1908. Other sub-
The feeling for the transitoriness of jects dealt with are tariff reform, national service,
Plays of
life runs
old Japan.
like a leitmotiv through and social progress. Lord Milner to-day stands as
the old Japanese lyrical dramas a leader of the British Imperialists. And yet he
called the No.
realizes the unfortunate connotation of the term.
“The dew remains until the wind doth blow!
“When we, who call ourselves Imperialists, talk of
The dew remains until the wind doth blow!
the British Empire, we think of a group of states,
My own life fleeting as a drop of dew,
What will become of me as time doth pass ?”
independent of one another in their local affairs,
but bound together for the defence of their common
Plots and characters are alike developed just far
interests, and the development of a common civili-
enough to bring out through them the Buddhistic
zation, and so bound, not in an alliance, —-for alli-
belief that “life is a dome of many-colored glass” ances can be made and unmade, and are never more
from the agonizing delusions of which it is only than nominally lasting, — but in a permanent organic
possible to escape by regarding all actual facts and
union. Of such a union, we fully admit, the domin-
experiences as inessential and indeed unreal:
ions of our sovereign, as they exist to-day, are only
“ If only thou wouldst once but'cast away
the raw material. Our ideal is still distant, but we
The clouds of thy delusions, thou wouldst be
are firmly convinced that it is not visionary nor
Freed from thy many sins and from all ills."
unattainable.” And in another place this ideal is
Such at least is the impression left by Miss M. C. described as “that of a great and continuous national
Stopes's exquisite translations of the Nō, and her life, shared by us with our kinsmen, who have built
comments on this fast-fading relic of mediæval Jap- | up new communities in distant parts of the earth,
me.


1914]
73
THE DIAL
enabling them and us together to uphold our tradi twice repeated to make plain that it is no mere
tional principles of freedom, order and justice, and misprint. Beautiful rural scenes, reproduced from
to discharge with ever-increasing efficiency our duty photographs, illustrate the book. Its tone and style
as guardians of the more backward races who have will not disappoint those who have already found
come under our sway.” Toward the attainment of pleasure in Mrs. Albee's writings.
this ideal, Lord Milner's public addresses have
doubtless done much, and the present collection will
Captain Andrey W. Nelson, who has
Yarns of a
be welcomed by his fellow-workers' throughout the
followed the sea from boy hood, and
Swedish sailor.
Empire.
has kept a diary of his adventures
from the beginning, turns author in his later years
A stmmary of
It is gratifying to note that Jane
and proposes to chronicle his life on the ocean wave,
Jane Austen's Austen has at last been accorded a
one cruise at a time," for the benefit of those who
life and work.
place in the excellent "English Men
of Letters” series (Macmillan). George Eliot,
find relish in the salty savor of this kind of liter-
ature — and they are surely not few in number.
Maria Edgeworth, and Fanny Burney were already
“Yankee Swanson” (Sturgis & Walton Co.) is the
represented in the series; the volume on Jane
initial number of the series, and takes its name from
Austen is just published; and, happily, one on Mrs.
the first mate of the "
Gaskell is announced as “in press.”
Forsette,” a Swedish vessel
The author
on which the author made his first acquaintance with
of the work now in hand, Mr. Francis Warre Cor-
seafaring at the age of thirteen, and with which he
nish, Vice Provost of Eton College, has, in his
remained for ten months of momentous import to
fifty-four pages of condensed biography, closely fol-
him and full of incidents not uninteresting to others.
lowed Messrs. Austen-Leigh’s recent book, “Jane
Perhaps one might prefer a little less minuteness of
Austeu : Her Life and Letters."* He finds but
meagre data for a biography of the novelist; and is unimportant detail. Continuing his autobiographie
able to add, in fact, nothing to the material already give to the world a chronicle more voluminous than
narrative on the present plan, Captain Nelson will
provided. The novels of Jane Austen are summa-
the history of “ Jean-Christophe.” In his story one
rized rather fully in the succeeding chapters of the
book; the critical comment is comparatively slight.
cannot see the ocean for the ripples. A portrait of
the author appears as frontispiece, and other illus-
The author is sympathetic with his subject, and
conventional in his estimate. His closing chapter
trations are provided. We wonder why the Captain
did not retain bis good Swedish name of Nilsson.
gives a summary of the novelist’s attributes. He
considers her style not remarkably distinguished,
and her plots neither original nor striking. “She
has little idealism, little romance, tenderness,
BRIEFER MENT
Mention.
poetry, or religion . and yet she stands by the Professor Allen C. Thomas adds a new “ History of
side of Molière, unsurpassed among writers of prose England ” (Heath) to the long list of admirable manuals
and poetry, within the limits which she imposed on that compete for the favor of instructors in secondary
herself, for clear and sympathetic vision of human schools. These books, with all the modern improve-
character.”
ments, make us wonder that we ever put up with the
What might be called a sequel to or
miserable texts that alone were available a generation ago.
A picture of
A valuable featare of this work is the appendix giving
amplification of her“Mountain Play-
a condensed history of the Continent down to 1648.
mates” is offered to her readers by
Hazlitt is a critic who is too little read in these days,
Mrs. John Albee (Helen R. Albee) in her latest vol-
and yet no student of English literature can afford to
ume, “A Kingdom of Two" (Macmillan). Described
neglect him. It is for the use of such students that
on the title-page as “a true romance of country life,”
Dr. Jacob Zeitlin has compiled the volume which he
it shows us the wholesome, simple pleasures of New calls “ Hazlitt on English Literature,” now published
England country life in a succession of essays in at the Oxford University Press. The selections form
which the embroidery of imagination and fancy is a running commentary on our literature all the way
deftly added to the central pattern of homely real from the Elizabethans to Byron and Scott. The intro-
ism and somewhat stern actuality. For life is no
ductory essay on Hazlitt is an admirable piece of criti-
continuous holiday on the rock-ribbed hillsides of
cism, and the notes are ample and informing.
In the series of « Riverside Press Editions ” Messrs.
New Hampshire where (in the little town of Pe-
Houghton Mifflin Company have now included a re
quaket) the Albees have their secluded home. Such
print of “The Diamond Necklace," one of the most.
chapter-headings as “The Cow,”“A May Morning,"
brilliant and vivid of Carlyle's historical essays, and one
“ An Old House Site,” “ A Garden Tragedy,” and that has not heretofore appeared in separate form.
“ The Magic of Daily Life” will indicate the nature The volume is a small octavo, printed on French band-
of the book's contents. The critical reader will note, made paper, and decorated with several exquisite
on an early page, Mrs. Albee's rather unfortunate vignettes in the 18th century French manner. Another
attempt to form from the familiar ipse dixit a Latin late addition to the same series is a quarto reprint of
motto which shall mean, “She Now Speaks.” “Ipsa Washington's Farewell Address, printed on French
Nunc Dicet” is the result of her efforts, with “ dicet”
hand-made paper, the external setting being admirably
attuned to the impressive dignity of the text. The
* See THE DIAL, Oct. 16, 1913.
appearance of these new volumes tempts us to repeat
rural content.
99


74
[Jan. 16
THE DIAL
what we have more than once said in the past, that
taken as a whole this series of « Riverside Press Edi-
tions” constitutes the most interesting and praise worthy
achievement in the field of fine book-making that this
country has to show.
Several recent additions to the admirable “Oxford
Editions” include William Morris's poems and prose
tales published previously to 1870; Dante Gabriel
Rossetti's poems and translations, 1850–1870, including
“ Hand and Soul” and “The New Life"; Blake's
poetical works, with some matter hitherto unpublished,
the whole laboriously edited from original sources by
Mr. John Sampson; and “ A Century of Parody and
Imitation," an excellent anthology compiled by Messrs.
Walter Jerrold and R. M. Leonard. Painstakingly
edited, faultlessly printed, and substantially bound, the
books in this series excel any others that we know of,
at anything like the same price.
“ English Prose” (Longmans), edited by Drs. F. W.
Roe and G. R. Elliott, is a volume “designed primarily
for the discussion and practice in college classes of the
art of composition." Its contents are representative
examples of the best English prose writing, arranged
in nine related groups. Some of the groups are “The
Personal Life,” “Public Affairs,” “Education,” and
“ Literature and Art.” Each group comprises several
longish examples, the first-named giving us Emerson on
“ Self-Reliance," Lamb's “Old China,” an extract from
Ruskin's “Præterita," and one from Mill's “ Autobi-
ography.” The book provides the best of reading, quite
aside from its purpose for the technical instruction of
students.
During the last two decades of the nineteenth cen-
tury, Mr. Thomas Hardy published in various periodicals
a dozen “minor novels " which have grown unfamiliar
to the public because not included in the standard sets
of his writings. These are now collected by the Messrs.
Harper in a volume entitled “A Changed Man, The
Waiting Supper, and Other Tales.” The last of the
twelve, “ The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid," is
perhaps better known than the others to present-day
readers. It is also much the longest. Now that Mr.
Hardy remains in unquestioned solitary preëminence
among living English writers, it is particularly desirable
that his more fugitive work should be made easily
accessible, and for that reason, and others, we give this
volume a cordial welcome.
The twelfth volume in the “ Art of Life” series
(Huebsch) is entitled “The Use of Leisure,” and con-
siders its theme under a threefold division, -“ Wanted
- Leisure," "The Right Use of Leisure," and "Work,
the Creator." After a spirited invective against
drudgery and the industrial conditions that have made
drudgery an apparent necessity for most of the world,
the writer, Mr. Temple Scott, points the way to the
right use of our free time, telling us that there are two
essentials to such right use — the getting of health and
keeping it, and the getting of a mind and using it.
The final section deals with that fruitful and enjoyable
activity which is work in its best sense, as distinguished
from soulless drudgery. Incidentally, the office of the
poet is extolled, and the increasing present need of his
services is pointed out. Mr. Scott's pages are aglow
with fervor, and one cannot but wish his book might
usher in a millennium of rightly used leisure. It will
at least plant a fertile seed here and there in soil pre-
pared for its reception.
NOTES.
Mr. Alfred Noyes's series of Lowell lectures on "The
Sea in English Poetry" are to be issued in book form
at an early date.
Mr. Arnold Bennett is reported as being engaged
upon a play the scene of which is laid in Spain of the
sixteenth century.
Mr. Robert Hunter, author of “Poverty,” has in
press with the Macmillan Co. a study of “ Violence and
the Labor Movement."
“ The Congresswoman is the title of a new novel
by Mrs. Isabel C. Curtis which the Browne & Howell
Co. plan for early issue.
An anonymous psychological novel entitled “My
Wife's Hidden Life" will be published next month by
Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co.
Two novels planned for January issue by J. B.
Lippincott Co. are Mr. John Reed Scott's “ The Red
Emerald” and Grace Livingston Hill Lutz's “The Best
Man."
“Boycotts and the Labor Struggle” by Mr. Harry
W. Laidler, with an Introduction by Professor Henry
R. Seager, of Columbia University, will be published
at once by the John Lane Co.
Dr. Clara Barrus, who for some time past has acted
as Mr. John Burroughs's secretary, has written a book
entitled “Our Friend John Burroughs" which will be
published during the Spring by Houghton Mifflin Co.
M. Anatole France's satirical novel, “Les Anges,"
will be an important publication of the Spring season.
Since its appearance serially, M. France has subjected
the work to thorough revision, and has made some
lengthy additions.
“ Earmarks of Literature," a collection of essays by
Mr. Arthur E. Bostwick of the St. Louis Public Library,
and “Gerhart Hauptmann: His Life and His Work,'
by Mr. Karl Holl, are among the January announce-
ments of Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co.
Mr. Clement K. Shorter's study of “George Borrow
and his Circle” will be published this month by
Houghton Mifflin Co. This house has also in press
for January issue Dr. Richard C. Cabot's “What Men
Live By” and Mr. T. Philip Terry's guide-book to the
Japanese Empire.
“Great Poems Interpreted,” by Professor Waitman
Barbe, of West Virginia University, will be issued
immediately by Messrs. Hinds, Noble & Eldredge.
The book is more advanced than the same author's
“ Famous Poems Explained,” and is the result of
studies in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
A “Drama League Series of Plays” is being pro-
jected by Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co. The plays
will be selected by a committee on which both the
Drama League of America and the publishers are rep-
resented. Mr. Percy MacKaye’s “A Thousand Years
Ago” and Mr. Charles Kenyon's “ Kindling” are
announced as the first titles to appear.
A translation from the German of “The Education
of Karl Witte” has been completed by Professor Leo
Wiener of Harvard University, and the book is set for
publication at an early date by the Thomas Y. Crowell
Co. Mr. H. Addington Bruce, of the editorial staff of
“The Outlook," has supplied an Introduction and has
coöperated with Professor Wiener in the editing of the
translation.


1914]
75
THE DIAL
Among the books in preparation at the Oxford Uni-
versity Press are a “ Bibliography of the Works of Dr.
Johnson” by the late W. P. Courtney, a volume on
« Pestilence in Literature and Art” by Dr. Raymond
Crawfurd, a history of English University Drama from
1540 to 1603" by Professor Boas, a “Concise Dante
Dictionary” by Dr. Paget Toynbee, and a work on “The
Gods of Northern Buddhism” by Miss Alys Getty.
“ Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking by
Mr. Edmund Backhouse and Mr. J. O. P. Bland, two of
the most anthoritative writers on matters relating to
China, is announced for Spring publication. The volume
is based on State papers, diaries of Court officials, and
Chinese books printed for private circulation, and it
gives an account of the secret history of the Chinese
Court and its rulers during a period of nearly three
hundred years.
“ Home,” the anonymous novel that has attracted
much attention during its serial publication in “The
Century Magazine,” will be issued in book form this
month by The Century Co. Other January books of
this house will be a study of boy life entitled “William
and Bill,” by Grace MacGowan Cooke and Caroline
Wood Morrison; “Prostitution in Europe," by Dr.
Abraham Flexner; and a new edition of “ As the Hague
Ordains," with Miss Eliza R. Scidmore's name upon the
title-page.
Several books of general interest are planned for
February issue by Messrs. McBride, Nast & Co. These
include: “Panama: Its Creation, Destruction, and Res-
urrection," by M. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the distin-
guished French engineer; “ How France is Governed,”
by M. Raymond Poincaré, President of the French
Republic; “ The Art of Nijinsky,” the genius of the
Russian ballet, by Mr. Geoffrey Whitworth, with illus-
trations in color by Dorothy Mulloch; “Baroque Archi-
tecture,” by Mr. Martin S. Briggs; and “Cecil Rhodes:
The Man and His Work,” by Mr. Gordon Le Sueur,
one of Rhodes's confidential secretaries.
English Literary Miscellany. By Theodore W.
Hunt. 12mo, 320 pages. Oberlin, Ohio: Biblio-
theca Sacra Co. $1.50 net.
Poems by Sir John Salusbury and Robert Chester.
With Introduction by Carleton Brown. 8vo,
165 pages. Bryn Mawr College. Paper, $1.50 net.
Riverside Essays. Edited by Ada L. F. Snell. First
volumes: The American Mind and American
Idealism, by Bliss Perry; University Subjects,
by John Henry Newman; Studies in Nature and
Literature, by John Burroughs; Promoting Good
Citizenship, by James Bryce. 16mo. Houghton
Mifflin Co. Each 35 cts. net.
The Best Stories the World. Compiled and
edited by Thomas L. Masson. 12mo, 244 pages.
Doubleday, Page & Co. $1. net.
Some of the Many Good Reasons for Reading. By
John Cotton Dana. 18mo. Privately printed.
NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE.
Poetical Works of William Drummond of Haw-
thorden. Edited by
L. E. Kastner, M.A. In
2 volumes, with portraits and facsimiles, large
8vo. Longmans, Green & Co. $6.75 net.
The Canoe and the Saddle; or, Klalam and Klicka-
tat. By Theodore Winthrop. To which are now
first added his Western Letters and Journals.
Edited by John H. Williams. Illustrated in
color, etc., large 8vo, 332 pages. Tacoma:
John H. Williams. $5. net.
Oxford Edition of Standard Authors. New volumes:
Poetical Works of William Blake, edited by
John Sampson; A Century of Parody and Imita-
tion, edited by Walter Jerrold and R.
M.
Leonard. Each with portrait, 12mo. Oxford
University Press. Per volume, 50 cts. net.
World's Classics. New volumes: Selected English
Letters, arranged by M. Duckitt and H. Wragg;
The Lord of the Harvest, by M. Betham-Ed-
wards, with Introduction by Frederic Harrison.
Each with portrait, 18mo. Oxford University
Press. Per volume, 35 cts. net.
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
BOOKS OF VERSE.
Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1913. Edited by
William Stanley Braithwaite. 8vo, 87
pages,
Cambridge, Mass.: Published by the editor.
$1. net.
Bees in Amber: A Little Book of Thoughtful Verse.
By John Oxenham, 16mo, 124 pages. American
Tract Society. 50 cts.
The Trumpeters, and Other Poems. By Andrew
Downing. Third edition; 12mo, 202
pages.
Sherman, French & Co. $1.50 net.
The Rose of Ravenna: A Drama in Blank Verse.
By Edward A. Vidler. With decorations, 12mo,
135 pages. Melbourne: George Robertson &
Co., Ltd.
The Knight of the Chinese Dragon. By James
Cloyd Bowman, 12mo, 123 pages. Columbus,
Ohio: The Pfeifer Press, $1.
The Gift of White Roses. By James Cloyd Bow-
man. Second revised edition; 12mo, 76 pages.
Ada, Ohio: University Herald Press. 50 cts.
[The following list, containing 52 titles, includes books
received by The DIAL since its last issue.]
BIOGRAPHY.
The Early Life of John Howard Payne. With Con-
ter
porary Letters hitherto Unpublished. By
Willis T. Hanson, Jr. With portrait and fac-
simile, large 8vo, 200 pages. Boston: Privately
printed.
Norris Wright Cuney: A Tribune of the Blick
People. By his daughter, Maud Cuney Hare;
with Introduction by James S. Clarkson. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 230
pages. New York: Crisis
Publishing Co. $1.50 net.
Judson the Pioneer. By J. Mervin Hull. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 187 pages. American Baptist Pub-
lication Society. 50 cts. net.
The Immortal Seven: Judson and His Associates.
By James L. Hill, D.D. Illustrated, 12mo, 151
pages. American Baptist Publication Society.
50 cts. net.
FICTION.
A People's Man, By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 365 pages. Little, Brown & Co.
$1.30 net.
U'ncrowned: A Story of Queen Elizabeth and
Francis "Bacon." By C. Y. C. Dawbarn. Illus-
trated, 8vo, 192 pages. Longmans, Green & Co.
$1.75 net.
John Ward, M.D. By Charles Vale. 12mo, 320
pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25 net.
The Toe, and Other Tales. By Alexander Harvey.
12mo, 250 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25 net.
Doris: A Mount Holyoke Girl. By Julia Redford
Tomkinson. Illustrated, 12mo, 179 pages.
American Tract Society. $1. net.
Horacio: A Tale of Brazil. By R. W. Fenn. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 309 pages. American Tract Society.
$1. net.
The Awakening of the Hartwells: A Tale of the
San Francisco Earthquake. By Emma S. Allen,
Illustrated, 12mo, 340 pages. American Tract
Society. $1. net.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
From the Letter-Files of S. W. Johnson, Professor
of Agricultural Chemistry in Yale University,
1856-1896. Edited by his daughter, Elizabeth
A. Osborne. Illustrated, 8vo, 292 pages. Yale
University Press. $2.50 net.
Legends and Satires from Mediæval Literature.
Edited by Martha Hale Shackford, Ph.D. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 176 pages. Ginn & Co.
$1.25 net.


76
[Jan. 16
THE DIAL
Gloria Gray. Love Pirate. By Pearl Doles Bell.
Illustrated, 12mo, 333 pages. Chicago: Roberts
& Co. $1.25 net.
TRAVEL.
A Naturalist in Western China, with Vasculum,
Camera, and Gun. By Ernest Henry Wilson;
with Introduction by Charles Sprague Sargent,
LL.D. In 2 volumes, illustrated, 8vo. Double-
day, Page & Co. $7.50 net.
The Story of an Outing. By A. Barton Hepburn.
Illustrated, 8vo, 108 pages. Harper & Brothers.
$1.50 net.
ART.
Fifty-Eight Paintings by Homer Martin. Repro-
duced in photogravure, and described by Dana
H. Carroll. Limited edition; large 8vo, 153 pages.
New York: Frederic Fairchild Sherman. $15, net.
Theatrical Bookplates. By A. Winthrop Pope. Il-
lustrated, 12mo. Kansas City: H, Alfred Fowler.
Paper, $1. net.
RELIGION.
No Room in the Inn, and Other Interpretations.
Chosen from the Writings of Rev. C. J. Sco-
field, D.D., by Mary Emily Reily. 12mo, 156 pages.
Oxford University Press. $1. net.
Stewardship among Baptists. By Albert L. Vail.
12mo, 140 pages. American Baptist Publication
Society. 50 cts. net.
Following the Sunrise: A Century of Baptist Mis-
sions, 1813-1913. By Helen Barrett Montgomery.
Illustrated, 12mo, 291 pages. American Baptist
Publication Society. 50 cts. net.
THE ELM TREE PRESS Woodstock, Vermont,
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. $2.
Origines Golfianæ, 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 250 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.
THE PLAY-BOOK
A Little Magazine of New and Old Drama
Published at
MADISON, WISCONSIN
15 cents a copy
$1.50 a year
Library Economy and Library Buckram
go together hand in hand
If you can DOUBLE the life of your books-if they will stand
six years of bard usage instead of three, then your binding
expense is CUT in HALF.
HOLLISTON LIBRARY BUCKRAM
is designed to give the maximum amount of service. It will
wear longer than leather and twice as long as the ordinary
styles of cloth bindings.
It has been adopted by hundreds of the leading libraries in
the country as a standard fabric for rebinding.
In your next order specify HOLLISTON LIBRARY BUCK-
RAM. It is used by all the best bookbinders.
Send for Our Latest Sample Book
THE HOLLISTON MILLS, NORWOOD, MASS.
New York Office: 67 Fifth Avenue
REFERENCE.
Writings on American History: A Bibliography for
the Year 1911. Compiled by Grace Gardner
Griffin. 8vo, 235
pages. American Historical
Association.
The British Journal Photographic Almanac and
Photographer's Daily Companion, 1914. Edited
by George E. Brown. Illustrated, 12mo,
1496 pages. New York: George Murphy, Inc.
Paper, 50 cts. net.
BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
The Belles-Lettres Series. New volumes: Middle
English Humorous Tales in Verse, edited by
George H. McKnight, Ph.D.; Poetaster, by Ben
Jonson, and Satiromastix, by Thomas Dekker,
edited by Josiah H. Penniman. Each 16mo. D.
C. Heath & Co.
Die sieben Reisen Sinbads des Seemannes. Re-
written by Albert Ludwig Grimm; edited by K.
C. H. Drechsel, A.M. Illustrated in color, etc.,
16mo, 188 pages. American Book Co. 40 cts. net.
Die Wiedertäufer: Historische Novelle. Von
Adolf Stern; edited by Frederick Bernard Sturm.
16mo, 173 pages.
D. C. Heath & Co. 40 cts. net.
General Hygiene. By Frank Overton, M.D. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 382 pages. American Book Co.
60 cts. net.
Personal Hygiene. By Frank Overton, M.D. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 240 pages. American Book Co.
40 cts. net.
Merrill's German Texts. New volumes: Wilden-
bruch's Kindertranen, edited by Carolyn Krey-
kenbohm, 192 pages, 50 cts.; Gerstacher's Ger-
melshausen, edited by R. W. Haller, 122 pages,
40 cts. Each 16mo. Charles E. Merrill Co.
John Bunyan's Dream Story: The "Pilgrim's Prog-
ress.” Retold
for
Children and adapted to
School Reading. By James Baldwin. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 197 pages. American Book Co.
35 cts. net.
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THE
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is desired. ADVERTISING Rates furnished on application.
promotion of a better understanding between
Published by THE DIAL COMPANY, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
the more advanced peoples of the world. The
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office cultivation of international good feeling between
at Chicago, Illinois under Act of March 3, 1879.
the great powers may in time provide a solvent
No. 663. FEBRUARY 1, 1914. Vol. LVI. medium through whose influence armaments
shall crumble and jealous prejudices disappear.
CONTENTS.
The present wasting of the resources of the
AMERICAN AND FRENCH IDEALS
89 world upon navies and huge standing armies is
the greatest economic and ethical scandal of the
CASUAL COMMENT
91
The Anglicity of the English language. -Stolen age ; it makes a mockery of Christianity, sets
reading-time.- Medicated literature.- Oddities and unnecessary obstacles in the path of progress,
obstinacies of scholars. New ideals of literary
and forces philosophers to throw up their hands,
criticism. – Literary aid to the immigrant. — The
rescue of disappearing ballads.-Durability in book-
exclaiming in despair, “A mad world, my mas-
binding. — An unappreciated nepenthe. — The in ters!” The madness seems to be growing rather
scrutability of genius. - The geographical centre of
than decreasing, to the superficial view, and
our public library system. - The encouragement of
cosmopolitan culture.
there is no feature of the entire situation more
disheartening than the deliberate repudiation
COMMUNICATIONS
94
Revivifying the Classic Languages. Nathan Haskell by our own country of the old-time ideals which
Dole.
gave Americans of the nineteenth century good
An Auxiliary Language for Intercommunication.
reason to be prouder of their birthright than
Eugene F. McPike.
“ Tainted” Book Reviews. Book-Buyer.
the citizens of any other country on earth. It
A Protest. Charles Francis Saunders.
is not surprising that the nations of Europe
should be reluctant to beat their swords into
FRANCIS THOMPSON: HIS LIFE AND HIS
WORK. Herbert Ellsworth Cory .
plowshares, for their swords have largely made
them what they are; but it is amazing beyond
IN SOUTH AMERICAN WILDS. P. A. Martin .
words that we, having known and practised the
OLD SALEM IN ITS HABIT AS IT LIVED. Mary better way for so long, should have taken up
Augusta Scott
104
with their bad example, and the “rags and
A NEW HISTORY OF ENGLAND. L. E. Robinson 106 shards regilded” which are the wretched sym-
A DIPLOMATIST'S WIFE IN ITALY. Percy F. bols of a past based upon force rather than
Bicknell
108
upon the amity which has its sure foundations
NEW STUDIES OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE. in mutual respect and sympathetic understand-
James W. Garner
110 ing. The true missionaries of civilization are
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
111 the men who go forth into other lands than
Open letters of an English bookman. – Quebec and their own to invite and express good will and
its people. The psychology of prestige.-American
to soften the asperities which selfish diplomacy
notes of a friendly English woman. - American and
British federal systems. — Friendly counsel on the
and irresponsible journalism and the spirit of
art of life. - A sketch of psychological history. blatant chauvinism so wantonly engender in
Studies of the caribou of Newfoundland.-A classic
international relations.
Such men
as Lord
of the early Northwest. — A new development in
ethics. - Chapters on Egyptian art. — From Ferrara Haldane, Viscount Bryce, Baron d'Estournelles
to Ascoli. — Trials and triumphs of a dancer's life. de Constant, the recipients (with one exception)
BRIEFER MENTION .
115 of the Nobel peace prize, and the exchange
professors on the various foundations established
NOTES
116
between this country and England, France,
TOPICS IN FEBRUARY PERIODICALS
117
Germany, and Denmark, should do much to
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
117 | inaugurate the dawn of a new era in which the
98
· 102
.
0
.
.


90
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
armed hostility of civilized peoples should be preserves its own character and its own autonomy.
come monstrous and unthinkable.
French thought, for its part, springing from the original
Such relations of friendliness and mutual
medium which is constituted by French society, makes
out of the ideal man a sort of Platonic idea, which is
comprehension have already become firmly the outcome of neither analysis nor synthesis, but ap-
grounded between this country and the mother pears as a kind of creation. The American idea of
that gave it birth, and have existed for over a humanity is the richest possible; the French idea has
century between us and the power that allied
for its content human nature in its purest and loftiest
guise.”
itself with our precarious fortunes in the dark
Restated, this dictum seems to mean that the
winter of Valley Forge. It was France that
American ideal is empirical, and the French
quickened our budding national life with the
ideals of democracy long before she learned how
ideal rational, which may be allowed as a state-
ment of the present-day attitude, although the
to apply to her own case the teachings of her po-
American ideal of the fathers had a strictly
litical philosophers, and it is with France that we
rationalistic French origin.
have had friendly, and even affectionate, relations
longer than with any other foreign nation. A
In any case, the idealism of a people must
be judged by the best forms that its expression
recent sign of this friendship is the establishment
assumes.
of the Comité France-Amérique, under whose
“ Let us pot be afraid to consider, in
both French and American thought, the noblest
auspices a series of addresses have been made
in Paris during the past year, concerned with
manifestations, those most worthy of esteem and
the historic, artistic, and social relations of the
admiration. True sincerity for the individual,
two countries, these addresses being now pub- that is in him, with his deepest and purest ego.
is to bring his life into conformity with the best
lished (Paris: Alcan) in a volume entitled "Les
Etats-Unis et la France." Ten writers contrib- Likewise, the true thought of a people is found
ute to this collection, four Frenchmen and six
in the expression of its loftiest conception of its
Americans, the latter being Messrs. J. H. Hyde, genius and of its mission in the world. For what
Paul W. Bartlett, Walter V. R. Berry, J. Mark
it wills, ultimately, amidst its confused efforts in
Baldwin, W. Morton Fullerton, and David J.
all directions, is to realize all the perfection of
which it is capable." This is the guiding prin-
Hill. These American contributions discuss the
relations between the sculpture of the two coun-
ciple of M. Boutroux in his discussion, and its
tries, their social life, their historical bonds, their employment clears the air wonderfully. Look-
ing at us more in detail, he finds in our national
politics, their national ideals in the broader
sense,
and the effects that the Panama Canal may be
life great mobility, an intensely practical turn
of mind, the conception of man as a creative
expected to have upon their future intercourse.
These are all valuable studies, which both
force rather than as a puppet of his environment.
Frenchmen and Americans may read with profit, fantastic theories, but it is not merely as novel-
The American is easily seduced by eccentric and
making, as they do, for a better understanding ties that he takes them up, for he aims always at
between the two nations.
It is to the introductory paper upon “La making out of their elements an ever broader
Pensée Américaine et la Pensée Française,
and more coherent philosophy of life. If he
contributed by M. Emile Boutroux, that we
seems too much devoted to the pursuit of the
dollar, it is because its possession means higher
wish especially to direct attention. The author
seeks to discover the formula of American
efficiency in the accomplishment of the real pur-
thought as it presents itself to the philosophical poses of civilization. It is a favorite plaint of
our humanitarian sentimentalists that our laws
observer, much as Mr. Herrick, in the essay
and institutions exalt the dollar above the
which we discussed a recent issue, has sought but this is one of the emptiest of distinctions.
man,
to determine that formula from the standpoint To protect property is one of the most essential
of the American novelist. It remains somewhat
methods of protecting all those things of which
vague in both cases, because of the immense
variety of the material which has to be synthe- becomes lax in safeguarding the legitimate
wealth is but the means, and a nation which
sized, and M. Boutroux's treatment must be
described as informed and amiable rather than
possessions of the individual is in danger of
weakening the very foundations of character.
as searching and profound. The author's con-
Although his object is to draw a comparison,
clusions are thus summarized:
and discover what valid distinctions may be
“ The human ideal which she endeavors to realize is
made between French and American thought,
conceived by America as a synthesis, made up of all the
forms of humankind that nature creates, in such manner
M. Boutroux is forced to admit a fundamental
that each of them, thus brought into universal unity, I identity in all the essentials, although he finds


1914]
91
THE DIAL
a marked difference in the orientation of thought activities of such societies as the aforementioned,
in the two countries. 6 On both sides, he
says,
that can rescue our language from the various
“the same democratic spirit, the same sense of perils menacing it and hand down to posterity
human dignity, the same devotion to political
something that shall resemble the pure and simple
liberty and the principle of national sovereignty,
speech of Lincoln's Gettysburg oration and at the
the same natural tastes, cordiality, and simplicity
same time be both the language of literature and
the language of daily life.
in distinction, the same preoccupation with fine
human ideals." This is the sum total of his STOLEN READING-TIME has often been put to such
conclusions, - a more important judgment, we
good use as to justify the theft. Mr. John Muir has
should say, than that expressed in the long told ns how, commanded by his father to go to bed
soon after
supper,
passage above quoted, in which the difference in
and obtaining his consent to use
the early morning hours as he chose, he arose morn-
the orientation of thought is stated in abstract
ing after morning at one o'clock to apply himself to
philosophical terms.
such studies and other pursuits as took his fancy;
and in his case it seems to have been time well stolen
from sleep. Where there is an imperious thirst for
CASUAL COMMENT.
the knowledge that books give, time will be found
THE ANGLICITY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
for reading. Sir W. Robertson Nicoll has a semi-
(the strange word has the sanction of the Oxford
autobiographical chapter on “Learning to Read” in
his “Bookman's Letters," recently published. Near
Dictionary's editor) is menaced by various corrupt-
ing influences. Pronunciation, idiom, vocabulary,
the beginning he says: “I have heard very many
spelling, all are in danger, and the time seems to be
say that they regret extremely that they have never
approaching when the language of Shakespeare and
been able to read as much as they would like. They
the Bible will be as strange to their infrequent
never have had sufficient time. As a matter of fact,
readers as is that of Chaucer and Wyclif to the
no one who really cared for reading was ever de-
present generation. An effort to postpone that evil
terred from it by want of time; in fact, I make bold
day is put forth by the new Society for Pure En-
to say that only a small proportion of people have
glish, which has recently issued its first pamphlet
learned in the proper sense how to read, . . . I am
in furtherance of its laudable purpose, formulating
afraid that those persons who have learned to read
certain basic principles and urging a return to dia-
in the sense that they can discriminate between
lectic naturalness and raciness of expression. Words
what is good and bad, and that they read the best
and idioms that smack of the soil whence they
with delight and relish, are few, and this is surely
sprang are to be revived and cherished, while the
a great misfortune.” The plea that one has no time
artificialities of urban speech need to be repressed.
to read really means, nine times out of ten, and per-
Not only does the thoughtless multitude require
haps also the tenth time, that one has no real desire
guidance and correction in this matter, but it is
to read, no ravenous hunger for books. The writer
probable that the educated and the careful are
quoted above gives some interesting reminiscences
doing their part, often unconsciously, toward break-
of his own reading, and it is amusing to learn that
ing up the uniformity and purity of our English
he used formerly to name as his favorite novelist,
tongue. The arts and sciences are flooding the
“the Rev. C. B. Greatrex,” author of a tale entitled
“Memoranda of a Marine Officer,” which ran
dictionary with new and in many instances ill-
constructed terms, journalists are familiarizing us
through several successive volumes of “Hogg's In-
with modes of expression not always worthy of
structor," and seems to have made a lasting impres-
adoption, innovators in spelling are perniciously
sion on the boy Nicoll. It was “my favorite story,"
active, and the foreign languages spoken within our
writes the man, “and, to be perfectly candid, I think
borders add an alien tinge to our speech. Mean-
it is my favorite story still.”
time, too, there is the ever-present tendency toward MEDICATED LITERATURE, a term used by Sir W.
a divorce between the literary and the colloquial Robertson Nicoll in discussing the writings of Dr.
medium of communication. As formerly with Latin John Brown and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, is not
and other literary languages now dead, book-English so forbidding as it sounds. Not sterilized or disin-
is hardly the language of daily conversation, though fected or sick-room reading is meant by the essayist,
the divergence is happily not yet far advanced. but that kind of writing that shows an intimate
When Canning wrote on Pitt's monument in the acquaintance with the tragedies of disease and suf-
Guildhall the inscription, “He died poor,” a pom- fering, and a recognition of the mysterious connec-
pous alderman objected to the simplicity of the tion between spirit and flesh. It may also betray
language and wished to substitute, "He expired in unusual insight into human nature, an insight gained
indigent circumstances a fitting companion- by years of daily encounter with the weakness and
piece to Dr. Johnson's Latinized emendation of the the fortitude, the pettiness and the greatness, the
pure Anglo-Saxon that once escaped him. It is selfishness and the magnanimity of men and women.
only popular education and constant vigilance, the If he were writing on this subject to-day, the editor
diffusion of good literature and the intelligent of “The British Weekly” would probably include


92
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
as
one other distinguished author-physician in his list, were invaluable, and the fruits of whose labors have,
the lately deceased Dr. Weir Mitchell. What he says in part, become known to those using the catalogue
of Brown's and Holmes's late rise to literary celeb cards sent out from Washington.
rity is equally true of the gifted Philadelphian,
NEW IDEALS OF LITERARY CRITICISM displace the
whose special study of nerve diseases gave him
opportunities for studying abnormalities and eccen-
old; jejune pedantry gives way to stimulating and
tricities of human nature not offered to the general vitalizing methods of interpreting and illuminating
practitioner. A few sentences from the essay
the masterpieces of poetry and drama and essay
referred to will be of interest here. “To say that
and fiction. Those whose fortune it was to pursue
Dr. John Brown writes from the standpoint of a
literary studies at one or more German universities
physician, that his works are medicated, is to pay
a quarter-century ago will probably be able to recall
at least one professor whose exposition of a great
liim 'a very high compliment.' There are few medi-
cal men who can lay aside the professional man-
author was a masterpiece of microscopic scholar-
ner in addressing the public. John Brown and
ship and learned dulness, and who might have
Oliver Wendell Holmes succeeded in doing this,
evoked from his hearers some such couplet as the
one scratched on a desk in the lecture-room of the
and yet the wisdom, the experience, and the pity of
the physician appear in all they say... For the
renowned theologian Dillmann, in Berlin,-“Wenn
schlafen will man, so höre man Dillmann.” Pro-
most part they avoid technicalities, but they never
forget the connection of the mind with the body, and
fessor Oscar Kuhns chanced upon this inscription,
he tells us in his recent book of reminiscences,
the lessons which long nearness to suffering hu-
manity teach the merciful and the humble.” We
and unhesitatingly declares: “I cannot say that I
found the lectures in Berlin twenty-five years ago
recall with some amusement the ominous shake of
the head with which, years ago, a certain Philadel.
very stimulating or interesting. Before the end of
phia doctor assured us that his friend Mitchell was
the semester the number of attendants would drop
hurting his reputation by trifling with literature.
down almost to nothing. The bare rooms, the cold,
dark mornings of winter, the monotonous delivery
ODDITIES AND OBSTINACIES OF SCHOLARS are
of many of the lectures, the listless attitude of the
notorious. Living so much in a world of their own,
students, all was far from inspiring enthusiasm."
men of stupendous learning and profound thought
At the late meeting of modern language teachers in
seem often to lose the faculty of responding to out-
Cincinnati Professor Goebel, of the University of
side appeals; and thus what has at last become a
Illinois, pointed to the failure to find successors to
psychological impossibility to them is regarded by
Erich Schmidt'and Jacob Minor in the chairs of
onlookers as deliberate wilfulness. It is told of the
German literature at the universities of Berlin and
late Henry Bradshaw, librarian at Cambridge Uni.
Vienna, and gave as a reason the passing of the old
versity, that he could rarely be induced to write a
school of literary criticism in Germany, the school
letter. Certain business correspondence he must
built up by Scherer in the last generation and nota-
have attended to, but beyond that he was inexorably
ble for its attention to the formal and the scholastic:
mum, in the epistolary sense. Once a friend, know-
At present the tendency is to seek the mainsprings
ing his peculiarity, wrote him an invitation to a week-
of an author's work and to recover something of the
end outing in the country, and enclosed two addressed
life imperfectly expressed by that author.
postcards, one containing a form of acceptance, the
no longer content to regard literature as a defunct
other a declination. Bradshaw was asked to mail
“specimen” preserved in alcohol.
the card suitable to the occasion. He mailed them LITERARY AID TO THE IMMIGRANT who desires,
both. The late Steingrimur Stefánsson, of the Library or ought to desire, to become a good American, is
of Congress, a native of Iceland and a scholar of vast often more beneficial to him than a gift of money.
learning, which he delighted to place at the disposal Mr. John Foster Carr’s “Immigrant's Guide,”
of others, is interestingly portrayed in Dr. Putnam's published in several languages, has already been
current official report. "One who knew him well there approvingly mentioned by us as a most useful book.
says
of him: “Whether due to a certain heritage Also attention has been called to recent Massachu-
from his Viking ancestors or merely to personal setts library legislation in the interest of the immi-
obstinacy, not an uncommon characteristic of the grant. An “educational director," working in
Norse, he could never be prevailed upon to contribute coöperation with the Public Library Commission,
from his immense fund of knowledge to library, bib is now exerting every effort to make the foreigner
liographical, or other journals, to take part in library feel more at home in the public library, and to show
meetings or public activities. He must live his life him how to profit by its resources, while the libra-
as he saw it, and, like Peer Gynt, be always himself. ry's equipment in foreign literature suited to the
This seemed essential to his happiness." There are needs of our polyglot population is receiving addi.
enough of us who are afflicted with the cacoethes tions. The Bay State, with its many factory towns,
scribendi and the cacoethes loquendi, so that we are stands in especial need of just such service as the
glad to pay a tribute of admiration and respect to present incumbent of the new office, Miss J. M.
this silent scholar, whose services as head reviser of Campbell, is at present so zealously rendering. In
the catalogue division at the Library of Congress the town of Beverly, for instance, it is said that
We are


1914
98
THE DLAL
twenty different languages are spoken; and books the
Very
thin
ones, in the same way as for a leather
in many of these foreign tongues are now to be had binding, and theoretically this binding should prove
"at the local library. Particular attention is given almost as strong as the ordinary leather one.' The
'to familiarizing the alien with the manners and “almost” we should venture to strike out, remem-
customs and laws and institutions of his adoptive bering the inevitable crumbling tendencies of leather
land through the medium of printed matter in his where it serves as hinge to the book-cover. Some
own language. It is noteworthy that many of these strong woven fabric, such as canvas, for elephant
immigrants are said to have been drawn to this
folios, would certainly outlast the best of leathers.
country by. Miss Antin's glowing descriptions of Continuing his report, Mr. Kimball says: “We
"the promised land.” To them it is a land of have tried to exert an influence toward the more
opportunity, and Miss Campbell is doing her best general adoption of buckram binding, but with only
to enable them to profit by the opportunity. partial success, owing to a general feeling, still
THE RESCUE OF DISAPPEARING BALLADS among our
surviving, that the use of any kind of a cloth bind-
people has been undertaken by the national Bureau
ing is derogatory to the book. Ornamental features,
of Education, aided by Dr. C. Alphonso Smith,
such as marbled edges, the use of marbled board
Edgar Allan Poe Professor of English in the Uni-
papers, and headbands, are omitted, and the cost of
versity of Virginia. When Professor Child compiled
material is generally somewhat less." Many of us
can remember the time when a silk cover with all
his great 'work, "The English and Scottish Popular
Ballads," he found that seventeen of the three hun-
sorts of foolish filigree work was considered neces-
dred and five ballads there given were current in
sary for a book of poems or a volume of elegant
various parts of this country. Later researches have extracts ; but this notion has passed, as will, no
added about forty more to this number, and it is doubt, in a few years, the prejudice in favor of
proposed to continue the investigation, with the help
leather as the only dignified binding for large and
of school teachers, librarians, and all others who are
dignified books.
willing to lend a hand, until the total number of old
AN UNAPPRECIATED NEPENTHE, offered to those
ballads and fragments of ballads brought into this whose weight of sorrowful memories it would re-
country from the mother-land shall have been as move or materially lighten," is a wasted gift indeed.
nearly as possible ascertained. This is a work that What'securer 'refuge from the pursuing cares of the
must be prosecuted now, and vigorously, if it is to
irrevocable past could there be than a good book ?
succeed, for the many agencies operating to oblit-
And yet we are told by an ex-convict from Sing
erate the last traces of survival in this domain of Sing, who contributes to the New York “Evening
popular poetry will not halt for the convenience of Post” some reminiscences of his “carceral endur-
research parties. “State organizations," says Pro-
ance (as old John Foxe would put it), that only a
fessor Smith, in a circular sent out by the Burean
minority of the inmates of that famous penal insti-
of Education, “will be found most efficient in this
tution make any use of the library placed at the dis-
rescue work. Not until each State feels itself re. posal of them all. To be sure, he describes this
sponsible for the collection of the ballads surviving library as "a poor affair,” but it cannot be so poor
in its own borders will the search be even approxi-
as to be without a considerable number of readable
mately complete or the results at all satisfactory. books, and with the encouragement of appreciative
But when each State joins in a sort of cooperative
use the authorities might feel moved to increase
ballad union, a work may be written that shall prove
that number. Sing Sing has been much in public
not less significant and certainly not less interesting notice of late, in connection with the alternative
to Americans than Professor Child's great work plans of addition to the present building or a trans-
itself.” Printed instructions for the guidance of those fer of its occupants to a rural environment better
disposed to aid in this enterprise may be had from adapted to the proper work of reformation. The
the Commissioner of Education, at Washington.
last effort of the late Samuel J. Barrows's life was
an unavailing attempt to secure less rigorous condi-
DURABILITY IN BOOKBINDING is an item of the tions for the unfortunates at Sing Sing. Not the
first importance, especially in public libraries. It
least of the needed improvements there one surmises
is worthy of note that the material now used for
to be a better and a more intelligently-administered
this purpose in the reading-room of our national | library, which might help to make the institution
library is buckram. Last year nearly six thousand
what our ex-convict well says it ought to be, "a
volumes were bound in buckram for that collection, training-school for the development of strength of
and thus far the results have been satisfactory. A character, instead of being what it is at present, a
few words from the annual report of the assistant finishing school for beginners in crime.”
in charge of this work are here in place. “ The
buckram now in stock is the very best,” he says. THE’INSCRUTABILITY OF GENIUS not infrequently
“It is equal if not superior to the common leathers extends even to so subordinate a detail as hand-
and may be safely used for all ordinary work, writing. Horace Greeley’s scrawl became notorious
excepting for the larger and heavier books, which for illegibility, and the story is well known of his
it is probably best to bind in half leather. We lace angry upbraiding of a compositor for misinterpret-
in the boards all books bound in buckram, except | ing his manuscript in the columns of the “Tribune,"


94
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
OF OUR PUBLIC
but when he was confronted with his own hiero proposed by the University of Chili, through the
glyphics he became as thoroughly bewildered as had Chilian Minister at Washington, an interchange of
been the manipulator of the types. A like anecdote similar courtesies between that institution and Har-
of Tolstoy is recounted by his son, Count Elie vard, with a limited number of students included in
Tolstoy, in the "Revue de Paris.” In describing the scheme of give and take. Also one hears of a
his mother's trials and tribulations as amanuensis like plan proposed by Dr. Carlos de Pena, Uruguayan
to her author-husband the son says (the translation envoy to this country, on behalf of the National Uni-
only has reached us): “Being very short-sighted, versity of Uruguay, and the prospect now is that
my mother had to bring her eyes close to the paper these South American exchanges will be effected
to decipher my father's frightful scrawl. The work next year. Why would not a series of exchanges
often took her the whole evening, and kept her between Mexican and our own universities tend to
busy until long after the rest of the household had the benefit of all concerned, and especially to a more
gone to bed. When she found a passage which was cordial and mutually helpful relation between the
quite illegible she used to go to papa and ask him nations whose common boundary is the Rio Grande?
to explain it. But that seldom happened, for she
was very reluctant to disturb him. When she did
so he took the manuscript from her and asked, with
COMMUNICATIONS.
evident irritation : Well? What is it that
you
can't
REVIVIFYING THE CLASSIC LANGUAGES.
understand?' Then he would begin to read it him-
self, but when he arrived at the puzzling passage
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Evidently two quite different but not necessarily
he was invariably pulled up and had the greatest opposing purposes obtain in the acquirement of the so-
difficulty in even guessing what he had written.”
called classic languages: one signifies discipline, the
Nevertheless, no cultivation of illegibility in hand other intellectual pleasure. Our pleasure-loving age
writing will make one a genius, literary or other; shuns discipline; and one proof of this statement is to
and some men of genius, notably Thackeray, have be found in the universal complaint made by the teachers
written the most beautifully legible hand.
of Latin and Greek that not only fewer pupils take up
the study of those languages but also that those doing
THE GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE
so seem to find it harder to master them. I believe
LIBRARY SYSTEM has never been ascertained with
thoroughly in intellectual discipline, but not in wasted
energy. A mental discipline which keeps immature
mathematical precision, and it would no sooner be
boys for years in studying the elements of Latin and
found than it would shift its position a mile or two Greek and ends by making them detest the classics,
westward, with our population-centre; for it is prob- largely because the purpose of their discipline has been
able that the two imaginary points are not many to give them the skeleton of the language and even the
hundred miles apart, and are tending more and more flesh of it but not the vital spirit -- the very term “dead
to coincide. The librarian at Newark, N. J., wrote
languages” proves that they are treated as corpses to
a letter the other day, to be read before the Council
be dissected and not as splendidly living literatures,
of the American Library Association, urging the
seems to me a wicked waste of time.
removal of the Association's headquarters from
There are exceptional instances where a boy, like
young Sidis, takes to Greek because, being interested
Chicago to New York, and venturing the assertion
in history, he wanted to read Thucydides and Herodotus
that “ten times as many library workers, printers, in the original; but it would be far wiser for most chil-
authors, students, publishers, booksellers, and jour dren under the age of twenty to begin with French or
nalists are found within say three hours' ride of New German or even Italian, in which languages there is a
York as are found within the same distance from copious literature suitable for every epoch of a child's
Chicago.” This may be so, or it may be an exces-
life. I am not original in this claim. Ben Franklin in
sive estimate; but in any case it is an Atlantic-coast
his Autobiography says: “I have thought there is some
view of the matter, and the rapid spread of our library
inconsistency in our common mode of teaching languages.
We are told that it is proper to begin first with the Latin,
system over the great central and western regions of
and having acquired that, it will be more easy to attain
the country will in the near future reduce the rela-
those modern languages which are derived from it; and
tive importance of Newark or even New York in
yet we do not begin with the Greek, in order more
the scheme of things bibliothecal. Moreover, as easily to acquire the Latin "; and he proceeds to query
Mr. Dana freely admits, Chicago "gives — and is whether it would not be better“ to begin with the French
to be praised therefore-good rooms, rent free, and
and then take up the classic languages.”
New York offers nothing.” He volunteers to be
John Milton also in his glorious essay on Education),
one to try to raise a fund with which to lure the in speaking of the many mistakes which have made
headquarters back again to the edge of the continent.
learning so unpleasing and so unsuccessful, says: “We
do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scrap-
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF COSMOPOLITAN CUL-
ing together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might
be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one year.”
TURE goes on apace.
International exchange of
university professors is accompanied by a like swap-
And further on he adds: “ These are not matters to be
wrung out of poor striplings like blood out of the nose
ping of students, Germany, France, and England
or the plucking of untimely fruit."
being the countries with which our own especially And John Locke, in his wise and noble “ Thoughts
engages in this friendly barter. And now there is concerning Education,” says of the boy: “ As soon as


1914]
95
THE DIAL
he can speak English, it is time for him to learn some not ignore what we in college used to call “trots,” for a
other language: this nobody doubts of, when French is literal translation is only a simplified dictionary. This
proposed. And the reason is because people are accus is merely the application of common sense to the use of
tomed to the right way of teaching that language, which brains. The spirit of any language may be to a large de-
is by talking it into children in constant conversation gree understood and entered into by reading the Gospels
and not by grammatical rules. When he can read or the Psalms, with which one is presupposed to have
and speak French well, which in this method is usually some degree of familiarity. The pronunciation is per-
in a year or two, he should proceed to Latin, which it fectly simple. The Greek alphabet may be learned in
is a wonder parents, when they have had the experi- half an hour, by selecting out the letters like and unlike
ment in French, should not think ought to be learned our own and writing the unfamiliar ones down with their
the same way by talking and reading. Latin I equivalents a few times.
look upon as absolutely necessary to a gentleman; and Let me say again, this is wholly and solely for the
indeed custom, which prevails over everything, has made sake of the literary value of Greek and Latin litera-
it so much a part of education, that even those children ture, and for the intense delight which it gives. I try
are whipped to it and made spend many hours of their to read a little Greek every day, and the mere sound
precious time uneasily in Latin, who after they are once of the words, the rhymes and alliterations, the musical
gone from school, are never to have any more to do with rhythms, come to the ear of my eye, if I may use
it, as long as they live."
such a term, with a sensuous intoxicating exhilaration
And the wise old Du Bellay, in the sixteenth century, which I believe even the Greeks themselves, perhaps
anticipated President Eliot in placing less emphasis on overfamiliar with the words, could scarcely feel. That
the “humanities.” He said: “Car si le tems que nous is the glory of acquiring a new language - the new
consumons à apprendre ces dictes langues (Latin and words are like newly-minted coins, with the design and
Greek] estoit employé à l'estude des sciences la Nature the inscription not as yet worn away by familiar use.
certes n'est point devenue si brehaigne (sterile] qu'elle Of course pedantic and academic scholars and pro-
n'enfastast de notre tems des Platons et des Aristotes." fessors, still bound in the shackles of convention, fight
I have no objection to a man spending a life-time on against these theories; and they have been strong
a Greek particle or in finding the esoteric significance enough to resist the suggestions of Milton and Locke
of the careless writing to be found in Plato or Cæsar, if and our own wise and sensible Franklin so that the
he can get pleasure or profit from such puerilities; but schools and colleges are still following the well-worn,
it makes my blood boil with indignation to see our pre dusty, vegetationless paths to the grave-yards where
paratory schools go on, generation after generation, in the dead languages are buried. Armed with mediæval
the same old stupid course, keeping boys and girls for pick and spade they burrow in the valley of dry bones,
years on what are called the elements of the classic and the result is that live people detest their methods
languages, and, as Milton says, growing “into hatred and are bored to death with articulated skeletons jug-
and contempt of learning," or, as Locke says, abhorring gled into a sort of punchinello semblance of activity by
them “for the ill usage it procured” them.
a stupid apparatus of clumsy strings.
For thousands of years makers of needles put the eye The cone of education stands on its apex instead of
into the shank; suddenly a man came along and put the resting on its good broad base. I should like to see a
eye into the neck just above the point, and the sewing revolution turn out the whole system and begin again.
machine was invented. Still the grammars teach stu Then we should have a Renaissance in literature, and a
dents the declensions perpendicularly from nominative vast multitude kindled with enthusiasm for the classics,
singular to ablative plural; whereas if the cases were both ancient and modern.
learned horizontally, it would in two minutes' time save
Nathan HASKELL DOLE.
six months of blundering. Every English objective plural Jamaica Plain, Boston, Jan. 19, 1914.
ends either in s or, in the case of neuters (like phenom-
ena), in a. By putting the five vowels, a, e, i, o, and u,
AN AUXILIARY LANGUAGE FOR
before this finals, one learns in about a minute to recog-
INTERCOMMUNICATION.
nize practically all the accusatives plural, both nouns
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
and adjectives, in all Latin literature; by changing the The solution of the problem of intercommunication
s to m one likewise, though of course not quite so as in its broadest sense, the international and unrestricted
suredly, gets most of the accusatives singular. The exchange of useful information, has always been con-
meaningless distinction of First and Second Declensions fronted by the barrier of language. There is no a priori
and the like, resolves into a reasonable vowel sequence. reason why the quintessence of the modern European
In a similar way the conjugations are learned by the tongues might not be extracted, as it were, and made
natural divisions of time. Every imperfect has the ba, to do good service to civilization in a world daily grow-
(a sister of the English was but more regular) with the ing smaller. The writer will not attempt to discuss in
almost invariable mus, we, nt, they, t, he or she or it, detail
any of the projects for a purely artificial language.
according to the context. The addition of ur makes There have indeed been many failures in that field of
almost any verb passive. This is only a hint of what human ingenuity; but those failures, or the aggregate
steps one may take in learning Latin. I once taught a thereof, have served to point out the way to ultimate
young woman Latin so that in ten or twelve lessons she
The auxiliary language which will sooner or
was reading Spinoza in the original.
later come into fairly universal use as an economic
I agree that it might take years to acquire a thorough factor will undoubtedly be based upon maximum inter-
scientifically-grammatical knowledge of either Greek or nationality as governed by regularity and facility.
Latin, but I would guarantee that any mature person in It has been impossible until very recently to approach
a week's time might without great strain lay a sufficient this question in any way except as a partisan or an
basis of Latin and Greek to take the keenest delight in opponent of some particular project. Happily, the
Vergil or Ovid, in Euripides or Plato. Of course I would problem is now being given consideration from a much
success.


96
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
more nearly neutral standpoint, and in a way which sentatives of thirty countries, the following resolution
promises its removal to the plane of recognized author was adopted:
ity. It is high time that this be done, not only to end "The Congress declares itself heartily in favor of an
the controversy and keen rivalry between various pro auxiliary language and expresses the earnest hope that the
jects, but also, what is far more important, to give the
adherents of Esperanto and Ido (reformed Esperanto) may
world some definite assurance of a way to prevent the
unite in a common effort to secure the appointment of an
fearful economic waste of time, energy, and money
official commission for the purpose of thoroughly studying
involved in the current and so far unavoidable practice
the problem, and adopting an official international auxiliary
language.'
of using three or more official languages in every inter-
national congress.
This practice entails much tedious
This resolution may, and quite possibly will, bear
repetition of remarks and resolutions, and much expense
fruit even sooner than its framers anticipated. The
for separate editions of publications, etc. It should
Association for the creation of a Universal Language
suffice that the proceedings of such international con-
Bureau, founded in Berne on February 27, 1911, and
ventions be conducted and published in the language
entered in the Commercial Register, has for its imme-
of the country in which the meeting occurs, with an
diate object the presentation of an address to the Swiss
interleaved or separate translation in the official auxil-
Federal Council, in which the latter is to be requested
iary language for all the rest of the world. Such a
to send a confidential inquiry to other governments as
plan, which is not at all impossible of fulfilment, would
to whether or not they are willing to give their support
often have the further great advantage that the speak-
to the summoning of an official provisional conference.
ers or authors themselves would write or personally
This conference will undertake preliminaries with re-
approve the translation. This would go far toward
gard to combining together as many governments as
the prevention of serious inaccuracies and preserve the
possible into a Universal Language Union, similar to
exact meaning of the author, which is so difficult to do the Universal Postal Union. The foundation of this Uni-
when translations are made by another who may have
versal Language Union and the creation of a Universal
very little knowledge of the technical subject involved.
Language Bureau are then reserved for an official
Not only in the international congresses would all con-
congress of the governments concerned. This congress
will have to form the definite conclusions which will
cerned receive substantial and lasting benefits from the
world-wide adoption and use of a common auxiliary
be based upon the preliminary labors of the provisional
language, but the advantages would be scarcely less
conference.
important when accruing also to commerce and to
As a foundation for the step to be taken by the Swiss
tourist travel.
Federal Council and for the labors of the provisional
“But,” says the patient reader, “ this very pleasing help of experts, a draft of an international treaty for the
conference, the Association will undertake, with the
prospect seems to be based on only an assumption that
introduction of a universal language, and incorporate
some international language will really become officially
such draft in their memorial.
adopted by the governments. Languages are the result
On the other hand, the choice of the international
of growth and must have a long history. It is impos auxiliary language which is to be proposed for official
sible to conceive of spontaneous expression in any but
a living language, - such as English or French, for
recognition will be left to the international conference.
The Association is perfectly neutral in regard to the vari-
example. To use a conventional language, created by
fiat, governmental or otherwise, would mean a loss of
ous systems of universal language.
The officers of the Association are as follows:
comprehensiveness, of flexibility, and of precision. It
would mean a limited and stilted manner of expression
Honorary President: Colonel Emil FREY, Ex-Federal
Councillor, Director of the International Bureau of the
of thought, which would be quite inadequate and unsat-
isfactory. It can never be.”
Telegraph-Union in Berne.
President: Dr. A. GOBAT, National Councillor, Direc-
If the good reader has allowed himself thus to be
tor of the International Peace Bureau in Berne.
blinded by his prejudice, his pre-judgment, he is griev-
Vice-Presidents: Professor WILHELM OSTWALD,
ously mistaken. Let him awake and look around. If
Privy Councillor, member of the Royal Saxon Academy
he cannot see the signs of the times, let him put his
of Sciences (Gross-Bothen, Leipzig). Anton WALTIS-
ear to the ground and listen to the mighty rumble of
BUHL, Mannfacturer (Zürich). ARISTIDE ROLLIER,
the gathering legions of internationalism, those vast
Judge (Berne).
armies of peace which are marching forward valiantly
Secretary: H. BEHRMANN, Director of the Official
to a glorious victory for humanity, and to the destruc-
Information Bureau (Berne).
tion of barriers between peoples and peoples, man and
Treasurers: EUGEN V. BUREN-V. SALIS, Banker
The barrier of language will not and cannot be
(Berne). ERNST WITSCHI, of the firm of Eugen v.
broken down by the adoption of English or any other
Büren & Co. (Berne).
living tongue, whether brought about by commercial
While the Association is absolutely neutral in its
supremacy or any other means. That would give far
attitude toward the various projects for an auxiliary
too great an advantage to the nation whose mother
tongue was thus favored. Equity, mutual fairness, and
language, it is nevertheless interesting to receive from
another quarter some indication as to the general char-
the necessities of the case demand the adoption, not of
acter of what may become the strongest candidate for
a purely artificial idiom, but of the quintessence of the
selection. On this point some light is thrown by the
modern languages of western and southern Europe,
following extracts from “ The Scientific American ”
not a mere mixture, but a composite, logically devel-
Supplements, as cited:
oped by the collaboration of scholars.
In this state of affairs, therefore, it is but natural and
“The result is a language (Ido) which may be mastered
readily by anybody and which has this advantage over other
appropriate that at the Eighth International Congress of
artificial languages, that it is based on rational, scientific,
Students held in Ithaca, N. Y., August 29 to Septem-
technical principles, and therefore is not exposed to the
ber 3, 1913, which was attended by two hundred repre danger of being supplanted by the creation of a still better
man.


1914]
97
THE DIAL
and materially different language.” (Supplement 1795, May receiving advertising from a number of book-publishers,
28, 1910, page 346.)
including some of the leading houses of the country.
"Esperanto has suffered because it has fallen into the My friend did not seem to see anything wrong in this
hands of scientifically untrained persons, and sometimes into
the hands of fanatics." (Supplement 1798, June 18, 1910,
arrangement. On the contrary, he thought it an excel-
lent idea. He was guaranteed a greater amount of
page 398.)
“The language of the Delegation (Ido) is very capable
advertising, and he was going to dispense with his book
of expressing difficult passages with all possible fidelity'
critic, or at least transfer him to another department.
(Ibid, page 399.)
As a book-buyer this seems to me a sinister move.
This whole question, therefore, certainly seems at last
I have always read book reviews where they seemed to
to have entered the realm of practical life and serious-
be unbiassed; and I have frequently bought books, par-
ness to the extent that it is entitled to very careful | ticularly fiction, on the recommendation of reviewers
consideration.
upon whose judgment I had come to rely. I have
Indeed, the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm, about always thought book reviews a natural service for a
three years ago, gave some consideration to a proposition newspaper of repute, just as is theatrical criticism or
which contemplated the making of an official investi editorial comment. But if literary criticism in the
gation, by the Parliament, of the whole question of an daily press is to depend on book advertising, and is to
international language. Very lively interest was aroused be furnished, not by a local critic whose taste and
in the Parliament, and the proposition as presented was
judgment you perhaps know personally to be honest,
finally defeated by a very narrow margin with a minority
but by a hired corps of men in New York who are
vote of ninety or more members, or nearly fifty per cent, paid, practically, by the publishers, I should like to ask,
which certainly constituted a very respectable support
in the idiom of the day, “ Where do we get off ?”
for the plan. Numerous other nations have found them Some years ago a hue-and-cry was raised by the ex-
selves and their literature more or less isolated from posure of the fact that certain trusts, then under investi-
the world at large owing to the fact that their mother gation by the government, maintained expensive pub-
tongues were not widely understood. This is a serious licity bureaus which put forth matter favorable to the
handicap against scientific study and research, and companies and got it published in newspapers on the
particularly against the publication of new discoveries corporations' payroll. This was called “ tainted news.”
of a technical nature, because the publisher has at best It was bad enough ; but now we have tainted book
only a limited clientele to which to present a work of
reviews !
scientific or technical character when printed in any
This may be too small a matter to excite the indigna-
other than one of the languages of wide circulation, such tion of the public, but I consider it only the first step
as English, French, or German. If, on the contrary, a towards the debauching of the press. I am informed
publisher of scientific works could appeal to the entire that there is a movement already on foot to organize
world for support of such a book printed in an auxiliary
theatrical criticism on the same basis. Editorial comment
language generally understood, it would incalculably will probably come next.
advance the cause of education.
It is true that this affair, so far, only touches eight
Some little progress has already been made in the cities of the second class; but if it succeeds, -- and both
compilation of an international lexicon of commercial parties to the agreement appear to be satisfied of its
terms; which, if made available for general use by the success already,- how long will it be before it reaches
world of commerce, would be of inestimable value. out and envelops the chief cities of the union ?
It is true that to Switzerland, as the home of inter-
Book-BUYER.
nationalism, belongs the privilege of taking the initiative Chicago, Jan. 24, 1914.
in the formation of a Universal Language Union and
Bureau; but at the same time, without detracting in
A PROTEST.
the least from the honor which belongs to Switzerland,
it remains for some great nation to secure the almost
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
As a friend of THE DIAL, may I venture to express
equal honor of being the first to support the initial steps,
which no doubt will be taken in Berne.
my surprise that you should bave allowed to be printed
One can easily foresee the renaissance of that glorious
the wholly uncalled for animadversion upon the Society
time when scientists were able to intercommunicate by
of Friends contained in a review of the work of T. B.
means of a language common to all. That language
Read in your issue of January 1?
will not be Latin, but the international language, which
Your reviewer believes that the Quaker doctrine
ought to be the quintessence of the modern European
seems in practice “capable of creating more whited
tongues. It will not be truly artificial, but essentially sepulchres than any other creed ever known,” and in
natural, founded upon the principle of maximum inter-
evidence devotes nearly half a column to the story of a
nationality, governed by regularity and facility,
case somebody told him about. The dictum of your
EUGENE F. McPIKE.
reviewer may or may not be true,- he would be hard put
Chicago, Jan. 20, 1914.
to prove it; but what has it to do with the discussion of a
poet who was neither a Quaker nor a whited sepulchre?
"TAINTED" BOOK REVIEWS.
The reputation of the small Christian body impugned,
(To the Editor of The DIAL.)
whose influence in the humanitarian progress of the race
A newspaper publisher in a town in the Middle West
is well known, is not likely to be noticeably affected by
whom I recently visited told me an astonishing thing:
the aspersions referred to; but it seems to me that the
He said he was one of eight men similarly employed injection of such irrelevant, personal matter into reviews
in towns from Baltimore to Des Moines who have
is neither just nor politic, and unworthy of THE DIAL's
entered into an agreement with a New York advertis- unique standing as an American Journal of criticism.
ing concern to print syndicated book-reviews sent out
CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS.
by this concern from New York in consideration of Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 15, 1914.


98
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
of
Dowson,
from the myriad facets of personalities, environ-
The New Books.
ments, and epochs of an army of writers, impres-
sionistic, historical, and judicial, it gradually
FRANCIS THOMPSON: HIS LIFE AND
finds the full vision wherewith to build a great
HIS WORK.*
temple, at once impersonal and finely personal,
With Mr. Everard Meynell's Life of Francis
which will stand solid and stately and indestruc-
tible in the storm centre of whims and moods,
Thompson we are given probably the last tribute
from a family whose devotion to a great singer in the case of Francis Thompson, a singer of
of fierce vituperation and frantic eulogy. Even
would, of itself, ensure that family a memor-
able place in the history of English poetry: ishing perspective under the impartial and art-
our own generation, such a method brings aston-
Many a young poet will envy Thompson this
devotion, sublimated as it is with a fine harmony irresistible lauds, dyspeptic attacks and blind
ful hands of Mr. Meynell. Shrewd thrusts and
of reticence and frankness, strong as it is with
a loyalty so sincere, so enduring, so clear-eyed. praises,conventional whims and keen prophecies
And the biography comes as no anti-climax. In
swarm through these pages cheek by jowl. We
hear the voices of a motley but most represen-
the most approved manner of modern biography, tative company: Coventry Patmore, with his
and with the characteristic self-effacement of prophecies and his arrogance, leaves his new
singer to reveal himself, as far as may be, in
celestial comrades, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah,
innumerable passages
to return to us as though in the flesh; Ernest
and poetry, pub-
prose
in the midst of his slums and his
agony
lished and unpublished, which are chosen and
inserted with a creative sureness which everyone lovely echoes of Thompson's diction; Mr. Yeats
of indulgence, reveals in his verses faint and
will enjoy but which will be fully appreciated greets warmly a distant but a fellow dreamer ;
only by those who know from experience the
extreme difficulty of achieving a literary portrait
the leading reviews snarl and patronize; Miss
that is also a work of art. In addition, the book | Agnes Tobin turns from her Petrarch to the
is opulent with verbal snap-shots and reminis-
lover of the Virgin Mary; that stirring old des-
cent sketches from scores of people who knew pot Henley flings the biting gibe and capricious
the poet. When it becomes necessary, as it often
but precious praise; George Meredith banters
does, for the biographer to come forward and
like a Titan and quotes with hearty joy to the
shy singer himself some of the awed and fragile
speak in his own person, he is obviously con-
fronted by a great responsibility.. No one who Lap.” As we read of Cardinal Manning and
and imperishable lines out of “Love in Dian's
cannot himself write prose with distinction should
Richard Le Gallienne, of Arthur Symons and
dare to dally with the Promethean fire of quo. Aubrey De Vere, of Norman Gale and William
tation. But Mr. Meynell has set the jewels of
Archer, of Robert Browning and John David-
the poet and his circle into a rich and vigorous
metal that glows in warm and perfect harmony: the superstition of cult-worship that hounded
son, our new perspective will at least dispel
This book, furthermore, takes its place among Thompson from the beginning to the end of his
certain critical studies still rare because they literary career.*
require epical toil and vision, but increasing
steadily in number because they mark the be-
If Mr. Meynell is generous and sensible in
his inclusion of animadversions on Thompson's
ginnings of a new Fine Art that irresistibly poetry, he is no less frank in his revelation of
brings more and more strenuous and lofty writ-
the facts of the man's life. And he is certainly
ers to emulate its first representations. This
kind of estimate, which has been called “col-
* Since this review is to be frankly eulogistic, and since
the essays of the moment still make the threadbare remark
lective criticism” by Professor W. T. Brewster
first made in the nineties that Thompson has been cursed by
and others, was perhaps first effectively worked the overpraise of a narrow cult, it may be well for me to fol-
out by Mr. John Mackinnon Robertson in his
low briefly Mr. Robertson's suggestion in “Essays Towards
a Critical Method” and give the reader a brief account of
essay on Poe. It withdraws much of the over-
myself. For the present purpose a few negative remarks
emphasis now placed on sources and analogues
will do. I am not a Roman Catholic. I do not know the
to approach the author through a large body of
Meynells. I am not a Thompsonian faddist, but discovered
the poet for myself when I was a sophomore in college in the
his critics, and, by catching each evasive light year 1903, long before the hue and cry over Thompson and
before any of my friends had heard of him. I take the liberty
THE LIFE OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. By Everard of adding that though I have my own little quarrels with
Meynell. Illustrated. New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. Thompson, I find, after having read a good many recent
THE WORKS OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. In three volumes. reviews on him, that I shall perforce be too busy with eulogy
With portraits. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. to find space or inclination to touch upon my grievances.


1914]
99
THE DIAL
6
no less sensible. For the facts reveal, not that Of all those heavenly passers’ scrutiny;
Max Nordau and his followers are right about
Stood bound and helplessly
For Time to shoot his barbed minutes at me;
genius, but simply that Francis Thompson was
Suffered the trampling hoof of every hour
a saint. His whole life was a superb and pious In night's slow-wheeled car;
and immortal protest against our present formula Until the tardy dawn dragged me at length
that life is and should be) a struggle for exist-
From under those dread wheels; and, bled of strength,
ence. A friend of mine puts it very happily in
I waited the inevitable last.
Then there came past
a letter written after reading the biography: A child; like thee, a spring-flower; but a flower
“Instead of being a divine vagrant, Thompson might Fallen from the budded coronal of Spring,
have been a chubby and tidy person of irreproachable And through the city-streets blown withering.
habits; but he could n't be both at once. When the She passed, - O brave, sad, lovingest, tender thing!
records are cast up, I think it is the chubby and tidy And of her own scant pittance did she give,
people who will stand most in need of apologies, rather
That I might eat and live:
than such men as Thompson.”
Then fled, a swift and trackless fugitive.
Therefore I kissed in thee
In the hardest and most unspiritual decades of
The heart of Childhood, so divine for me;
the nineteenth century, the decades against
And her, through what sore ways
which Matthew Arnold had raised his voice
And what unchildish days.
almost in vain, Thompson's life was the life of Borne from me now, as then, a trackless fugitive.
Therefore I kissed in thee
an untheatrical martyr, a perfect refutation of
Her, Child! and innocency.
neo-aristocracy,--the aristocracy of family trees
(generally dying at the top), the aristocracy
“ Her sacrifice was to fly from him: learning he had
found friends, she said that he must go to them and
of wealth, the aristocracy of efficiency, all the
leave her. After his first interview with my father he
shallow and ugly sophistries that have grown up had taken her his news. They will not understand
about the profound truth of the survival of the our friendship,' she said, and then, • I always knew you
fittest. Francis Thompson, who never dreamed were a genius.' And so she strangled the opportunity;
she killed again the child, the sister; the mother had
an injury and never looked at a cudgel, the con-
come to life within her — she went away. Without
sumptive who almost literally vanished slowly warning she went to unknown lodgings and was lost to
from the earth, will go down to fame as the him.' In the mighty labyrinths of London' he lay in
deadly and irresistible foe of the noisy heroes wait for her, nor would he leave the streets, thinking
of our age. He was the anti-superman.
that in doing so he would make a final severance. Like
De Quincey's Ann, she was sought, but never found,
We must allow space for two glimpses of
along the pavements at the place where she had been
Thompson's life as revealed in the biography. used to find him.”
When, like De Quincey, the poet wandered in
When Mr. Wilfrid Meynell pulled some dirty
agony and poverty and helplessness, a runaway manuscripts from a pigeon-hole of his desk and
outcast, through the long, gaunt streets of Lon- found that they were the work of genius he des-
don, he found, like De Quincey, his Ann.
patched letters in vain, and finally went to seek
“ This girl gave out of her scant and pitiable opu the unknown author at a chemist's shop to which
lence, consisting of a room, warmth, and food, and a cab
thereto. When the streets were no longer crowded
the poet had directed him to send his mail.
with shameful possibilities she would think of the only “[Mr. Meynell's] obvious eagerness prompted a query
tryst that her heart regarded and, a sister of charity,
from the man behind the counter: • Are you a relative?
would take her beggar into her vehicle at the appointed he owes me three-and-ninepence. With that paid and
place and cherish him with an affection maidenly and a promise of ten-and-sixpence if he produced the poet,
motherly, and passionate in both these capacities. Two he agreed to do his best, and, many days after, my
outcasts, they sat marvelling that there were joys for father, being in his workroom, was told that Mr.
them to unbury and to share. Then, in a Chelsea room Thompson wished to see him. Show him up,' he said,
such as that of Rossetti's poem would they sit:-
and was left alone.
«Your lamp, my Jenny, kept alight,
“ Then the door opened, and a strange hand was
Like a wise virgin's, all one night!
thrust in. The door closed, but Thompson had not
And in the alcove coolly spread
entered. Again it opened, again it shut. At the third
Glimmers with dawn your empty bed.
attempt a waif of a man came in. No such figure had
ever been looked for; more ragged and unkempt than
“ Weakness and confidence, humility and reverence,
the average beggar, with no shirt beneath his coat and
were gifts unknown to her except at his hands, and she
bare feet in broken shoes, he found my father at a loss
repaid them with graces as lovely as a child's, and as for words. You must have had access to many books
unhesitating as a saint's. In his address to a child, in a
when you wrote that essay,' was wbat he said. “That,'
later year, he remembers this poor girl's childishness:-
said Thompson, bis shyness at once replaced by an acer-
“ Forlorn, and faint, and stark
bity that afterwards became one of the most familiar
I had endured through watches of the dark
of his never-to-be-resented mannerisms, “that is pre-
The abashless inquisition of each star,
cisely where the essay fails. I had no books by me at
Yea, was the outcast mark
the time save Æschylus and Blake.' There was little


100
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
-
to be done for him at that interview save the extraction prose. Arnold certainly did a great service in
of a promise to call again. He made none of the con-
calling our attention to what we could learn
fidences characteristic of a man seeking sympathy and
alms. He was secretive and with no eagerness for plans
from the marvellously supple prose across the
for his benefit, and refused the offer of a small weekly channel. And to those who can relish Arnold's
sum that would enable him to sleep in a bed and sit at irony, there will be at least one quality evident
a table. I know of no man, and can imagine none, to in proof of the value of Arnold's taste for him-
whom another can so easily unburden himself of uneasi-
self. Yet, strangely enough, the most perfect
ness and formalities as to my father. To him the poor
and the rich are, as the fishes and the flames to St.
passages in Arnold, such as the famous sen-
Francis, his brothers and his friends at sight, even if these tences about Oxford “spreading her gardens to
are shy as fishes and sightless as flame. But the im the moonlight” and the haunting prelude to
pression of the visit on my father was of a meeting that
the essay on Emerson, those
passages
in what
did not end in great usefulness - so much was indicated
Professor Gates called Arnold's fourth manner,
by a manner schooled in concealments. But Francis
came again, and again, and then to my father's house
“intimate, rich in color, intense in feeling,
in Kensington. Of the falsity of the impression given almost lyrical in tone,” those passages so pa-
by his manner, his poetry in the address to his host's
thetically infrequent in the work of this too
little girl is the proof:
stern self-inquisitor, - are the very passages
“Yet is there more, whereat none guesseth, love ! which owe nothing whatever to French prose.
Upon the ending of my deadly night
To whom, then, do they owe the most? Cer-
(Whereof thou hast not the surmise, and slight
tainly not to our eighteenth century prosemen,
Is all that any mortal knows thereof),
Thou wert to me that earnest of day's light,
whom some uphold as our greatest, — as rivals,
When, like the back of a gold-mailed saurian even if humble rivals, of the French. Undoubt-
Heaving its slow length from Nilotic slime, edly Arnold's fourth manner was inspired by
The first long gleaming fissure runs Aurorian
the man who was celebrated in one of those
Athwart the yet dun firmament of prime.
Stretched on the margin of the cruel sea
very passages - -John Henry Newman. And
Whence they had rescued me,
who taught Newman to write prose? To a
With faint and painful pulses was I lying; great extent, De Quincey. And De Quincey
Not yet discerning well
learned the secrets of his mighty rhythms and
If I had 'scaped, or were an icicle,
Whose thawing is its dying.
his imperial opulence from the ornate English
Like one who sweats before a despot's gate,
writers of the seventeenth century. Is it not
Summoned by some presaging scroll of fate,
true that when we survey the greatest prose of
And knows not whether kiss or dagger wait; England we find at least a fourth written by
And all so sickened is his countenance
our poets; about half of it written by prose-
The courtiers buzz, “Lo, doomed!' and look at him
writers who were really very fervid poets in
askance:-
At fate's dread portal then
spirit, — Malory, Hooker, Taylor, the King
Even so stood I, I ken,
James translators, Browne, Burke, De Quincey,
Even so stood I, between a joy and fear,
Lamb, Hazlitt, Carlyle, Newman, Ruskin,
And said to mine own heart, Now, if the end be
Pater (for all his half-true protestations of
here!'"
French lineage); and, finally, do we not find
So it came about that the anti-superman was that barely a fourth has been written by men
armed even at the close of the nineteenth century like Swift? The ornate style is the English
with the armor of pure charity, like Bunyan's style, our heritage from the spacious days of
Christian, for a mighty battle with the most the English renaissance. And, though the
sinister forces of modern life.
purer currents of the simpler eighteenth cen-
Thompson's prose, now first authoritatively tury prose and the wonderful cadences from
selected in the three-volume edition of the France are a most wholesome interblending,
“ Works,” gives me more courage than any. we should not forget our imperatorial birth-
thing I have seen since the happy day when I right. Francis Thompson, in an age when
first read the lovely sentences of Professor our prose-writers, though still phrasing bril-
Mackail's latest volumes. This prose of Thomp- liantly, were beginning to lose their grasp of
son’s, since it is the prose of a poet, will be of rhythm, wrote the true English prose. A fair
inestimable value to us in this generation, de- characterization of his own style and an excel-
bauched as we are by the quickstep of journal- lent example of it may be found in a sentence
ism. There is another influence against which that he wrote on Sidney's prose: “It is a prose
it will react, I think, with good effect, an influ- full of young joy, and
full of young joy, and young power, and young
ence which one is supposed to mention nowadays inexperience, and young melancholy, which is
in an awed whisper — the influence of French the wilfulness of joy; full of young fertility,


1914]
101
THE DIAL
a sen-
wantoning in its own excess.” And, lest some One other comment that was once thought
readers draw unjust inferences, lest they doubt an easy truism will be uttered less sweepingly
the sound sense of Thompson, let me add when we have pondered this new prose and
another example of his prose
and an admirable reread the poems,-namely, the old jeer at
example of his fine critical acumen,
Thompson's diction. In this matter, too, since
tence on his beloved De Quincey:
1894, Thompson has been attacked for archa-
“A little, wrinkly, high-foreheaded, dress-as-you- isms, coinages, and sacerdotalisms. Without
please man; a meandering, inhumanly intellectual man, the assistance of an Academy of wiseacres,
shy as a hermit-crab, and as given to shifting his lodg | Anglo-Saxondom has always contrived to be
ings; much-enduring, inconceivable of way, sweet-
hearted, fine-natured, small-spited, uncanny as a sprite ponderously suspicious of archaisms, even when
begotten of libraries; something of a bore to many, by these have been drawn almost straight from
reason of talking like a book in coat and breeches - a Cynewulfian Northumbria or an Alfredian
undeniably clever and wonderful talk none the less;
Wessex. As for Latinisms — anathema! I am
master of a great, unequal, seductive, and irritating
inclined to think that if the dream of an En-
style; author of sixteen delightful and intolerable vol-
umes, part of which can never die, and much of which glish Academy,-a dream indulged in from at
can never live: that is De Quincey."
least the days of old Spratt, the biographer of
Thompson's prose in the collected Works and Cowley, to the days of Matthew Arnold's great
the hitherto unpublished fragments in the Life essay,— were to come true, this Academy would
will also be of great value in giving pause to know enough to take the opposite view from the
many who have been content to mouth certain French Academy, which, for the sake of its tran-
commonplaces of criticism against him which quil and silvery and softly musical language,
have been continuously current since 1894. We is judiciously cautious: this English Academy
learn now that his reviewers have been right in would, I believe, be very tolerant of archaisms
pointing out that there were echoes from Pat- in our restless oceanic language. After many
more, Coleridge, Crashaw, and an army of others. years spent in the study of Edmund Spenser,
Indeed, Mr. Everard Meynell is very glad to who has been a storm-centre on this matter from
supplement the notions of the critics not only 1579 to 1914, I find much solace in murmur-
with confessions from Thompson but with some ing to myself the words of shrewd old Thomas
most suggestive parallel passages and observa- Fuller on the poet's poet: “And though some
tions of his own. Nevertheless, with all this in blame his Writings for the many Chaucerisms
mind, the wary critic as he rereads the poems used by him, yet to the Learned they are known
will, it is hoped, learn a lesson of supreme im not to be blemishes but rather beauties to his
portance to his generation. Let him reread also Book.”
Book.” Archaisms and coinages generally go
the poetry of Oscar Wilde and note that, while together,--see Spenser and Milton. We should
both poets can change like the chameleon, as the be a little less tolerant of coinages than of
iridescent memories of a hundred singers surge archaisms. And of course we must remember
through them, Oscar Wilde was insincere and always the rules of Horace, which are perfectly
therefore (except in a few master poems) only sound and quite invaluable and absolutely im-
a very interesting workman, but Francis Thomp- possible. Our multifarious, questing English
son was sincere and therefore a great poet. The language will pause over these rules occasion-
wary critic will then reflect that, in spite of the ally, just long enough to keep from going mad;
futurists, a man may, without going to the old but our language is, unlike all other Anglo-
extremes prescribed by some eighteenth-century Saxon institutions, absolutely without stolidity.
critics, follow certain immortal models. The wary As for the sacerdotalisms, they are often very
critic will remember that Milton, Shakespeare, beautiful when one finds out what they mean.
Spenser, and Chaucer unblushingly did just this. Ecclesiastico-mania is doubtless bad enough,
And he will perhaps come to the conclusion that but it is a venial sin compared with the vice
some of our modern artists have confused new popular among many of Thompson's critics,
ness with originality. He will, in fine, observe ecclesiastico-phobia. I am not averse to read-
that few supreme artists have cared much whether ing a poet, for a while, with a dictionary at my
what they sought to do had been done before, elbow. And as far as Thompson is concerned,
but rather they have trembled with convictions I never read him without resolving to plunder
that flamed out from the midst of their groping him some day of those same beautiful sacerdo-
comrades like the fierce jet of a huge forge in a talisms. Finally, now that his prose works
grim city at night.
and biography are in my hands, I shall be very


102
[Feb. 1
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careful about using the rapier on a man who many centuries. Nor will they who go to him
can weigh his words as nicely as the following all be Catholics.
all be Catholics. For some of them will be
passage indicates :
steeped in the philosophy of ancient India, and
“Of nervure'; I should not, in a like passage, use more of them will be Platonists who will know
cuticle of a flower or leaf: because it is a streaky word him “ by a secret sign.” But most brotherly of
its two k sounds and mouse-shrewd u make it like a
all will be those who can gather out of all of these
wire tweaked by a plectrum. The u of nervure is not
only unaccented, therefore unprominent in sound, but
the perfect flowers of wisdom. They will know
the soft v and u quite alter its effect from that it has Thompson's faults better than any other critics
when combined with k's and parchment-tight t's.” have known them; but, quite naturally, they will
And a friendly critic of Thompson writes as
choose to be silent.
follows:
HERBERT ELLSWORTA CORY.
“ The labour, the art, the studious vocabulary are
locked together within the strenuous grasp of the man's
sincerity. There is no dissociating, no disintegrating,
such poems as these; and Francis Thompson's heart beats
IN SOUTH AMERICAN WILDS.*
in the words “roseal,'• cymars,'«frore,' amiced,'·lamped,'
and so forth."
As a veteran explorer, Mr. A. Henry Savage
With these passages in mind I recall an
Landor needs no introduction to the reader of
extraordinary sentence in an English essay on
works on travel. Since his thrilling experiences
Thompson not yet a year old :
in Thibet sixteen years ago, he has penetrated
“ His thought is conventional, it is the diarrhætical
supposedly inaccessible parts of Persia, Afghan-
flux of language which mystifies, which shrieks and istan, and Africa ; yet it is doubtful if the
hisses by its persistent shock and turgidity, by its account of any of his past achievements can
linguistic nodes and rugosities."
approach in variety of incident or perils encoun-
Imagine the unholy joy with which a provincial tered the narrative of his journey just completed
English weekly would hail such a sentence from through the wildest portion of South America.
an American! Doubtless its writer would ac A detailed account of Mr. Savage Landor's
cuse me of lacking a sense of humor; but I latest explorations would obviously fall outside
must confess that my impresssion is of a little the scope of this review; yet some indication
man with a cracked voice trying to roar down his
may be given of the magnitude of his task and
intended victim, in the manner of Dr. Johnson, of the results attained.
of the results attained. In all, the author
or essaying, with petty irritation, the tremen travelled over thirteen thousand miles in South
dous guffaw of Rabelais.
America, and of this enormous distance some
Finally, Thompson's poems, reread with the five thousand miles were through regions in
prose in our minds and the chapter in the biog- Brazil hitherto either unknown or but little
raphy on “ Mysticism and Imagination open explored. His itinerary led him from Rio de
before us, teach us that it is wrong to accuse Janeiro, in a general northwesterly direction,
Thompson's thought of conventionality. The through the interior states of Goyaz, Matto
world is full of mystics to-day. There are, first Grosso, and Amazonas, — regions watered by
of all, the new-fangled mystical cults founded the great rivers Xingu, Tapajoz, and Madeira.
mainly by honest but rather shallow people, who, The object of the expedition was to study the
having conned the A B C of an attitude older geography and geology of this vast area, much
than the oldest forests of India, put forward of it uncharted; to learn something definite
their results as a new religion and draw many about the Indians of central Brazil; and to
equally honest and rather more shallow people investigate the economic resources of a territory
in their muddy wake. Yet, on the whole, good still largely unexploited.
will come from them. Then there is the school
From the first, the journey was fraught with
celebrated in Mr. Arthur Symons's masterly hardships and peril. It was found all but im-
volume on "The Symbolist Movement.” Most possible to persuade anyone in Brazil to embark
of the people of this school are really materialists, on the expedition; and as a last resort the
but they cover, generally with perfect sincerity, author was forced to employ, at ridiculously
their materialism with a thin and leprous and high wages, six ex-convicts as his companions.
alluring veil that they call mysticism. I believe The journey begun with such unfavorable aus-
that some of these people will leave, for all their pices repeatedly threatened to end in disaster.
decadence, works of art that are enduring, but
* ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA. By A. Henry
never supreme. Francis Thompson was a true
Savage Landor. In two volumes. Illustrated. Boston:
mystic, and to him a few thinkers will go for Little, Brown, & Co.


1914]
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Again and again Mr. Savage Landor had to were we. In turning my head around I discovered ten
quell a mutiny, and on several occasions his life large demijohns, some two and one-half feet high and
about two feet in diameter, of thick green glass. They
was in imminent danger. · But even more re-
were the usual demijohns — garaffons, as they were
markable than the successive escapes from his called — used all over Brazil for fire-water.' I at
followers was his triumph over natural obstacles. once conceived the idea of using them as floats in the
His original intention was to pass through the
construction of a raft.
very heart of Brazil, riding from the terminus “My men grinned contemptuously at the idea when
of the railway in Minas Geraes to Manaos, the
I mentioned it to them. They said that all was over.
It was no use trying to get away. The Almighty wanted
capital of Amazonas, a distance of between
us to die, and we must only lie there and await our end,
three and four thousand miles. But after eight which was not far off. Benedicto struggled to his knees
hundred miles had been traversed he discovered and prayed to the Almighty and the Virgin, sobbing
that his worthless companions, in order to force bitterly all the time,
him to retrace his steps, had thrown away
“I struggled up on my feet and proceeded to carry
most
the big vessels to the river bank, where I intended to
of his large stock of provisions. To escape construct the raft. The effort to take each heavy bottle
starvation, the party made a detour to the those few metres seemed almost beyond me in my ex-
south, and reached the ancient settlement of bausted state. At last I proceeded to strip the floor of
Diamantino, the last frontier post of civiliza-
the hut, which had been made with split assahy palms,
in order that I might make a frame to which I could
tion in central Brazil. With what supplies he fasten the bottles. With a great deal of persuasion I
could purchase, Mr. Savage Landor now deter- got Filippe and Benedicto to help me. The long pieces
mined to descend from its source the great of assahy were too heavy for our purpose, and we had
Tapajos River, one of the most powerful tribu-
the additional trouble of splitting each piece into four.
taries of the Amazon. The account of the
It was most trying work in our worn-out condition.
Then we had to go into the forest and collect some
journey down the hitherto unexplored portions small liane so that we could tie the pieces together, as
of this stream is thrilling in the highest degree. we had no nails and no rope.
Perilous waterfalls, treacherous whirlpools,
“ The lassitude with which we did our work, and tore
deadly rapids, — "in comparison with which
down part of the hut in order to build that raft, our only
those of Niagara are child's play,” — taxed the
way of salvation, was too pitiful to watch. We abso-
lutely had no strength at all. When we pulled the
skill and endurance of the party to the utmost. liane to fasten together the different pieces of palm
At times they were even obliged to drag the wood, we were more exhausted than if we had lifted a
two-thousand-pound canoe over low mountain weight of 200 pounds. As it was, we could not fasten
ranges, after blazing a trail through the native
the pieces of wood properly, and when the raft was fin-
forest.
ished it was indeed a shaky affair.”
The last stage of Mr. Savage Landor's explo-On this unstable craft the starving men con-
rations in Brazil not only surpassed in hardship trived to drift down stream, until they found
and suffering everything that had preceded, but
food and safety in the camp of a rubber collect-
seemed fated to end in tragedy.
Since the ing expedition.
canoe, by this time unserviceable, had to be The remaining experiences of the author,
abandoned at a government station, the author though highly interesting, were in no wise
heroically insisted on pushing forward on foot, unique. He ascended the Amazon to its source,
through the unexplored region between Tapajos crossed the Andes by a little-travelled route,
and Madeira Rivers. But again his plans were
traversed the highlands of Peru and Bolivia,
balked by the perfidy of his followers. Sup- and finally returned to Europe via Santiago
plies intended to last many months were sur-
and Buenos Aires.
reptitiously destroyed, until at length the little It would be a grave injustice to Mr. Savage
party, entirely cut off from civilization, passed
Landor to assume that he has written merely a
sixteen days practically without food. Further chronicle of adventure. From the standpoint
attempts to cut a path through the forest were
of science alone, his work is a storehouse of
impossible owing to the weakness of the men;
results and discoveries of real importance, par-
escape by water seemed out of the question, as ticularly in the field of ethnology. Hitherto
the native timbers were all too heavy to float. little-known Indian tribes, especially the Boro-
The ingenious expedient by which Mr. Savage ros, inhabiting the interior of Matto Grosso,
Landor succeeded in rescuing himself and his were carefully studied, and elaborate vocabula-
companions from this frightful impasse may
ries were prepared of their language. At the
best be described in his own words:
same time our knowledge of the geology and
“We felt in such a plight that we lay helpless upon geography of Central Brazil has been materially
the floor of the hut, quite unable to move, so exhausted increased through the author's methodical and


104
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
tireless observations. Even the account of the the lad under the influence of Benjamin Abbott,
vast economic possibilities of this virgin terri to whom he says he owed much of his success
tory makes fascinating reading. In fact, so in life. Benjamin Abbott was a great teacher,
highly did the Brazilian government value the who conducted Phillips Exeter for fifty years.
results of this expedition, that it honored Mr. Some of his boys were Daniel Webster, Edward
Savage Landor with a grant of four thousand Everett, Jared Sparks, and George Bancroft.
dollars.
At thirteen George Nichols became a clerk
In all details of the bookmaker's art, these in his father's grocery store, and his school
two handsome volumes leave little to be desired. | days were over. In 1793, the father, Ichabod
Several of the author's own wonderful color Nichols, returned to Salem and went into the
studies are reproduced, while the two hundred shipping business. An experience of a year or
excellent illustrations from photographs enable so as a shipping clerk whetted the boy's wish
the reader to follow the party throughout every " to see the world," and in his seventeenth year
stage of its remarkable journey.
he made his first voyage, to Copenhagen and
P. A. MARTIN. St. Petersburg.
The most interesting part of the autobi-
ography is the account of nine voyages made
OLD SALEM IN ITS HABIT AS IT LIVED.*|| between 1795 and 1803,- eight years full of
More than fifty years ago, George Nichols, work and adventure for the young sailor, who
of Salem, then eighty years old, dictated his
rose rapidly from joint super-cargo to be master
autobiography to his daughter, Lydia Ropes business notes throw light on economic condi-
of his own ship, the “Active.” Captain Nichols's
Nichols. Now Miss Martha Nichols publishes tions in the first quarter-century of the Republic,
her grandfather's recollections under the title,
George Nichols, Salem Shipmaster and Mer-
The Salem shipping masters were international
chant." The autobiography is an account at
carriers; they built ships and manned them, and
first hand of Salem shipping at the turn of the
fetched and carried goods wherever they found
eighteenth century, when the ships of Salem profitable markets. An American cargo was
were known in all the great ports of the world. usually tobacco, sugar, and coffee. Captain
Nichols made one coast-wise voyage to Virginia,
George Nichols was born July 4, 1778, in
what is now the oldest brick house in Salem, in
for tobacco to carry to the north of Europe.
Derby street near the Custom House. When
But Virginia did not furnish all the tobacco of
about a year old his father moved to Ports-
American cargoes, for the year before, 1797, he
mouth, New Hampshire, and the recollections
went to Alexandria, Egypt, for flour and tobacco,
which he sold in the Isle of France, and bought
tell an entertaining story of schoolboy life in
that old town. It began at “not more than
sugar and coffee to carry back to Salem. On
two years of age, when I was sent to an old
another voyage he took tobacco, sugar, and coffee
woman named Molly Shaw, and cradle was
to St. Petersburg, and brought back from Russia
my
sent with me.” Another dame school was fol. hemp, iron, and manufactures. In 1802, he
lowed by two boys' schools, which he remem-
sailed to Sumatra for a cargo of pepper, which
bered chiefly as places where he was cruelly
he sold in Manila, and bought sugar and indigo.
flogged and learned nothing. Naturally he Sailing for Falmouth, England, he went to Lon-
preferred to drive the cow to pasture, to feed don, where he learned that France and England
were on the verge of war. He sailed at once
the pigs, or to work in the garden. Various
pranks recall Tom Bailey, the classic bad boy weeks until war was declared, when he sold his
for Rotterdam, and there cannily waited three
of Portsmouth. On one occasion when the
schoolmaster caught his younger brother, Icha-
cargo at an advance of fifty per cent on peace
bod, by the ear, “pulling it very violently,”
prices.
George says he could hardly refrain from throw-
In December, 1799, Captain Nichols set sail
ing a large Bible he had in his hand at the
in the ship “ Active” on what he describes as
master's head. He did not throw the Bible,
“one of the greatest voyages, considering all the
but he cried out in school, “You are a set of
circumstances, ever made by a Salem vessel.”
fools altogether.”
He carried about $15,000 in specie to Bombay
to buy cotton, which he took to London and sold
A year at Phillips Exeter Academy brought
to the East India Company at more than three
*GEORGE NICHOLS, SALEM SHIPMASTER AND MER-
CHANT, By Martha Nichols. Salem : The Salem Press
hundred per cent profit. Reloading in London,
Company.
he went back to Madras with a cargo of English


1914]
105
THE DIAL
goods and some $40,000 in specie. He re was a white lace veil put on turban fashion.
turned to Salem in 1801, after an absence of Her cake, of which she had a great quantity, was
about twenty months, with bills of exchange on made in a great bread tray by Nellie Masury, a
Boston for $65,000, together with bills of lading sister of the late Deacon Punchard.” Nasser
for a cargo worth $10,000. He was twenty-three Vanji was a Parsee, of Bombay. The Parsees
years old in that year.
are described as “some of the most intelligent
The old sea captain's interests were mainly people I have ever known, rich and very
honor-
of a business character, but we get a glimpse of able in their dealings. The merchant, Nasser
London in 1800. It is the London of Charles Vanji Monackjee, was a very
fine man.
Lamb, who was then a clerk in the service of A charming story illustrates the character of
the East India Company. One evening Captain Sally Peirce Nichols.
Sally Peirce Nichols. “I shall never forgot the
Nichols went to see George Frederick Cooke beautiful smile upon my wife's countenance when
play Shylock at “the Covent Garden Theatre, I told her I was bankrupt. She said : • Is that
where I saw the Royal family - George the all ? I feared from
your manner that
you
had
Third, his wife and two or three daughters; one something dreadful to communicate.'”
of whom, Princess Elizabeth, was very handsome, Sally Peirce Nichols inherited the house built
reminding me very much of Dolly Treadwell.” in 1782 by her father, Jerathmiel Peirce, and
Another London experience is of interest designed by Samuel McIntyre. This house,
to those who happen to own a Tobias watch. with its hospitable gateway and door, its beau-
Telling his “watch story,” Captain Nichols ful hall, handsome drawing-room, and terraced
relates: “My next watch adventure was in garden behind, is one of the finest and best-
London, where I had a gold watch made by preserved colonial houses in New England.
one Tobias, a Jew, very much thought of by At the close of his well-told story, Captain
Americans, but an unprincipled man. It cost Nichols says, with some pride, that he could
me $120.” There is a certain Tobias watch recall the names of all the men who had ever
that has been keeping time in one family for sailed with him, both before and after he was
nearly sixty years. It came into the family in master, and the names of all the persons with
part payment of a debt, so that it has an earlier whom he did business abroad. To this good
and unknown history. It was carried in a memory, we owe the preservation of the follow-
soldier's pocket through the Civil War. It ing old ballad, which was sung by one of the
went around the world and told time for the sailors from down east” to cheer the men when
U. S. Transit of Venus expedition in 1874–5. the ship was becalmed :
It now keeps up with the intricacies of a college
SWEET WILLIAM.
schedule. A high principled watch, surely!
“ Sweet William, he married a wife,
When the War of 1812 broke out, Captain
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
Nichols says he was worth $40,000 and was To be the sweet comfort of his life,
“quite a rich man for those times.” One of As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
the results of that war was the decline of the
~ Jenny could n't card, nor Jenny could n't spin,
port of Salem, brought about by the loss of its Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
ships to British privateers. The experience For fear of hurting her gay gold ring,
of Captain Nichols illustrates how effectually
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
England drove American commerce off the “ Jenny could n't brew, nor Jenny could n't bake,
high seas. Every ship in which he was inter Gentle Jennie, cried Rose Marie,
ested was captured. Salem never recovered its
For fear of soiling her white apron tape,
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
commercial leadership. In 1826, both George
Nichols and his father-in-law became bankrupt. “ Jenny could n't into the kitchen to go,
He had married, in 1801, his cousin, Sally
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
Peirce, daughter of Jerathmiel Peirce, also a
For fear of hurting her high-heeled shoe,
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
shipping master, and grandfather of Benja-
min Peirce, the mathematician. The marriage
“ Sweet William came whistling in from plaow,
took place “in
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
Father Peirce's great eastern
my
And, 'Oh, my dear wife, is my dinner ready, naow?'
room. Sally's dress was a beautiful striped
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
muslin, very delicate, made in Bombay for some
6 She called him a dirty, paltry whelp,
distinguished person. I purchased it of Nasser
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
Vanji, at five dollars per yard. This muslin
If you want any dinner, go get it yourself,'
Sally wore over white silk. Her head-dress As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.


106
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
« Then to the sheepfold quickly he did go,
A NEW HISTORY OF ENGLAND.*
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
And out a fat wether from there did pull,
It is necessary to rewrite the history of a
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
people at intervals, not only in order to bring
" Then down on his knees he began for to stick, the record of its achievements nearer to the
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
present, but also in order to present any modi-
And from the sheep's back the skin did strip,
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
fication in point of view which a more critical
examination of the sources of information may
“ He laid the skin upon his wife's back,
afford. Moreover, a restatement of the facts
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
And with a good stick he went whicketty whack,
and conclusions of historical compositions be-
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
longing to a decade or more in the past is called
for by changes that have taken place in the
“ I'll tell me fayther and all me kin,'
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
vocabulary and forms of expression of the lan-
How still the quarrel you've begun,'
guage.
New terms and new connotations of old
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
terms make a rephrasing of the events of the
•You may tell your fayther and all your kin,'
past desirable from time to time, in order that
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
their significance may fit with greater freedom
• How I have thrashed my fat wether's skin,' the changes in the consciousness of the popular
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
mind.
“ Sweet William came whistling in from plaow,
In some measure all of these considerations
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
justify the appearance of Mr. Arthur D. Innes's
And • Oh, my dear wife, is my dinner ready naow ?' new History of England. Like its classic
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
predecessor by J. R. Green, this volume of a
“She drew her table and spread her board,
thousand
pages is not a text-book in the ordi-
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
nary sense.
It is designed for those who, out-
And • Oh, my dear husband,' was every word,
side the restrictions of the school, love to read
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.
the history of a great people for what it shows
“ And now they live free from all care and all strife, of human achievement and for what it inspires
Gentle Jenny, cried Rose Marie,
And now she makes William a very good wife,
by its portraiture of a great national spirit. Mr.
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.”
Innes very appropriately recognizes Green's
“Short History" as " incomparable in its kind.”
This sailor's song is an American variant of With this judgment most readers will agree.
“ The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin,” No. 277 Green possessed, beyond the endowment of most
of Francis J. Child's “English and Scottish professional historians, the literary talent. His
Ballads,” there described as a ballad based on personal correspondence, like that of a Lowell or
the old Tudor prose tale of the “ Wife Lapped a William Vaughn Moody, is charged with the
in Morrel's Skin." The American song is élan of a true man of letters. His story of the
clearly derived from extant Scottish versions, English, expanding under the impulse of their
one of which is called "Sweet Robin."
native Teutonic energy, is so sympathetically
I may add that Captain Nichols not only human that it touches the springs of apprecia-
remembered the words of his sailor's song, but tion even in those who are accustomed to regard
he could sing it.
history as dry. Green, too, stands alone in his
One of the choicest gems of my collection expression of the feeling that the development
of American ballads and songs is the quaint of their literature has been a part of the life
eighteenth century melody of “Sweet William.” history of the English people as inevitable and
MARY AUGUSTA SCOTT.
characteristic as their religion and politics.
Mr. Innes's aim has been different from
Green's both in method and treatment. His
HERR HERMAN BEHR, a German-American, has de-
purpose has been to write the history of the
voted his leisure hours to the translation into German of
British nation, not the life of the English peo-
choice specimens of English poetry, and now publishes ple. Green wrote his history in ten chapters,
the result (together with some pieces of his own) in a vol- concluding his story proper with the defeat of
ume called "Perlen Englischer Dichtung in Deutscher Napoleon at Waterloo. In an Epilogue of nine
Fassung.” Some of the pieces from Shelley and Keats,
in particular, are very beautifully done, and the volume *A HISTORY OF ENGLAND from the Earliest Times to
shows once more how finely receptive the German lan the Present Day. By A. D. Innes. Illustrated in color, etc.
guage is of the poems of other tongues.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.


1914]
107
THE DIAL
paragraphs he carries the narrative hurriedly for her destruction. She had sown the wind in the
forward to 1873. Mr. Innes, apparently for
long years of incompetent and wrong-headed admin-
istration; now she was to reap the whirlwind. The
very logical reasons, handles the history of the
Peace of Paris had left her with no friend in Europe
nation under a division of seven books. The
and with one implacable foe. That foe, France,
subject of Book I. is “ Nation Making,” and ex desired nothing better than an opportunity of striking
tends the narrative as far as 1272, a period which
a blow at the rival who had defeated her."
Green covers in his first three chapters. Roman The author approaches the “Era of Revolu-
Britain, which Green incidentally notices in tions," in Book VI., by a clear exposition of the
three paragraphs, occupies the first five pages
economic and social reforms which William Pitt
of Mr. Innes's work. His treatment of events sought to introduce. England was the first
culminating in Magna Charta and the subse- State of Europe to become receptive to liberal
quent contest between Henry III. and Simon ideas of taxation and reciprocal trade benefits.
de Montfort prepares the reader for Book II., Adam Smith had shown that taxation operates
on “ National Consolidation.” The period of to restrain trade; that, therefore, taxation
the Tudors, which Green interprets in two fine should be imposed exclusively for revenue. In
chapters on “The New Monarchy” and “The
” and “The the face of an enormous war debt, Pitt, as prime
Reformation," is the theme of Mr. Innes's minister, had the courage to propose the sur-
third book, a period which he regards as “The render of the age-old policy of heavy trade re-
Age of Transition.” The weakness and retro-strictions, and trust to the theory of lowered
gression of the two reigns between Henry VIII. duties as a means of replenishing the impover-
and Elizabeth are presented under the title of ished finances of the country. English inventive
“In Deep Waters.” Book IV. embraces the genius was displacing the old domestic methods
seventeenth century controversy between the of manufacture with the factory system, and Pitt
Puritans and the Stuart faction, the story of the saw that England might greatly profit by the
Commonwealth, and the reign of William III. cultivation, through milder duties, of a foreign
Chapter XIX., entitled “ Nemesis," is one of the
market for her machine-made goods.
most spirited in the book. Under three divisions,
“ The passing of the old ideas of commercial policy
playfully christened "Quem Deus vult perdere,'
was illustrated when Pitt negotiated a commercial treaty
with France in 1786. Each country had hitherto fol-
“Prius dementat,” and “Fulfilment," we are
lowed a policy of excluding the other's goods. No one
told of the incapacity, the fatuity, and the over since 1713 had attempted in practice to traverse that
throw of James II. In Book V. the author moves principle. . . . Fox denounced the treaty on the ground
forward to the consideration of The British Em-
that France, our hereditary foe, would profit by it. A
pire.” Great events are blended with great per hereditary fue. The French denounced the treaty
few years later Fox was less ready to denounce our
sonalities. Marlborough inherits the foreign because they profited by it a good deal less than the
policy of William III.; Walpole, the “inevitable British.”
minister,“ develops his “system” of managing Pitt, the pioneer of free trade, was thwarted
for twenty years the parliamentary constituen in his plans for fiscal and political reform by the
cies; Clive and Dupleix fight out the English exigency of war. It was reserved to William
and French conflict for the control of India; Pitt Huskinson, another disciple of Adam Smith,
supports an alliance with Frederick the Great to press upon the nation the application of free
and wins New France; George III. and his trade principles. His “
Tory supporters triumph over the Whig sym- Act,” in 1823, led within six years to the con-
pathizers of Burke and Chatham and split off clusion of as many as fifteen reciprocity treaties
the American Colonies from the Empire. The with foreign countries, and the old Navigation
author's account of this last event, though lack-laws were doomed. Huskinson stimulated En-
ing the philosophic vision with which Green views glish manufactures and the national wealth by
the American revolt, probably states the case of beginning the admission of raw material at
the contest with fairness of judgment. Speaking greatly reduced duties. The policy of free
of the situation precipitated by the British defeat trade, completed by the budgets of Mr. Glad-
at Saratoga, he says:
stone in 1860, has maintained itself as English
“ There was nothing in itself irretrievable about the tariff orthodoxy ever since. The only serious
disaster. A Chatham, bent on a vigorous prosecution challenge it has received was the proposal of
of the war, would have found troops and officers numer Joseph Chamberlain, in 1903, to stimulate im-
ous and capable enough to vanquish the Americans in the
field in the simple duel. But after Saratoga the war
perial consolidation by means of a preferential
ceased to be a duel. It became a struggle between Great
market for colonial goods, a proposal that was
Britain and a group of combatants who joined together not approved at the polls, and has not succeeded


108
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
in making a serious place for itself in party Tennyson's rival, who had to wait many years
politics.
for popular recognition.” An Epilogue gives
Mr. Innes's exposition of British political an outline of parliamentary enactments up to
parties is straightforward and lucid:
1911. The reader is given a very satisfactory
“ Modern party terminology makes it difficult to notion of the present tendencies of British social
employ necessary words and phrases without conveying politics under the lead of Mr. Lloyd George
misapprehension. Two great parties have appropriated and Premier Asquith.
to themselves respectively the complimentary epithets
of Liberal and Conservative, although there is no sort
In its wealth of illustrations this new history
of opposition between Conservatism and Liberalism. of the British surpasses any of its predecessors.
Leaders of the Liberal party have been men of essen These illustrations are well chosen for their
tially conservative mind; leaders of the Conservative
purpose of deepening the impression of contem-
party have been men of the broadest sympathies.”
porary life and events. The author maintains
This is a good characterization. The genius of
a uniformity of style, which is that of a discrim-
British party politics lies in the historic balance inating historical student whose object is to pre-
of agreement that remains after all party dif-
sent the story of those events that make up the
ferences have been given their proper weight. best part of British history, without any attempt
Canning, as the author points out, a disciple of to adorn the story. The nearness of events which
Pitt and Burke, opposed parliamentary reform it includes, as well as its modern tone, will make
to the end of his life. Peel's early conservatism the book a welcome addition to the library of
gradually developed into the most liberal sym- the general reader. L. E. ROBINSON.
pathies, culminating in his complete conversion
to free trade and the ultimate fusion of the
Peelites with the Liberal party. This evolu A DIPLOMATIST'S WIFE IN ITALY.*
tionary spirit of British political life is likewise
illustrated by the career of Peel's great disciple, with Rome and Italy, where her early life was
Mrs. Hugh Fraser is as passionately in love
Gladstone, who is thus characterized:
passed, as was her brother, the late Francis
“Like his master, Peel, he spent his life in assimi-
Marion Crawford ; and, like him, she knows
lating one after another ideas to which he had at first
been strongly antagonistic. His weakness lay in that
how to write with understanding and an infec-
excessive subtlety which made it very easy for him to
tious enthusiasm about the Eternal City, its
persuade himself that what he had come to regard as history and legends, its storied haunts and its
morally right was demonstrably expedient, and that perennial charm. In her latest work, “ Italian
what he realized as expedient was warranted by the Yesterdays,” issued in two generous volumes,
highest moral sanctions. . . . It will always be recog-
nized that he imported into politics an insistence upon
she continues and amplifies the early memories
the doctrine that the highest morality is always the partly rehearsed in her “ Reminiscences of a
highest expediency, which has given him a unique Diplomatist's Wife,” and interweaves there-
position among the practical politicians of history.”
with a good deal of ancient and mediæval and
Mr. Innes incorporates within his narrative modern history and tradition. In fact, these
fairly adequate accounts of the progress of the interwoven threads of historic research make
several British colonies, of Canada and South
up considerably more of the total fabric than
Africa in particular. The recent development does the warp of personal reminiscence for
of Australia and New Zealand is scarcely noticed. which the reader is inclined to search with espe-
His readers will be pleased with the short but cial eagerness. One follows with keener interest
well-written chapters on the industrial advance her stories of childhood, her accounts of things
of the English people. For the success of this seen, her impressions of Rome and its environs,
phase of the work the appearance of the author's than her sketch of the founding of the city ("on
excellent little book on “ England's Industrial that memorable 21st of April, 754 B. C.”
Development" a year ago was a sufficient guar our schoolbooks used to give the date as 753),
antee. Unlike Green, he is not uniformly sat her dissertation on the deities of ancient Rome,
isfactory in his sections which deal with the her chapter on the last days of the apostles, her
progress of England's literature. His remarks epitome of the life of St. Gregory, or even her
on English writers are not so interesting as
entertaining pages on Queen Joan of Naples.
Gardiner's. His best characterization is that of Somewhat in the nature of padding these ex-
Chaucer; Shakespeare and Milton should have cursions into history and biography might be
had a more adequate treatment. Tennyson is called, if 6
called, if "padding” were not so unkind a
given a short but fairly representative critical
* ITALIAN YESTERDAYS. By Mrs. Hugh Fraser. In two
estimate. Browning is merely mentioned as volumes. New York: Dodd, Mead Co.


1914]
109
THE DIAL
word, and if this space-filling matter, rather the world was not confined to their own small town or
good of its sort, to be sure,
did not compose
the hamlet. I suppose the good custom will die out in
bulk of the book. Even a subject so seemingly
time, like so many others, but it will not suffer much
diminution while such wonderful new centres of attrac-
remote from Mrs. Fraser's own “yesterdays tion spring up as, for instance, the Santuario 'of New
as the Man in the Iron Mask is dragged in and Pompeii, which I described in a former book [* Remi-
made to furnish substance for two chapters,
niscences of a Diplomatist's Wife']. But many an un-
while the Bravi of Venice, picturesque person-
forgotten shrine in the remote hills has, like La Men-
torana in the Sabines, its one day or night of glory in
ages, it is true, supply material for another.
the year, when the peasants come in great bands, even
But as long as these miscellaneous topics interest
from far away, and the chants and litanies go up all
our author, we are willing to renew our own night long in and around some dim old Church. Such
interest in them under the impulse of their
a festival takes place at San Salvatore in the Abruzzi,
attractiveness to her and the freshness of her
in the late summer, and is the scene of a great gather-
ing of the people of the Penisola Sarrcutina.”
manner of handling them.
As will have been surmised from the fore-
As in her immediately preceding book, so in
this there is occasional interesting mention of going, the religious faith of the Italian people,
their Church and all it means to them, fail not
her gifted brother, and in all such mention her
to impress Mrs. Fraser. In a passing reference
admiration and sisterly adoration of him are
manifest. The story of his acquisition of the
to her own spiritual experience, she says: “I
remember writing to the great French Prelate
castle of San Nicola, on the rocky coast of
who received me into the Church, that I felt
Calabria, where many of his novels were writ-
like a beggar suddenly admitted into the palace
ten, is told at some length and with details not
of his King, dazzled with the warmth and splen-
lacking in local color. The purchase seems to
dour, yet utterly ignorant of which way to turn
have been made on the spur of the moment and
or how to comport himself in those august sur-
with little computation of the property's real
value in money; for, as the narrator says of roundings.” She regrets that “ so many, indeed,
her brother, he could never resist the call of
are utterly unconscious that there is anything
to know beyond the few distorted facts doled out
fortressed solitudes." The conclusion of the
in non-Catholic schools, that even the most un-
whole affair is thus put into a single paragraph: assuming effort to share these riches with them
“To tell the truth it was not the money side of the
may
be useful and welcome.” It is evident, then,
matter which distressed my sister-in-law so much as the
prospect of being required to come and pass weeks at a
in spite of a little lack of clearness in her mode
time in this grim dungeon, without a single convenience of expression, that the writer is in the proper
of life, twelve miles from a market town, and of course mental attitude to receive and to transmit to her
lashed to the battlements by every Mediterranean storm.
sympathetic readers the impression of the mys-
It took her some days to reconcile herself to the new
acquisition — poor girl — but Marion had not made a
tery, the charm, “the holy glory,” as she words
inistake, after all. The family was not invited to San
it, of Catholic Rome. In her backward glance
Nicola till he had made several journeys thither himself, at the life of “our blessed Pius IX.," she dwells
with carpenters and materials, and when they did come with fondness on his kindness and generosity to
they found that the lonely keep had been transformed
the poor, and is pleased to believe that justice
internally to a quite possible dwelling—though certainly
an inconveniently isolated one. Generally, however,
had nothing to blush for in the Rome of those
he went there alone, to rest from everything connected days, and the poor could obtain it as promptly
with modern life, and he found it a fine, quiet place for and easily as the rich.” Here is a little anecdote
writing, at any rate."
of that blissful period :
Mrs. Fraser knows her Italy from Piedmont to “One day the Holy Father, walking in the Quirinal
Apulia, and her pictures of its people and their Gardens, passed a sentry on duty. The man silently
varying characteristics in different regions show
held out a loaf of bread for his inspection. Pius took
her to be an observing traveller. The following get bread as bad as this ?' Always, Santo Padre,' was
it, examined it, and asked one question, • Do you always
is worth quoting in this connection.
the reply. A sudden descent on the Commissariat de-
“ As one travels southward the character of the people partment showed that he had spoken the truth. When
changes, and in the later years of my life I have felt the sun rose again the cheating commissary was repent-
more at home with my fellow-beings of the South than ing of his sins in prison. There is a beautifully practical
with the inhabitants of Romagna. Their outlook is side to autocratic government!”
simpler, more indulgent, and their religious faith far As a further example of the writer's style in
more fervent. I think the Southern custom of going on
summoning up the past for our instruction or
pilgrimages was a very valuable one to the contadini of
entertainment, or both, we quote a passage from
the Regno.' It used to be rare to find middle-aged
people of the labouring class in the province, who had her chapter on “Naples under Murat":
not travelled a little in that way and thus learnt that “ For Naples was gay in those days. People saw light


110
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
ahead after the years of gloom. Hunger had vanished; tion and interference, and also as showing the
real hunger, at any rate. The King's public works gave
degree to which Latin-Americans are justified
employment. Uniforms glittered everywhere. To their
minds, Naples was a Paris in miniature, so the lights
in regarding this policy as an attempt of the
shone and the world danced and played on, music lay
United States to establish a suzerainty over
over the place in a rainbow web of sound, and the blue the Western hemisphere. Professor Bingham
sea smiled at the stars."
emphasizes with striking clearness the fact that
Rather for her pages of personal experience Argentina, Brazil, and Chile have within the
than for her divagations into various eras of the past decade experienced a remarkable economic
Italian past do we, as already indicated, value and political growth, the importance of which
Mrs. Fraser's book. As the wife of a diplomat is realized by few citizens of the United States.
subject to transfer at any time from one quarter Consequently, these powers are no longer in need
of the globe to another, she has seen much of the of our “patronizing we-will-protect-you-from-
world and the world's celebrities, and when she Europe attitude”; a feeling of deep resentment
writes of her past she seldom fails to command and ill-concealed antagonism has been aroused
the reader's attention.
among the Latin Americans; while the leading
PERCY F. BICKNELL. countries of South America “are already on the
road toward a kind of triple alliance with the
definite object of opposing the encroachments of
NEW STUDIES OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE.*
the United States." Perhaps the most effective
The recent revival of interest in the Monroe quated policy” is that it places a great respon-
argument for the abandonment of this w anti-
doctrine has called into existence two noteworthy sibility upon the United States, and of necessity
contributions to the literature of this, the oldest
involves a disregard for the most generally ac-
and most cherished of our foreign policies. The
first of these, Professor Hiram Bingham's « The çepted rules of international law. By letting it
be known to Europe that we will not permit any
Monroe Doctrine: An Obsolete Shibboleth, interference in American affairs, our government
is a vigorous attack upon a traditional policy virtually assumes all the responsibility, and be-
which President Cleveland once declared in his
comes the international policeman for the Latin
Venezuela message to be “important to our
part of the Western hemisphere. Adherence to
peace and safety as a nation and essential to
this " obsolete shibboleth” is likewise a draw-
the integrity of our free institutions and the
back to American commerce, for international
tranquil maintenance of our distinctive form of
trade is largely a matter of sentiment, and it is
government.”
difficult to sell goods to those who distrust and
As the result of a long and careful study of
Latin-American conditions, both from reading the world's peace and happiness, and for the
dislike you. Finally, from the standpoint of
and extensive travel, Mr. Bingham has reached
advancement of civilization in the New World,
the conclusion that the United States has out-
grown the Monroe doctrine, and should therefore coöperation, rather than of tutelage and inter-
the policy of the United States should be one of
abandon its principles. After a brief description
vention.
of the origin and early applications of this doc-
With the abandonment of the Monroe doc-
trine as a legitimate means of protection against trine, Professor Bingham suggests that the
European aggression and land hunger, the author
United States should take every possible step
turns his attention to what he calls the
to assure the South Americans of our friendship
“ new Monroe doctrine.” The application of the
and goodwill; and that for the preservation of
Monroe doctrine to the Venezuelan boundary order and for protection against European ag-
dispute, the frequent acts of interference in the
domestic quarrels of South American republics, should give way to a settlement of these common
gressiveness, the policy of the Monroe doctrine
the receivership in San Domingo, the coup d'état
matters by a congress of leading American
in Panama, and the Lodge Resolution of 1912,
powers. Professor Bingham has spent much
are cited as examples of the extent to which the
time on the Southern Continent, and he has
doctrine has been enlarged beyond its original made a careful study of Latin-American gov-
intent and purpose to mean a policy of interven-
ernments and peoples. For this reason he is
* The MONROE DOCTRINE: An Obsolete Shibboleth. By peculiarly well fitted to set forth the ideas of
Hiram Bingham. New Haven : Yale University Press. those American citizens who are coming to feel
DIE MONROEDOKTRIN in ihren Beziehungen zur ameri-
kanischen Diplomatie und zum Völkerrecht. Von Dr. jur.
that there is little justification for the Monroe
Herbert Kraus. Berlin : J. Guttentag.
doctrine, at least in its present form.


1914]
111
THE DIAL
Quebec and
***
The second contribution is a treatise entitled Gibbon walked on that memorable night when he
“Die Monroe Doktrin,” by Dr. Herbert Kraus, finished his great work):
Here is the writer's list
a German scholar who prosecuted his studies at
of the six best biographies : Boswell's “Johnson,"
Harvard University and whose work is dedi-
Lockhart's “ Scott,
” Mrs. Gaskell's 6 Charlotte
cated to Professor J. B. Moore, now Counsellor
Brontë," Trevelyan's “Macaulay,” Froude's “Car-
of the Department of State. This treatise is
This treatise is lyle," and Lord Morley’s “Gladstone." He throws
out Carlyle's "Life of Sterling" because it deals
the most comprehensive, scientific, and schol-
with a hopelessly second-rate man ”; but the imper-
arly study that has ever been made of the
ishable charm of the biography remains unaffected
Monroe doctrine, and is an excellent example by Sterling's failure to achieve greatness, while on
of what German patience and scholarship can the other hand not even Carlyle's commanding
accomplish. It is somewhat singular, if not dis- genius can make us overlook Froude's misleading
creditable to American scholarship, that the most and often deliberately false presentation of the mate-
careful study dealing with the greatest of Amer-
rials of his biography. Gravy, such as Dickens knew
ican foreign policies should have been done by a
so well how to provide, thick and savoury, Sir Rob-
foreigner. Most American studies of the Monroe ertson Nicoll regrets to find furnished too scantily
doctrine have either been of a popular character | by modern authors, though he praises some of them
for being at the same time never unctuous and never
or they have dealt with particular phases of the dry and wooden. There is a rich store of good read-
subject. This is the first treatise which deals ing, especially for bookmen, in these “ Bookman's
with the historical development of the policy from Letters,” a few of which, it should be added, are
its beginnings during Washington's administra from other sources than the above-named.
tion to its latest application by the Lodge
Resolution of 1912 in regard to Magdalena
Mr. Beckles Willson, already the
author of several readable books on
Bay, and which considers the subject in all its
its people.
various phases of Canadian life or
bearings and ramifications. The chapter on
history, now gives us an account of “Quebec: The
“The Monroe Doctrine of the Present" contains
Laurentian Province” (Stokes). The book is dis-
a keen analysis of the meaning of the policy; tinctly devoted to Quebec and its people of to-day,
and the discussion of the relation of the Monroe and in the main may be accepted as a reasonably
doctrine to international law presents it in a accurate statement of the life and problems of the
light in which Americans do not often see it. French province. As with most other writers on the
The whole work shows abundant evidence that subject, Mr. Willson pauses on the threshold to mar-
the author has consulted an enormous mass
vel at the fecundity of the French Canadians, who
of documentary materials, and the bibliograph-began their career as an isolated community within
the British Empire in 1763 with a population of
ical apparatus which he furnishes will be a
69,000 souls, and solely by natural increase have
valuable guide for the use of students.
expanded to a total of 1,600,000 within the province,
JAMES W. GARNER. and at least half a million more outside Quebec.
Surely the French-Canadians are a people after
Colonel Roosevelt's own heart! One notices an occa-
sional mistake in the book, such as the confusion
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
between the Governor-General of Canada per se and
Open letters of
Not all of us have the pleasure of read what is known as the Governor-General-in-Council.
an English ing regularly “The British Weekly,” | The Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, and the judges
bookman. with its editorial utterances under the of the superior, district, and county courts, are not
heading, "The Correspondence of Claudius Clear," appointed by the Governor-General, as stated on
and therefore we hail with satisfaction the goodly page 5, but by the Governor-General-in-Council. The
volume bringing together some noteworthy selections Governor-General, as the King's representative, has
from this correspondence under the title, "A Book no more power of appointment, beyond his own house-
man's Letters ” (Doran). The name of the author, hold, than the King possesses in England. When he
Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, is enough to ensure the signs the commission of a provincial governor or a
quality of the book at the outset, and repeated borings | judge he does it, theoretically on the advice of his
into the literary mine never fail to bring up rich ore. cabinet, but practically merely as their figurehead,
Among themes wisely and wittily treated are the sub and in that sense he is spoken of as the Governor-
ject of biography, the centenary of Emerson and the General-in-Council. The point is an important one,
secret of Emerson, memories of Meredith, the ques as it involves the vital question of self-government
tion whether Thackeray was a cynic, the conversa in Canada, very generally misunderstood outside the
tion of Edmund Burke, the troubles of the essayist, Dominion. The actual head of the government in
gravy (literary rather than literal), learning to read, Canada is not the Governor-General, but the Prime
the art of the reviewer, memories of Mark Ruther Minister. For all practical purposes Canada is an
ford, and the acacias of Lausanne (under which | independent nation, with a Prime Minister as her


112
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
ruler. Mr. Willson also, in his anxiety to deal im of her third visit to this country, in the autumn of
partially, with the extremely delicate point of the 1912. It makes a good companion volume to Mr.
relations between French and English in the Prov. Arnold Bennett's “ Your United States," neither
ince of Quebec, contradicts himself, and scarcely book being likely to generate head-aches by reason
does justice to the attitude of the English minority. of excessive seriousness or depth of thought. Mrs.
Apart from these points, however, the book is a fair Tweedie's amiable manner is somewhat of the slap-
and satisfactory treatment of the subject.
dash, exaggerative, popularly effective variety, with
occasional resort to that rather cheap appeal to
Mr. Lewis Leopold, a new writer, has the eye which consists in excessive subdivision
The psychology made a specially fortunate choice of
of prestige:
of the page into paragraphs. Americans in gen-
subject. The conception of his book
eral and Americans in particular, as seen in New
on “Prestige” (Datton) is itself a deserving act of York, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, furnish
the creative imagination in realizing that the theme
matter for the bulk of her volume, and her disposi-
is worthy of a volume,- presumably the only volume
tion to be pleased with whatever and whomsoever
-bearing this title. The sub-title is “A Psychological she encounters endears her to the cis-Atlantic
Study of Social Estimates.” The work is most un-
reader. It is gratifying to be assured by her that
evenly written, its fundamental difficulty being the
“American voices are improving,” that “in another
absence of a sufficiently definite plan of procedure generation that old twang will have entirely disap-
and an equal absence of the fundamental descriptive peared,” and that “many of the modern American
data upon which the interpretation depends. Ac voices are charming.” And it is wholesome to read
cordingly the work is maintained on too abstract a her ridicule of the American Sunday newspaper,
level, and without the knitting of chapter to chapter even though she does go to excess in asserting
necessary to the unity of texture of a complex pro that "if one bought three of them at a railway sta-
duct. In considering the economic values of prestige, tion to-day, it would require a wheelbarrow to
the author more nearly meets these requirements trundle them along the platform.” Four things
than elsewhere. No chapter is devoid of suggestive struck her particularly in Chicago, “its size, its
principles and clever applications, though frequently women's clubs, its stockyards, and its grime.” But
marred by irrelevant matter and by the statement she calls the city “cultured Chicago," and praises
of conclusions without relations to their supporting especially the Art Institute. For Boston, too, she
premises. Despite this discursive and in a measure
disconnected method of presentation, the general it as built on piles like Chicago"; Back Bay is
has a good word, but she goes astray in representing
impression of the volume carries a distinct appre- not all of Boston. Many illustrations accompany
ciation of the theme in its manifold relations. The
her lively narrative.
fact that prestige represents a psychic asset; that it
seems to be one of the first creations of primitive
The spread of the Federal system
society, where, indeed, it was often maintained with British federal of government throughout the world
systems.
a drastic severity; that in course of time it takes on
was one of the remarkable political
'an elaboration of pomp and ceremony; that it fur-
movements of the nineteenth century; and the late
‘nishes the central motive to social ambition; that it
Professor Sidgwick once predicted that we would
keeps apart class and class; that it plays an enormous
see a further extension of the system in Europe,
rôle in the development of the diplomacy of nations
where it has already gained a foothold in Germany
and in the narrower diplomacy of family affiliations ;
and Switzerland. It was the opinion of John Fiske
that it finds other expressions in hero-worship and
that it was the only kind of government which,
in fields so different as those of love and of religion,
according to modern ideas, is applicable to a whole
of economics and of reputation, of credit and even
continent. Already it embraces a portion of the
of crime,- all these, aspects serve to round out the globe equal to three times the area of Europe, and
conception of the comprehensive influences for which is now to be found in one form or another in Ger-
the word stands. It is interesting to recall that the many, Switzerland, various Latin-American coun-
etymology of the word points back to the conjuring 'tries, the United States, the Dominion of Canada,
type of imposition in which appearance replaces South Africa, and Australia. In a work entitled
reality. That prestige may be utilized to govern by
“The Federal Systems of the United States and
pretence in the absence of the usual qualities whose the British Empire” (Little, Brown & Co.), Mr.
reward it represents, is not the least suggestive, Arthur P. Poley, an English barrister, has attempted
principle in its psychology.
to give an account of the federal systems of the four
countries last mentioned, and to point out the ele-
American notes Impressions, mostly Hattering, of
ments of difference and resemblance which distin-
of a friendly America and Americans are breezily guish each from the others. His sketch of the
Englishwoman, and readably recorded by Mrs. Alec, American government embraces more than one-
Tweedie (the hyphen seems to be a late growth) in 'third of his treatise; and while it is not without
her book, “ America as I Saw It” (Macmillan), value, it cannot be regarded as authoritative. The
which embodies in amplified form her articles author falls into many errors, as foreign students of
written for the New York Times” on the occasion our institutions frequently do. He detects striking
American and


1914]])
113
THE DIAL
counsel on
resemblances between our federal system and some merit, and better represents the perspective of inter-
of the Greek federations of ancient times, and est in the line of thought central te English-speaking
thinks that the “Federalist " affords evidence that students than either of the translated works of Klemm
the framers of our constitution were consciously or Dessoir. Had the work been designated as a his-
affected by the Greek experiments. Of more value tory of psychological theory it would have deserved
to American students are his chapters on the Cana a fuller commendation than can be extended to it as
dian, Australian, and South African federal sys an account of the story of the science of the mind.
tems, although these chapters too are more or less Frankly reviewed in the former aspect, it succeeds
sketchy and elementary. He bestows high praise
He bestows high praise in setting forth an illuminating conception of the
upon the Australian Constitution, which he char-growth from a primitive accounting in terms of
acterizes as a work of the greatest skill, and which animistic conceptions, to the rationalized 'scientific
more than any of the other English federations is statement of problems and the development of
modelled upon
that of the United States.
methods for their solution. The course enters sev-
Friendly
eral stages and emerges from them with the diffi-
That greatest of arts, the art of life,
culties attending schools and theories, entangled
can never be too much written about
the art of life.
by those who understand its difficul.
with vital views of ethics, philosophy, and religion.
ties and problems. Hence the never failing time-
“Subjective and Objective,” “Spiritual and Mate-
liness of such books of ripe reflection and wise
rial," "Faculties and Processes,”— these are some
counsel as the volume by Miss Agnes Edwards
of the titles suggesting the emphasis of view and of
entitled “Our Common Road” (Houghton). This
explanation. The science of the soul loses the soul
universal highway is viewed in a fourfold aspect,
and regains it in altered form, the most compre-
hensive transformation being that affected by the
as leading “to the fountain of joy,” “ to the house
introduction of the evolutionary conception. As a
of friendship,” “to gray hills and green,” and “to
the land of reflection.” Under these headings the
brief and readable guide to this domain, Dr. Bald-
win's work will meet the needs of the student. It
matter is grouped in subordinate sections, each
with its appropriate caption. Anyone ought to get according to the special interests of the writer, and
is weakened by the selection of points of emphasis
benefit from pondering the following: “Critics tell
us that the purest art is that which moves within
by an irrelevant insistence upon the novelty of the
the strictest limitations. Too many advantages
positions taken. Its field is the philosophical aspect
may be the greatest of disadvantages, and difficul-
of psychological theory. While including the more
ties may prove blessings. If you spend your life
strictly psychological problems, the exposition does
looking for favorable circumstances, you will have
not make these problems central or at times even
vital.
no life to live when you find them. But if you give
your life generously and nobly through whatever
Readers of Mr. A. Radclyffe Dug-
Studies of the
channel is opened, you will be a success.
For
caribou of
more's accounts of his sporting expe-
success lies in endeavor as much as in achiev Newfoundland. ditions with the camera will find even
ing.” · Good advice on tact and presence of mind the high standard of these previous books surpassed
is to be found in the writer's well-considered pages. in “The Romance of the Newfoundland Caribou”
One way not to show tact is thus illustrated : "The (Lippincott). For several summers Mr. Dugmore
well-intentioned woman who remarked at a dinner has stalked these majestic beasts in the forests and
that she had always heard that twins were not so uplands of Newfoundland, creeping into their most
bright as other people, experienced a most painful secret haunts and recording their form and action on
moment when her right hand neighbor gravely the sensitive plate of the camera. The photographs,
turned his eyes upon her and said with unmistak over seventy in number, are a revelation of the suc.
able clearness: 'I am a twin.'” As the writer
cess attainable by skill and indomitable patience in
remarks, "the only person who can save the situa the rare sport of hunting with the camera. They
tion is the person whom it hits.” Despite the are also valuable contributions to natural history, for
questionable aptness of this metaphor, the style of they portray without exaggeration, omission, or prej-
the book is generally excellent, and it is a pleasure udice the details of appearance and form, the nat-
to commend it.
ural habitat, and the normal attitudes and poses of
A sketch of
The sense of a past is rapidly finding these handsome animals. There is plenty of life
psychological expression in the literature of psy and action in many of the pictures, for not infre-
history.
chology. Within a single year two quently the photograph could only be taken as
handbooks surveying its history have been trans the startled beasts were dashing away. The prize
lated from the German; and a third work is now photograph records a battle royal between two well-
added in Dr. James Mark Baldwin's “ History of matched fighting stags. The author deals rather fully
Psychology" (Putnam), comprising two small vol with the scientific aspects of his subject, recording
umes of a series devoted
to the history of the sciences. with fine discrimination many observations on the
Locke forms the point of division between the vol. life and habits of the caribou, in especial the peculiar
umes devoted to ancient and to modern psychology but very limited migrations which, in common with
respectively. The treatment has many points of their more widely ranging relatives of the great


114
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
ness.
Barren Grounds of the north, they regularly carry inspired prophet? Our troubled souls should have
out each recurring spring and autumn, on the island given us the clue to his true nature. The matter
of Newfoundland. The camper and sportsman will is now made clear in
passage in Professor W. F.
find practical suggestions for his use, and a digest Gephart's “Insurance and the State" (Macmillan):
of the game laws for his warning and guidance. A “The individual [any one of us] must be solicited,
good map, numerous sketches, and a well-constructed either to inform him what his duty is or to persuade
index add to the usefulness of the book.
him to do his known duty.” This looks like a “Thou
Shalt," put in the impersonal form of a German
A classic
The heroic death in battle of Theo.
police regulation. The object of Professor Gephart's
of the early dore Winthrop, in the bright promise book is not, of course, the exposition of the ethical
Northwest. of his early manhood, imparts a character of the insurance business. What the author
romantic interest to his writings, among which his seeks to do is to point out the advantages and dis-
narrative of northwestern adventure, entitled by advantages of State interference in the various fields
him “ Klalam and Klickatat,” but re-named by his of insurance, either through regulation or through
publishers “The Canoe and the Saddle,” is not the direct conduct of the business. The reading of this
least important, being indeed comparable with judicious little book will leave one with no foolish
Parkman's "Oregon Trail" as a picture of native enthusiasm for any particular form of insurance,
life and primitive conditions in what was then an
whether public or private, but with a resolute zeal
almost untrodden wilderness. This work, with its for insurance in general. As for the position of
Indian name restored as sub-title, is now re-issued the author himself, he might safely have offered a
in elaborate illustrated and annotated form by Mr. reward to anyone who should be able to determine
John H. Williams, of Tacoma. As both editor and it with precision.
publisher, Mr. Williams deserves high credit for
Everything that contributes to a bet-
the diligence and study he has put into the work, Chapters on
Egyptian art.
ter understanding of the art of an-
securing for its enrichment the author's western
cient Egypt is to be heartily welcomed
journal and letters (the former never before made by all students of antiquity. Sir Gaston Maspero's
public, the latter now first published in full), and
“Egyptian Art” (Appleton) gathers up that savant's
getting camera views and old prints and some fine
essays "written during a period of more than thirty
colored illustrations to add to the book's attractive-
years, and published at intervals of varying lengths.”
Winthrop's narrative, which appeared half
They were never intended for the eye of experts,
a century ago, and, after running through a number
but for the general public. Twenty-five such papers,
of editions in the next thirty years, has now for most of them brief, compose the volume; and each
some time been out of print, is republished in its
is descriptive of one or more pieces of Egyptian
original form, save for a few corrections of typo- sculpture or other art-work here reproduced in
graphical and other minor errors, and fills about
superb half-tone plates. Such a compilation of
three-quarters of Mr. Williams's octavo volume ;
course lacks the element of unity, and some of the
the journal and letters, under the heading “Cali-
material is repeated in two or more chapters. The
fornia and the Northwest," occupying, with some real contribution which the author wishes to make
notable appended matter, the remaining quarter. is to prove that the art of Egypt was not one unique
In its handsome binding, with vellum back and
type, identical from one end of the valley to the
the Winthrop coat of arms on the cover, this greatly other, but that there were a half-dozen local schools,
enriched re-issue of a noteworthy book makes an each with its own traditions and its own principles
impressive appearance, and must be accounted a
and methods, though divided into several studios.
work of no small importance.
For some years Sir Gaston has advanced this hy.
pothesis; and, with the multiplicity of new finds, is
A new
Not many years ago the American
development
slowly proving the truth of his theory. The most
public joined in a universal smile
in ethics.
over the assertion of a life insurance
prolific sources of his illustrations are the Museum
of Cairo, of which he is the head, and the Louvre
magnate that the business which he represented was
in Paris. Though in no sense a new work, the
essentially a form of philanthropy. We refused to
author has so marshalled his material as to make
pay, serious attention to the assertion, not because of
it both cumulative in force and attractive in form.
any intrinsic absurdity discernible in it, but because
the magnate had waxed inordinately fat in the prac-
Northern Italy has won the homage
tice of his chosen philanthropy. After all, it is only
of many devoted hearts; but few of
a survival of asceticism that leads us to assume that
her lovers are so eloquent and so
there is a necessary connection between the love of zealous as Mr. Edward Hutton. In his latest volume
man and emaciation. If the life insurance business he carries the reader to some two score sites within
is philanthropy in a new form, the life insurance the picturesque and storied field suggested by the
agent is a new kind of ethical teacher. Few of us title, “The Cities of Romagna and the Marches”
have recognized him in this character; yet have we (Macmillan). Naturally the interest is not uniform
not felt, upon his approach, much as a wicked king throughout, and only the most faithful can be ex.
of Israel must have felt upon the approach of an pected to follow Mr. Hutton's footsteps into every
From Ferrara
to Ascoli.


1914]
115
THE DIAL
church and share his pleasure before every painting; moral traits.
moral traits. We may add that no special knowledge
but, on the whole, the book is delightful. The of Roman history or literature is required to make the
Introduction assumes the form of a human-hearted
book intelligible.
tale about the untutored people of a remote moun-
One of the last pieces of work done by William
tain hamlet who took a wandering painter for the
Foster Apthorp, who died a few months ago, was to
edit for the Oliver Ditson Co. a selection of “Forty
“Signore"; and particularly about a child who hated
him because his second coming meant the burning Songs by Adolph Jensen” (1837-1880), the volume
now appearing in the “Musicians' Library.” Jensen's
and spoiling of all that was dear to the childish heart.
work is well deserving of this mark of appreciation,
And in the rest of the book, despite dutiful cata since he stands very close to Schumann, Schubert, and
loguing of shrines and pictures, the author himself Franz among the masters of German song. Mr.
obviously finds his deepest joy in the hearts of the Apthorp's introductory essay is mainly biographical,
people, in the human aspects of their history and and leans somewhat heavily upon Niggli's book on
faring, in the charm of hill and sea and sky. Mr.
Jensen. The editor has taken the liberty of altering
Hutton is not afraid to see with his own eyes, and
two of the compositions to make them fit the English
one is very thankful for the trait; but the present
words of the Scott lyrics which the composer used in a
German translation.
reviewer would give something to know why such an
ardent lover of art fails even to mention the superb
Long ago it seemed as though Canon Rawnsley, in
his succession of volumes on the English Lakes, had
Athena at Bologna, which is worth a score of the
exhausted nearly every possible aspect of the subject.
things he eulogizes,-indeed, it is one of the world's
But apparently some odds and ends still remained over,
joys. But why should one seem to desire a quarrel and these are utilized in his latest book, “Chapters
with a book one is glad to recommend? There are at the English Lakes” (Macmillan). For the most part,
twelve pleasing illustrations in color, and a goodly these twelve chapters seem of little more than merely
number in monotone, as well as a sensible map.
local interest. An exception, however, must be made in
the case of the opening paper, on “The Life and Death
Trials and
A not unjustifiable pride in the suc of John Wordsworth," originally delivered as an address
triumphs of a cess ehe has achieved sounds its note on the occasion of the unveiling of a tombstone to the
dancer's life.
of jubilation through the pages of memory of this noble man in Grasmere churchyard.
Miss Loie Fuller's “Fifteen Years of a Dancer's Several well-reproduced photographs from scenery in
Life" (Small, Maynard & Co.), which enjoys the
the Lake Country adorn Canon Rawnsley’s volume.
distinction of a most commendatory Introduction Different places have different moods or tempera-
from the pen of M. Anatole France, and is enriched
ments, distinguishable to the visitor of fine sensibilities.
Mr. Verner Z. Reed even affirms that they have souls,
with the names of many other celebrities met with
and his book, “ The Soul of Paris” (Lane), seeks to
and more or less intimately known by the writer in
portray this spiritual quality characteristic of the French
the course of her professional travels on two conti-
capital and of other places with which he is familiar.
nents. The story of her accidental discovery of her Following the chapter that gives its name to the book are
peculiar talent is interesting, and the account she eight others, on various haunts of men and solitudes of
gives of her debut in New York as a dancer is char nature, all treated with a reverent love and a deep sym-
acteristic. “When the audience discovered," she pathy that show the author to be no mere holiday tourist
tells us, “that the new dancer was its old favourite turning the jottings of his notebook to literary account.
comedian, the little soubrette of a former day, it gave
Mr. Ernest Peixotto, whose art needs no appreciative
comment from us, illustrates the book with nine beau-
me an ovation such as, I suppose, never another
human being has received.” Miss Fuller's artless ex-
tiful drawings. Two of Mr. Reed's chapters have
ultation in her terpsichorean triumphs adds vivacity
already found favor in “The Atlantic Monthly"; the
others are new.
and charm to her narrative, which is one of the most
François-Xavier Garneau's “ Histoire du Canada,"
eventful and entertaining of its kind. Pictures of
published for the first time in 1845, remains to-day on
the dancer in various professional poses, with other the whole the best history of the country from the French
appropriate illustrations, are supplied in abundance. point of view. Garneau's attitude on some points has
not always commended itself to English-Canadian
readers, but on the whole he wrote with reasonable
BRIEFER MENTION.
impartiality even upon topics which in his day were
almost too recent and too instinct with racial feeling to
Mrs. Anne C. E. Allinson's “ Roads from Rome" be handled with safety. His work covers the history
(Macmillan) is a very successful application of the of the country from the earliest times down to the Union
informed imagination to certain personalities of Roman of 1840. It ran through three editions in his own life-
literature and phases of Roman civilization. If the title time; a fourth edition appeared in Montreal in 1882,
has any special justification it is that these sketches after his death, the text occupying three volumes, while
reveal the connecting pathways by which constant traits a fourth was of a memorial character containing tributes
of human character have passed from the ancient Roman to the historian by his friends. A translation by Andrew
environment to that of the present day. Lucretius and Bell appeared at Montreal in 1860. A fifth edition is
Virgil, Catullus, Ovid, Propertius, and the younger Pliny now in course of publication (Paris: Félix Alcan), with
are the more prominent characters brought upon the an Introduction and elaborate notes by the historian's
stage, and the words put into their mouths prove Mrs. grandson, Hector Garneau, and a Preface by Gabriel
Allinson's thorough acquaintance with their writings and Hanotaux. The first volume brings the history down
her delicate appreciation of their respective mental and to the colonization of Cape Breton, in 1744.


116
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
66
Three popular “Atlantic Monthly” serial features of
NOTES.
the past few months soon to appear in book form are
Another of Rudolf Herzog's widely-read German
Mr. Gamaliel Bradford's “ Confederate Portraits,” Mrs.
novels is soon to be issued by Mr. Desmond FitzGerald Elinore Rupert Stewart's “Letters of a Woman Home-
in a translation entitled “ The Song of Labor.”
steader," and the « Annals and Memoirs of the Court of
A new volume of poems by Mr. George Edward
Peking” by Messrs. Bland and Backhouse.
Woodberry, to be entitled “The Flight, and Other
In addition to his coming novel, “ Les Anges,” M.
Poems," is promised for immediate issue by the Mac Anatole France has finished writing an account of his
millan Co.
childhood which will supplement the stories to be
found in « Le Livre de mon Ami” and
Mr. Brand Whitlock's reminiscences of the men and
« Pierre
Nozière."
events with which he has been associated are to be pub-
The new book, which is to be called “Le
lished at once by Messrs. Appleton in a volume entitled
Petit Pierre,” will first appear as a serial in the “ Revue
de Paris."
Forty Years of It.”
Miss Leona Dalrymple's novel, “ Diane of the Green
Among the immediately forthcoming publications of
Van," which won the prize of $10,000 in Messrs.
Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co. we note the following:
Reilly & Britton Co.'s recent competition, will be
“ Buddhist Stories,” by Mr. Paul Dahlke; “Young
published early next month.
Delinquents," a study of English reformatory and in-
dustrial schools, by Miss Mary G. Barnett; and a book
Among the writers of fiction represented on Houghton
of Canadian stories, “ The Passing of Oul-i-but,” by
Mifflin Co.'s Spring list are Arthur S. Pier, Demetra
Mr. Alan Sullivan.
Kenneth-Brown, W. J. Hopkins, Judge Shute, Mary
Heaton Vorse, and Elia W. Peattie.
“ The Titan," a new novel by Mr. Theodore Dreiser,
Two novels soon to appear with Messrs. Little,
is announced for publication this month by Messrs.
Brown, & Co.'s imprint are « The Substance of his
Harper & Brothers. Other February books of this house
include
House," by Mrs. Ruth Holt Boucicault, and “ Sunshine
“ The Forester's Daughter," by Mr. Hamlin
Jane,” by Mrs. Anne Warner French.
Garland; “ The Idol-Breaker,” a play, by Mr. Charles
Rann Kennedy; and “ Religion and Life,” by Dr.
Three novels to be issued shortly by Messrs. Small,
Elwood Worcester.
Maynard & Co. are: “ A Lady of Leisure, ," by Miss
Jules Claretie had begun to publish his memoirs as
Ethel Sedgwick; “ Mrs. Brand,” by Mr. H. A. Mitchell
Keays; and “Sunrise Valley," by Miss Marion Hill.
a serial in the “Journal ” shortly before his death.
For some time past he had been in the habit of devoting
What is sure to prove one of the most interesting
a portion of each day to the work, and it is understood
biographies of the Spring season is announced in the life
that he had made considerable progress. We may
of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, which Mary Thacher
therefore expect a most interesting addition to the
Higginson is now preparing for Houghton Mifflin Co.
French literary memoirs of the nineteenth century.
A collection of unpublished letters written by Dost-
The attention of historical students is directed to the
oevsky will be published shortly by a German firm in
fact that the Justin Winsor biennial prize of $200. for
Munich. They are said to throw much fresh light on
the relations that existed between Dostoevsky and
the best unpublished monograph in American history
will be awarded this year. Manuscripts must be sub-
Turgenev.
mitted on or before July 1. Full information regarding
Mr. H. G. Wells's exhilarating story, “ The World the conditions of award may be obtained from Professor
Set Free,” now appearing as a serial in “ The English Claude H. Van Tyne of the University of Michigan.
Review” and “The Century Magazine,” will be pub-
A book on the Keats relics at Hampstead, with an
lished in book form early in March by Messrs. E. P.
account of the portraits of Keats, and photographic fac-
Dutton & Co.
similes, is now in course of preparation. Every docu-
Of chief interest among an immediately forthcoming ment will be transcribed in full, and annotated by Mr.
group of new titles in the “Cambridge Manuals of Buxton Forman. Some of the later letters have never
Science and Literature” is “ The Beautiful: An Intro-
been transcribed. The edition, to be published by John
duction to Psychological Æsthetics,” by Vernon Lee
Lane Company, will be a limited one on hand-made
(Miss Violet Paget).
paper.
Lord Morley has made a book out of the address Among the titles on Messrs. Crowell's Spring list are
which he delivered some time ago before the University the following: “The Commuter's Garden," a practical
of Manchester. “ Notes on Politics and History” is the handbook for the suburban gardener; “Consumption:
title of the volume, and while the original talk has been Its Cause, Cure, and Prevention," by Dr. Edward O.
kept as the basis, the work has been much amplified and Otis; “ The Message of New Thought,” by Mr. Abel L.
revised.
Allen; “How to Rest,” by Miss Grace Dawson; “The
We learn, by way of the London “ Nation," that Mr. Deaf: Their Position in Society," by Mr. Harry Best;
W. H. Furness is editing a collection of the addresses “ Heroes of the Farthest North and Farthest South,"
and miscellaneous writings of his father, the late by Mr. J. Kennedy Maclean; a large type, thin-paper
Horace Howard Furness. He proposes also to issue a edition of Roget's “ Thesaurus," edited by Mr. C. 0. S.
volume of Dr. Furness's letters, together with some Mawson; and “Richard Wagner: The Man and His
form of biographical record.
Work,” by Mr. Oliver Huckel.
Mr. Ernest Newman is already the author of two George Spring Merriam, a son of one of the brothers
books about Wagner. He has now finished a third on who founded the company which has long published
the same composer. It tells the story of Wagner's Webster's Dictionary, died in Springfield, Mass., on
life in the light of recent additions to our knowledge, January 23, aged seventy-one. He was graduated
a good deal being said about his various love affairs. from Yale in 1864, and after studying theology, turned
Messrs. Dutton will publish the volume.
to literary work. For five years, from 1870 to 1875,


1914)
117
THE DIAL
he was on the editorial staff of “The Christian Union”
(now “The Outlook”) under Henry Ward Beecher.
Perhaps his best-known book is “The Life and Times
of Samuel Bowles,” in two volumes, published in 1885.
He was also the author of “The Negro and the Na-
tion," “ The Man of To-day," and several other books.
Edwin Ginn, founder and head of the house of Ginn
& Company, died on January 21. He was born at
Orland, Maine, on February 14, 1838. Soon after
receiving his degree from Tufts College, he established
the school-book publishing business of which he has
remained the head for nearly half a century. Besides
performing a notable service in raising and maintain-
ing the standards for school and college text-books in
this country, Mr. Ginn was actively interested in vari-
ous public-spirited movements in particular the cause
of international peace. Of late years a large share of
his time and his fortune has been devoted to the World
Peace Foundation, of which he was the founder. Great
as is the loss which the American publishing trade sus-
tains in his death, the loss to American citizenship is
far greater.
"Mona Lisas," The Two. Walter Littlefield . . Century
Motorized Highway Commerce. R.W.Hutchinson, Jr. Scrib.
National Museum of Safety, A. Gordon Thayer Everybody's
Natural Selection, Progress in the Study of.
J. A. Harris
Popular Science
Nervous System, Origin and Evolution of the.
G. H, Parker
Popular Science
New England Pole, The. Harry S. Brown
Forum
New York, In, with Nine Cents. A. M. Rihbany . Atlantic
New York City's Government by Experts.
Albert Shaw
Review of Reviews
Nutall, Thomas, Geological Work of. Chas. Keyes Pop. Sci.
Philippine Question, The. William A. Reed Forum
Physical Laboratory, Contributions to Civilization
of the. A. G. Webster
Popular Science
Poet, A, in a Fool's Cap. W. T. Larned
Century
Polar Exploration, Outlook in. C. F. Talman Rev. of Revs.
Presidency, Wilson's Theory of the. Lindsay Rogers Forum
Pulitzer, Joseph: Reminiscences of a Secretary.
Alleyne Ireland
Metropolitan
Queensland, A Trooper of. Norman Duncan Harper
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. 0. F. Theis .
Forum
Rubber, “ Tame." H, C. Pearson
World's Work
St. Paul, City Salvation and. George Creel Everybody's
Science and Poetry. C. W. Super Popular Science
Socialism V. Morris Hillquit and J. A. Ryan Everybody's
Socialism and Economics. Richard D. Skinner Forum
Street, The. Simon Strunsky
Atlantic
Street Traffic, Science of. Arno Dosch World's Work
Surinam Jungle, Through the. Charles W. Furlong Harper
Tammany Hall, Twilight of. B.J. Hendrick World's Work
Temperament and the Stage. J. S. Hamilton . Everybody's
Theatre, The. Johnston Forbes-Robertson Century
Theatre, The Eugenic. Victor Branford
Forum
Trade-Unionism, Economic Necessity of. John Mitchell Atl.
Transcontinental Trails. Henry B. Joy
Scribner
War, The World's Last. H. G. Wells
Century
White Slave, The. Brand Whitlock .
Forum
White Slave Agitation, The. Havelock Ellis Metropolitan
Wilson as Wall Street Sees Him. C. M. Keys World's Work
Wood Engraving, Contemporary. William Walton Scribner
World-Man, The. Will Levington Comfort
Forum
.
.
.
.
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
[The following list, containing 88 titles, includes books
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS.
February, 1914.
Aeroplane and the Dirigible, Development of the.
J. Bernard Walker
Review of Reviews
Africa, North, and the Desert. G. E. Woodberry Scribner
Alpine Road of France, The. Henry Norman Scribner
American, The Too Adaptable. Sydney Brooks · Harper
American Woman and Her Home on a Business Basis.
Christine Frederick
Review of Reviews
Animals and Hibernation. W. L. Hahn . Popular Science
Apple Variation, Abnormalities in. W.J. Young Pop. Science
Athletics and Morals
Atlantis
Athletics and the College. C. A. Stewart
Atlantic
Athletics and the School. Alfred E. Stearns Atlantic
Bank Depositor, The. Vernice E. Danner Rev. of Revs.
Boy Who Goes Wrong, The. H. Addington Bruce Century
Bulgaria after the Wars. B. C. Marsh Review of Reviews
Burns, From Bend to. Dallas Lore Sharp
Atlantic
Business, Better- III. William Hard . Everybody's
Butterflies, Black. Sadakichi Hartmann
Forum
Central Park, A Philosopher in. Edward S. Martin Harper
Civil Service Reform and Commonsense. F. E. Leupp Atlan.
College Woman, The. Margaret Ball
Forum
Confederacy, A Northern Woman in the. Mrs. Eugene
McLean
Harper
Convict, New Hope for the. Richard Barry Century
Corporate Reform, Democracy and. Robert E. Reed Atlantic
Corruption, A Cure for. Lincoln Steffens Metropolitan
Country School, Opportunities of the. J. W.Strout Pop. Sci.
Creole Beauties. Julius Muller
Century
Dancing, The Philosophy of. Havelock Ellis Atlantic
Egypt, Reactions of a Traveller in. Jane Addams Atlantic
Equality in the United States. C. F. Emerick Pop. Science
Forbes-Robertson : An Appreciation. Richard
Le Gallienne
Century
French Court Memories, 1877-8. Mme. Waddington Scribner
Genius at School. Edmund K. Broadus
Atlantic
Healing the Sick, Team Work in. B.J.
Hendrick
World's Work
Immigration, Racial Consequences of. E. A. Ross Century
Income Tax, The. James R. Merriam Review of Reviews
India, The Heart of. E. F. Benson
Century
Italy, The Protestant in. Zephine Humphrey Atlantic
Justice, A Picture of. George W. Alger World's Work
Lincoln's Social Ideals. Rose Strunsky.
Century
Mexican Menace, The, W. Morgan Shuster Century
Mexico, With Villa in. John S. Reed Metropolitan
Mitchel, John Purroy. Dudley F. Malone . World's Work
.
BIOGRAPHY.
Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope: A New Light on her
Life and Love Affairs. By Frank Hamel, Illus-
trated in photogravure, large 8vo, 348 pages.
Funk & Wagnalls Co. $5. net.
A Pepys of Mogu] India, 1653-1708: Being an
Abridged Edition of the “Storia do Mogor" of
Niccolao Manucci. Translated by William Irvine;
abridged by Margaret L. Irvine. With frontis-
piece, large 8vo, 310 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
$3.50 net.
John Woolman, His Life and Our Times: Being a
Study in Applied Christianity. By W. Teign-
mouth Shore. 12mo, 273 pages. Macmillan Co.
$1.50 net.
Heroines of Modern Religion. Edited by Warren
Dunham Foster. With portraits, 12mo, 275 pages.
Sturgis & Walton Co. $1.50 net.
HISTORY.
Hungary's Fight for National Existence; or, The
History of the Great Uprising Led by Francis
Rakoczi II., 1703-1711. By Ladislas Baron Hen-
gelmuller. 8vo, 342 pages. Macmillan Co.
$3.25 net.
The Reconstruction of the New Colonies under Lord
Milner, By W. Basil Worsfold. In 2 volumes,
large 8vo. E. P. Dutton & Co. $7.50 net
A History of England and the British Empire. By
Arthur D. Innes. Vol. II., 1485-1688. 12mo, 553
pages. Macmillan Co. $1.60 net.
.
.
.
.


118
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
GENERAL LITERATURE.
The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas
at the Close of the 19th Century. By Holbrook
Jackson, Illustrated, large 8vo, 368 pages.
Mitchell Kennerley.
A Bookman's Letters. By Sir W. Robertson Nicoll,
M.A. 8vo, 438 pages. George H. Doran Co.
$1.75 net.
Studies in Portuguese Literature. By Aubrey F. G.
Bell. 12mo, 247 pages. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
Modern Parliamentary Eloquence: The Rede Lec-
ture, 1913. By Earl Curzon of Keddleston. Svo,
80 pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net.
English Travellers of the Renaissance. By Clare
Howard. Illustrated, 8vo, 233 pages. John Lane
Co. $2.50 net.
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare: New Light
and Old Evidence. By the Countess de Cham-
brun. Illustrated in photogravure, etc., 8vo,
276 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75 net.
The Modern Short-Story. By Lucy Lilian Notestein
and Waldo Hilary Dunn. 12mo, 211 pages. A. S.
Barnes Co.
The Vision of Anton. By Walter A. Dyer. 16mo, 20
pages Chicago: Brothers of the Book. Paper.
Some Other Things. By Charles Halsted Mapes.
12mo, 134 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1. net.
Considerations sur l'Art Dramatique à propos de
la Comédie de Bernard Shaw. Par Augustin et
Henriette Hamon, 16mo, 48 pages. Paris:
Eugène Figuière & Cie. Paper.
Picture Tales from the Russian. By Valery Carrick;
translated by Nevill Forbes. Illustrated, oblong
12mo, 119 pages. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
VERSE AND DRAMA.
The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. Chosen by
Wilfred Campbell. 16mo, 344 pages. Oxford
University Press. $2. net.
The Oxford Book of Spanish Verse, 13th to 20th
Centuries. Chosen by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly,
F.B.A. 16mo, 460 pages. Oxford University
Press.
At the World's Heart. By Cale Young Rice. 12mo,
156 pages.
Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.25 net.
Beyond the Stars, and Other Poems. By Charles
Hanson Towne. 12mo, 73 pages. Mitchell Ken-
nerley.
Brunelleschi: A Poem. By John Galen Howard.
Large 8vo, 93 pages. San
Francisco: John
Howell. $6. net.
Madge Linsey, and Other Poems. By Dora Sigerson
Shorter. 16mo, 42 pages. Dublin: Maunsel &
Co., Ltd.
Poems from the Portuguese (with the Portuguese
Text). Translated by Aubrey F. G. Bell. 16mo,
131 pages. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
Sa Muse S'amuse. By Wilfrid Blair. 12mo, 132
pages. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
Drama League Series of Plays. First volumes:
Kindling, by Charles Kenyon; A Thousand Years
Ago, a romance of the Orient, by Percy MacKaye.
Each with Introduction by Clayton Hamilton,
12mo. Doubleday, Page & Co. Per volume,
75 cts. net.
FICTION.
The Flying Inn. By Gilbert K. Chesterton. 12mo,
320 pages. John Lane Co. $1.30 net.
Home. With frontispiece, 12mo, 339 pages. Century
Co. $1.30 net.
The Possessed: A Novel in Three Parts. By Fyodor
Dostoevsky; translated from the Russian by
Constance Garnett. 12mo, 637 pages. Macmillan
Co. $1.50 net.
Old Mole. By Gilbert Cannan. 12mo, 364 pages.
D. Appleton & Co. $1.35 net.
The After House: A Story of Love, Mystery, and a
Private Yacht. By Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Illustrated, 12mo, 281 pages. Houghton Mifflin
Co. $1.25 net.
The New Dawn. By Agnes C. Laut. Illustrated,
12mo, 542 pages. Moffat, Yard & Co. $1.35 net.
The Light of Western Stars. By Zane Grey. With
frontispiece in color, 12mo, 389 pages. Harper
& Brothers. $1.35 net.
It Happened in Egypt. By C. N. and A. M. William-
son, Illustrated, 12mo, 512 pages. . Doubleday,
Page & Co. $1.35 net.
Liliecrona's Home. By Selma Lagerlöf; translated
from the Swedish by Anna Barwell, 12mo, 269
pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25 net.
Another Man's Shoes, By Victor Bridges. 12mo,
327 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
Horace Blake. By Mrs. Wilfrid Ward. 12mo, 422
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.35 net.
The White Sapphire: A Mystery Romance. By Lee
Foster Hartman. Illustrated, 12mo, 297 pages.
Harper & Brothers. $1.25 net.
William and Bill. By Grace MacGowan Cooke and
Caroline Wood Morrison. 12mo, 295 pages. Cen-
tury Co. $1.25 net.
The Story of Loule. By Oliver Onions. 12mo, 336
pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
The Third Act. By Fred Jackson. With frontis.
piece in color, 12mo, 349 pages. Desmond Fitz-
Gerald, Inc. $1. net.
King Desire and his Knights. By Edith F. A. U.
Painton. 12mo, 218 pages. R. F. Fenno & Co.
$1. net.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
The Revolt of Democracy. By Alfred Russel Wal-
lace, O.M.; with a sketch of the author by James
Marchant. With portrait, 12mo, 120
pages.
Funk & Wagnalls Co. $1. net.
Boycotts and the Labor Struggle: Economic and
Legal Aspects. By Harry W. Laidler; with In-
troduction by Henry R. Seager, Ph.D. 8vo, 488
pages. John Lane Co. $2. net.
King's College Lectures on Colonial Problems.
Edited by F. J. C. Hearnshaw, M.A. 12mo, 252
pages. Macmillan Co. $1.40 net.
Prostitution in Europe. By Abraham Flexner; with
Introduction by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 12mo,
455 pages. “Publications of the Bureau of Social
Hygiene." Century Co. $1.30 net.
Village Improvement. By Parris Thaxter Farwell.
Illustrated, 12mo, 362 pages. Sturgis & Walton
Co. $1. net.
The Immigration Problem: A Study of American
Immigration Conditions and Needs. By Jere-
miah W. Jenks and W. Jett Lauck. Third edi-
tion, revised and enlarged; 8vo, 551 pages.
Funk & Wagnalls Co. ·$1.75 net.
Brothering the Boy. By W. Edward Raffety, Ph.D.
12mo, 220 pages. Griffith & Rowland Press,
75 cts. net.
The Family and Society. By John M. Gillette, Ph.D.
16mo, 164 pages "National Social Science
Series." A. C. McClurg & Co. 50 cts. net.
SCIENCE.
The Scientific Work of Morris Loeb, Edited by
Theodore W. Richards. Illustrated in photo-
gravure, etc., large 8vo, 349 pages. Harvard
University Press. $2. net.
The Diseases of Tropical Plants. By Melville Thurs-
ton Cook, Ph.D, Illustrated, 8vo, 317 pages.
Macmillan Co. $2.75 net.
History of Geography. By J. Scott Keltie, LL.D.,
and 0. J. R. Howarth, M.A. Illustrated, 16mo,
208 pages "History of the Sciences." G. P.
Putnam's Sons 75 cts. net.
The Planisphere: A Movable Star-Map. Chicago:
Theo. H. Walther. 50 cts.
An Essay on the Scientific Method. By Louis T.
More. 8vo, 27 pages. University of Cincinnati.
Paper, 30 cts. net.
ARCHITECTURE AND ART.
An Introduction to English Church Architecture,
from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Century. By
Francis Bond, M.A. In 2 volumes, illustrated, 4to.
Oxford University Press. $14. net.
Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century:
A Study in Mediæval Iconography and its
Sources of Inspiration. By Emile Male; trans-
lated from the third French edition by Dora
Nussey. Illustrated, 4to, 415 pages. E. P. Dutton
& Co. $6. net.


1914)
119
THE DIAL
Buddhist China. By Reginald Fleming Johnston.
Illustrated, large 8vo, 403 pages. E. P. Dutton &
Co. $5. net.
The Garden City (Letchworth, England): A Study
in the Development of a Modern Town. By C. B.
Purdom. Illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo, 330
pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50 net.
A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-
Indian Family of Languages. By Rt. Rev.
Robert Caldwell, D.D. Third edition, revised
and edited by Rev. J. L. Wyatt, M.A., and T.
Ramakrishna Pillai, B.A. 8vo, 640 pages. E. P.
Dutton & Co. $4. net.
The History of the Grain Trade in France, 1400-
1710. By Abbott Payson Usher, Ph.D. Large
8vo, 405 pages. "Harvard. Economic Studies."
Harvard University Press. $2. net.
The Modern Trust Company: Its Functions and
Organization. By Franklin Butler Kirkbride and
J. E. Sterrett, C.P.A. Fourth edition, revised;
large 8vo, 319 pages. Macmillan Co. $2.50 net.
Alone in the Wilderness. By Joseph Knowles. Il-
lustrated, 12mo, 295 pages. Small, Maynard
& Co. $1.20 net.
1
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touching Literary Effort or “ Literature." Send for List.
STANHOPE DODGE CO., 3 P.N. Larchmont, N. Y.
The Great Painter-Etchers, from Rembrandt to
Whistler. By Malcolm C. Salaman; edited by
Charles Holme. Illustrated, 4to, 265 pages. Win-
ter Number of "The International Studio,” John
Lane Co. Paper, $2.50 net.
PHILOSOPHY.
The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico. By Bene-
detto Croce; translated by R. G. Collingwood.
Large 8vo, 317 pages. Macmillan Co. $2.60 net.
Knowledge and Life. By Rudolf Eucken; translated
by W. Tudor James, D.Phil. 12mo, 307 pages.
"Crown Theological Library." G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $1.50 net.
Pragmatism and Idealism. By William Cald-
well, M.A. 8vo,
268
pages. Macmillan Co.
$2. net.
Nietzsche, and Other Exponents of Individualism.
By Paul Carus. Illustrated, 12mo, 150 pages.
Open Court Publishing Co. $1.25 net.
REFERENCE.
Who's Who, 1914: An Annual Biographical Diction-
ary. 12mo, 2314 pages. Macmillan Co. $3.75 net.
Dictionary of Abbreviations: Being Citations of
Those Terms Used in the Professions, Sport, and
Trades. By the late Walter T. Rogers, F.R.S.L.
8vo, 149 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. net.
The Old Testament Phrase Book. By Louise Emery
Tucker, M.A. 12mo, 148 pages. Sturgis & Wal-
ton Co. $1. net.
Report of the Librarian of Congress for the Fiscal
Year Ending June 30, 1913. Illustrated, 8vo,
269 pages.
Government Printing Office.
EDUCATION-BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND
COLLEGE.
A Cyclopedia of Education. Edited by Paul Mon-
roe, Ph.D. Vol. V., completing the work, 4to,
892 pages. Macmillan Co. (Sold only in sets by
subscription.)
The Tragedy of Education. By Edmond Holmes.
12mo, 100 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1. net.
The Montessori Method and the American School.
By Florence Elizabeth Ward. Illustrated, 12mo,
243 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net.
A History of Education in Modern Times. By Frank
Pierrepont Graves, Ph.D. 12mo, 410 pages. Mac-
millan Co. $1.10 net.
A Reader of Scientific and Technical Spanish for
Colleges and Technological Schools. By Cornélis
De Witt Willcox. 12mo, 588 pages. Sturgis &
Walton Co. $1.75 net.
Foods and Household Management: A Textbook of
the Household Arts By Helen Kinne and Anna
M. Cooley, B.S. Illustrated, 12mo, 401 pages.
Macmillan Co. $1.10 net
Chez Nous: A French First Reader. With prac-
tical hints on syntax and idiom by Henri Charles-
Edouard David. 12mo, 393 pages. Henry Holt
& Co.
Le Cousin Pons. Par Honoré de Balzac; edited by
Benjamin Lester Bowen, Litt.D. With frontis-
piece, 12mo, 434 pages. Henry Holt & Co.
Nature and Industry Readers. By Elizabeth V.
Brown. New volumes: When the World Was
Young; Stories of Childhood and Nature; Woods
and Fields. Each illustrated in color, etc., 12mo.
Yonkers-on-Hudson: World Book Co.
Das Skelett im Hause. Von Friedrich Spielhagen;
edited, with Notes and Vocabulary, by M. M.
Skinner, Ph.D. 16mo, 217 pages. D. C. Heath &
Co. 45 cts.
Petit Bleu. Par Gyp; edited for school use by F.
Th. Meylan 16mo, 152 pages. American Book
Co. 35 cts. net.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Balder the Beautiful: The Fire-Festivals of Europe
and the Doctrine of the External Soul. By J. G.
Frazer, D.C.L. In 2 volumes, large 8vo. Mac-
millan Co. $5. net.
The Country of “The Ring and the Book.”
By Sir
Frederick Treves, Bart. Illustrated in color,
etc., large 8vo, 303 pages. Funk & Wagnalls Co.
$5. net.
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120
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Published by THE DIAL COMPANY, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office
at Chicago, Illinois under Act of March 3, 1879.
No. 664.
FEBRUARY 16, 1914.
Vol. LVI.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE CINEMATOGRAPH CRAZE
129
•
.
POETIC EXPRESSION. Charles Leonard Moore
131
.
CA AL COMMENT
133
The detection of genius in embryo.- A Boston
publisher of honored antecedents. – A plea for the
questionnaire. – Reviving a national language and
literature.- A man of the pen and of the sword.-A
missionary to the bookless. — A new honor for Pro-
fessor John Bach McMaster. - Bits of bibliothecal
news. - Mrs. Gaskell's Manchester home.- Baiting
the hook to catch the reader. - Eight ways of
reviewing a book.
136
COMMUNICATIONS
A Difficulty in Translation. Hyder E. Rollins.
Walt Whitman and Lincoln's Assassination.
Harold Hersey.
“Worth While." Wm. Cheslett, Jr.
THE CINEMATOGRAPH CRAZE.
An amateur statistician announced the other
day that the patronage of the moving picture
theatres in Chicago numbered three-quarters of
a million persons every twenty-four hours. This
figure was computed by the rather naïve pro-
cess of multiplying the number of seats in all
the places which provide this species of enter-
tainment by the number of performances given
each day, calmly assuming that all the seats
were occupied all the time. The conclusion
may well give us pause, since it means that
one-third of the entire population of the city
seek this form of recreation every day, or, on
the other hand, that every man, woman,
and
child, on the average, goes to one of these
theatres more than twice a week. But even
when we make a liberal discount, the numbers
to which this entertainment appeals must be
very large, and the phenomenon which they
offer is worthy of serious consideration. It is
a mushroom growth that has developed almost
over night, and we have not yet had time to
view it in all its bearings.
That this new interest is of world-wide extent
is obvious to every travelled observer, and
attested by reports from all the countries of the
globe. The “cinema" unalloyed, or shown in
connection with vaudeville attachments, affords
everywhere one of the most popular means of
whiling away a leisure hour at almost any time
of day, and attracts, by its cheapness and variety,
larger numbers of visitors than can be held by
any other form of paid entertainment. It is
making terrific inroads
upon
the
support of the
regular theatre, which is not surprising when we
consider that a single seat in the latter costs as
much as from twenty to fifty admissions to the
former. This condition should operate in time
to modify the inflated pretensions of the play-
houses, and to reduce the grossly unreasonable
scale upon which they are now conducted. The
current charges for dramatic performances,
viewed in relation to the quality of the enter-
tainment offered, constitute a bare-faced impo-
sition upon the public, and any influence
tending to abate these demands is to be wel-
comed.
In its social and educational aspects, the
moving-picture theatre offers several interesting
NATURAL HISTORY EAST AND WEST. T. D. A.
Cockerell
137
ITALY'S FOREMOST COMIC DRAMATIST. W.W.
Comfort
138
IDEALISTIC FORCES IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Carl Becker .
140
CHINA'S “GRAND OLD MAN.” 0. D. Wannamaker 142
THE SYMBOLISM OF WORDS.
Beyer
Thomas Percival
143
THE BIOLOGY OF SEX. Raymond Pearl . .
145
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS .
146
Goldwin Smith as reported by his Boswell. -Studies
of a diplomatist and scholar. - Tom Medwin's
"Shelley" in a new edition.- A garner from medi-
æval literature. - One of the makers of Kansas.
More footnotes to Stevenson.-Literary walks about
London. - A prophet of Futurism. – Clever essays
on common things. – A pioneer mission-worker in
the far East. - A guide to the study of literature.
BRIEFER MENTION
150
.
NOTES
150
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
151


130
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
view-angles, and is a tempting subject for the more synthetic conception of the whole process.
philosophical observer. Without bringing any But without such antecedent knowledge, the
of the heavy artillery of philosophy to bear upon pictured display is bewildering and inadequate.
the subject, certain interesting reflections result The unnatural character given to these exhibi-
from its contemplation. It is, in a sense, the tions by the “speeding-up” which seems to be
culmination of the process of substituting pic necessary robs them of a great part of their
tures for words,- of actual images for the usefulness as educational helps.
images which the stimulated mind creates, For the reproduction of impressions de
which was inaugurated when the photographic voyage, the cinematograph has much value.
illustration began to invade our magazines and By its means, one may become a travelled ob-
to disfigure our newspapers. It shows in a very server with a minimum of effort, and its success
striking way the demoralizing modern tendency is attested by the large use which the travel-
to seek lines of least resistance in every form of lecturers make of it. The real traveller, of
activity, to convert education into amusement, course, finds his delight in leisurely contempla-
and work into play, without giving the least tion of the foreign scene, dwelling at length
thought to the way in which the process
softens
upon its details, and giving the impression time
the mental fibre and saps the character. Gen to fix itself upon the memory. The arm-chair
erally speaking, the picture performs its proper traveller in the picture play-house can do nothing
function when it supplements the word, printed like this, and can retain but a jumbled recollec-
or spoken, and perverts its function when it tion of what has been shown him. But even
would become a substitute. For the picture never such travel is better than none at all, and, be-
can really be a substitute for the word, which is sides, none of us can go everywhere in the flesh;
equivalent to calling it a substitute for thought, so we may well be grateful to those who do the
and the intuitional elements which it supplies physical part of travelling for us, and entertain
to the mental process are a poor exchange for us with the records taken by their cameras.
the analytical elements of logical interpretation Those who have seen the films which visualize
which reading and listening demand.
the story of the Scott Antarctic expedition will
A great deal of nonsense has been written realize the extraordinarily valuable service that
about the moving picture as an educational may be done for us, on occasion, by this marvel
agency. If kept strictly in its place as an ad of modern mechanical invention.
junct to the methods that demand application Another service that seems to us very valu-
and concentration, it may serve a useful sub-able is that of illustrating the masterpieces of
ordinate purpose. The historical scene literature. When this is done in the artistic
realized from a close study of the sources may spirit and with unlimited resources in the way
be vivified by this form of dramatic presenta- of stage material, it becomes an efficient aid to
tion, although the setting and the action are the imagination. If we lose something, we gain
necessarily “faked.” What the imaginative a great deal more, when we witness an adequate
picture in the school text does for the child may stage performance of “Hamlet” or “ King
be done for him more realistically by the pro- | Lear,” and even a cinematograph production of
jection of the film on the screen. But all that one of these tragedies may help us to read new
he will get from it at best is a series of fleeting meanings into the printed text. The “ Les
impressions, and no opportunity is offered him Misérables” films recently exhibited were excep-
to study the details of scenery and costume and tionally well made, and gave to the lovers of that
architecture. The fleeting impression, however, masterpiece a better understanding of many
of
can never make a serious contribution to the its episodes than they had ever got from even
work of education. We have seen some highly the most sumptuously illustrated edition. And
instructive scientific films, exhibiting the mar- the films prepared at such great expense for the
vels of life as revealed by the microscope, or illustration of Dante's 6 Inferno
the unfolding of the flower from the bud, or whole, of high artistic merit, and proved gratify-
the transformations of the insect from larva to ing to the most austere worshippers of the sub-
imago, but to view such projections intelligently lime Florentine. Literature offers a boundless
requires antecedent experience gained in the field for this new kind of illustration, and its
old plodding way in accordance with the time exploitation, guided by the artistic conscience,
schedule of nature. When one has this experi- may add much to our enjoyment of the great
ence already, it becomes interesting to see it works of fiction and poetry. We do not know
epitomized on the magic screen, and one gets a that “Don Quixote” has been done as yet,
as
were, on the


1914]
131
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but what an opportunity it offers for effective practically throw up the case. We do not apologize
staging and characterization !
for quoting somewhat largely what they say so well.
The opportunities offered by the moving- First let us hear Mr. Edward Thomas :
picture theatre for ministering to vulgar and
“But Swinburne has almost no magic felicity of words.
He can astonish and melt, but seldom thrill, and when he
depraved tastes are so obvious, and so attested
does it is not by any felicity, as it were, of God-given words.
by reports from countries in which license is He has to depend on sound and an atmosphere of words
unchecked, that some sort of censorship is de-
which is now and then concentrated and crystallized into an
intensity of effect which is almost magical, perhaps never
manded by the interests of public morality. quite magical.
quite magical. . . . Perhaps the greatest of his triumphs is
Some form of legal restraint is operative in in keeping up a solemn play of words, not unrelated to the
subject suggested by the title and commencement, but more
most of our large cities, whether in the hands
closely related to rhyme, and yet giving in the end a com-
of the police, or in those of commissions spe pact and powerful expression. . . . Hardly one verse means
cially designated for the purpose. Censorship
anything in particular, hardly one line means anything at
all, but nothing is done inconsistent with the opening, noth-
as an official institution is never an unmixed
ing which the rashest critic would venture to call unavailing
good, and is capable of developing into a in the complete effect."
greater evil than any it seeks to avert, as we Mr. John Drinkwater's judgment is remarkably
have seen in the cases of the English licensing similar. He says of Swinburne:
of plays and the Russian treatment of the press.
“ His control of language was, indeed, not distinguished
by the magic that, although it was within the compass of
The present danger in this country seems to lie
his peers, was so only at the rarest intervals. This wizardry
in the sort of official stupidity which lays down that visited every great poet from say Chaucer down to him
general rules, and then applies them undevia-
of yesterday, was known to each but a few times in his life.
Those lines of almost inconceivable beauty, lines commoner
tingly in all cases --a procedure which would
in Coleridge and Keats than in poets whose collective achieve-
have the ludicrous result of placing Shake ment is greater than theirs, is, when all is said, but an ex-
speare's “ Julius Cæsar” under the ban because
quisite fragment of our poetry. They amount to a hundred,
a thousand perhaps; a mere handful in any case. It has
scenes of violence and murder are in general been the privilege of every great poet to shape a few : Swin-
prohibited. We are inclined to think that the burne made scarcely one, and he loses one of the poet's rarest
lines are drawn somewhat too closely by our
if not most commanding distinctions in consequence. ... The
rarest graces are beyond his reach; but to the high expression
committees in charge of this inspection; in their which is poetry, he attains with superb ease.”
desire to “play safe,” they catch not only the We have only to question one point in this last
vicious and vulgar in their net but also the criticism,— the statement as to the rarity of magical
merely tragic which, distressing as it may be to phrase in English poetry. Mr. Kipling in his story
view, remains an essential part of life, and must
entitled “ Wireless” reduces the really inspired pas-
not be left out of the scheme if we are to pre-
sages of this kind to just two,-one by Coleridge
tend to picture either the history of civilization
and one by Keats. It would be interesting to know
or the conceptions of the great creative writers.
what those poets, who intoxicated themselves with
the fine phrases of their predecessors, would have
Is it not legitimate to throw upon the screen any. thought of such a judgment. Hazlitt declared that
thing which may be described in a printed book Wordsworth's lines,
that is published without legal interference ? * Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,
Brought from a pensive though a happy place,"
were the most perfect in the language; and the same
poet's
POETIC EXPRESSION.
“Lady of the Lake,
Sole sitting by the shores of old Romance,"
There have recently been published in England was probably the parent stock on which Keats grafted
two single-volume studies of the work of Algernon his double rose of beauty which Mr. Kipling ad-
Charles Swinburne. They are by friendly critics, mires so much.
but both of these realize that Swinburne is on his The fact is that these flowers or jewels of poetic
defence. They make the most of their poet's un speech are scattered thickly over all English verse
rivaled legerdemain of syllables and sounds. They of the better kind. They glitter on Chaucer's robe
point out, quite justly, his truth of keeping, by which until it seems drenched with dew. They gleam
each poem is, as it were, contained within its own from the folds of half of Spenser's dreamy stanzas.
frame. This gift would be more valuable if there Allowing for the drama's necessary recurrence to
were not such an unutterable monotony in his pages,
the conversational tone, Shakespeare is all compact
- if the parts of his poems were not mutually inter of them. Milton and the lyric poets contain sumless
changeable. They also claim for him insight into treasures of them. If Swinburne failed to add any.
human nature, and creative power. To us it seems thing of the sort to our literature it will go hard with
that his figures, classic or romantic, are mainly his pretensions, notwithstanding his noble literary
affairs of masks and megaphones. But when it enthusiasm and his undoubted mastery of metre.
comes to what for a poet is really the crux of the To use words as if they had never been used
matter, the business of poetic expression, they both before, to impart to them a fresh fragrance, an inex.


132
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
:
99
plicable charm, a profundity which makes whole his ning, - or perhaps what daylight is to moonlight.
tories or extended phenomena implicit in a phrase, — Moonlight is more suggestive, lightning more revela-
that is what is meant by verbal magic. It does not tional than daylight, but we could not stand either
need that it should deal only with sensuous things, of them all the time. The trouble is that rhetoric
though doubtless on that side the most miracles of is within the reach of almost anyone who can write
language are wrought. The Elizabethan dramatists at all; and if the person using it possesses also
have the gift, though their sphere is that of action. the gift of musical speech, the ordered movement of
Dryden, Pope, and Goldsmith have it, though their verse, he can easily set up for a great poet. Swin-
matter lies mainly in the regions of moral abstrac burne is the perfect type of the rhetorical poet who
tions. The Cavalier lyrists and Burns have it, lashes commonplace into extravagance and sets it
though they deal with the emotions. It is hardly to a music which has something of the obviousness
worth while to give examples. Everyone knows and overwhelming blare of a brass band. A tour
what the best is; but everyone is always forgetting de force is always impressive, and no one who
the face of the true Una of poetry and taking up with knows the difficulties overcome will cease to wonder
some false Duessa. So we shall quote a few lines, not at Swinburne's management of metre. But the true
from English writers, but from that American poetry lovers of poetry will prefer those metrists whose
of which Swinburne hardly disguised his contempt. sounds steal upon the ear and win their way to the
Emerson, almost incapable of a complete poem, heart. And this rich and lovely music, like that of
could write by fits and starts like a divinity. Take some velvet-voiced vocalist, some virtuoso on the
“O tenderly the haughty day
violin," the horns of elf-land faintly blowing,” is
Fills his blue urn with fire”;
almost always associated with magic of phrase.
Or,
* Thou canst not wave thy staff in air,
Shelley is perhaps the only great metrist in the
Or dip thy paddle in the lake,
language whose high and lovely singing is as a rule
But it carves the bow of beauty there
not embodied in words equal to its own exquisiteness.
And ripples in rhyme the oar forsake."
Milton often crashes out discords; and Shakespeare
Poe is all for total effect, yet his words have an at the height of his expressiveness, in “Lear" for
almost impossible finish. For example,–
example, disdains music and pictured phrase alike,
“Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
and gives us instant, imminent revelation.
O'er its roof did float and flow
There is much more to literature, even to poetry,
(This --- all this was in the olden
- there are
Time long ago).”
than the extreme wizardry of words,
Or this:
the expression of thought, emotion, personality;
“ No more — no more
the creation of character, the telling of tales, the
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
building up of artistic wholes. All these things can
be done with plain business speech or heightened
Or the stricken eagle soar.'
Or this,
rhetoric. And it is often difficult to say where these
“In what ethereal dances,
end and the more mysterious use of language be-
By what eternal streams."
gins. Most recent critics would decide that Byron,
Bryant usually gives the weight rather than the
for example, is solely a rhetorician; but for our
lustre of words; but take this:
part we think that he, too, is a weaver of spells, –
A friendless warfare! lingering long
though his may be black magic rather than white.
Through weary day and weary year;
A wild and many-weaponed throng
If verbal magic were only a matter of purple patches,
Hang on thy front, and flank, and rear.” it might be disregarded. But purple patches and
FitzGreene Halleck's writing at its best is with the
fine writing belong to rhetoric rather than to verbal
best. Witness,
magic. The supreme mastery over words suffuses
“ Green be the turf above thee,
a glow over whole works, penetrates character, and
Friend of my better days!
influences the presentation of thought. It is the
None knew thee but to love thee,
thimbleful of coloring matter which makes the blue
None named thee but to praise."
of the whole sky.
Or this,
There is, in truth, an analogy between magical
“Wild roses by the Abbey towers
Are gay in their young bud and bloom;
language and the use of color, light, and shade,
They were born of a race of funeral-flowers mere pigment in painting. Drawing, form, group-
That garlanded, in long-gone hours,
ing, dramatic expression, are the basis, the most
A templar's knightly tomb."
necessary things in art; the glory of color, whereby,
Simple words these and simple metres, but they as Hazlitt said of Velasquez, things seem to
have the indubitable magic that Swinburne's two wished
upon
the
canvas,
is comparatively a luxury.
critics deny him.
Sometimes the two powers go together, but less
Yet in the greatest poets this enchanted apparition often than the intellectual and sensuous gifts in
of words is only the warp of their work; rhetoric, poetry. But in both arts, the force of instant and
language raised more or less above the ordinary, vivid expression is the rarest and most inspira-
is the woof. With most verse writers this last tional thing. It is the effortless power of divinity,
is all in all. And it can be very good. In fact, - all the rest is mere human labor.
compared with the other it is what light is to light-
CHARLES LEONARD MOORE.
no more
66


1914]
133
THE DIAL
-
of last century. In fact, as is maintained by Miss
CASUAL COMMENT.
Caroline Ticknor, daughter of him whose death we
THE DETECTION OF GENIUS IN EMBRYO has always
here regretfully note, in her late admirable work,
been admitted to be a difficult thing. Our young
“Hawthorne and his Publisher,” the elder Ticknor
swans turn out to be geese, and our ugly ducklings
acted as publisher to more American and foreign au-
prove themselves to have been cygnets in uncouth
thors of celebrity than any one else of his time; and
disguise. But perhaps as common a mark of incip-
his honorable and generous dealings with English
ient genius as any — though even here one is liable
authors in those piratical days were as unprece-
to deception is an irresistible impulse to do com-
dented as they were appreciated by the beneficiaries.
mon things in an uncommon way, a deadly hostility
Reared in such an atmosphere, and coming, as he
to the usual and the conventional. Memory recalls
must have come, into something like intimate contact
the instance of a mathematical genius, a veritable
with the many noted frequenters of his father's Old
prodigy in the swift solution of rather complicated
Corner Bookstore, the young Ticknor naturally and
problems, who, in his boyhood, if asked to cube a
properly continued the traditional policy of the house
number in six figures, would have no recourse to
when he rose to prominence in its management, even
pencil and paper, but after a momentary trance-like
though the firm name was subject to rather fre-
stillness would undergo a sort of spasm, and, with
quent and, to an outsider, unaccountable changes.
From Ticknor & Fields it became successively Fields,
certain comical and meaningless movements of head
and limbs, would bring to birth the result of his
Osgood & Co., J. R. Osgood & Co., Ticknor & Co.,
lightning-like calculation, the
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and, finally, Houghton
of parturition
process
having every appearance of being little short of Mifflin Co., but retained the valued services of Mr.
excruciating. Professor Edmund Kemper Broadus
Ticknor until about eight years ago, when he retired
writes with humor and insight on the subject of
on account of ill health. The famous authors whom
“Genius at School” in the current “ Atlantic."
he knew as publisher and friend would make too
After acknowledging the disappointing quality of long a list to enumerate here.
academic success, and the perverse tendency of the A PLEA FOR THE QUESTIONNAIRE, that more or
self-willed and the lazy to achieve distinction, once less unwelcome inquisitor which is likely to come
in a while, at least, in after life, he goes on to say, at any time, and from any quarter, prying into our
among other things : “And if, in addition to the private or professional or business affairs, is made
self-directed spirits who are independent of formal
by “The Inland Printer” in its current issue.
schooling,' and the amiably idle who are indifferent
Statistics, repellent though they are in undigested
to it, there remains a residuum of the incurably form, may, like the ugly and venomous toad, wear
ignorant, not even of these need the seeker despair. yet a precious jewel in their head. Statistics of the
There is a kind of perfection, an orbicular wholeness
book-trade, for instance, or of public libraries, or of
about ignorance, sometimes, that is akin to genius
newspaper circulation, may serve to indicate a rise
itself. They are the leaven of the whole lump, in-
in the tide of popular intelligence and general cul-
deed, these indomitable ignoramuses. They are the ture, and so rejoice the humanitarian interested in
geniuses in the art of getting things wrong.
The
the welfare of the race. Straws show the wind's
student who said that churches promote the mor direction and velocity, and the statisticians of the
tality of the community, and his fellow who averred
Census Bureau are on the watch for all such aids
that churches are supported by the tribulations of
to a trustworthy determination of the trend of the
their members, had that vatic quality which savage times. But if we shirk the filling out of the blanks
nations are accustomed to recognize and reverence issued by the Bureau for the gathering-in of useful
in the weak-winded.” Nevertheless, neither blunder information on a multitude of subjects, how can we
ing, however pregnant with unintentional wisdom,
ever hope to learn with any certainty where we are
nor eccentricity, however astonishing, is a sure sign or in which direction we are moving in the mighty
of genius ; else how easy it were, comparatively stream of civilization? The Director of the Census
speaking, to achieve fame!
has good reason to complain of insufficient zeal on
the part of the public in furnishing the information
A BOSTON PUBLISHER
desired by him. He says, as quoted by the afore-
DENTS, reputed for his own just and courteous deal- mentioned monthly: “One of the principal causes
ings with authors, both American and foreign, and for the delay in the publication of the statistics of
perhaps even more famous as the son of an unusu manufactures of the United States is the difficulty
ally able and distinguished publisher, died recently we experience in securing reports from the different
in the city of his birth and of his business activity establishments. At the last census of manufactures,
for the greater part of his active life. Benjamin which covered the year 1909, all of the establish-
Holt Ticknor, born August 3, 1842, was the son of ments throughout the country were furnished with
William Davis Ticknor, who founded the house of blank schedules upon which to make their reports
Ticknor & Fields and was largely instrumental in by mail, but there was less than one per cent of the
bringing to public notice and to enduring fame so entire number that made complete reports. All of
many of our New England authors of the middle the others were collected by a personal visit of spe-
OF
HONORED ANTECE-


134
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
cial agents. This field work was not only expensive, acting colonel; served in the Vicksburg campaign
but greatly retarded the compilation of the sta under Grant, and then, on that general's advice,
tistics.” A greater readiness of response to the accepted the command of the Fourth U. S. Negro
questionnaire would undoubtedly be for the benefit Cavalry; was for two years aide-de-camp to General
of all concerned.
Banks; brevet brigadier-general in March, 1865;
REVIVING A NATIONAL LANGUAGE AND LITERA-
resigned from the service three months later, and
TURE that have fallen under the blighting influence
made his residence in New York City, where he
of foreign domination cannot but be a long and occupied himself chiefly in literary work, and in
difficult task. It is now a century since Norway gathering his fine library, until the end of his life.
freed herself from Denmark and recovered her in-
Of the score of books written or edited by him, the
dependence as a separate nation, although dynastic more important re his biographies of Grant and
ties held her in political alliance with Sweden until
Fitz-Greene Halleck, his “Lives of the Presidents
1905. Four centuries of Danish rule naturally left
of the United States," “Sketches of Illinois Offi-
their mark on the speech of Norway, as attested by
cers,” “Thackeray in the United States,” “Love in
the present similarity between the spoken and writ- Letters,” “The World's Largest Libraries,” “Mr.
ten language of cultured Norwegians and that of Secretary Pepys and his Diary,” “Bryant and his
educated Daues. But the patriotic Norwegian is Friends,” “Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers,” “Com-
not inclined to acquiesce in the Danification of his
modore Isaac Hull and the Frigate Constitution,"
ancient tongue, and in connection with this year's
“Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography,”
centennial celebration of the recovery of independ-
the “Great Commanders " series, Halleck's “Poems,"
ence it is proposed to adopt by due process of law
“Poets and Poetry of Scotland,” “Memorial History
a revived Norwegian language as the national and
of the City of New York," and the “Centennial His-
official speech of the kingdom; and for this purpose
tory of the Diocese of New York.” Academic honors
the labors of Ivar Aasen, patriot, philologist, and
and society memberships and officerships were con-
man of letters, are to be turned to account. Sixty
ferred upon him in abundance. He had a wide
years ago Aasen busied himself with the construc-
acquaintance with noted men of letters and other
tion, or reconstruction, of a national language which
celebrities, and had known with some degree of in-
he called “ Landsmaal,” going back to the old Norse timacy every president from Lincoln to the present
Sagas for genuine native words, and also having re-
occupant of the White House. His books have had
course to the dialects of those remoter districts that
a considerable circulation.
had successfully resisted the inroads of the Danish
tongue. According to report, which may be more or A MISSIONARY TO THE BOOKLESS in one of the
less erroneous, the Norwegian speech thus learnedly sparsely-settled counties of southeastern Maryland is
and painstakingly put together seems, contrary to all doing a work that merits attention. In the current
precedent, to be meeting with popular favor and to Report of the Maryland Public Library Commission
be gaining acceptance, especially in the rural dis we note, under“ East Berlin,” which is in Worcester
tricts, in songs and sermons, in the mimic life of the
County : “Here we have a county library on a small
stage and in the real life of every day. Landsmaal scale, with nine stations throughout the country-side.
is said to be melodious to the ear, of poetic quality, The Friendly Library was established in October,
phonetic in its written form, and not so unlike the 1908, by Miss Rozelle P. Handy, who lives about
printed Danish as to be beyond the comprehension five miles from Berlin. Through the generosity of
of a scholar familiar with the latter tongue. May her friends, she gathered together 500 volumes. The
it not be that Ireland and Scotland and Cornwall library now numbers 1600 volumes. She placed type-
and Brittany, with who knows how many other dis written lists at the stores in the neighborhood, with
languaged regions of the earth, will some day succeed
the request that the people make out a list of books
in reviving their obsolete or obsolescent tongues and wanted. The books are kept at Miss Handy's home
thus add to the linguistic variety and picturesqueness in a book case built in a sheltered corner of the porch.
of the civilized world and the domain of literature? Applications for books are made through the stores.
Miss Handy carries the books to and from the stores,
A MAN OF THE PEN AND OF THE SWORD, General and only in the case of invalids or people too old to
James Grant Wilson, who died on the first of this go to the store does she deliver the books to the
month, was the son of a poet and publisher, William homes. There are no fines and fees, and she does
W. Wilson, who brought his family from Edinburgh not insist that books come back on time (three weeks
to this country in 1833, when James was one year being the limit), but the books away come in on
old, and settled at Poughkeepsie. A partnership in demand. Miss Handy keeps a record, showing just
the paternal publishing house failed to satisfy the what books each person has read and what persons
young man's ambitions, and he entered journalism, have read each book. As the books are usually read
becoming in 1857 the founder and first editor of by each member of the family, a book is not sent to
the Chicago “Record.” Soon after the outbreak of a family a second time unless the
younger
children
the Civil War, he was commissioned major of the have grown up and demand it. . . . All her finan-
Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, and ere long became its cial help and gifts come from the outside. She is


1914]
135
THE DIAL
A NEW
fortunate in having many friends interested in the is ere long to become a powerful agency for the
library, and is constantly receiving gifts.” A record elevating and refining of our musical taste? To the
for the past year of 2800 circulation (400 non-fiction) already established heads of departments in public
among 368 borrowers, is not bad, especially as the libraries shall we not presently see added a custo-
total number of readings of all the books sent out far dian of music-rolls, equipped with the special
exceeds the circulation figure. Here is a chance for knowledge required for the discharge of his impor-
those burdened with a superfluity of books or money, tant duties, and energetic in promoting the cause
or both, to aid in a good work.
of good music in his community? Another pleas-
ing item of news under this general head brings
HONOR FOR PROFESSOR JOHN BACH with it the promise of greatly improved facilities
MCMASTER was conferred in his election, on Feb.
for the circulation of library books among patrons
ruary 7, to the presidency of the Franklin Inn at a distance from the library. Congressman Gillett
Club, of Philadelphia, in succession to the late Dr. of Massachusetts has introduced a bill for the grant-
S. Weir Mitchell. Of this club of authors, artists, ing of a special mail rate of one cent a pound on
and publishers, Dr. Mitchell had been president for library books -- to apply to public libraries, school
fourteen years. Its membership roll has included libraries supported by taxation, and, under certain
such famous Philadelphians as Horace Howard conditions, social, industrial, and trade libraries.
Furness, the Shakespearean scholar; Dr. Henry
Charles Lea, the historian; Mr. Owen Wister, the
MRS. GASKELL'S MANCHESTER HOME, the house
novelist; Professor Schelling, the authority on
at 84 Plymouth Grove where she did her best literary
Elizabethan poetry; Professor Cheney, whose his work and received so many of her literary friends,
tory of the Elizabethan period has just been pub- including Thackeray, Dickens, and her whose life
lished; Professor Larned, who has elucidated the
she was to chronicle in one of the world's most
German influence in America; Dr. Keen, the cele-
memorable biographies, has very recently become
brated surgeon, who as a young man was associated vacant through the death of Miss Margaret Gaskell,
with Dr. Mitchell in the Civil War hospitals of
who with her sister, also deceased, had occupied the
Philadelphia; Dr. Gummere, of Haverford College;
house from the time of their mother's death in 1865.
Ex-Provost Harrison and Provost Smith of the Uni- Naturally enough, the admirers of Mrs. Gaskell are
versity of Pennsylvania; Mr. John Luther Long,
earnest in advocating the preservation of the house
the novelist; Mr. Francis Rawle, chairman of the as a Gaskell Museum, a repository for such articles
committee of the American Bar Association; Major- of furniture, works of art, books, manuscripts, and
General James Harrison Wilson, the most distin other memorials, as are associated with the author
guished surviving corps commander of the Union of “Cranford" and her friends. It has been pro-
armies; and Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith, artist and posed that the city of Manchester buy the property
writer. The Franklin Inn Club is to be congratu-
and turn to profitable use a part of the vacant land
lated upon the maintenance of its long-established adjoining the house.
adjoining the house. A shilling admission fee, too,
traditions ensured by Dr. McMaster's election to
would go far toward making the museum self-
the presidency. To its quaint Philadelphia home, supporting. But it appears from reports that the
where is preserved an early colonial atmosphere, city fathers estimate the probable cost of maintenance
there are brought almost daily scholars, authors, men
as prohibitive of the undertaking. Surely, now that
of distinction in various fields, from all parts of this
the Johnson house in Fleet Street has been rescued
country, from England, Germany, South Africa, the and restored by the public spirit and large generosity
ends of the earth; and these fortunate guests are
of one man, Mr. Cecil B. Harmsworth, the prosper-
likely to find no diminishment in the charm of sur ous city of Manchester ought not to pull its purse-
roundings under the new administration.
strings quite so tight when so worthy a cause is in
question.
BITS OF BIBLIOTHECAL NEWS, in this preëmi BAITING THE HOOK TO CATCH THE READER is a
nently bibliothecal age and country, are every day trick that not only publishers and authors and head-
or two claiming our interested attention. For line-writers find it necessary to learn, but librarians
example, the Kansas City Public Library has re also are giving more and more attention to this
cently received from an unnamed benefactor the detail of their profession. In a recent issue of
gift of five hundred music-rolls for circulation among “ The Outlook" Miss Sarah Comstock writes about
card-holders who may wish to borrow them, under “Byways of Library Work,” describing some of the
the rules governing the lending of books, and to devices used to whet the rural appetite for such
enjoy the tuneful effect of their operation on the literary wares as are offered by the county book-
mechanical player-piano with which every third or wagon and through other agencies of library exten-
fourth home is now equipped. No rag-time pieces sion. “I'm going to the library,” breathlessly
are included in these rolls, and none will be ad explained a storm-buffeted lad on his way over the
mitted to the library—or so the librarian is said to western prairie to the nearest source of supply for
have announced. In addition to its other activities his book-hunger; "she [the librarian came an' tol'
in educational uplift, who knows but that the library me all about Tom Sawyer' herself, an' I'm going


136
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
to have it. I ain't froze but one ear yet, an' I ain't translate only by you? How is one to show in English
got but one more to freeze, an', anyhow, I'm goin' the affectionate familiarity of two friends who, after
to have that book.” Among other kindred items, they have drunk Brüderschaft, address each other as du
instead of Sie?
the missionary activity of the Brumback Library
Often the use of the familiar thou con-
of Van Wert County, Ohio, is described by Miss
trasted with the formal you is inevitable in translation.
Comstock with especial reference to the “traps” it
we must translate: “ For
In Hugo's “ Laugbing Man
Barkilphedro to be thee'd' and thou'd' was a suc-
lays for its readers. This notable library and the
cess; he had aspired to this contemptuous familiarity.”
great work it is doing are soon to be brought to
It would be well to show that while Lady Josiana
public notice, more fully than heretofore, in a book addresses Barkilphedro as thou, he always addresses
now in preparation at the hands of the daughter her, as is due her rank, as you. In “ Ninety-Three,”
and the son-in-law of the far-sighted and public- too, Cimourdain discovers that his dearest friend,
spirited founder of the library.
Gawain, has played the traitor. “ Accused,” said he,
“you will stand up." As Hugo remarks, it is signifi-
cant that “he no longer said thee' and 'thou' to
EIGHT WAYS OF REVIEWING A BOOK, as enumer Gawain.” Such a distinction in the use of the pronoun,
ated by Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, are these: first, the filling as it does a real need, should not be altogether
ostentatious essay, in which, after two and seven lost: it should at least be preserved in elevated English
eighths of the three columns allowed the reviewer poetry and prose.
HYDER E. ROLLINS.
have been filled, with more or less irrelevant erudi-
The University of Texas, Feb. 4, 1914.
tion, he seems suddenly to become aware of the book
assigned him for notice, and ends bis task with a
WALT WHITMAN AND LINCOLN'S
complimentary sentence in which the convenient
ASSASSINATION.
phrase "on the whole” is pretty certain to occur;
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
second, the hypercritical review, the review of the
On
page
589 of Francis Fisher Browne's “Every-day
expert intent on detecting errors, often of the Life of Lincoln," occurs this statement :
minutest sort; third, the man-of-all-work's review,
“Scarcely had the horror-stricken audience witnessed
or the short notice written by the back of real or the leap and flight of the assassin when a woman's shriek
supposed encyclopædic learning who can turn out a pierced through the theatre, recalling all eyes to the Presi-
presentable article on any book or any subject under
dent's box. The scene that ensued is described with singular
vividness by the poet Walt Whitman, who was present."
the sun; fourth, the puff, which is familiar to us
all; fifth, the malignant review, which happily is
Now I would ask you to turn to the following state-
ment in “Specimen Days,” in the collected edition of
less familiar; sixth, the honestly enthusiastic review,
Whitman's works published by Putnam (1902) under
which is a joy to the publisher and a fountain of
the supervision of the literary executors of the poet,
life to the author; seventh, the right kind of review, Vol. I., page 37:
which is the candid and careful criticism of a com-
“Of all the days of the war, there are two especially I
petent judge; eighth and last, the personal review, can never forget. Those were the day following the news,
by which is meant “the review that blends gossip
in New York and Brooklyn, of the first Bull Run defeat, and
with criticism," and that is more likely to please the
the day of Abraham Lincoln's death. I was home in Brooklyn
on both occasions."
general reader than any other mode of review yet
discovered.
Perhaps some reader of THE DIAL can explain this
discrepancy. I have enjoyed the “ Every-day Life of
Lincoln” so much that I want to have everything veri-
fied. In fact, I once claimed that Walt Whitman had
COMMUNICATIONS.
been present at Lincoln's assassination on the strength
of this reference, and it was therefore a surprise to run
A DIFFICULTY IN TRANSLATION.
across the note in “Specimen Days.”
HAROLD HERSEY.
(To the Editor of THE.DIAL.)
Washington, D. C., Feb. 7, 1914.
It is interesting to notice instances in which the
early English distinction between the singular and plural
“WORTH WHILE."
forms of the second person pronoun is still observed in
(To the Editor of The DIAL.)
modern English. Naturally enough, we address God
as thou and thee because you would seem familiar and
Will you kindly enlighten us of the far West as to
disrespectful. The distinction, however, between the
the popularity of the phrase "worth while”? In the
formal or respectful you and the affectionate, friendly,
midst of impassioned sermons we learn that life and
superior, or contemptuous thou and thee has been prac-
religion are worth while; librarians ask patrons to name
tically done away with in modern English. Scholars,
books that are worth while; magazines want contrib-
of course, are thoroughly acquainted with the frequency
utions that are worth while; professors of literature lec-
and expressiveness of this distinction in Shakespeare, ture on authors that are worth while. Education is
worth while; marriage, feminism, and socialism are
and even high-school students are able to differentiate
worth while. So are big business deals, and great
clearly the French tu and vous and the German du and
Sie.
engineering projects, and efficiency. Truly all these are
worthy, good, advantageous, or otherwise; but why are
But everyone is puzzled when an English equivalent
of du or tu is to be given in translation. How can one
they all worth while”?
WM. CHESLETT, JR.
retain the expressiveness of the original if one can Stanford University, Cal., Feb. 5, 1914.


1914]
137
THE DIAL
The New Books.
crosses, to produce improved strains of fruits
and flowers. The results of this work will rap-
idly become available all over the country, and
NATURAL HISTORY EAST AND WEST.*
eventually nearly everyone will, usually with-
About thirty-five years ago a collector of out knowing it, be indebted in some way or
plants ascended the Yangtze River to the bor other to E. H. Wilson. The work of explo-
ders of western China. Finding the natives ration and collecting was arduous and time-
hostile, he was obliged to return; but before consuming, but it was thoroughly enjoyed at
doing so, he spent a few days examining, as the time and its results ought to yield as much
well as he could, the native flora. In the course satisfaction as need fall to the lot of mortal man.
of this work he came across a new and beautiful In his well written and beautifully illustrated
species of Primula, which he knew would be book Mr. Wilson tells the story of his work
very desirable for cultivation. As it was im-
As it was im- and gives a general discussion of the people and
possible to get the living plants home, and no products of western China. We are astonished
ripe seed-capsules were found, he hit upon the first at the author's knowledge of the flora ;
expedient of carrying away a sack of earth then at his keen observations on the sociology,
from the place where the plants were found, politics, agriculture, zoölogy, and many other
hoping that the seeds it probably contained matters which came before him. The narrative
would germinate. This plan was perfectly suc is a perfectly straightforward one, apparently
cessful; and in this manner the Primula without undue bias of any kind, but written in
obconica, one of our commonest and most ad a sympathetic spirit. Those who care for explo-
mired greenhouse plants of to-day, was secured ration and natural history will enjoy it most;
for horticulture.
but it is to be recommended also to those who
Previous to this time many Chinese plants are interested in the character of the Chinese,
had been brought to Europe for cultivation, and the future of China. Many people have
some from China direct, others from Japanese visited the fringe of that great country, and
gardens. These, however, were nearly all cul- freely communicated their impressions to the
tivated plants, merely transferred from the world; but here is a man who has gone to and
gardens of the Orient to those of the Occident. fro in the uttermost parts for many years, with
It was not known, thirty years ago, that west only native companious; one, also, who is scien-
ern China was full of the most remarkable and tifically minded, and has no particular reason
beautiful wild trees, shrubs, and herbs, hun. for distorting the facts.
dreds of them well adapted to the gardens of On one of his journeys, Mr. Wilson entrusted
Europe and America. During the last quarter a box of money to a recently engaged coolie,
of a century these wonders have gradually been who presently complained of feeling sick and
revealed by a few indefatigable and phenom- was discharged. It was discovered next day
enally successful collectors, among whom, when that the man had decamped with about half the
all the material has been examined, E. H. money. At about the same time an official, on
Wilson will probably be found to take the first being asked to furnish the customary escort,
rank. Statistics convey a poor idea of the work sent back a discourteous reply, refusing to
done; but it is worth noting that in the course grant the request. The reader will think at
of nearly eleven years Wilson collected about once: “Of course,
-what else is to be expected
65,000 specimens, representing about 5,000 in China ?” He will then be astonished to read
different species, and sent home seeds of over that both experiences were unique; that in
1,500 different plants. We do not know how eleven years no other serious theft of the au-
many of the species were new to science, but thor's property occurred, and no other official
they were exceedingly numerous: thus it is was anything but polite! Could a Chinese,
stated that there were forty new species of travelling in the United States, tell a similar
cherries alone. Very many of the plants have story? On the borders of Thibet there are
proved valuable additions to our gardens in gangs of robbers, but Mr. Wilson was not
their original form; others will be used in molested by them. A friend of the author's,
*A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA. By Ernest Henry
who has spent many years among the Thibetans,
Wilson. With an Introduction by Charles Sprague Sargent. has contributed a long and very interesting note
In two volumes. Illustrated. New York: Doubleday, Page
on polyandry, showing how the custom has
& Co.
To The RIVER PLATE AND BACK. By W. J. Holland.
grown out of the mode of life of those people.
Illustrated. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Under the circumstances, it has its advantages,


138
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
for “it must often happen that one or two hus- apart without very close examination. The great
bands are away tending flocks, worshipping at success of this undertaking led to models of
holy mountains, or robbing travellers.” It also Diplodocus being given, at Mr. Carnegie's ex-
has the effect of keeping down the population pense, to other European museumns. When one
in a country which would not support increased was set up in Paris, one of the papers of that
numbers,
city came out with the "explanation" that
A few paragraphs from Mr. Wilson's conclud- | Americans, having so often purchased fake
ing chapter will give some idea of his views : antiquities in Europe, had resolved to get even
“ A keynote to the Chinese character is pride. They by one bold stroke! Everywhere the Diplo-
are an intensely proud people, and it must be confessed docus created a great deal of public interest,
that their pride is justified. ... They have also
· . They have also grave and helped to make palæontology, in spite of
national faults, and this pride and its concomitant con-
servatism is largely the cause of their present position.
its subject matter, a live science.
... I have met in China hundreds of students intent
Recently, a Diplodocus replica was given to
on acquiring Western knowledge, but scarcely one who the Argentine Republic, and Dr. Holland, the
in any sense realized the immensity of the task before distinguished Director of the Carnegie Museum,
him. . . . For generations China went in for competitive
examinations to supply all official posts, and had, as a
went to La Plata to superintend its erection.
result, a body of truly incapable officials. . . . I do not
This journey to South America is the basis of
believe in a "Yellow Peril in the nature of a possible the book now before us.
While Dr. Holland
military conquest of the West. It would be necessary kept essentially to the beaten path, and has no
to fundamentally alter the Chinese character in order remarkable adventures or discoveries to record,
to make it militantly aggressive. But in their virility and
he has written a thoroughly interesting and
industry they are unconquerable people, quite the equals
of the West in these qualities. If they thoroughly entertaining account of what he saw. The nar-
“awaken,' what is to prevent them becoming in com rative is detailed enough to be vivid, yet not so
merce and industry the great competitors of the white detailed as to be tiresome; it is based not only
race? ... My experiences in China, though varied,
have on the whole been very pleasant. To speak as we
on the actual experiences of the voyage, but
find and courageously is the only just stand to take.
also on much reading and thought. Thus the
With all their peculiarities, conservatism, and faults, the
author's “first impressions" are not mere naïve
Chinese are a great people. Phenix-like, China has reactions in the presence of the unfamiliar, but
arisen time and again from the ashes of decadent dynas are added to the results of previous close study.
ties, and there is every reason to believe she will accom-
plish this again. Her peace-loving, industrious millions
Dr. Holland describes his book as “simply the
can never be utterly smothered or nationally effaced.
record of a pleasant journey," and does not offer
Sooner or later they must come into their own, and side it as an important contribution to knowledge;
by side with the people of the Occident help forward the but it will open the eyes of many travellers to
destiny of the world.”
interesting features of the South American coun-
tries, and will especially serve to interest them
In 1899, wonderfully perfect materials of a
in numerous scientific problems of which they
gigantic fossil reptile were found in Wyoming, would otherwise know nothing. The book is
and secured for the Carnegie Museum at Pitts- beautifully illustrated, not only by reproduc-
burgh. The mounted skeleton is over eighty-four tions from photographs, but also by some very
feet long, with extremely long neck and tail, delicate and beautiful colored plates, made from
and a comparatively minute head which must water-color drawings by the author.
have contained the smallest brain, in compar-
T. D. A. COCKERELL.
ison with the bulk of the animal, of any known
vertebrate. The species was supposed, perhaps
erroneously, to be new,
and was accordingly
named Diplodocus carnegiei. A sketch of it
ITALY'S FOREMOST COMIC DRAMATIST.*
was sent to Mr. Carnegie in Scotland, and was With his volume on Goldoni, Mr. H. C.
by him shown to King Edward VII., who at once Chatfield-Taylor has added a companion work
asked for a specimen to be placed in the British to his “Molière: A Biography,” which ap-
Museum. But there are some things that even peared in 1906. It is unhappily so rare in our
kings must do without, skeletons of Diplodocus country to find combined in an amateur both
being among them. It was, however, possible the leisure and the scholarship requisite for the
to make a replica, which was given to the British | successful cultivation of belles-lettres, that the
Museum, and for most purposes serves as well appearance of this volume is an event of consid-
as the original. I have seen both the original
*GOLDONI. A Biography. By H. C. Chatfield-Taylor,
and the copy, and do not think I could tell them Litt.D. Illustrated. New York: Duffield & Co.


1914]
139
THE DIAL
erable interest. We should burn a fine candle Venice, the campaign of Goldoni in favor of the
to the Italian gentleman who, we are told, sug written comedy, the relations of Goldoni with
gested that Mr. Chatfield-Taylor undertake the French and English men of letters, the essential
work. The subject is a fascinating one, and it inferiority of the Italian to Molière, and the
fell into hands which were well fitted to treat last years of Goldoni's long life at Versailles
it after completing the excellent monograph on
and at Paris until his death in 1793 at the age
Molière. It may be hoped that the author of of eighty-six. There is perhaps no clearer ex-
these two works has definitely forsworn the position of the subject to be found in English
society novel, and that he will henceforth follow than the chapter on “The Improvised Comedy”.
the line of studies in which he has been of late of Italy,- not even Dr. Winifred Smith's more
engaged.
detailed Columbia University thesis on “The
Strange to say, there has been no adequate Commedia dell'arte," to which our author
treatment of Goldoni in English: there was a acknowledges his indebtedness.
clear field. It is regrettable that foreign stu A mere handful of Goldoni's three hundred
dents of Italian literature have confined them- plays are known to some of our university stu-
selves so straitly to the trecento and the Renais dents and to a few curious theatre-goers. No
sance. The eighteenth century in Italy was, to one who has seen Signore Novelli in his Italian
be sure, an age of immorality and of low social version of Le Bourru bienfaisant, first played
standards. But so it was in the rest of Europe. at the Comédie Française on November 4, 1771,
Yet, whereas English, German, and French will soon forget the comedy or its interpreter.
writers of that century have been scraped to But we question whether in a book of this kind,
the bone for a morsel of flesh, the eighteenth intended for the general reader, it was expedient
century literature of Italy and of Spain has to analyze so many of Goldoni's plays as Mr.
been scarcely touched. Periods of moral laxity Chatfield-Taylor has done. The middle of the
and of political corruption are, bowever, often volume is a trifle heavy, and one has the unwel-
of great social interest, and of no century is this come conviction that each plot is driving its
more true than of the wicked and corrupt but predecessor from the mind, as one comedy of
gay and witty century which, despite the utter- intrigue after another is passed in review. The
ances of philosophers and scientists, fiddled and plots of the comedies are abundantly illustrated
danced on its way to the French Revolution. by the translation of scenes which must have
The adventures of Goldoni (born 1707) before cost the translator no little pains. Of these,
be found himself” and became the purveyor the poetical renderings are more pleasing than
of plays for the two Venetian theatres of Sant' the prose, because it is even less possible in the
Angelo and San Luca are a perfect reflection latter case to reproduce the elusive dialogue of
of the state of Italy during the first half of the the Italian; whereas the poetry even in English
eighteenth century. To match his romantic
To match his romantic | has a dignity and formality of its own which
adventures one must turn to the fictions of does not court comparison with the original.
Agustin de Rojas in his Spanish novel of El Goldoni has been so generally referred to as
Viaje entretenido (1603), to Scarron's French the “ Molière of Italy” that Mr. Chatfield-
Roman comique (1651), or to Théophile Taylor has done well to limit the implied parallel
Gautier's better known Capitaine Fracasse between these two great modern creators of
(1861). The source for our knowledge of these wholesome mirth. The Frenchman and the
“Wanderjahre” of the future master of Italian Italian each developed his consummate mastery
comedy is the Mémoires written in French at of character-drawing and of dramatic technique
Paris toward the close of his long life. Upon from the improvised comedy of Italy. Each was
these Mémoires, covering one of the most a bourgeois with an extensive knowledge of the
checkered dramatic careers of which we have foibles of humanity. Each had grown up in the
record, Mr. Chatfield-Taylor has necessarily air of the green-room, and each wrote comedies
drawn heavily. His excerpts will have the to keep the wolf from the door. In outward
effect of sending many of his readers to make a circumstances the careers of the two men were
first-hand acquaintance with the personal recol- strangely similar. Neither was potably a religious
lections of the amiable and benevolent " Papa man; but Molière was a philosopher. There
Goldoni."
are many
serious
passages
in Goldoni's comedies
We venture to emphasize as most informing in which he preaches to his generation; but they
the chapters in which the author has set forth hardly hit the eternal truth as does Molière in
the general social and literary conditions in his portentous portraits of the hypocrite, the


140
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
misanthrope, the miser, the rake, and the social de curiosité: “Goldoni, too, is open to the
climber. One might prefer to have the sunny charge of having presented in The House
and optimistic Goldoni for a friend with whom Party a triangle of domestic infelicity similar
to chat and drink coffee in the Piazza in Venice, in outline to the conventional framework of the
while he laughed over his adventures with act- plays of modern Europe; yet he has so tem-
resses, with naughty grand dames and their pered his situations that the apical angle de-
“cicisbeos"; but one would prefer to read scribing his story of marital incompatability,
Molière, to study humanity through his observ- | being neither viciously obtuse nor insinuatingly
ing eyes, and to recognize in this great, sad, acute, may justly be termed right. How this
lovable man the same jarring note of tragedy curious concetto escaped the pen of an experi-
and comedy which makes the whole world his enced writer is cause for wonder.
kin. Goldoni is comparatively shallow, while The following slight inaccuracies have been
Molière is incomparably profound ; Goldoni is noted, and should be corrected in a second
an Italian, and more specifically a Venetian, of edition : on page 474 it is incorrect to include
the eighteenth century, while Molière is universal Mme. Champmeslé in the troupe of the Comédie
because he deals with eternal types of human Française at the time of Goldoni's arrival in
folly.
Paris in 1762, as she had died in 1698; on page
The general reader, for whom the body of 547 (note) the Spanish play El Burlador de
the book is intended, will be especially inter Sevilla should be assigned to 1630, when the
ested, moreover, in the literary friendship of first edition was published at Barcelona (cf.
Goldoni and Voltaire, in the influence of Rich- Fitz-Maurice Kelly).
ardson upon the Italian playwright, and in the The publishers have coöperated generously in
experiences of the exiled dramatist as Italian giving this important text a carefully constructed
tutor in the family of Louis XV. But there and handsome frame. It is cause for gratification
are a number of hors d'oeuvres contained in that in this case an American has forestalled
the massive volume: the appetite is whetted English scholarship in producing a biography
by the admirable reproductions of paintings by of the foremost Italian comic author which should
Pietro Longhi, illustrative of Italian life in the find a place in every library.
eighteenth century, which lend precious assist-
W. W. COMFORT.
ance to an understanding of Goldoni's comedies;
the author's footnotes lead the way to French
and Italian authorities for the history of the
Italian drama; and, most valuable to the scholar, IDEALISTIC FORCES IN AMERICAN
there are three Appendices and an Index, rep-
HISTORY.*
resenting the painstaking work of Professor 6. There is to-day,” says Professor Adams, "a
F. C. L. van Steenderen of Lake Forest Col-
very decided tendency to seek purely material
lege. Appendix A, containing a chronological reasons for historical development, and espe-
catalogue raisonné of Goldoni's works with
cially so, apparently, in American history.”
reference to the source and the first performance This tendency is unfortunate, he thinks ; for
of each play or opera, is an invaluable com there are in history "other influences of an in-
pendium of information for the student of com tellectual,- it may
be a spiritual,- character.”
parative literature. A biographical chronology The invitation to deliver a series of lectures at
and a bibliography of editions of Goldoni fur- | Yale, on the “ Dodge Foundation for Citizen-
ther enhance the value of the volume, and thus ship,” he has therefore made the occasion for
place a mass of scattered details at the conven recalling “a few of the great ideals that have
ient disposal of the student.
animated our national conduct and moulded our
Mr. Chatfield-Taylor's style is easy and destiny.” The ideals selected for this purpose
agreeable to read. Like Mme. de Sévigné in are indicated by the titles of the lectures,
one respect, he lets his pen trot “la bride sur Nationality, Anti-slavery, Manifest Destiny,
le cou,” thereby offering a striking contrast to Religion, Democracy. Professor Adams at-
most academic writers who feel that space limi- tempts “neither explanation nor analysis of
tations require succinctness of statement. There these ideals, but rather ... to show by straight-
is one sentence, on page 510, that savors of Gol- forward historical review and by familiar quota-
doni's countryman, the cavaliere Marino. As
* THE POWER OF IDEALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. By
an example of préciosité it jars on the natural
Ephraim Douglass Adams. New Haven: Yale University
style of the book, and may be quoted à titre
Press.


1914]
141
THE DIAL
;
tions from leading Americans of the time, the ant. This selection and emphasis constitute
force that was in them.”
an interpretation. Obviously, in this sense,
This, clearly, should prove no hazardous there are many possible kinds of interpreta-
undertaking — to maintain that men do not act tion. Each will be more or less useful accord-
solely from material motives, to show that an ing to the knowledge, the insight, and the
emotion, or a sentiment, or a faith, has often sympathy of the mind that makes it; but none
had a powerful influence upon the course of can ever sum up the whole of history, or be the
events. On first thought, one is disposed to only useful way of regarding it.
question the necessity of demonstrating so ob By all means, therefore, let us look at the
vious a truth. We all know, do we not, that past from as many angles as possible, each stu-
our friends are every day acting from other than dent regarding that aspect of it which interests
material motives, from a sense of honor, from him, and representing it in the best way he can.
friendship, or at the call of duty. Certainly we Unfortunately, we are all disposed to exaggerate
know this. And it is a commonplace that men the importance of what interests us ; and some
in the mass, even more than individuals, are men are temperamentally unable to rest easy
likely to be moved by passion or sentiment to until they have cleaned up the cosmos and
noble or despicable action. If anything is
If anything is stored away everything in the snug compart-
known, it is known that the motives which in ments of some general principle, without any
spire human conduct are many, and capable of fragments left lying around to stumble over;
a great variety of combination, so that the pres- hence the neat formula which professes to
sure of any particular motive, or of any combina- explain quite simply what seems at first sight
tion of motives, is never quite the same in any so inexplicably complex. From the Ionian
two situations.
Mythographers to the days of Taine and Lam-
Undoubtedly it is this variety in the circum- precht, the student of historical literature
stance and motive of action that gives the study encounters the debris of such formulæ. But
of history its high value. A famous professor
A famous professor the attempt to pack the human spirit in some
of economics, in examining a candidate for the or other odd shaped syllogistic hand-bag never
doctor's degree on one occasion, began with the does any harm because it is never successful.
following question : “Suppose a man and a dog The bag bursts, or the fashions change, and the
with two biscuits, cast away at sea in a small human spirit goes on its way, as resilient as
boat; what would the man do?":
ever, whether rejoicing or not. Of these recep-
the fascination of a certain kind of Political tacles, the latest is the well-braced provender-
Economy arises from the fact that you can say crib known as the “Economic Interpreta-
straight off precisely what the man would do. tion of History.”
tion of History." The latest, do I say? No,
But if such questions have any meaning, then
not the
very
for it is already half passé,
life has none, and history has none. You bave of which fact Professor Adams's book is, in its
to know the man and the dog and the biscuits, way, an interesting confirmation.
the kind of boat, on what sea it was, and the Of course any thoroughgoing materialist who
season of the year. Put St. Augustine in the knows his business would say that Professor
boat, and I should say that he would give both Adams has gone about to upset a
man of
biscuits to the dog, - at least if it were the dog straw,- very neatly, no doubt. Only a most
which we know of in the story. But if hap- superficial materialist, he would say, ever sup-
pened to be Bill Sykes in the boat, I should posed that the immediate springs of conduct are
say that he would certainly eat both biscuits always material interests. Emotion, sentiment,
himself — and afterwards, perhaps, the dog ideals,—these often move men, sure enough,
also. History will readily furnish us both these to irrational action. But what makes ideals ?
extremes, and between them a great variety of Democracy is a force, I admit it; but how do
possible courses. But if this variety makes his you explain the existence of the ideal of democ-
tory interesting, it also makes it difficult racy, and why does it prevail one time rather
extremely so; so difficult that it is impossible than another? Are ideals ultimate and persist-
to enter into it in any intimate way, much less ent forces, or are they but the natural instincts
to describe it, without selecting, out of the of the human animal psychologically trans-
countless number of actual situations, certain formed into more subtle instruments to be
situations of a special kind, and emphasizing, employed in the service of those instincts?
in order to understand these situations, the pur- Psychology tells us that emotion is but the in-
poses or motives which seem to be most import- | stinct for action delayed, or thwarted. Well,
I dare say
latest;


142
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
the Puritan ideal, for example, was a powerful “not only the greatest man whom the Chinese
force, certainly; but you will find the origin of race has produced in modern times, but, in a
it in an economic and social organization which combination of qualities, the most unique per-
for two or three centuries isolated the bourgeois sonality of the past century among all the nations
and thwarted his pursuit of wealth and power. of the world.” He was notable as man of letters,
And what is the idea of democracy but an soldier, diplomat, and statesman; and in all these
effective moral and intellectual weapon forged scarcely related fields bis greatness was due to
for the use of the average man in his contest a certain brilliance of mind and activity and per-
for the spoils of the world? Historians, so I sistence of will. His steady rise from his first
suppose our materialist to say, who are satisfied subordinate position in a district office until as
with conscious motive as an explanation of action an old man he held the fate of China, at several
in history are only one degree less superficial momentous crises, in his hands alone,- this
than those who are content to narrate action uninterrupted career in the achievement of his
without explanation. We must be more pro- youthful ambition seems to have been the inev-
found than that. We must refer action to
We must refer action to itable result of abilities rather than the effect of
motive, and motive to the elemental and persist- family or monetary influence.
ent forces which give rise to it.
Moreover, the personality of the great China-
This is to place the discussion of historical man is not only impressive, but also attractive
interpretation on another level altogether. On and at times fascinating. The astonishing
this level, the materialist can indeed be encoun shrewdness of the man, a businesslike and yet
tered with good prospect of victory, but he almost preternatural keenness in estimating men
cannot be routed so easily. Professor Adams and turning them to his own purposes,
- this
does not meet him on this level; nor does he quintessence of worldly wisdom, blended with
profess to have done so. He has made his attack ready and full appreciation of the abilities and
upon the cruder and more superficial forms of services of other men, and with apparently com-
materialistic interpretation. This was well worth plete loyalty to his country and his rulers, makes
doing, and it has been done effectively. him the sort of person to whom men of common
CARL BECKER. abilities attach themselves. Suavity, intellectual
keenness, power, and loyalty are the marked
traits of his character.
CHINA'S “GRAND OLD MAN."*
Such one feels Li Hung Chang to have been
Opportunity for a most interesting study of
in and of himself. But a sketch of his person-
personality as developed under Oriental condi- ality cannot end there, for he was something in
tions of the past century is afforded in the re-
addition as an Oriental and a Chinaman of the
cently published" Memoirs of Li Hung Chang.” last century, Gulick has shown convincingly
An alien and exotic quality in the book renders
that national traits supposedly ineradicable may
it peculiarly acceptable to an Occidental reader, be the product of age-long environment, and
and its seemingly frank and intimate revelation
may be subject, under a changing environment,
of the inner life of a great and typical Chinaman
to alteration or complete effacement. As we
gives it more than ordinary value at this time, contemplate the uglier side of the character of
when mutual understanding between East and Li, we should be the more repelled if we did not
West is of importance for the interests of the
bear this truth in mind. In him century-long
immediate future. Needless to say, the memoirs
environment had produced a person of cruel
furnish authentic information in regard to many
nature and low moral consciousness. Though
matters of great import in Chinese history of the seemingly devoted to the welfare of all his coun-
latter half of the past century.
trymen, he took pleasure in ordering the head
Li Hung Chang would have been a remark-
taken from the shoulders of a wretch who at-
able
any part of the world. His career tempted his life, and years afterwards referred
indicates intellectual gifts and force of will such
to the incident with a sort of satisfaction. The
as would have placed him in a leading position multitudes whom he sent to execution during his
had he been born a European instead of an long career as a magistrate sat very lightly upon
Asiatic. Indeed, so high an authority as former
his conscience. When he captured Nanking
Secretary of State John R. Foster calls him from the Taiping rebels, he commanded his
lieutenant-general to pass through the city and
* MEMOIRS OF LI Hung Chang. Edited by William
Francis Mannix. With an Introduction by Hon. John W.
slay all persons who were in any way associated
Foster. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
with the use of opium. The officer reported that
person in


1914)
143
THE DIAL
race.
he killed twelve hundred users and retailers of sary of her death occurred, and he secluded
the drug. Li commented in his diary: “It is himself from all callers and spent the day in
good work, and it further commends Ching in thinking of her and renewing his gratitude to
my sight.” When a certain merchant came with her memory. Somewhat similar was his loyalty
a complaint that Gordon's army had pillaged to certain friends, among whom the chief seems
his property, and begged for protection, Li was to have been General Grant. At the tomb of
about to have the fellow put to death, but altered Grant he performed religious rites and offered
his mind and sent him back to Gordon with a a prayer to the dead American, and the fervor
request written in English, "asking the com of his notes in the diary preclude the thought
mander please to cut the fellow's head off upon of a mere theatrical display.
its presentation. He went away very gleefully." We have commented only upon striking and
When some of the butchers of Chingkiang com contrasting elements in Li Hung Chang's per-
plained that the rebels had used up all meat sonality. There is much, besides, of interest
cattle of the region, and asked whether some of in these memoirs. Li’s style, even in the trans-
the rebel prisoners might not be killed for food, lation, is never uninteresting, and his humor
“I told them," writes Li, “to see my captain in adds much to the relish of the book. He was a
command over the wretches and tell him it would great man born in an environment in hospitable
do no harm to replenish the meat supply of the to some of the finer fruits of the spirit, yet
city." Yet this cruelty is in strange contrast growing to an old age that commands admira-
with the appreciation and sympathy which drew tion not unmixed with reverence and even
tears from his eyes as he sat by the death-bed | affection.
0. D. WANNAMAKER.
of his American lieutenant, Ward. He spent
the unpaid balance of Ward's salary in erecting
a shrine to his memory. His cruelty to the
Nanking opium-smokers was balanced by his
THE SYMBOLISM OF WORDS.*
sorrow for the curse this drug brought to his
“ There are manifold problems in literature that are
insoluble except by the supposition that the mind is at
Li's conception of woman
was low and times an instrument played upon by the fingers of an
coarse. It is without the least sense of shame
Unseen Force."
that be refers to his father's concubines. His
In these words Mr. Harold Bayley states in the
own mother was one of these secondary wives. concluding chapter of his remarkable book the
Writing as an old man of his changed views in
theme that has played all through the two large
regard to suicide, he ridicules widows who com-
volumes. Another statement of this theme stands
mit suicide to show their affection for their
at the head of Chapter XV.:
husbands, saying their real reason is laziness Nothing is clearer than the marvelous persistence
or the fear that no other man will support
of traditional and immemorial modes of thought, even
in the face of conquest and subjugation."
them. In this she does not deceive herself,
There is no pronounced unity either in the
nor does she fool the many thousands who are
individual chapters or in the work as a whole,
glad to come and witness her death. Let the
widow marry again and rear up more spirits to
for in reality the range is encyclopædic. The
honor the spirits of those gone before. Of chapter-titles in the first volume,—The Parable
of the Pilgrim," " The Ways of Ascent," "The
course, if she is too lazy to do this, suicide is
Millennium,” • The Hosts of the Lord," "
good enough for her.” He alludes in one pas- Solomon," "The Fair Shulamite,” “ Cinderella,
King
sage to a certain secondary wife who had at
« The Star of the Sea," and others, -are perhaps
first been very zealous to please him, but who
as good titles as could be chosen; yet there are
soon became quarrelsome, and speaks of his
dismissing her with a monetary compensation
many curious things in each chapter with only
a very slight thread of connection, or none at
as if it were the discharge of a laborer.
all. And from the larger point of view, though
Yet in strong contrast with this attitude
there is the unity of a continued gnostic and
toward women in general is Li's feeling for his
mediæval mystic interest, many things intrude
own mother. One cannot doubt that his devo-
tion to her while alive was deep and genuine,
as welcome “brute" facts, and one will do wisely
to use the index as the key to an encyclopædia.
and that he remembered her with heartfelt
affection and reverence throughout the many
* The Lost LANGUAGE OF SYMBOLISM. An Inquiry
into the Origin of Certain Letters, Words, Names, Fairy-
years he lived after her. While he was travel
Tales, Folklore, and Mythologies. By Harold Bayley. In
ling through Germany, the fourteenth anniver two volumes, Illustrated. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.
60


144
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
Otherwise the reader will lay himself open to a curious that Issi, Ulysses, and Bissat each
bad fit of mental indigestion, and, taken at a achieved fame by burning out the light of a
meal, the work is too much like a Hungarian one-eyed monster.
wedding feast, which lasts from Friday sun-down That Eros should not only have perpetrated
until Monday morning, and excludes nothing in English such a word as erotic, but should
worth mentioning.
also be accredited with rose, pear, caress, and
First, there is a vast amount of evidence to Jerusalem (Eros-el-em) will make for Christian
show that the early Vaudois paper-makers and charity to old heathen gods. To find Baba
the later Huguenots introduced into the paper originally meaning "parent of parents” recalls
they manufactured their heresies in the guise of Samuel Butler's famous definition of a hen:
water-marks. This has been the theme of a • Merely an egg's way of producing another
former book by the same author, “ A New Light egg.” Space is not available for more examples.
on the Renaissance.” Hundreds of old cuts scat Suffice, it to say that of the books recently
tered temptingly through the beautifully-printed issued on the poetry and symbolism in words,
pages give these chapters an added value. no other is so charming or on the whole so
There is illumination on King Solomon and plausible as this.
the sometimes too pompous claims of Free Certainly it must be admitted that Mr.
Masonry; as well as on the Cinderella stories, Bayley's book has the defects of its good quali-
345 versions of which have been collated. There ties. His theory of unity in language is too
are links showing the vital relations between simple in its present form, and proves entirely
Cinderella and the Virgin Mary, and the Bride too much. For instance, far too many words
of the Song of Solomon and the original Mother “ resolve themselves into the mighty ever-
or Mere, the Sea. There are many hints of the existent God.” It would appear that half the
heritage of Christianity from Heathendom both vocabulary of the Aryans was composed of
Eastern and Northern, and many sparkling combinations of Ag (Ak), El, Om, and Pa.
glances at all ancient universal mythologies. Words as dissimilar as goal and dragon are
Under the caption, “The White Horse,” there assigned exactly the same meaning; and, it
is a rich mine of animal symbolism.
must be added, that meaning is a highly abstract
In the Introduction, after noting a few roots one which renders its primitive origin extremely
like El (God or Power), Ur (Fire), Joh, Yah doubtful.
or Iah (the Ever-Existent), the author calls Then, too, the method of comparison is at
attention to a syllable that appears to spring times desultory and fanciful, depending almost
from the original human tongue, ak. Karnak, entirely upon phonetic similarities and very
Menok, Anok, Akbar, Balak, Hakon, Anahuac, little upon historic lines of descent. By jug-
Achilles, Heracles, Agag, the Gog and Magog gling Zend, Sanscrit, Hindu, Peruvian, English,
in the London Guild Hall, Yak, Oak, to say French, Welsh, Indian, and Greek, without
nothing of the ic's and ok's which are equivalent inquiring whether or how it was possible for
to ak's since vowels are of such slight conse Zend to equate with modern English and with
quence in etymology,—this list could be ex no other modern tongues, how or why Aryan
tended into an impressive one; all the words, should stick to Cornish but to no other lan-
it will be seen, including the common notion guage, one has a very easy task in establishing
of greatness. He overlooks Jacob and climax any special theory. To show what is meant:
(climacks) and probably many more. Meeting we may admit that the glove was a symbol of
this Aryan ak is like shaking hands with the cordial friendship, and yet have difficulty in
Stone Age Man in the British Museum. accepting Mr. Bayley's philological explanation,
Again, the connection between Hu the ag + love or great love. He should, for the
mighty, first of the three chieftains who estab- complete satisfaction of the scholar or even the
lished the Welsh Colony, and white (Hu+eet), half-scholar, show how the English lūf reached
horse (Ek + Hu Equus), Hog (Hu + og), back through the millenniums and confiscated
and Uag (Hu + ag), all indicatig the inntel that ancient g. Perhaps it did ; we are inclined
lectual principle, will be fascinating if not con to believe so. Yet the present work demands
vincing to anyone.
too much faith. And faith, “the substance of
The syllables Is-se, occurring in Ulysses, things hoped for,” is anathema to the scientist.
Odysseus, Jesse, Eliseus, Elizabeth, as well However, the drift of this censure is simply
as in Elysian, Isis, Dionysos, etc., will bear that a mystic is not a scientist. Alpha is not
witness to a “burning light”; and it is especially l Omega; that is all. Doubtless there are those


1914]
145
THE DIAL
.
who will say the author might have been more In particular he has contributed, perhaps more
accurate and plodding without impairing the than anyone else, to the experimental evidence
value of such a book. But there will be many showing how sex is determined. His colleague
other readers who would not for a world of at Columbia, Professor E. B. Wilson, has dealt
dust clip his wings of fancy and suggestion. It with the same problem from the stand point of
is the combination of scholar and poet that the structure of the germ cells, with equally
renders the effect unique. When the pains of notable success. Together these two men and
erudition have failed to track a word to its their students have made clear, in a remarkable
primal lair, the author does not scruple to use series of papers, the essential features of the
the divining rod; and the result often passes mechanism by which it is determined whether
out of the realm of pedestrian chronicle into a particular individual shall be a male or a
the demesne of winged literature.
female.
THOMAS PERCIVAL BEYER.
The determination of sex,- what a problem!
Innumerable attempts, from Aristotle on, have
been made to solve it. Quacks have fattened off
its elusiveness, and kings have been extremely
THE BIOLOGY OF SEX.*
vexed (it is said) at the most unaccommodating
The social aspects of sex are just now being waywardness of the phenomenon. Now it ap-
exploited to an unprecedented degree. Every- pears every day more clear that the determi-
where such matters as “white slavery,” eugenic nation of sex is a perfectly orderly and lawful
control of marriage, and the education of the thing. It is, in fact, a matter of inheritance.
young in sexual physiology are coming to be - Femaleness" is inherited, even as are blue eyes,
the reigning subjects not alone of strenuous or red hair, or long legs. This is a fact which
debate, but even of polite conversation. With has some important consequences.
It means,
all the agencies of social vociferation — the for instance, that the sex of the offspring is not
pulpit, the stage, the magazines, the daily news a thing which can be easily controlled or influ-
paper, the halls of Congress, women's clubs enced by diet on temperature or any other ex-
throughout the land, and the schoolroom ternal agent. Professor Morgan is, indeed, of
vigorously, not to say blatantly, discussing these opinion that nothing whatever can influence the
topics, it is certain that unless the rising gen determination of sex, holding that it is abso-
eration of to-day is a deal more stupid than lutely predetermined in the structure of the
were previous generations, the young will be germ cells. It is just possible that time will
more than “educated” about these topics. show that this position is a little too extreme,
They will be vastly entertained.
but for the present it serves excellently to keep
By a curious coincidence there has been a the issues sharply clarified.
notable advance in our knowledge of the bio What is the evidence that sex is an inherited
logical basis and laws of sex during just the character? Briefly this evidence is of two
period of the past half-dozen years, in which sorts, experimental and observational. Experi-
the wave of popular interest in the discussion mentally it has been shown, by cross-breeding
of human sex affairs has been gaining force. or hybridizing various animal forms, ranging
There has been absolutely no connection or all the way from butterflies to chickens, that in
relation between these two things. Almost, if
Almost, if many cases an individual is unable to transmit
not quite, without exception, the biologists who certain of its characters to its offspring of the
have contributed by their investigations to our
same sex as itself. Thus a Barred Plymouth
knowledge of sex have been entirely indifferent Rock hen appears totally incapable of trans-
to the social or psychological aspects of the mitting her barred color pattern to her daugh-
matter. On the other hand the reformer neither ters, though she transmits it to her sons without
knows nor cares what a sex-chromosome is! any difficulty. Cases of this sort have been
“ Heredity and Sex” gives a much-needed called “sex-linked” inheritance. They have as
summary and critical digest of the recent liter- yet received no explanation which is so simple
ature dealing scientifically with the biology of and adequate as that which follows the assump-
The author of the book, Professor T. H. tion that sex itself is an inherited character.
Morgan, of Columbia University, has been Professor Morgan is, as has been said, one of
very active in investigations within this field. the foremost students of these phenomena, and
*HEREDITY AND Sex. By Thomas Hunt Morgan, Ph.D.
a considerable portion of the book is devoted to
Illustrated. New York : Columbia University Press. a clear and critical account of the development
sex.


146
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
of our knowledge of sex-linked inheritance. entry in Mr. Haultain's diary is thus worded: “The
The foundation for this discussion is laid in an old Professor was particularly polyantagonistic to-
account of Mendelian principles of inheritance day; he reviled everything and everybody, and
in general.
girded at men and things and theories.” More pleas-
The observational evidence that sex is in.
ing are glimpses of him starting on a journey with
herited is found in the cytological studies which
a volume of Homer or Ovid in his pocket for rail-
have discovered and interpreted the so-called easily and repeatedly, in the original, declaring that
way reading; these and other classic authors he read
“sex-chromosome.” Stripped of all technical he could read Greek and Latin as readily as English,
ities, the fact here is that, in a very wide range but adding, as a saving clause, “unless I come to a
of animals, including man himself, there are snag." His poor opinion of Gladstone's Homeric
certain peculiar bodies, called X-chromosomes studies was the judgment of one who knew whereof
or sex-chromosomes. These bodies appear to be
he spoke. “His Homeric lucubrations," he asserted,
composed of, or at least to contain, a particular were trash, pure trash. No doubt if Palmerston
substance, called X-chromatin, which differs had attempted Homeric lucubrations they would have
been trash too.
qualitatively from other similar substances. The
But the point is that Palmerston
chief peculiarity of these bodies is their unequal nevertheless he admired for his “ powers of acquisi-
didn't.” And again, “girding" at Gladstone, whom
distribution in the two sexes. So far as is now
tion and exposition,” he says:
" What is there of
known, females always contain more of this
Gladstone's that will live? His speeches have no
X-chromatin substance than do males. These literary merit. I cannot think of a single sentence
sex-chromosomes provide the necessary mechan of his that will live. He was too prolix. He had
ism for the hereditary transmission of sex, which spoilt his style by over-much practice in debating
has been seen in the sex-linkage cases.
societies. The prolixity was not noticeable when
Several chapters are devoted to the discussion you were listening to the man. His personality and
of secondary sexual characters, and such related
the unmistakable generosity of his sentiments had
topics as castration, gynandromorphism, her-
a great effect.
But literary grace they had not.”
maphroditism, etc. Darwin's theory of sexual
These conversations, extending from 1898 to 1910,
are excellent reading. Appended are two-score
selection is sharply criticized and finally re-
pages of “U. S. Notes,” brief jottings made by
jected entirely.
Goldwin Smith in his first visit to America in 1864.
The book is abundantly and well illustrated. The book, uniform with Mr. Haultain's collection of
It was written in the first instance as a series of “Goldwin Smith's Correspondence,” is suitably illus-
popular lectures (the Jesup Lectures of 1913). trated. It leaves the impression of an extremely
It measurably approaches the standards for the interesting and strongly-marked character, but one
popularization of science set by such men as in whom a certain harshness of judgment, the fruit,
Tyndall, Clifford, and Huxley. A higher rec-
probably, of early disappointment and embitterment,
ommendation of the book to the reader could
is to be regretted.
not be given.
RAYMOND PEARL.
The late Whitelaw Reid's “American
Studies of
a diplomatist and English Studies" (Scribner) in-
and scholar. clude some two dozen papers bearing
dates from 1872 to 1912. The greater number are
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
occasional addresses delivered in America and En-
Goldwin Smith
For the last dozen years of his life gland during the later years of Mr. Reid's life.
as reported by
the late Goldwin Smith had the ser Those on biographical, literary, and historical sub-
vices of a secretary loyally devoted jects, such as “ Abraham Lincoln,” “Byron,” “The
to him, ardent in admiration of his genius, attentive Rise of the United States,” express the views and
to his every utterance, and faithful in recording such impressions of a widely read man of affairs, sup-
of his daily conversation as seemed most noteworthy. plemented by facts readily acquired from ordinary
Excellently qualified, therefore, was this alert aman books of reference. They are thoroughly good of
uensis to prepare such a volume as the recently- their kind; but they make no pretence to offering
issued “Goldwin Smith: His Life and Opinions new theories or new discoveries, and they are more
(Duffield), although it is not strictly a “life” of the valuable to the student of their author than to the
man, but rather a near view of him in his later
years, student of the man or the movements that they dis-
with abundant examples of his vigorous and pene-
The paper on Byron, for example, affords a
trating manner of thought as expressed in friendly most interesting indication of Mr. Reid's views re-
chat with his secretary and literary executor, Mr. garding the morality of literature. In his studies
Arnold Haultain. It is as scholar and thinker and of modern social tendencies the author speaks with
fearlessly independent (not to say severely caustic) more weight, and such a paper as “Organization in
critic of public men and public affairs that he is made American Life” breathes a healthy and conserva-
to present himself to the reader. One characteristic | tive optimism. In the minds of some Americans the
his Boswell.
cuss.


1914]
147
THE DIAL
literature.
new edition.
admiration aroused by an essay like the one just revised, rewrote, and revised yet again, and speaks
named will be regretfully modified by the fact that volumes for his tireless endeavor to do the best that
Mr. Reid expended so much of his best energies in in him lay. However, even that best does not make
arguing, chiefly from grounds of "opportunity” him a satisfactory biographer of Shelley. But what
and “interest,” for the forcible subjection of the we must grant is that he did have extraordinary op-
Filipinos, and the retention of the islands as a per portunities for gathering original material concern-
manent colony. In many ways the most interesting ing both Shelley and Byron; thus providing data for
of the addresses are the four grouped under the others to scrutinize, sift, and employ to the profit
heading, “ An Editor's Reflections." These remind of future students of the two poets. “Somehow,"
as, among other things, that while newspapers change confesses Mr. Buxton Forman, “I feel impelled to
rapidly, the requirements for an ideal editor are pardon and to take off my hat to Tom Medwin in
always the same. The address at the University of parting.” Students of Shelley will be especially
the City of New York in 1872 might, with very grateful for the four appendices, which include some
slight changes, be delivered before an incipient of the poet's early letters, his preface to the first
school of journalism to-day. The predictions made edition of “Frankenstein," and the Chancery Papers
before the New York Editorial Association in 1879 relating to Shelley's children, besides an annotated
that the great metropolitan journals must reduce list of Medwin's published works.
the amount of advertising because it was bound to
prove unprofitable, that the daily papers would never A garner
It is coming to be more and more
again be sold as low as two cents, that pictures must
from mediæval generally realized outside of uni-
be abandoned — now seem ludicrous, as Mr. Reid
versity cloisters that Chaucer was not
himself tacitly admitted in the Bromley lectures
the only man who wrote anything of modern interest
which he delivered at Yale in 1901.
before the year of grace 1400. The literature of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, especially
As a biographer of Percy Bysshe that of England, has indeed an immense intrinsic
Tom Medwin's
Shelley” in a Shelley, Thomas Medwin has never charm. The age which produced Chaucer, Lang-
been considered quite safe. First in land, Wyclif, Gower, Minot, Huchown of the Awle
the field, with his “Life of Shelley” (1847), every Ryale, and the immortal author of "Pearl" and
subsequent biographer has drawn upon his book for “Gawayne and the Grene Knight” is superior in
material, but each has done so with some sign-post importance to every half-century, except the Eliza-
of warning to the reader,—such as these: "Not to bethan and Victorian eras, since the time of Alfred
be trusted for facts or judgment” (Clutton-Brock); the Great. So any book aiming to interpret this age
" carelessly written and untrustworthy” (Ingpen); to the unawakened should be welcome. Generally
“a bad book full of inaccuracies” (Waterlow). speaking, translations of earlier English into later
Hard indeed are the names that have been hurled English for the purpose of catching those who are
at poor Medwin's head, ——“perplexing simpleton” unwilling to give a little time to the archaic forms,
(Jeaffreson); “perfect idiot” (Captain Hay); "gay are not very successful. Dryden's effort to' mod-
deceiver" (Forman); and Mary Shelley's impatient ernize Chaucer to late seventeenth century conven-
“seccatura,” when by Shelley's invitation Medwin tions is a case in point. Still it is possible to render
had joined the charmed circle of poets at Pisa. A worthy service of this sort to the lazy; and, in her
book so variously used and abused during sixty-six volume of “Legends and Satires from Mediæval
years would seem scarcely likely to be honored by Literature” (Ginn), Dr. Martha Hale Shackford
a new edition. But nevertheless a new edition has has attained a very fair measure of success. Some
appeared, with no less distinguished sponsors than of the translations are made from the French, and
Mr. H. Buxton Forman as editor and the Oxford some from the Latin, although the most are from
University Press as publisher. The text embodies English. Since the editor's purpose was to show
the hitherto unpublished emendations, alterations, types, and also to avoid reproducing the better known
and extensions made in Medwin's own hand on the pieces which are available in other popular forms,
pages of his personal copy of the original work; the selection is somewhat restricted. And some of
showing that for twenty-two years his zeal and inter the pieces, such as “The Amorous Contention of
est never flagged, however his memory may have Phillis and Flora," will be found deadly dull by those
failed. No wonder Mr. Buxton Forman concludes readers aimed at: that is, those who require urging.
thát “as it last left the author's octogenarian hands, But “The Purgatory of Saint Patrick," aside from
and with such commentary as its numerous faults its theological interest, reveals a sociological one;
and flaws necessitate, it can no more be ignored by “The Life of Saint Margaret” revives vividly a
serious students than the biographical contributions dead past; “The Song of the University of Paris,
of Mary Shelley, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Thomas “ The Complaint of the Husbandmen," and "Sir
Love Peacock, and Edward John Trelawney. Penny” have some pith; and the lay of “Sir Orfeo,"
Medwin was Shelley's cousin, school-fellow, and a Middle-English version of the classic story of Or-
adoring friend, and possibly the collaborator in pheus and Eurydice, has much beauty and charm.
some of his earliest works. A page of the original The editor has earned our gratitude by printing the
text, reproduced in facsimile, shows how Medwin original of the last-named. A small compact body
99


148
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
DIAL
of notes concludes the volume. The bibliography and his People,” gives a breezy and somewhat un-
which accompanies the notes on each piece is an conventional sketch of the novelist's life, and is
exceedingly valuable and scholarly addition. followed by others in which we are led pleasantly
That the original of Senator Rivers
along the highways and byways over which Steven-
One of the
son travelled in his romantic pilgrimage: through
makers of in the play made famous by Mr.
Old Edinburgh, hill-surrounded, wind-swept and
Kansas. William H. Crane's impersonation
of that energetic gentleman should be found to be panged with that inner spirituous lining which
fog-beset, yet "weather-tight, especially to those
a most interesting and engaging character, as pre-
sented in Mr. William Elsey Connelley's biography with its ancient landmarks, historic, academic and
no citizen of Old Edinburgh was like to forget,”:
of the man, need surprise no one. “The Life of
Preston B. Plumb" (Browne & Howell Co.) is both
convivial; over the Pentlands; through the High-
lands; always with R. L. S. at our side, explaining
a romance of Western enterprise and adventure and
associations and identifying allusions as he goes.
the faithful record of a long and useful term of
service in the upper chamber of our national legis- setting—hardly to be called the scene
Then, with our guide, we pass through London, the
- for “Dr.
lature. Readers old enough to have any remem-
brance of the anti-slavery struggle, or cherishing New Arabian Nights." R. L. S. had no intimate
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Markheim,” and “The
even the memory of their elders' reminiscences of
knowledge of London, by the way; he never resided
that conflict, will take the keenest interest in the
there or worked there; his visits to the capital were
story of Plumb's hastening from his home in Ohio
to the help of bleeding Kansas, the active part he
flying ones. Across the Channel we tarry at Bar-
took in the shaping of the new commonwealth as a
bizon, at Grez, where he met the lady who became
his wife, traverse the route through the Cevennes
free state, and his highly creditable record as a
which he describes in the Travels with a Donkey,"
soldier in the Civil War. A veritable whirlwind of
energy he seems to have been, from the time when, Thence we follow him to California, and so to
and trace his course in “An Inland Voyage.”
as a boy of six, he nearly crippled his sister in his
Samoa and Vailima. With the local color and the
zeal to show her how like a man he could chop wood, atmosphere of “ Auld Reekie” Mr. Watt is inti-
to the last political campaign in which he took part mately familiar; with the Continental and foreign
with a vigor that hastened his untimely death in
1891 at the age of fifty-four. His assumption of settings he is not so thoroughly at home, but his
notes are nevertheless illuminating and useful as
the editorship and co-proprietorship of the Xenia
“News” at sixteen, his espousal of the cause of
commentary on the text. Stevenson as letter-writer,
as playwright, and as rhymer, is also discussed, and
Kansas at nineteen, his study of law at odd times
and his admission to the bar in 1861, the beginning
the closing chapters expound his religion, his char.
of his legislative experience the following year, his
acter, and his style.
three years of army life, his election to the speaker-
Mr. Christian Tearle's chatty and
ship of the Kansas House of Representatives in
anecdotal “Rambles with an Ameri-
1867, his fourteen years at Washington as a leader
can” won such favor as to encourage
in the Senate - all this and much else will be found him to issue a sequel, “The Pilgrim from Chicago:
chronicled in detail and with an evident determi- Being More Rambles with an American” (Long-
nation on the historian's part to neglect no trust mans), in which we again meet with the observant
worthy source of information. Footnotes abound, and loquacious “James C. Fairfield, of Chicago,
and contain a mass of related matter that no reader
U. S. A.” The rambles described — chiefly in
can afford to miss. A portrait of Senator Plumb, dialogue form—are mostly in and about London,
three maps, appended matter, and a full index round and of course give opportunity for endless literary
out the volume. It has been said that the life of and other anecdote and reminiscence, in which Mr.
Preston B. Plumb is the history of Kansas. It is Fairfield shows himself far better versed in English
decidedly a life worth reading as related by Mr. literature and history and topography than are most
Connelley.
of his travelling fellow-countrymen. The London
There is certainly no dearth in the “Times” has called him “a surprisingly winning
More footnotes
to Stevenson.
production of books about Robert outcome of Chicago's "tons of culture.”
Louis Stevenson, and, apparently, sample of his talk, called forth by a visit to one of
not much danger of superfluity. A new volume Charles Lamb's haunts, here are some of his words
in Stevensonian literature, Mr. Francis Watt's of wisdom: “It's a thousand pities that Lamb ever
“R. L. S." (Macmillan), will make interesting read left the India House. He was only fifty, and the
ing for all lovers of the brilliant romancer, especially work made no call on his brain — he had plenty of
those whose admiration for his genius has made time for writing and amusing himself. And he
them serious students of his work. That Mr. Watt ought never to have left London. The record of
is himself a lover and a student of his subject goes these last years is painful to me. It's a pity we
without saying; he has, moreover, an agreeable know so much about them. One doesn't love him
style, not without native Scots humor, in record and the less, and one doesn't exactly wish that he'd
annotation. An introductory chapter, “R. L. S. died sooner, but there's no denying that the end
Literary walks
about London.
As a


1914]
149
THE DIAL
comes as a relief.” Yes, with a comfortable income, ing, snobbishness, originality, vagueness, personal
and with easy office hours, leaving ample time for relations, criticism, authors, concentration, shop-talk,
essay-writing and social intercourse, our beloved tact, circumstantial evidence, and millionaires in
Elia seems not to have known when he was well fiction. Three little parodies in fiction, of which
off. Mr. Tearle diversifies his pleasant pages with
the first is called “Matilda of the Cinque Ports,"
scraps of quoted verse and longer metrical compo will be enjoyed. In closing her remarks on origi-
sitions of his own. Pictures, too, are agreeably nality, the writer says: “There is only one way in
numerous.
which to attain originality now; a very laborious
An uncompromising intellectual pas and difficult line to take: it is to be perfectly nat-
A prophet
sion, an absorbing intention to under ural.” This discovery deserves to rank with that of
of Futurism.
stand, look out from Vincent Van him who first found out that the most baffling and
Gogh's portrait of himself, reproduced as frontis- mystifying of diplomats is he who speaks the simple
piece to a slender volume of “Personal Recollections truth. In style the book is animated and pleasing
of Vincent Van Gogh,” by Elizabeth DuQuesne – though one might object to “awoken " as a need
Van Gogh, translated by Katherine S. Dreier. A
Alessly far-fetched form of the past participle. Lady
self-centredness so intense that it devoured the mind Sybil Grant deplores her handicap as the daughter
it inhabited, and a contemplation of the world so of such clever parents as Lord and Lady Rosebery,
sympathetic that it became at times a madness of but she makes a good fight against this adversity
pity and despair,— these two elements in the man's of her lot. (E. P. Dutton & Co.)
nature are written in every line of his prematurely
aged young face and in every word of his sister's A pioneer
Long and intimately acquainted with
brief record. Driven from an unsuccessful attempt
mission-worker the late Dr. James Curtis Hepburn,
in the far East. and filled with admiration for his
at commerce to teaching, and again on to preaching
by his determination to follow Christ in the allevi-
noble character and memorable achievements, Dr.
William Elliot Griffis was the one above all others
ation of humble misery (Dickens had opened his
eyes to some of the pains of poverty), Van Gogh
to write the life of the eminent missionary, physician,
lived more than half his life in absolute unconscious-
lexicographer, and scripture-translator. “Hepburn
ness of the expression his genius was finally to take.
of Japan” (Westminster Press) is a glowing tribute
Only a terrible physical breakdown, the result of too
to a man of heroic purpose and notable accomplish-
complete self-abnegation in caring for his mining
ment, from one whose own years of residence in the
parish during an epidemic of typhoid,- only this
distant land which Hepburn chose as the scene of
break and the consequent enforced leisure revealed
his labors equip him in a peculiar manner for his
to him his power of analyzing color, of drawing in
task of biographer. The dangers and difficulties
color what he saw, and so making his experience
faced by the mission-worker in Japan half a century
comprehensible to his contemporaries. But recog-
ago are brought by Dr. Griffis to the reader's vivid
nition of his genius, like all recognition of genius,
realization, and his book has something of the
was slow; in his case it never became general even
“thrill” of an entirely different order of literary
in the artists' world of Paris, where he worked hope-
composition. Rich in varied incident, and covering
fully for some years, until his tragic death called
almost a century of time, Dr. Hepburn's life was
attention to a production so untimely ended. “I try
well worth recording, and its story is well worth
just as bard as certain other painters whom I have
reading. A number of chronological inconsistencies,
loved and honored,” he wrote four days before he
some in quoted passages, others from the author's
died; and now, twenty years later, his devotion has
own pen, perplex the reader, but need not seriously
its reward. He is one of the three prophets of the
interfere with his enjoyment of the book. Portraits
Futurists, the group of young enthusiasts who be-
and other illustrations are not lacking, and the nar-
lieve that they are finding in balance of color and
rative is commendably free from prolixity, being
"dynamism” of line a new method for avoiding
confined to about two hundred and thirty duodecimo
“conventional realism” and expressing inner real-
pages.
ities of personal vision. This book, supplemented
Professor Peter Henry Pearson's
A guide to
by the letters of Van Gogh which have recently
the study of manual on “The Study of Litera-
literature.
been published, will undoubtedly rank as one of the
ture” (McClurg) professes to offer
gospels of the modernist's faith. (Houghton.)
assistance to both "the general reader who wishes
a deeper insight into the charm and meaning of
Although she chooses “Samphire English literature,” and “the teacher of the subject
as the title of her volume of collected in school or college." Probably it will be the latter
common things.
essays, or essayettes, Lady Sybil rather than the former who will hasten to extend a
Grant is hardly to be thought of as "one that gathers warm welcome to the book, for to the teacher more
samphire, dreadful trade!” With much less risk to than to the general reader does its method appeal
life and limb than is braved by the seeker after that a method thus, in part, described at the outset:
suffruticose herb, she finds in the walks of ordinary “The work is concentrated in turn on each of the
life the material for her clever little disquisitions, classics that are on the program for close study.
her list of topics embracing such themes as garden- | The aim is to work through it analytically and
Clever essays on


150
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
minutely, so that the significance of every detail is
NOTES.
understood; to survey it finally as a synthesized
whole, aiming at the result that the pupil shall “ Lost Diaries,” another of Mr. Maurice Baring's
grasp the author's message in its completeness.” amusing fabrications, will be issued shortly by Houghton
On a later page the appreciation of a literary work
Mifflin Co.
is explained as "a synthetic procedure in which the “Little Essays in Literature and Life,” by Professor
pupil is led to manipulate the units of a classic in Richard Burton, appears among the March announce-
relation to each other and to estimate them as a
ments of the Century Co.
whole.” Mr. Pearson's eleven chapters deal suc-
Still another book on Robert Louis Stevenson is
cessively with early literary studies, interpretation, promised in the biographical study upon which Mr.
Arthur Ransome is now at work.
appreciation, structural elements, literary elements,
methods of literary evaluation, the study of prose
An important and timely art book is announced in
Mr. Arthur Jerome Eddy's study of “Cubists and Post-
forms, “The Deserted Village,” “L'Allegro,'
Impressionism.” Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co. are the
“King Lear," and literature in its reaction on life.
publishers.
The book is the work of a close student and a con-
In his forthcoming novel, “Shea of the Irish Bri-
scientious teacher.
gade,” Mr. Randall Parrish has taken for a back-
ground the days when the allies were seeking the defeat
of Louis XV.
BRIEFER MENTION.
An important addition to the literature of socialism
is announced in Mr. John Spargo's “ Socialism and
The interest aroused by the recent publication of Motherhood," which Mr. B. W. Huebsch will publish
“Scott's Last Expedition” makes timely the appearance during the Spring.
of a new and cheaper edition of “The Voyage of the Two important works which Messrs. Holt have in
• Discovery,'” Scott's record of his first Polar voyage. press for early issue are Professor J. Arthur Thomson's
The edition is in two handy volumes, with a dozen or « The Wonder of Life" and Professor H. A. L. Fisher's
more illustrations. There should be a wide demand for extended study of Napoleon.
this engrossing story in so convenient and inexpensive a
form. Messrs. Scribner publish the work.
Two promising books of fiction on Messrs. Little,
Brown, & Co.'s Spring list are “ Ariadne of Allan
Part II. of Mr. Herbert H. Gowen's “Outline History Water,” by Sidney McCall (Mrs. E. F. Fenollosa); and
of China” (Sherman, French & Co.) is an excellent “ Felicidad,” by Mr. Rowland Thomas.
handbook of Chinese history from the beginning of the
A large volume of uncollected writings by Bret Harte,
Manchu dynasty, 1644, to the year 1912. Accessible consisting of stories, poems, and essays, has been com-
and trustworthy material for this period of the history is piled by Mr. Charles Meeker Kozlay, and is in prepa-
naturally much more abundant, in proportion to extent
ration for March issue by Houghton Mifflin Co.
of time covered, than for the thousands of years treated
in the first volume of the work. The author would have
entitled “The Literary Baedeker” which have been
received more favorable mention had he issued the two
parts simultaneously. The present volume contains as
appearing in “The Bookman” will be published in book
much information as could be compressed within its 206
form this Spring by Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co.
pages; the information is well selected, well arranged
After numerous delays, the third and fourth volumes
and tabulated; and it is given in a very readable style.
of Gerhart Hauptmann's collected dramatic works, in
Forty years of a librarian's life are reviewed with
the authorized edition edited by Mr. Ludwig Lewisohn,
reference to American library history and happenings,
are definitely promised for early Spring publication.
in Mr. Samuel Swett Green's enjoyable and instructive
“ Beaumont the Dramatist” by Professor Charles
volume, « The Public Library Movement in the United
Mills Gayley, of the University of California, will be
States, 1853–1893,” which is published in a substantial published this month by the Century Co. The work aims
octavo by the Boston Book Company. Thirty-eight
to settle definitely the Beaumont-Fletcher controversy.
years of librarianship, at Worcester, Mass., preceded
A new volume of essays by “Vernon Lee” is an-
by four years' service on the board of library directors
nounced by John Lane Co. Its title is “ The Tower of
of the same city; the position of librarian emeritus since
the Mirrors,” and it will contain thirty five chapters
1909; original membership in the public library com-
giving the author's impressions of famous cities and
mission of his State, with nineteen years of service as
other places which she has visited.
commissioner; one term as president of the A. L. A.,
A notable novel of the Spring season will be Mr.
of which he is a charter member and a life fellow, and Joseph Conrad's “Chance." "The publishers of this
on the governing board of which he has served almost book, Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co., will have ready
continuously since 1876 — this, in part, has been Mr.
at about the same time a critical and biographical
Green's unconscious preparation for the writing of such study of Conrad, written by Mr. Richard Curle.
a book, largely reminiscent and anecdotal, as the one “Still Happy Though Married " is the title of a book
that now comes from his skilled pen. In referring to by the Rev. E. J. Hardy, which is in the press. Mr.
library legislation in Illinois he might well have sup Hardy's book, “ How to be Happy Though Married,”
plemented his mention of Mr. F.H. Hild's name in that has had a huge circulation, and the coming volume gives
connection by noting the earlier and more important the author's supplementary reflections on the subject.
work of another Illinois librarian, who drafted the The publication of “The Print Collector's Quar-
library bill of 1872 and was instrumental in procuring terly” has been transferred by the Boston Museum of
its passage. A good portrait of the author precedes, Fine Arts to Houghton Mifflin Co., who have become
and a full index follows, the text.
the publishing representatives of this institution. Mr.
Mr. Arthur Bartlett Maurice's series of articles


1914]
151
THE DIAL
FitzRoy Carrington, Curator of the Print Department
of the Museum, and a lecturer upon engravings at
Harvard University, will remain as its editor, and no
change will be made either in form or in price.
Sir Oliver Lodge's address on “Continuity," delivered
before the British Association recently, will be published
by Messrs. Putnam in book form this month. This house
has also in train for immediate issue a new edition, re-
vised and reset, of Mr. Sidney Low's “The Governance
of England."
Two little volumes by M. Emile Faguet are to be
issued this month in English translations entitled
“ Initiation into Literature ” and “Initiation into Phi-
losophy.” They are both books for the beginner in
these fields. Sir Howe Gordon, Bart., is the translator
in each case.
Sir Walter Raleigh has arranged to give a series of
lectures at the Sorbonne on “ The Romantic Movement
in English Literature in the Beginning of the Nineteenth
Century.”. When published in book form later, as
they will be, these lectures should constitute a useful
addition to literary history.
In addition to Mr. Worcester's two-volume work on
the Philippines, we are to have this Spring an even
more extensive book on « The Americans in the Phil-
ippines" by Mr. James A. LeRoy, who was secretary
of the Philippine Commission; and a study of “America
and the Philippines" by Mr. Carl Crow.
“ The Candid Review," a quarterly devoted to poli-
tics, science, literature, and art, is soon to be launched
in London. Its promoter, Mr. T. Gibson Bowles,
assures prospective subscribers that it will be “duli
and honest,” - a decided recommendation in a day of
so much clever mendacity in journalism. About the
same time the Oxford University Press will begin pub-
lication of a quarterly review which will limit itself to
articles of a political nature.
The Quarterly “ Bulletin of Bibliography and Dra-
matic Index,” published by the Boston Book Company,
begins a new series with its January number, changing
the style and color of its cover, adding a department of
“ Applied Economy” (library economy it proves to be
in this instance, dealing with the Somerville Public
Library's new method in reference work), and giving a
page and a half of “ helpful hints” from various libra-
rians. Also a series of short biographies of librarians
and bibliographers is begun, the first sketch having
Justin Winsor as its subject, accompanied by a good
portrait. The “Bulletin” is a useful and interesting
publication for bookmen.
Cavour, and the Making of Modern Italy, 1810-1861.
By Pietro Orsi. Illustrated, 8vo, 385 pages.
"Heroes of the Nations." G. P. Putnam's Sons.
$1.50 net.
Gerhart Hauptmann: His Life and His Work, 1862-
1912. By Karl Holl, Ph.D. With portrait, 12mo,
112 pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1. net.
HISTORY.
The Reformation in Germany. By Henry C. Vedder.
8vo, 466 pages. Macmillan Co. $3. net.
A History of England from the Earliest Times to
the Twentieth Century. Edited by Charles
Oman, M.A., Volume III., England in the Later
Middle Ages, by Kenneth H. Vickers, M.A. With
maps, large 8vo, 542 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The Greatest House at Chelsey. By Randall Davies.
Illustrated, 8vo, 236 pages. John Lane Co.
$3. net.
One Generation of a Norfolk House: A Contribution
to Elizabethan History. By Augustus Jessopp,
D.D. Third edition, revised, 8vo, 352 pages. G. P.
Putnam's Sons. $2.25 net.
Trans-Atlantie Historical Solidarity. By Charles
Francis Adams. 8vo, 184 pages. Oxford Univer-
sity Press. $2. net.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Notes on Politics and History: A University Ad-
dress. By Viscount Morley, O.M. 12mo, 201
pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net.
Earmarks of Literature. By Arthur E. Bostwick.
12mo, 144 pages. A. C. McClurg Co.
90 cts. net.
Samphire. By Lady Sybil Grant. 12mo, 307 pages.
E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net.
Modern Short-Stories. Edited, with Introduction,
Biographies, and Bibliographies, by Margaret
Ashmun, M.A. 8vo, 437 pages.
Macmillan Co.
$1.25 net.
Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts, and Fairies.
Translated from the Korean of Im Bang and Yi
Ryuk by James S. Gale. 12mo, 233 pages. E. P.
Dutton & Co. $1.25 net.
A Wayfaring Soul. By Walter Raymond. 12mo,
190 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1. net.
Outlines: Being Studies in Fiction. By John D.
Barry. 8vo, 179 pages. Paul Elder & Co.
$1.50 net.
Mostly True: A Few Little Tragedies and Some
Comedies. By Guy Fleming. 12mo, 286 pages.
Longmans, Green & Co. $1.30 net.
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LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
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BIOGRAPHY.
The Life and Correspondence of Philip Yorke, Earl
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cago Press. $13.50 net.
George Borrow and His Circle: Wherein May Be
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Goldwin Smith: His Life and Opinions. By Arnold
Haultain. Illustrated, 8vo, 304 pages. Duffield &
Co. $3.75 net.


152
[Feb. 16
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DRAMA.
Across Siberia Alone: An American Woman's Ad.
The Fugitive: A Play in Four Acts. By John Gals-
ventures. By Mrs. John Clarence Lee. Illus-
worthy. 12mo, 93
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Co. $1.25 net.
Plays. By August Strindberg; translated from the
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PUBLIC AFFAIRS.–POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND
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SOCIOLOGY.
The Philippines: Past and Present.
Peach Bloom: An Original Play in Four Acts. By
By Dean C.
Worcester,
Mac-
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Medical Review of Reviews. $1. net.
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12mo, 331 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. Taxation and the Distribution of Wealth. By
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Co. $2.25 net.


1914]
153
THE DIAL
Francisco Goya: A Study of the Work and Person Musical Plays for Children. By E. Elliot Stock;
ality of the Eighteenth Century Spanish Painter with incidental music by Ernest Brumleu; cos-
and Satirist. By Hugh Stokes. Illustrated, 8vo, tume plates by M. M. Johnson. In 3 volumes,
397 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.75 net.
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pages. Oliver Ditson Co. $2. net.
The Elementary Principles of General Biology. By
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The Great Art Treasures. Edited by C. H. Collins Character Development: A Practical Graded School
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154
(Feb. 16
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THE DIAL
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Published by THE DIAL COMPANY, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office
at Chicago, Minois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
No. 665.
MARCH 1, 1914.
Vol. LVI.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
97
165
.
-
* THE CHARM OF AMERICANS”
A GREAT CONTEMPORARY NOVEL, W.R. B. 167
CASUAL COMMENT
169
Encouragement to potential poets – An artist in
typography.-The secret of literary style.-Latitude
in Latin pronunciation. — The latest French Acade-
mician. – The Carlyle of myth and the Carlyle of
reality.-Accessible foreign literature of our time.-
Unsanctified uses of sacred literature.-A mayor with
no fondness for literature.-Japanese literary likings.
COMMUNICATIONS
172
Josiah Renick Smith. W. H. Johnson.
Hamlet's "Soliloquy” and Claudius. C. M. Street.
Another Auxiliary Language. A. L. Guerard.
Syndicate Service and “Tainted Book Reviews.”
W. E. Woodward.
AN IDEALIST IN PRACTICAL AFFAIRS. Percy
F. Bicknell.
174
RECORDS OF ANCIENT GREECE. Josiah Renick
Smith
176
SYNGE AND THE IRISH THEATRE. James W.
Tupper
177
THE CONCLUSION OF TWO IMPORTANT AMER-
ICAN HISTORIES. David Y. Thomas
179
THE KAISER: HIS POLICIES AND HIS ASSO-
CIATES. Frederic Austin Ogg
181
THE VARIORUM “CYMBELINE.” Samuel 1.
Tannenbaum .
184
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
188
Faint praise for Nietzsche. — Public opinion and
popular government. – A history of the followers of
George Fox. - In the footsteps of Pompilia and
Caponsacchi. – An Oxford anthology of Canadian
verse. - Old-time methods of recruiting. More
gropings in the fog of psychical research. - A com-
pelling plea for social justice.- Some of the quali-
ties of good literature. — The scenes of Mr. Hardy's
novels. Biology and the Feminist Movement.
Records of primitive man.
BRIEFER MENTION
192
NOTES
193
TOPICS IN MARCH PERIODICALS.
194
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
195
“ THE CHARM OF AMERICANS.”
The last place in the world in which we would
look for a tribute to “ the charm of Americans”
is “The Saturday Review," but such a tribute
occurs in a recent issue, bestowed upon us by
one of the regular staff contributors, apropos
of an American play given in London. The
passage reads as follows:
“The charm of Americans is that they are still able
to discover and to enjoy things that were long ago ex-
hausted in Europe. Anybody who has heard an Amer-
ican quote from Tennyson will know what I mean. The
intellectual world is still quite new to them. When they
succeed in annexing for themselves a new idea or in
experiencing a new emotion – which we, of course, have
long since explored and exhausted we feel the same
pleasure in their achievement, the same delight in their
power to take it seriously and to enjoy it, as we feel in
watching the progress of a healthy baby. American
sentimentality is incident to American nonage. The
American man of sentiment is not a gross and emotionally
flabby man watering at the eye from habitual quiescence
of the inhibitory nerves. He is a nice little boy woefully
piping at a tale of babes in the wood and how the kind
robin redbreasts covered them up with leaves."
Now this is very nice, and we fully appreciate
the kindly estimate of our fresh and innocent
youthfulness. Of course, the writer does not
really mean it; he is simply the victim of a
trick that instinct, or habit, or subliminal con-
sciousness, or something, plays upon most of the
writer folk. A man sits down at his desk to
compose, say, a leading article. He has his
theme in mind, and a general notion of the
course he wishes his development to take. But
his opening sentences are somehow given an
unintended twist, which commits his thought to
an unanticipated sequence of reflection. There
they stand, in black and white, and they unmis-
takably indicate a “ lead” that was never con-
templated, but must obviously be followed, for
the sake of logic, to some sort of outcome. He
wishes he had begun differently, but he cannot
escape
from the snare of his own setting; he is
like Goethe's Zauberlehrling, who has worked
the incantation, and cannot remember the word
that is potent to dissolve the spell. So he
watches, with a kind of dismay, the things that
the promptings of his tutelary dæmon force him
to set down, hoping that some lucky inspiration
will eventually enable him to muddle through,
and get back into the path originally planned.
After a wbile, he gets captivated by his own
.
.


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[March 1
THE DIAL
cleverness, and the fascination of the ideas he The theology of the Mathers and the meta-
finds himself expressing dulls his sense of re- physics of Jonathan Edwards, the most typical
sponsibility; he grows reckless, and determines of our early intellectual products, were, to say
to see the thing through, no matter what the the least, not nursery imaginings. Far from
consequences. When his disquisition is com being milk for babes, they were, if anything,
plete, he gasps at the realization of the con meat too tough or gristly for the robust diges-
clusions reached by the pen that has run away tion of full-grown men. The people who bought
with him, so different they are from any that he copies of Blackstone's Commentary, when that
had expected to reach, but he is not left without work was the last word in literary novelty, in
a thrill of intellectual satisfaction with the fin numbers beyond those that found purchasers in
ished product, so neatly do its parts fit together, the country of its origin, were not in their non-
and so plausible seems the whole argument. age. Neither were the framers of the Consti-
This, we take it, is the explanation of our tution, the authors of “The Federalist,” and
quoted paragraph. The tricksy spirit that the great jurists of our earlier years, children
twisted the opening sentence, not the writer, is who needed instruction in any political school
responsible for all that follows. Otherwise, the of the old world. No modern country ever saw
traditional English view of the American as a a group of men of greater intellectual stature
shrewd and somewhat cynical person, preco-than these. The notion that the new ideas and
ciously sharp, and rotten before he is ripe, the new emotions that Americans have from
would have emerged from the portraiture. The time to time “annexed” to themselves are only
healthy baby” and “nice little boy” concep- those which Englishmen “have long since ex-
tion would have had no chance at all had it not plored and exhausted” is about the most bril.
been for that fatal opening. One of the purest liant example of fatuous insularity that we have
and at the same time most persistent delusions ever encountered. When our intellectual life
concerning us is that we are a young people, came to full blossom fifty or more years ago, one
whereas we are in a general sense the heir of all of its most marked traits was its eager receptivi