our part. Almost anyone
ought to have the making of a good citizen in him
if he is caught young enough and properly instructed.
Our universities and colleges are of late paying
increased attention to the instruction of their stu-
dents in the duties of intelligent citizenship. At
Cornell the regular work of the College of Arts this
year includes a "course in citizenship," in which
non-resident lecturers will give weekly lectures, as
will also members of the Department of Political
Science, and Dr. Devine's manual on "The Family
and Social Work" will be used as textbook. In
the syllabus of the year's course are to be noted
such lectures as that by Mr. Clinton Rogers Wood-
ruff on "The Citizen and His Community," and
that by Mr. Lee F. Hanmer on "The Citizen and
the Recreation Needs of the Community," as also
Mr. Clarence Arthur Perry's address on "The
Citizen and the Schools," Dr. Hermann M. Biggs's
discourse entitled " The Citizen and Public Health,"
Dr. Devine's treatment of "The Citizen and Prob-
lems of Crime," and Mr. Franklin Matthews's lec-
ture on "The Citizen and the Press." Much good
ought to result from such a course as this, and not
the least of the benefits accruing may prove to be
the more general establishment of similar courses
at other like institutions of higher learning.
What to read about Japan, in order to gain
some adequate conception of the remarkable people
who are causing so much discussion and debate in
our own country and elsewhere, is a question at
present asking itself in many an inquiring mind and
getting itself voiced in many a bookshop and public
library. The Japan Society, in reply to the great
number of persons who appeal to it for suggestions
in this department of reading, has prepared a short
list of helpful and authoritative works. They are,
as announced by the Society: "Intercourse between
the United States and Japan," by Nitobe; "The
Japanese Nation," by the same author; "Ancestor
Worship and Japanese Law," by N. Hozumi; "Polit-
ical Development of Japan," by Uyehara; "Japan:
An Interpretation," by Lafcadio Hearn. Important
as are the works of native writers, and interesting
as is the native author's way of viewing his sub-
ject and expressing his thoughts, readers will find
it profitable not to neglect the writings of western
authors on Japan, who better appreciate the western
student's difficulties and pointof view in approaching
the subject. A foreign language is commonly best
learned from one who, having the same native tongue
as the learner, has himself thoroughly mastered the
language and not unconsciously assimilated it in
childhood. So it is that Lafcadio Hearn's and
Pierre Loti's pictures of Japan are more intelligible
to us than some other and perhaps more minutely
faithful productions from a native hand.
Simplification and mystification meet and
join hands, with the cordiality characteristic of the
junction of extremes, in the pages of "The Pioneer
of Simplified Speling," the official monthly publica-
tion of the English "Simplified Speling Sosieti."
The leading article in the latest number at hand
begins thus: "Shoelderz tu the wheel! Aulthoe
The Pioneer iz not isyud for tuu months in the
sumer, our campain goez on unbroecen. Indeed,
tu juj from the formidabl piel of pres-cutingz befor
us (thai ar sumariezd in anuther colum), the public
interest in our muuvment haz never been so ceen.
Ever mor rair ar the contribyushonz tu the Pres
that shoe compleet ignorans ov our wurc and our
aimz; ever graiter iz the number ov thoez hu taic
our sied." A little further on the editor takes occa-
sion to "thane our well-wisherz for thair help in the
paaat. It wood be tuu much tu ecspect that aul
wood be satisfied with everi deetail ov our sceem,
with every feetyur ov our propaganda." To an un-
simplified speller a page of typographical contortions
of this sort is not the easiest of reading: it mystifies
more than it simplifies, although of course one might
in time get used to such verbal puzzles as "ceen,"
"sceem," "juj," "taic," "wurc," "tuu," and so on.
In comparison with "The Pioneer," our American
"Simplified Spelling Bulletin" is a hidebound con-
servative in its treatment of the written language.
If it were not for the English reminder and warning
of what we may be coming to by sanctioning even
the slightest initial license in spelling, one might
turn from "The Pioneer" and hail with glad relief
the "Bulletin."
Mr. Hall Caine's protest against the exclu-
sion of his novel, "The Woman Thou Gavest Me,"
from certain American public libraries, is an utter-
ance natural to one who feels that he has put into
the censured book all the resources of his brain and
all the forces of his soul, as Mr. Caine expresses it,
and who avows himself conscious of no unworthy


1913]
349
THE
DIAL
motive in writing the story. He says: "I specially
desire to reach the large and sincere audience that
depend for their literature on the great Free Libra-
ries of your country [i. e. America]. I belonged
to that audience myself in England in my youth
and early manhood"—which is a somewhat puz-
zling statement if taken literally. "I only ask," he
pleads, "that in judging a book let the basis of
consideration be the aim of the author." And fur-
ther: "Behind any book is the man who wrote it,
and if he is a man of pure aims, and at the same
time a true artist, he can teach a powerful lesson
by an intimate study of any side of life, no matter
how disgusting and revolting it may seem." The
fallacy of that doctrine needs no demonstration
here. The Manxman's appeal to the American
librarian's sense of fairness is made through his
American publishers, and will doubtless be printed
in full in many journals. It is to be hoped that it
will be read by all to whom it is addressed, and
that it will receive due consideration.
Library economy in bookbgying is a kind of
economy every public library tries to practice, and
the liberal discounts allowed to libraries by the book
dealers help to make the book fund go as far as pos-
sible. At Bristol, Connecticut, as we learn from
the current report of its public library, the average
cost of books bought during the year was kept down
to a figure remarkably low, if the books were all of
fairly excellent quality. The average cost per vol-
ume is given as seventy-seven and one-half cents, as
compared with one dollar and two cents at the Hart-
ford Public Library, one dollar and fourteen cents
at the New Britain Institute, one dollar and three
cents at the New Haven Public Library, and eighty-
four cents at the Waterbury Public Library. Pur-
chasing orders were widely distributed, no fewer
than forty-nine bookselling houses and individuals
being called upon for one or more volumes each.
In its percentage of total annual outlay devoted to
book-buying the Bristol library far outstripped its
neighbors named above. The figure attained was
thirty-eight per cent, against thirteen to twenty-eight
recorded by the other libraries.
COMMUNICA TION.
MILTON'S EPITAPH ON SHAKESPEARE.
(To the Editor of Thb Dial.)
I think it will be of great interest to your readers if
you will kindly permit me to say a few words iD your
valuable paper apropos of the paragraph on pages 133-4
of your September 1 issue, which I have just seen.
"Starre-ypointing" has been the despair of English
grammarians for more than 250 years. I am the chair-
man of the London University College School, and our
Headmaster tells me that as a boy he was catechised
upon Milton's extraordinary blunder; because "y," like
the German "ge," is never prefixed to a present parti-
ciple, but only to a past participle. Lathom and practi-
cally all other grammarians were astounded that Milton,
the most accurate of scholars, should have committed
such an absurd grammatical error. So the matter re-
mained until about six months ago, when I called atten-
tion to the fact that my copy of the second folio of
Shakespeare's plays, 1632, contained an inserted page
in which Milton's Epitaph is correctly printed with
"starre-ypointed."
I sent out enquiries all over the world, with the result
that two other copies of the correctly-printed page have
been discovered,— one in the New York Public Library,
and one in the library of Queen's College, Oxford. All
the experts are agreed that " this page is evidently an
original and contemporary print, not a reproduction in
any modern sense. . . . The paper is contemporary."
Writing in " Notes and Queries," London, on September
6 last, Dr. McGrath agrees with the above, and Col.
Prideaux describes it as a "cancel leaf . . . printed
after the book had been placed on sale . . . issued to
purchasers in the same way as cancel leaves are occa-
sionally issued at the present day."
But I ask how comes it that after months of enquiry
only two copies besides my own have been reported; and
how is it that in the third folio of the plays, printed in
1663-4, the ungrammatical word "starre-ypointing"
remained uncorrected? The answer is obvious. The
corrected page could only have been issued to those to
whom the preservation of Bacon's secrets had been en-
trusted. The page reveals to us, and it was intended to
reveal to us, the name of the real author of the plays,
to whom Milton addressed his Epitaph, the important
part of which is contained in the first six lines (I quote
from my own special page in the 1632 folio):
"What neede my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones,
The labour of an Age, in pilid stones,
Or that his hallowed Keliques should be hid
Under a starre-ypointed Pyramid?
Dear Source of Memory, great Heire of Fame,
What needst thou such dull witnesse of thy Name?"
Now " Reliques" must mean "what he hath left us";
and Ben Jonson addresses his noble verses of commen-
dation, which precede the plays in the folios, "To the
memory of my beloved the Author . . . and what he
hath left us," — meaning thereby the immortal plays
themselves. And that is exactly what Milton means by
"his hallowed Reliques."
A " starre-ypointed Pyramid " can only mean a pyra-
mid with a star upon its point (its apex); just as a ball-
pointed pen means a pen with a ball upon its point,
a diamond-pointed drill means a drill with a diamond
upon its point,— such instances might be multiplied
indefinitely. Now a pyramid with a star upon its apex
is a " Beacon" (pronounced "Bacon," — " Bacon great
Beacon of the state,"— just as at that period "tea was
pronounced "tay," "sea" was pronounced "say," etc.)
Milton then proceeds to say: "What needst thou
such dull witnesse of thy Name?" This is evidently
intended to tell us that people ought to have wit enough
to perceive that Bacon was the name of the all-wise,
all-learned author of the plays, without it being neces-
sary to put the dull witness of a Beacon (Bacon) upon
these marvellous works.
In quite a number of the books of the period, to
which the name of Bacon has not yet been attached,
there will be found engravings representing a pyramid
or a beacon, to reveal to the initiated the name of the
real author. Edwin Durning-Lawrence.
London, England, Oct. 6, 191S.


350
[Nov. 1
THE DIAL
She |tfto $3oahs.
Stage Memories of Sixty Years.*
A follower of the stage in his boyhood, Mr.
William Winter began writing about it in
youth, and has been writing about it ever since.
His biographies of Edwin Booth, Joseph Jef-
ferson, and Richard Mansfield have found favor
with readers, and he is now preparing a book
on Sir Henry Irving and Miss Ellen Terry.
These celebrities of the stage, therefore, are
omitted from his present series of dramatic
memories, "The Wallet of Time," as are also
a considerable number of other noted actors
and actresses whom he hopes to write about in
a subsequent work. The two volumes now put
forth are certainly not lacking in wealth of
material; they extend to nearly fourteen hun-
dred octavo pages, and are as rich in illustra-
tions as one could wish.
Mr. Winter's well-known heartiness of com-
mendation for what he approves, and uncom-
promising censure for what he disapproves, are
to be met with in abundance in his comprehen-
sive "Wallet" — a name, by the way, that he
takes from the passage in "Troilus and Cres-
sida" that begins, "Time hath, my lord, a
wallet at his back. . . ." Whatsoever things
are pure, lovely, and of good report, in play-
acting, he stanchly upholds and warmly praises;
but for the follies and fads of the modern stage
he has nothing but withering scorn and biting
sarcasm. In the things of his profession he is
a splendid hater of what he dislikes, a valiant
champion of what he deems praiseworthy. For
instance, he declares at the outset—and nobody
can dispute him — that "administration of the
business of the American Theatre, in recent
years, has been characterized by a policy of
covetous, despotic, sordid commercialism, which
ought to be rebuked and steadily opposed." He
takes pains to emphasize his belief as a dramatic
critic that "ethical principles are more impor-
tant than artistic principles," and adds: "The
whole experience of my life sustains the con-
viction that, while the dramatic artist, whether
author or actor, should never undertake directly
to inculcate a moral, it is the first duty of the
critic to ascertain and declare the moral influ-
ence consequent on dramatic expression." No
such thing as "art for art's sake" enters into his
*Thr Wallet or Timk. Containing Personal, Bio-
graphical, and Critical Reminiscences of the American
Theatre. By William Winter. In two volumes. Illustrated.
New York Moffat, Yard & Co.
conception of the drama, as the drama should
be. One sentence in his preface, more than all
the rest of it put together, indicates the tone
of the book: "It would be contemptible affec-
tation on the part of any writer possessed of
knowledge, experience, conviction, and trained
literary faculty to pretend diffidence in writing
on a subject which he is equipped and compe-
tent to treat."
After this we are prepared to find Mr. "Win-
ter's views of Ibsen and Ibsen's plays expressed
in terms both vehement and picturesque. Some
of the Norwegian's compositions he considers
nasty, and all of them ponderous and dull. Of
the principal character in "Hedda Gabler " he
says: "A nastier little female reptile has not
been depicted, even by Ibsen, — 'whose spirits
toil in frame of villanies,' and whose whole
fabric of dramatic writing is a pollution to the
Stage, a wearisome burden upon contemporary
thought, a darkness to the eyes of hope, and a
blight to everything that it can touch of nobil-
ity, beauty, and joy. Perhaps such persons as
Hedda Gabler exist: the Lunatic Asylum is
the place for them; not the Theatre. . . . The
play of 'Hedda Gabler' is a long-winded, col-
loquial exposition of disease, and its heroine is
an insane cat. No other phrase can as well
describe such a monstrous union of vanity and
depravity." To Mr. Winter the author of
"Mrs. Warren's Profession" is, in short and
simple phrase, "a crack-brained, mischief-
making English-Irish socialist," and the play
itself a "nuisance." Other and even more
remarkable specimens of Mr. Winter's caus-
ticity might be adduced from his sprightly
pages—as where he says of the author of "The
Christian" that he "registers himself as a
blathering rhapsodist, flatulent with the wind of
doctrine and giddy with self-conceit" — but it
will be better to pass now to his generous,
whole-hearted, soul-stirring enthusiasm for what
he admires and enjoys in dramatic art. Mrs.
Gilbert, still agreeably remembered by many a
theatre-goer, inspires him to the following
strain:
"She was a never-failing delight and constant moni-
tion. Her sympathy with the young was deep aud
quick: she was always ready and glad to speak the
word of genial encouragement to inexperience and to
back it with shrewd suggestion and wise advice. In
one expedient of acting, in particular, she was preemi-
nently expert,— the use of time. It was a technical
education to watch and study her employment, in
speech, movement, and gesture, of pause, rapidity, or
deliberation. She never obtruded herself. Each of
her performances possessed the invaluable attribute of
seeming inevitability. What she did she made to seem


1913]
351
THE DIAL.
exactly right to be done, and as though, under the
given circumstances, nothing else could possibly occur.
To age she would not surrender, and she was indescrib-
ably amusing, and often a little pathetic, in her politely
brusque resentment of any intimation that she was old
or required attention or assistance. ... As example
of artistic cooperation, the ability and willingness to
'play together,'for the right effect, without regard to self,
I have seen nothing finer than Joseph Jefferson and W. J.
Florence, in 'The Rivals,' and Mrs. Gilbert and James
Lewis, in the Daly comedies. Mrs. Gilbert and Lewis,
though they viewed each other with respect and ad-
miration, were not close friends, and in their attitude
toward each other, as age clawed them in his stealing
clutch, they were comic. 'Poor old lady!' Lewis would
say; * I'm afraid she's beginning to break up.' 'Poor
James!' Mrs. Gilbert would remark; 'he's getting on —
getting on.'"
Discussing the merits of a certain gifted
English actor whose recent retirement from
the stage his many admirers cannot but deeply
regret, the author shows both himself and the
object of his encomium at their best.
"Willard's representation of Cyrus Blenkarn stamped
him as one of the best actors of the age. His repre-
sentation of Judah Llewellyn deepened that impression
and reinforced it with a conviction of marked versatility.
In his utterance of passion Willard showed that he had
advanced far beyond the Romeo stage. The love that
he expressed was that of a man — intellectual, spiritual,
noble, a moral being and one essentially true. Man's
love, when it is real, adores its object; hallows it; invests
it with celestial attributes, and beholds it as a part of
heaven. That quality of reverence was distinctly con-
veyed by the actor, and, therefore, to observers who
conceive passion to be sensual abandonment (of which
any animal is capable), bis ardor might have seemed
dry and cold. It was nevertheless true. He made the
tempestuous torrent of Judah's avowal the more over-
whelming by his preliminary self-repression and his
thoughtful gentleness of reserve; for thus the hunger
of desire was beautiful with devotion and tenderness;
and while the actor's feelings seemed borne away upon
a whirling tide of irresistible impulse, his exquisite art
kept a perfect control of face, voice, person, demeanor,
and delivery, and not once permitted a lapse into extrav-
agance. The embodiment was a memorable image of
dignity, sweetness, moral enthusiasm, passionate fervor,
and intellectual power; but, also, viewed as an effort
in the art of acting, it was a type of excelling grace, a
beautiful personification of a noble ideal clearly con-
ceived."
Of course these passages of dramatic criti-
cism with which the work abounds are largely
if not wholly — or thus one is left to infer —
culled from the author's published reports in
the daily press, or from his unpublished notes,
and so constitute a sort of patchwork rather
than an organic and symmetrical whole; but
no other dramatic critic now living could have
made a book covering so long a period and
embracing so wide a range of experience, dis-
tinguished by such grace and charm of style,
and revealing so close an acquaintance with a
host of actors of many lands, from the days of
George Holland and the elder Wallack, of John
Gilbert and Charlotte Cushman, down to the
present time. His collections for the enrich-
ment of such a series of professional reminis-
cences appear to be of the richest kind, and he
scatters his treasures with liberal hand. An
appendix brings together some remarks on
"Ibsen and the Ibsenites,"achapter on "Ameri-
can Actors Abroad, and How They 'Fail'
There," and a deliverance on the subject of
"The Theatre and the Pulpit." In the Ibsen
article the reader is again made aware of Mr.
Winter's very poor opinion of the Norwegian,
whom he takes occasion to rate far below
Charles Reade — an unexpected comparison, to
say the least. "A reformer who calls you to
crawl with him into a sewer, merely to see and
breathe its feculence, is a pest." With that as
a closing specimen of the author's trenchant
manner, we bring to an end this account of his
memorable work. Percy F. Bicknell.
Disease and Genius.*
We all have by heart Macaulay's brilliant
parallel between Luxembourg and William of
Orange, — between "the hunchbacked dwarf
who urged the fiery onset of France and the
asthmatic skeleton who covered the slow retreat
of England." Both, Macau lay goes on to say,
would in ancient Sparta have been exposed at
infancy. We remember, too, Charlotte Bronte's
tribute to Nelson, —"The little lamiter who
wielded England's might on the sea." Whether
great talent is a cause or an effect of disease
and physical deficiency, the two things seem
inseparable. Of course the light of fame brings
out flaws which would not be apparent in ordi-
nary people; but still it is impossible to doubt
that genius has to bear more than its share of
such inflictions as insanity, nervous derange-
ment, drunkenness, consumption, scrofula, and
blindness. Does talent by its rapid absorption
of life force throw off toxines which produce
these diseases, or do the diseases by their irri-
tant power produce talent? The chemistry of
character and ability is utterly unknown; and
when the most modern fad, eugenics, pokes a
clumsy finger into this mystery, it may produce
unexpected results. Certainly, if the past is
to be taken as a guide, a sane mind in a sound
body is most sedulously to be avoided, if we
•In Spite ok Epilepsy. By Matthew Woods, M.D.
New York: The Cosmopolitan Press.


352
[Nov. 1
THE DIAL
want to arrive at high spiritual, moral, or intel-
lectual values. Once in the world a community
set to work to breed men like prize cattle. For
a time Sparta did produce a race of powerful
fighting machines. But even in arms these
never more than held their own with the intel-
lectual Athenians. Pericles told his fellow-
citizens, " We can do all that the Spartans can
and many other important things." In the end
the men of Laconia went down before the Mace-
donian barbarians, led by the drunkard Philip
and the half-mad Alexander.
These considerations are suggested by Dr.
Matthew Woods's book," In Spite of Epilepsy,"
which contains studies of three great epileptics,
—Julius Caesar, Mohammed, and Lord Byron.
Dr. Woods's treatment of these three cases from
the medical standpoint is of the briefest, and his
sketches are really illuminating essays in biog-
raphy. But he offers them to show the great
army of epileptics that epilepsy, in appearance
at least one of the most frightful of diseases,
need not prevent a long life and an important
career.
Dr. Woods is a promising recruit for the
small group of Americans who know how to
write. He apologizes because his work has been
done in the hurried intervals of professional
occupation. Truth to say, good proofreading
would have removed a number of misprints and
errors of reference. It might also have reformed
some of the sentences which have lost their right
grammatical alignment, or which are wild and
whirling in meaning. Occasionally, too, his live-
liness becomes cheap or smart. But these are
slight blots. He has that instinct for saying
things which lifts writing into literature and
makes books readable.
The great cause which is being tried in the
world to-day is that of Genius vs. Democracy.
The people everywhere are refusing to admit
the existence of superiorities. Hence what
M. Faguet calls "the Cult of Incompetence."
On the other hand, the trend of philosophical
thought, in Europe at least, is as decidedly
against Democracy. Democracy in art and liter-
ature is certainly unthinkable, a contradiction
in terms. These things are of and for the few,—
the many simply do not know what to make of
them; only in their weakest or most utilitarian
forms do they appeal widely. So powerful in
America, however, is the set of the democratic
current that nothing can make head against it.
Preachers, professors, politicians, presidents, —
all, like the Sausage Seller in Aristophanes,
bring their sweet little honey-cake to the great
Demos. They return in flattery what they get
in pay. If an infinitesimal part of the effort and
expense which with us have gone to make the
intellectual halt half-whole or the intellectual
blind capable of groping, had been given to
develop promising talent, we should be to-day
all one blaze of glory. But our motto has been,
"Let us rally round our mediocrities, for our
geniuses can take care of themselves." These
things are spoken of here because Dr. Woods
is decidedly on the side of genius, and he devotes
himself to great fames with an enthusiasm which
is rare enough in our arid life.
His sketch of Caesar is the slightest and most
negligible part of his book. This is natural
enough; for while it is possible to add a stone
to the mountainous cairn already raised to
Caesar, it is not possible to alter the outline or
contour of that monument. With Mohammed,
however, Dr. Woods has, in English, a com-
paratively virgin field, and his admiration and
enthusiasm for the Prophet has built up a
memorial of great freshness and charm. His
enthusiasm, indeed, reminds us of that story of
Carlyle who at an evening party, after declaim-
ing with great vehemence in favor of Moham-
medanism, could not in starting to leave find his
hat. "Perhaps," stammered Charles Lamb,
"the gentleman came in a turban." Dr. Woods
would entirely alter our conception of the land
East of Suez, —" Where there ain't no ten
commandments, an' a man can raise a thirst."
Probably he is more than half right, and the
Unspeakable Turk is very much the same com-
pound of human nature as the rest of us.
We think Dr. Woods is wrong, though, in a
number of points relating to Mohammedanism.
It is a parasitic religion. It originated less,
and has certainly less to say to us to-day, than
any of the other great Asiatic religions — Juda-
ism, Zarathustranism, Brahmanism, or Bud-
dhism. Mohammed took his central concept,
the unity of God, from the Jews. He took his
model and methods from Christianity. The
later philosophy of the creed was Greek. Avi-
cenna and Averrhoes were followers of Plato
and Aristotle, — Schoolmen born out of place.
Again, Dr. Woods seems to think that Moham-
medanism is all of a piece, that it has held to
the original tenets of its founder. In the gen-
eration succeeding Mohammed there was a great
split in the religion which endures to-day. And
it is probably divided into as many minor sects
as Christianity. That Mussulmans conform more
closely than Christians to the moral teachings
of their faith seems to be another conviction of


1913]
353
THE DIAL
Dr. Woods. Judging from their history and
literature, they could give the Christians meal
for their malt in all matters of immorality. It
would be pretty hard to find any Western book
which can beat the Arabian Nights in indecency;
and Hafiz, Jami, and other lyric poets are free
enough. Omar, translated, has become the
bible of the bibulous.
Dr. Woods repeats the statement that the
Arabs saved Greek literature and philosophy
for the world. To a certain extent they may
have done so; but they probably destroyed a
thousand times as much as they preserved.
Omar's order to burn the Alexandrian library
may be apocryphal, but something of the kind
must have happened. The Arabs and their
fellow religionists swept over all the regions
which were centres of Greek culture. When
they had done their work, only a few books and
monuments remained to tell us what Greek
civilization was. In spite of Dr. Woods's rose-
colored view of the Mohammedan mind and
character, we cannot believe that what they
substituted was equal to what they erased.
Dr. Woods's study of Byron, though largely a
cento of anecdotes and quotations, seems to us
one of the best presentations of that poet's life
and character that has been put forth in recent
years. It displays the good sense of a man of
the world, and the acute knowledge of a physi-
cian who can make allowances for Byron's un-
fortunate physical inheritances. Particularly
does it unravel that most remarkable trait in
Byron's character,— what might be called his
hypocrisy of vice. From the beginning of his
career he seems to have circulated defamatory
reports about himself which were baseless. We
believe that it is not uncommon for physicians
to have to deal with a tendency of this kind, but
Byron's hints and tales about his wickedness
were "too tall." The thing, however, is easily
understandable in a man of genius. Genius at
first is geniality. It is frank, open, warm. It
feels that it is great enough to be known as it
is,—to be painted with the warts. Then it
looks abroad and sees how the average prudent
human being hides his errors and failings, and
in sheer disgust at such hypocrisy it blurts out
ten times more than the truth about its own de-
merits, and gives the eternal whipper-snapper a
hold over it. Stripped of such self-imputations,
Byron's character would not show any worse
than nine-tenths of his contemporaries of like
position. Dr. Woods rejects the charges of Mrs.
Stowe and Lady Byron's friends, though he does
not go into any disproof of them. Leaving all
this aside, there was in Byron an energy, cour-
age, and scornful strength of character which
would have made him notable even without the
splendor of his genius. The filagree poets and
measurers of syllables have in recent times writ-
ten him down; but it is safe to say that he will
outlive them, and rank with the great poets of
the world. Charles Leonard Moore.
Trumbull of Illinois.*
If the memory of Lyman Trumbull has
waited long for formal biographical recogni-
tion, it has at least fared well in the selection
of a biographer. Mr. Horace White was the
choice of Mrs. Trumbull herself, and of course
the inevitable choice, since to high rank in the
world of letters and active participation in the
public life of the time was added the advantage
of long years of intimate acquaintance. With
a voluminous store of personal recollections to
draw upon, it would have been an easy matter
for Mr. White to write a "life" of Senator
Trumbull on very short notice; but he has never
fallen into that obvious temptation of a jour-
nalistic career. For several years he has been
patiently working over the subject, and the re-
sult is a thoroughly adequate setting of the man
in relation to his time. Many a well-informed
reader will lay down this volume not merely with
a new store of knowledge concerning Lyman
Trumbull but with a broader and surer grasp
of the essential facts and philosophy of the war
and reconstruction period than he had ever
before possessed.
In his preface, the author makes the admis-
sion that the careful study which the composition
of this book has forced upon him has convinced
him that his views upon one important point
had been wrong from the beginning. He is
now persuaded that the reconstruction policy of
Andrew Johnson was that toward which Presi-
dent Lincoln himself had been working, that it
was the true policy demanded by the situation,
and should never have been departed from. Of
course this does not blind his eyes to many
errors in Johnson's course, and to those obvious
personal defects which in themselves contrib-
uted largely to the disastrous break between the
President and his party. In his acknowledg-
ments of indebtedness, the recently published
"Diary of Gideon Welles" takes first place, and
is pronounced " the most important contribution
•The Life of Lyman Trumbull. By Horace White.
With portraits. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.


354
[Nov. 1
THE DIAL
to the history of the period of which it treats
that has yet been given to the public."
When Trumbull entered official life as a
member of the Illinois legislature, at the age of
twenty-seven, those characteristics which stood
out in his later senatorial career were already
well marked.
"His style of speaking was devoid of ornament, but
logical, clear-cut, and dignified, and it bore the stamp
of sincerity. He had a well-furnished mind, and was
never at a loss for words. Nor was he ever intimidated
by the number or the prestige of his opponents. He
possessed calm intellectual courage, and he never de-
clined a challenge to debate; but his manner toward his
opponents was always that of a high-bred gentleman."
As a debater, one sees in this description his
close affinity with Fessenden, of Maine, with
whom his name became so closely linked by the
vicissitudes of the impeachment of President
Johnson. The two were not always in harmony,
but they were alike in keen intellectual vigor
and rugged honesty of act and purpose. When
the death of Fessenden was announced in the
Senate, Trumbull said of him: "As a debater
engaged in the current business of legislation,
the Senate has not had his equal in my time. No
man could detect a sophistry or perceive a scheme
or job quicker than he, and none possessed the
power to expose it more effectually. He was a
practical, matter-of-fact man, utterly abhorring
all show, pretension, and humbug." Mr. White's
comment at this point is that with Fessenden
passed away " the most clairvoyant mind, joined
to the most sterling character, that the State of
Maine ever contributed to the national coun-
cils." After all, what is the lasting worth of the
glamour that later gathered around the person
of Maine's "plumed knight," or her "Czar," in
comparison with two such judgments as these?
While Trumbull was a thorough hater of
slavery, a vigorous supporter of the Union dur-
ing the war, and an active champion of meas-
ures for the protection of the freedmen after
emancipation, he never lost sight of the solemn
duty of proceeding with due respect to official
oaths and constitutional obligations. His feel-
ing against the temptation to defy law in
assailing evil is well brought out in a speech
made when the Senate was considering a pro-
posal to investigate the John Brown raid.
"No man who is not prepared to subvert the consti-
tution, destroy the government, and resolve society into
its original elements, can justify such an act. No mat-
ter what evils, either real or imaginary, may exist in the
body politic, if each individual, or every set of twenty
individuals, out of more than twenty millions of people,
is to be permitted, in his own way and in defiance of the
laws of the land, to undertake to correct those evils,
there is not a government on the face of the earth that
could last a day."
And so during the trying years that followed,
while he was generally to be classed with the
more radical wing of his party, we nevertheless
find him repeatedly holding back when his own
judgment and conscience told him that the con-
stitution, honestly interpreted, stood in the way.
On this ground he firmly opposed the Ku-Klux
Bill of 1871: "I am not willing to undertake
to enter the states for the purpose of punishing
individual offences against their authority, com-
mitted by one citizen against another. We, in
my judgment, have no constitutional authority
to do that. When this government was formed,
the general rights of person and property were
left to be protected by the states, and there
they are left to-day." At the outbreak of the
war, he took strong ground against arbitrary
military arrests, and later used his influence to
bring the suspension of the writ of habeas
corpus within due limits. And it was of course
the same spirit that nerved him to stand firmly
and successfully against the abuse of the power
of impeachment in the case of Andrew Johnson.
For putting blocks in the way of some of Sum-
ner's more radical measures, he was angrily
charged with betrayal of the cause of freedom,
but that did not hinder him from coming
strongly to the aid of Sumner when the latter
was unjustly forced out of his position as
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, through the influence of President
Grant. It fell to his lot to draw the Thirteenth
Amendment, abolishing slavery forever from
the United States and from all places under
their jurisdiction, towards which the Emanci-
pation Proclamation of President Lincoln was
merely a preparatory step, of value in its psy-
chological effect on public opinion in the North
rather than in actually freeing any large number
of slaves, which under the circumstances it could
not do. The man who drew this amendment,
says the author,"will never be forgotten as long
as the love of liberty survives in this land."
There are many points on which one would
be glad to dwell, but there are other demands
upon these columns, and their space is limited.
Mr. White has rendered a great service in pro-
ducing this book. The young Americans who
are growing up to-day to control the destinies of
this nation need the tonic of a clean-cut presen-
tation of just such lives as that of Trumbull. It
should be in every public library in the land, and
discriminating librarians should exert themselves
to promote its circulation, w. H. Johnson.


1913]
355
THE DIAL
The Kittredge Anniversary Volume.*
For many years now, when a notable scholar
and teacher has come near the end of his active
service, it has been the pleasant custom for
his friends and pupils to do him honor by con-
tributing to a volume of essays — samples, as it
were, of the scholarly accuracy and habits of
research which the master has inculcated. Such
a book, for example, was the "Miscellany pre-
sented to Dr. Frederick J. Furnival in honor of
his seventy-fifth birthday"' in 1901; and the
"Studies in Language and Literature in Honor
of James Morgan Hart" published on his sev-
entieth birthday in 1909. The Italian, Fran-
cesco Torraca, was so honored; the Spaniard,
Menendez y Pelayo; the Germans, Sievers and
Morsbach; and, in America, Professors Gum-
mere, Putnam, and Toy—to mention only a few.
As a rule, however, these testimonies have
come after a long generation of devotion to
scholarship. The "Anniversary Papers" pre-
sented to Professor George Lyman Kittredge
on the completion of his twenty-fifth year of
teaching in Harvard University are therefore
somewhat out of the ordinary. Although twenty-
five years of teaching is a respectable achieve-
ment, Professor Kittredge, now in the full vigor
of middle life, promises to be good for another
quartergcentury of equally brilliant and faith-
ful service. Both the volume and the occasion
of its presentation furnish opportunity for a
brief review of the developments in American
scholarship and higher education which have
made Professor Kittredge's term of service so
noteworthy.
When Professor Kittredge joined the Eng-
lish Department at Harvard in 1888, graduates
of American colleges were just beginning to find
out that it was no longer essential to go abroad
for graduate study. To be sure, Mr. Henry
Cabot Lodge, one of the first of Harvard's
Doctors of Philosophy, had taken his degree in
1875; but in 1888 Harvard was giving only two
or three Ph.D.'s a year, as against her present
average of twenty-five or thirty. The astonish-
ing growth of the Harvard Graduate School
since,— a growth paralleled in other universities
all over the country, — accompanied by an un-
precedented demand for advanced teachers, has
given Professor Kittredge and his colleagues an
exceptional opportunity to leave the impress of
•Anniversary Papers by Colleagues and Pupils
or Geo roe Lyman Kittredge, presented on the completion
of his twenty-fifth year of teaching in Harvard University,
June, MCMXIII. With portrait. Boston: Ginn & Co.
their personality, their scholarship, and their
teaching upon hundreds of men who have gone
from their work at Harvard into college and
university faculties.
Some of the changes which this last quarter
of a century has brought are reflected in the
volume under review. For example, every one
of the forty five contributors to these "Anni-
versary Papers " is a college teacher, and twenty-
three of them represent sixteen institutions other
than Harvard. If time had served, the number
of contributors might easily have been tripled,
and the list of institutions represented extended
very greatly. The conclusion is obvious, that
in America almost the only road to scholarly
pursuits, of the humanities at least, is offered
by teaching. With us, men of means who take
to scholarship are likely either to find teaching
positions or to become bibliophiles with a leaning
toward fancy bindings and volumes whose rarity
sometimes has little to do with their intrinsic
importance. In America, men like the late Dr.
Fitzedward Hall or the late Dr. Furness are
exceptional. In England such men are and long
have been numerous. The fact, of course, is not
necessarily disparaging to us. It means, for
one thing, that men of exceptional bent toward
scholarship find a main opportunity for service
in direct contact with younger students. But it
means also that many an American professor,
with exceptional ability in research, is forced by
our educational system to spend much time and
energy on routine matters, when he might be of
more service to his generation and to his college
if he could devote himself more entirely to study.
We do need in this country research professor-
ships, and funds for publishing the results of
investigation. Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Car-
negie have made a start in science. Who will
help out the humanities?
Another comment which a glance at the
table of contents suggests is that all but six of
the forty-five contributors are Doctors. Of the
six, the four A.B.'s are Professors at Harvard,
and the two A.M.'s are at Columbia, and their
degrees date back to near the beginning of
Professor Kittredge's incumbency. Time was
when a man might be too busy with teaching
and research (as Professor Kittredge and some
of his colleagues have been) to acquire a Ph.D.
But that day has passed in America, for the
president of any little freshwater college may
demand and get a Ph.D. to fill even an instruc-
torship at almost any salary between $600 and
$1000. This is not, however, the place to dis-


356
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
cuss various absorbing problems connected with
this change; it is enough here to note its com-
pleteness.
Another remark which offers itself is that,
although all of the contributors to this volume
are teachers, not one of the papers even sug-
gests pedagogy. They are all, as we have said,
samples of the patient research and the dis-
criminating and acute appraisal of facts which
have made Professor Kittredge's scholarship
and instruction so stimulating. Lest someone
think "samples" a disparaging word, let us
hasten to explain that the papers range in
length from three or four to fifteen pages, and
that the subjects treated are necessarily either
such relatively minor matters as "The Date of
Hegetor" or an interpretation of "Des Tors
D'Arcaise" (a phrase in the Old French "Alis-
cans"), or else carefully limited discussions of
one or two phases of a large topic, such as
"The Modernness of Dante," "Johnson and
his Friendships," or "Hamlet and Iago."
Another phase of the change which Professor
Kittredge has had so large a share in is the
broadening of the field of scholarly activity.
Nearly half of the papers in this volume deal
in one way or another with comparative litera-
ture and the study of origins. Those who used
to complain that doctoral dissertations prepared
under Professor Kittredge's direction treated
with too monotonous a frequency the minuter
and more technical Chaucerian questions will
doubtless rejoice to see that only five of the
papers deal with Chaucer at all. The general
reader would probably turn first to Professor
Barrett Wendell's "Fantasy concerning the
Epitaph of Shakespeare," in which the writer
sets forth a quaint but practical reason why
our greatest poet may have deliberately chosen
to phrase his epitaph in doggerel. Of the other
purely literary papers, one of the most search-
ing and instructive is Professor Brewster's on
"The Logic of Literary Criticism." Indeed,
the variety of the topics discussed here testifies
to the wide range of Professor Kittredge's
interests. His pupils have drawn inspiration
not merely from his thoroughgoing methods of
research, but from his eager interest in and
surprising knowledge of the whole field of lit-
erature as well as philology.
The volume is printed, after the American
fashion, on paper so heavy that its comfortable
perusal demands a Morris chair and a book-
rest. It is almost as ponderous a tome as the
"elephant folios" of the seventeenth century,
which were kept in window recesses or chained
(needlessly) on great desks. But the printing'
and the proofreading have been done with
unusual care, and perhaps the book's imposing
dignity is all one should seek.
Edward Payson Morton.
Napoleonic Centenaries.*
The widespread ignorance of Russian history
accounts for the fact that the events of 1812 are
remembered in Western Europe and America,
almost solely because of the terrible disaster
which overwhelmed Napoleon's army. The
heroic attitude of the Russian people, the enor-
mous sacrifices they made to repel the invader,
and their grim determination to abandon all
rather than negotiate with him on Russian soil,
are ignored. The memories associated with
1813 are, on the contrary, popular rather than
military. The idea of liberation or national
resistance, voiced in the stirring appeals of poets
and philosophers and expressed in the desperate
efforts of the German armies, commands the
greater share of attention. Such thoughts have,
doubtless, presided over the recent anniversary
of the "Battle of the Nations" at Leipsic.
The renewed interest in the Russian campaign
has led to the republication, in English dress,
of the earliest complete narrative of it, "Rela-
tion circonstanciee de la Campagne de Russie,"
written by Lieut.-Colonel Labaume and printed
in 1814. During the campaign Labaume was
with the Fourth Corps, which the Viceroy
Eugene had brought from Italy. He loses no
opportunity to praise the conduct of Eugene,
while at the same time he writes bitterly of
Napoleon, which has enabled the translator to
give the book a new title. The special cause of
the animus is probably the fact that the book
was addressed to a Restoration audience. It
was immediately popular, reaching a third edi-
tion before the year was out. It continued to
be reprinted until the publication of Segur's
•The Crime of 1812 and Its Retribution. From
the French of Eugene Labaume. Translated by T. Dnndag
Pillans. With an Introdnetion by W. T. Stead. With map.
New York: McBride, Nast & Co.
Napoleon's Last Campaign in Germany: 1813. By
F. Loraine Petre. Illustrated. New York: John Lane Co.
A Polish Exile with Napoleon. Embodying the
letters of Captain Piontkowski to General Sir Robert Wilson
and many documents from the Lowe Papers, the Colonial
Office Records, the Wilson Manuscripts, the Capel Lofft
Correspondence, and the Frenoh and Genevese Archives
hitherto unpublished. By G. L. de St. M. Watson. Illus-
trated. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
The Personality of Napoleon. By J. Holland Rose,
Litt.I). The Lowell Lectures for 1912. With maps. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.


1913]
857
THE DIAL.
narrative ten years later. The story of the re-
treat occupies only a small part of the volume.
The flavor of personal experience is not so strong
as in some other accounts, notably that of Ser-
geant Bourgogne. The author has attempted to
keep the balance between reminiscences and an
exposition of the military aspects of the cam-
paign. His explanations presuppose on the part
of the reader more familiarity with names and
places than can be expected a century after the
event.
Mr. Petre's volume on "Napoleon's Last
Campaign in Germany " is opportune. Nothing
in English presents with such painstaking exact-
ness the complexities of the struggle. Indeed,
the book errs, if anywhere, in the minuteness
of its military descriptions. The narrative must
be followed step by step with Mr. Petre's sketch
maps in hand, otherwise the reader will be
confused by the moves and counter-moves of
battalions, brigades, divisions, and corps. The
comments on the topography of the battlefields
are instructive. They would be still more help-
ful were they accompanied by photographs of
the countryside, such as Mr. Petre has furnished
in his other volumes on the campaigns of Napo-
leon. The special merits of the book will be
found in its new information in regard to the
composition of Napoleon's army and in the
illuminating remarks upon the causes of French
failure. Mr. Petre corrects the views current
about the character of the army at the outset.
He regards it "as a good instrument of war."
The personnel of the cavalry was good, but it
was weak in numbers. The army used for the
operations after the armistice was not so good.
The numbers of cavalrymen had been increased,
but they were inexperienced. Mr. Petre's opin-
ions upon Napoleon'8 conduct of the campaign
are equally interesting. He thinks Napoleon
was influenced in September and October more
by political than by military considerations,
acting as an emperor rather than as a general.
Such considerations led him to cling to the line
of the Elbe too long and influenced him to delay
the order to retreat from Leipsic. Mr. Petre
believes that Napoleon did not show the power
of quick decision which he once had. Too much
was left to subordinate commanders whose initi-
ative, hitherto suppressed, was unequal to the
occasion.
St. Helena literature still accumulates. The
most recent accession is the letters of Piont-
kowski, a Polish officer who shared Napoleon's
exile a short time. Mr. Watson, the editor of
the letters, has prefaced them by a full Intro-
duction and a "Biographical and Critical" sec-
tion. He is evidently a devotee of the Napoleon
cult. In his Introduction he labors assiduously
to call in question the good faith of Forsyth,
who fifty years ago published a History of the
Captivity based on the Lowe papers and other
official documents. A part of the critical sec-
tion is given to a similar attack upon Masson's
"Autour de Ste. Helene." Piontkowski's let-
ters give new details about Napoleon's last
days in France, but his account of the situation
in St. Helena seems to have been written for
political use, and even the editor acknowledges
that it is not in all respects trustworthy.
Dr. J. Holland Rose's study of "The Per-
sonality of Napoleon" is the most important
attempt to present a complete conception of the
great man's characteristics since Taine pub-
lished the first part of his "Modern Regime."
The treatment suffers a little from the limita-
tions of the public lecture. Much is said which
would appear more naturally in a biography,
but a sufficient knowledge of which could not
be assumed even in a Boston audience. Dr.
Rose's conception of Napoleon will, therefore,
be found only by bringing together opinions
dispersed through the eight lectures which make
up the volume. Perhaps he would disclaim the
intention of presenting his conception in a sin-
gle comprehensive analysis. In the last lecture
he says, "It is futile to sum up Napoleon in any
one category." In the lecture on "The War-
rior" only a slight attempt is made to explain
the elements of Napoleon's strategy. The im-
pression is conveyed by descriptions of two or
three typical campaigns. The little that is said
about strategy might as well be left unsaid.
What real information can be gained from such
a statement as "prompt advance in as great
force as possible along the best line of opera-
tions" was a fundamental principle? Almost
any commander would try to do this; but the
question is, how? A military writer in a
recent number of the "Revue des Etudes
Napoleoniennes" argues that Napoleon had
two methods: first, an enveloping operation
upon the enemy's line of communications, when
his own superiority was decisive; the second a
manoeuvre upon the enemy's central position,
with the idea of dividing his forces and beating
him, if his army was larger. It may be unsafe
to apply such formulas to so many widely vary-
ing campaigns, but it is more satisfactory than
to stop with vague generalities. The most pen-
etrating observations on Napoleon's character
appear in the lecture on " The World-Ruler."


358
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
Dr. Rose concludes that as a result of the
astonishing successes of the early years Napo-
leon suffered from a form of megalomania, and
could no longer discern the limitations of his
own work. In this later period the emperor
would not listen to advice, and frequently took
his wishes for facts. As a partial explanation
of his earlier successes, Dr. Rose might have
made more of the aid received from the extraor-
dinary group of ahle men by whom Napoleon
was wise enough to surround himself. Aside
from his military abilities, Napoleon's genius
seems to have lain in the driving power over
men which he possessed and in his unmatched
skill as an organizer. Henry E. Bouhne.
Recent Fiction.*
Ian Hay seems to be only a part of the name of
the novelist to whom we owe the pleasant diversions
of "A Safety Match" and "A Man's Man"—two
books of clean entertainment to which we have paid
our compliments in the recent past. This we gather
from the copyright notice of "Happy-Go-Lucky,"
the author's new novel, which records him as Ian
Hay Beith. The volume offers us light-hearted
comedy of just the sort the title would indicate.
Dicky Mainwaring, the central figure, is an engag-
ing youth whose acquaintance we first make in his
university days, and the opening chapters, which are
a sort of prologue to the more serious matter that
follows, invite us into the company of a merry set
of boys at Grand wich— which seems to be Cam-
bridge. Afterwards we are concerned with Dicky's
great love affair, which runs counter to the plans
which the family have made for him, but is saved
from disaster by the determination which lies at the
base of his happy-go-lucky character. He sees the
girl mounting a bus, runs after her, climbs up beside
her, and establishes an acquaintance. She is a good
sort, but handicapped by a shiftless father, a vulgar
mother, and a socially impossible brother. The
family keep a lodging-house in Bloomsbury, and
* Happy-Go-Luoky. By Ian Hay. Boston: Honghton
Mifflin Co.
Thk Woman Thou Gavrst Mk. Being the Story of
Mary O'Neill. Written by Hall Caine. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott Co.
Round thk Cobnkh. Being the Life and Death of
Francis Christopher Folyat, Bachelor of Divinity and Father
of a Large Family. By Gilbert Cannan. New York: D.
Appleton & Co.
The Red Colonel. By George Edgar. New York:
D. Appleton & Co.
West ways. A Village Chronicle. By S. Weir Mitchell,
M.D., LL.D. New York: The Century Co.
The Way Home. By Basil King. New York: Harper
& Brothers.
The Ikon Trail. An Alaskan Romance. By Rex
Beach. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Otherwise Phyllis. By Meredith Nicholson. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
when Lady Adela Mainwaring descends upon them,
bent upon investigating the extent of Dicky's per-
versity, we have a delicious account of their attempt
to put on appearances. The bubble is pricked, but
Dicky is no snob, and will not allow the girl to escape
him. The story is no great matter, but it is kept
alive at all points by the author's effervescent humor,
which can make the most commonplace happenings
rich in delight. His characters are real people,
incisively drawn, and we would not willingly spare
the least considerable of them. A more refreshing
story we have not read for many a day.
Mr. Hall Caine requires nearly six hundred pages
in which to tell the story of Mary O'Neill, the
heroine of "The Woman Thou Gavest Me." One
hundred would have sufficed for all the story he has
to tell, but the greater number permits him to slobber
over his theme in the unrestrained and nauseating
fashion that somehow seems to secure him a large
following of readers. He draws his support from
that subterranean or submerged public that is an
eternal mystery to the critical intelligence, the public
that is swayed by crude emotionalism, and upon
which it seems possible to inflict any form of literary
atrocity without incurring its resentment. Here is a
book that will probably prove a "best seller," along
with the lucubrations of Miss Corelli, Mr. Wright,
and Mr. Chambers, and yet a book so offensive to
anyone having the rudiments of good literary taste
that its popular acceptance presents a problem in
psychology that would have baffled even the com-
prehensive sympathies of William James. In its
essence, the story seems to be a plea for the sanctity
of illicit love, a brief for adultery, and an argument
against the salutary laws by which church and state
protect the marriage relation. Free-and-easy divorce
is the ideal preached by so many of our moralists in
fiction that marriage is fast losing, in the popular
mind, not only its sacramental character, but even
its validity as the essential basis of any civilized
social order. It is the easiest thing in the world to
construct such a situation as is presented in Mr.
Caine's novel. Take an innocent girl, keep her igno-
rant of the seamy side of life, give her a training
which brings her to womanhood with a flabby will
and no sense of personal responsibility, and tie her
by the marriage bond to a libertine and a profligate.
Then let life become to her a hell upon earth, and
pile up the agony with all the devices of sensational
rhetoric. Then let the man whom she should have
married appear upon the scene, and pile up more
agony as she struggles against temptation. Finally,
let her succumb, desert her husband, and have ille-
gitimate issue by her lover. This is the approved
formula, and when properly worked, makes a power-
ful appeal to the sympathies. Of course, the hus-
band's brutality must be unmitigated, the seducer's
virtues abundant and gloriously manifest, and the
wife's saintly endurance carried to the point of
heart-break. Thus the novelist" puts it over," ignor-
ing only the vital facts that men and women are not
as beasts of the field, that sacrifice is sometimes the


1913]
359
THE DIAL
appointed agency of the soul's salvation, and that
the social obligation is paramount to the most im-
perious demands of the hot individual will. Mr.
Caine has the whole evil argument at his tongue's
end, urging all the old sophisticated pleas for mak-
ing the worse appear the better reason, and failing
only of his desired effect because of his capacity for
slobbering, because of the almost incredible rawness
of bis style, and because of his inability to make of
even his leading characters anything more lifelike
than wooden dummies upon which to hang his dis-
cussion. His own public will not be disturbed by
such things as these, but will wallow delightedly in
the trough of his slimy emotionalism, spiced as it is
with bits of description as salacious as he dares to
make them.
Mr. Gilbert Cannan's "Round the Corner" stands
clearly out as one of the most remarkable novels of
recent years, a work of serious and convincing art,
a picture of life having the vitality that creative
genius alone can bestow. We understand that it
has suffered in England, along with Mr. Hall
Caine's new novel, from the sort of unofficial cen-
sorship that is sometimes exercised by the great
circulating libraries. This fact illustrates how indis-
criminate censorships may be, for Mr. Cannan's
sincere study and Mr. Caine's thoroughly meretri-
cious performance are as far apart as the poles in
every essential respect. The Caine novel splurges
in every chapter and is distinctly unwholesome; the
Cannan novel is quiet, restrained, faithful to fact,
and exquisitely artistic iu execution. Mr. Cannan
has got the trick of Mr. Bennett, and knows how
to write of the most commonplace people and situ-
ations in a manner to make them fairly glow with
interest Since "The Old Wives' Tale" we have
read nothing so good in this kind. The novel is
concerned, as the title-page informs us, with "the
life and death of Francis Christopher Folyat
Bachelor of Divinity and father of a large family."
The scene, at first laid in Cornwall, is soon shifted
to an ugly commercial town in the north of En-
gland, whither the clergyman removes and his
family takes root At first we took the title to
imply that we had only to look "round the corner"
to come upon just such interesting human revela-
tions as are here made, bat toward the end we come
upon the author's own explanation, which is a shade
more subtle. "Modern life is theatrical. Every-
body is playing a part, because they are without
understanding. Life for modern men and women
is forever round the corner because they attempt to
tackle their affairs with the minds of children,
children who believe everything they are told and
examine nothing. They play with everything.
They can do nothing else. Unhappily, life is a
serious business which yields its reward of joy only
to simplicity, sincerity, and purity, or, if you like
the old trinity better—faith, hope, and charity."
These words occur in a letter to the Rev. Folyat
from his oldest son, who has left home at an early
age, and returned with widened outlook to the
family hearth. His coming "lets in the air," but
it cannot completely ventilate the stuffy recesses of
the family life. The father, weak and easy-going,
is incapable of convincing his children of the rela-
tive values of life, as of dealing with the problems
that confront him as they grow up. The mother,
petty, selfish, and sentimental, is worse than useless
as a guiding and restraining force. So the children
grow up like weeds, knowing only mean ambitions
and having only sordid ideals; the girls are in par-
ticularly sad case, because marriage is the only
possible solution of the problem of life for them,
and it proves a most unsatisfactory one. Mr. Cannan
has set himself the task of portraying life just as it
is, without gloss or romantic glamor, smoldering
for its time in a deadening atmosphere, and gutter-
ing out at last. His tale is saved from being unre-
lievedly dismal by the objective way in which the
facts are observed. We think that he piles on the
agony a little too much, for the life of the Folyats,
who have a fair social position, and means that
remove them far from penury, could hardly be quite
as miserable as the author would have us believe.
The real fault, of course, is not in their material
restrictions, but in their failure to realize that there
is in the human soul a spring of inward joy which,
if only allowed to flow, can sweeten life in almost
any environment. This is the teaching implicit in
this very fine work of fiction, and the artistic justi-
fication for what may seem its over-emphasis upon
sordid detail.
"The Red Colonel," by Mr. George Edgar, is a
story that impels us to draw upon the unliterary
vocabulary for some such word as "corking" or
"rattling." Either of those expressive metaphors
will serve better to describe it than the more aca-
demic forms of expression. It deals with the exploits
of the Red Four, a company of international thieves
and murderers, who put each other out of the way
until only one of them—the Red Colonel—remains
alive, to be tracked down and driven to suicide
by the persistence of a young English physician
turned detective. What we like about Waring, the
physician-sleuth in question, is that his wits are a
match at every point for the arch-villain whom he
runs to earth, and that he is never guilty of those
silly lapses from caution which, in most stories of
this type, bring the hero into desperate danger in
order that an escape by the skin of his teeth may be
devised for him by the author's ingenuity. Waring
keeps his head all through, and does not make a
single false move. The story is of the most exciting
description, sprinkled plentifully with thrills, and
holds the attention breathless as it progresses from
plot to counterplot and from complication to com-
plication. It is, moreover, written in the English
language, and spares us the thieves' jargon thought
necessary by most writers to give realistic color to
stories of this description.
With his faculties still undimmed in extreme age,
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, in the latest of the long series
of novels which have occupied him daring the last


360
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
quarter-century, gives us a work which must be
reckoned among the very best that he has written.
Few novelists can so temper the results of observa-
tion with the ripe wisdom of the philosophic mind,
or bring to bear upon a Active invention so wide an
experience of life and so seasoned a reflective com-
mentary. He uses in the portrayal of a character
the method of life itself, revealing to us the traits
one by one, as they are brought out by circumstance,
instead of employing the method of the facile novel-
ist, who usually gives us the character outline at the
start, and works it out in detail according to the
preliminary specifications. Dr. Mitchell, no doubt,
has the preconception clearly mirrored in his mind,
but he imparts it to us only piecemeal, and we do
not shape it for ourselves until life has progressively
shaped it into unity. Each new manifestation comes
to us as a surprise, but in the end the parts are all
seen to fit themselves together as they do in our
acquaintance with an actual person whom we have
known for years. In "Hugh Wynne" and "The
Red City," he has vitalized the revolutionary and
post-revolutionary periods of our national history;
in "Westways," he performs a similar task for the
period between the days of Clay's compromise,
fondly but fatuously expected to calm the waters
stirred by the moral uprising against slavery, and
the closing days of the cataclysm which well-nigh
rent our nation in twain, and blotted out forever the
black disgrace of the peculiar institution. "Long
before the Civil War," he says, "there were in the
middle states, near to or remote from great centres,
villages where the social division of classes was
tacitly accepted. In or near these towns one or
more families were continuously important on ac-
count of wealth or because of historic position, gener-
ations of social training, and constant relation to the
larger world. They came by degrees to constitute
what I may describe as an indistinct caste, for a long
time accepted as such by their less fortune-favoured
neighbors." Such a village is Westways, on the
western slope of the Allegbanies in Pennsylvania,
and such a family are the Penhallows, James, landed
proprietor, ironmaster, and retired army officer, and
his wife Ann, an aristocratic daughter of Maryland.
The young people of the novel are John Penhallow
and Leila Grey, James Penhallow's wards, and
respectively his nephew and niece: John, orphaned
by his mother's death in Switzerland, comes to live
with his guardian in 1855, at the age of fifteen, and
here the story begins. It is at first concerned with
the making of this formal and self-conscious lad into
a sturdy young American, and later with his life at
West Point and his career as an engineer in the
Civil War. The matters of historical import that
are reflected in the ante-bellum chapters of the novel
are the growth of the new Republican Party, the
campaign of Buchanan and Fre'mont in 1856, the
intense feeling aroused by the Fugitive Slave Law,
and John Brown's insensate raid. Then we are
carried all through the war, from the attack upon
Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox, and the
figures of Lincoln, Grant, and Stanton flit for
moments across the pages. The relations of the
Penhallows, husband and wife, are set at odds by
politics, Ann being a stout partisan of Buchanan
and a sincere believer in slavery, James coming
more and more to feel that in the party of Fre'mont
and Lincoln lies the only salvation for the imperilled
union, and finally taking the field at the head of a
regiment at Gettysburg. They debar politics from
their conversation, but life forces politics upon them,
and the deep affection that exists between them tri-
umphs over the theories that would tear them apart.
This is fundamentally a historical novel, but the
history comes in only episodically, as its march
affects the lives of those whose lot is cast in the
little village. The love-story of the boy and girl
runs like a golden thread through the narrative, but
it is never sentimentalized, and neither the one nor
the other allows it to become the whole of life.
Leila is away for years at school, and John for years
fighting with Grant, on the Mississippi and in the
Wilderness, but in time's due course their lives be-
come united, as they were all the while destined to
become. Dr. Mitchell has aimed to give us an
"impression of the multitudinous contacts which
affect human lives," and this he has done, minutely
and with unfailing sympathy and insight. It is good
for us to know these people, and it was good for them
to have lived in the critical time in which their lot
was cast. We have here a cross-section of typical
American life during the decade 1855-65, and prob-
ably no other writer than Dr. Mitchell could have
exhibited it to us in such just proportion and in so
humane and philosophical a spirit.
It has long been an open secret that the anony-
mous novel "The Inner Shrine" and its two suc-
cessors were the work of Mr. Basil King, and the
authorship is now admitted on the title-page of
his new novel, "The Way Home." We find this
work less interesting than its predecessors, although
it is fairly their match in character delineation and
subtle analysis of motive. It fails, perhaps, more
from an obtrusive didacticism than from anything
else, for the author is too evidently sitting in judg-
ment upon his hero instead of leaving the reader's
decision to shape itself as the character is unfolded.
Charlie Grace is the son of a clergyman, and is
himself intended for his father's profession. But
his growing manhood revolts against the hypocrisies
that hedge that profession round, and his pleasure-
loving instincts demand for their satisfaction a more
worldly form of success. He goes into business
and becomes materially successful, but in so doing
hardens his heart toward his fellows, and does not
hesitate to seize the opportunities within his grasp,
building his achievement upon the failure of his
rivals. At the climax of his selfish endeavor, he
overreaches himself, and his plans are thwarted by
the man whom he has supplanted. Married to a
woman morally far too good for him, he becomes
faithless to her in thought, although not in act, and
is brought back to her in the end by the need of her


1913]
361
THE DIAL
support when he is pulled up short in his career by
a physician's indeterminate death-sentence. It is
thus that he finds "the way home," but we doubt if
he would have found it otherwise. There is much
beautiful and impressive writing in these pages, but
it smacks a little too much of the pulpit, and the
process by which the hero's soul is supposed to be
saved (by a narrow squeak) too closely resembles
"conversion" to be taken for an unimpeachable
ethical regeneration.
The American interest in "doing things" is
chiefly responsible for the popularity of such books
as Mr. Rex Beach's "The Iron Trail." The hero
of this novel, an Alaskan promoter and railway
contractor named Murray O'Neil, is the kind of
man who accomplishes his purpose, no matter what
the obstacles, and the fact that physical violence
and general lawlessness are resorted to as a matter
of course whenever they are found necessary only
endears him the more to the readers who follow his
fortunes with breathless interest. The big thing
that O'Neil does is to wrest an Alaskan pass from
the clutches of a rival claimant, and to carry a
railway through it in the face of formidable diffi-
culties. The difficulties are not those offered by
nature alone, for in addition he has to contend with
underhanded opposition, treachery, legal chicanery,
and the failure of funds at the critical moment. It
makes a big vivid story, crammed with action and
sweetened with sentiment. Mr. Beach knows his
Alaska well, and can describe its terrifying aspects
very effectively. Otherwise, his book has not much
style to speak of, and does not seem to need it by
reason of its surplusage of dramatic interest. There
are two girls mixed up with the action, and O'Neil,
after dallying with one of them half-way through
the book, shifts to the other and carries her off. In
the course of the narrative, he has occasion to make
much caustic comment upon the policy of the Inte-
rior Department in opposing the exploitation of
Alaskan resources for private gain, and is evidently
on the side of the men who go into the wilderness
to win for themselves individual fortunes. Of course
his vision is blinded by local prejudice, but he comes
near to carrying our sympathies with him.
"Otherwise Phyllis" is a new "Hoosier Chron-
icle," even richer and racier than the earlier one,
which marked Mr. Nicholson's transition from the
ranks of the irresponsible entertainers to the small
company of novelists who go about the exercise of
their art seriously and hold it in respect. When we
have completed the story of Phyllis, we have not
only made the charming acquaintance of a real girl,
but we have also learned more about life in Mont-
gomery, Indiana, than several years of actual resi-
dence would have been likely to impart to us. We
know the leading citizens of the town in their private
characters and in their social and business relation-
ships; we know the home?, the farms, the banks, the
business offices; and we know the shady history of
the Sycamore Traction Company. The outstanding
characters in this novel are Montgomerys and
Holtons. Many years before the story opens, Lois
Montgomery had married Tom Kirkwood, a pro-
fessor in the local college and afterwards a lawyer
somewhat neglectful of his profession. Then Lois
had scandalized the community by running away
with the black sheep of the Holtons, leaving her
husband with a baby daughter, "Otherwise Phyllis."
Later, a divorce had set Kirkwood free, and marriage
with Holton had regularized the social status of Lois,
living on the Pacific coast. When we have got fairly
well acquainted with the grown-up Phyllis, which
means taking her to our hearts, and when we have
come to know intimately her lovable father, her three
fussy and snobbish aunts, and her substantial and
crusty uncle, to say nothing of various Holtons, good
and bad, we are prepared for the appearance of Lois
upon the scene, and the complications that follow.
Here is where the author scores heavily, for Lois does
not return as the repentant sinner, begging to be
forgiven, but as a level-headed woman of the world,
who has long since sent the partner of her flight
about his business1, and who has made a large for-
tune in Western investments. She knows that her
youthful escapade was foolish, but she has long since
paid the penalty for that, and thinks the world should
call it square. There is nothing morbid or brooding
about her; she enjoys life and gets a good deal out
of it; and she returns to Montgomery to see what
sort of a girl her daughter has grown to be. She has
reason to be entirely satisfied with Phyllis, and the
affection which she offers is returned in full measure.
From the standpoint of Phyllis, this newly-found
mother is brilliant, companionable, and sympathetic,
and why should she reject the love so freely offered
because of those old, unhappy, far-off things that are
to the girl nothing more than a misty family tradi-
tion. The way in which Mr. Nicholson steers clear
of sloppy sentiment in all this business deserves
our profound gratitude. The quality of matter-of-
factness attaches to this story throughout, and this
is what makes its art so genuine. The humor of the
book is particularly deft; it is never made obtrusive,
but it suffuses the entire narrative with a genial
glow, and constitutes one of the chief elements of its
charm. William Morton Payne.
Biukfs on New Books.
The tpirituai What a man thinks and feels and
development ota believes is always so much more
m-eat Unitarian, important than what he does, that in
the case of any interesting personality we would,
if we could, gladly exchange the outer facts for the
inner impulses. But to give the true story of one's
own inner life is so difficult that not often are we
granted the privilege of such self-revelations. In
"Charles Gordon Ames: A Spiritual Autobi-
ography" (Houghton), we have a book of intense
interest, especially for those who knew the magnetic
personality of the man during his life. But even
those who never met him, to whom even his name


362
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
may be unknown, can hardly fail to follow with
keen satisfaction the charmingly written story of
the development of a soul. Certainly, no one can
read unmoved the first chapter, "The Religion of a
Boy," revealing what a child can suffer from being
misunderstood. Like many another youngster, he
was regarded as heedless, perverse, unfaithful; his
quickness to learn was merely a misfortune because
it left him all the more time for mischief. Yet he
was never long without serious thoughts; there was
never a day when he could not have been reached
by love and sweet reasonableness. The chapter
entitled "How I Became a Preacher" is scarcely
less touching. Before he was quite eighteen years
old, his fellow church-members gave him a hearing
in order to determine whether his "call to preach"
was a true one. He was the janitor of the church,
and lighted the vestry for the occasion. They
listened to his sermon, held a meeting afterward,
and voted to approve Brother Ames in publicly
"improving his gift" His little vessel was launched
and he felt himself in the ministry. Then followed
experiences baffling enough to discourage any but
the stoutest heart. Minnesota in the fifties was in
its frontier stage; hither he went, established a
church, and on a salary of two hundred dollars a
year managed somehow to support his family, not-
withstanding an expostulation from one member of
his congregation on his extravagance in money
matters! The important event of this period was a
gradual change of his own religious views so great
that conscience forced him to withdraw not only
from the Free Baptist Church of Minneapolis, which
he had organized five years before, but from the
denomination altogether. The story of the next
half-century is told in the concluding chapter, called
"Fifty Years among the Unitarians." The Epi-
logue, written by Dr. Ames's daughter, Alice Ames
Winter, contributes many interesting reminiscences
and some fine tributes from personal friends. One
of these tributes characterizes him as "the last figure
of the great Unitarian group. There was no other
quite so Emersonian. A hundred of his sermons
were almost Emerson essays. He had Emerson's
firm and quiet faith, his penetration and poetry of
nature, his wit and humor and sententiousness, his
gift for homely illustration, his buoyant optimism,
and his democracy."
Reconciling "The Meaning of Evolution" (Mac-
reUgion and millan), by Mr. Samuel Christian
DarwinUm. Schmucker, is a latter-day attempt
at reconciling religion and Darwinism. According
to one's point of view such a task will be regarded
as either a work of supererogation or an impossi-
bility. Looked at either way, this particular book
does not impress one as an especially strong or
deep contribution. Its style has a bit too much of
Pecksniffian unctuosity to be relished. Even our
theological faculties of the present day demand
sterner and more filling intellectual pabulum than
is furnished by Mr. Schmucker. A very diluti
account of the principal factors and the course of
organic evolution forms the concrete subject matter.
From the biological side, the reviewer has not been
able to discover in the book one single new idea, or
even a novel development of a well-known one.
The whole theory of the method of organic evolu-
tion is just now passing through a most interesting
stage of development. Old ideas are being criti-
cized, and new ones are being tested, with such
rapidity as to make it a matter of some diffi-
culty even for the specialist in this field to form a
just estimate of the immediate status of expert
opinion about the method of evolution. This con-
dition of affairs would seem to afford both an
opportunity and a stimulus to the popular writer.
Liveliness and life seem somehow to be related.
How far ahead of Mr. Schmucker are topics of
current interest in evolution is indicated by the
fact that the names of Mendel, Bergson, Driesch,
Galton, and Karl Pearson are not even mentioned
in his pages. The sole concession to modernism is
a scant two pages (and a portrait) devoted to De
Yries and his mutation theory. This discussion
closes with the following truly precious thought:
"Just at present it seems premature to believe that
all evolution is by mutation, although quite possibly
some of it is." The personal field-observations of
the author, especially some of those on birds, form
the one redeeming feature of the book. It has been
said that a nearly infallible test of a writer's com-
petency to discuss evolution is afforded by the way
in which he spells the name of the most distin-
guished Neo-Darwinian. By this test the present
author fails, since throughout the text "Weissman"
is written, while curiously enough the legend of the
plate facing p. 238 (presumably furnished by the
publisher) correctly states that the gentlemen por-
trayed is "August Weismann." Et de hoc satis.
Greek art at ^n *ne diffusion of an intelligent love
the expreuion of art, the Bureau of University
o/ Greek li/e. Travel in Boston has played an im-
portant part with its prints and publications; and
its president, Dr. H. H. Powers, has been its leading
apostle. As personal conductor, as lecturer, as author,
he has spread the gospel of the beautiful in all parts
of the land; and his utterances, on Italian art espe-
cially, are of wide acceptance. To these he has now
added a volume on "The Message of Greek Art"
(Macmillan), which will well repay careful study.
From Winckelmann down, we have had many a
history of Greek Art; but they have all stuck pretty
close to their text as conceived in the word "Art."
Dr. Powers apprehends that the emphasis would
better be laid on "Greek." To him, "the subject
is never dissociated in thought from its great back-
ground of Greek civilization, and it derives its chief
interest to the writer from the fact that it so con-
stantly reveals and interprets this larger fact. It is
therefore the message of Greek art, what it has to
tell us of the Greeks, of their personality, their ideals,
and their experiences, that will chiefly concern us


1913]
363
THE
DIAL
rather than considerations of process or later acci-
dent." To this conception of his task the author
generally holds true; the result being that we have
a history of Greece and one of Greek art running
in parallel channels, and each explaining the other.
A difficult undertaking; and achieved, it must be
admitted, with a high degree of success. Dr. Powers
has never lost sight of the Greek national character
as interpreted in art forms. Thus the curves of
rosette, scroll, and cuttle-fish tentacles, so universal
in Mycenaean decoration, are indicative of a gentle
and effeminate civilization, just as "the harsh zig-
zags and bristling angles which marked the pottery
of that civilization's successors and conquerors
reflected in its turn a more rugged and martial
nature." So again, in the elaborate coiffures, frills,
and edgings which ornament the draped female
figures of the Acropolis, Dr. Powers sees the influ-
ence of the benevolent but cramping tyranny of
Pisistratus, under which true liberty was shackled
and personality repressed. When he comes to the
Great Age, it is Phidias who looms before him as
a great statesman, whose life-work was to assist
Pericles in making Athens imperially great, rather
than that of a "mere" sculptor absorbed in his art.
These are not all new views; but we have never
seen them urged so eagerly and eloquently. Dr.
Powers writes with an enthusiasm which is more of
a challenge than an appeal; his style is high-colored,
and rich in epigram and colloquialisms. Occasion-
ally he forgets his perspective, as in his extended
discussion of the nude in art, and his invective
against some of the yardstick critics and Philistines
who are found even in studios and lecture-rooms.
The book is fascinating throughout; but, like other
fascinating books of criticism, must be read with
some reserves. The 137 illustrations are beautiful
and well-chosen; some of them reproducing statues
which we have not seen in other works of the kind,
— e. g., the Vatican Eros and the Boston Zeus. In
speaking of the marble copies of Polyclitus's Hera,
the fine head found by the American School at
Argoe, and now in Athens, is rather oddly omitted.
A few misprints should be noted: "Lybia" (p 41),
"Colonnus" (p. 128), "properous" (p. 129), "cor-
alled" (p. 210).
A high-spirited daughter of the Con-
in "war-time" federacy has left a vivacious record
of harrowing war-time experiences in
a volume now published by her son after her death,
and entitled by him "A Confederate Girl's Diary"
(Houghton). Sarah Morgan, afterward Mrs. Sarah
Morgan Dawson, as her name appears on the title-
page, was the daughter of Judge Thomas Gibbes
Morgan of Baton Rouge; and it was at or near Baton
Rouge and New Orleans that she lived through such
times as may well have tried men's souls, to say noth-
ing of women's. Her diary, begun in the spring of
1862 as a distraction from the glooms and horrors
of the period, extends to the summer of 1865, and is
necessarily devoted mostly to the minor and nearer
happenings in the writer's little world. But as death
and disaster visited her home and neighborhood in
the progress of the war, she developed a cordial
hatred of the Yankees and expressed herself vigor-
ously in denunciation of their atrocities. "And this
is war!" she writes on an early page. "Heaven
save me from like scenes and experiences again."
There was worse to come, however. Her description
of the wrecked and pillaged homestead at Baton
Rouge is moving indeed. In her satirical thrusts at
"good, kind General Butler" we see her laughing
through her tears. Her account, as an eye-witness,
of the burning of the Confederate vessel "Arkansas"
by her crew after her machinery had broken down,
in order to prevent her capture by the " Essex," would
seem to throw new light on what has hitherto been
accepted as a Federal victory. As the production
of a young girl of little formal education, the diary
is surprisingly vivid and vigorous in its style. Writ-
ten often in the hurry and panic of perilous times, it
maintains a certain unstudied finish of manner that
is remarkable. Mr. Warrington Dawson, the diar-
ist's son, who transcribed the faded pages for publi-
cation, gives assurance that he has altered nothing,
only omitted a few passages of purely personal or
family interest. He has furnished the book with a
biographical introduction, and there are portraits
and other illustrative material.
Siudiei in The posthumous volume of studies
American by Erank Egbert Bryant, Associate
scholar. Professor of English in the Univer-
sity of Kansas, entitled "The History of English
Balladry, and Other Studies" (Badger), brings
together a notable group of essays on subjects con-
nected with the English language and literature.
The title-essay is the outgrowth of a doctoral thesis
at Harvard, and presents a valuable account of the
emergence of the English ballad in early times, and
of its development through the reign of Elizabeth.
Wise and deep scholarship are reflected here in a
study which, although uncompleted, will be of con-
stant service to students in this field. It is unfor-
tunate that the proofreading has not been done by
someone familiar with Middle English, for there
are instances in which thorn and the letter p have
been sadly confused. The second essay, on Lead-
ing's "LaocoOn," was printed in 1906, at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, and has already received praise
from eminent authorities in America and in Europe.
A clear and penetrating analysis is made of Less-
ing's dicta regarding Description, and his inconsis-
tencies are laid bare; then the essay goes on,
progressively, building up a theory of Description
which contains matter very suggestive to students
of this subject. As an instance of acute application
of the newer views of psychological aesthetics, this
study deserves close attention, especially from young
teachers. The brief papers that form the latter part
of the volume are connected with subjects linguistic
and phonetic, appealing chiefly to the specialist,—
although the study of "Conservation in Language"


364
f Nov. 1
THE DIAI,
will engage the interest of any thoughtful reader.
The loss that American scholarship has suffered in
Professor Bryant's death at the outset of his career
is a loss that can be ill-sustained. We need, very
greatly, just such scholars,—quiet, profound, and
tireless in their scrutiny of facts and of theories.
Sound knowledge, combined with power of resist-
ance to conventional dogma and a tenacious skill
in penetrating to the centre of matters, character-
ized the work of Dr. Bryant. With years of study
under leaders at Michigan, at Yale, and at Harvard,
with experience in libraries abroad, and with the
prestige of work already noted in high places, he
was equipped to enter upon a life of unusually vital
scholarship. This volume is a significant contribu-
tion to our library of critical investigation in the
field of English.
New gleaning, The v°lume entitled "A Pilgrimage
from the prose of Pleasure: Essays and Studies"
of Swinburne. (Badger) by Algernon Charles Swin-
burne is made up of gleanings from the scattered
prose writings of the poet. Some of the eight num-
bers included — the "Dead Love" of 1862, the
essay on Dickens published in the "Quarterly Re-
view," 1902, and "An Unknown Poet [Wells] " pub-
lished in the "Fortnightly Review," 1875—are not
so difficult of access aB to make the present reprint
a particular boon, but for the others we may well be
grateful, as for the full bibliography that has been
prepared by Mr. Edward J. O'Brien. "A Pilgrimage
of Pleasure" is taken from "The Children of the
Chapel," a tale by Mrs. Disney Leith, published in
1864. It is a morality, accepted as Swinburne's by
most of the bibliographical specialists, and in our
opinion bearing the sign manual of the poet upon
almost every line. It exhibits Swinburne's uncanny
imitative powers as unmistakably as any of the pieces
in the first "Poems and Ballads " or as the border
ballads of a later date. The critical essay on Bau-
delaire and the note on Meredith's "Modern Love"
may both be found in the files of the "Spectator"
for 1862, but we are glad that we no longer have
to resort to that source to read them. The Baude-
laire essay, indeed, belongs with Swinburne's most
finished critical studies. The notes on Simeon
Solomon are dated 1871, come from a forgotten
ephemeral periodical, "The Dark Blue," and call
our attention to a forgotten artist, whom even a
Swinburnian eulogy has not been sufficient to save
from oblivion. Much the same may be said of John
Nichol's "Hannibal," which the poet eulogized in
the "Fortnightly Review" for 1872. The chief
interest for us of Mr. O'Brien's bibliography is the
revelation which it affords of the great number of
fugitive items, existing only in private editions of
twenty copies or less, which the general reader has
no chance of seeing. Surely something must be
done to make these things accessible. We note that
the bibliographer gives recognition to The Dial for
being the first to publish two of Swinburne's poems
(vol. xlvii., pp. 504-5).
Walks and A work offered as -'a handbook for
talks in youngpeople"which many grown ups
musiciand. will also welcome is "In Music Land"
(Browne & Howell Co.), by the veteran musical
critic, Mr. George P. Upton. Its purpose is to
introduce the reader to an acquaintance with the
life-stories of the great composers, with the origin
and structure of the most popular forms of musical
composition, and with the chief musical instruments
used by the orchestra and the special qualities of
each as mediums of conveying musical thoughts and
feelings. Precisely such a work as thip, so entirely
free from technicalities, has not been undertaken
before; and Mr. Upton is precisely the man. best
fitted to have written it. For not only does he
understand and love music, but he understands
and loves children; and we venture to guess that
"Dorothy" and the others to whom the stories are
told regard him as quite one of themselves. In the
twelve biographies beginning with Bach and ending
with Verdi, perhaps the most notable fact brought
out by the writer is the almost invariable sadness
and harshness of these musicians'childhoods. Men-
delssohn seems almost the only exception. Com-
menting on this, Mr. Upton philosophizes thus:
"Perhaps that is one reason why his music is
always graceful, refined, and beautiful, though it
is not as great as that of the composers who have
suffered. . . . When Elf-Land seems far away, and
the leaves are falling, and the sky grows gray, you
will turn to the greater masters." Discussing the
Orchestra and its instruments, the author is partic-
ularly happy in his characterizations. For example,
the harp is called "the hermit thrush of the family
because it is a lovely singer . . . the only one that
has got into Heaven . . . the favorite of the
angels." The "Postlude" is eloquent, and surely
should do much to banish from the youthful mind the
tendency to regard the study of music as drudgery,
or, at best, a mere frill to more serious pursuits.
"It is the one art which above all others enhances
the joy of the world, the one which above all others
inspires to action, the one above all others which
rests you when weary, which consoles you when sor-
rowful. . . . No other labor brings such rich spiritual
compensation or abundant pleasure." Many quaint
illustrations by Mr. James Bloomfield help to make
this volume a particularly choice gift for all, young
or old, who seek elementary musical knowledge.
An Admiral's A native "facultv for making things
recollections happen" was responsible for sundry
of two wars. exciting and not always agreeable
occurrences in the boyhood and youth of Admiral
Dewey, and it came near to causing his premature
and inglorious departure from Annapolis at the end
of his first year in the Naval Academy. But it was
his destiny to make a more graceful exit three
years later, and very soon afterward to show him-
self as capable a disciplinarian and commanding
officer as he had been daring and resourceful in
defying authority. His "Autobiography" (Scrib-


1913]
865
THE DIAL
ner), written at last in his seventy-sixth year with
the natural reluctance of a man of distinguished
achievement to talk about his deeds, and only pro-
duced at the repeated solicitation of friends, as his
preface duly sets forth, gives with conciseness, and
yet in a style that proves highly readable, the main
facts of his ancestry, education, naval experience
under Farragut at New Orleans amd his later ser-
vice in the Civil War, in the course of which he
was the executive officer of nine successive ships,
his part in the building of our modern navy, his
appointment to the command of the Asiatic squad-
ron, the battle of Manila Bay and the complex
responsibilities imposed upon the victor immediately
thereafter, and the chief events of his later peaceful
years. In his account of the naval operations
directed by Farragut, of the subsequent assault on
Fort Fisher under Admiral Porter's leadership, and
of the operations that ended in the complete destruc-
tion of the Spanish squadron at Manila, there is no
lack of movement and thrill. Appended documents
treat of details in the important occurrences in the
Philippines during those critical months of 1898.
Pictures of war vessels and portraits of their officers
abound. A confusing error in dates occurs (p. 205)
in the account of movements immediately preceding
the battle of Manila Bay. Otherwise, with few
exceptions, the book shows evidence of adequate
care in its preparation, for which indebtedness is
acknowledged to Mr. Frederick Palmer.
j. ^ The late Edward A. Moseley, Sec-
One who tided •"
with the retary of the Interstate Commerce
under dog. Commission from its organization in
1887 until his death in 1911, was a whole-hearted
champion of the defenceless employee whose occupa-
tion exposed him to peculiar risks resulting in loss
of life or limb. His part in securing the passage
of the first safety-appliance act and the employers'
liability act, with other services to his fellow-men, is
well and fully told by Mr. James Morgan, a close
friend of his for many years, in a substantial volume
entitled "The Life Work of Edward A. Moseley in
the Service of Humanity" (Macmillan). Though
the son of a wealthy father and belonging by birth
to the aristocracy of Newburyport, Moseley was a
democrat at heart, a strenuous toiler by choice, and
always the true friend of the people, with whom he
mingled unaffectedly all his life. A year's experience
as a common sailor under the harshest of captains
and with the roughest of shipmates had early proved
of what stuff he was made. Characteristic of the
man was his organizing of a strike among the work-
men of his own firm, in order to have a pretext for
raising their wages. The book abounds in similar
instances of disinterested endeavor, usually success-
ful, to improve the condition of the laboring classes.
Extracts from his correspondence and from other
documents of interest are inserted here and there.
A link connecting Mr. Moseley with the literary
world is found in his relationship to Mrs. Harriet
Prescott Spofford, whose sister he married, and with
whom he and his family maintained terms of inti-
macy. Portraits, views, appended matter, and index
round out the bool's equipment as a well-executed
piece of work.
c. ... i Miss Bertha Thomas well knows how
Short tketchet . , .
of Weith u/e • to sprinkle her page with Doric dia-
and character. i0gUe ;n 8UCh wi8e ag to impart an
air of verisimilitude to what might otherwise be a
bald and unconvincing narrative. Her "Picture
Tales from Welsh Hills" (Browne & Howell Co.)
consists of nine stories and sketches abounding in
rapid portraiture of Welsh character and customs,
Welsh oddities and superstitions, Welsh habits of
thought and speech. In the opening story, "The
Madness of Winifred Owen," the heroine rids her-
self of the attentions of an unwelcome lover by
taking a subtle poison that renders her temporarily
insane, and afterward marries the man of her choice.
The longest tale in the book, "The Way He Went,"
gives the history of a phenomenally intellectual
country lad who achieves an Oxford education,
grieves his mother by taking to wife a girl not of
his own country, and dies an early death. A sketch
entitled "Comic Objects of the Country" presents
in amusing form the impressions of a London gamin
on being sent to an industrial school in rural Wales.
Of such trifles is the book compounded, but the
story-teller's art makes them worth while. Even
the minor characters are made to stand out in dis-
tinct shape by a skilful stroke or two of the pen, as
the schoolmaster Macpherson, "whose career had
been checked by a moral scrape of his youth," and
whose ambition, "under the slur of it, had finally
settled down to the lifelong position of an assistant
master, manufacturing brilliant products rather than
shining as one himself." Some aberrations in the
writer's English, perhaps attributable to the con-
tagious influence of the Welsh idiom, will be noted
here and there by a critical reader, who will grieve
at Miss Thomas's unabashed use of "enthuse,"
without apologetic quotation marks, and at her dis-
regard of a good old rule of grammar in speaking
of "the unkindest cut of the two."
BRIEFER MENTION.
"The Poems and Ballads of Robert Louis Steven-
son," in complete form, are now for the first time
brought within the covers of a single volume, of good
typography and comfortable dimensions. A photo-
gravure portrait of the author is included by way of
frontispiece. Messrs. Scribner are the publishers.
To have offered him in good cloth-bound editions at
fifty cents each three such valuable works in his field
as Dr. Ely's "Evolution of Industrial Society," Mr.
Franklin Pierce's "The Tariff and the Trusts," and
Dr. Devine's "Misery and its Causes" is a boon for
which the student of public affairs cannot fail to be
sincerely grateful. These volumes comprise late addi-
tions to the "Macmillan Standard Library." To this
series have also been added Professor F. B. TarbelPs
"History of Greek Art "and Mr. W. H. Goodyear's
"Renaissance and Modern Art."


366
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
Notes.
Mr. Gilbert K. Chesterton is preparing a volume on
Charles Kingsley for the "English Men of Letters"
series.
M. Jean Finot, author of "Problems of the Sexes,"
has recently completed a volume which Messrs. Putnam
will soon publish in an English translation entitled
"The Science of Happiness."
The extended biography of Francis Thompson, upon
which his friend Mr. Everard Meynell has been at work
for two or three years past, will shortly be issued in
this country by Messrs. Scribner.
Mr. Howard Elliott, recently appointed president of
the New York, New Haven, and Hartford lines, has
written a book entitled "The Truth about the Kail-
roads," which Houghton Mifflin Co. will publish at
once.
A life of Dr. Munger of the United Church of New
Haven, by his friend and fellow-minister, Dr. Benjamin
Wisner Bacon, is announced by the Yale University
Press. The book is to bear the title, "Life of Dr.
Theodore Thornton Munger, New England Minister."
The works of Samuel Butler, the gifted author of
"Erewhon" to whom we devoted an article in our last
issue, are gradually being issued in American editions.
Messrs. Dutton now announce his travel book, "Alps
and Sanctuaries," in a new edition edited by Mr. R. A.
Streatfeild.
"The Constitution of Matter," to be published this
month by Houghton Mifflin Co., is made up of six lec-
tures delivered by Professor Joseph Sweetland Ames
of Johns Hopkins University. They set forth the
latest discoveries and theories in regard to molecules,
atoms, radiation, etc.
Stephen Jenkins, whose death at the age of fifty-six
was reported two weeks ago, had recently completed a
volume on " The Old Boston Post Road," which Messrs.
Putnam will publish this month. Mr. Jenkins was also
the author of "The Greatest Street in the World " and
"The Story of the Bronx."
Three books just announced by Mr. John Howell, a
San Francisco bookseller who is now to enter the pub-
lishing field, are the following: "Brunelleschi," by Mr.
John Galen Howard; "The Fall of Ug: A Masque of
Fear," by Mr. Rufus Steele; and " The Runner's Bible,"
compiled and annotated by Mr. N. S. Holm.
The well-known "Photogravure Series" published
by the John C. Winston Co. will soon receive the
addition of a volume on "French Canada and the St.
Lawrence: Historical, Picturesque, and Descriptive," by
Mr. J. Casteil Hopkins. Twelve photogravure plates,
from original photographs, will illustrate the work.
"English Dramatic Poetry," by Professor Felix
Schelling, "English Elegiac, Didactic, and Religious
Poetry," by Very Rev. H. C. Beeching, and "English
History and Schools of History," by Professor Richard
Lodge, are three shortly forthcoming volumes in
Messrs. Dutton's "Channels of English Literature"
series.
Mr. Edwin A. Brown is a well-to-do citizen of Den-
ver, who believes that the way to investigate social
conditions is to put yourself in the other fellow's place.
He also believes that the great problem before us to-day
is the problem of taking care of the temporarily unem-
ployed — the wandering, homeless, penniless working-
man. To find ont what our big cities are doing to
meet this problem, Mr. Brown set out on a tour of the
country in the guise of a man without employment, but
willing to work. His experiences will be published this
month by Browne & Howell Co., under the title
"Broke: The Man Without the Dime," and will be
illustrated from photographs.
Mrs. Sara Andrew Shafer, an occasional contributor
to The Dial and the author of several published books,
was killed in an automobile accident on October 18,
near her home in La Porte, Ind. Her writings include
"The Day before Yesterday," "Beyond Chance of
Change," "A White Paper Garden," and volumes on
Annapolis, Frederick, and Mackinac in the "Historic
Towns " series.
"The Life of Florence Nightingale" will be pub-
lished very shortly by Messrs. Macmillan. It is from
the pen of Sir E. T. Cook, who has had access to the
family papers, and so has been enabled to give for the
first time a full account of this remarkable woman.
The biography will be found to possess a special sig-
nificance as correcting and supplementing what its
author describes as "a popular legend," though only
in the direction of enhancing the greatness of a noble
life. It will consist of two volumes and will be fur-
nished with interesting portraits and other illustrations.
A collection of " Folk-Ballads of Southern Europe,"
transcribed and translated from many Romance lan-
guages and dialects by the late Sophie Jewett, will
be published immediately by Messrs. Putnam. Miss
Jewett's last work was done on these ballads, and they
are said to reveal her art in its delicacy and in its
strength. The original texts are printed on pages facing
the translations. Notes giving the history of ballad-
texts and indicating the analogues of the different bal-
lads have been added by the editor, Professor Katharine
Lee Bates, who has incorporated many extracts from
the lecture notes of Miss Jewett's college course on the
ballads and many of her rough translations not included
in this collection.
William Garrott Brown, an historical writer of not-
able achievement and promise, died at New Canaan,
Conn., October 19, at the age of forty-five. From 1893
to 1901 he was assistant librarian at Harvard, and dur-
ing the following year lectured there on American his-
tory. Besides an "Official Guide to Harvard Univer-
sity " and numerous contributions to "The Atlantic"
and other periodicals, be is the author of "A History
of Alabama,'' "Andrew Jackson," "Stephen Arnold
Douglas," "The Lower South in American History,"
"Golf," "A Gentleman of the South," "The Foe of
Compromise and Other Essays," and a " Life of Oliver
Ellsworth" Since 1908 he had been on the editorial
staff of " Harper's Weekly."
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have united in establishing a School for
Health Officers, and the "Catalogue and Announce-
ment," an interesting pamphlet of forty-one pages, will
be sent to applicants by Mr. Roger Pierce, President's
Office, Harvard University. The new school is not to be
confused with the Harvard course leading to the degree
of Doctor of Public Health (Dr. P. H.); the two are
independent of each other, and the school will confer
no degree, but will give a Certificate of Public Health
(C.P.H.) "to candidates who have satisfactorily com-
pleted the studies in their approved schedule, who have
spent not less than one academic year in residence, and
I who have otherwise complied with all requirements."


DIAL
367
B>!ouj. The Princeton University Press, recently organized,
¥°jm.< announces the formation of a Committee on Publica-
pnkliks'. tions, composed of Dean William F. Magie, Professor
Jettfe j Edward Capps, Professor Frank Jewett Mather, Jr.,
'aid T;, Professor Frank Albert Fetter, and Professor Varnuni
Lansing Collins. This Committee will consider all
I eontiW manuscripts and proposals for publication, and the
lisisiU right to authorize publications with the imprint of the
fJftnL.1. Press rests solely with this Committee. Since organi-
zation, the University Press has been developing its
manufacturing business, which is now self-supporting
and housed in a handsome and well-equipped building.
With their organization perfected and with their own
plant capable of manufacturing any publications they
may issue, the University Press now looks forward to
a steady development of its publishing business. Already
a few books have been issued, and many more are pro-
jected. Among the latter are "The Beginnings of
Libraries," by Mr. Ernest C. Richardson, to be pub-
lished this year.
News of several promising autumn biographies, not
yet announced on this side, reaches us from London.
Among others we note the following: "Memories of
Charles Dickens," by Mr. Percy Fitzgerald; "Life of
Wagner," by Mr. John F. Runciman; "J. M. Synge
and the Irish Literary Theatre," by M. Maurice Bour-
geois; "George Borrow and His Circle," by Mr. Clem-
ent K. Shorter; ' Life of Meredith," by Mr. Thomas
Seccombe; "Goldwin Smith: His Life and Opinions,"
by Mr. Arnold Haultain; "Oscar Wilde and Myself,"
by Lord Alfred Douglas; "Coleridge and Wordsworth
in the West Country: Their Friendship, Work, and
Surroundings," by Professor Knight; "Contemporary
Portraits," by Mr. Frank Harris; "Life of James
Hinton," by Mrs. Havelock Ellis; "Twenty-Five Years:
Reminiscences," by Mrs. Katharine T. Hinkson;
"Memoir of Arthur John Butler," by Sir A. T. Quiller-
Couch; " Shakespeare Personally," by the late Professor
Masson; ' Lord Lister: His Life and Work," by Dr.
G. T. Wrench; and "Ouida: A Memoir," by Miss
Elizabeth Lee.
Reuben Gold Thwaites, whose work in the field of
Western history has made his name familiar to every
American historical student, died in Madison, Wis., on
October 22. He was born in Dorchester, Mass., in
1853, and in 1866 removed to Wisconsin. From 1876
to 1886 he was managing editor of the "Wisconsin
State Journal," published in Madison. In 1886 he was
elected secretary of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, and editor of the society's "collections,"
which positions he has occupied continuously since. He
was President of the American Library Association in
1900, and has held various other prominent offices of
an active or honorary sort. His first published work,
"Down Historic Waterways," appeared in 1888; this
was followed at intervals of two or three years by
"The Story of Wisconsin," " The Colonies, 1492-1750,"
"Our Cycling Tour in England," "On the Storied
Ohio," volumes on Father Marquette and Daniel Boone
in the "Pioneers of America" series, a "Brief History
of Rocky Mountain Exploration," "France in America,"
a volume on Wisconsin for the "American Common-
wealths" series, besides several other books of educa-
tional or other more specialized character. Perhaps
Dr. Thwaites's most valuable work was his editorial
labors upon "The Jesuit Relations," published in
seventy-three volumes during 1896 1901, which will
always remain a noble monument of historical scholar-
ship. He also edited the series of "Early Western
Travels, 1748-1846," in thirty-six volumes, author-
itative editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals,
Father Hennepin's "New Discovery," Lahontan's "New
Voyages to North America," Kinzie's "Wau Bun,"
and several other middle Western historical sources.
Older readers of The Dial will recall with pleasure
Dr Thwaites's not infrequent contributions to these
pages in the eighties and nineties.
During the autumn the Oxford University Press
will add the following titles to their various well-known
series. In the " Oxford Poets," " The Poetical Works
of William Blake," edited by Mr. John Sampson, and
"A Century of Parody and Imitation," edited by Messrs.
W. Jerrold and R. M. Leonard. In the "Oxford Edi-
tions of Standard Authors," " Andersen's Fairy Tales,"
edited by Mr. W. A. Craigie; Goldsmith's "The Bee,"
"Essays," and "Life of Nash"; Kingsley's "Heroes:
Greek Fairy Tales for My Children"; Kingsley's Poems,
1848-70; Macaulay's Essays; William Morris's Prose
and Poetry, 1856-70; and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's
Poems and Translations, etc., 1850-70. In the " World's
Classics," Keble's "Christian Year "and "Lyralnnocen-
tium"; William Morris's " Defence of Guenevere, Life
and Death of Jason, and Other Poems"; Christina
Rossetti's "Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and
Other Poems''; Whittier's " Selected Poems '; Words-
worth's " Selected Poems"; Mrs. Gaskell's " Round the
Sofa," with Introduction by Mr. C. K. Shorter; "The
Lord of the Harvest," by Miss M. Betham-Edwards,
with Introduction by Mr. Frederic Harrison; "Selected
English Letters (XV.-XIX. Centuries)," edited by
Messrs. M. Duckitt and H. Wragg; and "Selected
English Speeches, from Burke to Gladstone," edited by
Mr. Edgar R. Jones.
Topics tn Leading Periodicals.
November, 1913.
America, Talks to. G. K. Chesterton Century
America, The Riddle of. Quglielmo Ferrero . . Atlantic
Anthropology, Fifty Years of. Ernst Haeckel . No. Amer.
Art, The Paradox of. Walter M. Cabot .... Forum
Australian Bypaths. Norman Duncan .... Harper
Australia's New Capital. Hugh H. Link .... Forum
Babylon, A Day at. Lewis R. Freeman .... Atlantic
Beauty, The Gospel of—III. Nicholas V. Lindsay Forum
Blackburn, Mount, First Up. Dora Keen . World's Work
Bulgaria and the Treaty of Bucharest, Svetozar
Tonjoroff North American
Business Success Secrets—I. E. M.Woolley World's Work
Butterflies, Peruvian. Millioent Todd Forum
Catholic Church, A. L. J. Eddy Forum
Child Development, Scientific Study of. J, B. Miner Pop. Sci.
Civic Progress in America. Victor Branford . . . Forum
College Democracy, The Straggle for, John Corbin Century
Conversation. Agnes Repplier Century
Currency, Elastic. James R. Merriam . . World's Work
Currency Bill, How to Amend the. F. A. Vanderlip N. Amer.
Democracy, A Practicable Organization of. J, N.
Lamed Atlantic
Design, Ideas of, in East and West. Laurence Binyon All.
Dietetics, The History of. J, B. Nichols Popular Science
Diplomatic Service, Our Disorganized. J. D.Whelpley Century
Diplomat's Wife, A, in Washington. Madame
de Hegerraann-Lindencrone Harper
Education, A Revolution in, and Its Cause. Leonard
P. Ayres Lippincott
Eglinton, John. Ernest A. Boyd , . . North American


368
[Nov. 1
THE DIAL
Electrification, Contact. Fernando Sanford . Pop. Science
Employment Plan, A Scientific. B. J. Hendrick Bev. of Revs.
England, Notes on. Vernon Lee Scribner
Englishman, The Heretical. Carl S.Hansen . . . Forum
Eskimo, Religious Beliefs of the. Vilhj&Iniur
Stefansson Harper
Eugenics. Economic Factors in. W. L. Holt Pop. Science
Flying. Ida M. Tarbell American
Gettysburg, The Vision of. Robert V. Johnson No. Amer.
Girl,' The English, in Fiction. Mrs. W. L.
Courtney North American
Glow-Worm, The. Henri Fabre Century
Guiana, Falls of, and Beyond. Henry E. Crarapton Harper
Health Menace, The, of Alien Races. Charles T.
Nesbit World's Work
Homesteader, Letters of a—II. Elinore Rupert Atlantic
Housing, Good, The Progress of. S. M. Cragier Rev.of Revs.
Ulegitimacy in Hungary. G. Townley-Fullam . . Forum
Immigration, Economic Consequences of. E.A.Ross Century
Industrial Conciliation, Art of. M. M. Marks Rev. of Revs.
Japan. Motoring in. Melvin A. Hall Century
Job, Call of the. Richard C. Cabot Atlantic
Justice, Swift and Cheap — II. George W.
Alger World's Work
Land Values. American, Increase of. Scott
Nearing Popular Science
Law, Equality before the. A. L. Hudson . . . Atlantic
McKinley, Mt., Ascent of. Hudson Stuck . . . Scribner
MoReynolds, JamesC. Burton J. Hendrick World'sWork
Manchn Court, Secret Annals of the. E. Backhouse
and J. 0. P. Bland Atlantic
Medical Education, German Side of. Abraham
Flexner Atlantic
Men of Mark. Alvin Langdon Coburn Forum
Militant Women, The, and Women. Edna Kenton. Century
Mississippi, Petrified Forest of. C. S. Brown. Pop. Science
Morals, Our Supervised. Louise C. Willcox. N. American
Motor Trucks, Buying and Operating. W. A.
McDermid Review of Reviews
Mutual Aid, The Art of. John L. Mathews. . . Harper
Navy, The Newer. Enrique Muller, Jr. . World's Work
Palestine, Jewish Colonization in. O. F. Cook. Pop. Science
Panama, Glory of. Ray S. Baker American
Politics, The New World in. Jesse Macy. Rev. of Reviews
Primary, The Direct. Karl A. Bickel. . Rev. of Reviews
Prisoner, The. — II. Winifred Louise Taylor. . Scribner
Public Man, The High-Minded. W. D. Howells. No. Amer.
Public School Teacher. Day's Work of a.
Adele M. Shaw World's Work
Puritan, The, and the Prodigal. Mrs. Havelock Ellis Forum
Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus, The African.
Theodore Roosevelt Scribner
Rocks, The Friendly. John Burroughs .... Harper
Royce, Professor, and the Problem of Christianity.
John T. Driscoll . North American
Uural Schools, Problems of. Mary A. Grupe. Pop. Science.
Samaritan, Good, The World's. Carl Crow. World's Work
Slum, The Battle with the. Jacob A. Riis. . . Century
Smith, Goldwin, — Why He Came to America.
Arnold Haul tain ........ North American
Syrian Household, A. A. M. Rihbany .... Atlantic
Thompson, Francis, Poetry of. M. D. Armstrong . Forum
Time, Past Masterof Illusion. C. L. B.Shuddemagen Forum
Traubel, Horace: Democrat. Paul Haiina . . . Forum
Ulster, The Problem of. Sydney Brooks North American
Underwood-Simmons Tariff. The. N. I. Stone Rev. of Revs.
Union-Pacific-Southern-Pacific Egg, Unscrambling
the. Edward S. Mead Lippincott
Venice, Unusual. Mary Heaton Vorse .... Harper
Vision, Color, and Modern Art. H. 0. Keller and
J. J. R. Macleod . . . . . . . . Popular Science
War. Bernard Iddings Bell . Atlantic
Wilson. " Chinese " — Plant Hunter. Leonard
Barron World's Work
Wilson, Six Months of. George Harvey . North American
Zoological Garden, The National. R.W.Shufeldt Pop. Sci.
LIST of New Books.
[The following list, containing 24'3 titles, includes book*
received by The Dial since its last issue.]
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES.
Memoirs of an American Prima Donna. By Clara
Louise Kellogg (Mme. Strakosch). Illustrated in
photogravure, etc., Svo, liSi! pages. G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. $2.60 net.
Mrmolra of LI Hung Chans. Edited by W. F. Man -
nix; with Introduction by John W. Foster. "With
frontispiece in photogravure, large Svo, 298
pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $3. net.
Early Memories. By Henry Cabot Lodge. Large
Svo, 362 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons.
$2.50 net.
Anthony TroIIopei His Public Services, Private
Friends, and Literary Originals. By T. H. S.
Fscott. Illustrated, large 8vo, 351 pages. John
Lane Co. $3.50 net.
Fifteen Yearn of a Dancer's I,lie: With Some Ac-
count of Her Distinguished Friends. By Loie
Fuller; with Introduction by Anatole France.
Illustrated, 8vo. 288 pages. Small, Maynard &
Co. $2. net.
William of Germany. By Stanley Shaw, LL.D.
With photogravure portrait, 8vo, 395 pages.
Macmlllan Co. $2.50 net.
The Public Prosecutor of the Terror 1 Fouquler-
Tinvllle. Translated from the French of Al-
phonse Dunoyer by A. W. Evans. Illustrated In
photogravure, etc., large 8vo, 320 pages. G. P.
Putnam's Suns. $3.75 net.
I iiruly Dnujrhters: A Romance of the House of
Orleans. By H. Noel Williams. Illustrated in
photogravure, etc., 8vo, 379 pages. G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $4. net.
A Woman Rice Planter, By Patience Pennington;
with introduction by Owen Wister. Illustrated.
Svo. 450 pages. Macmlllan Co. $2. net.
Aaron Hill! Poet. Dramatist. Projector. By Dorothy
Brewster. Ph.D. With portrait, 12mo, 300 pages.
Columbia University Press. $1.50 net.
HISTORY.
Chicago and the Old Northwest. 1673-1835: A Study
of the Evolution of the Northwestern Frontier,
together with a History of Fort Dearborn. By
Mllo Milton Quaife. Ph.D. Illustrated, large
Svo, 4S0 pages. University of Chicago Press.
$4. net.
The Hunkers in Great Britain and America! The
Religious and Political History of the Society of
Friends from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth
Century. By Charles Frederick Holder. LL.D.
Illustrated, large Svo, 669 pages. A. C. McClurg
& Co. $6. net.
The Renaissance! Savonarola, Cesare Borgia, Julius
II., Leo X., Michael Angelo. By Arthur Count
Gobineau. English edition, edited by Oscar
Levy. Illustrated, Svo, 348 pages. G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $2.75 net.
Twenty Centuries of Paris. By Mabell S. C. Smith,
illustrated, Svo, 400 pages. Thomas Y. Crowell
Co. $2. net.
Famous Modern Battles. By A. Hilliard Atterldge.
With maps, 8vo, 401 pages. Small, Maynard &
Co. $1.75 net.
The Federal Systems of the United States and the
British Enipirei Their Origin, Nature, and Devel-
opment. Bt Arthur P. Foley. 8vo, 453 pages.
Little. Krown & Co.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Letters of Charles Eliot Norton. With biograph-
ical comment by Sara Norton and M. A. De Wolfe
Howe. In 2 volumes; illustrated In photo-
gravure, etc. Houghton Mifflin Co. $5. net.
Our Eternity. By Maurice Maeterlinck; translated
from the French by Alexander Telxeira de
Mattos. 12mo, 258 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.50 net.
American Ideals: Character and Life. By Hamilton
Wright Mabie. 12mo, 341 pages. Macmlllan Co.
$1.50 net.
Dandles nnd Men of Letters. By Leon H. Vincent.
Illustrated, large 8vo, 314 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. $3. net.
The Drama To-day. By Charlton Andrews. 8vo,
2 3 6 pages. .1. B. Lippincott Co. $1.50 net.


1913]
369
THE DIAL
A Kingdom of Tirol A True Romance of Country
Life. By Helen R. Albee. Illustrated, 12mo, 322
pages. Macmlllan Co. $1.50 net.
Thoughts and After-thoughts. By Herbert Beer-
bohm Tree. With frontispiece, 8vo, 316 pages.
Funk & Wagnalls Co. 11.50 net.
Roads from Rome. By Anne C. E. Alllnson. 12rao,
215 pages. Macmlllan Co. $1.25 net.
New Brooms. By Robert J. Shores. 12mo, 262 pages.
Bobbs-Merrlll Co. $1.25 net.
L'Amerlque et le RSve Exotlque dans la Litera-
ture Frangalse. 12mo, 448 pages. Paris: Li-
bralrle Hachette et Cie. Paper.
The Art of Short-Story Writing Simplified. By
Modeste Hannis Jordan, Litt.D. 18mo, 57 pages.
New York: Hannis Jordan Co. 50 cts. net.
BOOKS OF VERSE.
Lyrics and Dramas. By Stephen Phillips. 12mo,
179 pages. John Lane Co. $1.25 net.
Last Poems, Including "Afterglow" and "Beyond
the Sunset." By Julia C. R. Dorr. With photo-
gravure portrait, 12mo, 206 pages. Charles
Scrlbner's Sons. $1.50 net.
The Poem Book of the Gaeli Translations from
Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and
Verse. Selected and edited by Eleanor Hull.
12mo, 370 pages. Browne & Howell Co. $1.60 net.
A Wand nnd Strings, and Other Poems. By Benja-
min R. C. Low. 12mo, 137 pages. John Lane Co.
$1.26 net.
Love and Liberation! The Songs of Adsched of
Meru, and Other Poems. By John Hall Wheelock.
12mo, 211 pages. Sherman, French & Co.
$1.50 net.
The Faun, and Other Poems. By Genevieve Far-
nell-Bond. 12mo, 91 pages. Sherman, French &
Co. $1. net.
Poems. By Sister M. Blanche. 12mo, 68 pages.
New York: The Devin-Adair Co.
Perlen Engllschcr Dlchtung In Deutscher Fassung.
8vo, 221 pages. Published by the author.
FICTION.
The Coryston Family. By Mrs. Humphry Ward.
Illustrated, 12mo, 329 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$1.35 net.
T. Tembarom. By Frances Hodgson Burnett. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 518 pages. Century Co. $1.40 net.
Hagar. By Mary Johnston. 12mo, 390 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.40 net.
The Maid of the Forest. By Randall Parrish. Illus-
trated in color, 12mo, 426 pages. A. C. McClurg
& Co. $1.35 net.
Van Cleve. By Mary S. Watts. 12mo, 396 pages.
Macmlllan Co. $1.35 net.
Watersprlngs. By Arthur Christopher Benson.
12mo, 369 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.35 net.
Robin Hood's Barn. By Alice Brown. Illustrated
in color, etc., 12mo, 225 pages. Macmlllan Co.
$1.25 net.
The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush. By Francis
Lynde. With frontispiece, 12mo, 411 pages.
Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $1.35 net.
The Twins of Suffering Creek. By Rldgwell Cullum.
With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 367 pages.
George W. Jacobs & Co. $1.25 net.
Sons and Lovers. By D. H. Lawrence. 12mo, 517
pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.35 net.
Valentine. By Grant Richards. 12mo, 317 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.35 net.
The Poison Belti Being an Account of Another
Amazing Adventure of Professor Challenger. By
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Illustrated. 12mo, 252
pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.20 net.
Rose of the Garden: The Romance of Lady Sarah
Lennox. By Katharine Tynan. Illustrated, 12mo,
363 pages. Bobbs-Merrlll Co. $1.35 net.
The Honour of the House. By Mrs. Hugh Fraser
and J. I. Stahlmann. 12mo, 418 pages. Dodd,
Mead & Co. $1.30 net.
In Midsummer Days. By August Strindberg; trans-
lated from the Swedish by Ellie Schleussner.
12mo, 176 pages. McBride, Nast & Co. $1.25 net
His Father's Wife. By J. E. Patterson. 12mo, 391
pages. Macmlllan Co. $1.35 net.
The Human Desire. By Violet Irwin. With frontis-
piece in color, 12mo. 431 pages. Small, May-
nard & Co. $1.35 net.
Sonnle-Boy's People. By James B. Connolly. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 363 pages. Charles Scrlbner's Sons.
$1.25 net.
What Happened In the Night, and Other Stories By
James Hopper. 12mo, 236 pages. Henry Holt &
*-o. ti.Jo net.
The Main Road. By Maude Radford Warren. With
frontispiece 12mo, 391 pages. Harper &
Brothers. $1.35 net.
The White Thread. By Robert Halifax. 12mo 374
pages. F. A. Stokes Co. $1.26 net.
The Streak. By David Potter. Illustrated in color,
etc, 12mo, 348 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co.
$1.25 net.
Sis Within. By Harriet Hobson. 12mo, 351 pages.
George W. Jacobs & Co. $1.25 net.
Blister Jones. By John Taintor Foote. Illustrated,
12mo, 324 pages. Bobbs-Merrlll Co. $1.20 net.
The Ripple. By Miriam Alexander. With frontis-
piece In color, 12mo, 375 pages. G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $1.35 net.
Divided: A Story of the Veldt. By Francis Ban-
croft. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 453
pages. Small, Maynard & Co. $1.36 net.
Footprints beneath the Snow. By Henry Bordeaux;
translated from the French by Mary Seymour
Houghton. 12mo, 294 pages. Duffleld & Co.
$1.25 net.
The Price of Place. By Samuel G. Blythe. 12mo,
359 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
Susette. By D. C. Calthrop. 12mo, 333 pages. F. A.
Stokes Co. $1.25 net.
The Colonel's Experiment. By Edith Barnard
Delano. Illustrated, 12mo, 316 pages. D. Apple-
ton & Co. $1. net.
The Thousandth Woman. By Ernest W. Hornung.
Illustrated, 12mo, 237 pages. Bobbs-Merrlll Co.
$1. net.
The Escape of Mr. Trlmmi His Plight and Other
Plights. By Irvin S. Cobb. 12mo, 279 pages.
George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
Hurrying Fate and Geraldlne. By Florence Morse
KIngsley. 12mo, 288 pages. New York: Frank-
lin Blgelow Corporation. $1.20 net.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.
Picturesque New Zealand. By Paul Gooding. Illus-
trated, large 8vo, 332 pages. Houghton Mifflin
Co. $3.50 net.
The Barbary Coast: Sketches of French North
Africa. By Albert Edwards. Illustrated, 8vo,
312 pages. Macmlllan Co. $2. net.
Along Germany's River of Romance: The Moselle.
By Charles Tower. Illustrated In color, etc., 8vo,
332 pages. McBride, Nast & Co. $2.75 net.
Hunting the Elephant In Africa. By C. H. Stlgand;
with Foreword by Theodore Roosevelt. Illus-
trated, large 8vo, 379 pages. Macmlllan Co.
$2.50 net.
Two on a Tour In South America. By Anna Went-
worth Sears. Illustrated, 8vo, 312 pages. D.
Appleton & Co. $2. net.
A Tour through Sonth America. By A. S. Forrest.
Illustrated, 8vo, 355 pages. James Pott & Co.
$3. net.
Our Neighbors: The Chinese. By Joseph King
Goodrich. Illustrated, 12mo, 279 pages. Browne
& Howell Co. $1.25 net.
The Coming Canada. By Joseph King Goodrich.
Illustrated. 12mo, 309 pages. A. C. McClurg &
Co. $1.50 net.
Guatemala and the States of Central America. By
Charles W. Domville-Fife. Illustrated, 8vo, 310
pages. James Pott & Co. $3. net.
Slam: A Handbook of Practical, Commercial, and
Political Information. By W. A. Graham. Sec-
ond edition: illustrated, 12mo, 637 pages. F. G.
Browne & Co. $2.60 net.
American Highways and Byways from the St. Law.
rence to Virginia. Written and illustrated by
Clifton Johnson. 12mo, 339 pages. "Highways
and Byways Series." Macmlllan Co. $1.60 net.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND SOCIOLOGY.
Public Opinion and Popular Government. By A.
Lawrence Lowell. 12mo, 415 pages. "American
Citizen Series." Longmans, Green & Co. $2.25 net.
Politician, Party, and People. By Henry Crosby
Emery, LL.D. 12mo, 183 pages. Yale University
Press. $1.25 net.
Modern Cities: Progress of the Awakening for
Their Betterment Here and in Europe. By
Horatio M. Pollock, Ph.D., and William S. Mor-
gan, Ph.D. Illustrated, 12mo, 418 pages. Funk
& Wagnalls Co. $1.00 net


370
[Nov. 1
THE DIAL
The Gathering Storm: Being Studies In Social and
Economic Tendencies. By "A Rifleman." 12mo,
297 pages. John Lane Co. $1.60 net.
DmilneM Cycles. By Wesley Clair Mitchell. 4to,
610 pages. "Memoirs of the University of Cali-
fornia." Berkeley: University of California
Press. Paper.
An Introduction to the Social Sciencest A Textbook
Outline. By Emory Stephen Bogardus, Ph.D.
Large 8vo, 20S pages. Los Angeles: University
of Southern California. Paper.
SCIENCE.
Alternating Currents and Alternating Current Ma-
chinery. By Dugald C. Jackson and John Price
Jackson. New edition, rewritten and enlarged;
large 8vo, 968 pages. Macmillan Co. $5.50 net.
Submarine Engineering- of To-day. By Charles \V.
Domville-Flfe. Illustrated, 8vo. 324 pages. J. B.
Llpplncott Co. $1.60 net.
The Diseases of Animals. By Nelson S. Mayo, M.S.
Eighth edition: illustrated, 12mo, 459 pages.
"Rural Science Series." Macmillan Co. $1.60 net.
Memory! Lectures on the Specific Energies of the
Nervous System. By Ewald Herlng. 12mo, 72
pages. Open Court Publishing Co. $1. net.
Annual Report of the Board of Agents of the
Smithsonian Institution. Illustrated, large 8vo,
780 pages. Washington: Government Printing
Office.
DECORATIVE ART.
Louis XVI. Furniture. By Seymour de Rlccl. Illus-
trated, 4to, 266 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The House In Good Taste. By Elsie de Wolfe. Illus-
trated in color, etc., large 8vo, 322 pages. Cen-
tury Co. $2.60 net
The House as Home. By Mrs. Arthur Stallard.
Illustrated, 12mo, 315 pages. James Pott & Co.
$2. net.
Japanese Flower Arrangement (Ike-Bana) Applied
to Western Needs. By Mary Averlll. Illustrated
in color, large 8vo, 218 pages. John Lane Co.
$1.50 net.
The A B C of Collecting Old Continental Pottery.
By J. F. Blacker. Illustrated, Svo, 316 pages.
George W. Jacobs & Co. $2. net
Macmillan Standard Library. New volumes: Re-
naissance and Modern art, by W. H. Goodyear;
History of Greek Art, by T. B. Tarbell; each illus-
trated. Macmillan Co. Per volume, 50 cts. net
The As
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY,
■nee of Immortality. By Harry
■e Assurance oi immortality. By Harry Emerson
Fosdick. 12mo, 141 pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net
A Critical and Exegetlcal Commentary on the Books
of Ezra and Nehemlah. By Lorlng W. Batten,
Ph.D. Svo, 384 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons.
$3. net
Lectures and Orations. By Henry Ward Beecher;
edited by Newell Dwight Hlllls. 12mo, 330 pages.
Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.20 net
The Evolution of a Theologian. By Stephen K.
lizymanowskl. 8vo, 350 pages. Sherman, French
& Co. $2. net
The Message of David Swing to His Generation!
Addresses and Papers . With Introductory Me-
morial Address by Newell Dwight Hlllis. 12mo,
300 pages. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.20 net.
Morning Prayers 'for Home Worship. By George
Skene. 8vo, 374 pages. Methodist Book Concern.
$1.50 net.
The Song of Songs of the King and His Bride ■ An
Interpretation. By Charles Walker Ray, D.D.
Svo 562 pages. Philadelphia: American Baptist
Publication Society.
The Highway) A Matter of Fact Examination of the
Greatest Event in History. 12mo, 107 pages.
New York: Thomas Whlttaker, Inc. 76 cts. net
Prayeri What It Is and What It Does. By Samuel
McComb, D.D. Hi mo, 39 pages. Harper &
Brothers. 60 cts. net.
The Larger Values. By Humphrey J. Desmond.
12mo, 105 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. 50 cts. net.
PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS.
Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences. By
Arnold- Ruge, Wllhelm Wlndelband. and others.
Volume I., Logic, translated by B. Ethel Mayer.
8vo, 269 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. net.
The Mechanistic Principle and the Non-Mechanlcalt
An Inquiry into Fundamentals with Extracts
from Representatives of Either Side. By Paul
Carus. 8vo, 125 pages. Open Court Publishing
Co. $1. net.
The Principle of Relativity in the Light of the
Philosophy of Science. By Paul Carus. 8vo, 105
pages. Open Court Publishing Co. $1. net.
The Making of Character! Some Educational As-
pects of Ethics. By John MacCunn, LLD. 12mo,
226 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net
Self-Reallsatloni An Outline of Ethics. By Henry
W. Wright 12mo, 429 pages. Henry Holt & Co.
EDUCATION.
The Work of the Rural School. By J. D. Eggleston
and Robert W. Bruere. 12mo, 287 pages. Harper
& Brothers. $1.
American Literature! A Study of the Men and the
Books that In the Earlier and Later Times Re-
flect the American Spirit. By William J. Long.
Illustrated, 12mo, 481 pages. Ginn & Co.
$1.35 net.
Selections from William Haalltt. Edited, with In-
troduction and Notes, by William David Howe.
12mo, 398 pages. Ginn & Co. $1.20.
The Marking System in Theory and Practice. By
I. E. Flnkelsteln, A.M. 12mo, 88 pages. Balti-
more: Warwick & York, Inc. $1. net.
Industrial and Commercial Geography. By J. Rus-
sell Smith. Illustrated, large 8vo, 914 pages.
Henry Holt & Co.
American Railroad Economics: A Text-book for In-
vestors and students. By A. M. Sakolskl, Ph.D.
12mo, 295 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net.
Principles of Economies: Being a Revision of "In-
troduction to Economics." By Henry Rogers
Seager. 8vo, 650 pages. Henry Holt & Co.
Introduction to Biologyi An Elementary Textbook
and Laboratory Guide. By Maurice A. Blgelow,
Ph.D., and Anna N. Blgelow, M.S. Illustrated.
12mo. 424 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.10 net.
Structural Geology. By C. K. Lelth. Illustrated.
8vo, 169 pages. Henry Holt & Co.
Pole Poppenspaler. By Theodor Storm; edited, with
Introduction, Notes, and Vocabulary, by Eugene
Leser. 16mo, 186 pages. Henry Holt & Co.
La France Qui Travallle. Edited, with Introduc-
tion and Vocabulary, by R. P. Jago. 12mo, 226
pages. D. C. Heath & Co. 60 cts.
Types of the Short Storyt Selected Stories with
Reading Lists. Edited by Benjamin A. Heydrick.
16mo, 305 pages. "Lake English Classics." Scott,
Foresman & Co. 30 cts.
English Grammar. By Joseph Vllllers Denney and
Silas B. Tobey. 12mo, 250 pages. Chicago: B. D.
Berry & Co.
HOLIDAY GIFT-BOOKS.
The Near East! Dalmatla, Greece, and Constan-
tinople. By Robert Hlchens; illustrated in color
by Jules Guerln. Large 8vo, 268 pages. Cen-
tury Co. $6. net.
The Romance of the American Theatre. By Mary
Caroline Crawford. Illustrated, 8vo, 407 pages
Little, Brown & Co. $2.50 net.
Barn Doors and Byways. By Walter Prichard
Eaton. Illustrated, 8vo, 300 pages. Small, May-
nard & Co. $2.50 net.
Ships and Wnys of Other Days. By E. Keble Chat-
terton. Illustrated in color, etc., large Svo, 308
pages. J. B. Llpplncott Co. $4. net.
Athens, the Violet-Crowned. By Lillian Whiting.
Illustrated from photographs, 8vo, 361 pages.
Little, Brown & Co. $2.50 net.
Rippling Rhymes. By Walt Mason. Illustrated,
12mo, 176 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.25 net.
The Confessions of a Debutante. Illustrated by
R. M. Crosby. 12mo, 136 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. $1. net.
Partners. By Margaret Deland; illustrated by
Charles Dana Gibson. 12mo, 116 pages. Harper
& Brothers. $1. net.
The Onyx Series. By Carolyn Wells. First vol-
umes: Girls and Gayety; The Re-Echo Club;
The Eternal Feminine; Pleasing Prose; Christ-
mas Carollln'. Each decorated, 12 mo. New
York: Franklin Blgelow Corporation. Per vol-
ume, $1. net.
Whistler stories. Collected and arranged by Don
C. Seitz. With portrait, 18mo, 135 pages. Harper
& Brothers. 75 cts. net.
Fellowship Books. New volumes: Friendship, by
Clifford Bax; Divine Discontent, by James Guth-
rie. Each 12mo. E. P. Dutton & Co. Per vol-
ume, 75 cts. net.
Cobb's BUl-of-Fare. By Irvin S. Cobb; Illustrated
by Peter Newell and James Preston. 12mo, 148
pages. George H. Doran Co. 75 cts. net.


1913]
371
THE DIAL
Peanut i The Story of a Boy. By Albert Bigelow
Paine. With frontispiece, 16mo, 70 pages.
Harper & Brothers. 50 cts. net.
A Christmas When the West Was Young. By Cyrus
Townsend Brady. 12mo, 75 pages. A C. Mc-
Clurg & Co. 50 cts. net.
Finding: Ills Sool. By Norman Duncan. Illustrated.
16mo, 62 pages. Harper & Brothers. 50 cts. net.
Theklai A Story of the Name. By Edgar Whltaker
Work. Decorated, 12mo, 43 pages. American
Tract Society. 25 cts. net.
BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.
Children's Blue Bird. By Georgette Leblanc (Ma-
dame Maurice Maeterlinck); translated by Alex-
ander Teixelra de Mattos and illustrated in color,
etc.. by Herbert Paus. Large 8vo, 182 pages.
Dodd, Mead & Co. $2.50 net.
Mother Goose: The Old Nursery Rhymes. Illus-
trated in color, etc., by Arthur Rackham. Large
8vo, 262 pages. Century Co. $2.50 net.
Wonderful Escapes by Americans. Arranged and
edited by William Stone Booth. With frontis-
piece in color, 8vo, 366 pages. Hougton Mifflin
Co. $2. net.
Elfln Song:: A Book of Verse and Pictures. By
Florence Harrison. Illustrated in color, large
8vo, 142 pages. H. M. Caldwell Co. $1.76 net.
When I Was a Little Girl. By Zona Gale. Illus-
trated in color, etc., 12mo, 390 pages. Macmll-
lan Co. $1.50 net.
Miss Santa Claus of the Pullman. By Annie Fel-
lows Johnston. Illustrated in color, etc., 12mo,
172 pages. Century Co. $1. net.
The Boys' Life of General Sheridan. By Warren
Lee Goss. Illustrated, 12mo, 318 pages. Thomas
Y. Crowell Co. $1.60.
Historic AdTenturesi Tales from American History.
By Rupert S. Holland. Illustrated, 12mo, 288
pages. George W. Jacobs & Co. $1.50 net.
Chriatn as Tree House. By Mary F. Leonard. Illus-
trated, 8vo, 286 pages. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
$1.60.
Children of the Wild. By Charles G. D. Roberts.
Illustrated, 12mo, 300 pages. Macmillan Co.
$1.36 net.
Danny Fists. By Walter Camp. Illustrated, 12mo,
286 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.35 net.
The I.uck of Laramie Ranch. By John Harbottle.
Illustrated, 12mo, 314 pages. D. Appleton & Co.
$1.30 net.
The Land of Mystery. By Cleveland Moffett. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 413 pages. Century Co. $1.25 net.
Country Cousins. By Ellen Douglas Deland. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 312 pages. D. Appleton & Co.
$1.30 net.
Jane Stuart: Twin. By Grace M. Remlck. Illus-
• trated, 12mo, 364 pages. Penn Publishing Co.
$1.25 net.
On the Plains with Custer. By Edwin L Sabin.
Illustrated in color, etc., 12mo, 309 pages. J. B.
Lipplncott Co. $1.26 net.
Camping- on the Great Lakes. By Raymond S.
Spears. Illustrated, 12mo, 372 pages. Harper &
Brothers. $1.25 net.
Roger Paulding, Gunner. By Edward L. Beach.
Illustrated, 12mo, 351 pages. Penn Publishing
Co. $1.25 net.
Camping on Western Trailsl Adventures of Two
Boys in the Rocky Mountains. By Elmer Russell
Gregor. Illustrated, 12mo, 333 pages. Harper
& Brothers. $1.26 net.
Storming Vlcksburg. By Byron A. Dunn. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 361 pages. "Young Missourlans."
A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.25.
The Man with the Iron Hand. By John Carl Parish.
With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 289 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net.
A Senior Co-Ed. By Alice Louise Lee. Illustrated,
12mo, 358 pages. Penn Publishing Co. $1.25 net.
Nancy Lee's Spring Term. By Margaret Warde.
Illustrated in color, 12mo, 385 pages. Penn Pub-
lishing Co. $1.25 net.
Messmatesi Midshipman "Pewee" Clinton's First
Cruise. By William O. Stevens. Illustrated,
12mo, 364 pages. J. B. Lipplncott Co. $1.25 net.
Caldwell's Boys' and Girls' at Home. Illustrated in
color, etc., 4to, 192 pages. H. M. Caldwell Co.
$1.25.
An Army Boy In the Philippines. By C. E. Kll-
bourne. Illustrated, 12mo, 351 pages. Penn
Publishing Co. $1.25 net.
The Jingle-Jungle Book. By Oliver Herford. Illus-
trated, large 8vo, 75 pages. Century Co. $1. net.
Flamehair the Skald: A Tale of the Days of Hard-
rede. By H. Bedford-Jones. Illustrated, 12mo,
310 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.20 net.
Mark Tldd: His Adventures and Strategies. By
Clarence B. Kelland. Illustrated, 12mo, 317
pages. Harper & Brothers. $1. net.
A United States Midshipman in the South Seas.
By Yates Stirling, Jr. Illustrated, 12mo, 402
pages. Penn Publishing Co. $1. net.
Faith Palmer at Fordyce Hall. By Lazelle Thayer
Woolley. Illustrated, 12mo, 342 pages. Penn
Publishing Co. $1. net.
The Capers of Benjy and Barbie. By Agnes Mc-
Clelland Daulton. Illustrated in color, etc., 12mo,
110 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1. net.
Wonder Oak. By Bertha Currier Porter. Illus-
trated in color, etc., 12mo, 163 pages. Eaton &
Mains. $1. net.
The Boy Scouts on Swift River. By Thornton W.
Burgess. Illustrated, 12mo, 336 pages. Penn
Publishing Co. $1. net.
The Young Farmer. By George B. Hill. Illustrated,
12mo, 384 pages. Penn Publishing Co. $1. net.
Marjorie on Beacon Hill. By Alice Turin Curtis.
Illustrated, 12mo, 198 pages. Penn Publishing
Co. 80 cts. net.
The Young Trappers; or, The Quest of the Giant
Moose. By Hugh Pendexter. Illustrated, 12mo,
423 pages. Small, Maynard & Co. 65 cts. net.
Polly Prentiss Goes A-Visiting. By Elizabeth Lin-
coln Gould. Illustrated, 12mo, 200 pages. Penn
Publishing Co. 80 cts. net.
Crowell's All Time Series. First volumes: The
Wonderful Voyages of Gulliver, retold by Edith
L Ellas; The Voyage of the Argonauts, by
Charles Klngsley; The Children's Robinson Cru-
soe, by Edith L Elias; Heroes of Old Britain,
retold from "Geoffrey of Monmouth" by David
W. Oates; Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles
and Mary Lamb, Books One and Two; Tales of
Wallace and Bruce, selected from Scott's "Tales
of a Grandfather" by Madalen Edgar, M.A.; Old
Celtic Tales, retold by E. M. Wllmot-Buxton;
Ivanhoe. abridged from Sir Walter Scott by E. P.
Prentys: Tales of Early England, retold by E.
M. Wllmot-Buxton; each illustrated In color,
etc., 12mo. Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Per volume,
75 cts. net.
A Book of Falry-Tale Bears: Selections from Fav-
orite Folk-Lore Stories. Edited by Clifton John-
son. Illustrated in color, 12mo, 184 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Co. 75 cts. net.
When Mother Lets Us Act. By Stella George Stern
Perry. Illustrated, 12mo, 146 pages. Moffat,
Yard & Co. 75 cts. net.
Twilight Town. By Mary Frances Blaisdell. Illus-
trated in color, 12mo, 173 pages. Little, Brown
& Co. 60 cts.
The Roaring Lions) or, The Famous Club of Ash-
bury. By James Otis. Illustrated, 12mo, 179
pages. Harper & Brothers. 60 cts. net.
The Boy Patrol Series. By Edward S. Ellis. New
volumes: The Boy Patrol on Guard; The Boy
Patrol Round the Council Fire. Each illustrated,
12mo. John C. Winston Co. Per volume, 60 cts.
The Tlpplty-Flippttts. By Edith B. Davidson.
Illustrated In color, etc., 16mo, 64 pages. Little,
Brown & Co. 60 cts. net.
The Ranch Girls at Boarding School. By Margaret
Vandercook. Illustrated, 12mo, 287 pages. John
C. Winston Co. 60 cts.
The Goop Directory of Juvenile Offenders Famous
for Their Misdeeds and Serving as a Salutary
Example for All Virtuous Children. Illustrated,
16mo, 78 pages. F. A. Stokes Co.
'Frald Cat. Pictures In color and text by L J.
Bridgman. 16mo. George W. Jacobs & Co.
50 cts. net.
The Little Master. By Laura E. Richards. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 108 pages. Dana Estes & Co.
50 cts. net.
The Parndlse of Children. By Nathaniel Haw-
thorne. Illustrated in color by Patten Wilson,
8vo, 27 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. 50 cts. net.
The Three Golden Apples. By Nathaniel Haw-
thorne. Illustrated In color by Patten Wilson,
8vo, 32 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. 50 cts. net.
The Story of Richard Doubiedlck. By Charles
Dickens. Illustrated. 8vo, 32 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. 50 cts. net.
Secrets Out of Doors. Told and illustrated by Wil-
liam Hamilton Gibson. 12mo, 135 pages. Har-
per & Brothers. .10 cts. net.


372
[Nov. 1
THE
DIAL
Captain Boldheart and the Latin Grammar MaMtert
Holiday Romance from the Pen of Lieut-Col.
Robin Redforth, Aged 9. By Charles Dickens.
Illustrated In color, 8vo, 30 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. 50 cts. net.
The Trial of William Tinkling) Written by Him-
self at the Age of 8 years. By Charles Dickens.
Illustrated, 8vo, 30 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
50 cts. net.
Macmlllnn Juvenile Library. New volumes: The
Slowcoach, by E. V. Lucas; The Horseman of the
Plains, by Joseph A. Altsheler; Aunt Jimmy's
Will, by Mabel Osgood Wright; each 12mo. Mac-
mlllan Co. Per volume, 60 cts. net.
After School. Edited by Elisabeth Hoyt. Illus-
trated in color, 12mo, 96 pages. W. A. Wilde Co.
50 cts. net.
Little Girl Blue Plays "I Spy!" By Josephine Scrib-
ner Gates. Illustrated In color, etc., 16mo, 62
pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. 50 cts. net.
Adventures of Mas Buddy Gray. By Adelaide S.
Baylor. Illustrated, 12mo, 64 pages. W. A.
Wilde Co. 50 cts. net.
The Rambler Club'a Ball Nine. By W. Crispin-
Sheppard. Illustrated, 12mo, 316 pages. Fenn
Publishing Co. 50 cts. net.
The Rambler Club's Motor Car. By W. Crispln-
Sheppard. Illustrated, 12mo, 308 pages. Penn
Publishing Co. 50 cts. net.
Letty'a Treasure. By Helen Sherman Griffith. Illus-
trated, 12mo. 319 pages. Penn Publishing Co.
60 cts. net.
Stories about Camp Fire Girls. By Margaret Van-
dercook. First volumes: The Camp Fire Girls
at Sunrisp Hill; The Camp Fire Girls Amid the
Snows. Each Illustrated, 12mo. John C. Wins-
ton Co. Per volume, 35 cts.
MISf'EI.I.AXEOlS.
The Lost Language of Symbollsmi An Inquiry into
the Origin of Certain Letters. Words, Names,
Fairy-Tales, Folklore, and Mythologies. By
Harold Bayley. In 2 volumes, Illustrated, 8vo.
J. B. Lippincott Co. $6. net.
The Story of a Paget Thirty years of Public Service
and Public Discussion in the Editorial Columns
of the "New York World." By John L. Heaton.
8vo, 364 pages. Harper & Brothers. $2.50 net.
A History of Continental Criminal Procedure with
Special Reference to France. By A. Esmeln;
translated from the French by John Simpson.
Large 8vo, 640 pages. Little, Brown & Co.
$4.50 net.
The Old Franciscan Missions of California. By
George Wharton James. Illustrated, 12mo, 287
pages. Little, Brown & Co. $1.50 net.
Pnstlnies In Times Past. By O. Paul Monckton.
Illustrated, 12mo, 256 pages. J. B. Lippincott
Co. $1.50 net.
Auction High-Light si With a Full Exposition of
the Nullo Count. By Florence Irwin. 16mo. 277
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net.
Football for Public and Player. By Herbert Reed.
Illustrated, 12mo, 242 paKes. F. A. Stokes Co.
$1.50 net.
The Making of an Orntlon. By Clark Mills Brink.
12mo, 421 pages. A. C. McChirK & Co. $1.50 net.
Yonr Child To-day and Tomorrow: Some Problems
for Parents. By Sirlonie Matzner Gruenberg.
Illustrated, 12mo, 23 1 pages. J. B. Lippincott
Co. $1.25 net.
Woman, Marriage, and Motherhood. By Elizabeth
Sloan Chesser, M.B.: with Introduction by Mrs.
Frederic Schoff. Svo. 2S7 pages. Funk &
Wagnalls Co. $1.50 net.
HSnsel and Greteli A Guide to Humperdlnck's Opera.
By Lewis M. Isaacs and Kurt J. Rahlson. With
frontispiece, 12mo, SO pages. Dodd. Mead & Co.
$1. net.
Hon- to Be Beautiful. By Marie Montaigne and
Others. Illustrated, 12mo. 143 pages. Harper &
Brothers. $1. net.
How the Piano Came to Be. By Ellye Howell
Glover. Illustrated, 12mo, 60 pages. Browne &
Howell Co. 50 cts. net.
Pocket Cyclopedia of Medicine und Surgery. By
G. M. Gould and W. L Pyle: edited by R. J. E.
Scott. Revised and enlarged edition: Illustrated,
16mo. 608 pages. P. Blakiston's Sons & Co.
$1. net.
"Dame Curtsey's" Book of Candy Making. By
Ellye Howell Glover. With frontispiece, 12mo,
110 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. 50 cts. net.
Who Is My Neighbor? By J. L. Blanchard. 12mo,
205 pages. Richard G. Badger. $1. net.
Hon to Improve tbe Memory. By Edwin Gordon
Laurence. 16mo, 130 pages. A. C. McClurg &
Co. 50 cts. net.
F. M. HOLLY
Established 1905
Authors' and Publishers' Representative
Circulars sent upon request. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York
Will revise manuscripts and proofs.
Any kind of literary work. Experienced.
MISS BEARD, 333 East Ontario St., Oak Park, Ills.
THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION
Thirty-third Year. LETTERS OF CRITICISM. EXPERT
revision OF MSS. Advice as to publication. Address
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 424 W. 119th St., NEW YORK CITY
THE BUREAU OF SERVICE TO AUTHORS
Under the Supervision of Modebte Hannis Jordan,
Revises, Edits, and Places Books, Serials, Special Articles,
Poems, Dramas, Photoplays, Vaudeville Sketches, Songs.
Typing by experts. Endorsement of leading Editors, Pub-
lishers, Managers.
Send 10 cents for Writer's Leaflet of Instruction.
32 Union Square, East NEW YORK CITY
A. C. McCLURG & CO., Chicago
can furnish you with
"O'Brien's Minnesota Pioneer Sketches," or "Chimes
of Cheer," at $1.50 each, postage paid.
LA TOUCHE HANCOCK
Author's Representative
Send two-cent stamp (or Circular.
235 W. 40th St. NEW YORK CITY
THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES
FOR USE IN COLLEGE CLA SSES
STUDIES OF THE HISTORICAL PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE. Set of
tour. $1.00. Single copy, one play, 40 cents. Special price
for use in classes
STUDIES OF THE HISTORICAL NOVELS. Romola. Henry Esmond.
For advanced classes, clubs, etc.
THE CREATIVE ART OF FICTION. An essay for advanced students
writers of short stories, etc
THE STUDY. OF IDYLLS OF THE KING. Advanced and critical
study of poetic narrative art.
Li»t for secondary Mchoolt on request. Address
H. A. DAVIDSON, THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES. CAMBRIDGE, MASS
AUTHORS
I have edited,
criticised and
sold authors' manuscripts. I can dis-
pose of saleable work. Send 2-cent
stamp for Writer's Aid Leaflet D.
Book Scripts, Short Stories, Household,
Juvenile, and feature articles wanted
for publication. Manuscripts typed.
HELEN NORWOOD HALSEY
Herald Square Hotel NEW YORK CITY


THE DIAL
£ £emi*jJHontf)l2 Journal of Etterarg Criticism, EHscussion, antj Information.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of
each month. Terms or Subscription, S2. a year in advance, postage
prepaid in the United States and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian
postage 50 cents per year extra. H km it tame* should be by check, or
by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL COMPANY.
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sub-
scription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription
is desired. Advertising Rates furnished on application. All com-
munications should be addressed to
THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1S92, at the Post Office
at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Nc. 658. NOVEMBER 16, 1913. Vol. LV.
Contents.
PAGE
THE MONEY OF FOOLS 393
ON EDUCATION. Charles Leonard Moore .... 395
CASUAL COMMENT 397
Humor in letters. — The birth of a new word.—
The death of Mrs. SamuelJ. Barrows. — The futnre
of England's Academic Committee. — Helps to read.
— Fifty years of a librarian's life. — First aid to the
foreigner. — Price Collier, author, sportsman, and
traveller. — A monument to Henri Fabre.
THE LITERARY AGENT IN ENGLAND. (Special
London Correspondence.) K. H. Lacon Watson 399
COMMUNICATIONS 401
Milton's "Starre-ypointing Pyramid." Samuel A.
Tannenbaum.
"A Pilgrimage of Pleasure." W. MacDonald
Mackay.
A HERO OF THE GENTLE LIFE. Percy F. Bicknell 402
THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN
ENGLAND. Laurence M. Larson 404
STUDIES OF THE ENGLISH LYRIC. Raymond
Macdonald Alden 403
LINCOLN THE MAN. Wallace Rice 408
GERMANY'S DREAM OF EXPANSION. Frederic
Austin Ogg 410
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 411
The imperial development of ancient Greece.—
Cabbages and the cosmos.—An argument for national
supremacy in treaty-making. — The short story as
literature and as merchandise. — A queen of shreds
and patches. — The romantic story of California.—
The problem of university control. — Things seen
with the mind's eyes only.—An introduction to the
study of Evolution. — Roman lessons for the United
States.
NOTES 415
LIST OF NEW BOOKS 416
THE MONEY OF FOOLS.
"For words are but wise men's counters,
they do but reckon by them; but they are the
money of fools." Good old Thomas Hobbes
was one of the wisest of men, and one of those
least likely to find in a word anything more
than its natural significance, and yet it may be
questioned whether he were not himself betrayed
or deluded into a strained interpretation of the
very word which supplies a title for the great
treatise upon political philosophy in which this
famous dictum occurs. If he once crystallize
into a metaphor some vast central concept, the
keenest of thinkers will be unconsciously influ-
enced by its accidental connotations, and find
himself in danger of taking it too literally. The
figurative habit of mind will play tricks with
the best intelligence, and such terms as "levia-
than" and "behemoth" lend themselves too
easily to forced extensions of analogy beyond
what is legitimate. The conception of society
as an organism has its working uses, but it may,
if not kept? under strict subordination to fact,
lead to the wildest vagaries of fancy. There is
something marvellous in the power of words to
direct thought, and if we do not go so far as
Max Miiller in declaring that thought without
words is impossible, we must at least admit our
dependence on them for all but the most ele-
mentary mental processes. To keep them our
servants, instead of permitting them to become
our masters, requires a degree of vigilance of
which few intellects are completely capable.
They are lurking in all the corners of the mind,
seeking to instil prejudice into our reasoning,
and persuading us into taking the short cuts
that will spare us the difficult task of analysis.
It was a wiser man than Hobbes who em-
bodied in diabolical argument the quintessence
of intellectual cynicism when he made Mephis-
topheles thus advise the inquiring student:
"I in ganzen — haltet euch an Worte!
Dann geht ihr durch die sichre Pforte
Zum Tempel der Gewisaheit ein.
Denn eben wo Begriffe fehlen,
Da Stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
Mit Worten lasst sich trefflioh streiten,
Mit Worten ein System bereiten,
An Worte lasst sich trefflich glauben,
Von einem Wort lasst sich kein Iota ranben."
How the history of thought is strewn with ex-
amples of this precept in practical application!


394
[Nov. 16
THE
DIAL
Science, philosophy, ethics, politics, and theology
afford countless illustrations of the use of words
as current coin, in forgetfulness of the fact that
they are but the counters shaped by the intellect
for its own uses. Such words as "vitalism,"
"determinism," "hedonism," and "protection-
ism" are charged with infinite possibilities of
mischievous employment, and have arrayed
intellectual squadrons against one another in
mortal combat. In the case of words in the
armory of theology, the combat has been phy-
sical, deluging the world with blood, as the wars
of religion eloquently witness. Think of the
malignant power of words as exemplified in the
way in which the partisans of homoousion have
cut the throats of the partisans of homoiousion,
or in the armies that have taken the field in the
defence of, and in opposition to, the doctrine of
transubstantiation, or even in the conflicts that
have been waged in behalf of some demonstrable
mistranslation of a Scriptural passage. Such
words have been something considerably more
than counters in a game of wits.
In the world of to-day, catch-words and epi-
thets which are verbalized prejudices play an
active part in muddling men's minds, and enlist-
ing the unthinking in behalf of causes which
they would abhor were their concealed implica-
tions once made visible. The most wild-eyed
and subversive measure has only to be labeled
with the word " reform" or " progress " to win
the suffrage of that large section of the multi-
tude to whom the new thing is the desirable
thing. Of course all sensible people believe in
reform and progress, and proposals which really
mean deformation and retrogression find ready
acceptance in the minds of thousands whose
vision is blinded, and whose faculty of analysis
is paralyzed by a single persuasive and question-
begging word. The term " Socialism " is made
a blanket to cover all sorts of aims, worthy and
unworthy, and those who use it as a watchword
are skilful in coating the pill of its sinister
significance with the sugar of a sentiment which
cannot fail to appeal to all generous hearts. In
this country, we cover the iniquities of the alli-
ance between government and special privilege
with the smooth word "protectionism," and the
evil thing is almost impregnably intrenched
behind that innocent and high-sounding word.
In England, on the other hand, the same bad
cause is already half-won by the naive device
of calling it "fair trade " and "tariff reform."
Many people (who have votes) never get beyond
that label. They say, "If a thing is 'fair'
and a measure of 'reform,' of course we favor
it," and they have no thought of probing its real
meaning. "Temperance" is one of the most
seductive of words, and yet what mean oppres-
sions are committed in its name! "The rights
of man" is a mighty phrase with which to con-
jure, yet under its aegis the French Revolution
developed into a carnival of crime at which the
world has not ceased to shudder.
In an article on "Language, Action, and
Belief," Mr. J. C. Thomas, in the October issue
of " Bedrock," discusses the mischievous power
of words in the field of science. Speaking of
ideas and beliefs, he says:
"These mental elements are materialized in language,
the words of which form their discrete bodies. Within
these verbal embodiments man has imprisoned, distorted,
and tortured the 'ideal soul,' which in revenge has
retaliated by making speech a fertile and a perennial
source of falsity in every department of thought. But
it is in connection with beliefs that language has in-
flicted upon humanity the full blight of its curse. Beliefs
are our springs of conduct — our very guides in life —
hence our weal and woe are bound up indissolubly with
our opinions and onr creed.
"It matters nothing that there exists no reality cor-
responding to the idea which is the basis of belief; for
that reality can be made to exist in the language which
communicates it, by the simple device of coining terms
and phrases which assume such existence. And these
verbal embodiments have greater power of generating
belief than even sense-impressions. A Roman youth
found no difficulty in believing that Jupiter and Juno
were real beings, for they were real beings in the
language which conveyed to him the ideas."
The writer then goes on to say that " we live in
an age when language is strained to its utter-
most to suggest and to engender belief in the
untrue and the unreal." Taking for his special
text the term " psychical research," he points out
that its content is not psychical and its method
is not that of research in any scientific sense.
"Its nomenclature is a new coinage, bright from the
mint, and specially struck off for the use of the Society
[for Psychical Research]. It includes amongst others
the terms: clairvoyance, clairaudience, astral-stage,
psychic-force, telepathy, second-sight, levitation, auto-
matic writing, rematerialization, double-sight, super-
normal, thought-reading, and thought-transference —
every one of which is a question-begging epithet; that
is, its function is simply and solely to insinuate beliefs
in ideas and not to store or revive them."
Call it by its proper name, "occult" or "magi-
cal," and the charm would vanish, for then it
would stand on its own merits, and its cause
would not be prejudged by its vocabulary.
At the present day, the work of education is
being thoroughly demoralized by the obsession
of the word "vocational" and its countless
derivative phrases, such as "practical educa-
tion " and "training for life." Call Greek and
Latin "dead" languages, and their defence


1913]
395
THE
DIAL
becomes hopeless against minds for whom the
word is a coin and not a counter. Let the
dead past bury its dead, and let us store the
youthful mind with useful knowledge about
farming and book-keeping and the art of
advertising. The ultimate aims of education
are clean forgotten, and only its immediate
material aims are pursued. The old cultural
ideal is a "fetish," and we know that a fetish
is an object of ridicule to all sensible persons.
We are calling all sorts of things fetishes now-
adays, including the most precious and hard-
won conquests of civilization. Mr. Jesse Macy
has just declared: "We must cease to worship
as a fetish a written Constitution whose framers
knew it to be inadequate and defective," and
Mr. Felix Adler said the other day of that
document: "We have indulged in a kind of
fetish worship of it, as if that remarkable in-
strument had been directly revealed from on
high." Now if ever the speech and gesture of
fetish worship were justifiable, they would be
so in the face of the ominous and scatter-
brained attacks upon the Constitution that
figure so largely in current political discussion.
There are times when, as we remarked in our
last issue, it is necessary to use exaggeration
and over-emphasis in defence of a cause that
is menaced by the sort of insidious and un-
principled warfare now waged against the
noblest work of political construction achieved
in modern times. We may find morality itself
characterized as a fetish before long—in fact,
that is what Nietzsche has practically done, to
the admiration of ingenuous iconoclasm all over
the world. And pending the universal accept-
ance of that belief, we have endless novelists and
dramatists who are seeing to it that no specific
virtue escapes being held up to ridicule as an
outworn fetish of religion or ethics in the totem-
pole stage of its evolution. Let the vices take
the place of the virtues as the objects of our
worship; they are likely to furnish a far more
popular pantheon. Schopenhauer says some-
where that if a child be taken early enough,
and taught to say Mumbo-Jumbo with firmness
and conviction a sufficient number of times,
nothing that he learns later in life will shake
his belief in that omnipotent spirit. Similarly,
if we build up the association of "fetish" with
any or all of these things on which St. Paul
counselled us to think, we shall readily — so
great is the maleficent power of a word—find
better furniture for our minds, metal more
attractive for the hommes sensuels moyens
that most of us are.
ON EDUCATION.
Great nations at great epochs of their life think
little of education. At such times the theory of
doing things gives place to the art of doing things.
Every man springs to his post, a wave of enthusi-
asm and inspiration rolls over the land, great deeds
are done, great arts and literatures are born,—all,
as it were, on the spur of the moment. For a state
to be over-concerned, to make a special fuss, about
education, is almost a confession that the generation
which is on the stage at the moment is of little
account, and that the only hope is to prepare a new
one which may amount to something.
America is paying a great deal of attention to
education to-day. Are we willing to accept this
depreciatory estimate of ourselves? If, instead of
spending so large a part of our income in educating
for the future, we were to put some of the money
into rewarding great and notable deeds, encouraging
art and literature, erecting beautiful buildings, and
laying out healthful parks and towns, it would be
better both for us in the present and for the genera-
tions to come. It is less important to educate ten
thousand Philistines than to develop one great poet,
artist, or thinker for humanity. Probably the
present agitation and activity in the educational
field are largely due to woman's increasing influ-
ence in affairs. Women rarely believe in their hus-
bands, but they always think their children are
going to set the world afire.
However, we must take things as they are; and
it is worth while to try to assess a little what is
being done in education, to review the main ideas
and tendencies of our time in that respect. We
have been reading lately a book entitled "Culture,
Discipline, and Democracy" by Dr. A. Duncan
Yocum of the University of Pennsylvania. It is a
really admirable work, but it is perhaps too calm in
its closely reasoned argument to attract the attention
it deserves. If Dr. Yocum had any single panacea to
propose to mankind,—if, like Rousseau, he rushed
out into the streets crying "Back to Nature!" or like
some modern propagandists, "Back to the land!"; or
if, on the other hand, he preached the study of Sci-
ence or any cultural discipline as a cure-all for our
ills,— he would be more likely, we believe, to have
a large following. But he tries to hold a balance
between all the elements that enter into life or the
preparation for life. He gives a view of the present
status in educational matters, and shows the lessen-
ing confidence in formal discipline, the increasing
demand for direct preparation for life. He thinks
the latter the more certain of the two. He makes
an analysis of formal or general discipline, and the
conditions favorable to it. He admits the compara-
tive uselessness of the old disciplinary subjects, the
classics and mathematics, for the average scheme of
life. As regards the classics, we think he is mainly
right; because the rise of modern languages and lit-
eratures and the re-discovery of Asiatic literatures


39G
[Nov. 16
THE
DIAL
and philosophies have disturbed the old balance of
power in knowledge. He harks back, then, to the
interdependence of culture and direct preparation for
life, and has some most wise remarks about the
folly of attempting to develop artistic expression at
the expense of aesthetic appreciation. In the end
he decides that a dominating system of education
must be ensured primarily through direct prepara-
tion, and secondarily through specialization. The
"old" education and the "new" must be complemen-
tary. Either one of them has been enough for the
wits of youth in the past,—we don't know how they
are going to stagger on under the burden of both.
Masters of pedagogy are perhaps like doctors
who think more of the colored drugs in their bottles
than of the constitutions of their patients. Intel-
lectually men are so different They differ as the
fibre and grain of the trees in the wood do. Some
trees cut up into timber which will bear great strain;
some have a density and beauty of marking which
fit them for polish and adornment; some are only
good for firewood. Or they differ like the crystals
of the rock in weight, color, lustre, and value. Men,
trees, and crystals all bear witness to Nature's
inexorable demand for an aristocracy. If we could
only arrive at a system of education penetrating
enough to detect these differences of quality in the
youth of our race, flexible enough to fit each human
being for his proper occupation, and opulent enough
to give him a chance at it, then there would be
little to complain about. We do not in the least
mean that these differences in quality in mortals
go by classes,—that the rich and the poor differ
as fine and coarse. On the contrary, the precious
gifts of the intellect are scattered pretty evenly
through the whole structure of society. It follows
that a large percentage of those who go through
our universities and institutions of learning are
educated far beyond their wits; while innumerable
potential scholars, inventors, artistic creators, among
the poor, do not get the education which would be
good for them.
We confine real education to the intellectual
qualities because, like physical health and strength,
the moral qualities of man — courage, endurance,
sympathy, goodness — are so instinctive, so widely
diffused, that they can hardly be considered sub-
jects of education at all. They are in widest com-
monalty spread. Of course they may be the better
for organization, may be intensified by religious
training; but every man who has gone through the
usual experiences of life, every woman who has
borne children or earned her living, has put forth
some of the highest qualities of our nature. We
live in the thick of heroes and heroines. Though
we only realize this when some crisis occurs, when
some girl telegraphist sticks to her post in the face
of a flood, or some Marconi operator goes down in
his ship calling for help, — yet the response to duty
is so general and so ready that in this respect there
is hardly a pin's-point of difference between ninety
per cent of the members of the human race, edu-
cated or uneducated. Of course different races and
classes do vary in their ideas of morality and duty,
but the primal instincts are everywhere the same.
It is with the intellectual aptitudes, therefore, that
culture and preparation must deal. And there are
two methods: education and training. To educate
is to educe, to draw out all the inherent capabilities
of the student, to make him many-sided, refined,
polished. To train is to inform him, exercise him,
and make him efficient in one direction, usually that
he may be able to earn his living by the practice of
his profession, trade, or calling. The great mass
of our youth, even if they had the ability, simply
cannot give the time to cover both kinds of culture.
They must choose one or the other. Even with stu-
dents in the higher professions, the two courses can
seldom be run together. Lawyers are acute but nar-
row. Clergymen lack many-sidedness and knowl-
edge of life. Doctors are apt to be materialists.
For a hundred years in America, education, an-
swering the democratic demand, has tried to give
everyone a sip at all the fountains of knowledge.
It has tried to give all the people an even chance.
Of course with the time at the disposal of the great
majority of students, anything like thoroughness has
been impossible. And we have found out that this
slight taste of many kinds of knowledge is about the
worst possible preparation for the struggle of life.
We have found out that it does not pay to try to
educate fifty million prospective Presidents of the
United States. The demand for vocational train-
ing, therefore, has sprung up and is becoming daily
more and more irresistible.
Vocational training is a step towards the institu-
tion of caste. It cannot hope to produce whole men,
—men open to every influence of nature and life
and art, capable of the profoundest appreciation of
the work of the past, of the greatest joy in the ex-
istence of the present, of the best planning for the
future. The vocationalized or specialized man is
bound to be more or less of a machine, driving at
his own ends and oblivious of a great part of that
which makes life worth living. But perhaps caste
is a shade better than chaos.
Once in the world a community of free men was
really educated. The Athenian youth entered the
gymnasium at an early age. He recited the works
of Homer and Hesiod and the lyric poets. He
learned music and the use of the lyre. He lived in
the shadow of marble palaces and temples, and the
statues of gods and goddesses looked down upon him
to lure him on to rival their beauty. He took part
in processionals and festivals. His body was trained
in all athletic exercises, and he saw or contended in
the great games of Greece. Growing older, he walked
and talked with the philosophers and teachers of
wisdom, under their porches or in the open air. He
haunted the law courts, and heard the orators dis-
cuss public questions and affairs of state. He gath-
ered with the whole mass of his fellow-citizens in the
great open-air theatre, and saw imaged forth the
mighty myths of his race, its historic triumphs, or


1913]
397
THE DIAL
the personages of the day in a guise of wit and satire.
Then, at the call of battle, he took his place in the
ranks of the hoplites, or light-armed troops, and
fought for his country. If, as was probable, he had
estates in the archipelago or Asian mainland he
made voyages thither and saw strange lands and
peoples. But all this was possible only because the
twenty thousand freeman of Athens held in leash a
hundred thousand slaves to do their work for them
and give them leisure to be forever running about
telling some new thing. They could indulge in the
wittiest gossip, the divinest speculations of philos-
ophy, the production of perfect works of art and
literature, because they were not compelled to do
anything else.
Under conditions of life in America, the best we
can hope to do will be, as the English statesman
said, "to muddle through." It strikes us that in the
end vocational education will be fatal to Democracy.
It will leave all higher culture to the few who have
wealth and leisure, or who have force and determi-
nation enough to acquire it in spite of circumstances.
Fortunately, genius, whose flowering seems to be
the one certain purpose of life, is usually strong
enough to force its way up through the hardest and
most barren soil; though doubtless it flourishes best
where the ground is prepared to nourish and dis-
>*■ Charles Leonard Moore.
CASUAL COMMENT.
Humor in letters is like apples of gold in
pictures of silver; it is humor in the very best set-
ting that could be found for it. Accordingly one is
pleased to find even an occasional outcropping of
this vein amid the fine scholarship and exquisite taste
that characterize Charles Eliot Norton's familiar cor-
respondence (as published in the two rich volumes
elsewhere reviewed in this issue). In a letter to
Lowell in 1856, written in the Isle of Wight, Norton
says, of London climatic conditions: "We had a fog
there one day last week that was of a sort to keep
up the reputation of this portion of the British Con-
stitution. Old men who had gone down to the city
every day of their lives got lost in the Strand, found
themselves near Westminster Hall when they thought
they were approaching Temple Bar. The robbers
could not find the marks that Ali Baba had chalked
up on the doors. Cabmen could not find the Bank,
and Sir James Clark, who was to have gone to an
important consultation, struggled vainly for three
hours and then had to feel his way home. Even the
blind beggars could not see approaching passengers
and had the fog lasted two days longer half London
would have been starved. But fine weather set in
next day with a heavy rain." At a much later period,
little more than a month before he died, we find
dashes of humor, of a subtler and rarer flavor, in a
letter to the congenial friend of his old age, Horace
Howard Furness. Here is a random passage, again
touching on things meteorological: "I agree with
your boys in being glad that you did not have the
chance to see and feel a West India hurricane. Even
the sight of cows and chickens carried through the
air would not make up for the horror of such an
extravagant exhibition of the powers of nature. I
do not like these noisy, violent convulsions of such
uncontrollable forces. I feel as old Dr. Popkin did
in regard to the character of the Greek tragedies,—
'They are too horrible.' He liked to see, as he said,
everybody peaceful and happy, and I like to see
Nature in her calm and beautiful moods rather than
in her passionate excesses." Calm and beautiful are
the moods in which Norton wrote his letters, and his
wit and humor glow with a gentle radiance, never
coruscate in blinding flashes.
The birth of a new word, when the new word
supplies a real need, is cause for rejoicing; but the
careless introduction into the language of barbarous
or hybrid or otherwise philologically objectionable
terms is a thing to be deprecated. An offender
already familiar to many is the verb "enthuse,"
which is being more and more freely used in both
a neuter and an active sense. In a late number of
"The Newarker" occurs this sentence: "They
were stimulated and enthused by their communion
with the live thinkers and workers of the world."
A noteworthy publication of the season, Patience
Pennington's "A Woman Rice Planter," which,
even without its highly commendatory introduction
from Mr. Owen Wister's pen, would win its way in
the world, has at least one of its fair pages dis-
figured with this vulgarism, used in all deliberation
and seriousness; and the otherwise admirable
"PictureTales from Welsh Hills," by Miss Bertha
Thomas, cools the cordiality of our welcome by giv-
ing its sanction to this misbegotten monster of a
word. Why it is to be called misbegotten will be
made plain by a little reflection or a brief study of
the dictionary. Enthusiasm (or, in Greek, enthou-
siasmos) is connected with the Greek verb enthou-
siazein ; and the corresponding English verb, if we
must have it, would be enthusiaze, just as we have
dogmatize, from the Greek dogmatixein. To dog-
mat would be just as allowable as to enthuse; and
if we permit ourselves to enthuse and to be enthused,
why should we not ecstase our neighbors and be
ecstased by them? But the truth is, there is no
call for any of these grotesque absurdities. We
have the verbs, stimulate, animate, kindle, excite,
electrify; and we have no need of enthuse. Never-
theless, it has already secured a foothold in the
language, and it would be safe to predict its unquali-
fied recognition in the next edition of "Webster."
The death of Mrs. Samuel J. Barrows,
October 25, calls renewed attention to her recent
admirable biography of her husband, whose death
preceded hers by four years and six months. "A
Sunny Life" is such a book as any man might be
proud to have dedicated to his memory. Mrs. Bar-


398
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
rows was a remarkable woman. She was born at
Irasburg, Vt., April 17, 1845; was educated at the
Adams Academy, Derry, N. H., studied medicine
in New York, Leipzig, and Vienna, and for a while
practiced as an oculist. But journalism and other
literary work drew her from her first profession into
the ranks of writers. She was the first woman stenog-
rapher ever employed by the State Department at
Washington; she also served as phonographic sec-
retary of the National Prison Association, and for
seventeen years as secretary of the Lake Mohonk
Conference and editor of its publications. For twenty
years she assisted her husband in the editorship of
"TheChristian Register," Boston, and at different
times contributed editorials to "The Independent,"
"The Outlook," the New York "Evening Post,"
"The Survey," and other journals. With Mr. Bar-
rows she wrote "The Shay backs in Camp," that early
and still unsurpassed example of back-to-nature lit-
erature. And with all these activities she found
time to be a wife and mother; in fact, she was twice
married, first at eighteen to William Wilberforce
Chapin, a missionary in India, who died two years
later, and then, in 1867, to Samuel June Barrows,
whose record of manifold and notable achievement
it was her privilege and pleasure to make public in
"A Sunny Life."
The future of England's Academic Com-
mittee, which has bravely survived the jests and
sarcasms directed against it at the time of its forma-
tion in the summer of 1910, looks bright to Mr.
Edmund Gosse, himself not the least eminent mem-
ber of that body. In the current "Edinburgh
Review" he begins an article on "The Foundation
of the French Academy" with a few words on the
similar but much younger institution in his own
country, of which he says that "now, for more than
three years, without claiming any excessive publicity,
this Academic Committee, founded for the protection
and encouragement of a pure English style in prose
and verse, has occupied a position in letters which
gives every evidence of persisting and increasing.
It was assailed, as was natural and right, by satire
and by caricature, but it has survived the attacks
which were directed against it, and there can be
little doubt that, with good luck, it will become a
prominent feature of our intellectual and social
system." Already, as he reminds his readers, the
initial thirty-three have suffered losses that confer
a certain solemnity, a certain increase of dignity,
upon the young academy. Butcher, Verrall, Alfred
Lyall, Andrew Lang, and Edward Dowden have
followed one another to the grave in rather quick
succession; and both their fellows on the Committee
and the larger world still feel their loss.
Helps to read was the old name sometimes
applied to spectacles, and the passing years give
most of us abundant proof of the appositeness of
that designation. But an even greater help in read-
ing, or rather a prime necessity, is a good light on
the matter under perusal. The late convention of
the National Gas Institute has called attention to
the marked progress made in artificial illumination
within the last few years, and it may also serve to
remind us of the defects and also the excesses even
now prevalent in our modes of lighting the printed
page when inclination or necessity protracts our
studies beyond the limits of daylight. It is a com-
mon assumption that the stronger the artificial light,
the nearer its approach to the illumination enjoyed
from the sun, and hence the better for the eyes.
But the assumption is erroneous. Sunlight is dif-
fused, and unless turned directly upon the page
before one is far less trying to the eyes than an
equal amount of artificial light shining immediately
upon the book or paper in hand. Hence the impor-
tance of choosing a somewhat subdued light, like
that of a good oil lamp, for reading, and of seeing
that its rays are directed so as not to be reflected
from the white paper into the eyes. As every
schoolboy knows, and he need not be one of Macau-
lay's schoolboys in order to know it, the angle of
reflection is equal to the angle of incidence; and
also highly glazed or "sized" paper is ruinous to
eyesight; and, lastly, just as water dropping day by
day will wear the hardest stone away, so a repeated
disregard of proper rules for reading will in time
reduce the strongest eyes to a condition prohibitive
of any reading at all.
• • •
Fifty tears of a librarian's life form the
link inseparably associating the name of Dr. Philip
R. Uhler with the Peabody Institute Library of
Baltimore. But it was science rather than letters
that first made Dr. Uhler a worker among books.
Born in 1835 at Baltimore, he early became familiar
with country life, his father having bought a farm
near Reisterstown, and he was especially drawn to
the study of insects. Entering the service of the
newly-started Peabody Institute in 1862, he attracted
by his talents the attention of the elder Agassiz, who
invited him to Cambridge to work in the great
naturalist's museum of comparative zoology as as-
sistant librarian, and afterward sent him to make
explorations in Hayti. In 1867 the young entomol-
ogist was again at the Peabody Institute, acting as
assistant librarian and, upon leave of absence, pur-
suing entomological researches in Colorado. The
head librarianship came to him in 1870, and in
d890 he was also made Provost of the Institute.
Other dignities and numerous memberships in
learned societies fell to his share as the years
passed, but the best of his energies were devoted to
the fine library in his charge, and he left his mark
upon it in the modern system of cataloguing and
classification that he introduced, and in the notable
additions he made to its store of books, spending
much time in Europe in quest of these works.
Among his amiable peculiarities, of which many
stories are told, was his readiness to grant leave of
absence to an assistant wishing to attend a church
picnic, and his hesitation in granting such leave when


1913]
399
THE DIAL
the less joyous function of a burial was in question.
He died October 21, after a retirement of two years,
and is succeeded in the librarianship by his long-time
assistant, Mr. John Parker.
First aid to the foreigner, in his attempt to
find his bearings in a new country, may often be
best rendered by the public library. At a recent
conference of educational and other workers at
Springfield, Mass., discussion turned upon the best
way to make the public library serviceable to the
immigrant population. The lowly toiler of alien
birth is seldom seen in the splendid balls of our city
libraries. The books he needs and desires may be
there, and the attendants eager and willing to serve
him; but he does not come. Hence the necessity,
as was urged, of a system of small branch libraries
at the very doors of the foreign families, and with
books in their several tongues served to them by
assistants speaking those tongues. A small room,
open an hour or two in the evening, will often do
better service of this sort than a Carnegie library
that employs a score of assistants and holds its
doors open from eight in the morning till ten at
night. The less awe-inspiring and formal the ap-
pearance and methods of these branches or stations
among the immigrants, the better will be the results
attained; and from these humble training schools in
library usage the Italian, the Hungarian, the Greek,
and the Lithuanian are likely to graduate in time
and find themselves fitted to avail themselves of the
larger privileges of the central library; or at least
their children are pretty sure to do so.
Price Collier, author, sportsman, and
traveller, whose "Germany and the Germans
from an American Point of View" is one of the
more important books of the season, died suddenly
on the third of this month in the island of Funen, in
the Baltic Sea, where he was visiting Count Weddel
as member of a shooting party. He was born in
1860, son of the Rev. Robert Laird Collier, and was
educated at Geneva and Leipzig, but fitted for the
ministry at the Harvard Divinity School. After
brief pastorates at Hingham and Brookline, Mass.,
he devoted himself to letters, acting as European
editor of "The Forum" for two years, writing
many magazine articles, and issuing a number of
books, chiefly concerning his travels. He wrote
also the volume on driving in Macmillan's "Sports-
man's Library." Of his books not already noted,
mention should be made of "America and the Amer-
icans from a French Point of View," "England
and the English from an American Point of View,"
and "The West in the East from an American Point
of View." He held an officer's commission in the
United States Navy in the Spanish-American War.
Briskness, vigor, and alert observation showed
themselves in his entertaining chapters of travel and
foreign sojourn.
A monument to Henri Fabre, the tardily rec-
ognized genius whose researches in the insect world
have proved him to be a naturalist and a thinker of
rare insight and vision, will probably add not very
much to the happiness of his remaining years, but
it will at least gratify his increasing company of ad-
mirers and the chosen few admitted to his intimate
friendship to see his fame perpetuated not only in
his books, themselves a monumentum (ere peren-
nius, but also in some suitable erection of stone or
bronze bearing his name and effigy. To this end a
committee headed by the Mayor of Serignan, and
numbering many French notables, has been formed,
and a circular sent out in solicitation of subscrip-
tions. It is hoped that the response will be prompt
and generous.
THE LITE BABY AGENT IN ENGLAND.
(Special Correspondence of The Dial.)
I am, unfortunately, old enough to remember the
days when the Literary Agent made his first appearance
in the world of writers, and was hailed with enthusiasm
by the authors of that epoch as the harbinger of brighter
days. For in those far-off times the Man of Letters
knew himself to be no Man of Business: he confessed it
even with a sort of pride. What had a writer of books
to do with this pettifogging affair of getting paid for
the books he produced? The publisher gave him some-
thing for his trouble, and it was not the part of an artist
or of a gentleman to cavil at the amount. We still had
our literary traditions, dating from the days when Lord
Byron considered it beneath his dignity to receive re-
muneration for his copyrights. Mr. R. C. Dallas, who
arranged for the publication of "Childe Harold " with
John Murray, divided the profits of that transaction
with the publisher. In a sense, he may be counted as
the first Literary Agent of whom we have actual knowl-
edge, and he was well rewarded for his pains. Our
authors to-day are beginning to complain about the far
more modest rate of commission charged by his suc-
cessors in a growing trade.
The Literary Agent, I suppose, evolved himself out
of the Literary Executor. It was early recognized as a
convenience that some duly authorized person, with some
knowledge of business as well as of letters, should take
over the task of collecting and publishing such stray
fragments as might be left inedited at the writer's death.
His pay varied. Sometimes it was considered that the
honor of his position (with the opportunity of writing
an Authorised Biography) furnished sufficient remu-
neration; sometimes, on the other hand, the materials
were left to him absolutely to use at his own discretion
and for his own profit. Out of this welter of confusion
emerged by slow degrees the great principle of the Ten
Per Cent commission, in defence of which the agent of
to-day is prepared to fight to the last gasp. It looks
as though he may have to fight, too.
For a long time, when his business was still a novelty,
the Literary Agent received nothing but praise from the
authors who employed him. Successful novelists used
to button-hole their less successful brethren at clubs,
and urge them, with tears in their eyes, to follow the
path that led so easily to glory and increased royalties.
And, one by one, the conservative gentlemen of the old


400
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
school, who exist in literature as in other professions,
fell into line and began to talk about "my agent" with a
pleasant sense of business acumen. It really was a great
point to have a representative who could be trusted to
do the unpleasant part of the business,—who could ap-
proach the selling of a book without being hampered by
any absurd considerations of sentiment, or any ridiculous
qualms of nervousness. The publisher, of course, made
a fuss over {he innovation: he talked a good deal about
the good old times when there was a real friendship be-
tween author and publisher; he trotted out a number of
musty old stories about generous publishers of the past
who had gone beyond the terms of their original agree-
ments and handed over cheques for large amounts to
writers who had made an unexpected success. He
instanced firms who had undertaken, and paid liberally
for, works that could not be expected to show a profit.
This sort of thing, he intimated in conclusion, could
not be expected to continue if the Literary Agent were
allowed to interpose himself as a middleman. In a very
little time the publisher would be squeezed dry: not a
drop of the milk of human kindness would be left in
him. In effect, he desired to point out that the author
could not have it both ways. Either let him be a friend,
or a grasping man of business; if he chose to be the lat-
ter (by proxy) he must not complain if he were treated
according to the strict letter of the agreement. In
short, the author must not expect any more cheques by
way of bonus if he employed an agent to make his
agreements.
The author, I regret to say, made fun of these pro-
testations in a manner that must have caused his old
friend and ally considerable pain. He said rudely that
he did not want his friendship: that he preferred the
cash; and that this so-called friendship, in any case, had
been merely a cloak behind which the publisher had been
wont to conceal his avaricious and grasping hands. It
was now the author's turn, and he meant to do a little
squeezing on his own account. I must admit that he
triumphed rather too openly for my taste; he displayed
something too much of that exultant pride so distaste-
ful to the Greek tragedians; it was felt that he was pre-
paring a whip for the Fates to use upon himself in his
turn. And yet it is difficult to blame him severely. The
sudden acquisition of money is at least as intoxicating
as strong drink. And for centuries the author had been
kept very short of cash. Since Samuel Johnson first
turned for support from the patron to the bookseller,
the capitalist had no doubt enjoyed the better share of
the bargain. But then, the capitalist generally succeeds
in business; if he fails, he soon ceases to be a capitalist.
I do not know that the publisher had behaved worse to
the author than the employer in general had to his
laborers. But of late years Labor has been showing a
decided tendency to squeeze Capital, and it was not to
be expected that authors (whose work, after all, demands
a modicum of brains) should lag behind their brother
operatives. They could not very well organize a strike,
but at least they could sell their wares to the highest
bidder, and employ a man of business to superintend
the sale and the subsequent collection of money that
might become due.
There are now, I suppose, some dozen or more Literary
Agents of repute settled in this city of London. There
are many more, no doubt, whose methods will not bear
investigation, — men who live upon the fees they con-
trive to extract from young authors before they make
any pretence of exhibiting their work to editors or |
publishers. But the few who are perched securely at
the top of the tree have done very well for them-
selves, — so well that the author, forgetful of the
benefits he has reaped from their services in the past,
is already beginning to turn round and ask why he
should pay these high rates of commission for work
that he could (as he sometimes says) do as easily him-
self. Recently "The Author," which is the official
organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors in this
country, and is always ready to open its columns to
the grievances, real or imaginary, of those who write,
has been dealing with this matter of a ten per cent
commission for the mere collecting of accounts. With
the accumulation of wealth, it may be noted, Avarice
increases. The author does not think of grumbling at
the agent who deducts a sovereign from a ten pound
account, or even ten pounds from a hundred; but when
the amounts begin to run into higher figures he asks
himself if the middleman is so indispensable after all.
And of course the agent is by no means indispensable;
he is merely a convenience. There are not wanting
authors of eminence who declare roundly that they will
have none of him, that they can manage their own
affairs without his assistance, at a saving both in tem-
per and in pocket. Mr. H. 6. Wells and Mr. Hall
Caine are two of the most important writers who have
thus declared their independence; ou the other hand,
Mr. Arnold Bennett has acknowledged eloquently his
indebtedness to the tribe of agents, and Mr. Charles
Garvice assures us that the more his commission
account comes to the better he is pleased. Which
seems, on the face of it, a reasonable enough way of
looking at the matter.
The agent has done so much for the author during
the last twenty years that it seems the basest ingrati-
tude to cavil at the amount of his profit. It is all very
well for the successful novelist to allege that he can
make better terms for himself with the publishers, but
it was the agent who showed him the way to do so.
Yet it may be that the middleman has now become
somewhat careless in the performance of his trust.
Complaints are beginning to be made now that, when
once the contract has been drawn up for the publication
of a book or the production of a drama, the agent does
nothing more to earn his commission. He does not, for
example, keep his eye upon publisher or producer to
see that the terms of the contract are fulfilled. In
cases where there is delay in the furnishing of accounts
(and publishers on this side of the Atlantic are often
unconscionably slow in payment of royalties) the agent
is too apt, they say, to make excuses. He has even
been known to urge that, if he presses too hardly for
immediate settlement, he may prejudice his position as
to the placing of other manuscripts. When the accounts
do at last come in, it is stated that they are too often
not in accordance with the agreements. In short, the
author is oppressed with doubts whether his new servant
is not attempting the difficult task of serving two mas-
ters. It is remarkable that the publisher no longer
displays the old objection to the agent. Cases have
been reported where, indeed, he has expressed a prefer-
ence for dealing with them rather than with the author
direct. This, not unnaturally, has given rise to horrid
suspicions. What consideration does the publisher
receive from the agent to induce thiB attitude? Some-
how he seems to have made terms with his ancient
enemy, and the soul of the author is vexed within him-
The agent is suspected now of acting as principal,—of


1913]
401
THE DIAL
having a financial interest in some of the firms with
whom he deals.
But the root of all this trouble is, I imagine, nothing
but the ten per cent commission. It goes on and on:
there is no getting rid of it; it is as certain as the
income tax, and, like the income tax, it is deducted
before the payment of dividends. So long as a book
continues to sell, so long do the royalties come in shorn
of their just amount by one-tenth. There will have
to be an amending of the contract, and a time limit.
The weak point of the author's position under the
existing arrangement is that he has not (unless he has
made some special arrangement) any power to stop his
agent from collecting royalties on any work that has
been once put in his hands and placed by his efforts.
In his view, the placing of a book and the collection
of the royalties thereon should be set in different cate-
gories, and the author should have the power to take
the latter function out of his agent's hands after a cer-
tain agreed minimum had been reached. The point is
one that is not likely to interest any but the successful
writer; but it interests him very much indeed.
E. H. Lacon Watson.
London, Nov. S, 191S.
COMMUNICA TIONS.
MILTON'S "STARRE-YPOINTING PYRAMID."
(To the Editor of This Dial.)
Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence's letter, in your last
issue, on Milton's epitaph on Shakespeare seems to call
for a reply even if for no other purpose than to show
up the methods of Baconians when they set out to prove
their obsession and the flimsy foundation whereon they
build.
Says Sir Edwin," starre-ypointing has been the despair
of English grammarians for more than 250 years . . .
because y, like the German ge, is never prefixed to a
present participle, but only to a past participle." The
augment ge has, as we know, wholly disappeared from
modern English, notwithstanding its great popularity
before the Norman Conquest. If Sir Edwin means that
ge was limited to past participles he is mistaken; there
is absolutely no question that during its lifetime ge was
prefixed to any part of the verb. In later English the
inflectional ge was reduced or softened to y (e. g., yclad,
yclept, ysterved, etc.), i (e. g., iwis = gewiss) or e (e. g.,
enough = genug). So our beloved is the Saxon gelufed,
belief is gelyfan, become (= to suit) is gecweman, belong
is gelang, beseech is gesecan, beholden is gehealden, etc.
This be, the representative of the old ge, occurs in numer-
ous modern and Elizabethan infinitives and present parti-
ciples. In Shakespeare we find the present participle
beholding (= obligated) some twenty times, and the past
participle beholder, not at all, some of his modern editors
to the contrary notwithstanding. There is therefore
nothing astounding in Milton's "starre-ypointing," as-
suming that he wrote that and not, as has been con-
jectured," starry-pointing." Starre-ypointed was as much
an archaism in Milton's day as starre-ypointing.
Sir Edwin makes much of the fact that only a few of
the extant copies of the Second Folio read "starre-
ypointed," a fact from which he draws the "obvious"
conclusion that cancel pages containing the corrected
reading " could have been" issued only to those pur-
chasers of the volume to whom had been entrusted the
preservation of Bacon's secrets. "The page reveals to us,
and it was intended to reveal to us, the name of the
real author of the plays." Of course it does. Does
not Milton explicitly say, "What neede my Shakespeare
. . . that his hallowed Reliques should be hid Under
a starre-ypointed Pyramid?" But this is too simple for
Sir Edwin; "reliques," he says, "must mean what he
hath left us"; but common sense says it means the poet's
mortal remains, his "honour'dbones." "A starre-ypointed
Pyramid," continues Sir Edwin, " can only [sic] mean a
pyramid with a star upon its apex, i. e., a Beacon, pro-
nounced Bacon," although common sense says that a
star-ypointing (or ypointed) pyramid means a monu-
ment pointing to or directed at the stars. But it is not
impossible, nay, it is highly probable, that Milton meant
a monument so high that it seemed to touch the stars
or to be surmounted by a star. Not even such a monu-
ment could add one inch to " the great Heire of Fame."
Moreover, Sir Edwin's paraphrase of "hallowed
Reliques" as the immortal plays cannot be right be-
cause Milton would never have applied the adjective
hallowed to profane writings, not even to Shakespeare's.
Hallowed does not, and never did, mean immortal.
In no English dictionary known to me is "beacon"
defined as a "pyramid with a star upon its point."
Then how could any owner of the corrected Second
Folio, unless he were a Baconian looking for such
skimble-skamble stuff, know that the "starre-ypointed
Pyramid" meant "a Beacon, pronounced Bacon"?
Furthermore, even if, for the sake of argument, we
admit that beacon was then pronounced like our bacon,
that proves nothing, for it is more than likely that
"Bacon" was then pronounced the way we would pro-
nounce " backon" or "bahcon."
"What needst thou such dull witnesse of thy Name?"
means only "Thou needst no such dull testimony as
that offered by a pyramid of piled stones to witness thy
fame," and not that it was not "necessary to put the
dull witness of a Beacon (Bacon) upon these marvellous
works."
That the Third Folio retains the word "starre-
ypointing" is due to the fact that this edition of the
poet's works was set up from an uncorrected copy of
the Second Folio, and that the editors, not being of the
"initiated," saw nothing ungrammatical in starre-
ypointing. Samuel A. Tannenbaum.
New York, Nov. 9, 191S.
"A PILGRIMAGE OF PLEASURE."
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
With reference to the note on Swinburne's "A Pil-
grimage of Pleasure," in your issue of Nov. 1, it may
interest your readers to know that in a third edition of
"The Children of the Chapel " by Mrs. Disney Leitb
(the poet's cousin), published by Messrs. Chatto &
Windus, London, in 1910, it was definitely stated that
the morality play was by Swinburne. The title-page
of this issue reads as follows: "The Children of the
Chapel by Mrs. Disney Leith, including The Pilgrimage
of Pleasure, a morality play by Algernon Charles
Swinburne." No mention of this third edition is made
in Mr. O'Brien's Bibliography.
The "Spectator" letter of 1862 was reprinted for
the first time in Mr. R. Le Gallienne's "George Mere-
dith: Some Characteristics" (Lane, 1890),and in sub-
sequent editions. yf MacDonald Mackay.
Toronto, Canada, Nov. 5, 1913.


402
[Nov. 16
THE
DIAL
tyt Itto iooks.
A Hero of the Gentle Life.*
In closing his "Literary Friends and Ac-
quaintance," written while Charles Eliot Norton
was still alive, Mr. Howells speaks, with the
restraint he knew would be desired by Mr.
Norton, of "the creative sympathy of a man
whose contributions to our literature only par-
tially represent what he has constantly done for
the humanities," and adds: "I am sure that
after the easy heroes of the day are long forgot,
and the noisy fames of the strenuous life shall
dwindle to their essential insignificance before
these of the gentle life, we shall see in Charles
Eliot Norton, the eminent scholar who left the
quiet of his books to become our chief citizen
at the moment when he warned his countrymen
of the ignominy and disaster of doing wrong."
Somewhere else, unless memory is at fault, the
same writer points to Mr. Norton as the finest
example of one whose scholarly capacities have
been cultivated to their fullest extent.
It is this impression of continual growth in
scholarship and refined taste and high sym-
pathies that one receives in reading the two
ample volumes of Mr. Norton's letters now
carefully edited with biographical comment by
his daughter, Miss Sara Norton, and Mr. M. A.
De Wolfe Howe. First we see their writer
young, ardent, eagerly acquisitive of knowledge
and experience, and then, as the wisdom of age
is added, reflective, reminiscent, philosophical,
tasting the wine of life with a more keenly dis-
criminating relish, infusing himself more and
more into the generations growing up about him,
and, in his letters to old friends, falling back at
last on those mutual sympathies and comprehen-
sions that are finally felt to be the really endur-
ing and desirable things of existence. From the
very beginning, too, he shows himself possessed
of a singular maturity and poise, a capacity
for inspiring confidence as an adviser and for
winning hearts as a friend. Indeed, he had a
veritable genius for friendship, high and noble,
warm and lasting friendship, and it is signifi-
cant that many of his earlier friends were men
and women considerably older than himself.
Reared as the companion rather than the son of
a scholarly father, he early displayed an unusual
development of mental powers, strength of
• Lettkbs of Charles Eliot Norton. With biograph-
ical comment by his daughter, Sara Norton, and M. A. De
Wolfe Howe. In two volumes. Illustrated. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
character, and ripeness of judgment. Ruskin's
attachment to and confidence in Norton is well
known. In his "Praeterita," after describing
their first meeting on that memorable day in
Switzerland, he concludes: "And thus I became
possessed of my second friend, after Dr. John
Brown; and of my first real tutor, Charles Eliot
Norton." The relationship of the two is well
shown in the letters from Ruskin to Norton, as
published a few years ago. An uninformed
reader would not suspect the age of the " tutor"
to be almost nine years under that of the
pupil. Another Englishman of note who con-
fessed himself indebted to the young American
scholar's benevolence and wisdom, was Arthur
Hugh Clough, also Norton's senior by nearly
nine years. "Charles Norton is the kindest
creature in the shape of a young man of twenty-
five that ever befriended an emigrant stranger
anywhere," writes Clough from Cambridge,
where Norton was sagely advising him on the
publication of his "Plutarch" and aiding him
in reading the proofs.
Striking instances of Norton's happy way of
quickly ingratiating himself, without effort,
wherever he went and whomsoever he met, are
found in the record of his first journey abroad,
that memorable voyage made by him as super-
cargo to India, whence he returned, nearly two
years later, by way of Suez, Cairo, and Europe.
In Italy the Brownings appear to have felt his
charm immediately, and to have given him their
cordial friendship. The younger man's way of
referring to Browning and other friends older
than himself, and of addressing them in his let-
ters, using often only the last name, is significant
of his reception among them on a footing of
perfect equality. That he viewed under no false
glamour the celebrities among whom he moved
and of whom he heard, is evident from such
passages as the following, written to his mother
after a tete-a-tete dinner with John Kenyon,
Mrs. Browning's elderly cousin:
"We talked much this evening of Coleridge and of
Wordsworth. Mr. Kenyon said that much as he ad-
mired and respected Wordsworth, there was hardly a
more disagreeable man in some positions; that he was
very selfish, and, as Sara Coleridge said of him, his sen-
sibility seemed to be in him and not of him. Coleridge
once said that if Wordsworth had a coat of arms, the
crest should be a laurel crown, and the supporters, a
bishop on the one side, and an attorney on the other.
He was a man weak enough to care for the distinctions
of rank, and to bow to them, and if you, his best friend,
said Mr. Kenyon, met him in a party of lords and bishops,
it was very likely that he would not know you while they
were in the room. We talked, too, of Rogers, of Miss
Mitford, who is still living at Three Mile Cross, and


1913]
403
THE DIAL
who, being relieved from the necessity of writing, has
laid aside her pen, to live quietly on her narrow bnt
sufficient income."
Side by side with this dinner at John Kenyon's
should be placed Norton's evening at Lamar-
tine's, where the clear-eyed young American
detected at once the enormous vanity of his host.
"The stories which are heard of Lamartine's
vanity," he wrote home afterward, "would be
almost incredible were they not confirmed and
repeated on every side. Some of them are too
bad to tell. By a little skilful drawing out one
can any day induce him to say that he is physi-
cally superb and morally sublime." But it is
more profitable to dwell on Norton's admirations
and enthusiasms than on the objects of his good-
natured contempt—though that is too strong a
word to describe his feeling. An early reference
to the dearest friend of his maturity and later
life occurs in a letter to Clough, written in Nor-
ton's twenty-sixth year and while Lowell was
still keenly feeling the loss of his first wife.
"Lowell was with me last night till near one o'clock,
—so that if I am stupid this morning there is no cause
for wonder;—he was very bright and pleasant and we
should neither of us be dull to-day, could we have sat
talking all night and not gone to bed at all. My affec-
tion and admiration for him quicken every time I see
him; he bears the trial of his life, a loss which grows
only more palpable in the course of time, with the best
spirit, and the truest right feeling. Sometimes, after he
has been long at home, surrounded only by those things
which suggest continually to him his sorrow, I have
found him very sad; but he quickly rallies, and no word
of unmanliness or complaint ever shows that he has
lost even for a moment the serenity and patience of his
heart."
An earlier letter to the same correspondent has
a paragraph prophetic of the writer's attitude in
a national crisis of almost half a century later,
and not unprofitable reading for us at this very
moment.
"The administration have got a very pretty quarrel
with Cuba, and will make the most of it. One of the
New York steamers has been confiscated in Havana
owing to informality in her manifest. The accounts as
yet are all from one side and we have not heard the
Spanish version of the story. But we do not care to wait
for that and propose to seek redress whether Spanish
laws are violated or not. Such an opportunity as this
cannot be lost. So the President sends an undignified
message to Congress, and all the passion that can be ex-
cited is being stimulated by every proper means. . . .
In the existing state of feeling in this country in regard
to Cuba it was, so far as can be now seen, an immense
mistake on the part of the Spanish authorities to commit
such an inflammatory act as the seizure of this vessel."
In a notebook kept by Norton at the time of
his second visit to Europe there are found
entries indicating the beginning of that course
of study which was to make the young student,
in process of time, our foremost Dante scholar.
From 1856, therefore, to the end of his life
more than half a century later, Norton is to be
thought of as giving the best of his intellectual
energies to the Italian poet. That his prose
rendering of the "Divine Comedy" should be
accounted the most faithful presentation of it
in our language, need not surprise anyone who
knows the translator's lifelong abhorrence of
slovenliness in literary work.
A passage from a letter to Mr. Edward Lee-
Childe arrests attention because it so aptly
applies to the writer himself.
"You are leading a rational life, and in securing the
best culture for yourself you are doing good service to
society. There is great need of men who may keep up
the standard of cultivation, without aiming at the cheap
personal distinction for which most men strive. I know
no worse calamity that can overtake a man than to have
a thirst for publicity, and yet it is the common vice of
able men in this epoch of the newspaper reporter."
Passing now to the later letters, we select a
passage from a communication to Goldwin
Smith that reveals a healthy rationalism and a
sane optimism such as not all the world has yet
attained to.
"You gave me a great pleasure in sending to me
two or three months ago a copy of your book on the
'Kiddle of Existence.' It was a great satisfaction to
me to find myself in entire agreement with you on
every main point, and to have my own convictions set
forth with such lucidity, temperance, and force. Possibly
I regret less than you do the giving up of the old faith,
and the being compelled to renounce as hopeless every
attempt to solve the problems which excite our curi-
osity. The position toward the universe in which we
find ourselves seems to me on the whole the manliest
which has been attained. We are thrown back on our
own resources to make the best of our lives. A new
sense of responsibility is aroused in us, and, by the
narrowing of the limits of our hopes and expectations,
we find ourselves more capable of using our faculties
for legitimate and rational ends. I do not find it hard
to quench the eagerness of curiosity about the unknow-
able, and to accept as sufficient this brief, incompre-
hensible existence on earth. Man seems to me to be
for the most part in a very early stage of development,
and the loss of religious faith among the most civilized
portion of the race is a step from childishness toward
maturity. That it will have many sad results I do not
question, that the progress will be very slow and irreg-
ular is certain, but in the long run I have no fear in
regard to improvement in the general morality of the
race. Our morals seem to me the result and expression
of the secular experience of mankind. As such they
have a solid foundation. The doctrine of love is the
one ultimate achievement in this field. And the validity
of that doctrine as the rule of life is but confirmed by
such convictions as you and I have reached."
In one of his last letters Norton cheerfully
wrote : "The end cannot be far off, and although
few men have more to leave than I, I am neither


404
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
reluctant, nor sentimentally sorry to leave it."
Among those last letters, which are, naturally
enough, the best letters in the collection, one
finds and would like to quote from many a
genial message of greeting to such sympathetic
friends as Leslie Stephen, E. L. Godkin, Mr.
Charles Francis Adams, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell,
and Horace Howard Furness. Following the
letters are twenty pages of delightful personal
reminiscence from Mr. Arthur Sedgwick, Nor-
ton's brother-in-law; then come appended items
of interest, and, finally, an index that success-
fully stands the test of repeated use. Portraits
and other illustrations abound. Even more
memorable than the appearance of Lowell's
correspondence, which Norton himself edited,
is this publication of the letters of him who was
our most finished scholar and our most intelli-
gently and fearlessly public-spirited citizen. In
the best sense of those much abused words, this
is emphatically the book of the year.
Percy F. Bicknell.
The Social, Development of Modern
England.*
The past century of English history has been
a period of great and growing "unrest." As
the years pass the disturbing forces appear to
be increasing in number and strength. The
situation has produced much perplexity among
conservative Britons, and has inspired a con-
siderable body of literature largely of the
polemic order. Among the more recent works
that have been called forth by these newer
social facts is a historical study by Dr. Gilbert
Slater, which he calls "The Making of Modern
England." Dr. Slater belongs to a class of
writers who sometimes speak of themselves as
"sociological historians" (whatever that term
may mean), and whose interest seems to be
limited to the larger and wider aspects of social
life and development. For such a study the
recent history of England is surely not wanting
in opportunity.
The author states his purpose clearly in a
brief preface from which the following sen-
tences may be quoted:
"My aim in this book is to set out in language as
simple and clear as I can command those facts with
regard to the recent history of our country which it is
most important for English men and women to know.
. . . For the citizen, historical study with the ulterior
object of gaining light in the future and guidance in
•Thk Making of Modern England. By Gilbert
Slater, M.A., D.Sc. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
the present, is an imperative duty. ... I should have
liked to lavish much more time and labor on this effort
if it had been possible. As it is, I must now present
it, for what it is worth, to those who are seeking for
light from the past on the difficulties and dangers of
this most critical moment in the life of our nation, of
the empire, and of humanity."
Dr. Slater is principal of Buskin College, an
Oxford institution which is frequently spoken
of as " the workingmen's college"; it was organ-
ized a dozen years ago to give certain opportu-
nities for study both in residence, by "extension"
courses, and by correspondence, that were not
to be found elsewhere. This position has brought
the author into close touch with the most
discontented of all the disturbing forces, — the
workingmen. But it has also given him a view-
point that the "more solid classes" will refuse
to accept. There are no traces of Tory sym-
pathies in Dr. Slater's work.
"The Making of Modern England" is not a
history in the traditional sense: the political
element, which surely has had a large part in
the " making " of that nation, is almost omitted.
Only where politics and politicians are associa-
ted with great social or industrial changes do
they appear in the narrative; the first reform
act, which paved the way for the social reforms
of the thirties, is naturally treated in some
detail. Gladstone and Chamberlain are prom-
inent in Dr. Slater's narrative, but the greater
number of the other famous parliamentary
names are wanting; their places are taken by
those of Brougham, Cobbett, Huskisson, Edwin
Chadwick, who did such efficient work for san-
itation, and the leaders of the trades union
movement.
But on the subjects that fall within the
author's purpose he writes clearly and fully.
They are chiefly such topics as parliamentary
and municipal reform; the industrial revolution
and factory legislation; the labor movement in
its various phases; the corn laws and tariff re-
form; the poor laws, educational reforms, and
sanitation; and other related subjects. Three
chapters are devoted to conditions in country
and town in the years immediately following the
close of the Napoleonic wars; and the picture
is one of hopeless distress. Six chapters take
up in detail the earlier reforms in constitution
and industry; more than half of the work is
given to the period prior to the Crimean War.
The remainder of the volume is devoted chiefly
to education, municipal activities, and changes
in the industrial system.
Dr. Slater has his views on present-day Eng-
lish problems and movements, and expresses


1913]
405
THE DIAL,
them without fear. On the subject of tariff
reform he holds very moderate views. He
seems to be a believer in state support for in-
dustry, but sees little to be gained from the
political programme of the Unionists.
"It is unfortunate that the case between free trade
and neo-protectionism has had to be argued before a
public which has been denied any general education in
economics, and therefore is not well prepared to under-
stand the sounder arguments on both sides. The
controversy has, therefore, degenerated, through the
irresistible temptation offered to both sides to rouse pre-
judices and to use arguments, however unsound, which
happen to appeal to the aninstructed voter. . . . There
is a tendency on both sides to grossly exaggerate the
net economic gain or loss to the country as a whole of
a system of free imports on the one side and of small
importVluties on the other."
He also fears that, as the political parties are
rather evenly balanced, "the country may oscil-
late between the two systems and so suffer greater
loss and damage than from a continued adher-
ence to even the worse of the two."
For imperialistic ambitions, as the term
is usually understood, he has no sympathy.
Against the imperial system itself he brings a
terrible indictment.
"We are accustomed to think of the British Empire
as consisting mainly of men of the Anglo-Saxon blood,
and as being on the whole well governed, highly civilized
and wealthy. As a matter of fact the Empire consists
mainly of Asiatics; it is more cursed by deep poverty
than any other great state, and the great majority of
its adult population are unable to read and write."
The greatest problem is the Indian service.
England has too few civil servants in India;
they are poorly trained and they govern accord-
ing to obsolete ideas — "the ghost of the eco-
nomic doctrine of laissez-faire " clings to actual
practice. On the matter of training for the
civil service the author is emphatic: "To vari-
ous audiences I have urged that the first step
for the salvation of the Empire must be to
abolish compulsory Greek at Oxford and Cam-
bridge and substitute compulsory geography."
But he hopes that out of imperialism will grow
internationalism, — that the Empire will serve
as a long step toward the "federation of the
world."
With the feminist movement the author is
in evident sympathy. English women demand
the ballot because it is a symbol of equality
and because they "believe in its overwhelming
importance."
"The state is equally concerned with men and women;
its business is no longer the extension of territory, but
chiefly the securing of a better environment for the
coming generation; and the exclusion of women from
a 9hare in that business can be defended only on the
ground of their intellectual inferiority."
The modern British industrial system Dr.
Slater believes to be fundamentally wicked:
"The whole structure of business of the modern
type is built upon a foundation of injustice."
Of the three groups that are interested in a
public service corporation, — the shareholders,
the laborers, and the public,—the first has the
least personal interest. The capitalist, because
of his scattered investments, becomes "less and
less able to discharge the duties and responsi-
bilities attaching to ownership"; his prudence
in investing reduces him "to a mere parasite on
the business which he, with his fellows, owns."
The author looks for great changes in industrial
organization; these may be Socialistic or Syndi-
calistic, or possibly both forms will appear; but
he does not believe that any new form will pre-
vail to such an extent as to eliminate all the
earlier types.
It seems to the reviewer that Dr. Slater has
been more anxious to interpret his facts than
to find and state them; that he expresses his
opinions too freely and too positively; and that
consequently his work can scarcely be classed as
history. But as a summary of the causes that
have led to the disturbed conditions of the pre-
sent, written from the viewpoint of one who is
sympathetic toward the yearnings and strivings
of the toiling masses, it has an interest and a
value of its own. But it is an argument rather
than a historical narrative.
Laurence M. Larson.
Studies of the English Lyric*
Histories of literature continue to multiply.
If the classics of our tongue were increasingly
read in proportion as they can be increasingly
read about, there would be cause for great grati-
fication. It is to be feared, however, that the
latter employment is too likely to be a substitute
for the former, from the elementary schools up
to women's clubs and the universities. Doubt-
less this is no reason why we should be inhos-
pitable to the new guides made for those who
would read systematically and intelligently.
But the difficulty of making such a guide both
a practical manual and a readable history is
very great; and one frequently lays down the
book querying whether it is not, after all, a
graceful tour de force, exhibiting how much
ground may be covered with the greatest agility,
•Lyric Poetry. By Ernest Rhys. "Channels of Eng-
lish Literature." New York: E. P. Dntton & Co.
The English Lyric. By Felix E. Schelling. "Types
of English Literature." Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.


406
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
without laying the writer open to charges of
omission from his fellow-scholars and reviewers.
For illustration, take such a sentence as this,
from one of the two volumes now before us:
"Passing Thomas Love Peacock, best recol-
lected, notwithstanding a lyric or so of distinc-
tion, for his incomparable wit and humor in
rime, John Hamilton Reynolds, friend and com-
panion in poetic adventure of Keats, and Lanian
Blanchard, preacher, jester, and writer of society
verses, we reach in Hood the most gifted of the
poets that fall between the early romanticists
and the great Victorians." Is this not skilful?
And is it not at the same time suggestive of
studying a subterranean water-system from an
aeroplane? Or this: "It might be difficult to
find four writers more in contrast as men and
authors than Macaulay, Praed, Mangan, and
Barnes; indeed, only their likeness in years and
the circumstance that they all began to write
well before the accession of Queen Victoria
could justify the treatment of them together."
Yes, there is one other justification, — that the
writer was obviously in despair as to how to in-
clude the necessary names in the pending chap-
ter without frankly descending to the method of
a text-book, and saying " 1, 2, 3, 4." The re-
sult of such efforts is that the reader versed in
the subject-matter of the book perceives that its
author knew his material well, but that its sig-
nificance is questionable for those not acquainted
with the field. Such is the conspicuous case with
the horde of brilliant literary histories turned
out by Professor Saintsbury: any intelligent
reader is eager to know what Mr. Saintsbury
has to say of his favorite book, but one who would
have the landscape mapped out for him must
be directed to some guide at once humbler and
safer. And the fault here is not with the author
alone, but with the method of these compendia.
Of late such suspicions as these have given rise
to a new type of literary history in which each
mode or kind is treated by itself, and more econ-
omy and thoroughness are thereby made possi-
ble. Two series of this sort are now well under
way, one made in this country, called "The Types
of English Literature," whose general editor is
Professor W. A. Neilson; and its British coun-
terpart, called "The Channels of English Lit-
erature," under the direction of Mr. Oliphant
Smeaton. The volumes treating of the lyric, in
these two series, are now at hand, and both have
been committed to writers of proved scholarship
and assured competence in critical technique.
That both are at once learned and readable may
therefore be assumed without danger. It does
not follow, however, that they escape altogether
the queries which have been raised regarding
the task they undertake to accomplish. If such
a treatise can give us a real history of the form
in question, discerning its evolution, its modify-
ing environment, its quasi-organic life, then the
type-history justifies itself in a special way.
This is characteristically possible in a form like
tragedy or novel, for there one may predicate a
certain consciousness of type on the part of the
authors concerned, as well as a fairly obvious
series of vital influences. But the lyric is a
form essentially unconscious and essentially
individualistic; there is, therefore, less signifi-
cance in treating its history among a given peo-
ple than in the case of almost any other type.
Try as we will, then, the task becomes in some
measure the mere picking up of one name and
the setting of it down to take up another.
Mr. Rhys and Professor Schelling have miti-
gated this tendency in quite different ways.
The former has felt free to please himself by
expanding his treatment of that period which
at once evidently interests him most and is most
susceptible of scientific and historical treat-
ment,— the mediaeval. Here the evolution of
the type is handled with more care, and more
richness of illustration, than can easily be found
elsewhere, and the result should prove very
stimulating to any who can read Middle Eng-
lish without difficulty. Professor Schelling,
on the other hand, has consulted the interests
of the general reader, which are sure to be dis-
proportionately concerned with recent litera-
ture, and gives nearly half his book to the
English lyrists from 1798 to the present, the
period where individuality is most marked, and
the historical method least available.* But he
takes care to meet the needs of the real student
of the subject by providing at every point hints
concerning the deeper matters to which indi-
vidual poets are related, as well as bibliograph-
ical references in an abundance just not too
great to be practicable.
On a subject so doubtfully defined as the
lyric, one compares with interest the limits
which the two critics seek to set for their
* In this matter of proportion, then, neither book appears
so much to advantage, despite their greater charm of style,
as Professor Edward B. Reed's " English Lyrical Poetry,"
reviewed in The Dial for September 1,1!I12. Those seri-
ously interested in the subject will perhaps find convenient a
definite, not to say mechanical, comparison of the three books
so recently published on the same subject. Reed's book, then,
contains some 174,000 words, Rhys's some 14X.00O, and Schel-
lings's some 87,000. To the medi.eval lyric Reed devotes
about 14% of his space, Rhys 'J.'S%, and Schelling tj%; to the
lyric of the lilth century Reed gives 21%, Rhys 111%, and
Schelling 3X%.


1913]
407
territory. With Rhys it is primarily the rhyth-
mical or musical element, the primitive spon-
taneous impulse to song, to which the denning
lines are always referred. "Lyrical," he tells
us at the outset, "implies a form of musical
utterance in words governed by overmastering
emotion and set free by a powerfully concordant
rhythm." This leads him to find his subject-
matter, on occasion, even in narrative poetry,'
as when he cites Chaucer's "lyric remark"
about the Squire: "He sleep no more than
doth a nightingale," adding, "One may think
that not a lyric line at all, but in fact it is an
enhancing of sound and sense alike by the poet's
conscious and tuneful exuberance of pleas-
ure in the fact he is communicating, and there
lies the essence of the lyric principle." So of
the "Comus" songs: you feel " the voice-chords
strong in them; . . . there is an actual present
music of the sounds apart from the syllabic and
intelligible pattern of the words." This is
admirably suggestive in both thought and
phrasing. Elsewhere Mr. Rhys recognizes the
development of the more literary element, which
came in, for example, with Surrey, — "the
silent lyric which is written and meant to be
read to oneself"; while with Wordsworth, he
says, "the converting of the lyrical to the sub-
lyrical, the verse of sung melody and pure
vocal rhythm to that of reflective and medita-
tive expression, was complete."* One can see
that with this tendency he is more or less impa-
tient. He is suspicious of the sonnet, for
example; and, though he admits that Shake-
speare makes us forget that it is "a book-song,
a lyric in a cabinet," he gives only a page to
the Shakespearean collection. Professor Schel-
ling is more catholic in temper, less interested
in rhythm, and disposed to emphasize, as mod-
ern literature inevitably emphasizes, the test of
subjectivity rather than songfulness.
Both writers, as we have said, are possessed
of a skilled and liberal critical style, and pro-
vide us with obiter dicta which are not the
least valuable products of this handbook fashion.
Here are some of the best of Mr. Rhys's:
"Chaucer was the most delicately syllabic verseman
who ever wrote in English, bo that, reading him after
the later poets whose fashion is more like our own, we
are impressed as by the clear but unusual enunciation
of a child."
"Sidney's poetry floats on that full stream of history
•Compare Wordsworth's own words concerning his
poems: "Some of these pieces are essentially lyrical, and
therefore cannot have their due force without a supposed
musical accompaniment; but, in much the greatest part, I
require nothing more than an animated or impassioned reci-
tation."
[which characterized the Elizabethan court] like leaves
on a broad river, whose water keeps them fresh."
«The mode of perceptivity which Dryden and his
school cultivated ties the imagination to the fence, and
no matter how the wind blows, the range is determined
by the rope."
"The tough Saxon fibre remained, ... to give it
something of that occasional stiffness of English poetry,
which is apt to affect her verse-writers when they are
not inspired, . . . and at the same time to give it that
grip on the earth, which we found first in. Widsilh and
Csedmon."
And here is a hand-cull from Professor Schel-
ling (whose book is characterized, however, not
so much by salient passages as by the ample
knowledge, catholicity, and gentle humor which
underlie nearly all his judgments):
"Elizabethan poetry revels in the art of song, in
variety and experiment in verse, in the artifices of style;
it plays upon words and elaborates ingenious figures of
speech; it bubbles with voluble joy, or, if cast down, its
despair or petulance are those of childhood."
"It is not so much the possession of new or startling
qualities that characterizes the artistic endowment of
Shakespeare as it is the superlative degree in which he
is endowed with qualities which are ordinarily associated
with the sanity of talent as contrasted with the abnor-
mality of genius."
"Keats is the antithesis poetically of Wordsworth,
in place of whose artistic thrift he practised a splendid
liberality, in place of whose scrutinizing search for the
hidden meaning of things he was content to blazon in a
gorgeous heraldry of his own their outward glories."
In connection with Professor Schelling's book,
two or three queries suggest themselves, if only
for the sake of varying the monotony of agree-
ment which must, in general, meet the author's
dicta. For Shakespeare's sonnets he contents
himself with the easy traditional statement that
they "are made up of two series," the first
addressed to a youth, the second to a dark lady;
this, despite the fact that the statement has
never been undisputed, and that recent criticism
has tended to react against it. Of Donne we are
told that he is free " from the slightest interest
in nature or in similitudes drawn from nature,"
a saying which gives us pause when we remember
the lines
"A pregnant bank swelled up to rest
The violet's reclining head,"
the wonderful "Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's
Day," and the metaphysical toying with the
five-petaled blossom in "The Primrose." And
is it not at least questionable to group Matthew
Arnold with the poets who are more intent on
form than on "the thing said "?
A final comparison of the two volumes should
revert to the humble matter of their practical
service to the serious reader, and here the admi-
rable bibliographical apparatus furnished by


408
[Nov. 16
THE
DIAL
Professor Schelling, as already noted, must
have weight. The index to his manual, too, is
worthy of more than the reviewer's usual part-
ing word. By searching here, not merely for
the names and titles with which the professional
index-maker contents himself, but for such
captions as "Celtic Revival," "Classical influ-
ences," "Conceit,""Frenchinfluences," "Mad-
rigal," "Oxford Movement," "Petrarchism,"
"Pre-Raphaelite," and the like, one may read-
ily be enabled to follow out threads of topical
importance which are not conspicuous in the
main pattern of the book. In these respects
Mr. Rhys's volume is conspicuously inferior.
There are no accurate references; bibliography
is provided in neither notes nor appendix; and
the index is only of proper names. The proof-
reading is also left with much to be desired; one
may note particularly the illiterate spelling
"Sampson" twice on page 228, and — what can
hardly be laid to the printer's door—an unpar-
donable garbling of Browning's lines on Shake-
speare's sonnets, page 338.
In view of the present progress of these
undertakings in literary history, a concluding
suggestion may not be untimely. We now
have plenty of histories of English literature as
a whole, and are coming to have plenty of such
histories by types. The next step needed is to
give the student who wishes to gain the view-
point of what is awkwardly called " comparative
literature" a view of the types without regard
to national boundaries. It is desirable to get
either a complete longitudinal section or a com-
plete cross-section,—to see either the evolution
of our literature as a whole, or that of one form
of literature in the modern western world. Some
of the volumes in Professor Neilson's series will
perhaps approach this desideratum, at least if
one may judge from the announcements already
made; "the short story, mediaeval and mod-
ern," one would think, can scarcely be confined
within the boundaries of England, nor can
one easily fancy Professor Irving Babbitt writ-
ing a history of English criticism alone. But
the value of Professor Thorndike's volume on
tragedy, already issued and proved helpful, is
impaired by the fact that to treat English
tragedy by itself, especially in certain periods,
is almost to throw away the possibility of under-
standing it. In the lyric this is not so true.
But eventually, when the training of our literary
scholars has become more liberal without losing
its soundness, we shall have a series dealing
with the Novel, the Tragedy, the Lyric, and the
rest, of modern Europe. Till then, students
exploring these subjects in existing works will
continue to feel like visitors to a public build-
ing who find many alluring doors and galleries
marked " Closed to the public for the present."
Raymond Macdonald Alden.
Lincoln the Man.*
"When half-gods go," says Emerson, "the
gods arrive." Perhaps no more than other
peoples, but certainly to a marked degTee, we
Americans tend to make our national heroes
something more than merely human,—some-
thing more, indeed, than demi-gods. In the
process of ascribing to them characteristics suit-
able to their eminence, we strip them of their
humanity, until we find them lifted beyond our
sympathies into monsters of perfection, — crea-
tures much "too bright and good for human
nature's daily food."
As a consequent reaction, books are being
written, like Mr. Owen Wister's "The Seven
Ages of Washington," for the purpose of
proving that the great Virginian, too, was hu-
man; and his case seems to require proof that
he could laugh upon occasion with any of us,
quite as much as that he could suffer. In the
latter contingency, we certainly lose the lesson
that human sufferings can be nobly borne, as
with Washington, seemingly setting him on a
pedestal so remote that we can see neither his
smiles nor his tears. The best compliment ever
paid an actor is that recently accorded Sir John-
ston Forbes-Robertson by a young girl who
said of his Hamlet, "I never before thought
it could happen." And many an American, it
is to be feared, has dismissed the Father of his
Country with the half-formed reflection that
such a man never really happened. Abraham
Lincoln is rapidly being accorded a similar
elevation beyond our daily humanity; and the
process can only be stopped, if it can be stopped
at all, by such a book as the late Francis Fisher
Browne's "Everyday Life of Lincoln," now
rewritten to include everything worthy that has
been brought to light since its first appearance
twenty-seven years ago.
If ever there was a thoroughly human man,
it was the great Liberator. If ever an Ameri-
can lived from whom his countrymen could
derive comfort, not only for success but for
failure, it was he. If any man in any age was
wrought by the hand of destiny from common
•The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln. By
Francis Fisher Browne. New edition, enlarged and re-
written. With portraits. Chicago: Browne & Howell Co.


1913]
409
THE DIAL
clay into true nobility and imperishable har-
mony, it was this same Lincoln. And if, in
spite of all things, whether of good or ill repute,
a great man ever remained a simple, sane, sweet,
comprehensible human being, again it was
Abraham Lincoln. Nothing is to be gained by
trimming his words and deeds to fit the exi-
gencies of a later and, it may be, a better age.
In fact, he was so emphatically of his own time,
its best, most typical, and most characteristic
product, that all attempts to harmonize his life
with another environment must end disastrously.
No descriptive phrase accorded him has met with
more general approval than Lowell's "the first
American"; nothing is to be gained, but much
lost, by seeking to make him also the last
American.
And Francis Fisher Browne, a man of Lin-
coln's type if ever there was one, has brought
together out of his great understanding and
sympathy a mass of opinion, incident, anecdote
from the most varied sources, fused them into a
single whole, and left us a vivid portrait which
shows Lincoln the Man — the man who was
always himself. Some concession has been made
to the spirit which would make him the man
who was better than himself, but not much, and
that only in the words of others; in the eloquent
links which bind together the statements and
sentiments of others, the feeling of the biogra-
pher is clear: Lincoln was a man like ourselves,
humbler, commoner, less "gentlemanlike" than
any of us dare think ourselves, moulded by
tremendous stress and strain into a figure unique
in the annals of the world. Like Washington,
he is one of Plutarch's men, but springing from
the boundless prairie rather than from the closer
vicinage of a classical age, — a Boeotian who
loved beauty, a Spartan who could shed tears,
a Roman who read entirely new meanings into
the phrase, Imperium et libertaa.
The plan of the book is simple. If anything
dealing with Lincoln's life from its inhospitable
beginning to its august close is fully authenti-
cated and bears the mark of truth, it has been
deemed worthy of inclusion. "Many of the
stories told of Lincoln at the bar," we read on
page 139, "are extremely ridiculous, and repre-
sent him in anything but a dignified light.
But they are a part of the character of the man,
and should be given wherever there is reason
to suppose they are genuine." Thereupon one
prime reason for the book's excellence discloses
itself: "Besides, they are usually full of a humor
that is irresistible." And what follows is a
warning to all solemn asses who would have it
otherwise; for if there was anything human
that Lincoln's heart did not warm to it was the
solemn ass.
It is not with history that this book is chiefly
concerned,— it is with the man in history.
Only such chronicle of the events that marked
so portentous an epoch in the world's long life
has been included as is needful for an under-
standing of the individual who did so much to
sway these events and bend them to his will.
These are dealt with in a spirit that it is no
exaggeration to call truly Lincolnian. Nearly
all previous historians and biographers in this
field, still moved, it would seem, by the bitter-
ness of that age, have been partisans. Notably
has this been the case in dealing with the
relations between Lincoln and McClellan; the
mere mention of the two names has seemed to
call forth the challenge in "King Henry IV.,"
"Under which king, Bezonian? speak, or die I"
But here we find portrayed two men, equally
zealous, equally anxious, each in possession of
knowledge he would impart to the other, each
doomed by his own limitations to imperfect
understanding of the situation; yet, in spite of
all these things, good friends to the end, and
upon the whole freer from acrimony than any
of their followers.
For it is no part of this book's purpose to
make men and events out better than they
were and are, nor yet to make them worse.
Lincoln's own breadth of view and insight into
human nature are shown to be in full control
throughout. One can love Lincoln without
hating McClellan, or admire the general's man-
ifest good qualities without dishonoring the
memory of his commander-in-chief. An equal
catholicity of treatment is accorded such mooted
questions as Lincoln's religion; he is shown in
his everyday life to have been truly religious,
and the lesser question of creed is left to take
care of itself. Here and again something is
said about his abstemiousness regarding liquor;
it is made evident that he was one of the most
temperate of men at a time when temperance
was rather less valued than at present, — and
that, surely, is all that need be proved.
But such a book speaks more favorably for
itself than any reviewer, however sympathetic,
can possibly speak for it. As it stands, it is a
monument of patient labor, almost as conspic-
uous for what it rejects as for what it includes,
for it is evident that everything has been duly
weighed. Matters made public as recently as
February last find due place in its pages; noth-
ing has been neglected that adds to a rounded


410
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
conception of a great man. The book will stand
as an impressive memorial both to its subject
and to its biographer.
In its external aspects the volume is dignified
and comely. An analytical index, probably the
fullest and most serviceable ever included in a
Lincoln biography, will be welcomed by every
reader and will give the work a unique refer-
ence value in the library. Two portraits of
Lincoln, one a strikingly characteristic study
by Mr. J. N. Marble never before reproduced,
together with a portrait of the author, are
included. Wallace Rice.
Germany's Dreams of Expansion.*
"The vital factor in the modern interna-
tional situation," asserts Professor Usher in his
recently published treatise on Pan-Germanism,
"is the aggression of Germany, her determina-
tion to expand her territories, to increase her
wealth and power." The general fact is one
with which the world is familiar,—one which,
indeed, the world is given little opportunity to
forget. The full and final import of it, how-
ever, is considered in some quarters to be such
as few men even dream. In his description of
the Pan-German movement, Professor Usher
has sought both to lay bare the hidden forces
of German aggrandizement, thus seriously con-
ceived, and to forecast the consequences of it for
the principal nations of Europe, for our own
country, and for the world at large.
The basal factors in the existing situation
are assumed to be so obvious and so familiar as
to call for little more than mention: the amazing
rapidity of the growth of Germany as a national
power, the phenomenal rate of increase of the
Empire's population, the multiplication of in-
dustries and the ever-growing pressure for mar-
kets, the rapidly diminishing area of the lands
remaining to be brought under profitable culti-
vation. The logic of cold facts, it is declared,
points, and can point only, to expansion.
"To ask a German whether the expansion of Germany
is desirable is merely to ask him whether he believes it
desirable from any point of view for the German nation
to survive. Of course there can be but one reply. Ex-
pansion in Europe, however, can take place only at the
expense of other and independent states, either the pow-
erful rivals, France and Russia, or the weaker neighbors,
Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden; and even if such
acquisitions were to be made the difficulty would not be
solved, for the real problem is to find territory suitable
for German exploitation and settlement which is not
* Pan-Germanism. By Roland G. Usher. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
already heavily populated, at least not populated with
men and women of an advanced type of civilization. The
conclusion is that Germany must seek added dominion,
not alone in Europe, but in the temperate and produc-
tive portions of the outlying world; and not merely on
land, but on the sea, to the end that she may command
highroads to and from her possessions which shall be
safe from the attacks of her enemies."
These are the considerations upon which the
Pan-Germans base their propaganda. The
essentials of their programme are set forth by
the writer as follows:
"The Germans consider perfectly feasible the con-
struction of a great confederation of states including
Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Balkan States, and
Turkey, which would control a great band of territory
stretching southeast from the North Sea to the Persian
Gulf. A railway from Constantinople to Baghdad
would effectually tie the great trunk lines, leading
from the Rhine and Danube valleys, to Constanti-
nople and the Persian Gulf, and so establish a shorter
route to India than that via Suez. Egypt, Syria,
Arabia, Persia, India herself, the mother of nations,
would fall into German hands and be held safe from
conquest by this magnificent overland route to the
East. Pan-Germanism is, therefore, in the first place,
a defensive movement for self-preservation, for escap-
ing the pressure of France and Russia, both bent on
her destruction. It is, in the second place, an offensive
movement directed against England, its object, the
conquest of the English possessions in the Mediterranean
and in Asia. She expects thus to obtain an outlet for
her surplus population and manufactures and to create
an empire as little vulnerable politically, economically,
or strategically as any the world has yet seen."
In so far as these purposes are known, they
are denounced by other nations as involving a
return to the methods of sheer force long ago
outgrown, presumably, by the civilized world.
The Germans, however, we are told, "derisively
point to the presence of the English in India,
of the French in Morocco, of the Russians in
Manchuria, of the United States in Panama,"
and insist that their own aims and methods
are "absolutely identical with those their de-
tractors have so long employed." The question
that arises perhaps most insistently in the
reader's mind is, In how far is the programme
thus outlined concurred in by, or even known
to, the mass of the German people? In other
words, Is Pan-Germanism essentially national
in its constituency and spirit? Upon this point
we are given no very definite information. Per-
haps the obscurities surrounding the subject
are so impenetrable that definite information
cannot be had. "The extent to which the
German nation as a whole," we are told, "is
conscious of the existence of Pan-Germanism is
not demonstrable. There can be no doubt that
the Government has consistently attempted to
shape public opinion in favor of it." That


1913]
411
THE DIAL
Germans of all parties and sects appreciate the
seriousness of the economic problem by which
the country is confronted cannot be gainsaid;
nor, indeed, that the impulse which constitutes
the driving force of Pan-Germanism is present,
and is realized in some measure, in other coun-
tries even as in Germany. And in Germany at
least, the tendency of government influence, of
education, and of literature is distinctly to
accentuate the high mission and the unlimited
possibilities of the nation. Whatever the pres-
ent situation, the Pan-German ideal appears
not unlikely, as time goes on, to be stamped
more indelibly than ever upon the national
consciousness.
In the judgment of Professor Usher, the pros-
pect of the realization of the ideal is dubious.
After due allowance has been made for the many
elements of strength in the programme, the final
impression seems rather to be one of essential
weakness and uncertainty. The strongest evi-
dence to be had at present of the feasibility of
the Pan-German idea is affirmed to be the
sheer fact that "the statesmen and diplomats of
Europe, who know more about the situation than
historians ever will, believe that its success is
probable," and have so believed "for more than
a generation"; and, furthermore, the fact that
in the autumn of 1912 circumstances so shaped
themselves that the Pan-German confederation
was apparently within measurable distance of
completion. After all, however, this is incon-
clusive. And over against these considerations
must be set the extreme difficulty of creating
any such confederation as that which the Pan-
Germans expect to bring into existence for the
furthering of their plans. It is the belief of
the author that the subversion of the naval and
commercial power of Great Britain might more
readily be accomplished than the proposed recon-
struction of the continent; yet this is the second,
rather than the first, point in the present pro-
gramme. "Pan-Germanism," it is asserted, "is
weakest at its centre. Its success is least prob-
able at home. Without the cooperation of Aus-
tria and Italy, the scheme is impossible"; and it
is easy to show, not only that scarcely two gen-
erations ago the relations of the present members
of the Triplice were fundamentally hostile, but
that the spirit of distrust and jealousy among
them is still such as to threaten any great pro-
gramme of political reconstruction involving
their cooperation. The instability of the racial
situation, the growth of socialism, and the tradi-
tional effectiveness of English diplomacy and
naval power are cited as additional obstacles of
large import. Altogether, the programme seems
too ambitious to be possible of more than very
partial realization. But undoubtedly it will
continue to supply a key to much that is vital
in world politics and diplomacy.
Frederic Austin Ogg.
Briefs on New Books.
The imperial Professor William Scott Ferguson,
development of whose work on "Hellenistic Athens"
ancient Greece. wag reviewed in The Dial last year,
holds the chair of Ancient History at Harvard Uni-
versity; and has apparently been devoting especial
attention to the field of Hellenistic Greece. As a
companion volume to the above-mentioned book, he
has just issued a work entitled "Greek Imperialism"
(Houghton Mifflin Co.), containing seven lectures
delivered at the Lowell Institute, Boston, in Febru-
ary of this year. In the earlier chapters the main
lines of imperial development in Greece are traced.
In the others, Mr. Ferguson discusses the imperial
growths in the Greek city-states as illustrated in the
empires of Athens, Sparta, Alexander, the Ptolemies,
Seleucids, and Antigonids. Claiming continuity of
constitutional development within the whole period,
he insists that while the city-state reached its greatest
efficiency in the time of Pericles, yet the federation
was still being perfected two hundred years later.
To which he adds the dictum: "In government, as
in science, the classic age was but the youthful bloom
of Greece, whereas its vigorous maturity—in which
it was cut down by Rome—came in the Macedonian
time." This is calculated to open the eyes of the
intelligent reader who has been accustomed to think
of the Hellenistic Age as a period of decline. The
author's brief and original statement of his thesis is
this:
"The city-states of Greece were uni-cellular organising
with remarkable insides, and the; were incapable of growth
except by subdivision. They might reproduce their kind
indefinitely, bat the cells, new and old, could not combine to
form a strong nation. Thus it happened that after Athens
and Sparta had tried in vain to convert their hegemonies
over Greece into empires, a cancerous condition arose in
Hellas, for which the proper remedy was not to change the
internal constitutions of city-states, as Plato and Aristotle
taught, but to change the texture of their cell walls bo as to
enable them to adhere firmly to one another. With a con-
servatism thoroughly in harmony with the later character of
the Greek people, the Greeks struggled against this inevit-
able and salutary change. But in the end they had to yield;
saving, however, what they could of their urban separate-
ness, while creating quasi-territorial states by the use of the
federal system and deification of rulers."
It must be admitted that the scientific working out
of this theory will be followed with less interest than
the detached and vigorous narratives which form its
several supports. The explanation of the Athenian
helicea (popular jury-courts) and ecclesia (popular
assembly) is not very clear at first reading; while
the description of the Senate of five hundred and its
constituent prytanes—a somewhat perplexing ar-


412
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
rangement—is perfectly lucid; and Mr. Ferguson's
characterization of the Athenians as a "nation of
noblemen" and of their ecclesia as "high-class am-
ateurs" is both striking and just. The curious and
impressive contrast between Athens and Sparta is
emphasized, and the little-appreciated fact brought
out that Spartan institutions as we generally regard
them succeeded a many-sided and progressive cul-
ture, which was crushed out, to the end that her citi-
zens might become trained soldiers having but one
spirit, the esprit de corps of a professional army. A
warning to some modern educators is contained in
this remark of Mr. Ferguson's: "The singleness of
purpose with which Sparta made vocational training
the aim of her public education achieved the happy
result that she had no men of letters to betray to
posterity damaging secrets of state." The way in
which the world-empire of Alexander the Great
broke up at his death and threw off nebulous frag-
ments each destined to become a powerful kingdom
is graphically described by Mr. Ferguson in the
chapters devoted to the empires of the Ptolemies,
Seleucids, and Antigonids; and there is a brief but
weighty concluding section tracing the fluctuations
and transfers of power among the various leagues —
Achaean, Hellenic, and others—with Macedon as
the interfering and controlling factor, down to the
time when the real world-conqueror stepped in,
wrested from Macedon its chances, and began those
attacks on Hellenic independence which culminated
at Corinth in 146 B. c. The book is well printed, is
provided with an index, and has a select bibliography
after each chapter. On page 42 "pitch" is prob-
ably intended for " pith ";" Chronus " (p. 143) should
be "Kronos" or "Cronus."
Some time ago we had the pleasure
fhebco.m',and of ^viewing a book called « Survival
and Reproduction" by Mr. Herman
Reinheimer. This consisted of a vigorous plea,
intended to be at once scientific and transcendental,
in behalf of vegetarianism. The plea must have
failed, in some degree at least, because the same au-
thor now comes forward with another work, "Evo-
lution by Cooperation: A Study in Bio-Economics"
(Dutton), which in essentials is as like the former
as two peas from the very same pod. The thinking
here is just as muddy, and the diction just as tur-
gidly technical, as ever. And best of all, "Bio-
Economics" turns out to be our old friend vegetar-
ianism in a new disguise. Now a vegetarian diet
is undoubtedly a good thing for those who like that
sort of thing. But to attempt to make it the basis
of all evolution, philosophy, ethics, and the problems
of sex is going a bit too far. It is open to question
whether the method of injunction should not be
brought to bear to restrain Mr. Reinheimer from
correlating all things cosmic with cabbages, which
he seems in a fair way to do unless somehow held
in check. The present volume contains one novelty
in the form of a most enticing mystery. At various
places in the book, cryptic references are made to
"Love-Foods." Nowhere are we told precisely what
these delectable morsels are. One wonders. Ib a
"love-food "anew sort of super-heated, steam-rolled,
fine-combed breakfast cereal, or is it a Burbank
creation—perchance a new variety of cucumber, or
finally is it a new Eustace Miles entrSe? To pon-
der the problem is only to become the more baffled.
Mr. Reinheimer has a weakness for quotations as
chapter headings. The range of authors so quoted
extends all the way from King Solomon to Henry
Drummond. For utter irrelevancy they are only to
be surpassed by the concatenation of ideas in the
text itself. There are six classic lines, however,
whicli ought to stand at the beginning of the first
chapter of each of Mr. Reinheimer's books. They fit
the case more aptly than anything else which could
be found in the whole realm of literature. They are:
"' The time has come,' the Walrus said,
'To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.'"
An argument Mr. Edward S. Corwin's volume
«up""mart/ in entitled "National Supremacy:
treaiv-making. Treaty Power vs. State Power"
(Holt) is a study of relations between the federal
treaty power and the state police power. The
author's thesis is that the treaty power is practi-
cally unrestricted by constitutional limitations, the
sole checks to its abuse being of a political nature.
After disposing of all constitutional limitations on
the treaty power, he undertakes to show that the
federal treaty power is unrestricted by any state
powers. Under the Articles of Confederation the
treaty power was regarded as supreme. Paragraph
2 of Article vi. of the Constitution clearly indicates
national supremacy in this regard, and the court*
early adhered to this view. Though a different
attitude was evolved in certain judicial dicta in the
period of "states rights " agitation before the Civil
War, the original precedents have never been over-
ruled. By the theory of the federal Constitution,
there are no "reserved" state powers which the
federal government may not encroach upon if it
does so in the pursuance of a constitutional power
or a power "necessary and proper" for carrying
into effect some specified constitutional authority.
Present-day constitutional jurisprudence upholds
national supremacy, as also does the vast prepon-
derance of learned opinion on the subject; in proof
of which the author cites Kent, Story, Calhoun,
Cushing, and Willoughby. In concluding, Mr.
Corwin summarizes his reasons for believing the
treaty power to be supreme over state authority.
He also points out several reasons why no vital
dangers to the rights of the states need be appre-
hended from this view. The political check offered
by the Senate and frequently also by the House of
Representatives, together with the consideration
that national policy and state interests are in most
cases identical, he thinks will always be sufficient


1913]
413
THE
DIAL
to prevent any abuse of the treaty-making power.
The whole question is treated solely from a consti-
tutional standpoint; and while the author intimates
that political expediency will always be an impor-
tant factor in the execution of treaties, this phase
of the matter is not dwelt upon. The main theme
of the work has to do with the treaty-making
power, but the general question of federal suprem-
acy in other fields is also discussed. The book is
a careful and scholarly piece of work, and its argu-
ment for national supremacy in the field of treaty-
making seems to be irrefutable from a constitutional
standpoint.
The thort ttory Four recent works on the short story
at literature and illustrate the different ways in which
at merchandise. thig form of literature is viewed.
Professor Henry S. Canby's "Study of the Short
Story " (Holt), though intended for college classes
and general readers, presents the results of scholarly
investigations that have already won the respect even
of those who differ most radically from the author's
conclusions. The first seventy-five pages of the book
trace the development of the short story in English,
from mediaeval times to the present The remaining
two hundred pages are occupied by eleven selected
illustrative tales. Like all collections, this latter
part will call forth individual question and protest.
Why, for instance, is the work of Kipling, or even
the uncopyrighted work of Kipling, represented by
"On Greenhow Hill"? The preliminary essay is
concise and interestingly written; and the fact that
the author refers for evidence and fuller discussion
to his earlier book, "The Short Story in English,"
defends him from the charge of being dogmatic on
mooted questions. — Mr. Nathaniel C. Fowler, Jr.,
begins "The Art of Story-Writing" (Sully & Klein-
teich) with the assertion that "The writing of
stories . . . may be considered as a trade"; and
his book is one of several which appeal to untrained
persons who wish easy directions as to how to secure
literary fame and large publisher's checks. The
remarks on the construction and technique of the
short story are very general, and many of them very
trite. The directions regarding the form of MS.,
dealings with publishers, etc., are more explicit, and
may be safely followed. These instructions regard-
ing the mechanical matters of authorship may be
useful to the man who by critical study and practice
has come to understand the literary form that he
attempts. Unfortunately, many of the readers of
Mr. Fowler's manual will never see a book like
Professor Canby's, and would lack the acquaintance
with literature to appreciate it if they did.—Similar
in aim to Mr. Fowler's book is "The Art of Short
Story Writing Simplified," in which Dr. Modeste
Hannis Jordan of "The Writer's Magazine " gives in
fifty diminutive pages the whole secret of winning
editorial approval, including a two-page "list of
verbs to indicate speech or reply."— Mr. Benjamin
A. Heydriek's "Types of the Short Story" (Scott,
Foresman & Co.) is a modest little volume intended
primarily for students of secondary schools, but of
possible value to other readers. It contains thirteen
stories, the choice of which is perhaps as satisfactory,
as that in most collections, with brief but sensible
critical comments and good working bibliographies.
a In his volume on "Mme. Tallien:
^4 Queen
of ihredt Notre Dame de Thermidor " (Lane),
andpatchet. M. Gastine appears less as a biog-
rapher than as an avenging spirit. He confesses
that he has been prompted to his severities "by
thoughts of her guilty participation in the craven
and criminal deeds of the Revolutionaries." He
even expresses resentment at the attempts of the
Chimay family, into which she finally married, to
suppress the documents bearing upon her early
adventures. The translator has emphasized this
attitude by changing the secondary title from "Reine
du Directoire," which the book bore at its publica-
tion in Paris four years ago, to "A Queen of Shreds
and Patches." The single deed to which the Tal-
liens owed a brief popularity was the part they took
in the overthrow of Robespierre. According to a
familiar legend, Mme. Tallien, then the divorced
wife of the Marquis de Fontenay and a prisoner at
La Force, sent a letter to Tallien, her lover, accus-
ing him of cowardice in leaving her to perish,
accompanying the message by a Spanish dagger
with which to strike down the "Tyrant." This
legend M. Gastine seeks to discredit. He declares
that Tallien could not have been spurred to action
by love for his mistress "for the simple reason that
he was incapable of a genuine affection." He also
argues that the part taken by Tallien in the affair
of the Ninth of Thermidor was unimportant. It has
long been known that, while Tallien's rfile was
spectacular, the real engineer of Robespierre's
destruction was Fouche\ But anyone who reads
without prejudice the story of the struggle in the
Convention will not feel that Tallien was the coward
M. Gastine believes him to have been. M. Gastine
follows the discussion of this affair by an account
of Mme. Tallien's adventures during the period of
the Directory and of the Consulate. He treats
more summarily the last thirty years of her life,
after the voice of scandal ceased to be occupied
with her, except retrospectively. His rhetorical
denunciations of both the Talliens are multiplied
wearisomely, and details are given which belong
more appropriately in a chronique scandaleuse.
The romantic 11 wonld interesting if one could
ftorv of learn how the Latin races regard the
California. earlier English settlements on the
American continents. Do they, we wonder, find in
these exploits any of the spirit of high romance that
de Heredia found in the deeds of the Conquista-
dores as indicated in that wonderful sonnet about
them. For it is certain that even those of us who
trace our American origin back to early Virginia
and Massachusetts fail to find, even in the records
of Pocahontas and King Philip, any of the thrill


414
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
that attaches to the early Spanish and French
adventures in the New World. On this account, the
most interesting portions of American history are
not yet firmly fixed in the popular mind; for the
southwestern and Pacific Coast commonwealths
have seldom found historians and poets to do for
them what has been done for the more northerly
Atlantic States. All of which is merely preliminary
to an expression of satisfaction that in "The Story
of California" (McClurg), Mr. Henry K. Norton
should have incorporated so much of the charm of
the beginnings. The aboriginal inhabitants were
devoid of charm; and there is a distinct loss of
interest when the gold-seekers of 1849, Argonauts
though they were called, arrive to destroy the older
charm of the missions and the great estates of the
Spanish. But this is only the romantic view; there
was an abundance of event in California's history,
and life in the state has not yet become dull. Mr.
Norton is fortunate in holding little or no prejudice
to distort bis pages. Even so quarrel-provoking a
topic as that of Fremont's asserted conquest is
treated with a dispassion that makes further quar-
relling needless. The sub-title of the book notes
that its story runs "from the earliest days to the
present," and in fact the ground is covered from
the days of the Digger Indian to the approaching
exhibition in honor of the opening of the Panama
Canal. Nothing of consequence is omitted, and the
tale is told smoothly and animatedly. The book is
heartily commended to all who wish to satisfy
themselves that this nation really borders upon two
oceans.
The problem The appearance of the substantial
o/univertdv volume on "University Control"
control. (Science Press), edited by Professor
J. McKeen Cattell, the chief contributor, gives op-
portunity to reinforce the place of this vital move-
ment in the present educational situation. The
Dial has repeatedly expressed its approval of this
desire for a professional status on the part of the
university professor. The present volume makes
it possible to present the basis of this reform in a
dignified and impressive manner. It has a special
message for those authoritatively connected with the
administration of universities. The volume begins
with a series of essays by Professor Cattell, indica-
ting the undesirable status of the professor's present
position, together with a brief account of its his-
tory and a programme for reform. This is fol-
lowed by a series of extracts from two hundred
letters, in turn selected from a still larger number,
presenting a variety of views but with an over-
whelming agreement in favor of an urgent and com-
prehensive change. The purpose of the reform is to
give the faculty as a whole and the professor as an
individual a decisive voice and an influential rep-
resentation in the direction of university affairs. If
it succeeds, it may save a career in serious danger
of further degeneration, and may reinstate the Amer-
can university on a footing comparable to the uni-
versities of foreign lands. The third portion of the
book contains a group of essays upon special phases
of the problem of university control, contributed
by ten writers. Eight of these are university pro-
fessors; one is a man of business who has held a
position of trustee; and the last is a university presi-
dent. It is probable that these individual essays,
carrying as they do a more direct appeal and a vigor-
ous personal statement, will create the sympathetic
atmosphere predisposing to a favorable hearing.
The collection in a single volume of the data showing
how universal is the protest against the status quo, a
definite programme of reform, and a varied expres-
sion of dissatisfaction, should succeed in giving this
problem the right of way which its urgency demands.
It is with more than the usual sense of approval and
good wishes that this book is welcomed as an instru-
ment in the cause of higher education.
Thingt teen Miss Helen Keller's fine refusal of an
with the mind'i endowment, and her determination
eyet only. wm ner own way M one 0£ (jje
world's workers, in spite of her tremendous handi-
cap, have gained her the increased admiration and
respect of her friends and of the larger public; and
in her latest book, "Out of the Dark" (Doubleday),
she again demonstrates her ability to stand on her
own merits as a thinker and writer. She follows
with alertness and understanding the news of the
great world about her, and writes with conviction
on such topics of general interest as "The Modern
Woman," "How to Become a Writer," and "The
New College Girl," as well as on subjects connected
with the treatment and education of the blind and
of the deaf. Bits of autobiography occur in such
chapters as "How I Became a Socialist," "Christ-
mas in the Dark," and "An Apology for Going to
College." In fact, it is the writer's personality that
gives peculiar interest and meaning to what she
writes. One likes her modest answer to the blind
boy asking her how to become a writer: — "Alas! I
do not know how to become one myself. No one can
be taught to write." But she gives him some good
advice, good for the seeing as well as for the sight-
less. Pathetic is her lament, in connection with a
widespread report of her having become a socialist,
that the subject is aired, not because the newspapers
care anything about socialism, "but because I, alas,
am a subject for newspaper gossip." The volume
contains, as the preface announces, "all hitherto
uncollected magazine articles and addresses which
seem for any reason worth preserving in book form."
It supplements in a notable manner "The Story of
My Life" and "The World I Live In."
An introduction "Working-men's lectures" were, in
totheitudv Huxley's day, the occasion of some
of Evolution. popular scientific writing which has
never been surpassed in excellence. Apparently this
kind of stimulus has not entirely lost its potency.
Not long ago Dr. S. Herbert published, under the
title of "The First Principles of Heredity," a series


1913]
415
THE DIAL
of lectures given to a class of working-men. This
is now followed by a similar series, dealing with a
closely related topic, "The First Principles of Evo-
lution" (Macmillan). The author has endeavored
to give a simple, comprehensive, and scientific pres-
entation of the problem of evolution, and the pro-
gress which has been made towards its solution. It
is fair to say that he has succeeded very well at
this by no means easy task. Mr. Herbert writes in
a clear, straightforward way, and shows excellent
judgment in the choice and treatment of his mate-
rial. The discussion of the "higher" aspects of
evolution is much more adequate, both in amount
and character, than is ordinarily the case in ele-
mentary treatises. Special chapters are devoted to
"Mental Evolution," "Moral Evolution," and "The
Evolution of Society." Apparently the most pains-
taking care has been given (as is proper) to the
verification of quotations and proof-reading. But in
spite of this punctiliousness, the reader who chanced
to open the book at page 255 and looked at the run-
ning head would be in doubt as to whether the chap-
ter on "Morel Evolution" dealt with mushrooms or
ethics. But these are crosses which everyone who
writes must bear. The book as a whole may be rec-
ommended without qualification as an excellent in-
troduction to the subject of evolution, both for the
general reader and for college classes in biology.
Roman tenon, }t dwnjs gratifying to find men
for the in public life who still adhere to
United statet. Macaulay's tenet that history is phi-
losophy teaching by examples, and believe that the
wise statesman or economist of the present will con
with eagerness the lessons of the past. As to the
particular period of history that offers the most in-
structive parallels to our own problems, there must
be some doubt; but many thinkers would agree with
Senator J. Hamilton Lewis, author of "Two Great
Republics" (Rand, McNally & Co.), in selecting
ancient Rome. "The five centuries of republican
institutions on the banks of the Tiber still remain
the richest quarry to which the student of republican
governments is able to resort." In this belief the
author reviews the course of Roman history to the
establishment of the Empire, and sets forth the les-
sons he has been able to read in the period. In the
more strictly historical portions Senator Lewis does
not hesitate to traverse the verdict of eminent men,
like Mommsen, confidently and even pugnaciously,—
as may be seen, for example, in,his trenchant treat-
ment of Julius Caesar; but it would scarcely be
expected that this should prove the significant fea-
ture of his work. In fact its essence lies in the
conclusions formulated in the first chapter and the
two closing chapters of the book. Herein Senator
Lewis is suggestive and stimulating, although the
thoughtful reader will often find himself unable to
see eye to eye with the author. To the reviewer,
however, the interest of the volume is neither in the
historical sketch nor in the conclusions per se, but in
the fact that Senator Lewis has declared himself so
forcibly and tangibly in favor of the spirit suggested
in our opening sentence. If any country at any hour
ever needed to be reminded that the path toward
to-morrow cannot best be built by closing our eyes to
the lessons of the past, surely it is our own country at
the present hour.
Notes.
We understand that Mr. Frank Harris has in active
preparation an elaborate study of the life and work of
Oscar Wilde.
A "Kirriemuir Edition" of the works of Sir J. M.
Barrie, in ten octavo volumes, is now in course of prep-
aration for early publication.
Mine. Lilli Lehmann is the latest musician to write
an autobiography; and her book, entitled "My Path,"
will appear early next year with the Putnam imprint.
An illustrated volume by Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole,
dealing with "The Spell of Switzerland," is promised
for immediate publication by Messrs. L. C. Page & Co.
The study of " John Millington Synge and the Irish
Theatre " by M. Maurice Bourgeois, recently announced
in these columns, will be published in an American
edition by Messrs. Macmillan.
Two new plays by Brieux, "Blanchette " and "The
Escape," will be published this month by Messrs. John
Luce & Co. A third volume of Strindberg's plays, and
a collection of "Viennese Idylls" by Arthur Schnitzler,
are also in press with these publishers.
"The Income Tax Law of 1913 Explained " is the
title of a new book by Mr. George F. Tucker of the
Boston bar announced for immediate publication by
Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. Mr. Tucker has provided
a practical handbook for the layman that explains the
new law in detail.
Some forthcoming volumes of English poetry are
Mr. Alfred Noyes's "The Wine Press: A Tale of War,"
"Poems" and "A Woman's Reliquary" by the late
Edward Dowden, a new collection of poems by Mr.
W. B. Yeats, Mr. Arthur Symons's "The Knave of
Hearts," and Mr. Laurence Binyon's "Auguries."
The Indian poet, Mr. Rabindranath Tagore, has
gathered into a volume some of the lectures which he
has been delivering in the course of the year to large
audiences in Oxford, London, and elsewhere. The book
will bear as title "Sadhana: The Realisation of Life,"
and will be published by Messrs. Macmillan.
Mr. Laurence Binyon is about to issue, through
Messrs. Macmillan, a work entitled "The Art of Bot-
ticelli: An Essay in Interpretation." It is a handsome
quarto volume, illustrated with twenty-three collotype
reproductions in color of paintings by the artist, and an
original etching by Mr. Muirbead Bone.
An elaborate illustrated edition of Macaulay's "His-
tory of England" is promised by Messrs. Macmillan.
The work will be similar in character to the well-known
illustrated edition of Green's "Short History of the
English People," and will be edited by Mr. C. H. Firth,
Professor of Modern History in the University of Ox-
ford. It will consist of six volumes, containing no fewer
than nine hundred illustrations, including forty plates
in color and a photogravure portrait.
Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, a writer of graceful
verse and for several years (1891-8) dean of the
woman's department at Northwestern University, died


416
[Nov. 16
THE
DIAL
on the 1st of this month at Northfield, Minn. She was
born in 1833. From 1867 to 1875 she edited "The
Little Corporal," a Western magazine for children
which was afterwards merged with "St. Nicholas."
Mrs. Miller's published works include four volumes of
poems, and a long list of stories for children.
The annual list of " The Mosher Books " is so much
more than a mere book catalogue that we feel justified,
as heretofore, in warmly commending the new issue to
our readers' notice. The unique and handsome typog-
raphy, the interspersed lyrics from various out-of-the-
way sources, the eloquent introductory tribute to Rus-
kin, all go to make this brochure something that every
proper book-lover should wish to possess for its own
sake, quite apart from its character as a list of the
most distinctive book-wares offered by any American
publisher.
A revised and enlarged edition of its " Handbook of
the Libraries of the University" is published by the
University of Chicago, giving a full history and descrip-
tion of the Harper memorial building and information
concerning the various book collections housed there and
elsewhere in the University, with instructions for the
intelligent use of these resources. A tine view of the
new building, with plans of its several floors, and with
other pertinent and interesting matter, will be found in
the Handbook.
Alfred Russel Wallace.
The doyen of English scientists, Dr. Alfred Russel
Wallace, died on the 7th of this month, in his ninety-
first year. In the establishment of the doctrine of
evolution on a scientific basis, his name will always be
linked with that of Darwin, as he had independently
thought out the theory on which Darwin's work is
based before the latter's results were placed before the
public; but in generously yielding the field to his rival
he gave to the world perhaps the finest of all examples
of that spirit of personal disinterestedness in which
science is rich beyond any other field of human endea-
vor. He was born January 8,1823, in Monmouthshire,
and at an early age fitted himself for work as a sur-
veyor and engineer. Soon, however, a marked bent for
natural science began to assert itself. In 1848 he
joined the South American expedition organized by H.
W. Bates; and the following fourteen years of his life
were mainly spent in scientific collecting and research
work throughout South America and the Malay Archi-
pelago. In 1886-7 he visited America, travelling from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. Numerous scientific studies
of the first importance have appeared from his pen.
But it was not to science alone that he devoted his fine
intellectual powers. Always an interested student of
sociology, he had the keenest of eyes for detecting the
rotten timbers in our social structure, and was fearless
in expressing his carefully-reached convictions, however
radical. The more fundamental tenets of Socialism
had his endorsement; he was President for a long term
of years of the Land Nationalization Society, advocat-
ing constantly those policies with reference to the soil
which the Liberal government in England is now
putting into practice. As in the case of Ruskin, his
heterodoxy brought upon him a liberal measure of
abuse and ridicule from the hidebound of his own coun-
try and ours; but, like Ruskin, he never recanted or
compromised in the face of obloquy. His life has been
a long and noble service to humanity, performed in a
spirit of modest self-effacement as rare almost as the
achievement itself.
List of New Books.
[The following list, containing 151 title*, includes book*
received by The Dial tince it* last it sue.]
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES.
The Life and Letter* of Harrison Gray Otis, Feder-
alist, 1765-1848. By Samuel Eliot Morison, Ph.D.
In 2 volumes; Illustrated in photogravure, etc..
8vo. Houghton Mifflin Co. $6. net.
Reminiscences of a Soldier's Wlfei An Autobiog-
raphy. By Mrs. John A. Logan. Illustrated.
8vo, 470 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.50 net.
George da Maurler: The Satirist of the Victorians.
By T. Martin Wood. Illustrated in photograv-
ure, etc., large 8vo, 198 pages. McBride, Nast &
Co. $2.50 net.
The Real Martyr of St. Helena. By T. Dundas Pil-
lans. Illustrated, 8vo, 320 pages. McBride, Nast
& Co. $1.75 net.
Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck. By
Jethro Bithell. 12mo, 198 pages. Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons.
Jane Ansten. By Francis Warre Cornish. 12mo, 240
pages. "English Men of Letters." Macmillan
Co. 75 cts. net.
Yankee STransom Chapters from a Life at Sea. By
Captain A. W. Nelson. Illustrated, 8vo, 374 pages
Sturgis & Walton Co. $1.50 net.
Brigham Yonng and His Mormon Empire. By
Frank J. Cannon and George L. Knapp. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 398 pages. Fleming H. Revell Co.
$1.50 net.
Paul Bourget. By Ernest Dlmnet. With portrait.
16mo, 124 pages. "Modern Biographies."
Houghton Mifflin Co. 75 cts. net.
HISTORY.
History of the I'nlted Statea of America under the
Constitution. By James Schouler. Volume VII.,
History of the Reconstruction Period, 1865-1877.
8vo, 398 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $2. net.
I.ollardy and the Reformation In Englandi An His-
torical Survey. By James Gairdner. Volume
IV., edited by William Hunt. Svo, 422 pages.
Macmillan Co. $3. net.
A History of England. Edited by Charles Oman,
M.A. Volume VII., England since Waterloo.
With maps, 8vo, 558 pages. G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $3. net.
The American Civil War. By James Kendall Hos-
mer, LL.D. New edition; in 2 volumes, illus-
trated, 8vo. Harper & Brothers. $3. net.
The Story of the Pony Express: An Account of the
Most Remarkable Mail Service Ever in Exist-
ence. By Glenn D. Bradley. Illustrated, 16mo,
176 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. 75 cts. net.
Social and Economic Forces In American History:
Reprinted Chapters from "The American Na-
tion." By Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D. With
map, 8vo, 523 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$1.50 net.
List of References on the History of the West. By
Frederick Jackson Turner. Edition of 1913. 8vo,
129 pages. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press. 75 cts. net.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Shnkespere as a Playwright. By Brander Mat-
thews. With photogravure frontispiece, large
8vo, 398 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $3. net.
The Summit of the Years. By John Burroughs.
With portrait. 12mo, 298 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. $1.15 net.
Loiterer's Harvest. By E. V. Lucas. Illustrated In
photogravure, etc., 12mo, 255 pages. Macmillan
Co. $1.25 net.
Haslltt on English Literature: An Introduction to
the Appreciation of Literature. By Jacob Zett-
lin, Ph.D. 12mo, 441 pages. Oxford University
Press. $1.26 net.
The Greatest Books In the World: Interpretive
Studies. By Laura Spencer Portor. 12mo, 295
pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net.
Behind the Beyond, and Other Contributions to
Human Knowledge. By Stephen Leacock. Illus-
trated In color, etc., 12mo, 195 pages. John
Lane Co. $1. net.


1913]
417
THE
DIAL
The Study of Literature. By P. H. Pearson. 12mo,
247 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.25 net.
More about Shakespeare "Forgeries." By Ernest
Law, B.A. Svo, 70 pages. London: O. Bell &
Sons, Ltd.
Burbage and Shakeapeare'a Stave. By Mrs. C. C.
Stopes. 8vo, 272 pages. London: Alexander
Morlng, Ltd.
Keata and Shelley i Studies. By S. J. Mary Suddard,
L.LA. 12mo, 128 pages. New York: Broadway
Publishing Co.
Shakeapeare and Germany! The British Academy
Third Annual Shakespeare Lecture. By Alois
Brandl. 8vo, IB pages. Oxford University
Press. 25 cts. net.
DRAMA AND VERSE.
Collected Poem*. By Alfred Noyes. In 2 volumes,
with portrait, 12mo. F. A. Stokes Co. $3. net.
Minions of the Mooni A Little Book of Song and
Story. By Madison Cawein. Illustrated, 12mo,
131 pages. Stewart & Kidd Co.
The Gardener. By Rablndranath Tagore; trans-
lated by the author from the original Bengali.
With portrait, 12mo, 146 pages. Macmillan Co.
$1.25 net.
Plays. By August Strlndberg; translated from the
Swedish, with Introduction, by Edwin BJOrk-
man. Third Series. 12mo, 276 pages. Charles
Scrlbner's Sons. $1.50 net.
Georgian Poetry, 1911-1912. 12mo, 197 pages.
London: The Poetry Bookshop.
St. Francis of Assist. By J. A. Peladan; translated
and adapted by Harold John Massingham. 12mo,
118 pages. Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $1. net.
Love and Liberation! The Songs of Absched of
Meru, and Other Poems. By John Hall Wheel-
ock. 12mo, 211 pages. Sherman, French & Co.
$1.50 net.
Ballnds of the Veld-Land. By Lynn Lyster. 8vo,
145 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. $1.75 net.
Tristram and Isoult. By Martha Kinross. 12mo,
87 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net.
Fair Girls and Gray Horses, with Other Verses. By
Will H. Ogllvie. With portrait, 12mo, 267 pages.
Oxford University Press.
Rhymes from the Rhlneland. Selected and trans-
lated from the Oerman by Alice Howland Good-
win; illustrated by Grace Edwards Wesson.
12mo, 102 pages. Sherman, French & Co.
$1. net.
The Poetical Works of Brunton Stephens. New edi-
tion; with photogravure portrait, 12mo, 264
pages. Oxford University Press.
The Fall of Ugl A Masque of Fear. By Rufus
Steele; music by Herman Periet. With frontis-
piece, 12mo, 50 pages. San Francisco: John
Howell. $1. net.
Atlantla, and Other Poems. By Julius West. 12mo,
66 pages. London: David Nutt.
Songs of New-Sweden. By Arthur Peterson. Re-
vised edition. 8vo. 109 pages. Chicago: Eng-
berg-Holmberg Publishing Co. $1.25.
A Little Dreaming;. By Fenton Johnson. With por-
trait, 12mo, 80 pages. Chicago: Peterson Lino-
typing Co. 75 cts. net.
NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE.
Representative English Comedies. Edited by
Charles Mills Gayley. Volume II., The Later
Contemporaries of Shakespeare. Svo. 586 pages.
Macmillan Co. $2. net.
Carduccli A Selection of His Poems. With Verse
Translations, Notes, and Three Introductory Es-
says, by G. L Bickersteth, M.A. With photo-
gravure portrait, 8vo, 346 pages. Longmans,
Green & Co. $3.50 net.
Records of Journeys to Venice and the Low Coun-
trlea. By Albrecht Dilrer; edited by Roger Fry.
8vo, 118 pages. "Humanist's Library." Boston:
Met rymount Press. $3. net.
Poems and Translations (1850-1870). By Dante
Gabriel Rossettl. With portrait. 12mo, 482
pages. Oxford University Press.
The Complete Work of William Shakespeare.
Edited, with glossary, by W. J. Craig. M.A. Il-
lustrated. 12mo, 1264 pages "Oxford Shakes-
peare." Oxford University Press.
FICTION.
The Dark Flower. By John Galsworthy. 12mo, 31$
pages. Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $1.35 net.
The Passionate Friends. By H. G. Wells. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 363 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$1.35 net.
The Custom of the Country. By Edith Wharton.
12mo, 594 pages. Charles Scrlbner's Sons.
$1.35 net.
Richard Furlong. By E. Temple Thurston. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 399 pages. D. Appleton & Co.
$1.35 net.
A Changed Man, and Other Stories. By Thomas
Hardy. With photogravure frontispiece. 8vo,
406 pages. Harper & Brothers. $1.36 net.
The Valley of the Moon. By Jack London. With
frontispiece in color, 12mo, 530 pages. Macmil-
lan Co. $1.35 net.
Youth's Encounter. By Compton Mackenzie. 12mo,
502 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.35 net.
The Golden Barrier. By Agnes and Egerton Castle.
12mo, 410 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co.
$1.30 net.
Down among Men. By Will Livingston Comfort.
12mo, 287 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
The Lure of the Little Drum. By Margaret Peter-
son. With portraits, 12mo, 394 pages. G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. $1.35 net.
The Red Room. By August Strlndberg; translated
from the Swedish by Ellie Schleussner. 12mo,
393 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net.
And Then Came Jean. By Robert Alexander Wason.
With frontispiece in color. 12mo, 449 pages.
Small, Maynard & Co. $1.35 net.
Barker's! A Chronicle. By E. H. Lacon Watson.
12mo, 343 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.35 net.
Tide Marks. By Margaret Westrup. 12mo, 380
pages. Macmillan Co. $1.35 net.
Wanderfoot. By Cynthia Stockley. With portrait,
12mo, 433 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.35 net.
The House of Happiness. By Kate Langley Bosher.
Illustrated, 12mo, 305 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$1.25 net.
Snow upon the Desert. By S. Macnaughtan. 12mo,
308 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.35 net.
The Sphinx In the Labyrinth. By Maude Annesley.
With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 327 pages.
Duffleld & Co. $1.25 net.
Two Little Parisians. By Pierre Mille; translated
from the French by Bfirengere Drlllien. 12mo,
238 pages. John Lane Co. $1. net.
A Person of duality. By Ashton Hllllers. With
frontispiece in color, 12mo, 435 pages. Desmond
FltzGerald, Inc. $1.25 net.
The Coming of Cassldy, and the Others. By Clar-
ence E. Mulford. Illustrated In color, 12mo, 438
pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.35 net.
A Rose of Old Quebec. By Anne Hollingsworth
Wharton. Illustrated, 12mo, 197 pages. J. B.
Lippincott Co. $1.25 net.
The Eternal Masculine! Stories of Men and Boys.
By Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 430 pages. Charles Scrlbner's
Sons. $1.30 net.
Peg o' My Heart! A Comedy of Youth. By J. Hart-
ley Manners; novelized from the play of the
same name. Illustrated in color, 12mo, 381
pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25 net.
In Search of a Huaband. By Corra Harris. With
frontispiece in color, 12mo, 328 pages. Double-
day, Page & Co. $1.35 net.
The Lost Road. By Richard Harding Davis. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 266 pages. Charles Scrlbner's
Sons. $1.25 net. _
It Is Not Lawful. By Arthur H. DeLong. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 353 pages. Eaton & Mains.
$1.25 net.
Green Chalk. By Doris Somerville. 12mo, 328
pages. John Lane Co. $1.25 net.
The Keeper of the Vineyards! A Tale of the Ozarks.
By Caroline Abbot Stanley. Illustrated, 12mo,
344 pages. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.25 net.
If You Touch Them They Vanish. By Gouverneur
Morris. Illustrated in color, 12mo, 146 pages.
Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $1. net.
The Tinder Box. By Maria Thompson Daviess.
Illustrated, 12mo, 312 pages. Century Co. $1. net.


418
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
A Term of Silence. By Forrest Halsey 12mo. 246
pages. Desmond FltzGerald. Inc. $1. net.
The Egotlatlcal L By Ellen Wilkins Tompkins.
12mo, 172 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. fl. net.
Mascaroae. By Gordon Arthur Smith. With fron-
tispiece in color, 12mo, 257 pages. Charles Scrib-
ner'B Sons. $1. net.
Froaty Ferguson, Strategist. By Lowell Hardy.
Illustrated, 16mo, 80 pages. John Lane Co.
50 cts. net.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.
Acrosa Unknown Smith America. By A. Henry Sav-
age-Landor. In 2 volumes, illustrated in photo-
gravure, etc., large 8vo. Little, Brown & Co.
$10. net.
Familiar Spanlah Travels. By W. D. Howells. Il-
lustrated, 8vo, 327 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$2. net.
The Conqueat of Mount McKlnley. By Belmore
Browne. Illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo, 381
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.50 net.
America aa I Saw Il| or, America Revisited. By
Mrs. Alec-Tweedie. Illustrated, 8vo, 475 pages.
Macmillan Co. $3. net.
Paclflc Shores from Panama. By Ernest Pelxotto;
illustrated by the author. Large 8vo, 285 pages.
Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $2.50 net.
Modern Rusala. By Gregor Alex in sky; translated
from the Russian by Bernard Miall. 8vo, 361
pages. Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $3.75 net.
Chapters at the English Lakes. By H. D. Rawns-
ley. Illustrated, 12mo, 249 pages. Macmillan Co.
$1.75 net.
The Critic In the Occident. By George Hamlin
Fitch. Illustrated, 8vo, 178 pages. Paul Elder
& Co. $2. net.
Hunting In the Upper Yukon. By Thomas Martin-
dale. Illustrated, 8vo, 320 pages. George W.
Jacobs & Co. $2. net.
Our Southern Highlanders. By Horace Kephart.
Illustrated, 8vo, 396 pages. Outing Publishing
Co. $2.60 net.
Seven Weeks In Hawaii. By an American Girl
(M L C.) Second edition; illustrated, 12mo, 60
pages. Chicago: Howard D. Berrett. 75 cts. net.
Life In Mexico during a Residence of Two Years in
That Country. By Madame Calderon de la
Barca; with Introduction by Henry Baerlein.
12mo, 642 pages. "Everyman's Library." E. P.
Dutton & Co. 35 cts. net.
SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
War and Waate. By David Starr Jordan. 12mo, 296
pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.25 net.
The Purchasing; Power of Money: Its Determination
and Relation to Credit, Interest, and Crises. By
Irving Fisher, assisted by Harry G. Brown. Sec-
ond edition, large 8vo. 602 pages. Macmillan Co.
$2.25 net.
The African Abroad) or, His Evolution In Western
Civilization. By William H. Ferris, A.M. In 2
volumes, illustrated, 8vo. New Haven: Tuttle,
Morehouse & Taylor Co. $5. net.
An Introduction to the Study of Social Evolutioni
The Prehistoric Period. By F. Stuart Chapln,
Ph.D. Illustrated, 8vo, 306 pages. Century Co.
$2. net.
The Truth about the Railroads. By Howard Elli-
ott. With portrait, 12mo, 260 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. $1.26 net.

 Continent of Europe. By Lionel W. Lyde.
With maps, 8vo, 446 pages. Macmillan Co.
$2. net.
The Work-a-Day Glrli_A Study of Some Present-
Day Conditions. By Clara E. Laughlin. Illus-
trated, 8vo, 320 pages. Fleming H. Revell Co.
$1.50 net.
Greeks In America. By Thomas Burgess. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 256 pages. Sherman, French & Co.
$1.35 net.
Facta of Socialism. By Jessie Wallace Hughan,
Ph.D. 12mo, 175 pages. John Lane Co.
75 cts. net
The Progressive Movementi Its Principles and Its
Programme. By S. J. Duncan-Clark; with Intro-
duction by Theodore Roosevelt. 12mo, 318
pages. Small, Maynard & Co. d0 cts. net.
SCIENCE.
Mlraclea of Science. By Henry Smith Williams.
Illustrated, 8vo, 343 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$2. net.
Modern Problems of Biology. By Charles Sedgwick
Minot. Illustrated, 8vo, 124 pages. P. Blakis-
ton's Son & Co. $1.25 net.
Practical Tree Repair. By Elbert Peets. Illus-
trated, 8vo, 265 pages. McBride, Nast & Co.
$2. net.
Matter and Some of Its Dimensions. By William
Kearney Carr. 16mo, 120 pages. "Harper's Li-
brary of Living Thought." Harper & Brothers.
75 cts. net.
The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao. By
Fay-Cooper Cole. Illustrated in color, etc., 8vo.
Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History.
Paper.
New Trllobltea from the Maquoketa Beds of Fayette
County, Iowa. By Arthur Ware Slocom. 8vo.
Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History.
Paper.
NATURE AND OUT-DOOR LIFE.
The Life of the Flyt With Which Are Interspersed
Some Chapters of Autobiography. By J. Henri
Fabre; translated by Alexander Telxeira de
Mattos. 12mo, 477 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.60 net.
North and South i Notes on the Natural History of a
Summer Camp and a Winter Home. By Stanton
Davis Kirkham. Illustrated, 8vo, 286 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.76 net.
Tobyi The Story of a Dog. By Elizabeth E. Gold-
smith. Illustrated, 12mo, 224 pages. Macmillan
Co. $1.25 net.
Out Inn Handbooks. New volumes: Ice Boating, by
H. Percy Ashley; Intensive Farming, by S. C.
Corbett; Pigeon Raising, by Alice MacLeod;
Taxidermy, by Leon L Pray; Tennis Tactics, by
Raymond D. Little. Each Illustrated, 12mo.
Outing Publishing Co. Per volume, 70 cts. net.
ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND MUSIC.
Colonial Furniture In America. By Luke Vincent
Lockwood. New and greatly enlarged edition;
in 2 volumes, Illustrated, 4to. Charles Scrlbner's
Sons. $25. net.
Art and Common Senae. By Royal Cortissoz. 8vo,
445 pages. Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $1.75 net
Mosart'a Operas i A Critical Study. By Edward J.
Dent. Illustrated In photogravure, eta, large
8vo, 432 pages. McBrlde, Nast & Co. $4. net.
Art In Spain and Portugal. By Marcel Dieulatoy.
Illustrated In color, etc., 12mo, 376 pages.
Charles Scrlbner's Sons. $1.50 net.
Home Furnishing. By George Leland Hunter. Illus-
trated, 8vo, 231 pages. John Lane Co. $2. net
Staffordshire Pottery and Its History. By Joslah
C. Wedgwood. Illustrated, large 8vo, 229 pages.
McBride, Nast & Co. $3.25 net.
Symphonies and Their Meaning. By Philip H. Goepp.
Third Series, Modern Symphonies. 12mo, 363
pages. J. B. Lipplncott Co. $2. net
Peasant Art In Italy. Special Autumn Number of
the Studio, 1913. Illustrated in color, etc., 4to.
John Lane Co. Paper, $2.60 net.
Early English Water Colors. By C. E. Hughes. Il-
lustrated In color, etc., 16mo, 194 pages. "Little
Books on Art." A. C. McClurg & Co. $1. net.
Forty Songs. By Adolf Jensen; edited by William
Foster Apthorp. 4to. "Musicians' Library."
Oliver Ditson Co. $1.50 net.
Stories of the Operas. By Ethel Shubert. 16mo. 218
pages. Penn Publishing Co. 60 cts.
The Appreciation of Music. By Albert Gehrlng.
12mo, 89 pages. Cleveland: Central Publishing
House. 80 cts.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY.
The Religious Revolution of To-day. By James T.
Shotwell, Ph.D. 12mo, 162 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. $1.10 net.
The Story-Life of the Son of Man. By Wayne
Whipple. Illustrated, 8vo, 564 pages. Fleming
H. Revell Co. $2.50 net.
Christ and the Dramas of Donbt. By Ralph Tyler
Flewelllng. 12mo, 277 pages. Eaton & Mains.
$1. net.


1913]
419
THE DIAL,
Luther's Correspondence, and Other Contemporary
Letters. Translated and edited by Preserved
Smith, Ph.D. Volume I., -1507-1521. 8vo, 583
pages. Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication So-
ciety.
The Life Efficient. By George A. Miller. 12mo, 248
pages. Eaton & Mains. $1. net.
Classbook of Old Testament History. By George
Hodges. Illustrated, 12mo, 222 pages. Macmil-
lan Co. $1. net.
Marching Manwardi A Study of the Boy. By Frank
Orman Beck. 12mo, 192 pages. Eaton & Mains.
75 cts. net.
The Parable of the Cherries. By Edward A. Steln-
er. 12mo, 64 pages. Fleming H. Revell Co.
50 cts. net.
A Description of Jesus. Written by Publlus Lentul-
lus, President of Judea, in the Reign of Tiberius
Csesar, to the Monarch in Rome. 18mo, 10 pages.
Boston: Alfred Bartlett.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Rambles In Autograph Land. By Adrian H. Jollne.
Illustrated in photogravure, etc., 8vo, 334 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50 net.
Lightships and Lighthouses. By Frederick A. Tal-
bot. Illustrated, 8vo, 325 pages. J. B. Lippin-
cott Co. $1.50 net.
The Economy Administration Cook Book. Edited
by Susie Root Rhodes and Grace Porter Hop-
kins. Illustrated, large 8vo, 696 pages. Ham-
mond: W. B. Conkey Co. $2. net.
Mr. Togo: Maid of All Work. By Wallace Irwin.
Illustrated, 12mo, 190 pages. Duffleld & Co.
$1.25 net.
Training Young Horses to Jump. By Geoffrey
Brooke; with Preface by J. Vaughan. Illustrated
in color, etc., 8vo, 118 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
$1.50 net.
Barks and Purrs. By Colette Willy; translated
from the French by Marie Kelly. Illustrated,
12mo, 165 pages. Desmond FltzGerald, Inc.
$1.26 net.
Vocations for Girls. By E. W. Weaver. 12mo, 200
pages. A. S. Barnes Co. 75 cts. net.
Votes for Men. 16mo, 80 cts. Duffleld & Co.
50 cts. net.
Small Talks on Card Games. By Virginia M. Meyer.
32mo. Paul Elder & Co.
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. New
Series, Vol. XII. 8vo, 375 pages. Williams and
Norgate.
Notes on Turquols In the East. By Berthold Laufer.
Illustrated in color, etc., 8vo. Chicago: Field
Museum of Natural History. Paper.
Send for New Catalogue (No. 28) of Rare and
Desirable Books, Ancient and Modern, including
Works in Belles-Lettres, History, General and
Sporting Literature, First Editions of Esteemed
Authors, Association Books, Publications of
Special Presses, etc.
C. GERHARDT & CO., 20 Nassau St, New York

For immediate publication:
STRINDBERG'S
By the Open Sea
A novel that does not
insult your intelligence.
Authorized trantlation bv Ellie Schleuttner. $l.t5 net.
B. W. HUEBSCH, Publisher, 225 Fifth avenue, New York
Dante's Divina Commedia
First American Edition
Edited, with Introduction. Arguments to each Canto, and inter-
pretive footnotes, by Professor C. H. Grand gent, of Harvard
University. Cloth, 914 paces, (lit top, uncut edges, Kirkup's
Dante in gold medallion. Price $2.25. The Inferno, Purga-
torio, or Paradiso in single volumes, $1.25 each.
The IVation, September 11.1913:
"Notable both for Its thorough and alert scholarship and
for its skilful adaptation, in material and in arrangement, to
the needs of the American student. In its importance and in
its excellence this edition is worthy to rank with the Dante
translations of Longfellow and Norton."
D. C. HEATH & CO.
BOSTON NEW YORK
Publishers
CHICAGO
Short-Story Writing
ACoarse of forty lessons in the history,
form, structure, and writing of the
Short-Story taught by Dr. J. Berg
Esenwein, Editor of Oppincott's Magazine.
One studlnt write*: "I know that you will
be pleased when I tefl yoa that I have just
received a check for $125 from 'Everybody's'
for a humorous story. They ask for more.
I mm feeling very happy, and very grateful to

Also courses in Photoplay Writing, Versi-
fication and Poetics, Journalism. In all,
over One Hundred Courses, under profes-
sors fn Harvard, Brown, Cornell, and other
leading colleges.
Paget Catalog Free. Please Address
Home Correspondence School
Dept. 571 Springfield, Mass.
The Crafters : Publishers
920 Oak Street Kansas City, Missouri
Announce
"REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN"
A little gallery of pen portraits of Living Women who
have reached the Height!.
By LOIS OLDHAM HENRICI
Introduction by Ada M. Kanimcr
Artistically printed in generous size old style type on burl,
laid, deckle edge heavy papers. Cover Antique Boards
done in tan and brown. Twelve half-tone engravings
tipped in. A Handsome Craftsman Book. Boxed, too pages.
Postpaid {i to.
Ask for The Crafters' Budget.
THE ELM TREE PRESS r^MrT1'
has published in lim-
ited editions, under the Editorship of Charles L. and John C.
Dana:
The Letters of Horace for Modern Readers. $3.
Copa: The Hostess of the Inn. $1.
Arnaldus. The Conservation of Youth and Defense of Age. 12.
OriginesGolfianse, The Origin of Golf, English and Latin. $2.
MODERN AMERICAN LIBRARY ECONOMY, as illus-
trated by the Newark. New Jersey, Free Public Library* A
series of 13 pamphlets, each describing some aspect of library
work, bound in half leather with full index, $12. Most of the
pamphlets are still in print and are sold singly from 26c to $1.
They include a " Course of Study for Normal School Pupils
on the Use of a Library " and a " Course of Study for Normal
School Pupils on Literature for Children."
THE LIBRARIAN'S SERIES, edited by Henry W. Kent and
John C. Dana.
The Old Librarian's Almanack. $1.50.
The Library and the Librarian. #1.50.
The Intellectual Torch. $2.00.


420
[Nov. 16
THE DIAL
Ancestral Records and Portraits
A wide range of notable persons, riving early ancestors to
present representative, concisely arranged. Interesting reading
matter, commended as authentic by highest authority. Two
volumes. 835 pages, handsome binding, 8H x 9%, with index,
references, and profuse illustrations. Double-boxed, 110.00 net
MARY WASHINGTON KEYSER,
GENEALOGY
Genealogy op tub WARNE Family in America, A most
interesting and valuable history of this old American family,
beginning with Thomas Warne, one of the Twenty-four Propri-
etors of East New Jersey. One hundred or more other families
connected by marriage are carefully recorded. Valuable mate-
rial on the early history of New Jersey is also contained therein.
Profusely illustrated. Prices: in cloth, 18.60; three-quarters
Morocco, 18.60. Also Warne Arms and Lord Arms, $1.00 each.
Address REV. GEORGE W. LABAW. R. R. No. 1. PATERS0N. N.J.
Autograph
Letters
OF CELEBRITIES BOUGHT AN D SOLD
Send for price lists
Walter R. Benjamin, 226 Fifth Avenue, New York
Established 1887. Pub. The Collector, $1. a year
HEREDITY AND SEX
By THOMAS HUNT MORGAN, Ph.D.
Prof/nor of Experimental Zoology, Columbia University.
limo, cloth, pp. ix. +■ 282. Illustrated. Price, Si.75 net:
by mail, f 1.87.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Lemcke and Buechner, Agents
30 32 West 27th Street - - NEW YORK CITY
THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES
FOR USE IN COLLEGE CLA 8SES
STUDIES OF THE HISTORICAL PUTS OF SHAKESPEARE. Set of
four. tt.00. Single copy, one play. 40 cents. Special price
for use in classes.
STUDIES OF THE HISTORICAL NOVELS. Romola, Henry Esmond.
For advanced classes, clubs, etc.
THE CREATIVE ART OF FICTION.
writers of short stories, etc.
THE STUDY.0F IDYLLS OF THE KING.
study of poetic narrative art.
Lilt for secondary schools nn request. A ddress
H. A. DAVIDSON, THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES, CAMBRIDGE, MASS
An essay for advanced students
Advanced and critical
AUTHORS
For IS years
I have edited,
criticised and
sold authors' manuscripts. I can dis-
pose of saleable work. Send 2-cent
stamp for Writer's Aid Leaflet D.
Book Scripts,Short Stories,Household,
Juvenile, and feature articles wanted
for publication. Manuscripts typed.
HELEN NORWOOD HALSEY
Herald Square Hotel NEW YORK CITY
F. M. HOLLY
Established 1906
Authors' and Publishers' Representative
Circulars sent upon request. 168 Fifth Avenue. Nsw Yc
THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION
Thirty-third Year. LETTERS OF CRITICISM, EXPERT
REVISION OF MSB. Advice as to publication. Address
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 424 W. UOth St.. NEW YORK CITY
THE BUREAU OF SERVICE TO AUTHORS
Under the Supervision of Modeste Hanms Jordan,
Revises, Edits, and Places Books, Serials, Special Articles,
Poems, Dramas, Photoplays, Vaudeville Sketches, Songs.
Typing by experts. Endorsement of leading Editors, Pub-
lishers, Managers.
Send 10 cents for Writer's Leaflet of Instruction.
32 Union Square, East NEW YORK CITY
AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXPRESSION
Being a revised edition of the famous Rogera Thesaurus of English
word* Mid phrases, of which there hare been told over 250,000 copies
A work needed by every lawyer, mlniater, teacher or student and
every reader of The Dial.
Printed from the same plates as the
$7 ^0 Subscription Edition for $1 Cfl
tpiet/V FuU descriptivii circular sent by SfAsS/V
JOHN R. ANDERSON s 35 West 15th St., New York
EXPERT REVISION OF MANUSCRIPTS AND PROOFS.
Literary work of any sort undertaken. Eight years' experience as
associate editor of prominent magazine.
MISS BEARD. 333 East Ontario Street, Oak Park, Chicago.
THE EDITOR
The Journal of
Information for
Literary Workers

Nineteenth Tear
Issued on tenth
and twenty-fifth
of each month
If yon are a writer—whether of books or
'for current periodicals—yon will find in
The EDITOR the counsel, help and inspiration
that make for successful I
Besides articles of concrete, practical worth,
written by editors or successful writers, each
semi-monthly number contains in the depart-
ment, "The Literary Market," all the news
of all the magazines, new and old, that pay for
manuscripts. Novel, play, short story, verse
and essay prize competitions are announced
regularly.
Jack London says: "The Editor taught me
how to solve the stamp and landlord problems."
Readers of The Editor are the successful
writers of the United States and Canada.
A copy of the current number will be sent for
ten cents. The yearly subscription is one
dollar and fifty cents.
THE EDITOR
Box 509 RIDGEWOOD, N. J.


THE DIAL
& &rati«fflont|jlg Journal of Ei'tetarg Criticism, DigcuBBion, ano Information.
THE DIAL (founded in 18SO) is published on the 1st and 16th of
each month. Terms of Subscription, 82. a year in advance, portage
prepaid in the United States and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian
pottage 50 cents per year extra. Remittances should be by check, or
by express or postal order, payable to TUB DIAL COMPANY.
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sttb*
scription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription
is desired. Advertising Rates furnished on application. All com'
munications should be addressed to
THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Entered as Second-Clou Hatter October 8, 1892, at the Poet Office
at Chicago, Illinois, under Act ot March 3, 1879.
Ni. 669. DECEMBER 1, 1913. Vol. LV.
Contents.
PAOB
OLD FRIENDS IN NEW DRESS 463
CASUAL COMMENT 465
The region of the unroniantic. — A vanishing type
of scholarship. — Intelligent bookselling. — Plea for
a research institute. — The ideal editor. — The
overworked phrase. — A big city without a public
library.— This year's award of the Nobel prize in
literature. — Alfred Russel Wallace's impatience
of book-learning. — Extraordinary value in an
almanac.
COMMUNICATIONS 468
The Stevenson Fellowship Dinner. Helen Throop
Pwrdy.
Swinburne Bibliography. Edward J. O'Brien.
THE GREATEST OF AMERICAN SCULPTORS.
Lorado Tafl 469
CONTEMPORARY VERSE. Charles Leonard Moore . 472
A "NEW" DRAMATIST. Archibald Henderson . . 474
RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ACTIVE LIFE. Percy
F. Bicknell 476
MR. ARNOLD BENNETT IN PARIS AND ELSE-
WHERE. Edith Kellogg Dunton 477
HOLIDAY PUBLICATIONS. —1 47!)
American Travel and Description. — Foreign Travel
and Description. — Holiday Editions of Standard
Literature. — Holiday Art Books. — Nature and
Out-door Life. — Records of the Past. — Holiday
Fiction. — Miscellaneous Holiday Books.
THE SEASON'S BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG ... 493
NOTES 497
TOPICS IN DECEMBER PERIODICALS .... 498
LIST OF NEW BOOKS 498
OLD FRIENDS IN NEW DRESS.
With the recurrent holiday season come
recurrent books, old friends in new dress.
Though the familiar features may often be of
little importance and much disguised, yet they
do not fail to show themselves, here and there,
recognizable under all their bravery of new
trappings and modern modes; and their pres-
ence is by no means unwelcome. The Preach-
er's despondent iteration of the truth that there
is no new thing under the sun — that there is
nothing whereof it may be said, See, this is
new, for it hath been already of old time, which
was before — strikes no responsive chord in the
breast of one interested in noting the count-
less combinations and permutations that take
place among the limited stock of themes and
motives available for the use of the literary
craftsman. It is this very union of a familiar
idea or plot with a novel setting that charms
and delights; for it is sameness in variety that
we crave, not an absolute newness, which would
but bewilder and repel. When, for instance, a
painting is exhibited in which a lady descend-
ing a flight of stairs is represented by so novel
a combination of lines and surfaces that the
beholder cannot distinguish lady from stairs, or
indeed discern any suggestion of either without
a previous consultation of the catalogue, the
feeling is one of mystification and vexation;
whereas if the representation vividly recalls or
even remotely suggests a certain concrete in-
stance of lady and stairs, the resultant sensation
may be highly pleasurable.
The elder Disraeli long ago said, in the man-
ner characteristic of his time, that "one of the
most elegant of literary recreations is that of
tracing poetical or prose imitations and simi-
larities,"' and that "it forms, it cultivates, it
delights taste to observe by what dexterity and
variation genius conceals, or modifies, an original
thought or image." The reader's enjoyment
of Wordsworth is not lessened by his recogni-
tion of an old acquaintance in the line, "The
child is father of the man." Pope expressed
the same thought when he wrote, "The boy and
man an individual makes." Dryden put it,
"Men are but children of a larger growth."
And among minor poets, Lloyd has the couplet,
"For men in reason's sober eyes are children


464
[Dec. 1
THE DIAL
but of larger size"; while in Mallet occurs the
line, "She kissed the father in the child," and
someone has said in French, " C'est que l'enfant
toujours est homme, c'est que l'homme est
toujours enfant."
When the young reader discovers that the
one-eyed Polyphemus of the ninth book of the
"Odyssey" is almost identical with the "tre-
mendous black giant, as high as a tall palm-
tree, with only one eye in the middle of his
forehead," described in the third voyage of
Sindbad the Sailor, and further remarks the
slight variations in the two legends—as, for
example, the employment of ten red-hot spits in
the one version to perform the office of the
single immense implement in the other — a new
interest is imparted both to Homer and to the
Arabian tales that are separated from Homer
by many centuries of time. The usual order of
reading the wanderings of Odysseus and the
inventions of Scheherazade is, as indicated here,
the reverse of the chronological, but need not
therefore lessen the pleasure of tracing the re-
semblances and differences in the two versions
of the Cyclops myth. If also the young reader
chances to discover a certain likeness to Sche-
herazade in the biblical Esther, the interest is
further enriched and enlarged. But, on second
thought, it is altogether probable that the young
reader, if he be not a prig, will care not a straw
for these studies in comparative literature until
he has grown into an old reader.
Another familiar example. A reader of the
Sherlock Holmes stories will enjoy them none
the less for their reminding him of the preter-
natural acuteness of observation displayed by
Voltaire's Zadig in that ingenious episode of
chapter three which begins, "Un jour, se prome-
nant aupres d'un petit bois," etc. Also, to cite
still another familiar instance, one's enjoyment
of Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" is likely to
be heightened by a previous acquaintance with
the "Morte d'Arthur," despite the fact that
Charles Eliot Norton feels bound to confess, in
his recently-published letters, that he found the
step from Malory to Tennyson a descent. "I
like old Sir Thomas Malory better," he says.
In the same department of literature, once
more, the lover of Wagner's "Parsifal" will
trace with zest the influence of Chretien de
Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach. But
enough of these ancient illustrations, which
will more than suffice to emphasize the truth,
lately re-affirmed by the genial author of "A
One-Sided Autobiography," that it is "like
meeting an old friend to come across the same
plot, or incident, or figure, or even verbal
expression, in writers of different times and
different lands."
In turning over some recent numbers of the
"Easy Chair," attention was attracted to a witty
and playful disquisition on current American
fiction, in the course of which occurred the
following (the immediate connection of which
is unimportant): "The fact was interestingly
illustrated a little while ago, in the contrasting
receptions which American and English criti-
cism gave an American novel treating of the
average American life, in characters drawn from
those wide levels of society which were once our
boast. It was a simple story of the fortunes of
a country minister and his family: kindly, hu-
man folks, with the foibles as well as the virtues
of their sort. The father was proud of his chil-
dren and of his wife's housekeeping and thrift,
and the mother was of a satisfaction in their
sense and beauty, and his learning and righteous-
ness, which extended to her own gifts of repartee
and fatuous inconsequence of mind. A series of
dramatic accidents deprived them of the little
competence which they had enjoyed; the engage-
ment of the eldest son was broken off by the par-
ents of his betrothed; the youngest was buncoed
out of part of the little money that remained.
The father lost the parish where he bad long-
been loved and honored, and was glad to find
one among farmers and laborers, with whom his
wife and daughters were obliged to associate.
The elder daughter was deceived by a mock
marriage, and the false lover had the effrontery
to pursue the younger after the ruin of her
sister. This scoundrel found means to persecute
the father and to secure his imprisonment, while
the family sank lower and lower into misery.
Then, by the magic which novelists possess, the
uncle of the wicked lover offers himself to the
younger daughter, the father is freed from jail,
and restored to the enjoyment of his property
and his old parish; the daughter's marriage
turns out to have been performed by a real
clergyman; the eldest son's engagement is re-
newed; the sharper who plundered the boy is
arrested, and all ends happily." This unex-
pected meeting with our old friend Dr. Primrose,
even in skeleton, was an agreeable surprise, and
it also aroused a momentary query whether by
any possibility the writer could have had in mind
an actual American work of fiction so unblush-
ingly built upon this well-known English found-
ation — a query rather encouraged than silenced
by the fact that the outline, as here quoted, dif-
fers from Goldsmith in one or two particulars,


1913]
465
THE
DIAL
as in the "series of dramatic accidents," which
is wholly lacking in the " Vicar," and in making
the youngest son, instead of the third from the
youngest, the sharper's victim. But although
the facetious occupant of the Easy Chair pre-
serves his gravity throughout his subsequent dis-
cussion of the supposed "American novel," we
shall spend no time hunting for the book, nor
shall we make miserable the lives of any libra-
rians or assistant librarians in trying to procure
its identification, content to have had this chance
meeting with an old friend in epitomized form,
and to have enjoyed the Easy Chair-man's
innocent little hoax.
In an actual American novel of the present
year, and one that has figured conspicuously
among the "best-sellers," a spiritual struggle
is depicted that is essentially like that which
made "Robert Elsmere" so engrossing with
readers not of a frivolou