the bird.
To spare it the misery they would inflict on it by
ment of each observer face to face with wild
attempting to fill its parents' place. It would
nature is, so to say, a set of tools peculiar perhaps have a wholesome effect on their young
to himself with which he explores “the com-
minds and save them from grieving overmuch at the
death of a newly hatched robin, if they would con-
plex system of things we call nature." In a sider this fact of the pain that is and must be.
passage, practically unknown, I have exam When summer came 'round again they would find
more birds than they had now. And so it
ined why it is that the trained observer who
would be in all places; all that incalculable increase
is rich in feeling, penetrates into vast regions would have perished. Many millions would be de-
of nature's life necessarily debarred to the voured by rapacious birds and beasts; millions more
would perish of hunger and cold; millions of
"impassive” observers who occupy themselves
migrants would fall by the way, some in the sea,
with "facts" and "laws," so I summarize it and some on the land; those that returned from
here:
distant regions would be but a remnant. It is not
only that this inconceivable amount of bird-life must
“A page from Mr. Hudson's last book,
be destroyed each year, but we cannot suppose that
'Hampshire Days,' will best illustrate the death is not a painful process. In a vast majority
degree to which his subtle artistic method of
of cases, whether the bird slowly perishes of hunger
and weakness, or is pursued and captured by birds and
interpreting 'scientific facts' throws open beasts of prey, or is driven by cold adverse winds
new avenues in approaching nature's life:” and storms into the waves, the pain, the agony, must
be great. The least painful death is undoubtedly
THE CUCKOO FOUNDLING.
that of the bird, that, weakened by want of susten-
The end of the little history - the fate of the
ance, dies by night of cold in severe weather. It
ejected nestling and the attitude of the parent robins
is indeed most like the death of the nestling, but a
remains to be told. When the young cuckoo
few hours out of the shell, which has been thrown out
throws out the nestlings from nests in trees, hedges,
of the nest, and which soon grows cold and dozes its
bushes, and reeds, the victims, as a rule, fall some
feeble, unconscious life away.
distance to the ground, or in the water, and are no This descriptive analysis of bird-life is sat-
more seen by the old birds. Here, the young robin,
urated with human feeling. But do we lose
when ejected, fell a distance of but five or six inches,
and rested on a broad, bright green leaf, where it
or gain knowledge thereby? Does it not carry
was an exceedingly conspicuous object; and when us from low to higher ranges of comprehen-
the mother robin was on the nest and at this stage sion? Let us suppose that it were para-
she was on it a greater part of the time — warming
that black-skinned, toad-like, spurious babe of hers, phrased in "impassive,” scientific language,
her bright intelligent eyes were looking full at the and its artistic and poetic shades of feeling
other one, just beneath her, which she had grown
in her body, and had hatched with her warmth, and
were expunged. In that case the bald facts
was her very own. I watched her for hours; watched recounted would remain as a groundwork,
her when warming the cuckoo, when she left the
but the very spirit of life in the thing seen
nest, and when she returned with food, and warmed
it again, and never once did she pay the least atten-
would be altered, our insight and compre-
tion to the outcast lying so close to her. There, on hension would be indefinitely lessened. So
its green leaf, it remained, growing colder by degrees,
the "impassive" scientists themselves are in
hour by hour, motionless, except when it lifted its
head as if to receive food, then dropped it again,
a "dilemma. We cannot actually comprehend
and when at intervals, it twitched its body, as if try nature's life without being emotionally
ing to move. During the evening these slight motions
ceased, though that feeblest flame of life was not yet
affected by it, that is, our comprehension is
extinguished; but in the morning it was dead and largely the emotion it excites in us. So, face
cold and stiff; and just above it, her bright eyes
to face with nature's wild life, “scientific
on it, the mother robin sat on the nest as before,
warming her cuckoo.
observation" must be supplemented and
How amazing and almost incredible it seems that inspired by artistic and poetic methods of
a being such as a robin, intelligent above most birds,
divination. To comprehend sentient life we
as we are apt to think, should prove in this instance
to be a mere automaton! The case would, I think, ' must employ all the old emotional tools of
have been different if the ejected one had made a the human mind, all those shades of æsthetic
sound, since there is nothing which more excites the
parent bird, or which is more instantly responded to
sensibility and of human imagination by
than the cry of hunger or distress of the young. which the great artists and poets seize and
But at this early stage the nestling is voiceless
another point in favour of the parasite. The sight apprehend the character of life. The scien-
of its young, we see, slowly and dumbly dying, touches tists are in their element in investigating the
no chord in the parent; there is, in fact, no recogni- working of physical laws, in determining the
tion; once out of the nest it is no more than a col-
oured leaf, or bird-shaped pebble, or fragment of
properties or the functions of living organ-
clay.
isms, but a knowledge of these laws no more


86
[February 8
THE DIAL
qualifies them to apprehend the character, same year. But the three romances remained
nature, or spirit of the life of nature's wild caviare to the larger audience that was then
creatures under the open sky than a perfect beginning to take note of Mr. Conrad and
knowledge of anatomy can make a man a Mr. Galsworthy. It is characteristic of the
Praxiteles.
public that when it flocks to drink at the
And wild nature's life being a natural fashionable literary wells, whether it be of
drama of instinct, an unceasing play of hun-
Stevenson in this decade, or Kipling or
ger, love, battle, courtship, fear, parental Arnold Bennett in that, it will not turn its
emotion, vanity, and most of all, perhaps,
head to look at exquisite springs lying a little
pure enjoyment of physical powers, it is obvi-
way off the track. One hears that America
ous that every man who is irresponsive in his
is in the act, to-day, of “discovering” Mr.
feelings or possessed of a dull artistic imag- tions, been “ placed” with
Hudson, whose books have, with few excep-
ination, or weak æsthetic sensibilities, must
tions, been “placed” with American publish-
remain practically aloof from wild nature,
ers for over twenty years! It seems a little
and its infinte feast of characteristic displays.
odd that no American critic should have pro-
He will not see or feel what is going on in
claimed their merits before Mr. Galsworthy's
forest and meadow, and so, remaining blind
lead, but perhaps his voice has been lost amid
to the whole force and spirit of nature, he
the cries of the market place? Let us hope
the critics will discriminate between the three
will not be able to pronounce on its life!
One cannot of course hope to communicate
masterpieces named above and a fourth
anything of the charm of Hudson's nature
romance, “A Crystal Age,” which is conspic-
uously inferior. Not that this latter story is
books by these generalizations. For the finest,
not ingenious and original, and founded on
closest, most sympathetic study ever made of
the life of the old-fashioned English country-
a picturesque idea, but it has the central
defect inherent in such Utopias, which are
man the reader should turn to “A Shepherd's
Life,” while “Nature in Downland” will give always builded of bricks hastily baked and
Life," while “Nature in Downland” will give of literary timber insufficiently seasoned.
him a more variegated picture of the wild
charm and human interest of the region of
Human nature is too elastic and too infinitely
the Sussex South Downs than is presented
various to be compressed for long, if at all,
even by Gilbert White or Jefferies. “Hamp-tiful and the Maternal Shrine provide. It is,
into such a framework as the House Beau-
shire Days,” similarly, does for the New For-
at back, the social model of the Beehive with
est what “The Land's End” does for Corn-
wall. Happy is the American reader who
the solitary Queen mother enthroned in its
centre that Mr. Hudson has adopted in an
acquiring these and “Afoot in England" for
arbitrary and vivid fashion. “A Crystal
less than half the price of a suit of clothes
can enter into free communion with the mag-
Age” was not a little inspired by William
Morris's æsthetic-socialistic movement of the
ical, antique beauty of the wild life of Eng.
period, with the beautiful mediæval trap-
land's unspoiled hills and woods and mead-
pings dear to the Morris-Burne-Jones school
Ows and moors and coast.
of art. The author was here engaged in an
It is distressing to have to set down, here,
that so far as this critic's experience goes,
idea antithetic to his passion for nature
not one in a hundred readers really cares for
untamed, free, ever changing, with her
work of fine creative imagination and rare
myriad forms of sentient life, challenging
spiritual beauty. The tale most poignant in
man's transitory achievements. But we need
its tragic beauty in the English language is not labor to assail the House Beautiful: it
I hold, “El Ombú." I thought so fifteen
has already passed into the limbo of all such
years ago when, as reader to a certain Lon- imaginary systems. How far superior to
don publisher, I found and read the MS.; "A Crystal Age" in character and art are the
but our public does not love tales that dis romances “The Purple Land,” “Green Man-
turb its complacency, and its reception, when sions,” and the four short stories in “EL
published in “The Greenback Library," was Ombú"!
lukewarm. "Green Mansions, issued in The latter spring from native roots thrust-
1904, secured a select, enthusiastic audience, ing deep in the Spanish-American soil. Only
as did the reprint of A Purple Land" in the a writer who had been born and bred in


1917]
87
THE DIAL
the atmosphere of the pampas could have son has mingled his own most intimate and
reflected with such crystalline simplicity the abiding joy in nature's everlasting beauty.
passion, the grave melancholy, and the dig. In Rima's senselessly brutal death he has
nified grace of this Spanish-American people.
bodied forth humanity's shuddering terror at
The title story, “El Ombú," with old Nican-
nature's dark woof of evil. An exquisite
dro's lament over the ruined house, where
strain of man's spiritual perception of
Donata and Valerio, Monica and Bruno in nature's glory gives place in Abel's mind, on
turn know the sorrow that is heavier than
Rima's death, to an animal ferocity of rage
death, is a model of restrained pathos. And
and to a moral insanity. In his furious
with what sureness does Hudson sway our
revolt against life he draws Runi's hereditary
hearts and command pity for even the tyrant
foes to slaughter him and all his tribe. With
Santos who waits in exile vainly for pardon
the most penetrating skill the author draws
out all the intricate skein of human passion,
for his crime, while his house, El Ombú, is
from the shrinking innocence of Rima's love
falling to ruin. It is a story of bloodshed,
to Abel's blood-lust of revenge, and illustrates
of the sacrifice of sweet and humble natures
each feeling in turn by fleeting, glancing
to the demon of war, and (God knows!) it is
the sad epitome that millions of European pathless forest, a drama ever passing before
visions of the unhuman life of nature in the
mourners to-day are sealing with their tears.
Abel's watching eyes.” The romance embod-
The infinite depths of woe that the human
heart can suffer, the triumph of the proud
ies, in fact, a profound spiritual analysis of
and wicked man over the good, this is graved life, in the fibres of intellectual being. But
the tragedy innate in the very structure of
with strokes, exquisitely strong and tender
in scenes of strange fascination. Unique in
the tragedy of “Green Mansions” is relieved
by the play of fancy, of light and shade in the
atmosphere also are the three other stories in
varied descriptions, and also by the passages
the volume, the “Story of a Piebald Horse,'
of irony put into the mouth of old Nuflo, and
“Niuo Diablo,” “Marta Riquelme" -- three
addressed to the Creator.
masterpieces of narrative which mirror the
I could wish for space, to discuss the orig-
landscape, the conditions of Gaucho life and
the heart of the people. In point of spir-
inal qualities of the no less remarkable
itual flavor as well as of simplicity and
romance “The Purple Land," a book which,
breadth of style they stand by themselves in
in its variegated charm, in its gay and seduc-
modern
tively soft love episodes, in its intimate pic-
Hudson's underlying
literature.
tures of family life in the Banda Orientál, in
note, deep passion melting into deep tender-
its scenes of battle, in its careless easy grace
ness, and mournful poignancy, is seen no
less clearly in "Green Mansions,” a forest
of manner and address, reveals the sunny
romance of the virgin regions lying beyond freedom of the author's youth. But I have
romance of the virgin regions lying beyond already, I fear, taken up too much of THE
upper Orinoco. The American reader by
DIAL's space, and for this I apologize.
now should know the story — how the hero,
Abel, a gold-seeker, dwelling with a taciturn
EDWARD GARNETT.
and crafty tribe of Indians, discovers Rima,
the beautiful, wild child, the last member of
LITERARY AFFAIRS IN FRANCE.
a vanished high-caste native race; how he
loves her and shares her life with the old (Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.)
trapper, Nuflo, till at last she meets a cruel Professor Albert Schinz, head of the French
death at the hands of the savage Runi and department of Smith College, sends me a
his tribe. “The - romantic framework and pamphlet entitled “The Renewal of French
plot,” as I have said elsewhere, “are of Thought on the Eve of the War,” the gist
importance only as being the artistic medium of which is found in the phrases:
by which the author finds free utterance for All at once, with practical unanimity, a whole gen-
those ethereally floating, mysterious sensa-
eration, all that is young and strong and hopeful,
rushes with enthusiasm into the new path, - the
tions that the hero's heart and senses receive traditional Catholicism of France
the ortho-
and absorb in contact with the wild life of the dox Catholicism of the priest, the Catholicism of
the repenting sinner, the Catholicism of the France
forest. In Abel's tender passion for the
which had been honored by the title of “Eldest
exquisite, capriciously sensitive Rima, Hud Daughter of the Church.”
the


88
[February 8
THE DIAL
.
In the same post which brought me Pro of the French Revolution, we find full con-
fessor Schinz's pamphlet came a package of firmation of what I have just said. Notwith-
books freshly printed at Paris under the aus standing the restraint imposed by the “union
pices of the Comité Catholique de Propagande sacrée,” we notice such passages as this:
Française à l'Etranger, in which I found
The religious question divides and impassions
“La Guerre Allemande et le Catholicisme” Frenchmen the most. By this I do not mean that
(Paris : Bloud & Gay, 2 frs. 40) and “L'Alle-
the French like to descant on transubstantiation, the
trinity, and the Sacred Heart. We care nothing
magne et les Alliés devant la Conscience
about dogmas. It would provoke a smile if anybody
Chrétienne" (same publisher, 3 frs. 60). in a conversation among friends should show an
Facing the title-page of both these books is interest in these things. Almost all the leaders
a list of names composing the Comité Catho-
of the Catholic church in France are conservative
in politics and socialism. A Catholic republican is
lique, made up of a dozen cardinals and
an exception. The Catholic church in France is the
Catholic bishops, followed by the names of bond which binds together all the reactionary parties.
some thirty laymen, most of them distin-
One of the results of this divorcing of the
guished Frenchmen but all of them out of
Catholic church and the Republic has been
joint with the Republic, who at heart would
that, as the Radical Republican party grew
prefer to see the present régime supplanted, until it dominated France, there was an
if it were possible, by a monarchy of some
increasing demand that the young priesthood
sort. If you examine the contents of these
be treated in military matters just like the
volumes, you will find them full of noble
laic youth; and this was done. So in the
patriotism and deep love of France, but you
present war we see in the French army, and
will discover almost no reference to the
in the French army alone among all the bellig-
political life of the country, to the men who erents, priests and abbés charging, shooting,
are ruling the nation, no mention of the
and bayoneting just like the ordinary poilu,
Republic or of republicanism. If it were not
and in every hospital you meet the wounded
for the “union sacrée," such volumes as these
or sick ecclesiastic. This side of the contest is
would have much to say about these men and
attracting more and more attention from the
these institutions, but in a spirit of attack general French public; and the publishers,
and revilement. The hidden hatred is not
who are a good barometer in these things, are
dead. To-day you cannot frequent a French
issuing a larger and larger number of books
military hospital and talk with certain of the
treating of it. In fact, oddly enough, the
wounded, especially with some of the officers,
Church, naturally proud of its brave soldier-
without perceiving that this old malice is not
priests, seems, in its enthusiasm, almost to
en slumbering. The
The explanation of this
approve of this forced violation on their part
unfortunate situation is to be found in the
of the teachings of Christ. I shall touch on
fact that the French Catholic church got on
two or three of these books.
the wrong side of the struggle, which was
“Moine et Soldat” (Paris: Galbada, 50
long and uncertain, for the foundation of the
centimes), with a preface by M. Henry
Third Republic, and there it has ever since
Cochin, gives a series of letters written from
been and there it will be when the present the front by a young abbé, Sergeant Aimé
conflict with Germany is ended. Even the
Berthomier, who was in the thickest of the
most superficial student of French affairs, if fight in Alsace-Lorraine, from the opening of
he tries to see things as they really are and
the war until he met his death most gallantly
not as his preconceived religious desires would
in August 1915. These simple, pious letters,
have them, will find that the ancient fight in
which show how this young priest had entered
France between ultramontanism and mon-
thoroughly, but against his will, into the new
archy on the one hand and the spirit and
life so different from his chosen one, prepare
beliefs of the French Revolution on the other,
the reader for a really remarkable book, which
is as full of life and fire as ever; and there
presents the priest on the firing-line in a most
can be no doubt on which side the final victory original and entertaining manner.
will be. In fact, it is practically won already.
“Les Soutanes sous la Mitraille" (Paris :
Let me assure Professor Schinz that nobody Gautier, 1 fr. 25), by Abbé René Gaëll, a priest
in France with his eyes and mind open would attached to a military hospital as an orderly,
agree with him when he says that “all that
has gone through over fifty editions and
is young and strong and hopeful is rushing richly deserves its success. Abbé Duroy, a
with enthusiasm into the traditional Catho friend of the author, is a stretcher-bearer at
licism." Far from it.
the front, who sends him letters from time to
If we turn to “La Guerre Actuelle” (Paris: time telling him what he and the other
Payot, 3 frs. 50), by Professor Aulard, who ecclesiastics are doing in the trenches and
fills with distinction at the Sorbonne the chair during the attacks. Both men write well,


1917]
89
THE DIAL
especially Abbé Gaëll, who has a real gift wounded in both legs, Second Lieutenant
for descriptive narration and often presents Allier continued to encourage his men with
scenes with an effect worthy of a Maupassant, the most remarkable energy.
and, Abbé though he be, these scenes from The little introduction to “Moine et Soldat"
the rough life of the common soldier are not mentioned a moment ago, represents but a
always free from those propos gaulois which small part of M. Henry Cochin's literary
sometimes shock English and Americans in activity during the past few months. We
Maupassant. The only thing to criticize about
have, for instance, his “Discours” (Nogent-
this exceptional book is the bad paper on le-Rotrou: Daupeley-Gouverneur, 25 cen-
which it is printed.
times), or speech delivered before the French
Of course, it is not only the Catholic
Olie Historical Society, of which he was president,
ecclesiastics whom the laws of France call to
the colors; the same is true of those of all
at its last annual meeting. It is a curious
other denominations. Protestants, Jews, and
contribution to war literature. M. Cochin is
Mohammedans are nobly and bravely doing
an authority in France on the Italy of the
their part, as any military hospital will show.
Middle Ages, and in this speech he tells what
But I have not chanced on a book which
the Italians of that time thought of the Ger-
mans. The picture is not a pleasant one; the
brings out this fact so well as does that of
Abbé Gaëll for the Catholics. However, the
whole thing seems to be summed up in the
“Mémoire de Roger Allier,” privately printed
term tedeschi lurchi, on the etymology and
by the stricken family of this rare young
signification of the last word of which phrase,
M. Cochin dwells at considerable length. All
man, whom I saw develop from boyhood to the
spring of manhood, largely meets the case.
of which offers another example — I have
His father, Professor Raoul Allier, is, as I
given several in this correspondence from
month to month — of the extreme bitterness
pointed out in THE DIAL a year ago, a dis-
tinguished Protestant clergyman and learned
against Germany which this war has engen-
teacher in the Paris Theological Seminary;
dered in the scholarly élite of France, where
and, though this, his eldest son, born in 1890 perhaps never in the whole history of the
and killed in the first month of the war under
country has the feeling been so intense. It
most atrocious circumstances, was destined
may be well to keep this fact in mind in any
for civil pursuits, he was a most active mem-
study of the present political situation in
ber of the Protestant church, as is revealed Europe, as it is pretty sure to have a strong
and perhaps decisive influence on the future
in many passages of these letters. But the
book is interesting from several other points Even M. Cochin's new edition of Dante's
peace negotiations.
of view. It offers, almost in his own words,
the history of the young life of a French
“Vita Nova" (Paris : Champion, 4 frs.) has
boy of the best type, from his birth to the age
not escaped this war scourge, though affected
of twenty-four, and possesses a charm and a
in quite another way. It was being printed
value quite its own. It brings out painfully,
when the storm burst and a few copies had
too, the fearful loss that Europe is now under-
been actually distributed. But the mobiliza-
going in the holocaust of the elite of its
tion suspended the work of printers and
youth, and it also largely explains why France binders, and it was only recently that the
has been making such a magnificent exhibi-
volume was really published. The second part
tion at the front. There are not in the
of the introduction should be read in order
trenches many French young men of the
to grasp the value of this translation and to
exceptional parts of Roger Allier, but there learn the careful labor that has been bestowed
are some, and it is this superior group which
upon it. Further details concerning the pub-
gives the tone to the whole army. The
lication of this admirable volume are given
in this extract from a letter which I have
elevated quality of Roger Allier's mind comes
out in one of his letters written from Scotland received from the author :
when he was a boy of sixteen; he tells his Abbeville, where the printing-office,
mother that he is “enjoying immensely” Dr.
invaded during the German onrush towards Paris,
and M. Edouard Champion, the well-known and
Francis G. Peabody's “Afternoons in the
learned publisher, was called to the front as captain,
College Chapel.” The last message received where he was wounded and decorated; and it was
from him, two days before his death, was a
from the trenches that he sent the order to print
the book. Professor Vittorio Cian, of the University
post card with these words traced on it: "All
of Turin, presenting the volume to the readers of
goes well”; and yet his real physical condi one of the leading Italian newspapers, gives his
tion at the moment when he wrote these cheer article this suggestive title: “Latin Serenity,” and
ing words to his anxious parents is thus given ity in the midst of the storm, that, while my book
informs me in support of this assertion of our seren-
in his general's dispatches : “Though gravely was coming out in Paris, a new volume in the grand
was
was


90
[February 8
THE DIAL
edition of the “Works of Goldoni" was appearing at city of Albert, Picardy; "Arras sous les
Venice. And in this same connection, I may add
that at Vicence, an Italian city not less exposed to
Obus,” (3 frs. 50), by Abbé Foulon, with a
the enemy than is Venice, has just been brought out preface by the Bishop of Arras, containing
another volume of the great collection of Vicentian one hundred varied illustrations showing how
Documents; all of which goes to prove that the
terribly this fine old city of Artois has suf-
scholars of France as well as those of Italy con-
tinue to work on in calmness and with resolution. fered; and lastly, a collection of a dozen
Of course important labors in the fields of history, illustrated post cards (1 fr.), depicting many
philology and archæology have received a serious set-
of the scenes of ruin given in the books just
back from the war, if for no other reason than
because all of our young scholars are in the army,
mentioned.
where many have been killed or wounded. Our dis-
THEODORE STANTON.
tinguished savant, Mgr. Duchesne, director of our January 26, 1917.
Archeological School at Rome, replied to a journal-
ist who asked him the other day if it would not be
better to spare these precious lives: “You may say
what you like, but you would never get any of our
CASUAL COMMENT.
young archæologists to become “slackers.”” So there
are left in our great special schools only the weak
and deformed, as, for instance, at the School of
THE DIAL prints on another page the reply
Charters, where are to-day but thirteen students
of Dr. William E. Dodd, professor of Amer-
instead of 80 as is the case in normal times. All ican History at the University of Chicago, to
who can work are doing so, and all of us old men
an attack made upon him in the editorial
are also busy in our way. We hold that our first
columns of “Collier's Weekly," apropos of
duty towards our country is to prepare a fine morrow
when the day of victory comes, by keeping up the
his review of a historical work published by
intellectual and scholarly side of life. Hence it is P. F. Collier & Son. In charging Professor
that our learned bodies, as, for example, the French Dodd with advocating that history "should
Historical Society, the French Antiquarian Society,
the Paris Historical Society, etc., continue to issue
be a pamphlet, sparing the truth where it is
their publications. Also the learned reviews, like the inconvenient for the
for the pamphleteer,” the
“Revue Historique," the “Bibliothèque de : 'Ecole des editorial writer lays his finger on the very
Chartes,” etc., appear regularly.
fault against which Professor Dodd protested
Still another pamphlet by M. Henry Cochin in his review of “Patriots and Statesmen.”
calls for a word,—“L'Euvre des Eglises
The whole point of Professor Dodd's argu-
Dévastées,” which explains the interesting
ment was that the authors of that work had
work of a society that bears the same name as
spared the truth where it was convenient for
the title of this pamphlet and that seeks the
their purpose. After realizing that the editor-
restoration of the ruined chapels and churches
ial writer is incapable of understanding Eng-
in the war zone as the Germans retire. M.
Cochin mentions two women Mlle. Desval-
lish, one is not surprised to learn that he has
never heard of Professor Dodd or the group
lières and Mlle. Reyre — who have shown
remarkable talent in the decorative art side
of realistic writers who are trying to substi-
of the society's labor, another example of
tute an intelligible reading of American his-
what I have touched upon more than once in
tory for the pious imposture on which he was
this correspondence, namely, how much this brought up. If proof were required of the
war has done to advance the activities of great need for the service which Professor
women. In case any Americans may wish to Dodd and his colleagues are rendering, it
aid this society in its work, its office, where could be found in the survival of the sort of
copies of M. Cochin's pamphlet may be had, mind that is seized with hysteria when it
is 3 rue Oudinot, Paris.
discovers, in a book review, that the Fathers
The Comité Catholique, already mentioned, were not pure idealists, bent on establishing
has issued several illustrated publications, democracy at any cost, but men with humanly
which show by their pictures and explain by mixed motives not above considering the ef-
their texts the extent and character of the fects of constitution making on their pocket-
destruction of church property which M. books. The rewriting of American history in
Cochin's society would repair. These books, the light of what we now know about the
which are published by Bloud and Gay, Paris, complex play of economic and social motives
are: “La Guerre Allemande et le Catholi is certainly one of the most important tasks to
cisme,” two albums (1 fr. 20 each), edited by which sincere and able men, eager to substi-
Mgr. Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Cath tute thought for emotionalism in our national
olic Institute of Paris; “La Lourdes du life, can address themselves. As editor of
Nord,” (1 fr.), by René le Cholleux, being the “Riverside History of the United States”
the account of the destruction of Notre Dame and author of a number of books on American
de Brebières, a modern church in the little history, which the editorial writer can find


1917]
91
THE DIAL
.
listed in “Who's Who” if he has no more which excited amusement by its heading to
exhaustive reference 'works at hand, Pro the twentieth chapter of Luke: “Parable of
fessor Dodd's contribution has been distin the Vinegar”-a sour memory to the unlucky
guished. That he should be subjected to the printer, though no such fine was imposed
attacks of bigotry and ignorance is, unhap- upon him as upon his earlier fellow-crafts-
pily, the penalty he has to pay for defending man for the omission of “not.” That little
unpopular truth.
slip is said to have cost the one responsible
for it three hundred pounds. It must have
VATIONAL SERVICE IN ITS EFFECTS ON LITER been a kinsman of his that was responsible
ATURE is a matter of present concern to both for “sin on more," instead of "sin no more,”
writers and publishers in England. One in the first English Bible printed in Ireland.
publisher, quoted by the London correspond Dr. Harry Lyman Koopman, in his recent
ent of the Boston “Transcript,” expresses in volume, “The Booklover and His Books,"
frank and cheerful terms his uncertainty as
quotes some amusing examples of typograph-
to what is to become of him and his prosper. ical perversity. General Pillow on his return
ous business in the near future. “I don't
from Mexico was hailed by a Southern editor
know how this National Service development in grandiloquent language as the “battle-
is going to affect things,” he confesses. “We scarred veteran,” to which the hero took
have difficulties enough with the labor short- exception and demanded an apology. The
age already. But now, at all events, printers, editor proceeded to retract the epithet on the
binders, publishers, and the rest of us, can
following day, but in his printed apology the
patch up our broken staffs with men over
comparatively inoffensive adjective reap-
military age, and if these are to be taken
peared, to his horror, as "bottle-scarred.”
away the production of books will become a Perhaps the most diabolical achievement
really tough proposition. I am not much
credited to the imp of the types is that which
beyond fifty and may be called upon myself.” made a Vermont newspaper announce, in an
But he hastens to add that he is not "grous- obituary notice of a man who had originally
ing” about it. “I'm game to do what's nec-
come from Hull, in Massachusetts, that "the
essary and chance it. It's easy enough to say body was taken to Hell, where the rest of the
you won't have a patched-up peace and will
family are buried.”
never allow the Germans to impose their own
terms upon us so long as you are sitting com-
fortably at home and somebody else is doing THOUGH WORK IN LOCAL HISTORY has made
all the fighting and suffering all the incon great progress in this country within recent
venience of the war for you. This National years, still much, very much, remains to be
Service stunt is going to prove how much we done in order to bring this department of
mean of that and whether we mean it enough knowledge up to the level which it attained
to be ready to do our share towards winning long ago in the older nations of Europe. Mr.
the peace we want. If I have to go it will James Truslow Adams, who resides in one of
hit me pretty hard, but it has hit plenty of the oldest towns of Long Island, offers, in
others before me. What's good enough for "Memorials of Old Bridgehampton,” a pri-
the rest of the nation is good enough for me. vately printed volume which is just out, a
So I'm not worrying. Drop in a few weeks good example of how this local history work
later and I may be able to tell you then what should be done. “It has meant a deal of
I shall be doing next spring. I may be busy labor," he says, referring to this book, in a
with potatoes and turnips then instead of private letter, "but it is one of those things
books. We shall see.” Certainly there is good which are worth doing once.” In his preface,
as well as evil in the grim necessity that is Mr. Adams further says: “In a local history,
making impossible for so many the comfort the details are usually of more interest than
able continuance of their safe and sheltered the general narration”; so we are not aston-
lives and the uninterrupted enjoyment of ished that he has succeeded in packing into
their regular incomes.
his pages much curious and little-known
information often of more general interest
than he seems to imagine. Thus, most of us
TYPOGRAPHICAL TRICKSINESS has been will be surprised to learn that there were
commonplace ever since and probably also
thirteen distinct Indian tribes on this one
before) the "wicked Bible” of 1631 enjoined island which is only about a hundred miles
upon mankind a most shocking positive com long; that the towns were settled not from
mand instead of a very salutary prohibition. the Mother Country but from colonies already
Then there was the “vinegar Bible” of 1717, i placed in the New; that the churches in
a


92
[February 8
THE DIAL
those early days, in the nation which later the trisyllabic feet, four to the line, give place
took the lead in the complete separation of to the dissyllabic feet, five to the line. Pres-
Church and State, were “town churches, i. e., ently, too, we meet our old acquaintance,
civil government churches"; that whaling, Attila, disguised by a false accent -- unless
“which was one of the chief industries of we prefer a painfully limping line — and
Long Island, was tremendously checked by before long our ear for rhyme is jarred by
the gold rush to California in 1849," and that the following:
the “Cadmus,” which brought Lafayette to We tread the gardens of Semiramis,
America in 1824, was one of those many Sag We weave the Trojan legends while ye list.
Harbor whalers which later “went round the This may recall to some the nursery jingle
Horn” seeking Eldorado. Here and there an beginning :
amusing note is mingled with this more seri-
Elizabeth, Lizzie, Betsy, and Bess
ous information, as in the epitaphs -- an odd
Went to the woods to find a bird's nest.
place to look for fun — which Mr. Adams has
copied from some of the crumbling tomb-
WHERE THE WRITTEN WORD IS APPRECIATED,
stones in the town cemetery. These two, for
just now, is made plain by a short communi-
instance:
cation from Mr. John Masefield to an admirer
Cook is no more, his soul has took its flight
of his poetry who had written to express his
From sin and darkness to celestial light.
admiration. The poet says, in a letter from
See blooming Williams in the clay cold tomb.
the trenches in northern France: “The best
service you could do me would be to write to
BROKEN RHYTHM AND FAULTY RHYME, in
me from time to time. My address will be:
John Masefield, 2nd Lieutenant" -- and then
verse manifestly intended to be the very
follow certain cabalistic symbols, “1 (d)
opposite of “free,” may offend more than the
G.H.Q. B.E.F.," with "France" at the end.
utmost freedom of professedly free verse. To
"Believe me,” the writer adds, “I shall always
the four magazines : now striving to advance
be glad to hear from you." No doubt a
the cause of poetry in this country there has
friendly and sympathetic word, bringing a
very recently been added a fifth, “The Ajax,"
whiff of the outside world to the entrenched
edited and published by Mr. C. Victor Stahl
fighter, whether he be poet or mechanic or
at Alton, Illinois. Its “policy and purpose,
farmer, is always welcome, even from an utter
as editorially announced, “will be to publish
stranger. In fact, certain appeals for reading
each month as much good verse and literary
matter for the front lay emphasis on the
comment as is possible under mechanical lim-
itations, and to combat the encroachment of
eagerness with which a direct and personal
word is read, in contrast with the less keen
free verse, which threatens to destroy the
interest felt in the impersonal book or mag-
very life and being of poetic art in America.”
azine.
It lays emphasis on the fundamental prin-
ciples or elements of art, which are concep-
tion and exécution.” It quotes Mr. Max
COMMUNICATIONS.
Eastman's censure of "free" verse as “lazy"
verse. It holds up to derision a specimen of
PARTISAN READING OF HISTORY.
free verse from “Poetry.". Thus the reader
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.):
of "Ajax” is led to look for something
The Editor of "Collier's Weekly” takes particu-
approaching formal perfection in the verse lar offence at my review of “Patriots and States-
accepted and printed by Mr. Stahl. But dis men,” which appeared in a recent number of THE
appointment lies in wait on the very first
DIAL. Aside from the personal disparagement,
which really has nothing to do with the matter, I
page, where an unsigned poem of twenty should like to say a few words.
lines (is it from the editor's pen ?) violates In the first place, P. F. Collier & Son are the
the rules of both rhyme and rhythm. It is publishers of the book which I was compelled to
entitled “The Poet's Invocation," and begins review somewhat disparagingly. It is not custom-
thus :
ary for publishers to reply to adverse reviews of
their books. I have never known a good house to
Lo! multifold dreamers and schemers are we,
Building huge castles of things that ought to be,-
take the position of publisher and critic at the
Out of sheer nothing grand fabrics we make,
same time. The angry retort, therefore, of the
Clad in the fire of frenzy in dreams unawake.
Editor of “Collier's Weekly” is the reply of one
And now, just as we seem, with some diffi-
crying his wares in the market place, and not the
culty and considerable jolting, to have got the opinion of the judge and critic.
“Patriots and Statesmen” is a work in five vol-
beat, to have settled into the canter of this
umes, which seeks, among other things, to capitalize
Pegasus, suddenly there comes a change and the words of Washington, when he was worried


1917)
93
THE DIAL
and embarrassed with great difficulties, on the training? It is better to live and die patriotic,
subject of the militia. He said a great deal during especially if patriotism pays.
the long years of the Revolution which any parti I will, however, set down a few well-known facts
san of universal military service may now quote. which it might be well for people to recall when
That a partisan use was made of the opportunity they put out new books on American history:
is shown by the fact that Washington's words of Webster went to Congress a sectionalist, seeking
praise for the militia, which were spoken later, sectional benefits; and every important vote he
and when he was himself, are all omitted from cast in that body for the fifteen years preceding
this book. This is the method of the militarist the great debate in 1830 was given for sectional
group in Washington, who are now putting out purposes. The Union was to him a good thing,
literature by the ton. In General Upton's so-called to be sure; but what won his vote was the interests
"Military Policy of the United States” this mis of his New England constituents. Hayne and
representation of Washington is carried to the Calhoun were in Congress as nationalists; they
limit. Mr. F. L. Huidekoper and General Wood were scouted in their state for being nationalists.
commit the same offence in aggravated form. Their aim in bringing on Nullification was to pre-
And the American Security League carries all this vent secession, not to hasten it. It had been the
misinformation to teachers of history, begging whole southern programme to be nationalist; their
them to use it to influence the minds of the boys interests lay that way and they were themselves
and girls in our schools.
generally in control, which is always a mighty
When the review of "Patriots and Statesmen” stimulant to nationalism. Thus New England and
was under preparation, I was impressed with a the South opposed each other till 1825.
feeling that Collier & Son were also endeavoring Meanwhile Henry Clay had been in Congress
to support a partisan view; but I was not sure of for fifteen years as an avowed westerner, a bitter
it, and hence the fear was expressed that such a opponent of New England and a candidate for
purpose was behind their series of pretty books. the presidency representing the West. But sud-
Since writing the review I have received proof denly Jackson loomed up, stole the hearts of most
in written form that at least one party to the westerners and became a candidate for the presi-
publication is “hand and glove” with the above dency. To beat Jackson, Clay and John Quincy
mentioned militarist group.
Adams made a combination of New England, parts
Second. The review called attention to the one of the Middle States, and Clay's following in the
sided treatment of the Constitutional Convention West. This succeeded for the moment, but it was
of 1787, and now I am taken to task for supposed so unpopular that it ruined both Clay and Adams
ignorance by one who seems to know nothing of as future presidential aspirants.
the writings of John B. McMaster, Frederic J. When Jackson finally won, it was by a combina-
Turner, and C. A. Beard; and not to be known tion of the South and the West, of Jackson, Cass,
to the Editor of “Collier's" is not to be known at Benton, Poindexter (of_Mississippi), Crawford
all. An ex-president of the American Historical (of Georgia), Calhoun, Hayne, and the Virginia
Association, who is within easy reach of “Collier's and Pennsylvania politicians. This combination
Weekly," once said to a group of scholars whose embittered Webster and the New Englanders in
names would have no significance to the Editor just the same way that the recent combination of
that the Fathers had shrewdly put across the con South and West embitters the people who live
stitution against the wishes of nearly two-thirds along the eastern shores of the Hudson River.
of the people. Whether this remark be correct or The one thing the West of 1830 demanded above
not, it is certainly a fact that a majority of the everything else was free homesteads—"free lands,"
people opposed the adoption of the instrument, as Benton put it. To prevent the realization of
and that the proponents of the measure resorted that end, Foot of Connecticut offered a bill which
to tricks that would have done credit to the Hon proposed to close all land-offices and stop the sale
orable William Barnes himself.
of public lands. And, of course, no lands were to
Now, a scholar who knows the facts may not so be given away. The bill tried the southern leaders
much as refer to them in a review of a one-sided sorely, for they opposed free lands; but they had
book without being decried as unhistorical. That was agreed to help the West win its great objective
the Treitschke method. A thing is true simply be on condition that the West aid them in defeating
cause some hyperpatriotic journalist thinks it true. the protective tariff. Hayne spoke against Foot's
It would probably give the Editor of “Collier's" scheme, thus keeping faith with Benton, who was
a patriotic fit if he were to read McMaster and the father of most western land measures. Benton
Stone's “Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitu was satisfied. The South and West would go on
tion," or Mr. C. A. Beard's “Economic Interpre- together, defeat the Foot bill, and then reduce the
tation of the Constitution.” Reading “Patriots tariff.
and Statesmen” is much better; the book gives It was at this time that Webster, a recent con-
only one side of the story.
vert to the protective tariff (his constituents having
Finally, not to know more of Webster than the changed their position to his great embarrassment),
aforesaid Editor seems to know is pathetic. Here rose to attack Hayne. His object was to break the
again I might call to witness some of the first southern-western alliance; and to do so, he
historians of the country, but their names would talked Union and Nation the West being more
be utterly unfamiliar and I desist. Why set a Unionist and nationalist than the South, and far
supposedly old man upon a course of high school more Unionist and nationalist than New England


94
(February 8
THE DIAL
or Webster had ever been. He “rang the changes" sentiment, superficial wit and tiresome persiflage
on nationalism till South Carolina nationalists of that generation.
were afraid he might break their combination. And As it is quoted there, this opinion of Mr. Powys's
it was on this nationalist theory that Jackson acted lends itself admirably to Mr. Solon's purpose;
a little later when he called a halt in South Car if, however, Mr. Solon had taken the trouble to
olina, although he closed his eyes at the same time read a little further, he would have seen the fol-
to Nullification in Georgia. But the great problemlowing significant sentence: “I suppose they didn't
then before Webster was the land question, and really. I suppose they used to go off on the sly
the land question spelled ruin for New England, and read Rabelais and Villon." That this omission
whose population was running off to the West in alters the entire meaning of the criticism made by
preference to staying at home and working in Mr. Powys is evident to a man of no huge intellect.
factories from “sun to sun" for seventy-five cents I, therefore, conclude that the omission was a
a day.
wilful one. As a contradiction to this statement,
Now this important subject the Editor of
Mr. Solon quotes : “How admirable to turn back
“Collier's Weekly” treats as a real estate matter. to Voltaire after the fussy self-love and neurotic
Real estate! It was the growth of the West which introspection of our modern intellectuals." Mr.
Webster feared; and the continued combination Solon evidently misunderstood the meaning of the
of South and West would not only ruin New words “turn back.” The author implies that, after
England politically, it would break down the tariff a dose of our moderns, there is no greater joy
as well. If “Patriots and Statesmen” had given than coming back to those loved pages of “Can-
Benton's speech on the public land question and dide" and the Philosophical Dictionary.
Foot's resolutions against selling any more land, The second example your critic gives is too
and then added Webster's and Hayne's orations, flagrantly erroneous to bear quotation. It will
the reader would have got some inkling of “what suffice to say that Mr. Powys states that he will
it was all about." That is just what was not never turn over the pages of Byron's “Poetical
desired. Perhaps those who got up this work did Works”; but — here is what Mr. Solon for his
not know the literature of the subject, just as the bon plaisir misinterprets ---- he can imagine what
Editor of “Collier's" seems to be wholly innocent would be the sensations experienced by a mind
of real information about the whole matter. quite new and fresh to the “resounding grandeur"
As a reviewer of books in the field of history, I of Byron, at the sudden discovery of the “Hebrew
shall continue gently, on occasion, to call attention Melodies."
to matters of this kind, hoping, however, that I And finally, in Mr. Powys's declaration of his
may escape burning at the stake at the hands of
doctrine, your contributor has erred either as
“patriots and statesmen” who live in New York.
blunderingly or as intentionally as before.
WILLIAM E. DODD. Mr. Powys simply says that the poetic tempera-
Chicago, January 30, 1917.
ment is not the same as that of the artist, although
it partakes unconsciously of certain of the artist's
qualities. Poetry is then the greatest of all arts,
THE LATE E. A. ABBEY, R.A.
and the poet is the greatest of all artists because
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
the art in poetry is unconscious. Yes, the intellect
Having been invited by Mrs. Abbey to write is there, watching, registering, what you will -
a memoir of the late E. A. Abbey, R.A., may I but the artist has not at the time the knowledge
ask such of your readers as have letters from thereof. Mr. Powys's meaning is as clear as day-
that artist, and are willing to lend them for pos light to any but the most biased and clouded of
sible publication, to send them to me at Chelsea intellects.
Lodge, 42 Tite Street, London, S. W., where they I do not know Mr. Powys personally; this letter
will be carefully handled, copied, and quickly is the protest of a reader of “Suspended Judg-
returned. I am,
Yours faithfully,
ments,” who has the interests of intelligent and
E. V. LUCAS. thorough criticism at heart. Granted that at times
London, England, January 6, 1917.
Mr. Powys is hysterical, we owe him none the less
a great and lasting debt. The Protestant Puritan-
ism and Philistinism rampant among us in Amer-
MR. JOHN CowPER Powys.
ica have never found a more fearless and eloquent
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
enemy than Mr. Powys. Besides, had Mr. Solon
In a recent number of THE DIAL, Mr. Israel studied literature extensively, he would know that
Solon reviews Mr. John Cowper Powys's latest genius and charlatanism are very closely related.
book, “Suspended Judgments,” in the most unwar No man has stood up for culture and beauty and
ranted and unjust manner possible. Indeed, the intelligent criticism more than Mr. Powys; it is
whole article is a deliberate misinterpretation and unfortunate that he should be subjected to the sort
false presentation of facts as they stand written. of criticism he received at Mr. Solon's hands.
To begin with Mr. Solon's first quotation: I am not one of the many hysterical bluestock-
“Except for 'Candide and a few excerpts from ings that Mr. Powys has in his following; I
the 'Philosophical Dictionary,' I must confess I pride myself upon appreciation of good criticism.
have no wish to turn over another page of That is why Mr. Solon's article was to me so
Voltaire. It is simply incredible to me that human inexpressibly boring, futile, and tedious.
beings possessed of the same senses as ours could
JACQUES SCHUMAN LE CLERCQ.
find satisfaction in the sterile moralising, stilted Haverford College, January 29, 1917.


1917)
95
THE DIAL
a
rose.
“THE GOOD OLD WAYS.”
development, and expect it to carry off the prizes
because it was grown in an unfavourable soil and
climate and is a horticultural triumph relatively to
PENCRAFT. By William Watson. (John Lane those adverse conditions. The rose is judged with
Co.; $1.)
sole regard to its absolutely accomplished beauty as
Whenever an author writes about style his
By the like criteria must a poet's
own style is likely to suffer - from Pater
final place be fixed; and tried by these tests, which
seem to me the eternal ones, I find Blake wanting,
down, or from Raleigh up. And whenever
while Pope emerges from the ordeal, not indeed a
he puts a large apparatus in motion to work poet of very deep tones or very wide gamut, but an
off a few small grudges the literary sky
almost miraculous performer upon a rigorously
becomes clouded indeed. Thus it is with
limited instrument, which obeys him with infallible
precision, and seems delighted to be his slave.
William Watson in "Pencraft," a set piece
Thus Mr. Watson takes his stand for the
which
goes off with a little too much of hitch,
sputter, and smoke. But before dwelling on
“well-made” poem, which occupies a satis-
the hand that launched its thousand squibs,
factory middle ground between what he calls
the “overmade” and the “undermade.”
let us attend to the construction of the fire-
work itself.
Among the “overmade” poets he puts Ros-
Mr. Watson chooses to distribute literature
setti, and perhaps would include Swinburne,
if that gaseous artist could be given sufficient
among three categories, which he calls the
cantative, the scriptive, and the loquitive. Among Americans of the same general class
solidity to hold a hard-and-fast verdict.
The first of these he declines as above his
he names Poe and, a fortiori, Chivers. Among
powers - it is too mysterious and transcend-
the “undermade" he places, conspicuously,
ental. The third he banishes as beneath them
Byron; among poets specifically American,
it is too chatty and informal. The second
Lowell and Bryant. The ideal poem is one
the scriptive — he handles as if it were
that is “made enough” one which "owes its
dominantly a matter of poetry, almost giving
authentic excellence in great measure
prose composition the go-by. His book thus
to a moral root and basis the wholly hon-
comes near to being but one particular man's
ourable passion of the workman for levying
"shop" - and a somewhat disgruntled man,
at that. By its very subtitle it is “a plea for
upon his own spirit the utmost toil it can
bear without impoverishment, and for doing
the older ways"; and by constant implica-
as well as nature and circumstance permit
tion, and even by direct assertion, his face
him whatsoever thing he strives to do at all.”
is dead set against the new and the free.
For "art is not morals, in which the will may
However, within such narrowed bounds,
sometimes count for more than the deed.
Mr. Watson, despite certain infirmities of Nor is it religion, in which even faith with-
temper and certain shortcomings of expres-
out works may perhaps be allowed some meas-
sion, is well worth attending to. The "scrip-
ure of spiritual efficacy. Works impassioned
tive" -- the consciously written - is made to
by faith, irradiated by truth, but above all,
take in most of both Keats and Shelley, and
consummated by power, are its only stepping-
it gives a welcome to rhetoric as well as to
stones to salvation.”
poetry. Though Mr. Pádraic Colum has
Mr. Watson thus ranges himself among
lately been at pains to explain the difference
the conservatives. He wants the good old
between poetry and oratory,- the first aim-
ing at intensity and the second at exaltation, and consecrated morality; he desires no
approved craftsmanship, and the established
the latter being “heard” and the former
spiritual adventurings into the limbo of the
“overheard,” Mr. Watson indulges no dis "violent and erratic." He is naturally severe
position to second these labors. Mr. Colum
on current American verse: “when it was
would classify Pope and Byron among the
more English in texture and mode than it is
orators. Mr. Watson, declining to define the
at present its level of performance was incom-
exact bounds of poetry and rhetoric (the parably higher.” Recent changes have "cer-
life-breath of oratory), would find room for
tainly coincided with a marked decline in
both of them among the poets, to say nothing literary prestige and power.” The taste satis-
of the major prophets and the “royal psalm-fied by our "homegrown verse” is “not
odist” David, all of whom bring the two arts
severe.” The best characteristic of this verse
into close association. The men against whom
he turns a stony face are Blake, with his
in "an uncouth sincerity.” What there is of
"glorified nursery babble," and Browning,
“abler, choicer, more distinguished work” is
whose “Andrea del Sarto" countenances such
apt to be “less ingenuous."
stultifications and infantilities :
It is sad to see an elderly man vanishing
A rose-grower does not send to a rose-show a poor
into the penumbra of unhappiness. America's
starved imperfect rose, a pathetic piece of arrested most vigorous school of verse is likely, for


96
[February 8
THE DIAL
some years at least, to block out its poetics hardly worthy of publication. M: Madelin
in rather rough-hewn fashion and to defer gives us some interesting documents taken
for a while the application of conscious from German soldiers who fought at Verdun
finish. At some stage of that process a happy which throw a vivid light on the objective of
blend of strength and polish may be attained. that tremendous failure. M. Pinon has writ-
Then imitative procedure and academic finish ten with biting irony of the Armenian mas-
will again supervene.
Then Rough Vigor sacres. Mr. Beck proceeds in characteristic
will once more come to the poet's "salvation.” swashbuckling style to display his jovial and
Thus the pendulum swings: from the over boisterous faculty of whole-hearted hate and
socialized (or classic) to the over-individual uncritical admiration. The volume on Poland
ized (or romantic), and back, and forth, and is a brilliant statement not merely of national
back again :- a law (both literary and social) achievement but of the main issues involved in
the workings of which should have come, by what is, in some sort, the most tragical of
this time, to be pretty well understood. historic destinies. Mr. Macdonald states
HENRY B. FULLER. simply and clearly the principles which should
underlie the European reconstruction. Sir
Thomas Holdich's volume derives a special
A PHILOSOPHY EMBATTLED.
value not only from the fact that he is the
foremost practical authority upon his subject,
THE DEEPER CAUSES OF THE WAR. By Emile
but also because it brings home to us, in real-
Hovelaque. (E. P. Dutton & Co.; $1.25.)
istic fashion, the task which will face those
AMERICA'S RELATIONS TO THE GREAT WAR. By who refashion the map of Europe. His book
J. W. Burgess. (A. C. McClurg & Co.; $1.) is easily the best discussion of its subject that
LE PLAN PANGERMANISTE DÉMASQUÉ. By A. exists in the English language. I can only
Chéradame. (Plon; 4 fr.)
hope that in a second edition it will be given
DEMOCRACY AND PEACE, By James Bissett
the illustrative maps it so badly needs.
Platt. (Richard G. Badger; $1.)
L'AVEU. By Lieutenant Louis Madelin. (Plon;
What all these books make tragically clear
1 fr. 50.)
is the simple and vital fact that it is against
LA GUERRE INFERNALE. By Gustave Dupin. a philosophy that the allied powers are con-
(Jeheber; 3 fr. 50.)
tending. Each age and each people seems
LA SUPPRESSION DES ARMÉNIENS.
By René
guided in its destinies by a conception of some
Pinon. (Perrin; 1 fr.)
good superior to that which it has achieved.
THE WAR AND HUMANITY. By James M. Beck. What is the ideal which has actuated Ger-
(G. P. Putnam's Sons; $1.50.)
many in the last half-century! Her phil-
POLAND'S CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE. (Dodd,
Mead & Co.; $3.)
osophers significantly ceased to proclaim the
EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
By J.
inviolability of law. They no longer taught
A. Murray Macdonald. (T. Fisher Unwin; us that personality, whether human or
2s. 6d.)
national, is of itself worthy of respect. They
POLITICAL FRONTIERS. By Sir Thomas Holdich. did not insist on the worth of human fellow-
(Macmillan Co.; $3.)
ship. They did not emphasize the part that
It seems not unlikely that in the literature coöperation may play in the conquest of pain.
of this war the future historian will find a Not that the Germany of the nineteenth cen-
tragic euthanasia. It pours forth with an tury ceased to employ a categorical impera-
abundance which shows no sign of cessation. tive. On the contrary, tutored by Fichte and
M. Hovelaque restates its philosophic basis
Hegel, it did not shrink from proclaiming that
not, indeed, with either profundity or com-
the national soul must be true to herself. It
pleteness, but with a clarity that is not with insisted on her pursuit of all that might add
out its charm. Professor Burgess pursues his
to the richness of her experience. It de-
rôle of indignant dissatisfaction with the manded her right to that material permanence
American attitude; and he continues to make of form in which alone the spirit can ade-
havoc of history and public right that he may quately flourish. It etherealized the prin-
somehow construct a case. M. Chéradame has ciples of Machiavelli, and erected them into
written a forcible study of the broad outlines an ethical system. Hegel gave to them a
of the German plan of conquest, which is philosophic, and Treitschke a quasi-historical,
useful for its vigorous handling of the justification. That they might prosper and
geographical issues involved. Professor grow strong, they were nourished by Bis-
Platt's little volume is one of the typical
marck on blood and iron. But the appetite
reveries this war seems destined to produce grows by that on which it feeds. Strength
without number; it is as true as it is obvious, turned to domination;
turned to domination; the giant sought
and so obvious, for the most part, as to be
abroad for his victims. Exulting in his


1917]
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THE DIAL
capacity for achievement, he called for sac stand that the rattling of his scabbard pro-
rifice to his lust for power. Slowly and cau duced no trembling. He was compelled to
tiously and of set purpose he fashioned the don his armor lest the virtues of which he was
weapons of his desire. Science and art and the appointed guardian might come to be
education became the handmaidens of his branded as sin. That which he desired, he
theories. They were bent to the service of knew it was his mission to take. Once suc-
his will. He felt within himself the quality cess had proclaimed his virtues, he knew that
of leadership which demands conquest that his a world which frowned now at his swash-
strength may not waste nor grow old with buckling would crown his brows with the
the lapse of time. His ambition was fostered laurel of a merited homage. He would teach
by the prospect of an easy victory. His bow them the manliness of a savagery which phil-
was the bow of Ulysses, which none save heosophy had erected into a system. He would
could bend. Nor did he fail to clothe his pur fling the defiance of conscious supremacy in
pose. in the specious phrases of moral the face of pigmies who had slept and played
endeavor. He was, so he told himself, the while he toiled and grew weary in the prep-
minister of civilization. There was no science aration for this hour. He would bestride
in which his subjects did not labor to mag Europe like a colossus; and when victory
nificent achievement. Music no less than com came, he would proclaim the splendor of hard-
merce, art, the drama, theology — all these ness in the ruthless vigor of his conquest.
they had made their own. Mystically, per So did ideal right take might unto itself, in
haps, yet none the less certainly, the giant felt order that it might cease to be merely ideal.
the call to action. A world that he did not Never in the whole process of history has a
dominate was a mean and ignoble thing. A nation so consciously wedded itself to the
world which thought differently from him. | lust for power. Weltmacht oder Niedergang
self was on the road that led to political and has been an ambition written into the prac-
philosophic damnation. He must save it from tical terms of territorial acquisition. But
itself, that the greatness of his Weltanschau- what Germany failed tragically to understand
ung might be made manifest. It was, of is the hold that freedom has taken upon the
course, a stupid world. It would not sur heart of Europe. There is no compensation
render its right to think and to hope in its for servitude. Efficiency, order, comfort –
old and fitful fashion. It rioted in an anti these are no more than instruments to be
quated individualism. It was torn by meagre handled when the spiritual penumbra of life
scruples. It aimed at preventing that which has been given the substance of attainment.
was destined to save it. By war alone could The gifts Germany could bring were great
it be made to perceive its errors. Terrible, gifts; but to accept them upon her terms was
indeed, it was that such a medicine should to choose stagnation and sloth. Her veins
be the path of tutorship. But the world is might thrill with the ardor of her national-
a blind world; and only the roar of cannon ism; but the blood of Europe must not be
can shock it into sight.
tapped that she might assist in the swelling.
It was a world that seemed consciously to
To a belief in the philosophy of anæmia, in
have erected barriers in the road of German
fact, she could not persuade her neighbors.
achievement. Slowly, indeed, but with a grim
And where she had failed to convince, she
certainty it was fastening upon the necks of
drew her sword that she might slay.
men the ideal of public right. Slowly, again,
but with an equal certainty it was compelling
As she had calculated, she found a Europe
men to recognize the sanctity of international
that was hardly prepared for her onslaught.
obligation. In Belgium and in Switzerland
As she had calculated, her legions could hack
it had created buffer states for no other pur-
their way to the very gate of their destined
pose than to make difficult the ideas underly-
heaven. But yet that Europe which she had
ing the ambition of German development. It
deemed old and tired awoke to the fresh
was a world preaching almost with the fulness buoyancy of youth when it found that it
of genuine conviction the right of any nation, was fighting once more the ancient battle of
however small or feeble, to work out in its liberty. The war became a crusade; and the
own way whatever destiny it could accom young men died gladly that they might
plish. It was a world which seemed unwilling become the trustees of a later freedom. And
to recognize the priority of German achieve the more desperate became the issue, the more
ment. It spoke of what France had done, sternly, even the more proudly, did they
England, Italy, in the record of human prog advance to the conflict. The philosophy which
ress. Wherever Germany turned, foes seemed was to proclaim its strength began to vaunt
to confront her. The giant could not under itself on its meekness. The eagle which was


98
(February 8
THE DIAL
an
to peck at the liver of Promethean Europe humanity. The principles that have been sus-
turned to batten on a starved but courageous tained are those upon which the happiness of
Belgium.
men most greatly depends. That they have
Nowhere has been more clearly envisaged been maintained with such passion and such
the error of German statecraft than in its determination is surely the proof of their
occupation of Belgium. It admitted its wrong necessity in a world which cares most deeply
and made a virtue of its treason. For the for the richness of a free inheritance.
public opinion of humanity it seemed to care
HAROLD J. LASKI.
nothing. Of a whole country it made a desert
that it might proclaim the Par Germanica.
History records no annals more terrible than A FLOOD OF FOREIGN DRAMA. II.
the German treatment of Belgium. It was
consciously planned and consciously executed. THE TIDINGS BROUGHT TO MARY: A Mystery.
There is no crime of which the most diseased
By Paul Claudel. Translated by Louise Morgan
imagination can conceive, of which the con-
Sill. (Yale University Press; $1.50.)
THE CLOISTER. By Emile Verhaeren. Trans-
querors were not guilty. They murdered men
lated by Osman Edwards. (Houghton Mifflin
and women and children with a deliberate and
Co.; 75 cts.)
ruthless impartiality. They laid waste with a DEATH AND THE FOOL. By Hugo von Hof-
brutal joy in desolation to which the annals mannsthal. Translated by Elisabeth Walter.
of modern civilization bear no parallel. They
(Richard G. Badger; 75 cts.)
exacted tribute with insolent cruelty
MADONNA DIANORA. By Hugo von Hofmanns-
thal. Translated by Harriet Betty Boas.
which, to the last day of German history, will
(Richard G. Badger; 75 cts.)
be remembered with shame. They vaunted
PLAYS. By August Strindberg. Fourth Series.
proudly of their achievement before a people Translated with an introduction by Edwin
whose only sin had been that they cherished Björkman. (Charles Scribner's Sons; $1.50.)
their honor and their public virtue. They PLAYS. By Anton Tchekoff. Second Series.
attempted the calculated destruction of a Translated with an introduction by Julius West.
(Charles Scribner's Sons; $1.50.)
national existence. They forced the sons of
WAR.
By Michael Artzibashef. Translated
their enemy to fight against their fatherland.
by Thomas Seltzer. (Alfred A. Knopf; $1.)
They made outrage a daily necessity, and of
THE HONEYSUCKLE. By Gabriele D'Annunzio.
mercy the rarest of luxuries. That Belgium
Translated by Cecile Sartoris and Gabrielle
was writing with her blood and tears the Enthoven. (Frederick A. Stokes Co.; $1.25.)
epitaph of this philosophy, Germany seems in A New DRAMA. By Manuel Tamayo y Baus.
no wise to have understood. That her brutal Translated by John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald and
severity must be the measure of her condem-
Thacher Howland Guild. With an introduction
by John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald. (Hispanic Society
nation seems never to have penetrated into
of America; $1.75.)
her consciousness. Yet nations, like men, are
Paul Claudel's "The Tidings Brought to
pursued by those Furies who, in the process of
Mary” is not a “mystery” in the old sense,
time, compel the soul to attempt its sorrowful
that is, a play based upon a Bible story, and
purgation.
the appropriateness of the sub-title is not quite
In a real sense it is by Belgium that Euro-
clear. It is probably meant to suggest that
pean liberty has been saved; and there is some-
the tone of the play is mystically religious,
thing of supreme irony in this contrast of the
and that the central event is a miracle
protagonists in those early days of that mighty wrought by goodness. Imagine a Maeterlinck
drama. In the new Europe that is dawning
it is no less certain that the glory of Belgium symbolical play dealing with country folk
will be remembered than that, for Germany's
of the middle ages, and written (or at least
own sake, the occasion of reparation will be
translated in a sort of refined Whitmanesque
offered. The forces of liberty have main style, and you will have a fairly good notion
tained an unbroken front in this contest. The
of Claudel's "mystery.”
Whatever be the
effort has been long and it has been difficult ;
merits of free verse, most of its champions
but in the mind of man there has been vivid would concede, I think, that it is not a good
memory of the splendor of the goal. The page medium for drama; it is essentially and
that is now being written in the history of primarily lyrical. “The Tidings Brought to
human freedom is fundamental in its impor- | Mary” contains some lyric verse good of its
tance and its uniqueness. The youth of kind, but as a play it is a failure. The char-
Europe have sacrificed spontaneously their acters are not clearly conceived or firmly
manhood that in their death the ideal of right drawn; they are merely the mouthpieces of
may conquer. The free-will offerings of free M. Claudel's vague mysticism. The plot is
peoples have been a buckler and sword to only a thread to string the speeches on.


1917)
99
THE DIAL
..
66
*
It is instructive to compare this rhapsodical Two one-act pieces by the Austrian poet
expression of mood with a really great play Hugo von Hofmannsthal have appeared in
on a religious subject -- Verhaeren's "The Badger's “Contemporary Dramatists Series.”
Cloister.” Emile Verhaeren, whose recent As drama, neither of them is important.
death is perhaps the greatest loss which litera Hofmannsthal is a lyric poet who has chosen
ture has sustained during the past year, is to use the dramatic form. His ideal of drama
just beginning to be known as he deserves to may be described in his own words: “We want
be in America. Besides this play, two vol no invention of narrative, but the reproduction
umes of his poems and a very good study by of emotions • not amusement, but im-
Stefan Zweig are available in translation. He pression.” Browning's "In a Balcony,”
ought to be as widely known as Maeterlinck, which he did not call a play, is far more
to whom he is in some ways a most refreshing dramatic than either of these poems; but
contrast. In “The Cloister” we find a well- nowadays anything in dialogue will pass as
developed plot, which holds our close atten drama. *Death and the Fool" is a sort of
tion to the end; strong characters sharply morality on the text, “Let us experience life
and a poetic style brilliant, keenly, for to-morrow we die.” It is prac-
eloquent, and tellingly compact. Instead of tically destitute of dramatic interest.
romantic obscurantism, as in Maeterlinck or “Madonna Dianora" represents a young wife
Claudel, we find the passionate mysticism of surprised by her husband while waiting for
genuine religion in the burning words of Dom her lover. Its poetic merit is considerable,
Balthazar :
and consummate acting might make it effective
He is most God, when comprehended least.
on the stage. “Death and the Fool” is ren-
dered into passable English verse; "Madonna
God is more high than human sages dream;
Dianora” into verse at times very good.
He is too vast, too deep, too infinite
For man to sound His depth, or scale His height;
A fourth volume has appeared in Scribner's
And only in some ecstasy apart
collected edition of Strindberg's plays; need-
Of loving sacrifice and joy supreme
less to say, the translation by Mr. Edwin
A Saint has, once or twice, attained His heart!.
Björkman is admirable. The first two plays
And we find beside it, sharply contrasted with
in the group, “The Bridal Crown” and “The
it, two other types of religion; the gentle Spook Sonata," illustrate the more fanciful
otherworldliness of Dom Mark, and the intel side of Strindberg's genius. “The Bridal
lectualized creed of Dom Thomas, Balthazar's Crown" is full of Swedish folk-lore; among
enemy and rival for the Priorship. Speaking its persons are apparitions and mythical
of Bonaventura and St. Thomas Aquinas, figures like the Neck (the Teutonic Neckan).
Thomas exclaims:
The play is a tragedy of peasant life against
Yet these were saints, no less than those you claim. a background of folk-lore. “The Spook
Saints! on whose brows the apostolic flame
Shone like a sword of God with ray serene;
Sonata” is an extravaganza of pessimism; it
Their hearts in darkling thought had caught the keen
has the vividness of a nightmare. The First
Essential spark, from which the soul takes fire; Warning" is a rather sardonic but not ill-
Their faith took reason for a cloth of gold,
tempered one-act comedy, in which a wife
And broidered there great lilies fair,
Doctrines sublime and bold,-
through jealousy rediscovers her love of her
husband.
Leaving to feebler hearts the dull desire
"Gustavus Vasa," the strongest
Of customary prayer.
play in the volume, is a historical drama of
Balthazar is a nobleman who, in his wild
extraordinary quality. Perhaps the nearest
youth having quarrelled with his father and analogue in English is Shaw's “Caesar and
slain him, has become a monk. Remorse for
Cleopatra." Like the Shaw play, “Gustavus
Vasa” is thoroughly modern in tone; much of
his crime tortures him and at the same time
the dialogue might occur in a play of con-
intensifies his religious ardor. At last it
temporary life. Thus Prince Eric, summoned
drives him to public confession, and gives to
by his father from the tavern where he sits
his acute and strong-willed rival Thomas the
with a boon companion, says to his brother,
certainty of triumph. The play is remarkable
the messenger : “Be quick and brief, Jöns, or
in that the list of characters includes not a sit down and use a beaker as punctuation
single woman; but the love motive is not mark. The sum of it is, the old man wants
needed or missed in a story which pictures so me to come home and go to bed. Reply: the
powerfully the great passions of remorse, Heir Apparent decides for himself when he is
ambition, and spiritual aspiration. As the to sleep.” There is something to be said for
quotations will indicate, the translation by this method of writing historical plays; at
Mr. Osman Edwards reads like original Eng- least it is alive. A large number of characters
lish poetry, and poetry of no mean rank. are drawn with remarkable vigor and reality.


100
[February 8
THE DIAL
to do.”
The handling of plot is unusual; the king home to a Russian family by the loss of a
does not appear till Act III, and the first two son and the crippling of a son-in-law. I can-
acts are concerned with his enemies; the not refrain from quoting a stage direction
reader thus has to transfer his sympathies in which seems to describe and typify a good
the middle of the play. At the end the king deal of Russian drama: “All get up and
is saved by the unexpected help of the party make hurried motions, not knowing what
whose leaders he has executed; and for this
there is no preparation. In spite of these D'Annunzio's “The Honeysuckle" is a
perversities of technique, the play holds the tragedy with a modern setting, on the theme
close attention of the reader, and has been of the “Electra” - a daughter's vengeance
very popular on the stage. Genius like Strind-
on the murderer of her father, who has mar-
berg's must
pay the penalties of waywardness, ried her mother. The author attempts to add
but it is not bankrupted by the payment. The something to the horror of the theme by
philosophy of the plays may be suggested by a
making the Ægisthus (Pierre Dagon) also
quotation from “The Spook Sonata”: “They the seducer of his stepson's wife (Helissent).
say that Jesus Christ descended into hell. It
The main action deals with the struggle
refers merely to his wanderings on this earth between Pierre Dagon and Helissent on one
- his descent into that madhouse, that jail, side, and Aude, an Electra all nerves, on the
that morgue, the earth.” Yet Strindberg's other. The appeal of the play, indeed, is to
pessimism is partly redeemed by a sort of
the nerves rather than to the mind or spirit;
bitter common sense, and is tempered by an
and to make this appeal more effective, the
ironic humor which recalls Heine's, though it author has resorted to the dangerous device
is heavier and less delicate.
of putting his exposition almost at the end.
Uniform in binding with the Strindberg We do not know until the last act just what
series is Scribner's edition of the plays of is the cause of Aude's high-wrought nervous
Tchekoff, of which the second volume is before condition; the dramatist exerts considerable
us. It contains two long plays, “Three ingenuity to keep her from telling us in the
Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard," and six
course of the dialogue. By keeping the hor-
short ones. Of the longer plays the chief ror veiled, he wishes to heighten our sense of
characteristics are that nothing happens in it; but in fact he merely makes us skeptical
them, and that the characters are exasperat of its existence, and annoyed at being asked to
ingly dull. The praise that has been lavished
accept a neurasthenic patient as a heroine.
by English-speaking critics on “The Cherry Over this as over so much of D'Annunzio's
Orchard” is, one is tempted to believe, pure work, there gleams a phosphorescent light
affectation. If a duller play has been pro of decay.
duced by anybody, I have been fortunate
It is pleasant to end with the discussion of
enough to miss it; unless, indeed, “The Three
a more robust piece of work. Perhaps the
Sisters” should be pronounced duller. The
best play about Shakespeare ever written,
latter is described by the translator as fol-
certainly the best I know, is "A New Drama,"
lows: “The three sisters have only one desire
by the great playwright of nineteenth century
in the world, to go to Moscow and live there.
Spain, Tamayo y Baus. It is true that this is
There is no reason on earth, economic, sen-
timental, or other, why they should not pack rhetorical and demonstrative than an English
a rather Latin Shakespeare, somewhat more
their bags and take the next train to Moscow.
Shakespeare would be; nevertheless, he is a
But they will not do it. They can not do it."
And they do not do it. This is the whole
noble figure, giving an impression of great
The
story. The one-act pieces are farcical comedies,
reserve power under perfect control.
a good deal more readable than the long plays.
other leading characters are actors in Shakes-
In general character they recall the more
peare's company. Yorick, the great comedian,
farcical of the Irish one-act plays, such as
has an adopted son, Edmund, who has fallen
Seumas O'Brien's, and some of Lady Greg. in love with Yorick's young wife, Alice. In
ory's. The best ones are “The Proposal” and playing the parts of Romeo and Juliet, they
“The Bear."
have acknowledged their love to each other;
Artzibashef's “War” furnishes an inter- but they have struggled against it, and it has
esting example of the sobering effect of the remained innocent. Only Shakespeare and
war upon a literary extremist. It is amusing Walton, the tragedian, are aware of the situ-
to see the author of “Sanine” turning out a ation; but Walton, an embittered cynic, puts
play which almost any serious-minded and the worst construction upon it. The plot is
conventional young dramatist might have remarkable for the skilful use of the “play
written. The sorrows of war are brought within the play.” Yorick has persuaded


1917]
101
THE DIAL
Shakespeare to give him the leading rôle (the men with which women will still have to
jealous husband) in a new drama by a young reckon.
author. The situation of the husband in the So long as he is sketching a programme for
play is Yorick's own; the parts of the young the advance, Mr. George's ink flows very
wife and her lover are to be played by Alice smoothly; it is' when he attacks the realistic
and Edmund. Walton, who is professionally problem of fitting his numbered cases into the
jealous of Yorick and has expected the lead pattern of the future that serious difficulties
ing rôle for himself, manages on the first arise. There is a note of hesitation. If Mr.
night to confirm Yorick's already roused sus George's mind is free from confusion, he has
picions; and the stage tragedy merges into not convinced us of the fact. We observe that
the real one. Walton, who has violated his he is a partisan who insists on acclimatizing
promise to Shakespeare, pays the penalty with sickening doubts. I daresay that many fem-
his life. Shakespeare's final speech, explain- inists will feel that, in his description of
ing to the audience the interruption in the woman, checked by scrupulous references to
“new drama," is superb in its irony. The the numbered cases, he has been guilty of
translation is by Dr. J. D. Fitz-Gerald and something very like treason. He appears to
the late Professor T. H. Guild of the Univer be rather giving the cause away, and dashing
sity of Illinois, whose untimely death was a cold water on passionate hopes. He doubts
serious loss to the cause of American drama. whether any woman has ever been an “intel-
It is a pity that the play could not have been lectual.” Woman's sense of logic is so private
published under a more attractive English as to baffle the crisper male intelligence. It
title, and that the cover gives it rather the accommodates itself to passions, prejudices,
appearance of a learned work.. It well deserves and longings, and has no erectness in the face
to be popular wherever Shakespeare is known of the unpleasant. Woman lacks the power of
and loved.
HOMER E. WOODBRIDGE.
concentration; having never really come to
grips with general ideas, she is incapable of
understanding or manipulating them. In a
THE FEMINISM OF MR. GEORGE.
word, her view of things is the eccentric view
of those who have indulged themselves in the
THE INTELLIGENCE OF WOMAN. By W. L. luxury of living too intensely and exclusively
George. (Little, Brown & Co.; $1.25.)
in their own lives, and have never imagina-
Mr. George's study of the feminine mind tively insinuated themselves into the texture
wears an air of careful documentation : it
of other people's moods. It has to be called
fairly bristles with the numbered “case." He an inadequate view because it is emotional,
clearly wishes you to understand that it is irresponsible, anti-social. Of course, it is
not the casual production of a novelist who dangerous also.
dangerous also. Mr. George here devotes a
sweeps up the chips of his workshop and
great deal of space to showing how shocking
hands them on for what they may be worth. to the disciplined male is woman's reckless
Nothing could more convincingly show the habit of generalization; and it is in laboring
triumph of the scientific spirit in our time; this point that he illustrates, unhappily for
for Mr. George is a man of letters, and men himself, the contrast. Let us glance at a few
of letters from Solomon to Nietzsche have of his own generalizations. Man, we learn,
ranged in that field with a quite exhilarating is “conventional because he respects conven-
irresponsibility.
tion; woman because she is afraid of what
Mr. George is himself a feminist of the may happen if she does not obey convention.”
thoroughgoing sort, sympathetic with change, “She is infinitely more rebellious than man,
and absolutely unwilling to erect a priori and where she has the power she inflames the
barriers to the expansion at which the woman world in protest.” “I incline to believe that
movement aims. You see at once that he is woman is firstly animal, secondly, intellec-
prepared for a great many things, including tual; while man appears to be occasionally
the abolition of marriage in favor of free animal and primarily intellectual.” The
unions on the basis of a new idealism, so that innocence that would permit a man to write
the violent ferment he sees everywhere at that last sentence is one of the traits that
work leaves him quite unterrified. In grant probably endear Mr. George to his friends.
ing woman a free hand to make what she will It is irresistibly quaint.
of herself, he stops just short of being ready Naturally, a mollifying gesture is needed at
to sacrifice her essential charm (for man), this point, and Mr. George produces one. If
but, as Faguet pointed out long ago, there is woman is what she is, who is to blame but
a dash of the Don Juan in the most advanced man? Man has wanted to be flattered, lied to,


102
(February 8
THE DIAL
the game.
deceived, cajoled, admired for virtues he
A PROMISING FIRST NOVEL.
doesn't possess and feared for a savagery of
which he is usually incapable; in order to THE BALANCE. By Francis R. Bellamy. (Double-
enjoy the wiles of the courtesan, he has been day, Page & Co.; $1.35.)
willing enough to forgo the help of a work After one has closed the first novel of Mr.
ing partner. It is his own frivolity that has Francis R. Bellamy, after one has thought
involved us in evasions and taboos and false about it a little, glanced once more at its
delicacies innumerable. If women are a little title, opened it again at random, thought a
casual in business and a little reckless in little more,- for it is a book that demands all
expenditure, it is because they have been these things,- one arrives at a single com-
thrust back from affairs and not encouraged mentary: balance. The exuberance of youth
to take them with the proper seriousness. without its self-importance; sentiment with-
Inexperience and a bad social heritage, result out sentimentality; enthusiasm without fan-
ing in a slave morality, have really to be aticism; sanity, humor, vitality,—“The
blamed for many ineptitudes and insufficien-
Balance” stands for these. It is not often that
cies, which we need not in the least suppose an author's title furnishes so apt an estimate
to be permanent. The door is thus left open. of his significance.
Nora now has the world for her playground, It is from character rather than plot that
and we may expect her to learn the rules of Mr. Bellamy has built his novel. And in his
character drawing, again, one traces an anal-
It is perfectly easy to convey a false impres ogy with his title. The story of his two char-
sion of Mr. George's aim by tracing the devel acters' lives is the story of their struggle
opment of his ideas in the present book. One toward intellectual and spiritual balance.
may seem to convict him of a lack of sym Sammy, or (as Broadway and the readers of
pathy. Ile has meant to be helpful and his biography later knew him) S. Sidney
encouraging; there can be no doubt of that. Tappan, started life as the apple of an indul-
If he has not everywhere escaped being inept, gent parent's eye. Paris, London, Vienna,
it is the fault rather of emphasis than inten and California witnessed the futile attempts
tion. A reconciling gesture always excites of his genius to bud respectively into a Wag-
suspicion. It is likely to conceal a hint of the
ner, a Whistler, a De Reszke, and a Stevenson.
patronizing. There is no denying, at least, Melchester, whose society knew him, did not
that Mr. George has made it exceedingly easy consider playwriting — well, simply did not
for men to be feminists. By his formula they consider it. Therefore Sammy's genius slum-
are permitted to retain all the conscious pride bered.
bered. And it took some very loud knocks
of intellectual superiority, and to add to that to rouse it for the noonday of Sammy's devel-
pride the perilous self-approval of those whoopment. The first knock came early; it was
waive the privileges of the superior. If he his mother's death, his sudden loneliness, and
looks a bit complacent, it is because his novel the remorseful thought of that package of
ist's imagination has failed to warn him
beautiful letters home that concealed his col-
against an uncongenial rôle. In juggling with lege fiasco. For Sammy could be very beauti-
ideas he is a little inexpert. If the final
ful. The second knock, the Pike episode, de-
impression his book leaves on the mind is one
prived Sammy of his ten thousand. That
knock, however, was muffled by the providen-
of futility, it is because he has insisted on
tial existence of Ricorton and the joint score
dragging in the idle old controversy over
of “The Honeymooners.” Sammy, bearing
superiority, and laying the stress there. And
five hundred dollars, his still slumbering
it seems impossible for a great many men,
genius, and the heart of Carrie, took lodgings
once they get on that subject, not to lug in
in New York with Ricorton.
Plato and Shakespeare, and clothe themselves
Carrie remained in Melchester. That calm,
foolishly and fallaciously with some of the
clear-eyed daughter of Melchester's Grocery
borrowed glory. But it is only a way of
King (“Wholesale," however, Mrs. Schroeder
obscuring the issue and rousing needless bit.
would have interpolated) had "everything
terness. Let the average citizen be turned
except something to do.” That, however, lay
away from the polls on the ground that he
has never written a play as good as Shake-
outside the function of a young girl accord-
ing to the Schroeder standards. Therefore
speare's, and the inexpediency of such a test
she indulged in the mild philanthropy com-
of political and moral responsibility may be
mon to Society.
expected at some time or other to penetrate
They all talked of it vaguely, those girls in that
his brain.
Beecher Conference which she had joined at her
GEORGE BERNARD DONLIN. , mother's suggestion; talked and listened to mean.


1917)
103
THE DIAL
ingless reports and consumed pleasant quantities of How it came about that Sammy made his
tea and little cakes in comfortable libraries; and
great sacrifice, which was really no sacrifice
secured sufficient funds to keep their Miss Strong
going, and their own minds happy with the thought
at all because he was simply carried away
of accomplishment and duty done. · A very good by the heroic, stupendous idea of the thing,
thing to belong to, Mrs. Schroeder would have told
how it came about that he was found by
you.
Carrie in New York, and how it happened
Sammy's first play, significantly entitled
that he married her after all, are things best
"The Lady in the Lion Skin,” opened in
related by the author, who whimsically re-
Melchester with Sylvia Tremaine as star.
Sylvia held her public because she understood
marks: “If only he had had some other char-
so well the art of suggestiveness. It was this
acter than that queer one he had — he would
same art which had inspired Sammy to write
have been a hero to me, too, then." I think
the play and which assured its success, for
it is partly this attitude toward his char-
Sammy's spots had already taken on the acters that constitutes the charm of Mr.
color of Broadway. The Melchester papers Bellamy's writing. He treats them all as if
admired "the daring art of the Lion Skin they were good friends of his whose foibles
scene, without one word that could be con vastly amused him, and whose characters con-
strued improperly."
stantly intrigued his attention as they un-
But it revealed to Carrie something which folded and developed in the different phases
Sammy, dazzled by success and the prospect of their lives. The curiosity to learn with
of Broadway's adulation, did not discern. She him just what they are going to do next with
understood its full significance, for it menaced those funny, irresponsible, human natures, is
what she loved best in him. It is at this point, what leads the reader on from chapter to
where Carrie moves to the settlement to work chapter. For his is not the probing, cynical
out her salvation alone, and Sammy dashes
inquisitiveness of the pathological or psycho-
to New York to take advantage of his success
logical realist; he likes his people, and there
at full tide, that the really big spiritual forces
is no false sentiment, either, about his liking.
involved in the story emerge distinctly.
Characteristically enough, it took poverty
Joined with his sense of humor, it gives them
dignity.
to rouse the full strength of each of them,-
Carrie through this experience, Sammy Not that Mr. Bellamy is without his faults
through his own expensive suffering. The as a writer. One could wish for his sake,
“industrial depression" of that winter for instance, that Barrie had not written
brought bleak misery to the Melchester slums, "Sentimental Tommy.” For Sammy is very
unloosing the full flood of Carrie's unre like him. And one must hope that his quite
strained sympathy and indignation. It was personal manner of writing will not be con-
then that she faced the Grocery King with
tinued indefinitely. Its very freshness lends
the taunt of charity as a gilded restoration
his work charm in this, his first novel; but
for his capitalistic robbery. Carrie in her
one can imagine it hardening to pure man-
own way was giving as uncontrolled a rein to
nerism in his second or his third. But no
instinct as poor Sammy. In those West
Twenty-ninth Street lodgings industrial de-
amount of quibbling “ifs” can detract from
pression was no less real a thing. Ricorton,
the real worth of this novel. You will rarely
Ruby of the vaudeville, and Jack Bantry, her
find together three characters so freshly
overbearing, magnetic Irishman, all lived on
drawn from life as Sammy Tappan, Carrie
the slender remnant of Sammy's royalties; Schroeder, and Sylvia Tremaine. You will
while Sammy, whose genius had executed a
rarely find in the writers of this country such
right-about-face and was impelling him poise, and justifiable assurance, and true sense
irresistibly to the top of his powers, spent his of proportion. A first novel is not always
hours before the typewriter. As the author
a good test of an author's powers; but such
remarks:
a novel as “The Balance” holds a promise,
It is to our Sammy's everlasting honour that,
and arouses a great expectation. The finest
through it all, it never occurred to him that his money
thing about this exceptional novel is the mas-
would last longer if he had only himself to support. terly way in which the author has evolved his
He would have thought as soon of casting these
characters through the actions and incidents
friends of his adrift in mid-ocean as on the streets
of New York. I do not wonder that gradually there
rendered inevitable by those characters them-
dawned in Ruby's eyes an appreciation of the selves. It is this conviction of truth that
strange code of honour of the man who sat writing
remains to exhilarate, long after the story
“ Doctor Paulding," with starvation three months
ahead, and never stopped even to question the motives
has been finished.
of his friends.
RUTH MCINTIRE.


104
[February 8
THE DIAL
RECENT FICTION.
social play, and goes off for a time by himself
among the wonderful mountains of Kashmir
DESMOND'S DAUGHTER. By Maud Diver. (G. P. and a season with a great Indian thinker, we
Putnam's Sons; $1.50.)
get no very sure notion of just how his mind
THE HILLMAN. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. passed from one conception to another. But
(Little, Brown & Co.; $1.35.)
perhaps that is no drawback. This is no
WILDFIRE. By Zane Grey. (Harper & Bros.; philosophical novel; Miss Diver was intent
$1.35.)
on telling the story of a man in whom the
Miss Maud Diver has a deep love of India melting pot of youth gave forth at last the
as well as a considerable knowledge. I do fine metal of manhood, and if she suggests
not know her former novels, though I have the things of the mind that were important,
often seen them mentioned, but from their
she probably does as much as she desires.
titles they would be novels of India; one of
At the bottom of her thought is doubtless
them seems to show that Desmond's Daughter the idea that action, even in the form of war,
must be the daughter of “Captain Desmond,
is necessary to make the finest manhood. So
V. C.” who has given his name to an earlier
the English must naturally think to-day; so
book. In fact Captain Desmond, now old, a
indeed many Americans think. Some writers
general, and one of the governors of India, to-day feel that action is necessary for higher
appears in this story of his daughter, so that
thought; Miss Diver seems rather to feel that
those who have read earlier chronicles will
the higher thought realizes itself only in
doubtless look forward with pleasure to some action. All of which is rather aside from the
thing more of the same sort.
interest of her novel to the general reader.
Miss Diver naturally sees in India one of
It is a good book and I have read it with inter-
the great opportunities of the English people est, despite the immense amount of triviality
to govern the earth according to justice and
which seems the necessary accompaniment of
law,--though necessarily and unfortunately,
army
life in India. It is hard to see how it
by force of arms. But she sees in it also more is that soldiers can be developed by a life
than that; her book is infused with those
where all military duty is drudgery and
ideas which even a glimpse of Eastern life "shop,” and the chief things of importance
will arouse in us children of the West. Vin-
are dancing, flirting, racing, cards, and pri-
cent Leigh, a young man of soldier tradition
vate theatricals; but apparently the thing
but with a leaning more to thought than to can be done. It is not strange that Vincent
action, goes out to India rather to find his
Leigh found life at Kohat a bore, but it is
real relation to the rest of the universe than
strange that those who lived it systematically
to make his place in the British army. He should ever be able to do anything else worth
was shy as a boy, too different from others to
mentioning. All of which is neither here nor
get on at a public school, and, even after he
there; we have an entertaining picture of
had gone from Oxford to Sandhurst, he still life and had better not question too closely
had the unconquered desire to loiter in his
how it can possibly be what it is. If, in the
own wandering bypath rather than follow the
course of its entertainment, it suggests to us
“macadamized track of action and thought” things that are of help in hardening the fibre
that lay obviously before him. To such a one
of spiritual life, so much the better.
India, with its facile and vague philosophies, Mr. Oppenheim, also, contrary to his usual
was not without attraction, even though the
custom, has an idea at the back of his head,
chance to know it came in the form of a com-
mission in an Indian regiment. Thought and
or, we might better say, on the surface of his
action, individuality and society, the many
thought,---- namely, the difference between life
and the one, philosophy and war, eastern mys-
in the the great world of London and simple
ticism and western effectiveness,— these are
life in the country. Just as an idea it is not
so good as Miss Diver's; the Englishman in
ideas in which a set of characters may well
India is a suggestive personage. Mr. Oppen-
move with interest to her who conceives them
heim's Hillman is a certain John Strangeway
as well as to us who read of them.
who comes from a lonely manor in Cumber-
Miss Diver, however, is not a metaphysic land down to London. Fortunately he has
cian by nature, which is fortunate for her
just inherited a vast fortune, so that he is
career as a novelist. One may think it a
spared certain contrasts rather obvious in
fault in her book that she does not really give current fiction as in current life. He has his
much of an idea of the thinking of a hero impression of the life of the great city. At
who was fundamentally a man of intellect. first it seems to him merely an effort at
Even when Vincent Leigh escapes from the mediocrity, "an absolute vortex of human
everyday routine of regimental work and beings, all dressed in very much the same


1917]
105
THE DIAL
fashion, all laughing and talking together much like analyzing some wonderful orchid,
very much in the same note." His view at a proceeding useful to science, perhaps, but
first is rather superficial; the women "seem not helping our enjoyment much. It may be
all the time to be wanting to show, not them that no such world as Mr. Oppenheim's
selves, but what they have on." As to the exists, yet I read his stories with never-failing
men, he says little. To tell the truth, Strange-pleasure. I do not believe I could get on
way is not really a student of society, nor is with the Prince of Seyre, with Lady Hilda
Mr. Oppenheim in any ordinary sense.
If Mulloch, with Aida Calavera; yet they make
Mr. Oppenheim really thinks that the best a brilliant company which one may well enjoy
and happiest life is that which is lived simply without an æsthetic pang. And just as one
in some remote estate, far from the city and may admire the fine mural decoration of a
near to Mother Earth, he has been very suc big restaurant, or a theatre, or a hotel, -
cessful hitherto in concealing his opinion. indeed just as one may like such things in a
As a fact, John Strangeway comes to London, friend's house if not in one's own,-
so I like
not to see London life, but to see Louise to read Mr. Oppenheim.
Maurel, a wonderful actress, whom he desires Mr. Zane Grey has a fine eye for place and
to marry. Whether he ever really persuaded a fine sentiment for the spirit of place. I
himself or her that life would be better in have not read all his novels, but those that
Cumberland than it was in London is doubt. I have read are memorable chiefly for render-
ful, even at the end of the book. As it is, he ing the impressions of the vast and wonderful
manages to get along pretty well in the world deserts of the great Southwest. The story
of actresses and dramatists, men of the world of “Wildfire” is laid in northern Arizona
and women of fashion in which he finds him near the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
self. Probably he would not have liked it The grey expanse of desert, the rushing river,
long, but then it is probable enough that the highly colored heights, the strange nat-
Louise, when once settled in Cumberland, ural monuments, the purple distance, the dim
would not have liked that very long. What mountains, the blue-rimmed horizon, each
ever the philosophy of life presented, the sit with ten thousand variations of light and
uation gives Mr. Oppenheim the milieu which shade, cloud and storm, winter and summer,
he loves and which he has so often made — these make his landscape. Every feature
amusing. There are, of course, two kinds of comes to his mind (and to ours) in a hundred
Oppenheim books — those that are the best forms,- the river, the canyon, the mountain
of their kind and those that are not so good. rampart, the desert,- and every form is
“The Hillman” is one of the latter. Yet keenly felt. People are apt to skip descrip-
even so it will be read with unabated pleas- tions; one must not do so here or one will
ure, and the reader will not be disturbed by miss some of the best things in the book. For
questions of social science, nor, indeed, by after one has followed the story even with
questions of reality. Such is Mr. Oppen- intensity, it fades a little in the mind in the
heim's gift; he carries one along in the flood days that come after, while one still remem-
of a life of amusement and emotion so that bers the atmosphere of the book or the char-
for the time being one cares little for the acters. It may be that some incident, some
commonplaces of realism. How fine is his situation remains fixed in the mind, - as here
imaginative power in this matter may easily the figure of the galloping horse with the
be seen by comparing his story of London life half-naked girl bound to its back. But the
with that part of Miss Diver's book which prevailing recollection is more apt to be of
deals with the social life of an Indian canton place or of person.
ment. Doubtless the life of the brilliant On the Colorado river, somewhere above
restaurant and the glittering theatre in the beginning of the Grand Canyon (as I
London is a more powerful stimulant than make it out), is Bostil's Ford, or rather was
that of the officers' mess and the private in an earlier time, when the great wave of
theatricals at a regimental station in the
early western emigration was beginning to
border country, but Mr. Oppenheim would
recede a little and to contract; and in these
probably have been equal even to the latter
regions, beyond the western settlements and
opportunity. Miss Diver had her own prob- not so far as the real gold country, was a
lem in mind, a very different one from Mr.
population of odds and ends mingled with
Oppenheim's.
transient Indians, sheep traders, and Mor-
I rarely feel that I can criticize Mr. Oppen mons. The real interest in life at Bostil's
heim. ; “Do not all charms fly before the cold Ford was horse-racing; “Wildfire” is really
touch of philosophy ?” asked Keats. To a horse-book, as one may say, and the un-horsy
criticize these remarkable tales would be too reader (like myself) must feel that he is


106
(February 8
THE DIAL
dealing with a strange and unaccustomed $1.50). No one who read that superb story,
form of life. Bostil's Ford was named from "Watermeads," would suspect Mr. Marshall of so
-old man Bostil,” who had lived there for commonplace a mind as is revealed in this thor-
many years. The village at the Ford was
oughly uninteresting story of a fictitious country
the centre of a set of horsemen, riders, horse-
in which the social crime is the possession of
wealth. It is a barren tale of unpleasant people,
wranglers, Indians, and horse-thieves. Their
without humor or originality or reason.
Is Mr.
minds were full of horse; one would have
Marshall taking advantage of his well-earned suc-
said that there was nothing else in the world.
cess to palm off some adolescent effort? Or does
Lucy Bostil, the old man's daughter, was he feel that it is necessary to rush into print every
commonly said to have been born on horse six months with a new book in order to keep his
back, and certainly she must have been on a public? More than one writer of standing has
horse for the greater part of her conscious
discovered that there is such a thing as writing
life. She was as good on a racer as one of
oneself out. Let us hope that Mr. Marshall will
her father's riders. Into this curious world
not need to learn that lesson; should he embark
comes a wild-horse hunter, a man who would
upon such a career, ours would be the loss. There
are few who can tell a better story, or tell it with
go week after week in pursuit of some fine
greater charm, than Mr. Marshall, when he will.
wild horse. Given these conditions, one can But if he will not, he deserves to be ignored.
imagine the general course of the novel,
An excellent novel written about a theme which
though in this case a new and somewhat sur-
will ever be an interesting one is “The Complete
prising element is injected into the story, as Gentleman" by Bohun Lynch (Doran; $1.35).
has been indicated. I rather think the The story deals with the efforts of Henry Wedlaw
Mazeppa motive is a little too fierce for most to maintain his social position and satisfy his
readers and not fierce enough for the impres “gentlemanly” tastes by marrying wealth in the
sion of real veracity. But however that may
person of Dolly Lowe, who has just come into an
be, the story carries one along, gives a few
inheritance. Wedlaw's real self is revealed when
Instead
thrills, and if it then fades from the mind, of the conciliatory husband, he becomes the head
it is discovered that the legacy is his own.
it leaves the impression of the wonderful
of the household. His married life, moulded after
western canyon-country and the curious out-
his own views as to what married life should be,
of-the-world figures that used to people it. becomes a despotism, in which the wife must for-
EDWARD E. HALE..
feit all the independence and much of the charm-
ing individuality which had previously been hers.
Then comes Oliver Maitland, the trusted but
NOTES ON NEW FICTION.
untrustworthy friend of Wedlaw, who succeeds in
wrecking the happiness of the Wedlaw household.
It is a difficult matter, according to the popular
The subtlety of character description, with its
conception, for a man to “come back.” Yet two
gradual transitions, marks the novel as one of real
persons
a man and a woman
worth. It manifests intimate knowledge of the
come back to
round out successful lives in the novel, “After-
life it pictures, and a singular ability to impart
wards," from the pen of Kathlyn Rhodes (Duf-
that knowledge to the reader.
field: $1.35). They perform their respective feats
It is unusual to find in an American writer the
in very interesting if somewhat incredible ways. quality which distinguishes the work of Fiona
The hero, Dr. Anstice, lives down the embarrass-
Macleod, but the same poetic mysticism whichi
ment of killing a woman who, as his companion,
haunts those imaginative tales is to be found in
petitioned that fate at his hands when they were
“The Druid Path" by Marah Ellis Ryan. The
captured by religious fanatics in India. Anstice,
volume consists of six tales, four of which are tales
who is unexpectedly rescued ten minutes after the
of ancient Erin. The author has done more than
performance of his disagreeable task, lives a life
rewrite old legends. She has infused her char-
haunted by the grim memory. The heroine, Chloe
acters with such reality that they become living
Carstairs, a proud English woman, confronts intol men and women, whose passions lay violent hold
erant neighbors following her release from prison,
upon the reader. There is madness in these tales,
where she has been placed as the result of an
the madness and recklessness of exalted emotion,
unjust conviction for libel. Even her husband,
and in their telling there is that wild ecstasy which
unable to believe in her innocence, leaves their
characterizes Irish music and poetry. Mrs. Ryan
home to follow the English flag into foreign lands.
has a rare faculty of conjuring a sense of sig-
The reshaping of these two lives is effected in the nificance and portent and these stories have a
midst of events so correlated and so rapidly mov-
background of mysticism which makes of the
ing that the reader's interest never flags.
human characters symbols in some spiritual drama.
Everyone knows the twinge of disappointment Probably the story of “The Dark Rose” will find
resulting from the discovery that a favorite friend
the widest appeal, since it is a tale of our own
has second-rate qualities as well as those unique times, as recent as the Irish Rebellion of last
virtues which endear him. Such will be the emo year. It is a story of a shepherd lad who became
tion of those who venture to read Archibald a poet and leader and of an Irish girl who became
Marshall's latest book, “Upsidonia" (Dodd, Mead; the wife of a lord. These two understood, though


1917]
107
THE DIAL
dimly, the reality of those mystical forces known book like this being read very much "somewhere
best in the days of Druidical worship, and the in France"; but the thought brings home, as few
magic of this understanding brought them so thoughts can, the completeness with which every
closely together that there was no separation when class, almost every fibre, of English society has
the poet fell before the firing squad whose officer been caught up into the struggle. Then again, the
was the husband of his beloved. The publishers book is not a haphazard collection of papers. It
have produced a book which is typographically has a central theme: affection for France. Mr.
worthy of the exceptional literary merit of the Gosse can discourse upon this motive without
stories. The titles and page decorations have been hypocrisy; for he has always been an outspoken
taken from the "Book of Kells. There are also friend of French life and letters. He probably
included many of the airs of Irish folk music. means to remind his readers that the once alien
(McClurg; $1.35.)
land in which they are fighting, now the chosen
Despite the modern improvements which we now grave of their dead, will forever be to the English
enjoy in our literature, our cooking, our sanitation spirit a of English soil. “War and Litera-
and general mode of life, there is lacking a quality | ture" pictures the reaction of French letters to the
which the Victorians possessed and which added invasion of '70-'71; “War Poetry in France," with
a distinct charm to life. That is romance. With its splendid and unique study of Déroulède and its
out this our sky-scraper habit of thought seems a tributes to Botrel and Paul Fort, shows what the
little barren, when one stops to think about it. present spirit is and that it is very noble. “The
It is with genuine delight that this reviewer dis Unity of France" answers the lying charge of
covered the presence of romance in Harold French decadence previous to 1914, and really
Ohlson's "The Dancing Hours" (Lane; $1.25). proves that “The Unity of the nation is the expres-
It is splendid to be able to bury oneself in a novel sion of a store of vitality long amassed for this
without the horrible suspicion that one is being very purpose of defense in time of sorest need."
“improved" or imposed upon by some sugar "The Desecration of French Monuments” is a call
tongued propagandist. “The Dancing Hours" for a day of reckoning. Even the more or less
pretends to be no more than a story, but what a balanced essays entitled “The Napoleonic Wars in
story! Here is all the antiquated lumber of English Poetry” (the weakest part of the book)
mysterious heroines, dashing and handsome vil and “A French Satirist in England” are, so to
lains, manly and long-suffering heroes, unexpected speak, playfully affectionate reminders that men
wealth, and happy endings. It is true that the now comrades once quarrelled - curiosities of lit-
reader knows that it will end happily, but Mr. erature "which can do nothing but excite a smile
Ohlson has oiled the machinery so cleverly, dressed
on either side of the Channel." The essay last
out his characters so attractively, and been so named concerns the forgotten “Iambes” of Auguste
skilful in manipulating his plot that one may Barbier, and makes a distinct contribution to liter-
easily forgive him and accept this delightful story ary history. Barbier's satire reads as if it came
of Jane, whose hair was red and whose heart was piping hot from the spleen of Houston Stewart
ambitious.
Chamberlain or of a Prussian junker. Mr. Gosse's
whole book has such an obvious unity of theme
and feeling that one rather regrets the inclusion
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
in it of the essay on "The Neutrality of Sweden.”
Restrained and admirable as this document is, it .
INTER ARMA. By Edmund Gosse. Scribner; spoils the artistic balance of the whole collection.
$1.50.
None of these essays, perhaps, attain permanent
These essays have several equally potent claims
literary value; they are frankly journalistic.
upon the interest of students of literature. In
But there can be no doubt that, barring a few
the first place, the essays are completely char-
extremities in the expression of hate, they make
acteristic of Mr. Gosse: they display the lei-
what Ruskin would call a good book for the times.
surely movements of mind so familiar to readers
of his prose and verse, the usual gracious suavity
TRAINING FOR THE NEWSPAPER TRADE. By
of style, the occasional looseness in statement of
Don C. Seitz. Lippincott; $1.25.
fact, the old fulness of reading and catholicity of Don C. Seitz, business manager of the “New
taste. One new but scarcely surprising strand of York World,” contributes this small volume to
feeling sets all this familiar placidity into violent “Lippincott's Training Series." Apparently a
relief, like a thread of scarlet in a pearl-gray collection of popular lectures, several chapters
fabric: the ferocity of the references to the Enemy. show a few repetitions, but they are not obvious.
For these are essays written “under the excite A table giving the departments into which a met-
ment and anxieties of the war,” addressed openly ropolitan newspaper is divided and the titles and
to men at the front. And herein lies the book's duties of the various departmental staffs, forms
second claim to attention. We do not associate an excellent supplement to the text. Mr. Seitz's
literary discussions with soldiers in the trench. observations are often interesting and for the
But, as Mr. Gosse says, “It has hardly been enough most part just, although one can hardly follow
observed that we have sent out for our national him to his conclusion that newspaper publicity
defense in this war a soldiery far more widely read has prevented the development of an aristocracy
and deeply educated than has ever been the case in America. In discussing the distribution of
before." It is almost ludicrous to think of a duties on a large daily, Mr. Seitz shows a good


108
[February 8
THE DIAL
92
grasp of his subject and draws illustrations and The argument is not wholly convincing, but it
anecdotes from his long and intimate association commands attention. And more than one econo-
with the profession. It is unfortunate, however, mist of eminence would subscribe to it. The
that he has not given his readers more of an idea volume closes with a conventional plea for assimi-
of the copyreader who edits, and writes the head lation.
lines for the reporters' “stories,” for it is his
touch which prepares and seasons the news for OUR NATION IN THE MAKING." By Helen
the public. And, incidentally, if Mr. Seitz had Nicolay. Century; $2.50.
shown his “copy" to a good copyreader, his book
Believing that we take our history too seriously,
would have increased in readability by the ex-
“as if it were a medicine rather than a cordial,
cision of many an exclamation point. While it is
Helen Nicolay, daughter of Lincoln's secretary
only sketchy in character, the book should prove
and biographer, has given us a volume which, writ-
of interest to the general reader who is curious
ten, she says, in “cheerful disregard of established
about the way the world's news is prepared for
rules for history books
cares less for spe-
his breakfast table, and of help to the young man
cific happenings than for movements and currents
or woman who is thinking of the newspaper field
of feeling. When forced to choose between pic-
as a possible profession.
turesque typical incidents and a conscientious nar-
rative of dry fact it gravitates shamelessly toward
THE TIDE OF IMMIGRATION. By Frank J. the picturesque. " History "as she is taught," she
Warne. Appleton; $2.50.
declares, is frankly a bore. Miss Nicolay is, how-
Mr. Warne rehearses here large numbers of ever, too severe in her general condemnation of
facts which he presented three years ago in “The works on history for there are now scores of books
Immigrant Invasion. These facts relate to the by competent writers which are almost as interest-
volume, sources, nature, and regulation of the in ing as this volume of hers. The period here cov-
flux of aliens into the United States, and are read ered is roughly the first half of the nineteenth
ily accessible not only in the annual reports of century, from George Washington to Franklin
the Commissioner-General of Immigration but in Pierce. True to promise there is in this volume
numerous books published within the past ten or nothing of formal history but a lively and
fifteen years.
The merit of the present volume roundabout narrative, packed with brief stories,
arises, therefore, from a half-dozen chapters deal- anecdotes too good not to be true but never-
ing with such matters of current interest as the theless of doubtful authenticity in some cases,
literacy test, the effort to promote immigrant dis brilliant handling of personalities, descriptions
tribution, and the effects of the European war of dinners, clothes, manners, and entertain-
upon the immigrant tide. Discussion of these ments. There is also much that the dry historians
subjects, however, is very brief. With respect to whom the author scorns will pronounce good.
the literacy test it is contended that, notwithstand The book furnishes fine background for
ing express assertions to the contrary by Presi American history. The author has little to
dents Cleveland and Wilson in their veto mes say about political and constitutional history but
sages, the adoption of the test would "not be a makes clear and understandable the political
departure from the fundamental basis underlying nature of the period and the political interest of
our national or traditional or long-established pol the American people. As a story of the develop-
icy but merely an extension of this policy to a ment of Americanism — crude, earnest, and boast-
class or group not now affected by the law. And ful — it is very successful. The following titles
by an analysis of the votes in Congress on sixteen selected from the twenty-three which make up
hills embodying the literacy test since 1896, it is the book will indicate the nature of the work:
shown that there is a strong presumption that “The Opening West, ," “As Others Saw Us,"
the test is favored by the country as a whole. “Roads of the Promised Land," "Women in a Free
Admitting that the effects of many factors in the Country,” “Religion in a Republic,” and “Suffrage
situation cannot be foreseen, Mr. Warne argues and Reform.' The contents are as interesting as
that the sharp decrease of immigration caused by the titles.
the war will prove but temporary. The destruc-
tion of capital and the retardation of industrial JOURNALISM VERSUS ART. By Max Eastman.
recovery likely to be caused by American tariffs,
Knopf; $1.
will lessen the home opportunities for labor. Ter-
When Mr. Eastman and his friends called their
ritorial readjustments flowing from the war will
produce new oppressions and new impulses to
magazine “The Masses,” they were doubtless
migration. With wages in America already higher indulging in a little private fun, for the only
than can be paid in the re-established industries
thing they share with the masses is a desire to see
of Europe, and tending steadily to rise, the move-
them get more bread. If the masses ever do read
ment of labor to the United States will be resumed.
the magazine, it is probably with a chill in the
Finally, a revival of immigration on a gigantic
heart and a fog in the head, and one can imagine
scale, such as followed the Napoleonic and other them rushing for light and warmth to the falla-
wars of the nineteenth century, is predicted. Only cious, capitalistic press. For Mr. Eastman, as an
early and sweeping restrictive legislation, it is editor, would never think of giving the public
asserted, can prevent the immigration of the com what it wants, and he sets himself here to show
ing decade from rivalling that of the decade past. how journalism, which is only a very democratic
a


1917]
109
THE DIAL
and shaggy kind of literature, is corrupting our within the limits of the purchaser's purse, and
taste in letters and art. It has banished personal concessions in these matters tend to increase the
ity, because personality has thrust too vigorous number of users of the book. It is perhaps by
and a vision too personal to escape giving offence, reason of these limitations that the author did not
and it is the business of magazines with large include in the work the fauna of the Western
circulations to make their cireulations still larger states and of the Pacific coast. Over one thousand
by pleasing everybody a little and displeasing illustrations, an annotated list of authorities for
nobody very much. Hence we have the curious
genera and species, forming a convenient list of
magazine art and literature of the present, a thor-authors of biological works, a glossary of tech-
oughly standardized commodity which is never nical terms, and a full index add materially to the
‘queer,” never "grotesque,” never "alien, or exag utility of this convenient manual, which will be
gerated, or sublime." It has precisely the round, welcomed by all American biologists.
smooth, mechanical perfection that characterizes
all goods turned out in great quantities to sell. THE SHORT-STORY. By Barry Pain. Doran;
With entire good humor Mr. Eastman tells us of 40 cts.
his own experiences in writing for pay. He wrote
THE LYRIC. By John Drinkwater. Doran;
an article and then, in collaboration with the 40 cts.
editor, he rewrote it several times. It was finally
The two recent additions to the series named
accepted and printed. His friends read it. “ "That
“The Art and Craft of Letters” are by no means
article doesn't have any quality, they said. 'It
is just well written. I told them I had learned
of equal value. Mr. Pain's book is perhaps as un-
mitigated a stretch of drivel as the subject has
the trade." Doubtless every rebel wishes to save
produced. Not that it sins by ineptly dogmatizing
something, and Mr. Eastman would like to save
our spelling from the spelling reformers. His
-indeed, one would welcome a few dogmas as signs
argument is certainly ingenious and amusingly
of backbone; but in the entire 63 pages that make
fresh, but what he convinces us of in the end is not
up this little book, the author chats aimlessly on,
and at the close leaves the reader in a state of
that it is a good argument but that it is good
enough for a man who doesn't want a change. In
astonished vacuity. The other book is notable for
calling much "free verse” “ "lazy"
its clear thinking and well-sustained argument.
verse, Mr. East-
Accepting Coleridge's "perfect and final answer
man has got himself pretty generally misunder-
stood. He admits that free verse may also be
to the question, 'What is poetry'"? (“the best words
poetry of sorts, but he insists that “In all arts it
in the best order"), Mr. Drinkwater reaches the
is the tendency of those who are ungrown to con-
doubtful conclusion that if a recorded mood does
fuse the expression of intense feeling with the
not exhaust the imaginative capacity," the pro-
intense expression of feeling - - which last is all
duct is either prose or “insignificant verse." Poetry,
the world will long listen to. The journalistic
that is, is inevitably supreme; what is not supreme
vogue of free verse encourages this kind of con-
is not poetry at all. In accordance with the pres-
fusion in poetry.” Journalism fares throughout
ent tendency, the author looks at the matter from
rather badly at Mr. Eastman's hands, a fạct which
the point of view of “energy." The specific poetic
is a little surprising in an ultimate democrat.
quality, he decides; 'is “a maximum of imaginative
One suspects that his instincts are really less insur-
pressure freeing itself in the best words in the
gent than his conscious creed, and that where his
best order"; and that is also the lyrical quality,
love is deep his protective instinct asserts itself as
so that "lyric and the expression of pure poetic
naturally as in the sheerest reactionary.
energᎩ .
are the same thing," and "lyric
poetry” is a tautological term. More novel and
MANUAL OF THE COMMON INVERTEBRATE ANI more profound is the discussion, in the latter part
MALS. By H. S. Pratt. McClurg; $3.50.
of the book, of “free verse” and kindred matters.
“The change of line-lengths and rhythms in a
The need has long been felt in this country of
such a manual as Professor Pratt's.
short poem written in 'free verse' is nearly always
The work
does not include the insects, but does include rep-
arbitrary, and does not succeed in doing what is
resentatives of all other invertebrate..groups, with
claimed for it in this direction [keeping the struc-
ture of verse in constant correspondence with
synoptic keys to genera, and numerous figures.
It will be a useful book for the reference shelves in distressing the ear and so obscuring the sense,
change of emotion), while it often does succeed
of biological laboratories, for general libraries,
though that is by the way.” “The truth is,” he
and for students of zoology. It does not replace
adds later, “that the poetic mood, which is what
special monographs. · A fifty-foot shelf could
is expressed by the rhythm and form of verse and
hardly hold the volumes of a complete manual of
may very well be called the emotion of poetry, is
the known invertebrate fauna. It takes the place
not at all the same thing as what are commonly
in the central and eastern parts of the United
States which Leunis's “Synopsis” has so long occu-
called the emotions—as happiness, despair, love,
hate and the rest. Whereas the governing poetic
pied in European and American laboratories. It is
mood is expressed by the rhythm of poetry, "by
to be regretted that many of the figures are so flexible movement that is contained in an external
inadequately drawn, and so poorly printed, owing symmetry,” “the emotions,” the subject-matter,
to the quality of the paper used. However, one are expressed by words. “Of perfect correspond-
of the greatest problems of authors and publish ence of the strictly chosen words to the rhythmic
ers of scientific books is that of keeping the price movement is born the complete form of poetry.”
90


110
[February 8
THE DIAL
<<
DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. By John A. Ryan. FEELINGS AND THINGS. By Edna Kingsley
Macmillan ; $1.50.
Wallace. Dutton; $1.
As a writer on questions relating to capital and It is difficult to resist skepticism whenever a
labor Father Ryan is not a novice. In this book new book of verse for or about children is an-
he treats in a formal manner the problem of dis-
nounced.
There have been so many elaborate
tribution, and he brings a viewpoint that can no efforts at rendering childhood's naïveté that one
longer be overlooked. It is a long way from the wishes poets would mind their own affairs and
"economics of distribution” to distributive jus- leave childhood's rose ungilded. Miss Wallace,
tice," but hereafter the ethical aspect of the prob however, does no violence to the elusive charm of
lem must be in the forefront. We must look to childhood. One feels in reading these poems that
human values, to the man or woman who receives she is writing from within out; she is not portry-
a part of the economic dividend. Nevertheless, the ing childhood as she sees or remembers it, but
author is conservative in attitude, he defends the interpreting it as she still feels it. In her choice
private ownership of land, is rather reluctant of subjects and language, she is always well within
about taxes on land and finds the socialistic pro the mood and psychology of her subject. In this
gramme untenable. He would, however, increase slender book are to be found the vaguely defined
public ownership of land and establish progres imaginings, the sudden sharp impressions, the
sive income and inheritance taxes. In such a pro bubbling excitement and joyousness of childhood.
gramme reason and experience are the important Even the rhythm of the lines has the hop-skip-
factors that determine what is conducive to and-jump gaiety, the pause of perplexed wonder,
human welfare. In discussing interest he concludes and the sudden, ecstatic crescendo of discovery.
that the theories of productivity, service, and
These verses are distinctive and individual, and
abstinence are all inadequate, but that a moral because of their authenticity and lyrical quality
sanction exists, although this alone does not justify must take a high place in the literature of child-
interest. Coöperation will partly eliminate the hood.
burdens that interest imposes. The ethical view-
point is again emphasized in the examination of THE LIFE OF THE CATERPILLAR. By J. Henri
profits. What constitutes just profits and what is Fabre. Translated by A. J. de Mattos. Dodd,
excessive, are among the questions discussed. Mead; $1.50.
Father Ryan advocates an attempt to restore a A little more than a year ago ended the long
system of genuine competition before accepting life of that charming literary entomologist, the
the inevitableness of monopoly. Should this fail, Homer of the Bee, the Spider, the Wasp, and the
then a plan of regulation would necessarily follow. Caterpillar, J. Henri Fabre. His last book pos-
A very important part of the book consists of
sesses scarcely the supreme interest of some of his
the discussion of the wage problem. A family liv earlier works, notably the “Life of the Spider,"
ing wage represents a minimum that must be
considered either as to matter or method, but there
attained. This, however, does not necessarily is in it charm enough to furnish out a hundred
represent a just wage, which may be
scientific treatises. The caterpillar itself is not
siderably more. There are a number of wage quite so engaging as others of Fabre's small
determining factors such as effort, sacrifice, pro friends, nor do these observations and conclusions
ductivity and scarcity of labor, but more impor appear to have much scientific importance. The
tant than these is the principle of human welfare.
two outstanding conclusions for which evidence is
In so far as these factors establish a just wage adduced are: the utter absence of intelligence in
they harmonize with the canon of human welfare. the operations of the caterpillar, and second, the
If they fall short the latter must fix the rate of disparateness between the sense of smell in the
wages.
The author believes that minimum wage ordinary use of the term, and the marvellous sense
laws will be of material benefit to the laborer and
wherewith the Great Peacock Moth seeks out his
that the extension of a system of coöperative pro mate in due season. For the most part, however,
duction and distribution would supplement the the volume, made up of scattered papers written
return properly credited to labor with an addi-
over rather long intervals of time, some of them
tional remuneration that would greatly improve being among the very last work of the savant,
living conditions. The book
The book is written from a gives an effect of scattering conclusiveness; it will,
Christian standpoint and makes use of the whole
I suspect, be found as valuable to the student of
realm of literature bearing on the subject. Occa literature as to the student of entomology. Within
sionally the reader is impressed with the feeling these limitations, though, and perhaps because of
that the Fathers, who are freely quoted, were not them, the book has a charm not often attained by
so conversant with the economic problems as one the chronicles of natural historians. One hardly
might wish. Nevertheless, their ideals were usually knows which to admire most, the thirst for accurate
worth while. And if this book adds but little to
knowledge which led this nonagenarian to incur
the body of economic doctrine, but impregnates deliberately most painful poisonings in order to
economic theory with an ethical ideal, it deserves learn what makes the caterpillar an irritant; or
most hearty commendation. The unconscious the humility of the martyr-scholar toward those
development of human society. must be superseded whom he considered and called his Masters; or the
by conscious effort to obtain distributive justice endearing humanity and brotherliness toward his
and all that this phrase implies in terms of human little friends whose comfort he always put before
welfare.
his own. The matter of the book concerns cocoons
con-


1917]
111
THE DIAL
ON
THE
and larvæ and moths, but the subject of prime the permanent, deepening, clarifying influence that
interest is, after all, the man. Despite this truth, long personal experience of suffering has had on
which may make the scientist appear amateurish, some of the world's greatest writers-on Milton in
the method revealed is unimpeachable in its thor his blindness; on Dostoyevsky, reprieved at the
oughness. It is ultra-scientific. No labor or fatigue very moment of death, then long imprisoned; on
is too great a cost for the smallest fact, a fact de Maupassant in his fear of coming madness; on
which often proves of little general worth. Fabre Tolstoy, in the life-struggle of his dual nature;
eschews theory even to the extent of frequent old on Beethoven in his deafness, and Nietzsche in his
fashioned thrusts at uncongenial philosophic views. deadly sickness. It is from the stuff of his own
Facts are to him supreme, though he is not pre life that the creative writer moulds out for the
vented from breaking off his record for such a world something fine, in the form that best suits
burst of poetry as this: “Yes, caterpillars, my him, following his own temperament.” The writer's
friends, let us work with a will, great and smali, momentary identification with the war has in it
men and grubs alike, so that we may fall asleep something spasmodic and feverish; war is too for-
peacefully; you with the torpor that makes way eign to the real self within him to produce any
for your transformation into moths, we with that fine or lasting work.
last sleep which breaks off life only to renew it.
Laboremus!”
A MONOGRAPH
OCTAGON HOUSE,
WASHINGTON, D. C. By Glenn Brown.
A SHEAF. By John Galsworthy. Scribner; American Institute of Architects; $12.50.
$1.50.
No building in this country except the national
Mr. Galsworthy has here bound together a num Capitol has had such an elaborate memorial as the
ber of papers, "mostly pleas of some sort or Octagon in Washington, to which Mr. Glenn Brown
other," contributed to newspapers and reviews dur has devoted a folio of text and plates. Few
ing the past six years. Various as the essays are private dwellings indeed would furnish better
in subject and tone, they still possess a certain material for such a monograph than this one, now
spiritual unity, giving us as they do the reactions the headquarters of the American Institute of
of a sensitive and humane nature to much of the Architects, by authority of which the book is
casual or wilful brutality in our civilization. The issued. It is equally distinguished as the house
earlier papers, written before the war, show Mr. where the treaty of Ghent was ratified by Presi-
Galsworthy in passionate revolt against the bar dent Madison, and as an artistic masterpiece from
barity of the hunting field, the torture of wild the designs of Dr. William Thornton. In the work
creatures shut into cages, the needless cruelty with in hand, thirty plates of accomplished architect-
which sheep and cattle are slaughtered for food. ural drawings record every detail of design, con-
Those who imagine that the detachment which struction, and decoration. The elaborate mantels
characterizes Mr. Galsworthy's method in the novel and doorways are thus not merely reft from their
answers to something cold and unsympathetic in environment as in too many books, but the draw-
his nature, should read these early papers for their ings of them are accompanied by careful studies
corrective effect on such a view. Toward the war of plan and ensemble. These studies include even
Mr. Galsworthy's attitude has been fairly constant the results of excavations on the site of former
from the beginning. His first response was outbuildings, and researches in the varied modes of
shocked recoil, and it still seems to him a mon framing the different floors. The drawings are
strous madness, forced upon Europe by imperial supplemented by a series of photographs equally
and bureaucratic dreams. It involved the tem complete. Such thorough presentation, although it
porary overthrow of civilization, the “grand defeat would scarcely be worth while in the case of every
of all Utopians, dreamers, poets, philosophers, early American house, will be welcomed equally
idealists, humanitarians, lovers of peace and the by the architect and by the student of our archi-
arts.” The war meant that the central problem to tectural history. The accompanying text falls into
which the enlightened peoples had at last seriously two parts, a historical sketch of the building itself
turned, the problem of lessening poverty, disease, and a biographical sketch of its architect. The
and the hopeless degradation of the workers, had to first relates the brief story of the erection of the
be abandoned. It substituted destruction for con house by Colonel John Tayloe, of Mount Airy, in
struction. Mr. Galsworthy sees England fighting the years 1797 to 1800, and the longer story of its
for democracy, fighting to make possible in the rescue by the American Institute of Architects
West a durable peace. Yet his conviction that just a century later. This portion of the book
such is the fact can invest the struggle with no includes also many significant observations on the
glamour in his eyes: war has ceased to be glorious internal evidence for the history of the building,
for those who can estimate justly its terrible cost. which is further elucidated by colored reproduc-
Nor does he believe that permanent spiritual gain tions of two old water-colors made at different
will result. He denies the validity of the romantic periods. Careful research in the documentary
notion that literature and art can profit by whole evidence and in previous publications lends the
sale murder. Why should such an expectation be section a gratifying finality. The appearance of
held? “On one whose whole natural life is woven, this monograph, which sets a new standard of
not of deeds, but of thoughts and visions, moods elaborate and sumptuous presentation in its field
and dreams, all this intensely actual violence, prod- adds to the debt which lovers of architecture owe
uct of utterly different natures from his own, off to Mr. Glenn Brown for his pioneer work in the
spring of men of action and affairs, cannot have history of American architecture.
а


112
[February 8
THE DIAL
72
97
THE HISTORY OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY. By tile criticism. The essay entitled “The Duties of
Edward R. Pease. Dutton; $1.75.
Citizenship” was delivered before the Republican
The most illustrious, the most moderate, and convention of the state of New York in 1912,
the most influential non-political organization of and is an effort to lay bare the fallacies in the
Socialists in the world is the English Fabian Soci- | platform of the Progressive party. Mr. Guthrie's
ety. Inasmuch as the Society is more than thirty- addresses add very little to the discussion of the
three years old, it is somewhat remarkable that no problems which they are concerned with, but they
formal history of it has reached print until within have their value as a statement of the conservative
the past six months. Mr. Edward R. Pease, one view by a learned and clear-thinking student and
of the organization's founders and for twenty-five teacher of the law. The essay on Magna Carta
years its secretary, has now supplied the lack. is perhaps the least valuable of the entire col-
That his book is of unimpeachable accuracy is to
lection. In this paper the author presents the
be inferred not only from its authorship but from
older view of the content and purpose of this
the fact that numerous representative Fabians, document, a view that has long since lost credit
including Bernard Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney among English historians. Mr. Guthrie still finds
Webb, and Graham Wallas, have collaborated in the representative principle in the Great Charter;
its preparation. The book consists, in the main, he still seems to hold that the document provides
of a simple chronicle of the Society's founding, for trial by jury; and he holds “that Magna Carta
growth, researches, and public activities. There is marked the greatest political epoch in the history
no striving for literary effect, and the book is in of our race. It is exaggerations of this sort
no sense propagandist save as by its interesting that have driven reputable historians to the other
description of the aspirations and methods of the extreme, and to speak of the "myth of Magna
Fabian group it may win sympathy and support in Carta. But although the reviewer cannot accept
new quarters. The purpose for which the organi Mr. Guthrie's conclusions with respect to the great
zation was established was affirmed originally to document of 1215, and is not prepared to endorse
be “the reconstruction of society in accordance his views on current political questions, he is
with the highest moral possibilities,” and Mr. glad to testify to the literary excellence of the
Pease considers this to be still the most accurate volume: the "addresses” show that the author has
and compendious description of the Society's object not only thought his subjects out to the point of
and the nature of its work. Idealists the Fabians
conviction, but that he is also able to express his
truly are. Nevertheless, far more than Socialists
views in fluent and forceful English.
of most other schools and lands, they have been
leaders in practical politics and participants in
SHAKESPEARE AND HIS FELLOWS: An Attempt
the quest of attainable reforms. The history of
the social legislation of the past thirty years in
to Decipher the Man and His Nature. By
Great Britain bears evidence on every page, not
D. H. Madden. Dutton; $2.
of the influence of Fabian Socialism as such, but It is pleasant to record that this is a work which
of Fabian zeal for social betterment. To the devel may safely be put into the hands of the young.
opment of Socialism itself the Fabians have con In it, the author, the Right Honorable D. H.
tributed most notably, says the author, by breaking Madden, Vice-Chancellor of the University of
the spell of Marxism in England and working out Dublin, does his duty by the tercentenary and
application of the broad principles of the socialist pours a libation of reverent bromides upon the
cause to an industrial and political environment honored bones. The matter in it is drawn from
fundamentally different from that in which Ger the best authorities and legendaries. The Vice-
man, French, and other continental Socialism is
Chancellor has carefully studied the D. N. B. and
placed.
the books of Lee and Dowden; and readers of
those works will find themselves quite at home with
MAGNA CARTA AND OTHER ADDRESSES. By
the mass of edifying and charmingly discursive
W. D. Guthrie. Columbia University Press; material here presented. AH relations that
$1.50.
Spenser, Heming and Condell, Jonson, and Mar-
On June 15, 1915, the English-speaking world lowe had, or may have had, with Shakespeare are
celebrated the seven-hundredth anniversary of the made to witness to the poet's dominant, and some-
signing of Magna Carta; and the constitutional what awful, Christian “gentleness.” The chief
convention of New York, which was then in ses methods by which he is revealed are those hallowed
sion, also took proper note of the great event. by the use of our ancestors. There is the immortal
One of the speakers on that occasion was Mr. quotation method. Apt lines are taken from the
W. D. Guthrie, an eminent member of the New Sonnets, or out of the mouth of characters as
York bar, who is well known to the legal pro diverse as Orsino and Prospero, to illustrate
fession for his writings on constitutional law. Shakespeare's own beliefs and personality. Then
Mr. Guthrie's address, with nine other essays there is what may be described as the pious use of
delivered on various public occasions, has recently tradition. Legends that are nice and proper are
been published. In these papers the author dis never “lightly regarded"; that is to say, they are
cusses such questions as the referendum, the recall swallowed whole. But any that are unedifying -
of judges, primary elections, a graduated income even though they may come from the same sources,
tax, and the like, all of which he subjects to hos such as one of Davenant's boasts and the story


1917]
113
THE DIAL
are
ers.
of the final drinking bout, are regarded very
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES.
lightly indeed. Of course, the young scamp stole
deer. But then, many of the very best people did The Editors will be pleased to answer inquiries or
so in those days. And, after all, boys will be boys.
to render to readers such services as are possible.
Finally, the Will is made to yield up beautiful
secrets. A tender page is devoted to the second
The following dates for special sales in connec-
best bed. The effect of the whole career, as set
tion with the Halsey Print Collection
forth in this book, may be translated into Amer-
announced by the Anderson Gallieries: English
ican as “From Log Cabin to White House.” It
18th Century Mezzotints, February 5-9; Modern
Prints, February 26-28; Old Masters, March 14-
will be read with pleasure and profit by the curate
of the Vice-Chancellor's parish.
16; French Revolution and Napoleon, March 29-30.
An interesting feature of the Allied Bazaar,
FIVE MASTERS OF FRENCH ROMANCE. By
which was held in Chicago last month, was the sale
Albert Léon Guérard. Scribner; $1.50.
of the original manuscript of “Little Boy Blue”
to John McCormack, the singer, for $2400. The
A study combining a good deal of easily writ, manuscript was donated by Mr. Slason Thompson,
ten and almost as easily read exposition of modern a friend of Eugene Field. Among those bidding
fictions, a modicum of undistinguished criticism were Mr. Walter Hill and Mr. Cyrus McCormick.
of the romancers, and some welcome particulars
Inscribed books from the collection of Mr. James
of their lives and personalities, ought to answer Carleton Young of Minneapolis will be sold at the
to the present requirements of a good many read Anderson Galleries February 14 and 15. Among
Professor Albert Léon Guérard, author of the more interesting items are a presentation copy
“French Civilization in the Nineteenth Century,” of the Cruickshank Catalogue with an original
is likely to have better luck with the present drawing; “The Songs of a Savoyard" by W. S.
volume than with its predecessor which, although Gilbert, containing an unpublished ballad in his
a more valuable essay, was unfortunately timed. autograph; an edition of "Tristram Shandy” with
Dedicated to President David Starr Jordan and Sterne's autograph in three of the volumes; and
making an urgent plea for the disarming of
twenty-two volumes with inscriptions by Zola,
France, the earlier work made its appearance just
these forming the largest collection of the kind
after the German attack on France through
ever offered.
Belgium persuaded most lovers of France of the
Bibliography's ideal, never to be realized in full,
hopelessness of pacifism under actual world con-
but always to be striven for and more and more
ditions. The present volume is, in the main, inde- nearly attained, “is the description, in minute
detail, of all the books of the world, present, past,
pendent of politics, though we do not overlook
and future, so as to be available forever.” Thus
the introductory and concluding chapters-“The
writes Mr. Louis N. Feipel in a 'treatise on
Twilight of a World,” “Geniuses as Cannon-fodder
"Elements of Bibliography," published for the
and Survival of the Unfittest,” “Regeneration,"
Bibliographical Society of America by the
and so on. The writers studied are Anatole France, University of Chicago Press. It is a clearly writ-
primate of French literature; Pierre Loti, exotic
ten work, presenting in brief compass the funda-
representative of French Protestantism, "and on
mental principles of the subject. Its definition
the surface the least Protestant of all"; Paul of a book as “any composition recorded on a
Bourget, “the most skilful technician”; Maurice number of leaves bound together in proper order
Barrès, “defender of Tradition"; and Romain so as to convey ideas to anyone conversant with
Rolland, author of “one of the world's classics ; the form of composition used” might at first seem
our young century has produced no work that to be comprehensive enough; but good dictionary
compares with it in bulk, in ambition, in breadth authority regards as books even parchment rolls
of culture, in wealth of sympathy." Professor and bundles of bamboo tablets. Perhaps, after
Guérard is a well-read man and he has written
all, Milton's glowing description (in the
a useful book of a secondary sort. His book is, “ Areopagitica”) cannot be bettered :
“A good
as his college lectures doubtless are, highly
book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit
instructive to those who are not already well
embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life
beyond life.”
informed in the field traversed. His exposition
of French novels and French culture is discreet
Parts of Mr. Henry E. Huntington's library
were sold at auction by the Anderson Galleries on
and balanced, and his knowledge of American
January 24 and 25. Mr. Huntington's purchases
life, its standards and limitations, adds to his con-
at the Hoe sale alone ran over a million dollars,
servatism in the present work. There is no heat
and he afterward bought the Americana collection
or passion here, either for men or works or ideas,
of the late Mr. Church, the library of the Duke of
and the level style and equal temper of the essays
Devonshire, the Halsey and the Chew collections,
make them all the more judicious and all the less
and sundry small but choice English libraries, such
inspiring. In some ways the French-born author
as the Britwell collection of Americana, lately
reminds us of certain New Englanders who have owned by Mr. Christie-Miller, that was offered for
lost New England's faith but not its austerity. sale in London last August. Mr. George D. Smith
Professor Guérard has seen the smoke and horror forestalled the dispersal of this last group by
of Europe in ruin, but not the fire of it.
auction and conveyed it to Mr. Huntington en bloc.


114
(February 8
THE DIAL

ISLASKERS
OLURO
BOOK
CLURGITO
RATIONERO
Having enriched his own shelves with about one
hundred rarities from the Britwell collection and
other mass purchases, Mr. Huntington is now dis-
persing duplicates and some other material he does
not care for.
Coming to modern booklovers' editions of old
classics, one can censure no solvent bibliophile for
buying a marvellous Spanish blackletter, tri-cen-
tenary edition of “El Ingenioso Hidalgo don
Quixote de la Mancha," printed on both sides of
375 quarto leaves of cork, with all sorts of illumi-
nated initials, at San Felio, Spain, 1905-6. It
weighs only 41 ounces.
More than a thousand drawings by the late
historian Benson J. Lossing and 20,000 pages of
"I visited with a natural rapture the
his original manuscript writings were sold by the
Anderson Galleries, New York, on January 29 and
largest bookstore in the world."
30. Mr. Lossing was an accomplished draughts-
See the chapter on Chicago, page 43, “Your
man as well as a scholarly writer, and most of his
drawings were drawn upon to illustrate his his-
United States," by Arnold Bennett torical works. Survivors of the American Revolu-
It is recognized throughout the country
tion frequently gave him their personal recollec-
tions of Revolutionary battlefields, or their descrip-
that we earned this reputation because we tions of other events as they saw them, and he
have on hand at ll times a more completê drew many portraits to accompany his accounts of
assortment of the books of all publishers than their originals in “The Field Book of the Revolu-
can be found on the shelves of any other book-
tion," "The Field Book of the War of 1812," and
dealer in the entire United States. It is of
his books on the Hudson River and the Civil War.
The original manuscripts that were offered em-
interest and importance to all bookbuyers to brace the work on the Revolution named above,
know that the books reviewed and advertised Lossing's “Cyclopedia of United States History,
in this magazine can be procured from us with his Histories of New York City and State, his
the least possible delay. We invite you to
“Eminent Americans,” and “The American Centen-
ary." Nearly all of the 308 items that were offered
visit our store when in Chicago, to avail your-
for sale are extraordinary rarities, although they
self of the opportunity of looking over the may not represent the high standard of scarcity
books in which you are most interested, or to or quite the same grade of perfect preserva-
call upon us at any time to look after your
tion that Mr. Huntington's reservations do.
The following are among the rarest :
De Bry's
book wants.
Voyages to America, 13 parts in Latin and
14 parts in German, 1590-1634 --- Halkuyt's
Special Library Service Navigations, 1589—De Bry's Africa and East
India, 17 in Latin and 18 in German-Champlain's
Voyages et Découvertes en la Nouvelle France
We conduct a department devoted entirely
(Canada), Paris, 1619-20, first edition, and 1632,
to the interests of Public Libraries, Schools,
first complete edition-Bullock's Virginia, 1649,
Colleges and Universities. Our Library De-
uncut-Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage,
partment has made a careful study of library with the four original, large folded maps by
requirements, and is equipped to handle all Boazio, London, 1589—Settle's True Report of the
library orders with accuracy, efficiency and Last Voyage into the West and Northwest Regions
despatch. This department's long experience by Captaine Frobisher, London, 1577, the rare first
in this special branch of the book business, edition in black letter-Captain John Smith's True
combined with our unsurpassed book stock, Relation, 1608–His Description of New England,
enable us to offer a library service not excelled London, 1624—The Chevalier de Tonti's Account
1616, and two copies of his Virginia, first edition,
elsewhere. We solicit correspondence from
of Monsieur de la Salle's Last Expedition and
Librarians unacquainted with our facilities.
Discoveries in North America is the first English
version from the French original, and is dated
London, 1698. Tonti was Governor for St. Louis,
A. C. McCLURG & CO. in the province of Islinois.* The total of bids
Retail Store, 218 to 224 South Wabash Avenue
Library Department and Wholesale Offices:
330 to 352 East Ohio Street
Chicago
accepted at the first session was $40,691. The
highest figure, $6,900, was paid for No. 142,
Captain Frobisher's “Voyage,” by a bidder whose
name was withheld. Rosenbach and Company of
Philadelphia paid the second highest price, $5,600,
for Sir Francis Drake's “West Indian Voyage."


1917)
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The Hiddle Group of American Historians. By
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Story of My Life and Work. By G. Frederick
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liotheca Sacra Co. $2.
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By GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ,
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Author of "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones,"
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ESSAYS AND GENERAL LITERATURE.
The Flower-Patch Among the Hills. By Flora
Klickmann. 12mo, 316 pages. Frederick A.
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Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism.
No. 1, The Naming of Characters in the Works
of Charles Dickens. 12mo, 35 pages. University
of Nebraska Press. Paper.
290 illustrations in color, doubletone and line.
Handsomely decorated cloth binding. Octavo.
box, $6.00 net.
This book might have been called "The Romance of
the Ring" as all of importance in regard to the
sentimental, the religious, the mystic significance
of finger rings from the early mythological rings
to that embodiment of the skill of the modern gold-
smith and jeweler, the little circlet which today, and
every day, the lady receives from her lover is treated
by Dr. Kunz in a romantic and fascinating manner.
Rings of famous men and women of past days, and
the profuse lore concerning the luck or ill luck which
go with certain stones or forms of circlets are two
of the many interesting features. Others are the
rings of savage peoples, the mechanism of modern
manufacture, the history of ecclesiastical rings, and
a full list of mottoes used in the old days upon
betrothal and wedding rings. As a reference work
its authoritative and exhaustive information makes
it very valuable.
FICTION.
The Druid Path. By Marah Ellis Ryan. 12mo, 317
pages. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.35.
The Street of the Blank Wall. By Jerome K.
Jerome. 12mo, 319 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.35.
The Works of Gilbert Parker; XX. The World for
Sale. Frontispiece, 12mo, 373 pages. Charles
Scribner's Sons.
J. B. Lippincott Co.


116
[February 8
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vian Church at Bethlehem, Penna. Edited by D. G.
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The Beetle. By Richard Marsh. 12mo, 338 pages.
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The Tables of the Law; and The Adoration of the
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Brandon of the Engineers. By Harold Bindloss.
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1917]
117
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THE DIAL
A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
Vol. LXII.
FEBRUARY 22, 1917
No. 736.
THE IMAGISTS.
.
mour.
CONTENTS.
Students of contemporary poetry have a
reasonable grievance against that group of
THE IMAGISTS. Padraic Colum
125
poets whose best-known representatives are
CASUAL COMMENT
128
Miss Amy Lowell and Mr. John Gould
The Goncourt prize, and others.-Charting Fletcher. They have had a name and a group
the ocean of literature. Getting the most existence for a couple of years now; but as
out of books.—The original of “Huckleberry
yet they have not put forth in an informing
Finn.”—Almanac wisdom.—Greater library
facilities for Chicago.
and scholarly way the philosophy of their
departure from traditional metres and the
COMMUNICATIONS
130 history of the ideas they seek to expound. It
Mr. Powys. Claude Bragdon.
is true they have written some prefaces: there
Rabindranath Tagore. Mayce Fries Sey is one to the anthology, “Some Imagist
Poets,” published in 1915, and one to Mr.
Hodiernal Fiction. Bessie Graham.
Fletcher's “Irradiations — Sand and Spray."
Braithwaite's Anthology for 1916. Myron
Zobel.
But the announcements made in these pref-
Notes from Japan. Ernest W. Clement.
aces are really too naïve.
The Imagists could have used very well an
NEW IDEALS IN BUSINESS. Randolph S.
Bourne.
133
essay on “The Development of English
Metres” contributed by the Irish critic Mr.
TRUE STORIES OF TURKEY. Helen McAfee 134 William Larminie to “The Contemporary
LIFE ON THE VELD. Talbot Mundy
135
Review” of 1894 — the November number.
Mr. Larminie's is a learned and informing
THE POWER OF INTELLIGENCE. H. M.
exposition of the reasons for a departure from
Kallen
136
current verse-forms. His views as to the bur-
STOPS OF VARIOUS QUILLS. Odell Shepard 137
den of technique which the long development
ADVENTURES IN THE THEATRE. Oliver of English poetry has placed upon the poets
M. Sayler.
141 of to-day are the same as those delivered by
Miss Amy Lowell, while his deliberate judg-
A NEW LEGEND OF LEONARDO. Louis I.
Bredvola
143
ment of the results of this over-burden would
be a compelling statement in an Imagist
RECENT FICTION. Edward E. Hale
145
exposition. Mr. Larminie has this to say:
NOTES ON NEW FICTION
147 One writer who has not the gift of fluency tends
to become obscure; for the external requirements of
BRIEFS ÓF NEW BOOKS
149 art must at all costs be met, and direct simplicity of
The Elements of Style.-Slavery in Ger-
expression is unavoidably and unconsciously sacri-
ficed. Of this class of poet Rossetti is a
manic Society during the Middle Ages.-
spicuous example. The tendency of others, on the
Tiger Land.—Creative Involution.—“Made contrary, from whom the “full flowing river of
moiselle Miss.”—The Spell of the Hawaiian speech” wells more irresistibly, is to dilute the idea.
Islands and the Philippines.—The Spell of Difficulties of metre and rhyme are evaded by bring-
Scotland. The Social Criticism of Litera ing forward a multitude of words and phrases from
ture.–Famous Sculpture.-Diseases of Occu-
which the necessary expressions can easily be selected
the process, as a rule, involving much circumlocu-
pational and Vocational Hygiene.
tion, and the presentation of the idea in minute frag-
ments, so that twenty stanzas are needed where two
BRIEFER MENTION
152
ought to suffice.
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES
153
Seriously Mr. Larminie says here what the
Imagists have said fitfully. Here are cor-
NOTES AND NEWS .
154
responding ideas from their anthology of
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
156 1915:
•
.
con-
.
.


126
[February 22
THE DIAL
an
name
4. To present image (hence the
He moved as sea-heaps from sea-heaps,
"Imagist”). We are not a school of painters, but we And as play-balls from play-balls-
believe that poetry should render particulars exactly
As a furious winter-wind-
and not deal in vague generalities, however mag. So swiftly, sprucely, cheerily,
nificent and sonorous. It is for this reason that we
Right proudly,
oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the
Through glens and high tops,
real difficulties of his art.
And no stop made he
5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear,
Until he came
never blurred nor indefinite.
To the City and court of O'Donnell.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration
He gave a cheery, light leap
is of the very essence of poetry.
O'er top and turret
Of court and city
On the question of shedding rhyme from
Of O'Donnell.
English verse, it is Mr. Larminie who makes
This particular "run" is from “The Slim
the statement that carries conviction :
Swarthy Champion," a story given in Camp-
Latin, which has a much more perfect quantity,
bell's “Popular Tales of the West High-
has no stress. But English has stress of a very ener-
getic kind, which helps out the quantitive deficiencies.
lands.” “The only authority for writing this
French has neither. German, like English, has both. as poetry,” says Campbell, “is the rhythm
But in German the consonants are often so harsh
and alliteration of the original.” In order to
that with English, in this respect so much more
melodious, the final superiority among modern lan-
let the eye of the reader perceive the external
guages remains. Yet, having this superiority, enjoy likeness to some of the verse of the Imagists,
ing these superior resources, and subject to the I shall give the original here:
obligations imposed upon them, it has nevertheless
Ghluais e mar mhuir-mhill o mhuir-mhill,
also taken upon itself other burdens, it has allowed
'S mar mhire-bhuill o mhire-bhuill;
another language possessed of far inferior resources
Mar ghaoith ghailbheach gheamhraidh,
to impose upon it the law necessitated by its inferior-
Gu sitheach, sothach, sanntach
ity; it has accepted the unnecessary burden of rhyme. Sar-mheamnach,
Mr. Larminie insisted that the strength of
Trid ghleanntann as ard-mhullach;
'S cha d'rinneadh stad leis
all English metre is in its quantitive rhythm Gus an d'thainig e
and that the greatest English poetry relied Gu cuirt agus cathair 0 Domhnuill.
Thug e leum sunndach, soilleir
upon quantitive rhythm only. The addition
Thar barr agus baideil
of rhyme has tended to distract attention
Cuirt agus cathair
from qualities that are really essential to
O Domhnuill.
good English verse, and has prevented the In these folk romances it is not the inten-
evolution of varied quantitive forms. Finally, tion of the story-teller to insert a poem into
Mr. Larminie suggested the creation of his narrative - wha
his narrative -- what he wants to do is to
verse-forms that would have greater freedom whip up his prose into passages that are
and finer sound in “quantity sweetened by vehement or decorative. Such effects are not
assonance and assonance strengthened by sought in our narrative to-day, for with us
quantity."
narrative is written and not told. But in the
The Imagists so far have made no such prose that is declaimed, — the prose of the
thoughtful statement as that contributed to orators,---- one sees the form being “whipped
“The Contemporary Review” in 1894.
1894. up” into similar energetic rhythms. Here is
Neither have they done much to reveal the Burke doing it in his oration on American
occasions on which the forms they advocate taxation :
have been shown in literature. They have He made an administration, so checkered and speckled;
referred to the well-known writers of free He put together a piece of joinery,
So crossly indented;
verse-- to Dryden, Blake, Matthew Arnold,
And whimsically dove-tailed;
and William Henley, but they have not
A cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diver-
directed attention to the more obscure places sified Mosaic; such a tesselated pavement with-
in which certain of their forms have been
out cement;
Here a bit of black stone,
shown.
And there a bit of white;
It is worth noting that one of these places Patriots and courtiers;
is the folk romance as it is still told in Gaelic
King's friends and republicans;
Whigs and tories; treacherous friends and open
Ireland and Scotland. In the folk tales there
enemies; that it was indeed a curious shew;
are passages, vehement or decorative, which But utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on.
are called “runs,” and which are given in I believe that it is in passages where prose
irregular verse-forms. Here is a typical is "whipped up” into strong rhythms, rather
“run" in translation:
than in the free verse of Dryden, Blake,
:


1917]
127
THE DIAL
Matthew Arnold, and William Henley, that Rests everywhere on dread foundations,
Were we farther down;
the forms which the general reader is inclined
And Pan,
to regard as typically Imagist have appeared To whose music the Nymphs dance,
before. Compare what has been given above Has a cry in him
That can drive all men distracted.
with this passage from Mr. John Gould
-Carlyle, “The French Revolution."
Fletcher's "London Excursion."
She is older than the rocks
Yet I revolt: I bend, I twist myself,
Among which she sits;
I curl into a million convolutions :
Like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and
Pink shapes without angle,
learned the secrets of the grave;
Anything to be soft and woolly,
And has been a diver in deep seas,
Anything to escape.
And keeps their fallen day about her;
And trafficked for strange webs with Eastern mer-
Sudden lurch of clamours,
chants:
Two more viaducts
And, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy,
Stretch out red yokes of steel,
And, as Saint Anne,
Crushing my rebellion.
The mother of Mary;
My soul
And all this has been to her but as the sound of lyros
Shrieking
and flutes,
Is jolted forwards by a long hot bar-
And lives
Into direct distances.
Only in the delicacy with which it has moulded
It pierces the small of my back.
The changing lineaments, and tinged the eyelids and
the hands.
I have made comparisons between Imagist
The Imagists have really created many
poems and passages in oratory and I think
forms -- forms for oratory, for narrative
I can say fairly that many of the Imagist
pieces are really efforts in oratory. But then dramatic dialogue. If some of these poets
verse, for lyrical verse, for epigram, for
there is no reason why there should not be
write round a prose nucleus, others certainly
a form midway between prose and poetry.
write round a verse nucleus. And one would
It is necessary to distinguish such a form by show himself blinded or invincibly narrow-
a name and I suggest it be called a "rhetoric.”
minded if one went through a collection of
The Imagists, then, do not always start
from the free-verse poets whose names they beauty and poignancy of Miss Amy Lowell's
Imagist poems without paying a tribute to the
sometimes mention. Many of their pieces have
“Patterns" (which, by the way, is not written
a prose, not a verse nucleus. It seems to me
that the idea of prose occupies the minds of
in rhymeless verse); to the solidity of Mr.
F. S. Flint's “Eau-Forte” (written in
many in the group as it occupies the mind of
the orator and the teller of the folk tale, and
unrhymed but measured verse); to the
the poem appears to them as a “whipping up” | prairie-like sweep of Mr. Fletcher's Arkan-
of their prose.
This is not true of all the
sas poems; and, if his poems which are in
traditional forms may be mentioned as
Imagist poets. It is hardly true of any one
of them on every occasion. But we shall be Imagist, to the poignant dramatic lyrics of
Mr. D. H. Lawrence --"Fireflies in the
better able to judge when they approach the
poets and when they approach the orators if Corn,” “A Woman and Her Dead Husband,”
and “The Mowers."
we keep a few passages from the oratorical
writers in our minds, remembering always
The new forms they are creating are likely
that “oratory is the thing heard, poetry the
to further the production of a distinctive
poetic literature for America. These forms
thing overheard."
are words in a new Declaration of Indepen-
I saw her
Just above the horizon,
dence. For the future American poet may be
Decorating and cheering the elevated sphere
the child of a Syrian or a Swede, or a Greek
She just began to move in,-
Glittering like the morning star,
or a Russian. The traditional rhythms of
Full of life and splendour and joy.
English verse may not be in his blood and he
Oh! what a revolution!
might fumble in his poetry if he tried to use
And what an heart must I have, to contemplate with-
out emotion
them. But here are verse measures that he
That elevation and that fall!
can mould as he pleases. As he uses them
I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped
from their scabbards
he will not be embarrassed by memories of
To avenge
forgotten dances, disused harp-strings, and
Even a look that threatened her with insult.
Burke, “Reflections on the French Revolution.”
unmastered languages that are in the tradi-
For Nature,
tional poetic measures of the British Islands.
As green as she looks,
PADRAIC COLUM.


128
[February 22
THE DIAL
CASUAL COMMENT.
to show uninterrupted gains since that happy
time of peace and prosperity (as it now
THE GONCOURT PRIZE, AND OTHERS,
awarded seems to us) is history. From the 400 class
to French authors by more or less competent
in 1911 it rose into the 500 division the next
judges of literature, have suffered some irreg-
year, and has since been ascending rapidly;
ularity of award in the general upset due to
in 1916 it approached 900. Other depart-
the war, but are now being assigned with ments, while falling off under stress of war,
something like the old orderliness and method. have shown an encouraging tendency, with
Though Edmond de Goncourt, in founding very few exceptions, to rally during the year
the academy and the annual prize bearing his just closed.
just closed. Fiction has suffered with the
name, stipulated that the award should be rest, but has maintained its relative superior-
made to a young writer for a work of fiction, ity; and music, at the other end of the scale,
his instructions have seldom been literally has pursued the even tenor of its habitual
followed. The 1916 prize, for example, has course, with some decline in 1915, and a good
gone to the veteran writer, M. Henri Barbusse, recovery in 1916, when miscellaneous litera-
for his novel, “Le Feu.” He is over forty, a ture vied with it for lowest place. Book-cir-
venerable age in comparison with the youth- culation in the belligerent countries shows a
fulness of most earlier recipients of the Gon very natural decline since 1913, with Belgium
court mark of distinction; and "Le Feu" is out of the running entirely, and Germany and
by no means his maiden effort. With this lat Austria-Hungary badly crippled. In neutral
est award the deferred 1914 prize was also European countries there is an occasional
assigned: it went to M. Adrian Bertrand for marked increase in publishing activity. Den-
"L'Appel du Sol,” which had already ap mark's book-trade has steadily improved
peared as a serial in the “Revue des Deux since 1913, and for the season 1915-16 was
Mondes" before its issue in book form. Word
eight per cent ahead of its own high record
comes that Marcel Toussaint, to whom was of 1913-14. Switzerland, too, and Holland
given the Sully-Prudhomme prize for the best seem to be more than holding their own. On
volume of poetry of the year, has recently the whole, the trade in books has suffered far
fallen in battle. The holder of the latest
less than many another department of com-
“Grand Prix du Roman,” awarded by the
merce from the ravages of war.
French Academy, is an officer of high repute
who was wounded in the defence of Dixmude.
His novel-with-a-purpose, “La Vocation,” is GETTING THE MOST OUT OF BOOKS, out of the
the winning book. To Pierre Mille, who ex books one already has, instead of indulging
cels in the short story, has been awarded the one's natural inclination to acquire all the
Lasserre prize, which is bestowed by the gov- inviting new books as they come out, is the
ernment in recognition of a life's work rather policy forced upon some of us in these times,
than of a single performance. Of the various and upon others of us at all times. From
literary productions thus recently crowned, Mankato, Minnesota, comes word of various
René Benjamin's "Gaspard,” winner of the devices adopted in a lean year to make the
1915 Goncourt prize, is probably the best public library serve the greatest good of the
known to readers outside of France. Though greatest number so far as this may be effected
the Goncourt award has not the pecuniary without any considerable purchase of fresh
value of the Academy and Lasserre prizes reading matter. "Inasmuch as almost no new
(5000 as compared with 6000 francs), it is
books were coming in,” says the librarian,
held in the highest esteem of them all.
"we have tried to get a better use out of the
books we had. We have made book lists on
CHARTING THE OCEAN OF LITERATURE would
various subjects, keeping the lists on the desk
be a difficult task for even the most skilled
where they could be easily consulted. The
following lists have been made: Good stories
oceanographer. Something less difficult than
to read aloud; Detective stories; Cheerful
this, because confined to the commercial and
statistical aspects of the subject, is attempted tian Science stories; Readable essays; West-
stories; Interesting books not fiction; Chris-
and accomplished by “The Publishers'
ern stories; Modern plays; Notable recent
Weekly” in its graphic display of the ups and biographies; Interesting travel books; War
downs of the various lines of book-trade in
stories; Short stories ; Entertaining books in
this country for the past six years. Espe- large print. These lists have been given hard
cially interesting are the comparisons thus usage and have accelerated the use of our
exhibited between the present day and "be-
books."
It has been a year of diminished
fore the war.” The only branch of literature resources ($4,000 instead of the customary


1917]
129
THE DIAL
$5,000 for all expenses) for the Mankato
Excellent. Not quite equal to this in
library; and meantime the city parks are fine appreciation of the proprieties is the fol-
receiving $9,100 for their upkeep, the police lowing: “Do not pick your teeth much at
department $11,400, and the fire department table, as, however satisfactory a practice to
$13,000. To be sure, the former appropria- yourself, to witness it is not at all pleasant.
tion of $5,000 has been granted to the library How, we wonder, did Mr. Day's contempo-
for the coming year; but that is not exactly raries receive the instruction next to be
lavish for a city of Mankato's size.
quoted ? “At family dinners, where the
household bread is used, it should never be
cut less than an inch and a half thick. There
THE ORIGINAL OF “HUCKLEBERRY FINN"
is nothing more plebeian than thin bread at
has died in obscurity and, what is far worse, dinner.' Evidently Europe was not then
in poverty. A man capable of inspiring so depleting our flour-supply by hundreds of
great a work of fiction as the celebrated thousands of barrels yearly. The last of Mr.
“Adventures” ought in his old age to have | Day's ten commandments tells us, with ex-
been supported in luxury, if he cared for it, traordinary typographical emphasis on the
from the proceeds of that unfailing popular first word, to lead the lady through the quad-
book As a matter of melancholy fact, his rille; do not drag her, nor clasp her hand as
declining years were passed in the county if it were made of wood. Dance quietly; do
almshouse at Paris, Missouri. Barney Farth not kick or caper about, nor sway your body
ing was his name outside the pages of ro to and fro; dance only from the hips down-
mance, and he lived to the ripe age of wards; and lead the lady as lightly as you
eighty, having been born in 1836, the year would tread a measure with a sprite of gos-
after his boyhood friend first drew breath in
samer.” But that was long before the One
the town of Florida, near Paris. But so Step and the Fox Trot and the Wasp Waddle
closely was he identified with the hero of the and similar (or worse) terpsichorean audac-
above-mentioned adventures that for years he | ities.
had answered to the name of Huck Finn as
often as to his own. An original genius in GREATER LIBRARY FACILITIES FOR CHICAGO
later life, as he had been during the event are planned by the library directors. Five
ful earlier period chronicled by his friend, regional branches are to be established, with
he made the coffin in which he was buried - seventy local branches auxiliary to them.
made it in protest against the outrageous
There will be sixty deposit stations, where
prices of the "coffin trust.” Other similar there are now thirty-five, one hundred indus-
products of cabinet-making art he is said to trial and commercial branches instead of the
have furnished in considerable number to present twenty-one, three thousand classroom
friends and contemporaries, like-minded with travelling collections of fifty volumes each
himself in their opinion of the aforesaid (there are now 848 such collections), and the
iniquitous trust; and to those of his own kin speedy motor-car or motor-truck will be called
he rendered this service free of charge, add into frequent service to expedite the circula-
ing also other properties indispensable at a tion in this somewhat complex system. Chi-
rightly conducted funeral. Indeed, he seems cago's extent of territory and the size of its
to have specialized in the paraphernalia of population make this expansion of its library
funerals, in an amateur way. It is a satis- system necessary. “Public Libraries,” in out-
faction to learn that when his own end came lining the new measures, says that “Chicago
he had something better than a pine box and comprises nearly 200,000 square miles of terri-
a burial in the potter's field. Kind friends tory and
there are 700,000 poten-
gave him a funeral that would have rejoiced tial users of the library who are prevented
his heart.
from using it by reason of distance." Surely
they must be thus prevented. A city of the
ALMANAC WISDOM is still in season. From above-named area and of Chicago's oblong
one of the countless annuals -- namely, from shape would measure, perhaps, one thousand
“The Atlantic Monthly Almanac” we quote miles long by two hundred miles wide; and
a few precepts, perhaps not equal to Poor to visit the central library many citizens
Richard's, but at least not devoid of interest would have to travel four or five hundred
for the curious. These precepts are exhumed miles. Well, Chicago is undoubtedly big, but
by the almanac editor from Charles William as all Illinois contains only about 56,000
Day's “Hints on Etiquette and the Usages of square miles, the case of the would-be library.
Society” (Boston, 1844).
(Boston, 1844). “Never pare an user is not quite so bad as the afore-mentioned
apple or a pear for a lady unless she desire figures might lead a stranger to infer.


130
[February 22
THE DIAL
97
COMMUNICATIONS.
themes: the warfare between genius and medi-
ocrity, the dead hand laid on life by hypocritical
MR. Powys.
puritanism, the futility of philosophical theorizing,
the wisdom and beauty of the children of
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
earth — that is, those who yield without qualm or
Nothing is easier than to discredit genius by question to life's orgiastic tides; but the great
showing up its inconsistencies.
Whitman dis- ground-rhythm of all this various music is of sex,
counted this sort of criticism long ago in his “Do
sex, sex.
I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict my-
None but hasty and superficial thinkers will take
self," and such would be the most effective answer
exception to Mr. Powys here. Sex is as normally
to Mr. Israel Solon's review of Mr. Powys's “Sus- exception to Mr. Powys here.
and naturally the secret preoccupation of the sons
pended Judgments. What manner of man Mr.
and daughters of men as gravitation is of the
Powys is, may be gathered from this brilliant book
stone, or polarity of the electron. Such is the
of
essays, which I hope those of your readers who
love what is fine and rare will not be discouraged
inevitable consequence of living in a dissevered
universe striving toward unity. We are all stu-
from reading by anything that Mr. Solon has said.
What manner of man Mr. Solon is, may equally science of Yoga – union with the Divine.
dents and practitioners of the ancient and sacred
Now
be gathered from his review. Just as there is "the
kind of woman that keeps a parrot,” so there is ingly dear. To man, the dearest thing is woman;
every dear thing is Divine as long as it is thrill-
the kind of man who “takes notes” at lectures. To
and to woman, man.
this class Mr. Solon confessedly --- perhaps I
Love, always and every-
where, is “the desire of the moth for the star,
should say avowedly — belongs. This means that
for even the concupiscent flesh seeks sublimation
he dissects the dead phrase and misses the live
message.
It is with the dissection of phrases
into spirit. It is because our loves are so dampened
by our egotisms, our cautions and our cowardices,
that his review for the most part deals. He has
that we rot and smoulder instead of breaking into
failed to feel the authentic thrill of genius; there-
purifying flame. This is the essence of Mr.
fore there is no hint in his review that Mr. Powys
Powys's teaching: that love is a liberating thing.
can communicate that thrill; but he can, and does.
The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sensualities
He plays upon his audience as on a harp:
intoxicated with his own music, his lips are some-
of Tyre and Sidon, may excite his curious interest
as showing “into what red hell our sightless souls
times touched with a coal from the altar, and
Delphic utterances fall thick and fast. Hates, of pure, primodial passion that he places all his
may stray"; but it is upon the cleansing power
prejudices — ethnic, political, puritanical --- are
insistence, it is this that provokes his finest enthu-
burnt up and disappear in the devouring flame of
siasm, and inspires his most golden prose.
his eloquence, only to assert themselves afterward
CLAUDE BRAGDON.
with augmented virulence. As a result, his most
inspired discourses usually close more doors than
Rochester, N. Y., February 12, 1917.
they open, and it is perhaps for this reason that
for the past few years Mr. Powys has favored the
RABINDRANATH TAGORE.
firmer, freer, if less lofty and vertiginous, forum
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
of the printed page.
In the New York “Nation" of November 30
“Suspended Judgments" is as far removed from
appeared an article by Paul Elmer More entitled
“the spawn of the press” as is the star from the
“Rabindranath Tagore” which contains the surpris-
starfish. To Emerson's dictum, not to read “books ing statement that Mr. Tagore “is in essence every-
about books," it is the exception which proves
thing that India philosophically and religiously
the rule. It is a record not alone of the adven-
was not.
Let us ask who represent best the
tures of Mr. Powys's soul among masterpieces, spirit of ancient India? We get our answer from
but of its adventures amid the noise and jostle of
the Sanscrit (“Sadhana,” p. 14). "They were the
our American scene. The man has apparently no rishis. ..The rishis were they who having
skin to protect him, either from the assault of
reached the supreme God from all sides had found
great minds or of little. His capacity for the abiding peace, had become united with all, had
enjoyment of the large free ravishment of the one
entered into the life of the universe."
is only equalled by his capacity for suffering from
Compare with this Mr. More's definition of the
the puritanical inhibitions of the other. At one
rishis as "those seers who
called to
moment he is an embodied intelligence, contem-
mystic contemplation, made their life of solitary
plating with compassionate and astonished gaze
retirement strenuous · discipline of
this slum of space: at another he is a mad amorist will.” The words "solitary retirement” are espe-
of "the great imaginative writers.". Again, he is cially misleading, for as the seeker after truth grew
the disillusioned and dyspeptic satirist of all those
in wisdom, there gathered about him a group of
who possess a philosophy of life; then, with a
disciples or students, and his forest abode became
round turn, he brings us up, perhaps, with some the Asram, the seat of learning in ancient time.
so thrillingly true statement about life, art, or If we ask, Who are the greatest personalities in
religion, couched in so crystal a clarity of phrase, India to-day? our answer is the same: they are
that we love the man and adore the artist.
the rishis. Many Americans know something about
One finds in “Suspended Judgments," despite Mr. Tagore's school at Bolpur where on the Asram
its varied content, certain constantly recurring site chosen by his father, the Maharshi, the poet
97
a


1917]
131
THE DIAL
On every
.
has founded a school deliberately modelled after Our fiction, if it is to live as literature, must be
the ancient Asram. In an English newspaper, the hodiernal.
“Statesman" of Calcutta for November 26, 1913, a The reason that fiction writers seek their in-
writer describes his visit to the school as like the spiration in things that are neither of their world
entrance “into a different world. .
nor in their world is their fear of provincialism.
side there was a sense of peace and tranquil Never was a virtue so abused as provincialism.
ity... We had read of the asrama of Rishis If we only knew it the part of us that never fails
but we had not seen one before.”
More expres-
to interest others is our local part. It is impossible
sive of the spiritual influence of the central to give actuality in any high degree to something
personality of this school is the story of the Hindu that has not been actual in our experience. There
student who, when he was the victim of a terrible is no time like our own day and generation. If
accident in this country, found in the song of his we try to make another age live again, the fact
master peace and joy for an awful moment. remains that it is only imagined, not seen.
And all that Mr. More finds to say about this We all like to boast of our cosmopolitanism and
poet who teaches men to die heroically, is that he to claim the wide world for our home. Ibsen's
“is nice and he is pretty.” Referring to the poem, saying that he began life as a Norwegian, then
“Fruit Gathering LXXXV,” he severely decries in became a Scandinavian, and lastly developed into
it “this effeminate feeling of defeat, this pacifistic a Humanitarian shows a spirit we should do well
waiting by the roadside and puddling in senti to emulate; but the point is that the secret of
ment. Let me ask if there is anyone else who is Ibsen's universal appeal lies not in his sweeping
blessed with a reading knowledge of English who Humanitarianism, nor yet in his broad Scandi-
does not perceive that this Song of the Defeated navianism, but in his narrow Norwegianism. He
is a song of triumph? "For she is the bride whom was the quintessence of his own little locality, the
he woos in secret”- could there be a greater epitome of his section. The whole may be greater
triumph to a believer in God?
than its parts but it is never so interesting. Be a
It is not as a representative of a defeated people man of parts if you would be a living writer,
that Mr. Tagore speaks. He sings of India, not should be the novelist's first commandment.
India the weak and helpless, but India, the strong It was a keen appreciation of this truth that
in faith. Across the world he sees the splendid prompted Bernard Shaw to say that “the man
nations in their death struggle, putting their trust
who writes about himself and his own time is
in guns and dreadnoughts; and he sees India, the only man who writes about all people and
suffering also, but putting her trust in God, the about all time. The writer who aims at
spiritual citadel of troubled times. Babylon has producing the platitudes which are not for an age
fallen, Greece and Rome have passed away, but but for all time has his reward in being unreadable
India and China live on, immortal in their human-
in all ages.”
ity and self-control.
The coming of the treat American Novel has
It is a simple message that Mr. Tagore brings been long awaited and often heralded. Not a few
the age-old message of the East. It is better have even claimed its authorship. Yet the Great
to keep one's own soul than to gain the whole English Novel or the Great French Novel has not
world. It is better for a nation to keep its soul so much as been expected. No one novel could
than to gain the whole world. In these days of possibly reflect the whole of any nation's life. It
bitterness and suffering, its stirring note is not is a harmful ambition and a wrong ideal to place
to be drowned out by any sacrilegious chatter. before any writer. The more local his grasp the
America is testifying that out of the East a pro more national will be his reach. If he resorts to
phetic voice is sounding, and her heart vibrates literary wayfaring, seeking material which he has
responsively, as man's heart will ever vibrate, to not been brought up with, his provincialism will
his word of the triumph of the soul.
show itself at once. The way not to be provincial
MAYCE FRIES SEYMOUR. is to stay at home — in books and out. The “fatal
Urbana, II., February 10, 1917.
germ of internationalism" which has killed art for
Mr. Moore has but one antitoxin, provincialism.
BESSIE GRAHAM.
HODIERNAL FICTION.
Philadelphia, Pa., February 16, 1917.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Art's obituary contributed to the pages of the
“Atlantic” by her undertaker, George Moore, is
BRAITHWAITE'S ANTHOLOGY FOR 1916.
not the first expression which he has given to an
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
opinion he has held for some time. He said the “Birthrate's Apology for 1916," as I heard it
same thing before and said it better when he wrote, called the other day, is the last word in poetical
“Art must be parochial in the beginning to become efficiency. It has its Table of Poems, Table of
cosmopolitan in the end."
Poets, Table of Poetics, and Table of Contents.
Fiction to-day, like religion, is harmed by a Many points, however, besides its convenience are
pernicious otherworldliness. We are always be to be rated in its favor. It is permanently, not
lieving that “there's a land that is fairer than to say handsomely, bound,- and calculated surely
ours” and consequently letting our own remain to outlive its usefulness.
less fair. But we are coming to see that the Here As for the contents. There are in all about one
and Now is the matter we ought to have in hand. I hundred selected poems, the choice spirits of the
us


132
[February 22
THE DIAL
6
year. They are all good poems. There is really might be disputed by Yone Noguchi. He was
nothing the matter with any of them. They all unusually well informed in European, as well as
embody yearnings. Which brings us to the real Japanese and Chinese literature. One critic has
purpose of this letter.
said: “As a novelist and essayist he attained in
Is sentiment to be the dominant note in all our the esteem of his countrymen a position higher
American poetry? It seems so. Lately we have than has ever yet been achieved by any writer of
been swept by a wave of realism. It was a cold the modern school." He has been variously called
wave and it chilled. But it awakened us from the Meredith of Japan,” “the Dickens of Japan,"
slumber,-- romantic slumber.
the Thackeray of Japan.” He achieved unique
At the same time and probably part and parcel fame in this land where ornamental titles are held
with realism came the Librists, the Prose-Poets, in such high esteem and are much sought after,
the Imagists, and Kreymborg. Kreymborg is of declining the degree of “Doctor of Letters,”
something all by himself. To me he is the Anarch- which the government bestowed upon him! His
ist Poet. Thus three things have come into our first work, “Botchan,” is one of his most famous,
literary life — romance, and realism, and the still and is an “autobiography in novel form,” like
born Imagism. When are we to have thought? "David Copperfield." His masterpiece is entitled
This is a bold question. You will find it skil- in Japanese “Waga Hai wa Neko de Aru," or in
fully avoided in literary circles. It is the unmen simple English, “I Am a Cat.” It has been, in
tionable of poetics. Poetry and thought were part at least, translated into English.
divorced in the great Victorian era and it will take The Hon. Mrs. E. A. Gordon, of England, has
a greater era still to remarry them. If, however, been for many years an ardent student of Bud-
we are to have no strain of logic in our verse, let dhism and has written much upon that subject,
us at least have real emotion, or real sentiment, especially in its relation to Christianity. One of
or real beauty, or real something, even real realism. her works is called “Lotus Gospel" and discusses
How does it come that so much attention is her theory of the same origin for both Christian-
devoted by our anthologist to the “Los Angeles ity and Buddhism. In the course of her researches,
Graphic” while the "Atlantic Monthly" is wholly she has accumulated a large amount of valuable
overlooked? And why, speaking of neglect, if material, in the form of books, manuscripts, pic-
this be a record for 1916, does Mr. Braithwaite tures, etc. She recently left Japan to return to
start his collection with the magazine issues of England, and, before she left, decided to con-
October, 1915 — which often appear in the middle tribute her valuable collection to Waseda Univer-
of August and conclude it with the September sity, to which she had already presented 300
number of 1916 — a date editorially reached some volumes. The collection to be handed over is said
where around July? Why does he so, unless it be to comprise 1400 books in foreign languages, 200
to get his own book on the market for the new books in Japanese and Chinese, and 400 pictures
year — or maybe, let us in Christian charity sug and 200 photographs of Buddha. Mrs. Gordon
gest it, in time for the Christmas gift season? was specially interested in pictures of Buddha;
It was a surprise and a shock to find, even in she is said to have copied many famous pictures
so complete a list of published poems as this one, and to have photographed others. In the course
that the most prolific writers among us have of her study, she visited almost all the famous
scarcely printed twenty poems in the magazines temples of Japan.
of America during the entire anthological year. A committee has been appointed in the Depart-
No wonder the poet is proverbially poor,- even at ment of the Imperial Household to compile the
fifty cents a line.
poems written by the late Emperor Meiji Tenno.
With great boldness from the select of the select
He is credited with over 100,000 verselets, as we
I have chosen the following: "The Red Month," might call the tanka, or 31 syllable poem. Another
by James Oppenheim; "To No One in Particular," name is “epigram.”
by Witter Bynner; “Dirge,” by Adelaide Crap As the readers of THE DIAL have already been
sey; “The Broken Field,” by Sara Teasdale. We informed, the theme for the New Year's Poem this
can dispose of the last; it has some thought and
season was “Snow on a Distant Mountain." I
is not unskilfully expressed; but it shall not be append here two English verselets, of which the
called " distinctive.” Let us place, then, these three
first was contributed to the “Japan Times” and
poems of Mr. Oppenheim, Mr. Býnner, and Miss the second to the “Japan Advertiser."
Crapsey in a little book all of their own. They are Look on the vast disquietude of Earth;
examples of word-music, thought, and emotion. On blackened fields, by war shells swept and riven!
Let us call the book, "Anthology of Magazine
Then from these turmoiled scenes,
Verse for 1916."
Look out where Earth
MYRON ZOBEL.
Uplifts herself, arrayed in glistening white,
Harvard University, February 13, 1917.
And silently
Holds communings with Heaven.
NOTES FROM JAPAN.
Eve of lowering sky:
Night of tempest, wind and rain:
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Morn of radiant calm-
The literary world of Japan has suffered a great See! Mount Fuji's gleaming crest,
loss in the death of Professor Natsume at the early Storm-free, bears a crown of snow.
age of 49. He was, perhaps, "the most noted
ERNEST W. CLEMENT.
writer of Japan," although that characterization Tokyo, January 5, 1917.


1917]
133
THE DIAL
NEW IDEALS IN BUSINESS.
her easy optimism remorselessly probed about
the things she hadn't seen in those industrial
NEW IDEALS IN BUSINESS. By Ida M. Tarbell. communities that she had visited. Her method
(Macmillan Co.; $1.75.)
was “to see at their work all the men and
AN APPROACH TO BUSINESS PROBLEMS. By women in a plant from those with the shovel
A. W. Shaw. (Harvard University Press; $2.) or scrubbing brush to those in the head offices;
AMERICA AND THE NEW EPOCH. By Charles P.
to look at their conditions, to see them in their
Steinmetz. (Harper & Bros.; $1.)
homes, to learn from their lips what they
Mild English satirists like Mr. G. Lowes
es thought and felt about it all.» But she
Dickinson tell us that business has become the brought away none of the impressions that
American religion, with its own creed and its disturb other idealists among us, the subtle
distinct evangelistic flavor of utterance.
corrosion of the workers' power of self-de-
There is always a tendency for the successful
fence through corporation philanthropy, the
to expand into a cult. And American busi-
destruction of collective effort through scien-
ness, more than any other activity, has had tific management. Anyone who heard Miss
the glamour of success. Daring, swift, clean
Tarbell's revealing testimony understood that
strokes of organizing and inventive genius she had gone out, not as a scientific investiga-
brought their quick and exceeding great
tor or even as an understanding idealist, but
reward. The colossal booms, the mushroom
as a detective to find the Golden Rule. The
growths of industrial plants, the expansion of
matter of her personal sincerity is irrelevant.
trade, the sudden cataclysms, have touched
The fact is that the model workshops and
American business with a sense of the miracu- houses, the safety and anti-alcohol crusades,
lous. And now the original ruthless struggle the health insurance and pension schemes, the
for growth and survival has given place, with profit-sharing, education, scientific manage-
the integration of the big industries, to a
ment that she found, she advertises to the
milder era. The improvement of technique has glory of business and not to the glory of grow.
been accompanied by a new idealism. Disdain
ing democracy and social responsibility. I
for the public, when the hand of every busi-
do not mean to sneer at ideals in business.
ness man was against every man, has changed But I do insist that the value in reporting
into concern for the public's good will. A
them must lie in a scrutiny whether such
number of prophets have arisen to fortify and
justify that sense of ubiquitous goodness crucial visions. Is not this autocratic reg-
ideals are not inhibiting broader and more
which the business man of to-day seems to
imentation of the workers a handicap to
need around him as the fish needs water.
democracy? Should not the workers' welfare
Of these prophets Miss Tarbell is one of the
be the concern of the community at large
most industrious and comforting. She does rather than of the individual corporation, to
not ask how far the new idealism has been
which it means only a more powerful instru-
forced by the pressure of government, by the
ment for control of the habits, ideals, attitudes
fear of social unrest, by the desire for sweeter
of the worker, and for his ultimate feudal-
and subtler forms of control over the lives of
ization Miss Tarbell, as a prophet of en-
the industrially subject classes. She accepts | lightened capitalism, does not even pose this
at its face value this new and anxious solici- question. She therefore befuddles her ideal-
tude for the welfare of employees, for the ism and is an intellectual darkener of counsel
conservation of their health and intelligence. rather than a bringer of light.
She makes a wide sweep of industry, and One turns to the more appealing Mr. Shaw,
strains out all the good intentions from the
editor of “System,” lecturer on Business
chaotic, elemental, pig-headed American in- Policy in Harvard University, whose scheme
dustrial life that we see out of our car
of business idealism is scientific rather than
windows. These she presents to us with so
evangelistic. For if American business has
evangelistic an ardor that our perspectives are
been a religion it is rapidly becoming a sci-
quite destroyed. Her observation, she tells us,
The business man approaches his
has been exhaustive, but one is skeptical about problems of production, distribution, and
so unanimous a demonstration that American
management in the same spirit of analysis
industry is finding the Golden Rule synony and experimentation as the chemist in his
mous with business profits. An idealism must laboratory. Such an idealism is one of effi-
surely be false when it is most impressive for ciency and integration. To the layman Mr.
what it glaringly ignores. One of the unhap- Shaw's analysis will seem very obvious, busi-
piest days of Miss Tarbell's life was the occa ness science the most elementary of all tech-
sion when she appeared before the Industrial niques. If success in business is not the lot
Relations Commission in New York, and had of all of the even moderately intelligent, it
ence.


134
[February 22
THE DIAL
must be because there are external factors out of the corporation rather than out of the
over which one has no control. The particular present political organization. Politically or-
approach which Mr. Shaw outlines seems linedganized, the nation would have only veto and
only with the most truistic common sense. referendum power over general policy. The
His science suggests the disquieting thought dual state, with parallel industrial and polit-
that American energy in its flood of enthu ical organization (which we already virtually
siasm and conviction has gone into a profes- have, though the relations are disguised and
sion which makes little strain upon the intel- infinitely disordered), will be publicly recog-
lect or imagination. It is not that ideals of nized. A national organism, stable, flexible,
efficiency and wastelessness are “low,” it is effective, will be achieved where efficiency and
that they are so easy. The effect of many more democracy will at last strike their proper bal-
such books on “business science” would be to ance and undertake the functions they can
destroy all our sense of the peculiar mystery, best perform. It is a grandiose conception,
genius, and arduousness of the enterprise. and quite the most plausible of all the
Our current American imagination might slip Utopias. America drives straight' to such an
away and begin to fasten itself on the really ideal, and into it can be fitted all other busi-
intricate problems of personal and class rela ness and political idealisms. Dr. Steinmetz
tions. Welfare work, harmonious organiza- turns prophet, too, and fears our slow
tion of labor force, Mr. Shaw sees rightly as decadence, in competition with the State
part of the technique of efficiency. In our socialism of Europe, unless we develop our
present industrial system it is far more fruit-polity toward this dual government. The new
ful to idealize the “betterment” forces in this epoch will drive us hard. Our slow democ-
way than in Miss Tarbell's prophetic strain. racy, striving to throw chains of control over
As long as we have our present class rule in the embryo industrial state, must fail. The
industry, it will be healthier for the worker new epoch forces this corporation socialism
to be treated as an implement of production upon us. Business ideals which are to be
than as a laboratory for the working out of fruitful must point toward this goal.
the Golden Rule.
RANDOLPH S. BOURNE.
If class rule passes in a socialist reorganiza-
tion of industry, then these ideals of welfare
and efficiency might both find their proper TRUE STORIES OF TURKEY.
meaning. Welfare would become a series of
minimum standards maintained by the indus STAMBOUL NIGHTS.
By H.
G. Dwight.
trial state impersonally for the benefit of all. (Doubleday, Page & Co.; $1.25.)
Efficiency would become a spontaneously lived “The Leopard of the Sea," "His Beat-
technique. Such a scheme Dr. Steinmetz | itude,” “The Golden Javelin,” “The River of
presents. His vision of American social recon the Moon” these are some of the titles with
struction is so magnificent and far-flung in which Mr. H. G. Dwight intrigues the Western
its implications that it should challenge the reader in his collection of Turkish stories.
attention of prophets, experts, and laymen It should be said at once that the tales are
alike. The discussion and appreciation which every bit as good as their titles. Perhaps the
these ideas create will almost be a test of the most remarkable thing about them is that they
intellectual vitality which American socialism
are true — true from several points of view.
has left in its bones. For Dr. Steinmetz has
In his foreword to the possible reader, the
that rare and suggestive vision of the social- author chooses to acknowledge that many of
them were “put on paper almost exactly as
engineer and an active officer in one of our
they were told me." However this may be
most advanced and successful industrial cor-
about their main outlines, — and due allow-
porations. He is personally engaged in fash-
ance must, of course, be made for the author's
ioning the corporation out of which he hopes modesty and his “almost,” — anyone who has
the industrial state will be built. His social-
lived in the Near East can testify that in
ism might be called a “corporation syndical- phrase and descriptive detail the stories are
ism might be called a “corporation syndical- strictly true to Levantine speech and custom
ism,” for what he outlines is a union of huge and turn of thought. There was the ill-
corporations into whose hands will be en-
starred Leopard which on its strange voyage
trusted the productive work of the nation. to Basra had the misfortune at one time to
The corporation type of organization has “sit” on the “floor of the sea. » There is the
demonstrated its permanent administrative assurance that the infamous Nousret Pasha,
superiority over any form of political machin milk-brother of the Sultan and owner of the
ery. The state of the future must be built House of the Giraffe, preferred "a succulent
ist who is at the same time a great inventive to


1917]
135
THE DIAL
-
dish of “The Imam Fainted' or 'It Pleased of the peculiar relations between the Rev.
the Manslayer' " to our European concoc-
erend Thomas Redding of Stamboul and a
tions; also the quaint idiom of the gardener certain Youssouf Bey, slave-trader and would-
Shaban who, when asked by his master be founder of a new Arab empire in Africa, in
why he left his family in Albania instead of whom the good missionary was for a time
bringing them with him to Constantinople, constrained to see his first and long-awaited
replied: "Wives, mives -- a man will not die Mohammedan convert. But the most effective
if he does not see them every day.”
of the stories that fall, in this group is
But these stories and sketches are true in a undoubtedly “Mortmain."
more fundamental sense true to human missionary, Horatio Bisbee of Iowa, in the
nature, by and large, as it emerges to-day, process of erecting a mission house in Stam-
picturesquely, or tragically, or both, against boul undergoes an involuntary initiation into
the alluring background of the Near East. the mysteries of the ancient capital of the
They have their philosophy which serves to
Eastern Empire. I will not spoil this story -
lift them out of the class of the merely clever
or any of the others in this rare collection
achievements of the alert correspondent. Mr. by attempting to retell it. I will only warn
Dwight knows his local color so well that he the prospective reader that after he has read
also perceives its nicer relations to the whole them all through once, he will probably be
color scheme of things, and it is thus that he inclined to pick up his “Stamboul Nights"
reproduces it. Three tales, in particular, and read his favorites over again. And long
stand out in the volume as notable for their
after that, he may find himself marvelling
perfect orientation to their semi-Eastern what manner of stories they were.
themes and for the poignancy with which the
HELEN MCAFEE.
strangeness of these themes is brought home
to the Western reader. They are “The
Leopard of the Sea,” “The House of the
LIFE ON THE VELD.
Giraffe," and the final story of the series,
“In a Pasha's Garden." The first of these FROM THE HEART OF THE VELD. By Madeline
has been dubbed a modern Turkish Odyssey.
Alston. (John Lane Co.; $1.25.)
It is more Turkish than modern, I submit,
To see South Africa as Mrs. Alston sees it
in spite of its apparent date. The second, is to feel that tugging at the heart-strings that
as one reads it, has all the excitement and summons all who have ever been there any
bustle of a detective story, but much more length of time to return and taste the life that
than this remains when one puts it down. It only South Africa in all the world can give.
is impossible to forget its two chief figures, Not all of us will quite agree with Mrs. Alston
Nousret Pasha, who began life as a wrestler in all her judgments. In fact, few of us will,
on the Marmora and ended it as the Sultan's for we shall lack her generosity and her vision.
chief spy, and his more attractive, though if Her statement, fearlessly expressed, that Lord
anything more inscrutable, servant Ali, blind Milner was the greatest statesman South
and unwavering in his fidelity as only a Turk Africa ever saw, for instance, may give several
can be. But "In a Pasha's Garden” seems
of us pause.
But surely no man or woman
to conjure up the East most powerfully of can read her book to the end and lay it down
all the stories in the book - it is par excel without feeling he has enjoyed a privilege.
lence a Stamboul night's entertainment.
It is as if one had called on her in that sunny
Similar results Mr. Dwight obtains in other garden that overflows into the wilderness
cases by means just the reverse. He delights around her rose-bowered home on the Swazi-
in transplanting to the Oriental scene an land border, and had listened while she talked
American missionary or politician with a and attended to the domestic duties that spell
typically impervious or even hostile attitude drudgery to so many women but to her are
toward the new environment. Thus we are part of the art of living. “Life on the veld,”
enabled to see with much humor and no she says, “is mostly work," and proceeds to
small profit the inevitable collision when prove it, yet knowing all the while that her
West meets East. For example, there is an real work is vastly greater than any the eye
amazing jolt between Vermont and the Per can see.
sian Gulf in the story called “The Regicide," The book is really a series of essays, each
which narrates the somewhat farcical adven one dealing with her daily life from a differ-
tures of Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Blakemore, ent aspect. She explains the comfort of the
who were oddly inspired to forsake Benning veld's loneliness, the charm of its freedom and
ton for Basra. More serious and also more wherein that freedom lies, its appeal to the
suggestive is “For the Faith," an account
an account | imagination, and its wholesomeness (to some


136
[February 22
THE DIAL
people). There enters into one chapter a is no more uncouth to British tongues and
vulgar little woman from Johannesburg “who ears than Saxon was to Norman; and no Boer
spoke of her gay life in the Golden City to yet lived who could more outrage a British
us poor drudges of the veld," and of whom lady's sense of the proprieties and chivalry
Mrs. Alston writes, “I would much rather than a Saxon gentleman could offend the ears
have a hundred fat anti-British vrouws as my and eyes and nose of the conqueror's wife of
neighbors than one person with a mind like
his day.
hers. To love the veld and not be overcome As a conqueror's wife, who has gloried in
by it calls for character far stronger and what seemed to be the fruits of conquest, and
higher than the ordinary, and a scorn of the who has seen them snatched away by careless
shallower things of life.
governments and trodden under foot by fools
There are chapters on Rhodesia, on the and worse, yet who still carries a high and
drought in Matabeleland, on South African faithful chin and writes of all she knows and
towns, and — by no means least of all on loves and thinks and believes, without ac-
"going home,” knowing that “in good time the rimony, who can still, in fact, love South
veld will call us back again.” There is an Africa and all in it while being faithful to her
account of Milnerton -- the bankrupt, unap birthright, Mrs. Alston commands both re-
preciated Milnerton — near enough to Cape spect and gratitude. Her book deserves to be
Town to have been famous long ago, more bought and kept, not borrowed.
peaceful now and beautiful than any seaside She leaves me with only one regret - one
place in Africa. Through her eyes we see old thing to cavil at, and I will therefore make
Table Mountain at night with his sides afire, the most of it. I emphatically assert that she
and that is a sight never to be forgotten. And ought not to have killed that toad. It is true,
we meet fat Dutch women who hate the as she says, that many women have shot
British with the fanaticism of ignorance, yet rhinoceroses but no woman could kill a toad,
who are neighborly enough once they are and she did not commit the crime in person
understood. And Mrs. Alston understands but ordered it done by native servants.
them.
Nevertheless, as one who has lived more than
Approach this book, then, deferentially as a little in Africa, and has known by name and
you would the lady herself among her dahlias, fondled toads that grew fat catching flies
poinsettias, and hibiscus. You will find its beside the lantern put in place expressly for
author almost bewilderingly well-read; but them night after night, I here and now indict
she has slept too often under the stars with Mrs. Alston of the crime of murder,- only
the dew of South Africa on her pillow not to condoned in her case by the otherwise unblem-
know, to quote her own words, that “the world ished conduct of her life and by the great
of books and of art and politics is of secondary charm of her book. TALBOT MUNDY.
importance, the woman question is an absurd-
ity — these are not the real things of life.”
And she proceeds to remind us what most of THE POWER OF INTELLIGENCE.
the real things are.
ESSAYS IN EXPERIMENTAL LOGIC.
But where, after all, the book's chief inter-
By John
Dewey. (Chicago University Press; $1.75.)
est lies is in the light it throws, all uncon-
sciously, on the fusion taking place in South
In this book Professor Dewey assembles
articles dating from 1900 to the current year.
Africa to-day as surely, though doubtless as
leisurely, as the mingling of two rivers. Mrs.
The first four papers constitute his contri-
bution to the studies in logical theory which
Alston seems totally unaware of it; in fact
he published in collaboration with a number
she regrets absence of any sign of it.
But the reader will find his memory wan-
of colleagues at the University of Chicago.
These mark the status and attitude of prag-
dering back through history to Norman days,
matic thought toward the dominant position
when Norman nobles and their no less pur-
in philosophy at that time. The remaining
poseful ladies strove with all that was in them
articles follow the development of philosophy
to make England Norman,- finally to be
in America to the present date. In that
swallowed up and become an ingredient of a
development there has been a shift in the
nation that does not even bear their name.
emphasis of thinking from the implications
Those who doubt the ultimate emergence of
of idealism to the assumptions of realism, and
a united South Africa do so only because they Professor Dewey's book constitutes an admir-
view the country from the same angle from able definition of the attitude of pragmatism
which the Normans once viewed England, toward both these metaphysical positions in
as Mrs. Alston frankly does. Yet the Taal | philosophy.


1917]
137
THE DIAL
The position of idealism is summed up in
STOPS OF VARIOUS QUILLS.
the assertion, “The world is my idea.” The
position of realism is summed up in the asser THE SHADOW EATER. By Benjamin De Casseres.
tion, “The world is my spectacle.” It has (Albert and Charles Boni; $1.)
been the function of the pragmatic approach JORDAN FARMS, AN EPIC IN HOMESPUN. - By
to philosophic problems to show against the
Frederick E. Pierce. (Yale University Press;
$1.)
idealist position that thought actually arises
THE QUEST. By John G. Neihardt. (The Mac-
in situations over which it has no control,
millan Co.; $1.25.)
and that its rôle in the conduct of life is to
A HIDDEN WELL. By Louis How. (Sherman,
achieve control over these situations. The French and Co.; $1.)
world, far from being the mere creature of THE CYCLE'S RIM. By Olive Tilford Dargan.
the mind, exists on its own account, influences (Charles Scribner's Sons; $1.)
the conduct of man and must either be mas THE LAMP OF Poor Souls. By Marjorie L. C.
tered or lost. As against the assertion of real-
Pickthall. (John Lane Co.; $1.25.)
ism, the pragmatist declares that the very In turning over any random dozen of the
facts of experience indicate a vital give-and verse books of the moment, one gets a rather
take in which facts are modified by thought painful sense of confusion. Free verse of the
as well as thought by facts. Scientific think two chief varieties borders neatly chiselled
ing consists in this give-and-take; and the sonnets as carefully wrought as any in Milton
more radically scientific the thought is, the or Wordsworth. Pæans to the stark and
more fully the changed meanings which the undraped libido pursue verses of the most
mind imposes upon its environment must be ascetic, nun-like purity. Verses in praise of
incorporated into the constitution of the skyscrapers and abattoirs are set down cheek
environment. The fact is that both realist by jowl with prettily polished pastorals.
and idealist conceive the world in ultimate Lyrics of a pure ethereal beauty sparkle out
and static terms. They deny the reality of suddenly from rubbish heaps of verse of an
change, the interaction between thoughts and almost incredible badness.
things, and they imagine that by shifting the Perhaps it has always been so. Bad poetry
seat of quality from things to the relations there must always have been, if only to serve
between things, or from relations to things, as compost for the good. A fairly trust-
they solve the problems of change and abolish worthy test of the poetic vitality of any age
the reality of novelty.
may be found in the amount of bad poetry
The merit of pragmatism lies in its recogni- which it produces--and forgets. What really
tion of the character and significance of distinguishes our own time is the amount of
change, of the causal relationships that are bad poetry that gets into print. Once, the
possible between things and do actually oper- poet went forth like a solitary diver and
ate between most of those that we are consid moved about in the cool green depths of his
ering. Once these are realized, it becomes mind and heart, painfully selecting and re-
possible to define an actual working method jecting. At the end of a month he might -
which so describes the processes of achieve-
or might not-come back to men with a single
ment of which civilization is composed as to
pearl of purest ray serene. But now we go
make it a programme for the further conquest
forth with mud scows and steam dredges and
of nature and the liberation of human nature.
shovel up tons of slime and ooze and let the
Civilization is really the working into the public burrow for its own jewels. Fortunate
is the reviewer who finds in a dozen volumes
texture of our environment of all changed
six that are worth writing about, and doubly
meanings. We live on the interest of our
fortunate if he can assert with his hand over
accumulated past. For every axiom began as
his heart that two of these six seem to him
a postulate and acquired its axiomatic cer-
very good.
tainty by dint of a struggle for survival with
Mr. Benjamin De Casseres brings together
other ideas which were its peers in the in “The Shadow Eater” a group of verses in
beginning
the mood of a dyspeptic Whitman. On the
Perhaps the heart of the book is the demon-
principle that nothing is so emphatically de-
stration of the importance of change, of the funct as the fads of yesteryear, these verses
interaction between thoughts and things, of make an impression of astonishing antiquity.
the significance of active thinking in the life Compared with Longfellow they are old-fash-
of man, and his remaking of the world. It ioned and bromidic; Felicia Hemans, com-
is a demonstration of the creative power of pared with them, is fresh and youthful. All
intelligence.
the old exploded diseases of the soul that Max
H. M. KALLEN. Nordau took seriously, all the spiritual sores,


138
[February 22
THE DIAL
the puny blisters, the enfant terrible attitu poets who have used blank verse in narrative
dinizing which our grandmothers gasped at in poetry that we forget the present poet in
the French and German egoists of their day, attending to the Professor of English Litera-
are here exhumed and ranged anew for our in ture. The staple of the style is Wordsworth-
spection. But the gasp turned long ago into ian
ian — doubtless the best style available for
a yawn. Tom Sawyer could not go on forever the jog trot of narrative -- set off by Tenny-
mulcting his playfellows of pennies and sonian flourishes, with now and then an un-
marbles by the exhibition of his sore toe. mistakably Miltonic pedal point. It is nearly
Those who have read Leopardi, Schopen- inevitable that in such work chiefly the weak-
hauer, Weininger, and Baudelaire, will find nesses and mannerisms of the masters and
no novel shudder in this book. They will see not their high incommunicable virtues should
another desperate man storming sternly, inex- be caught.
orably, against a Deity whose existence he Professor Pierce fails as completely as
has just denied. They will see him again, in Wordsworth at his worst to reconcile the de-
a mollified mood, patting his God on the head, mands of dialogue and natural speech with
with a half surmise that he may himself be those of poetry. One hopes that he is doing
God. They will find the old familiar familiar- less than justice to academic English in ascrib-
ity with the word "lust” and with the obstet- ing to one Professor Milner the words — the
rical metaphor. (Is the time not ripe, by the italics are my own:
way, for a midwife's anthology ?) They will Weary but faithful many a time he came
find another verse maker who is determined With gray head bowed, and weakening in his age;
at all costs to be astonishing --- who, when
And resting oftener than in sturdier years,
sense palls, tries nonsense, and, that failing,
Would talk with me, each seated on our stone.
tries capital letters. All this was good fun
Faults of this sort are not explained away
fifty years ago, but the wind of the poor jest by the sub-title of the book. A main defect of
is broken. The determination to cast off all the style is that it is so very far from “home-
shackles of convention is carried into orthog- spun.' " It is not woven out of home materials.
raphy, so that beside such words, caviare to Neither is it simple, sturdy, unpretentious.
the general, as "adytum" and "lutescent," The method of narration, rather remotely
we have the spellings "wafir,” “tapir” (not analogous to that of “The Ring and the Book,"
an animal), and "cozzen”! These spellings is too devious and difficult to suit the tale.
are the features of the book which one does
The story is disjointed and unemphatic and
not remember having met too frequently the scheme of family relationships is too com-
before.
plex to be easily unravelled and held in mind.
Now and then a line attains epigrammatic Professor Pierce is at his best in descriptions
value by its vigorous compression. Here, for
of New England landscape.
example, is the pessimist's description of a
Mr. John G. Neihardt brings together in
human life: “The cry in the womb, the re-
lease, the hasty scud across earth, the thud in
“The Quest” those poems from his three ear-
the Pit!”
lier collections of lyrics which, “having been
Here is solipsism in a nutshell : “My soul read widely, have won approval.” The poems
is a fountain that balances the ball of the
in the present volume are arranged "in ac-
visible cosmos.
cordance with the succession of attitudes
Here, again, is the “cosmic foot-pad's" toward life incident to growth out of the
word about Love, which, for reasons analogous erotic period into manhood.” This rare and
to those which actuated Otto Weininger, he commendable effort to secure unity through
says he "rejects”: “Love, that accouched a progressive treatment of themes enables the
every star in the blue, that with knout of reader to get a clear and interesting picture of
desire sends the young worlds grunting round the poet's mind and art such as no collection
and round the senescent suns."
of scattered brilliants could have given. The
Old-fashioned in a very different way is Mr. long series of perfervid erotic poems is
Frederick E. Pierce's “Jordan Farms, An justified not only by the great intrinsic beauty
Epic in Homespun." This is a narrative in of many of the individual pieces but by its
blank verse of the long-drawn-out failure of a outcome - the answer of manhood to the self-
New England farmer. The story is told in a torturing egoism of adolescence in which such
manly way, with much true pathos, exact things as “The Shadow Eater” are written.
knowledge of the setting, and no humor. We O many a night has seen my riot candles,
are reminded so frequently in reading it of
And heard the drunken revel of my feast,
Till dawn walked up the blue with burning sandals
the moods, manners, and styles of earlier And made me curse the east!


1917]
139
THE DIAL
Saw in the farmer's wagons
For my faith was the faith of dusk and riot,
The chariots hurled at Troy.
The faith of fevered blood and selfish lust;
Until I learned that love is cool and quiet
Trundling in dust and thunder
And not akin to dust.
They rumbled up and down,
Laden with princely plunder,
For once, as in Apocalyptic vision,
Loot of the tragic Town.
Above my smoking altars I could see
My god's face, veilless, ugly with derision —
The weird, untempled Makers
The shameless, magnified, projected — Me!
Pulsed in the things he saw;
The wheat through its virile acres
And I have left my ancient fanes to crumble,
Billowed the Song of Law.
And I have hurled my false gods from the sky;
Mr. Louis How's "A Hidden Well” shows
I wish to know the joy of being humble,
To build great Love an altar ere I die.
two main influences at work — the poetry of
There is still abundant egoism in the poetry
John Donne and the art of painting. This
of Mr. Neihardt, but perhaps not more than
verse is subtle, masculine, intellectual, con-
he needs for his self-preservation as a poet in
cerned usually with the penumbra of thought
that prairie country in which he lives and and emotion. Mr. How stands away from his
sings. Out of the great corn land he has subject as a painter does, and. for the same
drawn the best of his poetry. His imagination
reasons. The mood is always critical, with
is luxuriant with the wealth and sun-drowsy
a touch of austerity. Like an able fencer, this
with the heat of those vast plains. The poet is agile, alert, always guarding his heart.
moulding touch of environment, making al-
It is natural, therefore, that he should do his
most everywhere for beauty, normality, and
best work in the sonnet. He gives us several
strength, is evident in all his work. In a
examples of the Spenserian sonnet - a form
community preoccupied with almost anything
which seems to be very slowly winning the
but poetry, he was made to feel early in life recognition which it deserves. In the follow-
the “sin of being different,” but this has not ing “Epitaph for a German Soldier” one sees
the main characteristics of the whole group
led him to a vainglorious and romantic in-
dulgence in that sin. He has not said, with
of poems — crisp, unerring verse, directness
the mock humility of Francis Thompson,
of manner, strong and clear visualization, and
the apparent impassivity of a man who really
I hand 'mid men my needless head,
And my fruit is dreams as theirs is bread.
feels deeply.
On the contrary, when he discovered himself
He thought his country right and loved her well.
He marched a hundred miles on bleeding feet,
“doomed to be poet forever,” he “longed to And crouched in puddles with a crust to eat,
be only a man,
” with the "cosmic curtains A bloody crust that had a powder smell.
drawn." But this natural revolt has passed He sang to drown the roaring of a shell:
The vision in his eyes was very sweet, -
away and in the latter work we see the poet
He saw a flower-bordered German street,
quite simply claiming his place among men, And with a clean French bullet-wound he fell.
without timidity and without bluster. This And those that loved him never are to know.
is a triumph in the way of self-mastery If he was even shovelled in a trench,
almost as rare and difficult as any of Mr.
Grotesque and grim who was their fair delight.
From that sweet seed but recollections grow
Neihardt's triumphs in his art. As a conse Without a ray of hatred for the French,
quence of it, we see the poet everywhere com He fought for what was wrong, but he was right.
pleting the man and the man strengthening In Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan's series of
the poet, so that in his wildest insurgency Shakespearean sonnets, “The Cycle's Rim.”
there is always a strong back-pull toward nor-
there is distinguished literary workmanship
mality—a core of quiet at the cyclone's heart. on every page. These poems are so close on
Poetry bubbles up for Mr. Neihardt out of the trail of a high beauty and of a deep and
the most casual, chance-met things. I rear-
memorable wisdom that one is drawn back to
range four stanzas from his autobiographical
them again and again with a self-condem-
natory feeling that there must be more in
“Poet's Town," a group of brilliant little
lyrics that throb from end to end with a
them than he has been able to get out. I re-
member having had that feeling, years ago,
strange music and startle one broad awake
with flaming metaphors.
with regard to the poetry of George Meredith,
and I know now that my self-condemnation
Those were his fields Elysian:
With mystic eyes he saw
was just. In these poems of Mrs. Dargan's,
The sowers planting vision,
beyond a doubt, there is the authentic manner
The reapers gleaning awe.
in which great work has been accomplished.
Sipper of ancient flagons,
Here, unquestionably, is a fine talent working
Often the lonesome boy
with a skilful though not a finished technique


140
[February 22
THE DIAL
If we
are
my kind.”
upon an ample, compelling theme, of univer- This is not the obscurity legitimate in, if not
sal human interest. And yet
necessary to, all high lyric utterance.
The sonnets
dedicated to
«To One
may for a moment compare this right and
Drowned at Sea.” The first twenty-nine deal needful obscurity to a beautiful musical
with the birth, growth, and declaration of theme, which may mean many things to many
love. In the thirtieth we learn of the death minds, then the sort of obscurity that we have
of the lover. From this point on, the move- before us will be like the cacophany that re-
ment is not unlike that of “In Memoriam.” sults from the sudden striking of all the keys
The first blind stupor of grief is gradually in the octave at one, a sound that can
healed by the beauty of Nature and by the scarcely mean anything to any mind.
sight of places hallowed by memories of the Finally, if these poems have but little music
past. This brings a sense of communion with and scarcely a single direct and piercing
love stronger even than that of old and a new natural cry, they are sown from end to end
realization of the beauty and richness of life. with lovely phrases. In the very first sonnet
But the mourner stops short, it would seem, we learn what we have to expect in this kind.
with Nature, and is not brought, as in Ten Deep lies thy body, jewel of the sea,
nyson's poem, to renewed and increased sym Locked down with wave on wave. Pearl-drift among
pathy with mankind.
The coral towers.
In the thirteenth
If thou would'st choose be gone,
sonnet occurs the line, “I've built my Love a
What sea-charm then could stay thee, bid thee lie
cabin on the cliffs. There it remains to the
Too deep for cock-crow earth or heaven's dawn?
end. The mourner does not learn in the
I have shown this latter passage to several
catharsis of sorrow that “Love is of the val-
ley” but goes on forever "folding the world
persons-among them, Mr. Walter de la Mare
away, a weary book.” For this reason the
and Mr. Bliss Carman. All were delighted
with the beautiful phrase "lie too deep for
cycle is on a much lower ethical plane than
But then they saw that "cock-
Tennyson's poem, which has its splendid cock-crow.”
climax in the line “I will not shut me from
crow" is apparently intended as an adjective
modifying “earth” and they were perplexed-
Mrs. Dargan does not justify her choice of as I have been, not only about this phrase but
the Shakespearean sonnet by achieving greater about the entire beautiful disappointing book
ease and fluency than are commonly found in in which it appears.
the stricter forms. Scarcely a quatrain is to . The most pleasing and satisfying volume in
be found unmarred by awkward inversions this group, all things considered, is “The
and wrenching of normal prose order or by Lamp of Poor Souls” by Marjorie L. C.
the omission of articles and prepositions. This Pickthall. Most of these poems appeared in
is partly due, apparently, to her somewhat Miss Pickthall's earlier collection, “A Drift
timorous syllable counting and avoidance of
of Pinions,” which was far less read in the
elision. . She prefers, for example, the un-
United States than it deserved to be. Here is
gainly phrase “on arrow feet” to the swifter,
simpler, easier "on arrowy feet.” In reading Canadian poets of the last twenty years. In
another name to be added to the long list of
such lines as
music and magic of line, in range and delicacy'
The clammy shade
Of forest doubts clings now like faith that fills of imagination, Miss Pickthall yields to none.
Cathedral air when holy touch is laid
The rarest and finest thing about her poems
On saintly kneelers,
is their strong clear music. Sheer beauty -
one cries out for a few particles, if only to “about the best thing God invents” or lets his
loosen the line, make it flow, break the monot-
children discover - is here in abundance. It
onous metronomic iambi. Also, as so fre should be said that the singing line is notably
quently in reading these sonnets, one cries out
absent in all the other books I have mentioned,
for a glimmer of meaning. Apparently, to
and this, to one who believes that whatever
hazard a rash guess, we should be learning
something in this passage about "doubts."
else a poet may do, he must sing, is a sad com-
But what we should think about "doubts,'
mentary.
whether we should think about them at all,-
The themes and materials of these poems
these are matters hopelessly obscured by a
are as various as the forms. They are drawn
swarm of images whose chief function should
from many sources Greek, Hebrew, Japan-
have been to clarify and illumine. The
ese, Irish, French, Canadian, English. The
thought is clogged by blind and bottomless chief sources of literary inspiration seem to
metaphors as the lines are impeded by clut-
have been the works of Swinburne and of
tering consonants and rigid syllable counting.
Bliss Carman.
ODELL SHEPARD.


1917)
141
THE DIAL
ADVENTURES IN THE THEATRE.
puzzle, and it is with something of these con-
flicting but not inhibitory feelings that we
PLAY PRODUCTION IN AMERICA. By Arthur read this chronicle of a play on its way from
Edwin Krows. (Henry Holt & Co.; $2.)
the dramatist to the audience. In fact, I kept
WAR. By Michael Artzibashef. (Alfred A. wondering, through each page and each chap-
Knopf; $1.)
ter, whether Mr. Krows wouldn't wake up to
MOLOCH. By Beulah Marie Dix. (Alfred A.
the humor and the pathos of the situation,
Knopf; $1.)
turn roundly upon the mass of puttering de-
MORAL. By Ludwig Thoma. (Alfred A. Knopf;
tail and smothering red-tape with which our
$1.)
theatre is burdened, and passionately demand
THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL. By Nicolay Gogol.
(Alfred A. Knopf; $1.)
a broom to sweep it all away and build anew.
LA PECADORA. By Angel Guimera.
(G. P.
Surely all this ceremony regarding the intri-
Putnam's Sons; $1.25.)
cate processes of production; these profundi-
RESPONSIBILITIES. By William Butler Yeats.
ties doled out to the tasks of the play broker,
(The Macmillan Co.; $1.25.)
the play doctor, the scene painter, the stage
THE STORY OF ELEUSIS. By Louis V. Ledoux. manager, the electrician, the actor, and the
(The Macmillan Co.; $1.25.)
press agent: these painstaking diagrams of all
FOUR SHORT PLAYS, By Charles Frederic Nird. the crafts of the theatre, must be some huge
linger (Mitchell Kennerley; $1.25.)
Gilbertian joke, some mountain of satire, like
READ-ALOUD PLAYS. By Horace
Holley. “Seven Keys to Baldpate," which Mr. Krows
(Mitchell Kennerley; $1.)
would pull down with sardonic glee in the
JOHN WEBSTER AND THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA.
By Rupert Brooke. (John Lane Co.; $1.50.)
last chapter or in an epilogue, as Mr. Cohan
There are just two classes of people who satisfied, pushing his patient pen to the end,
did in his play. Instead, he seems sublimely
have any illusions about the importance of the
and never looking up to see whether his his-
American theatre: those who are so closely tory is not already out of date and belied by
identified with it that they are blinded by its
the dawn of another day.
mechanism; and the great unthinking public
For another day is dawning. Little theatres
who find it fairly entertaining and know noth-
and community theatres and experimental
ing better. One of the former, Mr. Arthur
theatres are not springing up all over this
Edwin Krows, has written a book, “Play Pro. country for nothing. Among the many more
duction in America,” for the enlightenment of
or less conscious motives of these institutions,
the latter, and unless there is a protest from
is the desire to get at the heart of this thing
those of us who are in the theatre, but not of
called the theatre, ignoring the pretentious
it (and who, for that reason, know its short and officious rigmarole that makes the produc-
comings and its comparative futility), Mr.
tion of a play on Broadway so costly, and,
Krows and his book and the theatre he ana-
with all its cost, still so uncertain. Mr. Krows
lyzes will probably be accepted without ques-
can write the “New Art” of the theatre in
tion by the audience for whom he has written. quotation marks a while longer. He can sneer
In reality, the American theatre has lost
at Gordon Craig and find Brander Matthews
its soul in trying to perfect the mechanism
and leering Broadway managers to applaud
through which to express its soul, and no bet-
him. He can garble the description of For-
ter proof of that fact can be cited than this
tuny lighting until Fortuny is more widely
volume by Mr. Krows. Like all youthful
known in this country than he is to-day. But
manifestations of the creative impulse, our
theatre has not lacked the imaginative
he can ill afford to devote a patronizing half-
flame, but it has smothered the glow in
page to the entire revolutionary movement in
meddlesome circumstance until most people,
the American theatre. And he can hardly ex-
like Mr. Krows, mistake the momentary
pect to pass muster when he lets such glaring
warmth and flicker of the busybody for the
errors run riot in his pages as when he re-
fire of the artist. In trying to fashion easy,
fers to the British woman playwright and
elaborate, and, above all, profitable channels
author's agent, Golding Bright, as a man.
in which the artist might work, our theatre
Mr. Krows's book is of the same piece and
failed to notice that the artist has tired of viewpoint as David Belasco's recent stupid at-
awaiting the completion of this fussily com tack on the Little and Community theatres.
fortable structure and has gone off by himself It is of the type that will not learn, that can-
to work simply and with struggle and sacrifice, not grow, and that worships that which is,
but with the freedom without which there can only a little less than that which has been. Mr.
be no art.
Krows and Mr. Belasco are like the stodgy
It is both amusing and pathetic to see a parent who has built a stiff and stately man-
man pore laboriously over an impossible sion and then wonders why his young son


142
[February 22
THE DIAL
Billy would rather play in Tommy Brown's notably the first half of the first act, would
old barn down the street.
have to be condensed, but it makes easier read-
It is a relief to turn to plays that have ing as it stands, affording the opportunity to
found their way into print. That is an inter come slowly and surely under the spell of the
esting series which Mr. Alfred A. Knopf has emotions and the sensibilities of another race.
started under the group title, “Borzoi Plays." Still another note from abroad is the new
Starting with “War," the relentlessly grim version of “The Hour Glass,” which the Irish
picture of the toll of battle on those at home, poet, William Butler Yeats, has included in a
by the Russian Artzibashef, the series now new volume of verse, "Responsibilities.” Of all
includes Beulah Marie Dix's “Moloch,” Lud- living playwrights, Mr. Yeats loves most to
wig Thoma’s “Moral,” and Nicolay Gogol's tinker with his past works, and this time it is
“The Inspector-General.” The Russian and a case of satisfying his own soul by altering
the American plays born of the world conflict the action of his philosopher!
are physically as close and spiritually as far American plays are not so heartening. “The
apart as the opposing trenches. “War” plies Story of Eleusis,” a lyrical drama by Mr.
no thesis, twists no facts, dangles no puppets. Ledoux, may be lyrical, but it is hardly
“Moloch” is hopelessly a preachment, -propa- drama, even by the broadest and most lenient
ganda in the theatre at its worst. “War” gets definition of drama. How these musical, if
its tremendous effects by contrasting the hum- not deeply passionate, bits of song, strung to-
drum of life before the struggle with the gether by dull and monotonous stretches, could
húmdrum of life after the blow has fallen, be made effective in a theatre passes belief.
while “Moloch” shrieks and shrieks and Mr. Ledoux is only one more singer who must
shrieks, until you become hoarse listening. learn sooner or later, along with Edgar Lee
The other two translated plays are admi Masters and the rest, that Greek themes have
rable of their kind. Thoma's “Moral” is so been done and done forever, and that we have
cial satire in dramatic form, unpretentious themes of our own crying for discovery by our
but incisive, not great drama, but good poets and our playwrights. Mr. Nirdlinger
theatre. It would hardly do for an American has taken American themes, such as they are,
audience because of our inability to under for his "Four Short Plays,” but he isn't a poet
stand why the investigation of the case and the nor even a good playwright. Here is proven-
house and the guests of Ninon de Hauteville, der for vaudeville and probably for unimagin-
lady of leisure, should be dropped when the ative amateurs, but it is all artificial and
mysterious visitor on the night of the raid insincere hack work. Mr. Holley has done far
turns out to be the prince of the realm. better in his “Read-Aloud Plays,” a curious
Gogol's famous play, now translated ade- little volume of dramatic interludes, some of
quately for the first time, deserves its un which create and sustain a genuine atmos-
challenged favor for three-quarters of a pheric moment, while others seem too de-
century as the greatest Russian comedy. It is termined to prove a point. Nothing in the
theatrical, it is obvious—this mad tale of volume is better than the opening sketch,
grafting Russian officials, and of a penniless “Her Happiness," while “The Incompatibles
spendthrift traveller, who is mistaken for the is a kind of gauche Schnitzler.
There are
inspector-general and fêted and bribed to the moments in the others, too, and there is no
capacity of his pockets. But it is irresistible reason why some of the plays shouldn't reach
fun. Those who are unused to reading plays the stage in spite of the author's intention
and imagining their action may wonder at its merely to have them read.
fame, for four-fifths of the flare of “The In It is an even greater relief to turn to Ru-
spector-General” refuses to be caught on the pert Brooke's “John Webster and the Eliza-
printed page. Without the change of a line bethan Drama,” an essay with which the late
or a character, it should act in our theatre like British poet won his fellowship at King's Col-
the farce hit of the year.
lege, Cambridge, in 1913. For two years we
Another play from abroad that has indis- have known what the world of poetry lost in
putable merit, is "La Pecadora” (“Daniela”), the death of Brooke. Now we know how the
from the Spanish of Angel Guimera. Wallace world of criticism has been despoiled. A few
Gillpatrick has translated “La Pecadora" and weeks ago Miss Laurette Taylor said: “It
has brought over into English most if not all would be a shame for anyone to be a critic
of the hot and fluid passion of the original. when he might be a poet.” But there doesn't
Guimera is already known among us for his seem to be anything to prevent one from being
“Marta of the Lowlands" and "Maria Rosa, both. One can't be a poet all the time at least,
and the new play is worthy of the curiosity not a great poet. Mr. Masters's frequent lapses
aroused by its predecessors. For acting pur prove that. And a critic can't criticize all the
poses, at least with us, some of the scenes, time. Besides, true criticism demands vision


1917)
143
THE DIAL
and imagination and insight just as much as
life. The veils of romanticism were stripped away:
poetry. That Brooke had all these qualities Tragedy and Farce stood out, for men to shudder
or to roar.
in his verse has only made keener his loss.
That he knew how to apply these same quali-
That, of course, is criticism impassioned
ties to literary criticism is apparent in many sight have done in interpreting Russia and
with poetic insight. What might not that in-
pages from this often matter-of-fact essay.
His genius as a critic was here in the bud-a in kindling and leading the British and
genius that evidently called for greater matur-
American literary renaissance after the war!
ity than his poetry. But where it does break
OLIVER M. SAYLER.
through, it is unmistakable. The chapter on
the “Elizabethan Drama” is the most vivid,
most original, and most thrilling addition in A NEW LEGEND OF LEONARDO.
years to a long and distinguished body of
comment.
LEONARDO DA VINCI: A Psychosexual Study of
Speaking of Kyd and Marlowe, he says:
an Infantile Reminiscence. By Sigmund Freud.
Translated by A. A. Brill. (Moffat, Yard &
To say that they grafted the energy of popular Co.; $1.25.)
tragedy on the form of classical, would be to wrong
by a soft metaphor their bloody and vital violence.
Psycho-analysis, originating in the study of
It was rather as if a man should dash two dead babies
the morbid, and developing into a compre-
together into one strident and living being.
hensive explanation of wit and dreams and
Of the romantic comedies preceding 1600, all the unintentional movements of every day
he writes :
life, is now fairly on the way to become also
Neither in themselves, nor as a sign of the taste of a theory of genius and a philosophy of art.
the times, have they much value. Occasionally they | The Edipus story, for instance, has long been
achieve a sort of prettiness, the charm of a stage- regarded as a type of complex, a type appear-
spring or an Academy allegory of youth. And Shake-
speare threw a pink magic over them. But it should ing in such unsuspected places as Shakes-
be left to girls schools to think that the comedies peare's “Hamlet."
peare's “Hamlet.” (See “The Edipus-Com-
he obligingly tossed off exist in the same universe with plex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery:
his later tragedies. The whole stuff of this kind of
A Study in Motive," by Ernest Jones.
play-disguises, sentimentality, girls in boys' clothes,
southern romance—was very thin. It might, per-
“American Journal of Psychology,” 1910.)
haps, under different circumstances, have been worked Professor Freud illustrates the method of
up into exquisite, light, half-passionate comedy of a psycho-analysis with even more daring in a
limited kind. It did not achieve even this success.
striking study of Leonardo da Vinci and his
And then, characterízing the period, 1600-10, mysteriously smiling feminine beauties.
the height of the Elizabethan epoch, he writes : The method is briefly this: the subject
Intellect was pressed into the service of the emo unconsciously reveals his suppressed desire by
tions, and the emotions were beaten into fantastic
an apparently innocent act or word or dream;
figures by the intellect. The nature of man became
suddenly complex, and grew bitter at its own com-
the unintentional confession has biological or
plexity. The lust of fame and the desire for immor racial significance, analogies to it being found
tality were racked by a perverse hunger for only in mythology and popular superstition; and
oblivion; and the consummation of human love was the suppression of the desire is shown to be
observed to take place within the bright, black walls
of a flea. It seemed as though all thought and all
the one essential determining influence in the
the arts at this time became almost incoherent with whole career and achievement of the subject.
the strain of an inhuman energy within them, and a The complete and circumstantial array of
Titanic reaching for impossible ends. Poetry strove evidence makes the argument seem formidable
to adumbrate infinity, or, finding mysticism too mild,
to take the most secret Kingdom of Heaven by storm.
as well as astonishing.
Imagination, seeking arcane mysteries, would startle Inasmuch as the psycho-analyst always
the soul from its lair by unthinkable paradoxes. Mad finds the sex motive in some form the funda-
was curiously explored, and all the doubtful
coasts between delirium and sanity. The exultations
mental and pervasive influence in a personal-
of living were re-invigorated by the strength of a ity, Leonardo with his reputation for purity
passionate pessimism; for even skepticism in that would seem unpromising material, especially
age was fecund and vigorous, and rejoiced in the
whirling gloom it threw over life. The mind, intri-
in view of the meagre records of his emotional
cately considering its extraordinary prison of flesh, development.
development. But for Professor Freud only
pondered long on the exquisite transiency of the one clue was needed, and that was furnished
height of love and the long decomposition that death by this innocent note in Leonardo's papers :
brings. The most gigantic crimes and vices were
noised, and lashed immediately by satire, with the
“It seems that it had been destined before
too-furious passion of the flagellant. For Satire that I should occupy myself so thoroughly
flourishes, with Tragedy, at such times. The draperies with the vulture, for it comes to my mind as
of refinement and her smug hierarchy were torn away
from the world, and Truth held sway there with his
a very early memory, when I was still in the
terrific court of morbidity, skepticism, despair, and cradle, a vulture came down to me, he opened
ness


144
[February 22
THE DIAL
my mouth with his tail and struck me a few ment of the boy is significant. We are led
times with his tail against my lips."
to believe in “a causal connection between
A little reflection suggests that this strange Leonardo's childhood relations to his mother
infantile memory is an erotic recollection of and the later manifest, if only ideal, homo-
his nursing days, and that the vulture was sexuality" which Professor Freud thinks that
really his mother. But the question arises as Leonardo showed.
to the reason for this substitution of a vulture This bold statement of the theory of Leon-
for his mother. “A thought now obtrudes ardo's emotional development and nature is
itself which seems so remote that one is supported by a multitude of corroborative
tempted to ignore it. In the sacred hiero- evidences, each of which, perhaps, is incapable
glyphics of the old Egyptians the mother is of proof, but "can lay claim to so many inner
represented by the picture of the vulture.”
probabilities, it agrees so well with everything
The Egyptians also worshipped a "motherly we know besides about Leonardo's emotional
deity” with a vulture-like head, called Mut. activity that I cannot refrain from accepting
“We may question whether the sound similar it as correct.” One of these details is too
ity (sic!] to our word mother (Mutter) is important not to be mentioned here. Leon-
only accidental.” We have still to establish ardo, as is well known, did notable work in
a connection, in an age before hieroglyphics investigating the principle of flight in birds,
were understood, between Leonardo and the and he prophesied human aviation. But his
Egyptian goddess. This, however, is not so interest was only a concealed Freudian wish.
difficult as it appears. From such Greek and Children whose sexual curiosity is aroused
Latin writers as Strabo, Plutarch, Ammianus dream of flying. “Thus aviation, which has
Marcellus, Horapollo Nilus, and Hermes Tris- attained its aim in our times, has also its
megistus, we learn that the vulture was a infantile erotic roots."
symbol of motherhood. “Unexpectedly we How does this research help to explain
have now reached a point where we can take Leonardo's marvellous paintings of women ?
something as quite probable which only shortly The artist was, according to the theory, incap-
before we had to reject as absurd.” Leonardo able of loving any woman but his mother, and
being an omnivorous reader, it was quite one might have expected that the imaginative
possible that he should have been acquainted and intellectual character reflected in his
with the Egyptian fable. Among the books painting and his scientific study was deter-
he read “there was no lack of older as well mined by this detachment. But such an
as contemporary works treating of natural explanation would be too much in terms of
history. All these books were already in the mental. Professor Freud thinks that “the
print at that time.”
laughing women were nothing else but repro-
It may be worth pausing in this hasty argu ductions of Caterina, his mother, and we are
ment to remark that, with the exception of beginning to have an inkling of the possibility
Plutarch's “Lives" and one or two fragments, that his mother possessed that mysterious
the books mentioned by Professor Freud as smile which he lost, and which fascinated him
possible sources for Leonardo's vulture were so much when he found it again in the Flor-
not in print. The earliest printing of any entine lady.”
of them was the editio princeps of Strabo, As an illustration of the psycho-analytic
published in Venice in 1516, when Leonardo method, this ingenious theory, tenuously
was in France in his sixty-fourth year. More drawn, with frequent disregard for probabil-
over, Professor Freud's assumption that ity, and leading to such meagre results, is not
Leonardo was an assiduous reader of the profoundly impressive. It is too much of an
Church Fathers at a time when few among attempt to explain a personality in terms of
the Church Fathers were widely read even by the reflexes of the spinal nerve centre. As an
ecclesiastics, is highly improbable.
interpretation of the Mona Lisa it is futile
To resume the argument, it is further to say that she is nothing else but the repro-
noticeable that the vulture of Leonardo's duction of his mother by a homosexual artist;
phantasy was, like the Egyptian goddess, she was not painted so blindly, so instinctively
androgynous, and that “the nursing at the
as that.
Let us turn to Pater's familiar
mother's breast was transformed into being words: “Set it a moment beside one of those
nursed, that is into a passive act which thus white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of
gives the situation an undoubted homosexual antiquity, and how would they be troubled
character." Being an illegitimate child, by this beauty, into which the soul with all
Leonardo very probably passed his early its maladies has passed !” We begin to under-
infancy with his mother. The absence of the stand the creative ardor in the mind of the
father in this critical period of the develop-painter who was ever curious and active, both


1917]
145
THE DIAL
He ac-
mentally and emotionally,-- a child of the his story better than I thought I should. His
Italian Renaissance, but who contemplated central figure, Jasper Sedley, as a boy lacked
from afar the perfect serenity of the ancients physical courage and even as a man was con-
defuit una mihi symmetria prisca. And stitutionally unable in many cases to do what
if one wishes to know what truth is clouded he wanted to do, because he was afraid of the
in this "psychosexual investigation," in which consequences.
an intellectual and artistic career is repre The true coinage is to accept yourself,— in
sented as a "sublimated" erotic gratification, so far as you are sure you are worth accept-
he may perhaps find it in the human and ance. To be oneself, to live one's life, to
imaginative words of Leonardo himself: Cosa insist upon one's own individuality, personal-
bella mortal passa e non l'arte — fair human- | ity, or originality,-- these are familiar ideas
ity passes; art endures.
nowadays, and too often they degenerate in
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD. practice into the old-fashioned “doing as one
likes.” Sedley, with all his failure in phys-
ical courage, did not, at first, succeed in
RECENT FICTION.
trusting to his own moral nature.
cepted himself at first because he felt unable
AFRAID. By Sidney Dark. (John Lane Co.;
to do anything else, and in time, it would
$1.35.)
seem, because he almost enjoyed not being
THE THOROUGHBRED. By Henry Kitchell
what others were. It is, of course, Mr. Dark's
Webster. (Bobbs-Merrill Co.; $1.35.)
idea that he worked out something better.
THE BEETLE. By Richard Marsh. (G. P. Put-
nam's Sons; $1.50.)
Given some such idea, how should one pre-
“I am seeking only to face realities, and to
sent it? There are many soft concealments in
face them without soft concealments.” These
art even when one has no desire for them.
were the words of President Wilson not very
Mr. Dark, if I may trust a first impression,
long ago, and they won a quick response in the
relies too much on vague sentiment and too
hearts of many people, though some of the
little on creative imagination. Real as may be
responders have passed unpleasant hours
his idea, I feel a lack of reality in the way
since. To seek realities and to face them with-
he presents it. His people are too much the
characters needed to enforce his idea, too little
out soft concealments has long been one of the
aims in the world of art, and especially among
actual personalities with whom Jasper Sedley
the writers of novels. In my way of think-
chanced to come in contact. Their talk is too
ing such novels are best worth reading. True,
much the thing needed by the development of
there are times when we may well forget that the idea, too little the natural expression of
there are such things as realities. And even
the feelings they may have had. Mr. Dark
remembering that there are realities, we may
explains a good many things which, it would
sometimes take an innocent pleasure or a
seem, should have been implicit in his people's
decent satisfaction in seeing them softly con-
act and thought. More important than all
cealed. But the spirit of our day leads us to
this, the final event seems suggested by sen-
think that, in the long run, the facing of real-
timent rather than a knowledge of what life
actually is.
ity is the finer thing.
So thinks, I should say, Mr. Sidney Dark,
Mr. Henry Kitchell Webster has so often
who has written “Afraid.” Not that he is
Not that he is qualified as an expert that one needs hardly
what is called a "realist,” but we need not
to explain what he can, and what he cannot,
bother much with such ticketings nowadays.
do. He has not till lately included the effort
to face realities. In “The Real Adventure"
Mr. Dark has an idea which he wishes to pre-
sent as it is, without the concealments with
he appeared to be doing so, but I did not think
which it is often surrounded. That idea may,
he succeeded entirely. “The Thoroughbred”
perhaps, be guessed from his title. Jasper his book of last year, it will be remembered,
is a slighter rendering of a similar idea. In
Sedley lacked courage ; at least as that quality Mr. Webster presented the view that people
is usually thought of. I confess, to begin
would get on better in marriage if they rec-
with, that I do not like the idea of a man, or
ognized that each had a right to be somebody
a woman either, who lacks courage; but per- worth while. Rose Aldrich left her husband
haps that is because I do not think of courage because she wanted to make something of her-
as being merely that power of self-assertion, self. Celia Blair does not find it necessary to
physical or moral, which is very apt to be leave her husband. Her husband having lost
without fear or timidity or any other self his money, there came an impassable barrier
distrusting quality. Mr. Dark, however, has in their easy and luxurious early married life.
a somewhat similar view and so I got on with Their relations had become such that Alfred


146
(February 22
THE DIAL
thought that what she would naturally do Mr. Christian Brinton in writing of the paint-
(and the best thing to do, on the whole), ings of Zuloaga. "La nature, c'est le pré-
would be to go back to her father and mother texte; l'art est le but.” What more than a
and live comfortably while he made an effort pretext can it be when a down-and-out gets
to win back enough to go on as they had gone into a dark and deserted house and there finds
before. She surprised him by realizing what himself in the presence of a disgusting but
married life should be, by insisting that they compelling personality in bed, who forces him
could live together on anything, and also by to strip naked and then go forth on a mad
managing to do it. This is a good idea, as errand clothed only in a cloak? Can such
good as that of “The Real Adventure.” If things be? All will answer that it is of no
people do live together as Celia and Alfred manner of importance whether they can or
Blair lived, it is probable that a course of not. One expects from such a book to sup full
living in three small rooms on a small salary with horrors, not on bread and cheese or even
would be very good for them. A year or so ago on welsh rarebit and mince pie. The realistic
there was a similar pair in another novel, and situation is but the pretext; the real aim is,
in that case the man carried his family off and shall we say, art or merely thrills ?
they all lived in a cave for a year. Mr. Web Mr. Marsh probably troubled himself very
ster's couple did not live in a cave, but the little as to which it might be. He calls his
principle (and the result) was the same. Few story a mystery, and although he provides a
will quarrel with Mr. Webster's doctrine. But starting-point with a very realistic setting,
if his doctrine be sound, why admit the du- and a wind-up with a sufficiently plausible
bious in the demonstration! Celia Blair may explanation, he evidently attaches little im-
have been a thoroughbred, but the story of portance to either, nor will the reader. Once
her proceedings is by no means as thorough started we proceed with a most extravagant
even as that of her predecessor. I cannot tale in which a brilliant and rising politician,
pretend to know what can be done in furnish a remarkable scientist and ornament of high
ing a flat and living on twenty-two dollars society, an attractive daughter of an old con-
and a half a week, but I am unreasonably in- servative, and an amateur detective are
credulous of Celia's exploits. I am still more twisted about in a film-like combination of
incredulous about Alfred. If a month or so astonishing circumstances, in which we have
after utter failure he could jump from a confusion of Eastern magic, modern science,
twenty-two-fifty a week to twenty thousand a plain clamminess, and logical deductions, that
year, he must have had a very mercurial dis leaves us no time to think.
position to be led ever to imagine that he was There will be those who would like to have
down and out. The whole thing seems too a little more reality as they go on. Certainly
easy; there is too much of the superman about the characters are rather puppet-like and
it. Alfred Blair must have had the square their conversation often reminds one of the
jaw, so sure a mark to-day of the man who can fiction of a hundred years ago. Perhaps the
do big things. One feels that this is the kind mind that likes to imagine a complicated web
of story that grandma tells the children when of extraordinary excitement is really unable
she thinks that adorning a tale will also point to imagine actual men and women with suffi-
a moral. It is perhaps ungrateful to keep de cient vividness to give us much of an impres-
manding more of Mr. Webster than he may sion of them. Even the creation of actual men
choose to give. Or perhaps it is not choice; and women, acting and talking as people
perhaps he is by nature unable to see things actually do act and talk, seems a little tame
as they really are; perhaps he really does see when it gets mixed up with mesmerism and
them in a slightly iridescent mirage. But I magic, with having a great beetle come climb-
do not think that is the case. I think Mr. ing up you while you are in bed or a visitor
Webster could face realities as well as anyone. vanishing while you are talking to him. So
I think he could write good novels even if he with the reader; perhaps the reader who fol-
imitated Margaret Fuller and accepted the lows intently the dreadful possibilities of hav-
universe. They would be harder to criticize ing a person whom he likes subjected to name-
than those he writes now, but I am sure I, for less atrocities and then sacrificed to the God.
one, should like them better, though I fear dess Isis, could not appreciate the stolidity
that others in his present audience would not. and even stupidity of actual people living
There is no question of facing realities in from day to day. One's mind, perhaps, takes
“The Beetle,” whether with soft concealments in only just so much. Still, I believe I could
or without. “The Beetle” reminds me of a take in more than Mr. Marsh seems to think
remark which I saw quoted the other day by ! I could.


1917]
147
THE DIAL
Is it a purely critical affectation to feel that the author not great enough to grasp the
these books are not good because they lack opportunities of her subject, or was her inspira-
reality, because they do not try to convey the
tion exhausted, as seems to be so often the
impression of life, but are content to give an
case, by her really good opening chapters! Ev-
idea or to tell a story? What does it matter,
idently one should be thankful for the rare pleas-
ures rather than disturbed by the frequent
one may say, if you have a good idea like Mr.
disappointments of modern English fiction. The
Dark's, or a good story like Mr. Marsh's, or
child Valérie, and Valérie in the first awakening
both like Mr. Webster's,- what does it matter of love, Blaise as pawnbroker's assistant on thirty
if the characters be not absolutely like life, the shillings a week, the black-and-tan Henry, the
conversations not very natural, the general voluble, devoted Tante, and that carefree gentle-
impression not much like that of the actual man, the father of Valérie, are all things to be
world in which we live? The story is the
thankful for. The novel 'remains, in spite of
thing, after all,- or the idea is the thing. expectations unfulfilled, more than relatively good.
Is it a dry-as-dust pedantry that says the idea
“Why torture yourself with such a recapitula-
tion? Let it wait until after we are married. Give
is good or the story is good, but that the book
yourself to the present, Isabel.” What novel
is not good from the critical standpoint? I
built around these words could fail to stimulate
think not, naturally. Of course there are
popular interest? They have been the starting-
times when anybody may like to read a good point for a thousand tragedies,- in fiction. The
thriller like "The Beetle," a pretty fairy-story book which contains them is impregnated rather
like “The Thoroughbred,” a bit of sentimen. with associations and reminiscences of literature
tality like “Afraid.” But from no critical
But from no critical than of life; it would take a very great author
standpoint, from the standpoint merely of indeed to make them ring with the conviction of
common sense, I can see a considerable bar to reality. Victoria Morton, author of “The Whirl-
anything further. There is an often-quoted pool" (E. P. Dutton; $1.50), is not a great author;
she is only a good author who constructs her novel
remark of Bentley's about Pope's translation
with energy, and with an apparent feeling for
of Homer: “A very pretty poem, but you the values of fictional material. For such an
mustn't call it Homer.” Bentley was a great author, she is surprisingly melodramatic. As for
student of Greek, but he probably did not the story, it is hardly necessary to say that Isabel,
know more of Homer than most of us know of
alias Bella_Cavallo, did give herself "to the
life. And when we say, “A very pretty story,
present.” Her husband, the Judge, did not dis-
cover until their marriage was many weeks old
but you mustn't call it life," there creeps into
that Isabel was the Bella Cavallo who had come
your enjoyment a feeling that is better away. before him ten years earlier in a celebrated murder
EDWARD E. HALE. case and had been committed by him to the reform-
atory. She appeared to him for the second time
in the northern woods, a veritable angel come to
NOTES ON NEW FICTION.
rescue him from the horrors of approaching insan-
ity. Sentimentality and melodrama mar the work
The old story about a man, his ward, and the
of this author, who might, one feels sure, do some-
other man, is the theme of “Possession,” by Olive
thing better.
Wadsley (Dodd, Mead; $1.35). Valérie Sarton, In “Oh Mary Be Careful!" by George Weston
an enchanting, fair-haired waif, was deserted in (Lippincott; $i.), the memorable custom of fall-
London by a self-indulgent parent and adopted ing in love with one's patient is celebrated. Miss
perforce by the penniless Blaise Barewski, who Myra Meacham had been permanently soured by
took her to live with a genial French landlady
an unforgotten jilting on her wedding day; and
down an alley-way off Shaftesbury Avenue. Dur- consequently her will, which left fifty thousand
ing the years that followed, until her eighteenth
dollars to the pretty last-of-the-Meachams, pro-
birthday, Blaise supported her and cared for her vided that only by remaining single could Mary be
with the devotion of elder brother and mother the recipient of the fortune. Mary, quite natur-
combined. Then he discovered that he loved her, ally, chose forthwith the most impecunious man of
and upon the discovery sent her off to school in her acquaintance, the patient aforementioned, to
Paris. All this is charmingly described; the ear fall in love with,, with what result, the reader
lier part of the book marks its writer as one of who ventures to open the rather sentimental little
more than average talent and imagination. Va-volume will speedily learn. It is what the pub-
lérie's first romance and her tragic disillusionment lishers quite appropriately term “a sweet story."
are related with equal poignancy. But Valérie Huck Finn and Penrod have, between them,
deserted, spurning her lover, yet facing the future made all the other boys of fiction seem a little
without resolution and without courage, ceases to tame. Were it not for them, “Limpy," by
be real. One reads through a sort of haze of her William Johnston (Little, Brown; $1.35), would
marriage with the trusting Blaise, of her subse be a capital boy story. As it is, it runs a close
quent falterings and subterfuges and follies, of second in places, although its hero exhibits some-
her final milk-and-water repentance, and her shal thing of the lamentable "glad” mania that has
low sufferings. They lack any real bite. recently affected all the little girls of fiction.
Was


148
[February 22
THE DIAL
an interest.coloniny history delicately proven into
Limpy Randall was not actually glad that he had sympathetic reader wishes to indulge a laugh at
to wear a brace, but under the influence of his
her expense. The real awakening of her emotional
friend Mr. Jonas, the one-legged war veteran who self came when she discovered Taddeo among her
was normally, we trust, a rather jolly soul, he fellow-students. The story of their love has a
showed a disposition toward conscious cheer-giving delicacy which makes it at times lyric. (Longmans,
that was unnatural in a youngster of his age, sex, Green; $1.25.)
and general normality. Limpy learned in the end The Golden West of '82 was a different place
that being lame of body does not necessarily imply from the West of 1917, and Mary and John Harris
mental lameness, and the reader feels a genuine were different people when they set up their win-
interest in his struggles and in this final victory dowless shack out in the wilderness from Mary
over his own sensitiveness. The author has a and John the rich Canadian ranch-owners of
realistic and amusing manner of displaying his twenty-five years later. “The Homesteaders,” by
knowledge of boy nature.
Robert J. C. Stead (London: T. Fisher Unwin;
What with having to wear tight skirts a month 6s.), describes the change wrought in the spirit
after full skirts are “in,” and having to wear tango of the hardy adventurer - a change which cor-
curls after tango curls are long, long "out," and
responds to the money-grubbing spirit of the
what with trying to make the cook do her bit by
modern West. The plot concerns the daughter's
eating margarine instead of butter, and the War
revolt against Mammonism, and a daring "frame-
Office do its obvious duty in paying Zeppelin
up" on Harris, which serves to open his eyes and
insurance for the ruined ceilings when Samuel,
to create that wonderful spirit of universal for-
wandering in the impenetrable darkness prescribed
for the wary, falls over the galvanized anti-Zep-
giveness peculiar and apparently essential to final
pelin pails that line the passage — well, war is a
chapters.
difficult, dangerous, desperate affair according to
Maria. She is the heroine and chief speaker of an interesting story is the offering of Cornelia
“War Phases According to Maria," by Mrs. John Meigs in “Master Simon's Garden." While the
Lane (Lane; $1.). Maria on the subject of every story is written for the juvenile reader, it con-
thing under heaven from war hens to submarines tains enough of reality in character, plot, and set-
is a genuine comedy character, and one imagines ting to interest even an adult public. When a
that there may be not a little truth, however exag child has read it, he can boast that he has “read
gerated, in the picture of London that is reflected
a novel." (Macmillan ; $1.25.)
in her bewildered, shallow, addled intellect.
If those who are clamoring so loudly for “pre-
The heroine of “Jimmy's Wife," by Jessie
paredness" in our country would read this story
Champion (Lane; $1.25), possesses the distinction of military life, "The Duel" (Macmillan; $1.50),
of being an unknown quantity. Jimmy had mar perhaps they would analyze a little more closely
ried and subsequently separated from a lady who than usual some of the remoter consequences of
exacted the promise that he should never openly militarism. No more biting satire either of the
recognize her if they met in the future. The vil stultifying effect of "discipline," or of the officer's
lage parson's wife, who tells the story, being con character and pursuits, or of the empty misery
versant with Jimmy's past, has reason to suspect of the men, has been drawn anywhere; yet the
that two different and equally charming persons picture is not overdrawn - it bears evidence of
are in love with her friend. Which, if either, is
truth on every page. The hero, Romashov, is one
Jimmy's wife? Which, if either, does he love?
of the dreamers who abound in Russian fiction,
What will the other do about it? These are a
not at all a Hamlet, as the publishers' advertise-
few of the questions that harass the poor parson's ment proclaims him, but a soft-hearted, helplessly
wife and the reader who takes up her narrative. impractical sentimentalist, absolutely out of place
Such a sub-title as “ An Autobiographical Frag- among the self-seeking egoists and ferocious brutes
ment” cannot fail to intrigue one's interest, and who surround him in the barracks. The woman
it is not necessary to venture far into “Philoso- he loves, like all the women he meets, is hard
phy,” as Henrie Waste has pleased to entitle her and ambitious, capable of sending him to his death
"fragment,” to appreciate the genuineness of the in the duel with her husband which he long tries
revelations recorded. There is about this book a feebly to avoid. But the reader is not allowed
quality of freshness and vividness which will hold to pity Romashov; Kuprin makes him more ridic-
the general reader's interest even through the pas ulous than pitiable through an almost mercilessly
sages of philosophical analysis and research. Few witty portrayal, reminding one more of French
who read will have the same enthusiasm as the than of Russian art. Anatole France, indeed,
author had for her studies at Freiburg, but her might have been responsible for the slyly con-
enthusiasm for intellectual exploration, the struggle temptuous, the cynically revealing description of
between her intellectual self and her emotional | the camp and its inhabitants which the first chap-
self, and the gradual ascendency of the one over ters give. On the whole, however, the great
the other, are recorded with so infectious a charm Frenchman's dish is more highly seasoned than
that it is all unusually good reading. Henrie the Russian's; he could never write a popular
Waste has a rare humor and the happy faculty book, and “The Duel" may become, and deserves
of laughing at herself just when even the most to be, a popular book.


1917]
149
THE DIAL
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
moves many misconceptions. The Church, for in-
stance, has long been credited with an abiding
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE: An Introduction enthusiasm for emancipation; but the author finds
to Literary Criticism. By D. W. Rannie.
that the churchmen, who also felt the need of cheap
Dutton; $1.50.
labor, took a greater interest in the liberation of
the slaves of others than of their own. Dr. J.
The scope of Mr. Rannie's book is truly tre-
Franklin Jameson contributes a preface, in which
mendous. In a little more than three hundred
he writes with appreciation of the author and her
pages, he discusses, or mentions, everything that
lies between commas and fitness in epic poetry,
work for history.
with much extraneous matter. By consequence,
the book suffers from a rather woeful confusion
TIGER LAND. By C. E. Gouldsbury. Dutton;
and dilution of ideas. Why, for instance, should
$1.25.
sections on punctuation - which are either inade Those who read Mr. Gouldsbury's “Life in the
quate or wrong - be unequally yoked with remarks Indian Police” will need no urging to take up this
on metaphorical language which are mostly latest book of his, which deals with the chief sport-
pointlessWhat illumination is there in being ing incidents of his long life in Bengal. He is
told that chapters are either named or unnamed? an authority in his way, a man totally devoid of
Or what good can it do anybody — any beginner boastfulness, who has led an interesting, manly,
at least - to learn "fundamental" distinctions be highly useful life and now in (let us hope, pen-
tween prose and poetry which may be contradicted sioned !) middle age sits down to tell us all about
from every great classic that comes to mind? it. From the time when he went to sea as a stow-
Pearls of wisdom like the following drop freely away (and was thoroughly thrashed by half the
from Mr. Rannie's lips: “All plays require char- ship's company), his life has been one long adven-
acter-drawing; some require a great deal"; or ture, for he joined the Indian Police in Mutiny
"The Round Table' is non-metrical, 'The Table days and stayed with them until "time-expired.”
Round' is metrical; the first order is prose, the And with the possible exception of railway men in
second poetry.” It is a severe thing to say, but early construction days, and here and there a
such profundities not unfairly represent the intel forest officer or two, no man in the world may see
lectual quality of the entire book. The author's such sport as the officer of Indian Police. The
intentions are obviously good; but he really helps book is plainly written, for this is not a man who
no sort of reader or student to begin to criticize has had time to dabble in art. His own adventures
anything with just confidence and point; and he are much the best; those he relates of others, at
does not throw much light upon any of the legion second hand, bear here and there the taint of sus-
of topics he conjures up.
picion; fortunately, far the greater part of the
book is taken up with accounts of things he him-
SLAVERY IN GERMANIC SOCIETY DURING THE self saw — and very often slew. Unlike so many
MIDDLE AGES. By Agnes Mathilde Wergeland. books on “sport,” this one will not nauseate the
University of Chicago Press; $1.
reader with accounts of the butchery of helpless
Among the students of life and civilization in things. Tigers, panthers, and leopards seem to
the Middle Ages, the late Dr. Wergeland held a
have been the only animals whose execution gave
high and honored place. The circumstances of her
Mr. Gouldsbury much joy, and although he did
work as professor of history at the University of
shoot bison and ibex and a sambur now and then,
Wyoming made it difficult for her to carry any
he escapes the charge of being a butcher by a
extensive work to completion; but her occasional
very wide margin. In fact, one turns the last
contributions to journals devoted to the social
page with a feeling of contentment that there are
sciences showed that she possessed wide informa such men after all, and of hope that in spite of
tion, rare scholarship, and keen insight into the
the advertised attainments of rich modern“Nim-
life of the mediæval past. Her friends, wishing rods," his mantle of modesty and restraint may
to do something that should “aid to perpetuate
have fallen on younger shoulders. Of another
her memory in a way she would have especially generation, Mr. Gouldsbury does not pretend to
liked," decided to publish one of her more impor-
write of India, or even of Bengal, as it is to-day;
tant contributions in the form of a book, and se-
for India is changing faster than he likes, or
lected a paper on “Slavery in Germanic Society than the world likes to believe. But he tells a
during the Middle Ages,” which appeared some good story, like a gentleman who knows. More-
years ago in the “Journal of Political Economy." over, he does know. To the man in an armchair
The paper makes a small volume of 158 pages;
who asks to forget himself and be some other man,
but it is the only discussion that covers the entire
to live forty exciting years in the space of a
few hours,— he comes with the necessary spell.
field of mediæval slavery, and the only work that
Since it takes forty years of good work to learn
gives proper attention to the legal aspects of this
the secret of that spell, let us hope that, unlike
institution in the Scandinavian lands, where Ger-
the rifle recently discarded in India “for ever and
manie society persisted longest in its heathen
ever and ever," Mr. Gouldsbury has not laid down
form. Dr. Wergeland presents her materials under
his pen, but that he may write many more such
three heads: reduction into slavery, amelioration reminiscences, without an unkind word or mean
of slavery, and liberation. On all these points she thought from cover to cover but with the truth
contributes much valuable information and re and strength of that rare gift, sportsmanship.


150
[February 22
THE DIAL
a
12
CREATIVE INVOLUTION. By Cora L. Williams. only a bright and observant and firmly susceptible
Alfred Knopf; $1.50.
woman is mistress. Well drawn is the contrast
Miss Cora L. Williams is a teacher of mathe between that paradise in the Pacific, that play-
matics. Looking at the non-mathematical world ground of the world, which was annexed to the
about her has persuaded her that men and other
United States eighteen years ago, and those more
living creatures live in groups and societies and
distant, less easily assimilated islands that came
that these groups and societies have qualities under our flag about the same time. A third of
which individuals do not have. The qualities are
the book is given to the nearer and better-known
such as make societies super-individuals that bear group of islands, two-thirds to the more distant
the same relation to individuals as the body does
and still unfamiliar archipelago. The lure of
to the cells that compose it. Miss Williams seems
Hawaii exerts itself upon the reader, who is told
to have discovered this entirely by herself and she that “the temperature averages about 73 degrees.
thinks that her discovery is new. She has been
The trade winds blowing from the northeast across
so overwhelmed by it that she has acquired a
the Pacific are refreshing as well as the tiny
mystic regard for it. She calls it “creative involu showers, which follow you up and down the streets.
tion" and opposes it to “creative evolution, in
There is not a poisonous vine or a snake, or any
language which is involved, obscure, dithyrambic,
other creature more harmful than the bee." Every
sacerdotal. The mystification she achieves becomes
prospect pleases, and not even man is vile, in Mrs.
more than linguistic through her use of one of the
Anderson's pages. Philippine attractions, too, are
romantic imaginings of the mathematicians — the
not inconsiderable. Even the domestic animals
theory of a fourth dimension. Diction and Fourth
fare sumptuously, as appears from the following:
Dimension seem to have made an impression on “Pigs are kept by the Filipinos, and are put on
Mr. Edwin Markham, who writes an introduction
a raised platform for about six weeks before kill-
to the book. Those who are fond of mythology ing, so as to keep them clean and fatten them with
will find something to their taste therein.
good food. Salads, crawfish and trout, as well as
cocoanut milks, red wine and wild coffee, are
“MADEMOISELLE Miss." W. A. Butterfield;
among the things they live on." Think of it! Yet
50. cts.
it should be added that there is more than a pos-
This small volume of letters written by an Amer-
sibility that "they” refers, not to "pigs," but to
“Filipinos."
ican girl serving with the rank of lieutenant in a
French Army Hospital at the front, is one of the
most vivid contributions to war literature that the
THE SPELL OF SCOTLAND. By Keith Clark.
reviewer has read. Written as they were with no
Page; $2.50.
thought of publication, they are entirely free from Of Scottish ancestry and imbued with a true
all journalistic exaggeration or pose, unadulterated affection for his ancestral home, Mr. Clark writes
by any attempt at “fine" writing. They not only enthusiastically of “The Spell of Scotland" in the
depict the simple and undramatic routine of hos notable “Spell Series” now_numbering not far
pital life within sound of the firing line, but con- from a score of volumes. To him the Scottish
vey also an extraordinarily intimate and glowing capital, the “Empress of the North,” is “the most
sense of the spirit of the wounded and the nurses. beautiful, the most romantic, the singular city of
It is difficult for us at this distance to understand the world." To him Edinburgh is "lovely," and
that human nature is much the same in the pres-
"the chalice of romance has been lifted for cen-
ence of the nightmare horror of war - perhaps turies on the high altar of her situation." But
not quite the same either, for the conviction which Aberdeen, too, is a fair city, "a dignified and an
inspires men to risk their lives for a cause also extraordinarily clean city. Marischal College,
inspires in them a calm hardihood, even a gaiety, “founded by the Keiths, who were Earl Mari-
in the experience of physical suffering. It is this schals," naturally stirs the Keith blood in Mr.
superb note of spiritual exhilaration which char Keith Clark's veins. The chief attractions of Scot-
acterizes these letters. No one can read them with-
land are agreeably brought to our attention in the
out being profoundly moved, even chastened. The
eleven chapters of the book, even the Hebrides,
proceeds of the sale of the book go to the Amer-
but apparently not the Orkney or the Shetland
ican Fund for French Wounded. This fact is
sufficient reason why every American should buy
Islands, being included in the author's tour of the
a copy, but the exquisite" quality of this letter kingdom. Literary allusion and quotation, with a
record will be a reason for treasuring and reread- sufficiency of history for popular liking, enrich the
ing it.
descriptions, which are made more vivid still by
frequent illustrations from photographs and other
THE SPELL OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS AND sources and eight colored plates of much beauty.
THE PHILIPPINES. By Isabel Anderson. Page;
Appended is a bibliography which, without being
$2.50.
comprehensive, is so widely inclusive as to take in
Four visits to the Hawaiian Islands and an ex-
Shakespeare's “Macbeth,” Wesley's journal, Mr.
tended tour of the Philippines have qualified Mrs.
Kipling's “Puck of Pook's Hill," Black's
Anderson to write with first-hand knowledge of “Strange Adventures of a Phaëton, and other
their peculiar attractions. Her pen reproduces pieces of literature that one might not look for in
much of the atmosphere of those Pacific posses-
such a list, but is not at all displeased at finding
sions of ours, and does it in a manner of which there.
>


1917]
151
THE DIAL
9 "crit-
one
THE SOCIAL CRITICISM OF LITERATURE. By DISEASES OF OCCUPATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL
Gertrude M. Buck. Yale University Press; $1. HYGIENE. By George M. Kober and William
Miss Buck's short monograph is an attempt to
C. Hanson. Blackiston; $8.
resolve “The Muddle of Criticism” into rational The development of the modern factory system
order and end the long war of critical theories and the specialization of labor in conjunction
in the active peace of coöperation. She reduces therewith have created many new hazards and
the several kinds of criticism to three stages in dangers to the health of operatives, which result
the critical process: the critical reading and inter- in the increase, on the one hand, of well known
pretation of literature in the light of all relevant types of disease among persons employed in some
facts about it; the formulation of a body of laws occupations, and on the other, in the origin of
derived from this reading; and the ranking of new and peculiar types among employees in other
particular pieces of literature on the basis of these fields. In the present volume we find an encyclo-
discovered laws;—that is "critical reading, pædic treatment of these subjects in which the
ical theory," and "critical judgment.
“The socialization of medicine in its preventive aspects
larger criticism,” which merges in itself the criti has made such rapid progress in recent years.
cism of the various schools, has given us Everything from hammerman's to writer's cramp,
priceless possession-a vitalized, democratized con and from paraffin itch to furrier's asthma, finds
ception of literature." To the modern critic “a a place in the discussion of diseases incident to
book can never again be a barren, finished product, the extremely varied occupations into which mod-
a scholastic abstraction, but a living activity of ern industry has diversified labor. Not only the
more than writer and reader, a genuine function history and incidence of vocational diseases are
of the social body.” It is no longer art for art's given, but also their symptomology, pathology,
sake but art for life's sake. Literature is a primary and treatment. This part is written by specialists
means by which the race advances, and “the critic's of international reputation, and is designed for
function is to further this advance by facilitating physicians, medical and legal experts, and insur-
the interaction of literature with society”; his aim ance examiners desiring technical information.
is to make his expressed judgments of books thus The second part of the work deals with the cause
provocative of genuine reading rather than in any and prevention of diseases and accidents in a long
degree a substitute for it." For literature is noth list of occupations. Especial attention is given
ing to an individual till it becomes his own experi to the prevention of disease in the light of the
ence; criticism cannot be vicarious. The critic experience gained by the various state bureaus for
must “heighten the reader's conscious life by in factory and workshop inspection, state commis-
creasing his capacity to read." The reader's reac sions on occupational diseases, safety councils, and
tion to literature in his own life and in the life state and private industrial insurance bureaus.
of the community is the concern of the critic and This part is of especial value to employers, nurses,
not a dry and meaningless formulation of rules social workers, and legislators. The third part is
and degrees of excellence for the bewilderment of concerned with the legislative and administrative
an unsophisticated public.
aspects of the subject, and is designed for the
investigator, the official, and the organizer of legal
Famous SCULPTURE. By Charles L. Barstow. and social movements to control, eliminate, and
Century Co.; $1.
ameliorate the hazards to the health of the worker
The third and last in this series of elementary resulting from industry. The work has more than
art manuals follows the plan of Mr. Barstow's thirty collaborators, each a specialist in the
"Famous Pictures” and “Famous Buildings" in treatment of some form of vocational disease,
giving only general outlines and salient features. experienced in the administration of factory in-
First comes a preliminary chapter of not too tech spection or in public health service. Of general
nical instruction, then chapters on ancient sculp- | interest to social workers are the chapters dealing
ture, followed by others on medieval, renaissance, with fatigue and occupation, the use and fallacies
and modern sculpture, with a brief view of sculp- of statistics, the protection and the promotion of
ture in America and, finally, a rapid "journey women wage earners, the exclusion of minors from
through Sculpture Land” or some of the famous injurious and dangerous occupations, and effective
galleries and palaces where famous examples of legislation and administration. The chapter by
this form of art are on exhibition. A pronounc the chief editor on the etiology and prophylaxis
ing vocabulary, a glossary, and an index complete of occupational diseases has valuable discussions of
the work. The necessarily brief survey of Amer dust prevention, light, temperature, humidity,
ican sculpture confines itself, rather unaccountably, food, posture, overwork and fatigue, speeding up,
to short notices of Rinehart and St. Gaudens, welfare measures, governmental activities, housing,
with two pages of more general matter. The | hygiene, diet for laborers, alcohol and tobacco.
commendatory mention of Powers and his Greek The book is a mine of information, condensed,
Slave, without qualifying comment, is a little sur well-ordered, and authentic. It will be a useful
prising in a twentieth-century art critic, even in addition to every library accessible to working
an uncritical elementary treatise. Many half-tone men, a valuable adjunct for the physician and
illustrations, mostly small and useful only as sug- specialist in vocational diseases, and an indispen-
gestions, help to give interest to the reading sable aid to the social worker and employer inter-
matter.
ested in the betterment of the conditions of labor.
or


152
[February 22
THE DIAL
66
BRIEFER MENTION.
the American prose classics": Franklin, Irving,
Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Low-
After the lapse of thirteen years, Mr. Louis F.
ell, and Holmes. Little fault can be found with
Post presents a third edition of his "Ethics of
Professor Foerster's selection of materials. Most
Democracy" (Bobbs-Merrill; $1.50). It has a cer of the specimens, moreover, are complete; and
tain interest, of course, but mainly as an effort
some are now made accessible, in textbook form,
to steal fire from the fountains of the past to
for the first time. In one respect the volume
scarify the present. Amid the fall of systems and
suffers in comparison with Professor Page's
the clash of empires, one may be forgiven just the
anthology: it is without biographical sketches of
suspicion of a smile when one reads that “where the authors represented; but in all other par-
that [the land monopoly) flourishes, equal rights
ticulars the editing has been admirably done.
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are Unwritten dictionaries still offer occupation a-
inevitably overthrown." Yet, despite sectarianism, plenty to lexicographers. One of these hitherto
Mr. Post redeems himself by a pervasive spirit of uncompiled lexicons suggested itself twenty-two
love for human kind. Had his intellect something years ago to an alert and receptive intelligence,
of the insight of his emotions, his book would be and the result is that we have to-day Wilstach's
less exasperating. Nevertheless, it contrives to “Dictionary of Similes" (Little, Brown; $2.50)
be an excellent irritant.
to the exceeding joy of all lovers of the pithy
There is an undeniable charm in "The Flower-
and the piquant in verbal expression. All the
Patch Among the Hills," by Flora Klickmann,-
world knows the phrase, “as handy as a pocket in
sketches of garden making and housekeeping on
a shirt" (where, in fact, a pocket would be
the crest of a hill above the river Wye, overlook- decidedly unhandy); but how much more pictur-
ing Tintern Abbey. They are the sort of thing esque, more undeniably apt, is Mr. Wilstach's
which will appeal to those in whom the love of simile, "as handy as a poker in hell”! “As dis-
gardens is an instinct, and they will supply many
honest as a gas meter,” as friendless as an alarm
a pleasant hour with homely gossip. It is not a clock," and *as shy as a submarine” are other
book for the expert garden enthusiast, for it
pregnant examples. “As busy as a one-armed
occupies itself entirely with the chatter inspired by
paper-hanger with the hives” will appeal to any-
the riot and quaintness of cottage gardens. Had
one who has ever attempted mural decoration with
the author been content to confine her writings to
paste and paper in a frame of mind or body that
her garden and omitted the lengthy passages which
did not admit of undivided application to the task
deal with unwelcome visitors, the interest of the
in hand.
book would have been uninterrupted. She writes As every reader of Mr. Galsworthy knows, Eng-
best of what she loves best, and flowers rather than lish society possesses a "system.” To see it to
humanity are her happiest inspiration. (Stokes; full advantage, one must see it from the inside.
$1.50.)
No better guide could be found than the Right
The lore of rings from the earliest known times
Hon. George W. E. Russell, the son of a Lord, the
to the present day is exhaustively chronicled in
grandson of a Duke, and, in addition, himself a dis-
George Frederick Kunz's handsome volume
tinguished figure in public life on his own merits.
"Rings" (Lippincott; $6.50).
$6.50). The author has
In his “Portraits of the Seventies” (Scribner;
handled a large amount of detailed information
$3.75) he has presented recollections of the leaders
in such a way as to make it most easily available
of Victorianism, when Victorianism was at its
for those interested in any particular feature of
zenith. It would be difficult to find a more enter-
the subject. He has treated the origin of rings, taining, even enthralling volume. It is replete with
the several purposes of ring wearing, and the vari-
anecdote, "inside" information, and first-hand
ous methods and fashions in wearing. Special appreciation of such political leaders as Lord
chapters are devoted to the materials of which
Beaconsfield, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Hartington, Mr.
rings were fashioned in ancient times, to signet
Chamberlain, Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr.
rings, interesting historic rings, betrothal and
Bright, and Lord Salisbury; of social grandees
wedding rings and love tokens, the religious use
like the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland; of
and significance of rings, the magic virtues of
great physicians, great poets, and great church-
rings, the use of rings in healing, and present-
men. No more interesting view of English society
day ring making. The volume is elaborately illus-
is available, and it is far better reading than many
trated with 290 cuts in color, doubletone, and line.
novels.
"The Chief American Prose Writers," edited by Dr. Nicolas P. Aghnides, recently a pupil of
Norman Foerster (Houghton Mifflin; $2.), is a Professor E. R. A. Seligman at Columbia Univer-
companion volume to Professor C. H. Page's "The sity, is a Mohammedan by birth and sympathy,
Chief American Poets"; and like it, is intended although a “Christian” by education. In his
primarily for use with college classes. It brings “Mohammedan Theories of Finance, with an Intro-
together a total of thirty-eight selections from the duction to Mohammedan Law and a Bibliography"
works of the nine American writers whom the (Columbia University Press), he aims to set
editor holds to have become, “by common consent, forth “for Christian readers” an impartial discus-


1917]
153
THE DIAL
to render to readers such services as
sion of certain Mohammedan institutions. The
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES.
essay is planned to appear in two volumes. The
first volume is now available. This elaborate and The Editors will be pleased to answer inquiries or
unique book of more than 500 pages is the work
are possible.
of a true scholar, however limited its appeal. It
Auction prices paid by Mr. R. H. Dodd at the
appears that the most striking feature of Moham-
medan financial theory is its distinctly dual nature.
recent sale of duplicate rarities from the library
of Mr. Henry E. Huntington, in the American
Public revenue is sharply divided into religious
Art Association's salesrooms, New York, were:
and secular sorts, with many devious and some-
$475 for Robert Johnson's “Nova Britannia"
times amusing complications. Certain kinds of
(Virginia), London, 1609; $950 for an uncut first
property are religious, and the payment of rev edition of John Lechford's “Newes from New Eng-
enue on this kind of property is a religious cere land,” London, 1642.
mony. The secular taxes are a purely civil obliga Mr. L. C. Harper took Mourt's “Journall of
tion, for the collection of which entirely different the English Plantation setled at Plimoth in New
machinery is set in motion.
England," London, 1622, and the E. D. Church
There are many stimulating ideas contained in copy of another story of the same colony, “written
“The Judgment of the Orient” (Dutton; 60 cts.).
by a reverend divine now there resident," London,
The book consists of remarks on the war made by
1630, for $2150 and $1500. The Rosenbach Co.,
K’ung Yuan Ku'suh, edited and translated by booksellers, of Philadelphia, paid $7460 for six
Ambrose Pratt. The opinions recorded bave a
items in the same sale, among them “The New
rapier-like penetration and cannot fail to be a
Life of Virginia,” a continuation of Johnson's
source of satisfaction to those who have the cause
“Nova Britannia," at $2200, and Peckham's "True
of the allies at heart. A few of them are: “The
Reporte of the late discoveries of the Newfound
Germans have large and highly cultivated brains, Sir Humfrey Gilbert Knight," London, 1583, at
Lands by that valiant and worthy Gentleman,
small and imperfectly developed minds." “The
$2950. Only two copies of this first printed book
Italians seem to me an old race a race that has
on Newfoundland have appeared in the auction
matured its every faculty and allowed some of
rooms in a century, besides the present one.
its finer spiritual attributes to mortify.” To Mr. George D. Smith, bookseller, was a heavy
France: “Do not ask for pity. Your right is to purchaser of other rarities at the same sale. Nine
be praised.” “The Russian people can be humbled of Captain John Smith's well-known chronicles of
only by their kind.” Of the soul of England: Virginia and New England, and of his interior
“It is a humane and human soul, a soul that pas travels and adventures, in Europe, Asia, and
sionately desires justice, and is anxious, on its Africa, went to Mr. Smith for a total of $12,725.
part, to be just. “Did you know that souls The aggregate yield of 308 items from Mr. Hunt-
have sex as well as stature? The soul of England ington's unneeded collector's stock, at the two
is not hermaphroditic: it is intensely, arrogantly
sessions of January 24 and 25, was $107,784.50.
masculine." "The psychological genesis of the war An Arabic manuscript on medicine of the 16th
between Germany and Europe is sexual.”
century was a feature of a collection of miscella-
neous books sold by The Anderson Galleries, East
A set of three small volumes by Dr. Bernard
40th Street, New York, on February 1 and 2. It
Hollander of London offers a useful introduction
was written on paper with curious ornaments in
for the comprehension of the mental ills that mind
varied colors, 16mo, and had a contemporary
is heir to. The volumes are devoted to “The
native binding in black morocco with blind tool-
Nervous Disorders of Men," "The Nervous Dis-
ings, flap and leather tie.
Eastern manuscripts
orders of Women,” and “Abnormal Children"
on medicine are very rare in the American trade.
(Dutton; $1.25 each). While not notable in form Other features of the same auction sale, which
or treatment, they will serve as a survey of the field comprised 634 highly varied numbers, crept rather
in intelligible analysis and description. Keeping closer to ourselves by easy stages. So, for
fairly away from the pronounced insanities, they example, a French version with music supplements,
cover the functional liabilities: the fears, despon of “Azalais and the Gentle Aimar,” a Provençal
dencies, loss of control, insomnia, exhaustion, dis- story, in 12mo, half morocco, Paris, An VII
qualifications, and minor ailments. Methods of (1799); or again, Marco Polo's “Travels” in an
treatment through mental appeal and a proper
English translation, quarto, panelled gilt calf, car-
regimen are set forth, and illustrative cases
mine edges, London, 1818; the Copenhagen Ice-
appended. The volume upon abnormal children
landic and Latin edition of “The Edda" by the
ablest specialists of 1787 to 1828, 3 volumes, 4to,
naturally follows a different course, and deals
with defect, the dangers of development, the pre- Copenhagen, 1848-52.
half morocco, and a newer one in 2 volumes, 8vo,
cocities and instabilities of temperament. Dr.
Dr. Americanists were rival bidders for a fine copy
Hollander is an adherent of a revived and scien-
of Schoolcraft's “Archives of Aboriginal Knowl-
tifically revised doctrine of localization, similar to edge,” illustrated with hundreds of plates, and
the phrenological assumptions; but this aspect of covering a wide range of Indian lore and history,
his convictions only occasionally mars the per 6 volumes, 4to, brown cloth gilt, a few plates
spective of his presentations.
spotted, Philadelphia, 1860.
99


154
(February 22
THE DIAL
Art group.
There were also sixteen first edition numbers of
NOTES AND NEWS.
Andrew Lang's works, a fair showing of Thack-
eray and other standard writers, and twelve good The latest novel of Frances Hodgson Burnett,
Whitman numbers. The writer coveted a fine copy "The White People,” is a recent announcement of
on handmade paper of 300 etched reproductions Messrs. Harper & Brothers.
of paintings by Hals, Goya, and leading modern Macmillans announce for spring publication,
French masters, 3 volumes, royal 8vo, Paris, 1873, among other fiction in a large list, novels by Ernest
more than many other numbers in the History of Poole, Jack London, St. John G. Ervine, and
Another might have fastened upon Eden Phillpotts.
Francis Parkman's works in Little, Brown and Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co. announce a new
Co's. Boston edition, 12 volumes, 12mo, half dark novel by Joseph Conrad for spring publication.
green morocco, gilt top, or Fourier's “Passions of The title is “The Shadow Line," and has reference
the Human Soul,” etc., 14 volumes of religious to the boundary between youth and age.
miscellany, London and New York, 1840-51, or Messrs. Small, Maynard & Co. will publish on
on Brathwait's “Law of Drinking," New Haven, February 24: “The Best Short Stories of 1916,"
1903. A bronze bust of Balzac on a bad mahogany edited by Edward J. O'Brien; “White Fountains,"
base of pyramidoidal form and a finely modelled by Edward J. O'Brien, and “The Middle Pastures,"
life-size female hand, a studio bronze of Italian by Mathilde Bilbro.
workmanship emerged from a batch of library
The first novel from Robert Hichens in three
ornaments to be sold with these queer survivals
years is announced for publication on February
and costly books.
28, by the Frederick A. Stokes Co. Its title is
Collectors of Americana will not fail to profit “The Wilderness," and the scenes are laid in Eng-
by the notable sale that is about to open at the land and in the Near East.
American Art Galleries, New York, as this par A significant volume in the literature of architec-
agraph is written. The libraries of Dr. O. 0.
ture is the recently announced "Six Lectures on
Roberts of Northampton, Mass., and of Mr.
Architecture,” by Ralph Adams Cram, Thomas
Leonard Benedicks of New York, with some “rare Hastings, and Claude Bragdon. It is a University
New Jersey historical items” (as the catalogue of Chicago Press publication.
says) from the library of the late Hon. Garret D. Romain Rolland's monograph on Beethoven, in
W. Vroom, of Trenton, N. J., are to go to suc a translation by Dr. Eaglefield Hull, has just been
cessful bidders. Among early publications is to published by Messrs. Henry Holt and Co. Dr.
be noted especially this rarity: "The First Prin Hull has added, as an appendix, an analysis of
ciples of New England Concerning the Subject of the quartets, symphonies, and sonatas.
Baptisme and Communion of Churches. Collected
Early publications of Messrs. J. B. Lippincott
partly out the Printed Books, but chiefly out of and Co. are: “The Practical Book of Outdoor Rose
the Original Manuscripts of the First and chiefe
Growing," by George C. Thomas, Jr.; "The Book
Fathers in the New-English Churches; With the
of the Peony,”. by Mrs. Edward Harding; “The
judgment of Sundry Learned Divines of the Con-
Chosen People," by Sidney L. Nyburg.
gregational Way in England, Concerning the said
Miss Nellie R. Taylor of Philadelphia wrote
Questions. Published for the Benefit of those who
more than a thousand letters to soldiers in the
are of the Rising Generation in New England. By
trenches by way of aid and encouragement to the
Increase Mather, Teacher of a Church in Boston
allied cause.
The answers are to be published in
in New England. Cambridge. Printed by
book form on April 5th, by Mr. Robert J. Shores.
Samuel Green, 1675 Where shall we find a
“Vesprie Towers," a posthumous novel by
quainter, more characteristic title-page than the
Theodore Watts-Dunton, is to be published Feb-
one here copied in part only! Five copies of this
ruary 23, by the John Lane Co. “Afternoon,"
rare work have been offered at public sale in
by Emile Verhaeren, and “The Gay Life," by
America, the last being that sold in the Charles Keble Howard, are to be published on the same
Deane collection, 1898.
day.
Wellesley College has received, for its depart Messrs. E. P. Dutton and Co. announce for im-
ment of English literature, two books that would mediate publication the following books: “A
rejoice the heart of any collector. Miss Adele Student in Arms," by Donald Hankey; "Only a
Lathrop, a former instructor in the department, Dog,” by Bertha Whitridge Smith; "The High-
is the generous giver; and the books are Lamb's wayman," by H. C. Bailey; "Surnames," by
“Elia" in the original edition of 1823, with the Ernest Weekley.
sub-title, “Essays which have appeared under that An addition to the “See America First" series
signature in the London Magazine,” and Joseph published by the Page Co. is announced in
Glanvill's “Vanity of Dogmatizing" (1661). It « Arizona, the Wonderland," by George Wharton
was in August, 1820, that Lamb's first Elian essay James. “The Girl from the Big Horn Country,"
appeared in the above-named magazine — the by Miss Mary E. Chase, is scheduled for publica-
essay entitled, “Recollections of the South Sea tion in March, by the same company.
House." To have that sketch and the other twenty Another poetry magazine is announced in “The
four that went with it is to have a prize indeed. Sonnet,” of 201 East Twelfth Street, New York
Glanvill (or Glanvil, as it is often written) is City. It is to be edited by Mahlon Leonard Fisher
thought to have anticipated the electric telegraph at Williamsport, Penn. Neither prose nor any-
and Hume's theory of causation.
thing that savors of criticism, editorial or con-


1917)
155
THE DIAL
"Mademoiselle Miss'
99
Letters from an American girl serving
with the rank of Lieutenant in a French
Army Hospital at the front.
Dr. Richard C. Cabot says in his
preface to this little book :
“The record is one of the most inti-
mate and holy things which have been
saved for our comfort out of the whirl-
pool of embattled Europe. I find in
these letters some fragment of true
atonement for the huge sin and blunder
of the war."
“This brief record of some of those lights and darks
shows not only what she does for her wounded and
what her loving care of the wounded has done for
her; it shows, too, the operation in a crisis of typical
American resourcefulness and enthusiasm."-BOSTON
TRANSCRIPT.
“These letters are not conscious literature but quiv-
ering life. They are flung from the ends of her
tingling nerves on to bits of paper, in the burning
bloody midst of most tragic and heroic scenes. Noth-
ing equal to them in brilliancy, poignancy and power
has come from the European War region to any
periodicals."-METHODIST REVIEW.
Published for the benefit of the
American Fund for French Wounded
PRICE 50 CENTS
On sale at leading booksellers or at the publishers,
W. A. BUTTERFIELD
59 BROMFIELD STREET
BOSTON
tributed, is to be published, and sonnets will be
given a decided preference.
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons have issued
under the title, “The Pangerman Plot Unmasked,
a translation of M. André Chéradame's study of
German ambitions and the causes that brought
on the war. The French version was reviewed by
Mr. Laski in THE DIAL of February 8.
David Graham Phillips's posthumous novel,
“Susan Lenox,” is to be published in two volumes
on February 23, by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co.
Mr. Phillips is said to have spent ten years in
writing the novel, which has just completed its
serial appearance in one of the magazines.
Hanns Heinz Ewers, who has been called “the
German Poe” because of his ability in writing
highly imaginative literature, is the author of a
study of Edgar Allan Poe soon to be published by
Mr. B. W. Huebsch. The book is said to be not
only a study of Poe but a “criticism of those who
view art through the spectacles of morality."
Immediate publications of the Houghton Mifflin
Co. are: “Getting Together," by Ian Hay; "The
Way of the Wind," by Eugenia B. Frothingham;
“The Long Journey," by Elsie Singmaster; “Out
Where the West Begins," by Arthur Chapman;
“At Suvla Bay," by John Hargrave; “Lord
Stowell," by E. S. Roscoe; "Shelley in England,"
by Roger Ingpen, and "William Orne White," by
Eliza Orne White.
Mr. A. S. Neill, whose “confessions” appeared
in “A Dominie's Log," is to reveal himself further
in “A Dominie Dismissed," to be published in the
near future by Messrs. Robert M. McBride & Co.
Another recent announcement of the same company
is “The Torch Bearers of Bohemia," by V. I.
Kryshanovskaya, who was recently awarded hon-
orable mention by the Imperial Academy of
Sciences at Petrograd.
With the February issue, Mr. G. G. Wyant took
charge of the “Bookman,” as editor. The policy
of the magazine has been changed and forthcom-
ing issues are to include articles on politics, sociol-
ogy, and the war, in addition to literature and
art. An editorial announcement states that an
effort will be made, however, “to maintain the liter-
ary and bookish flavor” which has characterized
the magazine in the past.
What promises to be an extraordinary contribu-
tion to the literature of psychical research is an-
nounced by the George H. Doran Co. in Sir Oliver
Lodge's book “Raymond: or Life and Death."
Sir Oliver presents evidence in this volume to sup-
port his belief that his son, killed in battle over
a year ago, is still in communication with friends
of his terrestrial life.
Lord Ribbesdale has written a memoir of his
second son, Charles, for a volume entitled "Charles
Lister; Letters and Recollections” which has
recently come from the press of T. Fisher Unwin
(London). Charles Lister died in hospital of
wounds received in the Gallipoli campaign in
August, 1915, at the age of twenty-eight. After
Eton he went to Balliol and then entered the dip-
lomatic service, being stationed at Rome and later
at Constantinople.
Hygiene in Mexico
ALBERTO J. PANI
A Study of Sanitary and
Educational Problems
12º. $1.50 net. (By Mail $1.60)
An investigation by the Ex-Director
General of Public Works in the City of
Mexico by the express order of Carranza.
M. Pani says:
“The purpose of this
book is to expose one of the least known,
most nefarious, and shameful inherit-
ances of the past, in order that it may
be
uprooted with the most intense energy
of which Government and society in gen-
eral is capable."
At all Booksellers.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK
2 West 45th St.
Just West of 5th Ave.
LONDON
24. Bedford Street
Strand


156
[February 22
THE DIAL
“AT MCCLURG'S”
It is of interest and importance
to Librarians to know that the
books reviewed and advertised
in this magazine can be pur-
chased from us at advantageous
prices by
Public Libraries, Schools,
Colleges and Universities
In addition to these books we
have an exceptionally large
stock of the books of all pub-
lishers - a more complete as-
sortment than can be found on
the shelves of any other book-
store in the entire country. We
solicit correspondence from
librarians unacquainted with
our facilities.
LIBRARY DEPARTMENT
A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago
THE DIAL
a fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism,
Discussion, and Information
Published by
THE DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
608 South Dearborn Street, Chicago
Telephone Harrison 3293
GEORGE BERNARD DONLIN
TRAVIS HOKE
Editor
Associate
MARTYN JOHNSON
WILLARD C. KITCHEL
President
Sec'y-Treas.
THE DIAL (foundeà in 1880 by Francis F.
Browne) is published fortnightly — every other
Thursday — except in July and August, when but one
issue for each month will appear.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION:— $3. a year in
advance, postage prepaid in the United States and its
possessions, Canada, and Mexico. Foreign postage,
50 cents a year extra. Price of single copies, 15 cents.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Subscribers may have
their mailing address changed as often as desired.
In ordering such changes, it is necessary that both
the old and new addresses be given.
SUBSCRIPTIONS are discontinued at the expira-
tion of term paid for unless specifically renewed.
REMITTANCES should be made payable to THE
DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, and should be in
the form of Express or Money Order, or in New
York or Chicago exchange. When remitting by per-
sonal check. 10 cents should be added for cost of
collection.
ADVERTISING RATES sent on application,
Entered as Second-class matter Oct. 8, 1892, at the
Post Office at Chicago, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Just Published
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
SHELLEY
IN ENGLAND
[The following list, containing 117 titles, includes
books received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
By
Roger Ingpen
A new and notable bio-
graphic study based on un-
published material of the first
importance hitherto with-
held by the Shelley family.
The existence of this valu-
able manuscript material has
long been known to lovers
of Shelley, and its publica-
tion eagerly awaited.
Nlustrated from photographs and fac-
similes. 2 vols. Boxed. $5.00 net.
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES.
The Life of Ulysses S. Grant. By Louis A. Coolidge.
With frontispiece, 12mo, 596 pages. Houghton
Mifflin Co. $2.
François Villon. By H. De Vere Stacpoole. 12mo,
258 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.
Beethoven. By Romain Rolland. Illustrated, 12mo,
244 pages.
Henry Holt & Co. $1.50.
Makers of the Nineteenth century. Edited by
Basil Williams. Herbert Spencer. By Hugh
Elliot. With frontispiece, *12mo, 330 pages.
Henry Holt & Co. $2.
Makers of the Nineteenth century. Porfirio Diaz.
By David Hannay. With frontispiece, 12mo, 319
pages. Henry Holt & Co. $2.
Russell H. Conwell and His Work. By Agnes Rush
Burr. Illustrated, 12mo, 438 pages. The John
C. Winston Co. $1.35.
Seven Years at the Prussian Court. By Edith Keen.
With frontispiece, 8vo, 315 pages.
John Lane
Co. $3.
ESSAYS AND GENERAL LITERATURE.
The Hidden Happiness. By Stephen Berrien
Stanton. 12mo, 231 pages. Charles Scribner's
Sons. $1.25.
Great Inspirers. By Rev. J. A. Zahm. 12mo, 271
pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50.
William Wordsworth. By George McLean Harper.
Illustrated, 2 vols., 8vo, 441-451 pages. Charles
Scribner's Sons. $6.50 per set.
Virgil's Gathering of the Clans. By Warde Fowler.
12mo, 96 pages. Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.20.
The Youth of Vergil. By R. S. Conway. 8vo, 28
pages. Longmans, Green, & Co. Paper, 20 cts.
Some Notes on Shakespeare's Stage and Playı. By
William Poel. 8vo, 17 pages. Longmans, Green,
& Co. Paper, 40 cts.
Houghton Mifflin Company
4 Park St., Boston
16 E. 40th St., New York


1917]
157
THE DIAL
“A BOOK THAT COUNTS”
Learn to
Figure Faster
The demands of the day require it
This book presents a new time-saving system
which eliminates the drudgery of cumbersome cal.
culations. The methods comprising the Prewett
System, which is fully explained and illustrated in
"Learn to Figure Fast" are not experimental but
the result of many years of practical work along
mathematical lines.
“Learn to Figure Fast" will be invaluable to
everyone who uses figures in business or private
life.
“The author is to be complimented on the clear.
ness of his short cut methods. The book will be
very valuable to accountants, teachers, and business
men, enabling them to reach conclusions by the
shortest methods.”—The Educational Monthly.
"I find that it contains many new and valuable
short methods for handling numbers. I can cheer.
fully recommend the book to anyone whose business
calls upon him to use figures in any way that calls
for decided rapidity of operation.”—P. W. Horn,
Sup't, Houston Public Schools.
Sent post free on receipt of $1.00 or C. O. D. for
$1.10. Circular free.
Address:
E. C. ROBERTSON
General Salesman
1408 Prairie Avenue, Houston, Texas
In
Great Companions. By Edith Franklin Wyatt.
12mo, 363 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50.
The Science of Poetry and the Philosophy of Lan-
guage. By Hudson Maxim. With frontispiece,
8yo, 294 pages. Funk & Wagnalls Co. $2.50.
School-Day Philosophy. By R. G. Cholmeley-Jones.
12mo, 81 pages. John Lane Co. 50 cts.
Sir Sidney Lee's New Edition of a Life of William
Shakespeare. Some words of criticism. By Sir
George Greenwood. 8vo, 52 pages. John Lane
Co. 50 cts.
The Celtic Dawn. By Lloyd R. Morris. 12mo, 251
pages. Macmillan Co. $1.50.
Shelley in England. By Roger Ingpen. Illustrated,
2 vols., 8vo, 711 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
$5. Set.
FICTION.
Mendel. By Gilbert Cannan. 12mo, 445
pages.
George H. Doran Co. $1.50.
The Wave. By Algernon Blackwood. 12mo, 380
pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50.
The Stories of H. C. Bunner. “Short Sixes," The
Suburban Sage. With frontispiece, 12mo, 320
pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.35.
The Stories of H. C. Bunner. More “Short Sixes,"
The Runaway Browns. 12mo, 377 pages. Charles
Scribner's Sons. $1.35.
Thorgils. By Maurice Hewlett. 12mo, 206 pages.
Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.35.
A Soldier of Life. By Hugh de Selincourt. 12mo,
326 pages.
Macmillan Co. $1.50.
Bittersweet. By Grant Richards. 12mo, 403 pages.
Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.40.
Gullible's Travels, Etc. By Ring W. Lardner.
Frontispiece, 12mo, 256 pages. Bobbs-Merrill
Co. $1.25.
Our Next-Door Neighbors. By Belle K. Maniates.
Illustrated, 12mo, 280 pages. Little, Brown &
Co. $1.35.
The Man Next Door. By Emerson Hough. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 310 pages. D. Appleton & Co.
$1.50.
Mag Pye. By The Baroness Von Hutten. 12mo,
357 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50.
The Gay Life. By Keble Howard. 12mo, 315 pages.
John Lane Co. $1.30.
the Wilderness. By Robert Hichens. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 583 pages. Frederick A.
Stokes Co. $1.50.
Lydia of the Pines. By Honoré Willsie. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 357 pages. Frederick A.
Stokes Co. $1.40.
Joan. By Amelia E. Barr. With frontispiece,
12mo, 325 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50.
The Stars in their Courses. By Hilda M. Sharp.
12mo, 445 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50.
The Adventures of Jimmie Dale. By Frank L.
Packard. 12mo, 468 pages. George H. Doran
Co. $1.35.
Birth of Universal Brotherhood. By Anna Ratner
Shapiro. Frontispiece, 12mo, 268 pages. Burton
Pub. Co. $1.35.
VERSE, DRAMA, AND ART.
Songs of Ukraina. By F. Randall Livesay. 12mo.
175 pages.
E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50.
Mogu the Wanderer or The Desert. By Padraic
Colum. 12mo, 115 pages. Little, Brown & Co.
$1.
Afternoon. By Emile Verhaeren. 12mo, 77 pages.
John Lane Co. $1.
The Collected Poems of John Russell Hayes. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 484 pages. The Biddle Press.
$2.
The Broken Wing. By Sarojini Naidu. 12mo, 120
pages. John Lane Co. $1.25.
Out Where the West Begins. By Arthur Chapman.
12mo, 92 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25.
The Religious Poems of Lionel Johnson. With a
Preface by Wilfrid Meynell. 12mo, 70 pages.
Macmillan. $1.
“All's Well." By John Oxenham. 12mo, 165 pages.
George H. Doran Co. $1.
Across the Threshold. By Baron Vane. 12mo, 144
pages. Harold McNair. $1.50.
A Woman Free. By "Ruth." 12mo, 72 pages. J. F.
Rowny Press.
75 cts.
Oxford Poetry. By W. R. C., T. W. E., and A. L. H.
12mo, 60
pages. Longmans, Green, & Co.
Paper, 36 cts.
The Lure of the Desert and Other Poems. By
Madge Morris. With frontispiece, 12mo, 122
pages. Harr Wagner Pub. Co.
Three Welsh Plays. By Jeanette Marks. 12mo,
87 pages.
Little, Brown & Co. $1.
"The Death Warrant
of the Hohenzollerns”
A
T Ems in 1870, Bismarck signed the
death warrant of the Hohenzol-
lerns. By fraud and forgery the
French were tricked into war, and forty
years of hatred and the disasters growing
out of 1914 may all be traced to the brain
which conceived and perpetrated that in-
iquity at a little round table at Varzin.
If you would understand many of the
dark points hinted at in the day's news
read The Provocation of France, by Jean
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158
[February 22
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1917]
159
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160
[February 22, 1917
THE DIAL
Makers of the 19th Century
Biographies of men of all countries
who have had a definite influence on the
nineteenth century.
Octavo. With Frontispiece. Each $2.00 net
HERBERT SPENCER By Hugh Elliot
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without special education, without health,
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all thinking people; that he led the chief
controversies on Evolution and Biology
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ogy of his century, without any acquain-
tance with the works of his predecessors,
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science of Sociology in England; that in
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he was recognized as a leader; that he
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THE DIAL
A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
Vol. LXII.
MARCH 8, 1917
No. 737.
NEW FORMS OF SHORT FICTION.
CONTENTS.
NEW FORMS OF SHORT FICTION. Henry
B. Fuller
167
LORD DUNSANY: AN IMPRESSION. Ernest
A. Boyd
170
LITERARY AFFAIRS IN FRANCE. Theodore
Stanton
171
CASUAL COMMENT
174
An
octogenarian author's honors. - The
last of the Concord immortals.—The John
Cassell centenary.-Indexing extraordinary.
-An author's confession.—Censorship in
Holland.-Books that might have been.
176
COMMUNICATIONS
Realistic History. Archibald Henderson,
Mexico. Caspar Whitney:1. J. Cox.
Mr. Wells. Erving Winslow.
Ten “Real” War Books. René Kelly.
POETRY IN AMERICA.
Conrad Aiken
179
.
The conditions under which the acted
drama has been produced in different ages
have come to be pretty well understood. The
Greek theatres, however shattered and frag-
mental, have had their general dispositions
made clear. Molière's data—his four trestles
and a passion, along with a court audience
are fully comprehended. The Elizabethan
stage, thanks to the studies of Mr. J. Brander
Matthews and others, has issued from the
dusk of conjecture—and from the deeper dusk
of ignorance which did not even realize that
there was anything in particular to conjecture
about. It is now clearly understood that the
details of playwriting and of play-producing
have been greatly conditioned everywhere by
the mere physical and mechanical means of
publicity.
Some similar effort might be made on be-
half of fiction, ought to be made, in fact, if
the character and aspect of much of the light
reading of to-day is properly to be appre-
hended and appraised. How, in fact, have the
modern equivalents for the choral altar and
the inn courtyard, so to speak, made their in-
fluence felt? The fiction of the daily news-
paper, of some of the weekly periodicals, even
that of the movies,” will be seen in a differ-
ent and juster light if the conditions govern-
ing publication are more clearly kept in view.
The serial published in monthly instalments
somehow still holds its place. It seems the
lineal descendant of those novels by Dickens
and Thackeray which, during the '40's, first
saw the light in monthly "parts." In days
when the stately quarterlies held the first
place in the public attention and esteem, the
month did not seem a large unit of time. But
the weekly and the daily have made the month
a small eternity. The monthly serial still
lumbers along, but its goal seems all the time
to be the bound volume or book publication.
In one of these forms the magazine serial
reconquers, in this day of short-breathed
haste, its interrupted continuity, overcomes
the disjointing of its consecutiveness.
The most striking example of fiction con-
PSYCHOLOGY AND WAR. Joseph Jastrow
182
A BOOK OF MASKS. James Weber Linn .
184
.
THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM. Edward
Eyre Hunt
185
PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY. Helen A. Clarke 187
RECENT FICTION. Edward E. Hale
189
•
191
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
Cotton as a World Power.-The Founda-
tions of Germany.-Essays in War Time.-
Spanish Exploration in the Southwest.—The
Sexes in Science and History.—The Confes-
sions of a Hyphenated American.—The Book
of Boston.
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES
193
NOTES AND NEWS
195
.
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
196


168
[March 8
THE DIAL
ditioned by method of publication is to be tent serial founded on the doings and adven-
found in the daily press. This type of fiction tures of a single individual: the biographical
concerns itself most with the hitches and type. This individual is frequently a detec-
drawbacks of married life. One distressful
One distressful tive, more important or less important, whose
couple, with subordinate figures and occa doings (or triumphs; they are the same) rest
sional simple changes of scene, quite suffices. on a basis blandly ratiocinative or speciously
Marion and Wilbur appear daily, to the ex scientific. Recently the central figure of such
tent of a column or so. The wife may be a series has come to be, with frequency, a
flighty and extravagant, the husband grave woman a girl who moves through Western
and patient. Or Wilbur may be dogged, un scenes as a kind of brash, self-confident special
gracious, inconsiderate, and Marion sensitive providence; or an elderly woman (English
and plaintive. Thus through every week-day preferred) who composedly circulates as a
of the year, with each section of the story more globe-trotter through the wild waste spaces
or less independent and self-sufficing You of the earth and sets things right when the
go off for a week to New York, or for a month local authorities fail. The serious objection
to San Francisco, or for a year to the Pole, to this type of fiction is that it, too, is static.
and when you return Marion and Wilbur are The protagonist has one established character
having instalments of their familiar jars on that is never modified or developed. Again, he
the familiar scale. This might be called the always "comes through”—must, indeed, come
angleworm type of fiction: : short, choppy through, if the series is to continue. Thus
lengths, each one of them intelligible and an important element, that of uncertainty, is
available without exact regard for the other sacrificed. If the author, miscalculating the
lengths. The worm so finely cut up seldom public's interest, or failing to maintain his
reassembles himself-fails, in fact, to turn own, kills off his leading personage, there is
back for a well-rounded finish.
but one thing to do: he must revive him, put
The chief objection to this type of fiction is him on his legs and start him again on his
that, in point of characterization, it is static. course. Another objection is that the real in-
Anything like real development, like true evo terest gets to be transferred to the subordinate
lution, is absent. Wilbur, if dour and selfish figures which must constantly be fed into the
and inconsiderate in February, is found to be series; sometimes, even, to the new environ-
none the less so in August. Marion, however ments in which these figures function. So
long-suffering when we left her in early sum that the death of the protagonist, even if pre-
mer, never reaches the point of open protest mature, is not always a calamity; particularly
or rebellion by the end of December. The two in a certain kind of detective story, where the
creatures merely mark time, performing a two necessary rules seem to be: first, write
shuffling dance that brings them no nearer a backwards; second, avoid characterization.
goal. Their mancuvres lend some color to the Yet the established type of character always
claim that the journey itself, not the journey's has held, and always will hold, its own against
end, is the main consideration in humanity's new, fresh, authentic studies. Imbedded in a
mundane experience. Another objection to series of stories of the biographical sort, it
this type of fiction is that it must be written holds its own and meets a real need.
or is written-in a "style” to coalesce with A plausible but exasperating form of fiction
that employed in adjacent columns—an undis is one which is encountered in certain weeklies
tinguished style for undistinguishing people. and runs through three or four consecutive
Yet literature is like enough to fail when it issues. It is pseudo-autobiographical in char-
addresses an ideal reader: that is as bad as to acter and may be called the telescope type. It
write for posterity, or to write-as Charles purports to be the intimate, detailed experi-
Lamb once threatened to do for antiquity. ences of a single individual, reported by
One must write for the public that exists in himself. If such a fiction is represented as com-
one's own day. If that public is long on heed ing from the hand of a successful professional
lessness and short on taste.
man, a man whose success has enabled him to
Another form of fiction that is largely con penetrate to scenes which the less successful,
ditioned on publication at short intervals, for however avid, have been unable to reach, and
one definite body of readers, is the intermit if it professes to handle with exactness and


1917]
169
THE DIAL
without reserves the financial details of the fundamentally the whole work. The screen,
social advances of himself, wife, sons, and indeed, by virtue of its many "leaders" and
daughters, with what it all cost and how the "inserts,” bits of conversation, and facsimiles
cost was distributed,—then it is pretty cer of letters and telegrams, is constantly con-
tain to gain acceptance and vogue. Yet can cerned with literary expression. One would
anyone doubt that a fiction of this sort is wish for “The Adventures of Anabel," for
a mere compilation, drawn from a dozen “Narrow-mindedness," and for "A Daughter
“careers” real or imagined ? “Mere,” how of Heaven" an initial quality of thought that
ever, is not the word for such extended indus- might make the enormous expenditure of
try and such far-flung inquiry — or inven- time, effort, and money seem better justified.
tion - as must enter into the composition of One inclines also to wish that the multitudi-
a social study of this type. The experienced nous bits of text thrown on the screen might
practitioner, though he detects readily enough be less pitifully awkward and illiterate. One
the essential humbuggery of the scheme, can might even suggest a literary adviser for the
not withhold admiration for the hand that great producing studios, were it not for the
cast the net so wide and composed its hetero- fact that, to the masses, the second-rate is
geneous haul to such an effect of compactness often more acceptable than the first-rate, and
and plausibility.
the further fact that, with minds of a certain
“The Gold Bug,” such a fiction might be calibre, finish abashes rather than gratifies.
named. And what is to prevent others of like About free verse as a new and practicable
nature? “The Bird of Paradise,” for exam medium of fiction, I have already written in
ple, might telescope the social experiences of these pages. To the names of Masters, Frost,
a dozen brilliant daughters of the fortunate, and Amy Lowell, in this field, may properly
behind whose reiterated “I's” stands per be added the name of Mary Aldis. Many of
haps a robust, sardonic young man. "The 'the pieces in her "Flashlights” are definitely
Drudge,” written not on a kitchen table but called “Stories in Metre," and (however
in some scented boudoir, will epitomize for sharp-edged, bitter-tanged and disconcert-
us, in a fashion not too open to the charge of ing some of the themes may be) fully justify
faking, the concentrated domestic routine of her title. They have a contemporaneity and
a hundred weary wives and mothers in lowly an actuality that should not fail with a public
circumstances. And weekly numbers will whose chief reading is in the daily press, and
carry the second instalment over the land yet possess qualities that make them accept-
before the impression created by the first has able on a different and higher plane.
had time to dim. And the third will follow To end with, these newer forms of fiction
the second.
are conditioned not only by the vehicle of
The tourist serial, an elastic, peripatetic publication, but by the public state of mind
affair which may be called the Pullman type, and by the general average of public taste.
does not call for much attention, though it If that improves, literature will improve in
appears to be growing in favor. I presume response. Yet why demand that it improve?
it stems largely from the Williamsons. A To many persons art in all its forms is but
small group of people, preferably incongru a mere casual diversion. If one can enjoy
ous, shift along past varied backgrounds, what is currently placed before him, why put
scenic or historical. If these people, men and oneself out by trying to qualify for the enjoy-
women alike, have an easy command of slang, ment of something that would be sure to be
or even of the jargon of the sporting column, different yet would not be sure to be more
they will not make reading any harder for amusing? Recall the case of the two travel-
their creator's clientèle, nor his success any
lers who were once thrown together as room-
the less. All this presupposes, of course, a mates. Number One, seeing Number Two
newspaper public,—one reading quite in the busy with soap, tooth-brush, nail-file, and the
newspaper spirit.
like, exclaimed wonderingly, “How much
The movies may profess to rest on a picto-
trouble you must be to yourself !” But the
rial basis, just as the opera professes to rest
best is not reached without travail. Il faut
on a musical basis. But scenario, no less than souffrir pour être belle — whether in body or
in mind.
libretto, has a literary aspect that conditions
HENRY B. FULLER.


170
[March 8
THE DIAL
LORD DUNSANY: AN IMPRESSION.
it. But, just as in his personal appearance
there is an element of carelessness betraying
If the French word fantaisiste best indi preoccupations not confined to the conven-
cates the nature of Lord Dunsany's talent, it tions, sartorial or other, so he fails, also, to
is not that his work is in any way alien to conform intellectually to type. He is almost
that imaginative revival which lies back of what he seems at first sight — but “not quite.”
Ireland's literary renaissance. The fantasies There lingers about him some touch of the
of a James Stephens or a J. M. Synge are “Bohemian,” an indefinable something sug-
fundamentally related to those of Lord Dun- gestive of things not dreamed of in the philos-
sany, although the latter has chosen to invent ophy of a lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards.
his own mythology, instead of seeking his ma One senses the presence of the other Dunsany,
terial in the field of Celtic legendary lore. not the officer whose cricket parties at Dun-
W. B. Yeats confesses how his first impulse sany Castle affirm the pursuits of his class,
was to urge Dunsany to turn in that direc but the fantastic prose-poet familiar to liter-
tion, “but even as I urged," he writes, “I ary Dublin, whose true contemporaries and
knew that he could not, without losing his friends are Yeats, "Æ," Padraic Colum, and
rich beauty of careless suggestion, and the James Stephens.
persons and images that for ancestry have all It was at an exhibition of “Æ's" pictures,
those romantic ideas that are somewhere in a couple of years ago, that Lord Dunsany
the background of all our minds.” To pre- introduced to us the young poet, Francis Led-
serve the spontaneity of his mood it was widge, whom he had announced as his great
essential that he should follow freely the “discovery," and whose “Songs of the Fields"
promptings of his own amazing imagination. recently appeared under his sponsorship.
It must be admitted, however, that Lord Striking indeed was the spectacle they pre-
Dunsany is something of an enigma in con sented on that occasion: Dunsany, tall, com-
temporary Anglo-Irish literature. The man manding, keenly interested in the paintings,
himself gives the impression of a contradic- and in the friends gathered together at the
tion in terms. Coming of an old, aristocratic private view; Francis Ledwidge clinging
family, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunk- timidly to the arm of his protector, and obvi.
ett, eighteenth Baron Dunsany, retains to some ously ill at ease at finding himself suddenly
degree the traditional habits and characteris the centre of interest in a group which would
tics of his class. He was educated at Eton, decide as to his admission into the ranks of
and became a lieutenant in the Coldstream Anglo-Irish poetry. But Dunsany moved
Guards, adding an unsuccessful parliamen- about in blissful ignorance of the perturba-
tary contest as the final incident to a typical tion of the country boy at his side, pouring
Of this phase Lord Dunsany bears into the ear of “Æ” an enthusiastic story of
the imprint, for his tall, athletic stature, fair the new poet's achievements, and of his ad-
hair, and military moustache of the same venturous progress, which ended in his facing
color, give him the air usually associated with the charge of witchcraft at the hands of the
the English officer in mufti. One could im peasantry in Lord Dunsany's own county of
agine him, correctly attired in the conven Meath.
tional silk hat and morning coat of Bond Who would have dreamed at that time of
Street, passing undistinguished among his the cataclysmic changes which were to come
fellows at Epsom or Goodwood. In point of upon the members of that circle? Before the
fact, Lord Dunsany is known as a cricketer poems of Ledwidge reached the general pub-
and sportsman to many who know nothing of, lic, the European war had broken out, and
and care nothing for, the poet that is in him. he and his protector had enlisted in the same
His is, as it were, a double life: on the one regiment. While the lance-corporal, Led-
side, his activities in the world of sport and widge, was drafted for service, one of his offi-
society; on the other, his adventures in the cers, Lord Dunsany, was destined to remain
world of letters. For let it be understood in Ireland long enough to face fire in circum-
that the immaculate, “clean-limbed English- stances of real tragedy. He was wounded in
man” we have pictured does not correspond the street fighting during the week of the
so much to what he is as to what, but for the Irish rebellion in April. While there is no
grace of God, he might have become and evidence that he actually came into direct
remained.
conflict with Joseph Plunkett or Thomas Mac-
Of his social existence as Lord Dunsany Donagh, who were posted in different parts
there is no doubt, nor any need to insist upon of the city, yet it was from the forces under
career.


1917)
171
THE DIAL
their command that he received his wound
LITERARY AFFAIRS IN FRANCE.
fortunately a light one. To understand the
poignant significance of this, it must be re-
membered that the executed poets were the
(Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.)
successors of Padraic Colum in the editor- several prominent writers and thinkers, the
This winter has seen pass away in France
ship of “The Irish Review,” which Dunsany most prominent of them all being perhaps
had done so much to develop, and to the pages Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, the well-known political
of which he contributed so many of his most
economist. His sudden death creates several
remarkable stories. Associated as all these vacancies,—a seat in the Academy of Moral
men were in a creative literary enterprise, and Political Sciences of the Institute of
they suffered the disruptive influences of the France, a chair in the College of France, the
Great War, which dispersed, and in some presidency of the French Society of Political
cases, destroyed them.
Economy, and the editorial desk of the
The year 1906, which saw the defeat of “Economiste Français," the_able weekly
Dunsany as the Conservative candidate for which he founded in 1873. This last men-
West Wiltshire, may be said to mark the tioned vacancy has already been filled. Pro-
beginning of his literary career.
His first fessor André Liesse, of the Institute, took
book, “The Gods of Pegana," appeared, it is
over the editorship in the second number fol-
true, in 1905, but passed almost unperceived lowing the death of the founder, and it is
by the reviewers and the general public. It highly probable that he will succeed Leroy-
Beaulieu at the College of France where he
is characteristic of Dunsany that the period has often acted as the regular professor's sub-
immediately preceding his bid for parliamen- stitute in the chair of political economy.
tary fame should have been occupied with the The following excellent estimate of Paul
elaboration of that weird theogony. One sus Leroy-Beaulieu as a political economist is
pects him of having drawn upon himself for taken from a letter to me from my friend, M.
the material of that delightfully contemptu- Daniel Bellet, Perpetual Secretary of the So-
ous fable of politics, “The Day of the Poll,"
ciety of Political Economy:
which was published a few years later in “A
It can be said honestly and without any exaggera-
tion that the four big volumes of Paul Leroy-Beau-
Dreamer's Tales.” The poet in that story
The poet in that story lieu's wonderful "Traité d'Economie Politique"
who seduces the voter from his duties as a embrace all that can be written on the subject. There
citizen probably expresses Lord Dunsany's
is not a single question which he has not treated in
that work; so when anybody sits down to write a
attitude toward the humbug of politics. It is volume on some subject in this field, he finds that most
obviously not the sort of narrative of the polls of the ideas which he would put into his book have
This
one would expect from a man who had himself already been considered by Leroy-Beaulieu.
come forward as a candidate for political He has sometimes been criticized, very unjustly, I
was my own experience with three of my volumes.
office. The suspicion suggests itself that, in think, for having a tendency to vacillate, showing, for
contesting West Wiltshire, he was merely instance, a lack of decision in the matter of free trade
and protection. But if you read his “Traité” care-
doing half-heartedly what seemed to be the
fully, you will find that he is absolutely broad-minded
customary thing for one of his position and on this complicated question. He did wish to be, and
education.
ever tried to be, practical, desired to take into consid-
It was in 1906 that Dunsany published his
eration contingencies, and hence it was that he always
urged that one proceed with caution and adopt transi-
second series of mythological tales, “Time and tory measures if necessary. Every subject examined
the Gods," which has been followed, at inter by Paul Leroy-Beaulieu was admirably studied and I
vals of two years, by “The Sword of Wel-
fear it will be a long time before we can replace
him.
leran,” “A Dreamer's Tales," and "The Book
of Wonder." These years of continuous lit-
In the same letter, M. Bellet says: “Al-
erary activity have brought about a gradual Beaulieu was, when he died, engaged on a
ways a most indefatigable writer, M. Leroy-
but growing recognition of the author's pow-
new edition of his works"; and I may add
ers as a story-teller, worthy to be ranked with
that his last book, published late this past
Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, and comparable, in
autumn, was the second volume of “La
some of his later work, with Poe and Ambrose
Guerre” (Paris: Delagrave, 3 frs. 50), the
Bierce. His fame as a dramatist has helped, collection of his articles on the war which
in a measure, to direct attention to the other appeared each week at the head of the col-
writings of a man who possesses the most umns of the “Economiste Français." The
brilliant imagination in contemporary Irish volume stops at the end of last July, and, like
prose.
its predecessor, mentioned in THE DIAL last
ERNEST A. BOYD. winter, covers just one year of the struggle.


172
[March 8
THE DIAL
It has not yet been decided whether a third times and sway it from side to side. He could
volume will be issued. This would bring the be, and was, in turn reserved and affable,
history down to the beginning of last Decem- inviting and decisive, but perhaps never ag-
ber, when Leroy-Beaulieu wrote his final gressive; and when he summed up the even-
article just four days before he died, a re ing's discussion, he did it with a clearness
markable example of that unwearied intel and authority vouched for by the attention
lectual activity which characterized his whole and approval of the whole room,-always
life.
filled, especially when it was known that
There was an American side to Paul Leroy- Leroy-Beaulieu was to preside, by leading
Beaulieu that should interest us. He read thinkers and writers on economics, statistics,
English with ease, knew many Americans, and banking, and public affairs.
was a contributor to several of our best peri On the same day that Paul Leroy-Beaulieu
odicals. Through his wife he had a peculiar died, another celebrated French thinker
attachment to the United States. She was passed away,—Théodule Ribot, whom Gaston
the daughter of Michel Chevalier, the cele- Rageot declares to have been “the creator of
brated French free trader of the first half French psychology," and whom Professor
of the last century, who, with Richard Cob- Maurice Milloud, of the University of
den, brought over the Second Empire to the Lausanne, calls “one of the last survivors of
Manchester School of thought. Chevalier that grand generation of savants who re-
went to the United States at the beginning of newed the mentality of the nineteenth cen-
his career, and wrote at the end of the thirties tury.” But perhaps what would have pleased
a book on our transport system which at him most among the kind words of admiring
tracted wide attention in Europe. Perhaps it friends, was this statement from Professor
is not too much to say that this was the first Benrubi of Geneva University: “M. Ribot's
book after de Tocqueville's that again brought periodical has not published, since the war
the United States before the eyes of the in began, a single article showing hatred of
telligent classes of France, at the moment Germany, and the works of German authors
when they were taking up the railway prob- have been treated, in the review articles, with
lem for resolution.