rever and the
others’ disgrace.” Mr. Pepys, it may be added,
tempers his exultant paean with the plaint of
“having been very much daubed with dirt”
on this occasion.
M. Cominges’s correspondence, the author
thinks, may be taken as a good average sam-
ple of the kindred documents preserved at the
F reneh Foreign Office, and though the value
of his despatches has been well known, only a
few extracts have heretofore been published.


272
[Nov. 1,
THE DIAL
C H " "' “"“‘-ii-uialc um:-¢n_<--..€
Macaulay made little use of it; and Cominges
himself, though he was, according to St. Simon,
a man “important tout sa vie,” is but little
known, the forty-five volumes of Miehaut, and
the forty-six of the “Nouvelle Biographie Gen-
érale" passing him over altogether.
Gaston Jean Baptiste de Cominges was the
son of Charles de Cominges who died at the
siege of Pignerol. His family prided itself
upon an immense antiquity, the first of their
ancestors known by name being, according to
Moreri, Anevius, who is said to have flourished
about the year 900. As to this statement the
sober St. Simon quietly remarks that “ people
do not know what they were before the year
1440.” A descendant of warriors, Cominges
went early to the wars, served with distinction,
and was made, in 1644, a lieutenant of the
Bodyguards of the Queen-mother, Anne of
Austria, who entrusted to him more than one
commission requiring that mixture of tact and
firmness for which he was especially noted-
To Cominges it was she applied to have the
notorious and popular Broussel, “ the idol of
the people,” removed from Paris during the
Fronde agitation — a sufficiently ticklish com-
mission. The determined emissary stopped the
old man—
“\Vithout allowing him to eat his dinner or e\'en to
resume his shoes which he just taken off, but placed
him in a coach and carried him away. A strange
thing happened. As they were nearing the palace, the
coach broke and Cominges asked ladies who were pass-
ing by to lend him theirs, offering his excuses, and as-
suring them that nothing else than such a case would
have induced him to show so much incivility. So he
took the quay and reached the St. Honoré Gate."
Such was Cominges to the last and at all
junctures, the unswerving, steadfast soldier,
yet courteous as swift,—the steel corslet under
the doublet of silk; he allowed no Broussel
time to dine or to put on his shoes. but while
keeping his Broussels well in hand, he never
forgot the duties of etiquette. In the intervals
of duty Cominges found time to study, and he
enjoyed at court the reputation of a man of
thought and knowledge as well as of a good
swordsman and a skilful guitarist. W'e hear
of him fighting a duel in 1639.
“ M. de Richefons,” wrote Chaplain, author of “La
Pueelle,” to the Marehioness de Flamarens, “has fought
for the second time against M. de Cominges, and this
time has received two mortal wounds. He has, how-
ever, had four days’ time to prepare himself to his
death and beg pardon to God for his sins. The quar-
rel was an irreconcileable one, that could only be ended
by the death of one of the two."
So endowed, and an equally acceptable com-

panion in times of peace and war, Cominges
found no difliculty in pleasing the beautiful
Sibyll d’Amalbi, a Penelope in point of suit-
ors, whom he married in 1643. Sibylle be-
came famous as the “Césonie” of the Pré-
cieuses group, and is celebrated by Somaize in
his “ Dictionaire des Précieuses ” :
“Césonie is a Court Précieuse. She is very witty;
she has a fine throat; she sometimes uses Hesperian
produce (i. e., Spanish paint). She likes the play; she
does not keep a regular alcove, for court ladies do not
follow rules in this matter.”
At a time when literary portraits were in
fashion, when Mdlle. de Seudéry, Mme. de
Sévigné, Mme. de la Fayette, and all the rest
of the witty fine ladies of the day, rivalled each
other in drawing them, Césonie would not fail
of portrayal ; and we learn from a sketch made
of her under the name of Emilie that she
was not tall, but so perfect in her proportions
that it is not possible to conceive how she could
look better if taller. “ She has such a pretty
childish look and touching little ways that it is
an impossibility not to love her.” Her nose is
thin and straight; her hair, somewhat loose,
“ of the finest color in the world ” (the reader
may choose). The whiteness of her complexion
“ Mixes so delicately with the pink of her cheeks that
this masterpiece of nature has sometimes been suspected
[one remembers regretfully the “ Hesperian produce ”];
but as she reddens in society, it is easy to understand
that, if the red were of her own making, she would ar-
range so as not to be troubled with it out of time.”
At the time when M. Jussei-and’s recital be-
gins, Cardinal Mazarin had just died (March
9, 1661); Louis XIV., aged twenty-two, had
assumed the reins of government, and the
Stuart line had recently been established in
England. Both kings were young, intelligent,
and popular, both had a brilliant court of able
men, fine courtiers, and beautiful women, and
both were fond of worldly pleasures. But here
the resemblance ceased. Chan-les’s greatness,
such as it was, had been thrust upon him ; that
of Louis was, in a considerable degree, his own
achievement. The one, from his youth up,
meant to be a king; the other never cared to
be one beyond that point where royal pleasures
‘and privileges exceed those of other men.
Louis was, even as a youth, writing of his
precedency and his flag inthe same tone of
deep-set resolution that Charles used in assert-
ing the rank and privileges of Lady Castle-
maine. This point is well illustrated by an
extract from the correspondence of each prince,
furnished by our author:
“\'hosoever I find endeavoring," wrote Charles to


1892.]
273
THE DIAL
Clarendon, “ to hinder this resolution of mine (to appoint
the Castlemaine a lady of the Queen’s bedehamber) . . .
I will he his enemy to the last moment of my life. You
know how much a friend I have been to you. If you
will oblige me eternally, make this business as easy to
me as you can, of what opinion you are of, for I am re-
solved to go through with this matter let what will come
of it, and whomsoever I find to be my Lady Catslemaine’s
enemy iu this matter, I do promise upon my word to be
his enemy as long as I live.”
In the same determined strain, but with a
diiferent end, Louis was writing to his ambas-
sador in England:
“ The point I most especially noticed in your dis-
patch is how neither the king, my brother, nor his ad-
visers, do know me well as yet; else they would not as-
sume a firmness and hauteur in their attitude bordering
upon threats. There is no power under heaven that
can make me move one step on such a path. . . All
the Chancellor can put forward is nothing for me as
compared to a point ri’l|onneur, connected, were it ever
so slightly, with the fame of my crown. Far from tak-
ing into account, in such a case as this, what may be-
come of the states of others, such as Portugal, I will
be found ready to put mine own in jeopardy, rather than
tarnish by any faint-heartedness the glory which I am
seeking in all things as the principal aim of all my ac-
tious.”
Through life, though Louis was not without
his La Valliere and his Montespan, and though
Charles had his William Temple and his Tri-
ple Alliance, they remain to the end such as
they appear at their début, in these two letters ;
the one ready to jeopardize his crown for the
glory of France, for the point cl’honneur, the
other for the dignity of the titled demirep of
the hour.
Cominges reached London on December 23,
1662 (O. S.), and from that day began a dou-
ble, one may say a treble correspondence,—
an official one with the King, a more familiar
one with the Foreign Secretary, Lionne; and
there are scraps of a third, containing only
court news, directed to the King, but not in
his kingly capacity. Cominges, as oflicial let-
ter writer, had no sineeure. Louis’s appetite
for business was as voracious as Charles’s for
pleasure: and we accordingly find him asking
his emissary for detailed reports concerning
English Parliaments, navy, currency, religion,
wars,— even literature. The last topic was a
difiicult one for Cominges, who, though well
versed in Latin and in the classics of his own
country, knew absolutely no English. He
gives, for instance, the London address of one
M. Aymé, as “ Rue Rose Straet,” evidently
not suspecting that Rue and street had a similar
meaning. The familiar names of Buckingham,
Monmouth, Lauderdale, Peterborough, Fitz-
hardin, VVindsor, Bristol, Kensington, Hamp-

ton Court, Quakers, Woolwieh, Tunbridge,
Jennings, masquerade respectively in his des-
patehes as Boquinquan, Momous, Ladredel,
Pitrebaro, Fichardin, Oiiindsor, Bristau, Quin-
zinton, Omtoncourt, Coaquiers, Wlidge, Tonne-
briche, and la petite Genius. From the author
of these hardy linguistic attempts (of which
“ Coaquiers ” is a notable specimen) one would
scarcely expect a very lucid or comprehensive
view of English literature; and the following
is his reply to the royal question on this point:
“The order I receive from your Majesty to gather
carefully information concerning the more illustrious
men of the three kingdoms of which Great Britain is
made, is a mark of the grandeur and loftiness of your
soul. It seems that arts and sciences do en-
tirely leave one country sometimes to go and adorn
another in its turn. They appear at present to have
chosen France as their abode; and if some traces of
them are to be discovered here, it is only in the mem-
ory of Bacon, Morus, and Buchanan, and in later times
of a man called Miltonius (un nommé Miltonius) who
has rendered himself more infamous by his noxious
writings than the very tormentors and assassins of their
King. I will not fail, however, to collect information
with great cure, and I will do it the more willingly, as
nothing in the world seems to me more worthy of your
Majesty.”
Thus did our explorer of the unknown waste
of English letters fail, long before Voltairean
days, of discovering Shakespeare —though, as
the author points out, there was at this very
time a neglected copy of the works of the mas-
ter dramatist in the library of the “ Sun-King ”
himself. M. J usserand has seen a slip, penned
by Nicholas Clément, bibliot/zécairc royal,
in which this rude Gothic writer (in whose
“ enormous dungheap ” the sharp-sighted Vol-
taire discerned “ afew pearls”), is thus len-
iently specified :
“ Will Shakespeare, poem anglicus. This
poet has a fine imagination; his thoughts are natural,
his words ingeniously chosen, but these happy qualities
are obscured by the dirt (par [es ordures) he introduces
in his plays.”
M. Cominges was commendably fond of the
society of illustrious men. Besides the dinner
parties with Charles and his royal brother and
the beautiful Castlemaiue, he was pleased to
entertain the more interesting of the phil-
osophers and savants—people with whom it
was possible to discuss polities in the abstract
and to quote with theoretical approval the ex-
ample of the men of antiquity. We see thus
at his table the ingenious Huygens van Zuy-
lichem, inventor of the pendulum clock, and
the great Thomas Hobbes, the Sage of Malmes-
bury —-forthwith transformed by his Gallic
host into “ M. d’Hobbes." The author of the


274
[Nov. 1,
THE DIAL
“ Leviathian,” Coininges patronizes particular-
ly, finding him a useful “ bonhomme,” worthy
to be enrolled among Louis’s servants as a
sound defender of the rights of kings. He
even appeals for a pension for Hobbes, and
desires that it be delivered through his own
hands:
" In two days Messieurs dc Zuylichem, d’Hobbcs,
and dc Sorbicres are going to dine at my house; we
will not fail to speak of you (Lionnc) after �e have
enlogizcd our master. The bonhomme, Mr. Hobbes, is
in love with his Majesty's person; we never meet with-
out his asking nie n thousand questions about him. He
always concludes with exclamations and with appro-
priate wishes for the King. As his majesty has often
shown an intention to do good to this sort of people, I
will venture to say that he will never have a better oc-
casion than this. Mr. Hobbes may truly be called As-
serlor Regum, as his works show. As for our own sov-
ereign, he has made him his hero. If all this could oh-
tain for him some gift, I beg that I might be the means.
I will know how to make the most of it; and I believe
that never will any favor have been better placed."
That Zuylichem and Sorbiéres became fel-
low-pensiouers with his erotic Majesty Charles
Stuart upon the bounty of Louis, is certain;
but there is no such record in the case of “ M.
d'Hobbes.”
Having connnented upon M. Cominges’s
ignorance of the tongue of the country to which
he was accredited, it is perhaps fair to note
here that Lord Holles, the English Envoy in
France, was in a scarcely better plight as to
French, as the following story indicates:
“Holles’s French was not of the best sort, and the
mistakes of the grave Presbyterian �ere a. source of
amusement at the English Court. He writes once that
the French Queen has given birth to ' a l\Ioorish girl,’
which creates great wonder. The wonder is altered
into laughter when it is ascertained that having heard
that Maria Theresa had been delivered of a ‘fille
morte,’ Hollcs had misunderstood it for a ‘ fille mature.’ "
Thus, to Cominges also, “ the whirligig of
time brings in his revenges.”
Louis was too addicted to pleasure not to enjoy
tattle of the curious doings among the fair ladies
and gallants of his "brother's ” court; and we find
in Cominges’s pages frequent mention of Mlle.
Stewart, Mlle. de Hamilton, Madame Middle-
ton, and other Paphian beauties whose portraits
now languish upon the walls at Hampton Court.
His statements confirm the impression one gets
of the court from the canvasses of Lely and
the pages of Gramont and Pepys. Charles is
the same good-humored prince — with a dash
of the Yahoo—hating business and trouble, .
greatly enjoying his dance, his walk, his ride. j
“ sad to death when the Queen is in danger,
happy as an angel when the Uastlcinaine
smiles.” Miss Stewart is “ one of the most

beautiful girls and one of the most modest”
(despite the fact that “ her star is rising ”) “ to
be seen.” Gramont “follows his usual style
of life. He sees the ladies at the lawful hours,
and a little at the forbidden ones, . . . con-
tinuing his gallantries as is his wont —- that is,
making much noise and little progress."
Among these lighter people “ le Générale ”
Monk makes his appearance-— and not very
much to his credit. Corninges is chiefly struck
by the unparalleled splendor of his drinking
capacities. On one occasion, at a dinner given
by the Earl of Oxford, the company —
“Having been warmed by their morning and after-
dinner doings, each resolved to see his companion
a-ground. The General, who is endowed with a strong
head, struck a master stroke ; he presented to each a
goblet of the deepest. Some swallowed the contents,
and some not ; but all peaceably remained where they
were till the following morning without speaking to
each other, though in the same room. Only the General
went to Parliament as usual, with his mind and his
thoughts nothing impaired.”
The value of M. Jusserand’s book is en-
hanced by its material attractiveness, the por-
traits-—including Coniinges, Louis XIV.,
Lady Castlemaine, Lady Hamilton, etc.,——
being notably good. E_ G_ J_
TII()RF.AU’S S1zAso.\'s.*

The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, under the
patient and loving eye of its editor Mr. Blake,
has yielded a reflection of the revolving year
as it pursues its course under the sober skies
of New England. It is, however, the year of
Thoreau, the New England landscape in its
varying aspects as the mind of the one who per-
haps saw it best and loved it most reproduced
it. This year is therefore more than the merely
natural one; it has added to it the light and
charm that come from the imagination most
akin to it and best able to give it expression
in fit and permanent words.
No man ever had a more devoted literary ex-
ecutor. Mr. Blake has done his work with the
perfection which arises from a friendship that
is as rare as it is worthy of admiration. He has
added volume after volume to the collection of
Thoreau’s writings, which appeal to an audi-
ence, not as large as it ought to be, but eager,
earnest, and attentive. The Journal has not
been exhausted, and it is to be expected that
other volumes are yet to come.

L * Ai"ri‘Ma'. From Journal of Henry D. Thoreau. Ed-
ited by H. G. l). Blake. Boston: Houghton, Mifllin d' Co.


1892.]
DIAL ‘Z75
THE
Mr. Blake says that his own interest in Tho-
reau’s Journal is “ in the character and genius of
the writer, rather than in any account of the
phenomena of nature.” It will be found diffi-
cult to detach the one from the other. Tho-
reau was so close to the Nature which he de-
scribed, and lived so deeply in it, that to have
an interest in the one is to to have an interest
in the other. "‘ Our thoughts,” says Thoreau,
“ are the epochs in our lives; all else is but as
a journal of the winds that blew while we were
here.” Nevertheless the journal of the winds
has such a value for him that it becomes in a
measure a substitute for his own.
The volume on Autumn displays that same
mixture of the closest observation of the outer
fact, with a constant dwelling upon an inner
illumination which transcends the fact, that we
must always expect in Thoreau. All facts, too,
whether of the world of things or of the world
of ideas, appear here to have the same import-
ance, and are made to stand forth in equal
prominence. Perhaps such an equating of
thoughts and perceptions belongs of necessity
to a journal; and yet one might suppose that
insights would emerge whose largeness could
throw them into relief, and aspects of the vis-
ible scene would unroll themselves whose vivid-
ness could give them a certain precedence.
The judicial tone is preserved throughout.
There is a sober reticence which does not allow
of any high raptures, but which sometimes gives
to the trivial a magnitude that borders on the
burlesque. Witness the story of the mouse
and the cock:
“Min [Thorcau's cat] caught a mouse, and was play-
ing with it in the yard. It had got away from her
once or twice, and she had caught it again; and now it
was starting off again, as shc was complacently watch-
ing it with her paws tucked under her, when her friend,
Riorden’s stout cock, stepped up inquisitively, looked
down at it with one eye, turning its head, then picked it
up by the tail, guvc it two or three whacks on the ground,
and giving it a dextrous toss in the air, caught it in its
open mouth, and it went, head foremost and alive, down
its capacious throat in the twinkling of an eye, never
again to be seen in this world; Min all the while, with
paws comfortably tucked under her, looking on uncon-
cerned. lvlmt matters it one mouse, more or less, to
her? The cock walked off amid the currant bushes,
stretched his neck up and gulped once or twice, and the
deed was accomplished. Then he crowed lustily in cel-
ebration of the exploit. It might be set down among
the Gesta gallorum."
There are passages of description which are
so full of color and warmth that they seem
hardly a part of the autumn season, and indeed
lead one to suppose that the tropics had left
their appropriate location and migrated to the

rather unpropitious hillsides of a cooler latitude.
Here is one of them:
“ The witch hazel here is in full blossom on this mag-
ical hillside, while its broad yellow leaves are falling.
Some bushes are completely bare of leaves, and leather-
colored they strew the ground. It is an extremely iu-
teresting plant, an October and November child, and
yet reminds one of the very earliest spring. Its blos-
soms smell like the spring, like the willow catkins.
By their color as well as their fragrance they belong to
the saffron dawn of the year, suggesting amid all these
signs of autumn, falling leaves and frost, that the life
of nature by which she eternally flourishes is untouched.
It stands here in the shadow on the side of the hill,
while the sunlight from over the top of the hill lights
up its topmost sprays and yellow blossoms. Its spray,
so pointed and irregular, is not to be mistaken for any
other. I lie on my back with joy under its boughs.
\Vhile its leaves fall, its blossoms spring. The autumn,
then, is indeed a spring. All the year is a. spring.”
Here is an extract with whose philosophy
one may not be in entire accord, but which nev-
ertheless opens the gates into a wide field for
speculation to Wander over:
“A part of me, which has reposed in silence all day,
goes abroad at night like the owl, and has its day. At
night we recline and nestle, and infold ourselves in our
being. Each night I go home to rest. Each night I
am gathered to my fathers. The soul departs out of
the body, and sleeps in God, a divine slumber. As she
withdraws herself, the limbs droop and the eyelids fall,
and Nature reclaims her clay again. Man has always
regarded the night as ambrosial and divine. The air
is then peopled, fairies come out.”
And here we have the inevitable utterance,
half supercilious, and somewhat comical to the
reader, of that depreciation of the great labors
of mankind in the highest fields of endeavor
which we ever find in Thoreau, and in all those
persons who cannot quite get along with the
world and its various progresses:
“ It is only when we forget all our learning that we
begin to know. I do not get nearer bya hair’s breadth
to any natural object, so long as I presume that I have
an introduction to it from some learned m:
. To con-
ceive of it with a total apprehension, I must for the
thousandth time approach it as something totally
strange. If you would make ucquaintance with the
ferns, you niust forget your botany. Notasinglc scien-
tific term or distinction is the least to the purpose. . .
“lho has plotted the steps to the discovery of beauty ?
You must be in a different state from common. Your
greatest success will be simply to perceive that such
things arc, and you will have no comnumicntion to make
to the Royal Society.”
It is of course not to be supposed that Tho-
reau or anyone else ever took such a theory
seriously. It cuts the ground from under his
own feet ; and his own books, if it be thoroughly
believed, have as little significance as the latest
publication of the learned body. Even as bio-

graphical details, they become meaningless;


TIIE DIAL
[Nov. 1,
-from ourselves.
and the monotony of doing the same thing so
many times in the same way, or seeing the
same thing so many times from the same point
of view, gives to these volumes a similarity
which might be absent without detracting from
their charm.
The writers who have followed Thoreau in
the domain which he loved to explore are both
less and greater than he. They have not so
buried themselves in the object as he has done,
they have not deprived themselves deliberately
and determinately of such avenues of intelli-
gence leading in divers directions as he did;
they have widened their experiences, but they
have lost his intensity and reproduction of the
immediate impression. It is easy to overvalue
the latter achievement, and the men who devote
themselves to nature and her description are
very apt to do it. To describe nature with
power and vividness, and yet to see that she is
an instrumentality to ends which transcend her,
is an achievement frequent enough with Tho-
reau; and yet the latter part of the insight
and success seemed to him valuable only in its
scattered appearances, and not in its wholeness.
One must not be satisfied with knowing that
the moon is bright and silvery, but must see it
so every time it shines in the sky.
The hermit-like man who abandons society
and gives himself up to the study of the sea-
sons and their transformations, with the culti-
vation of himself as an individual conjoined to
such study, belongs to the earlier part of the
century. The problems of destiny may weigh
upon us as heavily, the evils inherent in social
arrangements may appear to us as profound
and ineradicable ; but we do not fly to any soli-
tude to get rid of them. We have learned
that we cannot escape from the essential pro-
gress of humanity, and in abandoning the in-
stitutions of the world we are obliged ulti-
mately to recognize, with some mortifying
twinges, that the best part of us, our intellec-
tual life and subsistence, are dependent on the
conditions which we have vainly tried to escape.
Moreover, nature alone is not a complete pal-
liative to our discontents; she too has her
moods and silences and failures to respond,
and the inflexibility of her methods and pro-
cedures depresses our instinct to action whose
law comes not from an exterior potentate, but
The Journal of Amiel shows
the later tendency of the malcontent. The
world of thought is as wide, to say the least,
as varied, as solitary, if one sees fit to make it
so, as nature.

Thoreau will remain one of the most in-
terestiug figures in American literature. Cer-
tain tendencies in the Transcendental Move-
ment reached in him their full and logical out-
come. He would take nothing for granted;
prescription and convention had no power up-
on him, and were wholly devoid of the terrors
usually accompanying them. His was a serene
determination to follow the bent of his powers,
to allow no obstacle to thwart him, and to give
up without regret the ordinary successes which
allure most men. The result is a figure, some-
what austere and attenuated, but vigorous and
full of health, with senses keenly alert, with an
interest in human affairs greater than was to
be anticipated, and an easy capacity for ascent
into those regions in which the transcendent-
alist loved to dwell. He shows us how lightly
armed one may be, and yet win the battle of
life; that abstention is often as good as mas-
tery; that individual culture leads very far;
and that the emancipation of the race might
perhaps be brought about if everyone gen-
uinely sought his own development. But
we cannot fail to remember how dependent
all individual culture is upon the labors of
other men, and that the task of achieving
by omitting the greater difficulties is after all
a success not comparable with the one which
faces the enemy in all his strength and multi-
tude, and ends by making friends and sub-
ordinating to its uses the very antagonists who
seemed so formidable. LOUIS J_ BLOCK
T111-: E\-'0LU’1‘ION on THE (‘ni'ric.\L
FA('UL'l‘Y.*
Matthew Arnold in one of his essays (“ A
French Critic on Milton ”), with that exquis-
itely keen faculty for hitting off the weak side
of things which is equalled only by his sense,
both intuitive and trained, for their essential
excellences, sets forth the defects of three sorts
of old-style criticism, typical, though there rep-
resented by the “rhetorical” Macaulay, the
“robust” but inflexible Johnson, and the “con-
ventional ” Addison. Enjoyment of this bril-
liant passage deepens into speculation as to
whether there might not be found in it the
faintest suggestion of one of those things which
the most beloved of literary masters delighted
in affecting not to understand— a theory. A
theory, to wit, of the evolution of criticism, —-


' A HISTORY or figs-rns'r1c. By Bernard Bosauquet, M.A.
(Oxon.) New York: Macmillan & C0.


1892.]
THE DIAL 277

a phrase which brings a smile to those sensi-
tive lips and eyes, so sensitive that the pictured
face seems to live and listen; but our little
systems must have their day, even systems
“ based on principles interdependent, subordin-
ate, and coherent.” Would it be possible, the
question arises, to trace in history a truly con-
tinuous and progressive unfolding of the crit-
ical faculty ? Could the evolution of the human
spirit as manifested in man’s judgment of his
own works, in the refining of both judgment
and production by their subtle interaction upon
each other and by the reflex of their human-
ising influence upon the race, be shown to be,
in the strict sense, a process of growth, where
the new, in springing from and superseding
the old, is essentially a constant advance upon
it? An affirmative answer, especially as regards
the philosophic theory of art, to this rather
doubtful question, is the burden of the latest
work on aesthetics.
Those who know Mr. Bosanquet’s estab-
lished reputation as a writer on philosophical
subjects, as well as the many who learned duly
to estimate his rare scholarship through his re-
cent connection with the Plymouth School of
Applied Ethics. will understand that his “ His-
tory of ]Esthetic " is one of the books which
should stand among the élite occupants of their
choicest shelves. The work, it should be men-
tioned, forms the second issue of Mr. J . S.
Muirhead’s “ Library of Philosophy.”
It is not necessary to share the author’s phil-
osophical position to appreciate his profundity
and critical acumen. His evolutionary method,
indicated above, being based on the principles
of “objective idealism,” is rather metaphys-
ical than scientific, in the technical sense. The
treatment does not suggest, for instance, that
which would be expected from the evolution-
ary champion Letourneau, or from the author
of “ The History of Human Marriage.” For
though the aim of the work, as stated in the in-
troduction, might be called the sociological one
“ to write the history of the aesthetic conscious-
ness,” yet, as Mr. Bosanquet admits (p. 394),
he has “ to a great extent” followed in the
steps of his predecessors Schasler and Carriere
in treating the history of the art-sense as “ the
history of aesthetic philosophy as sue .” To
this metaphysical bias is largely due the fact
that the first part of the book is so much
the more interesting—to the unregenerate.
While Mr. Bosanquet’s attitude remains it
purely critical one, as in the discussion of
ancient and lnedizeval aesthetic theory, his pages

are brilliant with subtle and original thought;
but as soon as he becomes to any considerable
extent an advocate of the views he expouuds,
the book grows to the non-metaphysical mind
(to which candor must be reckoned a virtue,
since so many more recondite ones are denied
it) somewhat trying. Yet, whatever its rela-
tion to belief, this sort of thing is always val-
uable as a form of intellectual gymnastics,
which, in this case, Mr. Bosanquet’s remark-
ably lucid and intelligible presentation renders
not too severe an exercise.
It would be impossible to give in a small
space any adequate analysis of the book, but
even a very general outline may indicate its
value. After preliminaries and definitions, the
subject of Greek theories of the beautiful is
thoroughly developed. The fact that Greek
criticism regarded art as imitation, not as ex-
pression, is dwelt on at length, while “ the three
connected principles which constitute the frame-
work of Hellenic speculation upon the nature
a.nd value of beauty ” are formulated as follows :
1, the moralistic principle, which demands that
“morally the representations of art must be
judged, in respect of their content, by the same
moral criteria as real life”; 2, the metaphys-
ical principle, which declares that “ 1netapbys-
ically, art is a second nature only in the sense
of being an incomplete reproduction of nature,”
and “ is a purposeless reduplication of what al-
ready was in the world”; and, 3, the :esthetic
principle, which maintains that “ a>stlmticaIl_z/,
beauty is purely formal, consisting in certain
very abstract conditions,” summed up in the
phrase “ unity in variety.” The chapters which
trace the relations and bearings of these con-
ceptions, with their development in the Platonic
and Aristotelian philosophies, are such a per-
petual feast of nectared sweets as rarely falls
to the lot of the lover of ideas.
Chapters V. and VI., dealing with late Al-
exandrian and Graeco-Roman culture, and with
the Middle Ages, are of perhaps equally ab-
sorbing interest. The tendency of modern
scholarship constantly to extend the begin-
nings of the Renaissance into a remoter past is
here strikingly confirmed. The aesthetic ideas
of Dis Chrysostoln, Philostratus, and especially
Plotinus, make it seem probable that the sec-
ond and third centuries had within them some
germs of the movement whose earliest known
blossoms are the French stories which in their
present form date from the thirteenth century
but in substance are undoubtedly much older.
A rather disappointing “ comparison of Dante


278
[Nov. 1,
THE DIAL
and Shakespeare in respect of some formal
characteristics ” closes the history of mediaeval
art-philosophy. The remaining eight chapters
discuss the “problem ” and the ‘~ data ” of
modern aesthetic thought, and the treatmenlbf
them by modern writers. The aesthetic
lem, as presented in its matured form to the ;
mind of Kant, " consisted in the question, llow
can a pleasurable feeling partake of the charac-
ter of reason? . . The problem of general phil-
osophy which gave urgency to the aesthetic
issue consisted in the question, How can the
sensuous and the ideal world be reconciled ? ”
These questions, whose solution Kant began,
have been fully worked out, in Mr. Bosanquet’s
opinion, in the later objective idealism. The
foundations laid by Schiller and Goethe were
built upon by Schelling and Hegel, whose work
has received its "methodical completion” from
the modern aestheticians, Carriere, Schasler,
Roscnkranz, Hartmann, and others. “ Exact
aesthetic,” in Schopenhauer, Herbart, Zimmer-
mann, F eelmer, and Stumpf, receives a chapter.
The closing pages of the book are devoted
to an interesting consideration of modern En-
glish art-criticism, and of the present outlook
for aesthetics, both theoretical and practical.
It is discovered that Mr. Ruskin can, with care,
be made to fit into a system; the elastic one,
namely, of “ concrete idealism,” whose famous
feature of regarding contradictories as identi-
cal must be serviceable in this case. The
democratic nature of really living art, both in
its higher forms and 1n the minor artistic crafts,
which Ruskin and William Morris have done
so much to make clear. is brought out in con-
nection with the present poverty of beautiful
production. Mr. Bosanquet is, however, hopeful
as regards the future. “ In spite of all hostile
conditions, man is more human now than ever he
was before, and he will find out a way to satisfy
his imperious need for beauty.” There is no
mention of the relation of this question to the
burning social problems of the day—~an over-
sight, surely; for how can art be democratic
while the people, who should be the creators
of beauty, are bound in the treadmill of a grind-
ing industrial system, and the Philistines value
art chiefly as handmaid to the great god Ex-
pensivcness ‘?
The note of optimism in the sentence just
quoted is characteristic of a general treatment
based, as said before, on a conception of the
progressive development of art and thought —
a conception which, within limits, only a cynic
would think of denying: yet Mr. Bosanquct's

remarkably profound sense of continuity, which
makes the book intellectually a fascinating
study, leads to conclusions difficult to accept in
their full force. For, to give a single instance,
who that contemplates Greek art in its early
splendor, the Parthenon frieze, or the Ealipus
or Prometheus, can but feel that, however 1nod-
ern art may have gained in sentiment, it has
lost inuneasurably in the intellectual mastery of
expression? Inadequaey of expression, while
it may enrich aesthetic sensation for receptive
temperaments by its vague suggestiveness, cer-
tainly indicates weakness in the artist who ex-
pects his audience to interpret for themselves
the idea which he lacks the intellectual power
perfectly to grasp and embody. The compo-
sition of the Greeks, ‘~ which distinguishes their
meanest work from that of other men,” is some-
thing too precious not to be mourned : nor is it
easy to feel that the typical exeellences of mod-
ern art make such loss of little moment. Mr.
Bosanquet’s study of Aristotle slights a little
this central thought of Greek practice and
theory — construction. The words of the phil-
osopher, to the efiect that the most important
element of tragedy is the plot, are perfectly
simple in view of this idea; but it is interest-
ing to compare M r. Bosanquet's labored analysis
of the statement with Mathew Arnold’s discus-
sion of the same theme in the preface to his
poems (1853), or with some of Mr. Pater’s ut-
terances on the subject. The contrast is well
fitted to shake faith in the philosophic as coin-
pared with the critical order of intellect.
Mr. Bosanquet is nevertheless a critic as �ell
as a philosopher, enriching his pages with such
golden nuggets as these:
“I doubt whether such disinterested apprehension of
floral beauty —-so free from moraliziug or allegory -
us that of the text, ‘Consider the lilies of the field,’cau
be found outside, or prior to, the Christian intelligence."
" And if the.playfn|ncss of lloraec appears to us, as
indeed it is, a feeble thing contmsted with the passion
of Sappho, yet we must not forget that there is sonic-
thing noble and civilized -- something worthy of Shake-
spear-e— in being able now und again to smile at the
terrible love-god."
“ And with the love of Nature we must compare its
complement und condition—the feeling of city life.
The intensification of pastoral sentiment by contrast
with the busy splendor of Rome, lending an extraor-
dinary stateliness to the verse which this combined
emotion auimates, is distinctly mirrored both in Virgil
and in lloracc. The nineteenth-century dweller in
a huge city, whether London or Paris, Berlin or New
York, is quite at home in this subtle sense of comple-
mentary pleasures, in which the simple charm of country
life is really to some extent a foil to the recognition of
supreme powers and interests _ ' res Romaine peri-
turaquc regna’_- centred in the city."


1892.]
279
THE DIAL
" It might be worth while cvcn to raise the question
whether the weakness of mediaaval science and philos-
ophy was not connected rather with excess of practice
than with excess of theory. Vi/'hat �e justly stigmatize
as the subordination of philosophy to theology is, in other
�ords, a subordination of science to a formulated con-
ception of human welfare, withastrictly mundane if also
with a transcendental side. The question is not unim-
portant, for it indicates that the essence of scholasticism is
present, not wherever there is metaphysic, but wherever
the spirit of truth is subordinated to any preconceived
practical intent, whether mundane or extra mundane.”
Mr. Bosanquet’s critical perception appears,
to mention another detail, in his quoting with
approval the exquisite passage in “ The Re-
turn of the Native ” describing the change in
the modern sense for landscape beauty. It is
time for a generation freely to acknowledge its
debt, which owes to Hr. Hardy such an en-
largement of the aesthetic horizon, so new an in-
sight into those mysterious and heart-thrilling
aspects of nature, which under his touch are com-
posed into a choric setting for the intense pathos
of human life.
This “History of fEsthetic” is designed for the
benefit not only of “ professed students of philos-
ophy,” but also of the general reader. If that
unfortunate being, who is nowadays expected
to feel a mild but intelligent interest in every
subject of human inquiry, from Actinism to Zo-
otomy, inclusive, is not deterred by a somewhat
rigid technicality of diction, he will be amply
rewarded for the slight strain upon his atten-
tion. Most of us find it pleasant to sink back,
in our travels, on the cushions of a “palace
car,” even while an obtrusive luxuriousness of
upholstery reminds us that we live in an age
of comfort-worshipping materialism ; yet there
are some, certainly, who can forget even the
muscular tax of miles in that interesting En-
glish vehicle appropriately known as a brake,
when the road lies through Westmorelaiid or
Merionethshire,— a figure which is decidedly
unjust to Mr. Bosanquet; for to journey with
him and breathe the exhilaration of his pene-
trative and original thought, a far less ardu-
ous exertion is necessary. MARIAN ‘IE an
BRIEFS ox 1\’F.w Bo0Ks.

THE reader who does not happen to
know the writings of Mr. Bradford
Torrey lacks the acquaintance of an
admirable essayist, the quality of whose work will
bear comparison with the very best of its class.
Mr. Torrey takes his subjects from nature; but he
by no means stops with a study of the beauties,
animate and inanimate, which she has to present.
A zleliglllfnl
volume of
on!-of-door essays.

He loves the birds and the flowers with a keenncss
of feeling which only his intellectual aflinities can
understand; but he loves whatever is fine in the
realm of literature as well. If his reading has not
been wide it has been close. and the masterpieces
that have come down to us through the centuries
have taught him to think and to speak with subtle
penetration and delicacy. But he is not merely a
reflector of other men’s good things. He has good
things of his own to bring forth, and always in a
quiet, modest way, that makes one doubly grateful
for them. Naturally, with this there is a strong
personal quality given out, and the reader is im-
pressed with the feeling that it would be an even
greater privilege to know the man than it is to know
the writer. Mr. T orrey’s latest book is entitled
“ The Foot-path Way ” ( Houghton), the title being
suggestive of the road which he, in common with the
fraternity of naturalists, finds it most congenial and
profitable to saunter along in making his favorite
out-door observations. The volume comprises a
bundle of papers, one short of a. dozen, of very even
texture and attractiveness. Two relating to our
humming-bird, under the titles of “ A VVido� and
Twins ” and “T he Male Ruby-Throat,” contain
original investigations regarding this fascinating
little sprite, which are of especial interest to the
ornithologist. The same may be said of “Robin
Roosts,” and, in fact, of each essay in the volume.
Asingle extract from his pages will serve to show the
style and character of Mr. T01-rey’s work. A female
humming-bird had been circling around its tiny
baby with a peculiar flight, and our author observes :
“ It was a beautiful act,— beautiful beyond the
power of any �ords of mine to set forth; an ox-
pression of maternal ectasy, I could not doubt,
answering to the rapturous caresses and endear-
ments in which mothers of human infants are so
frequently seen indulging. Three days afterward,
to my delight, I saw it repeated in every particular,
as if to confirm my opinion of its significance. The
sight repaid all my watchings thrice over, and even
now I feel my heart growing warm at the recollec-
tion of it. Strange thoughtlessness, is it not, which
allows mothers capable of such passionate devotion,
tiny, defenseless things, to be slaughtered by the
million for the enhancement of woman’s charms! ”
DR. Cnsanas C. ABnor'r‘s new vol-
ume of natural-history sketches, en-
titled “ Recent Rambles,” is a. work
on which its publishers (Lippincott) have expended
no little pains. There is quite a holiday air about
the book, with its heavy pressed paper, clear letter-
press, and neat cover. But the illustrations are the
praiseworthy feature of the work. Photographs of
actual scenes, they reproduce with admirable dis-
tinctness passages from forest, meadow, and water,
which excite a, lively enthusiasm by their beauty.
It would seem that the pictorial art could not be
carried further to serve all requirements in its as-
sociation with literature. The story of the book is
Rambles and
observatimu of
a naluralist.


‘.280
[Nov. 1,
THE DIAL
epitomized in its title. It is a plain matter-of-fact
account of the author’s more notable pedestrian ex-
cursions during the last two years. He walks
abroad with open eye. and so full knowledge of the
habits of different wild animals. and of the varying
aspects of nature, that he is able to catch and inter-
pret all their movements and changes with quick in-
telligence. Dr. Abbott does not give the results of
prolonged study of any particular species in his vol-
ume, bnt of the swift comprehensive glances at
chance objects by the way, which a skilled observer
will make during a short ramble undertaken with-
out special aim.
Arvornna “ vagrant chronicle of the
earth and sky” comes from the pen
of Martha McCulloch Williams, and
with the well-chosen title “ Field-Farings " (Harper
The perusal of a few paragraphs suflices to prove
that the author has the insight and the talent for
patient and vigilant watchfulness which are the chief
gifts in the equipment of the naturalist. But a
third essential faculty for whoever would be a suc-
cessful recorder of his observations,— an eas_v. un-
affected diction,—- has not yet been acquired by her.
There is too much labor in the construction of her
sentences, too frequent a use of coined words. such
as awailing and aglisten, which, permissible in verse.
render prose unbearably stilted.
“A Va/(rant
('hr0'nfc!e nf lhz
1'.‘/irfh and Sky."
“ THE \Vest from a. Car-\Vindow”
(Harper) is the collective title of a
series of eight papers on some salient
phases of far-western life and manners, by Richard
Harding Davis, that readers of “Harper's Maga-
zine” will recall with pleasure. The title of the
book is an unfortunate one, in that it does scant jus-
tice to the really graphic and pithy quality of its
contents. Mr. Davis is an alert and eager observer,
with an unusually keen eye for local and individual
peculiarities; and his stay in western mining camps,
army posts, ranches, reservations. etc., was pro-
longed enough to furnish him with material for a
set of outline sketches of frontier types almost as
Salim! phase:
o_fjur-1re.m»m
I1'_7'e and mrmner.s.
vivid as Bret Harte’s fanciful efforts in the same '
The author’s ac- i
field, and much more accurate.
count of the mining camp at Creede is very amus-
ing. Although he did not see the Poker Flat out-
casts, the Chesterfieldian Mr. Oakhurst, Yuha Bill,
Colonel Starbottle (“ Starbuckle ” he calls him ),
and the rest, he did see some sufficiently picturesque
blackguards, and hits them off neatly. At the time
of Mr. Davis’s arrival in Creede there was no lack
of social excitement; indeed, the season must have
been at its height, as we learn that *‘ there was a
prize-fight at Billy \Voods’s, a pie-eating match at
Kernan’s, a Mexican circus in the bottom near
\'agon “'heel Gap, a religious service at \Vatrous
and Bannigan's gambling house, and the first �ed-
ding in the history of the town.” The last event
was a brilliant one. even for Creede : “ The bride was
the sister of Billy \Voods’s barkeeper, and - §ton_v’


Sargeant, a faro-dealer at ‘ Soapy ’ Smith's, was the
groom. A Justice of the Peace performed the cer-
emony. and Edward DeVinne, the Tramp Poet,of-
fered a few appropriate and well-chosen remarks.
after which Woods and Smith, who run rival gam-
bling-houses, out-did each other in the extravagant
practice of " opening wine’." “All of these,” adds
Mr. Davis with the pardonable pride of a participant,
“were prominent citizens.” The volume is illus-
trated with prints from photographs. and some spir-
ited drawings by Frederick Remington.
A VOLUME of the “Adventure Series”
(Macmillan) that will especially
interest American readers is “The
Adventures of a Blockade Runner," by William
Watson, author of "Life in the Confederate Army.”
Mr. “latson was forced to engage in the dangerous
traflic that forms the burden of his story, by stress
of conditions brought about by the war; and he
saw enough of the service, chiefly in small-craft
traffic in the Gulf towards the close of hostilities.
to give_ a fairly satisfactory firstrhand view of this
not unimportant phase of the "late unpleasant-
ness.” On one occasion his schooner, the ‘-Rob
Roy," was overhauled by the “ Alabama." The
boarding officer "asked a good deal about New Or-
leans and the feeling there under Banks, and re-
marked that he thought it was a great pity they
had recalled Butler from New Orleans, as his
actions there were doing a great deal of good to the
Confederate cause. . He then said he supposed
that, being such a short time out. we would not be
short of provisions? He said his reasons for ask-
ing this were. that capturing so many American
vessels as they did, which were often loaded with
provisions, and as they had no port to take them in-
to. they had to destroy them, taking out of them
first whatever they could use or stow away to ad-
vantage, so that they were generally overstocked
with provisions, and often helped neutral vessels
when in need. Although for this they seemed to
get very little credit, and he spoke somewhat re-
proachfully about the bad name which they con-
sidered had been unjustly attached to them.” The
story is told in a modest, straightforward way that
speaks for its veracity.
A blockade run-
1|er'x xlory of
/If; adventures.
\V1'rH the view of promoting and
aiding the study of Goethe's master-
work as a whole, Professor Calvin
Thomas of Michigan University has undertaken a
two-volume edition of " Faust" (Heath’s “Modern
Languages " The first volume is now ready, and
the editor promises the second at no very distant
date. \Ve take pleasure in commending the schol-
arly and temperate way in which the editing of
Part I. has been done. Professor Thomas is not
an expositor of the futile class styled by Friedrich
Vischer “ allegorische Erklarungsphilister": and
the manful way in which he has resisted, in Part I.,
ihe peculiar temptations that beset " Faust ” editors,
A .wn.r|'I»/r rind
n_w-_1':/I mIiIinl'l
of lhwl/It"-Y Frmsl.


THE DIAL
281
gives promise of an equally sane and helpful edi-
tion of the more perilous Part II. The editor's pre-
fatory remarks as to Part II.—which he sensibly
declines to regard as " a mass of riddles, allegories,
and deep abstractions requiring some sort of occult
wisdom for their ‘ interpretation ’ ”— may be quoted
as indicating his methods: “ The simple truth is,
that no key and no special order of intelligence are
needed. The Second Part of ‘ Faust,’ to be sure,
is not literature for children. or for the weak-minded.
or for the very indolent; but neither is the First
Part. I only wish to urge that anyone who reads
and enjoys the First Part (by which I mean the
whole First Part, and not simply the love-story)
should be able to read and enjoy the Second Part
also. Let him read the Second Part of
‘ Faust ’ as he reads other poetry; with a free play
of intelligence to respond to its infinite suggestive-
ness, but without ever imagining that the text is a
Chinese puzzle.” The introduction and notes are
helpful and scholarly, and the volume presents me
chanically a more inviting appearance than one
looks for in a text-book.
THE Messrs. Scribners have added
to their deservedly successful transla-
tions of M. Saint-Amand's “ Famous
lVomen of the French Court” series, “The Duchess
of Berry and The Court of Louis I\'VIII.,"—the
first of a set of three volumes treating of the Prin-
cess Marie Caroline of N aples, who became by her
marriage with the Duke of Berry (murdered by
Louvel) the central female figure of the French
court during the reign of Louis XVIII. and Charles
X. The volume presents a series of brilliant pic-
tures of a period of French court history that
should be better known than it is. M. Saint-
Amand has treated his material in his usual way
and with his usual skill, citing freely contemporary
comment and gossip. and condensing to the last
degree compatible with thorough rcadableness. To
say that the book is as entertaining as its predeces-
sors is commendation enough.
Fumoiu Women
of I/11' French
Court.
“ PLAY in Provence ” (The Century
Co.) is a pretty volume of 200 pages,
the joint work of Joseph and Eliza-
beth Robins Pennell. The book contains nine pa-
pers descriptive chiefly of (Provencal games and re-
ligious festivals. As usual, the rather shrill and
meagre literary note of the Pennells is offset by the
quality of the accompanying drawings,—severa.l of
Mr. Pennell's pen-and-ink sketches being fair ex-
amples of the capabilities of the process.
rrorem-al game:
and religimu
fP.Ylf!'flf.?.
BRIEFER MENTION.
NOT long ago we noted the publication of a volume
of “New Fragments,” by Professor Tyndall, and we
have now received a new edition of the original “ Frag-
ments of Science ” (Appleton), with so many additions
that two volumes are filled instead of one. In its pres-
ent form the work includes nearly forty papers, and


their interest is as diversified as itis great. Few books
of popular science have been so useful in our day as
these collections of essays. They have filled with en-
thusiasm many a youthful mind, and have contributed
not a little to clarify minds of matnrer development.
Such a paper as the famous Belfast address of 1874, for
example, is as readable to-day as it was when delivered,
and has lost little of its force with the lapse of time.
A GROUP of pleasant little essays upon art, by Mr.
Theodore Child (Harper), have been collected into a
miniature volume entitled " The Desire of Beauty.”
In these papers the author discusses such subjects as art
criticism, the errors of the realist, and the education of
the eye. The discussion is cultivated and urbane, but
the narrow limits imposed hardly admit of its being pro-
found. It might be described as after-dinner chat of
the more serious sort.
“ THE Love of the \Vorld," by Miss Mary Emily Case
(Century Co.), is a book of religious meditations, “B.
jotting down,” as the author says, “of scattered
thoughts, grouped under more or less appropriate head-
ings.” The term “religious ” is used in a broad sense ;
indeed, the author expressly states it as her conviction
that “ there is nothing which is not, or may not be, re-
ligious, sin only excepted.” The book is a very small
one, and is tastefully printed.
IN “ A Little Swiss Sojonrn,” Mr. ‘V. D. Howells
describes in his charming way the experiences of a few
weeks in the Canton Vaud, at Montreux, Vevay, and
Villeneuve. Mr. Howells is at his best in sketches of
travel, and this little volume of the “ Black and White ”
series (Harpers) should find its way to many a vest-
pocket. \Ve should add that it is simply but prettily
illustrated.
Ma. Gsosos F. Pmun-:n’s "Life of Grover Cleveland”
(Cassell) is too good a book to be described as campaign
literature, although it appears at a time when it is sure to
be taken as such. A peculiarly interesting chapter of the
book is the estimate of the ex-President furnished by Mr.
Richard \'atson Gilder for publication in this connection.
Both this work and Mr. Parker's recent edition of the writ-
ings of Mr. Cleveland are books of more than tempo-
rary value.
THE latest paper-covered fiction includes the follow-
ing books: “ Passing the Love of \Vomen,” by Mrs. J .
H. Needell (Appleton); “ In Old St. Stephens,” by Miss
Jeanie Drake (Appleton); “’Tween Snow and Fire,”
a tale of the Kafiir war, by Mr. Bertram Mitford (Cas-
sell); “Strange Tales of a Nihilist,” by Mr. lvilliam
Le Queux (Cnssell ; “ The Golden Bottle," by Mr. Ig-
natius Donnelly ( . D. Merrill Co. ; “ The Gilded
Fly,” a political satire, by Mr. Harold ayne (Price-Mc-
Gill Co.); “ The Adopted Daughter,” by Mr. Edgar
Fawcett (Neely); and “Lo\'c's Temptation,” by Miss
Emilie Edwards (N. C. Smith Co.).
SOME recently published text-books for school use are
entitled to a word of mention. “ The Beginner's A|ner-
icnn History” by Mr. D. H. Montgomery (Ginn) is in-
tended as an introduction to “The Leading Facts of
American History " by the snme author. It is simple
and anecdotal in style. Dr. Wm. J. Milne has added a
“ Standard Arithmetic ” (American Book Co.) to his
series of mathematical text-books. “ A Course in Zool-
ogy" (Lippincott) is a translation and adaptation, by
Dr. \'. H. Greene, of a French book, the authors of the
original being MM. C. dc l\Iontmahon and H. Beaure-
gard. The work is used as the basis of instruction in
this subject by the secondary schools of France.


282
[Nov. 1 ,
THE DIAL
-—~1-—--—r\-_
" A PLEA for the Gospel ” (Crowell) is the title given
to a collection of four sermons by the Rev. George D.
Herron, of Burlington, Iowa. " The Central Teaching of
Jesus Christ" (Macmillan), by Thomas Delaney Ber-
nard, Canon and Chancellor of Wells, is a study and ex-
position of St. John XIII. to XVII. inclusive. The work
is based upon a series of lectures, which, however, it by
no means reproduces. “ Our Birthdays,” by the Rev. A.
C. Thompson (Crowell), is n collection of birthday greet-
ings addressed to friends who have passed the scriptural
limit of age. Thcre is a greeting for every year from
seventy-one to one huudred—altogether, thirty essays
in miniature.
Two or three volumes of short stories call for a
word of mention. Mrs. Rebecea. Harding Davis is the
uuthor of “Silhouettes of American Life” (Scribner),
a volume of exquisite sketches that are hardly more
than etchings, but varied in scene and rich in lmman
interest. The “ Tales of a Garrison Town” (D. D.
Merrill Co.) are a dozen or more in number, the joint
work of Messrs. Arthur \Ventworth Eaton and Craven
Langstroth Betts. The town to which they take us is
Halifax, and the garrison an English one. Miss Mary J.
Safl'ord’s“ Lorelei and Other Stories” (Price-McGill
Co.) are reprinted from various periodicals.
THE following novels have recently appeared : “ That
Wild Wheel" (meaning the wheel of Fortune), by
Mrs. Frances Eleanor Trollope (Harpers) ; “ “aid
.\larian and Robin Hood,” a reasonably fresh treat-
ment of a hackneyed theme, by Mr. J. E. Muddock
(Lippincott); “Englishman's Haven,” which tells of
Louisbourg and its fall, by Mr. W. J. Gordon (Apple-
ton); “ Other Things Being Equal," a. California story,
by .\Iiss Emma Wolf (McClurg); and " The Snare of
the Fowler,” by the popular Mrs. Alexander (Cussell).
L1'r1<:n.un' Xo'rr:s AND Nrnvs.

“ St. Nicholas ” for November has a three-page poem
by the late Mr. \Vhittier, dated December 15, 1891. It
is entitled “An Outdoor Reception.”
" Alfred Lord Tennyson _ a Study of His Life and
\'ork," by Mr. Arthur \Vangh, will be published at
once in England.
Mrs. Ritchie’s new book, “ Records of Tennyson,
Ruskin and Browning,” is to be published by Messrs.
Macmillan & Co.
Longmaus, Green St Co., will soon publish .\Ir.
Lang's “ Green Fairy Book,” uniform with the “ Blue ”
and “ Red" volumes already familiar.
.\Ir. Rossiter Johnson calls attention to the fact that
Lord Tennyson’s work, often culled voluminous, aver-
ages ouly about two lines a day for the whole period of
its production.
“ Harper’s Magazine " for November contains tho last
of Mr. Lowell's lectures on the Elizabethan dramatists,
the subject being “Massingcr and Ford.” \'e may
soon expect these lectures in a volume.
Thomas lvhittnkcr will publish at once " Robin Rod-
breast, a Story for Girls,” by .\lrs. Molesworth, and
" .-\ Candle in the Sea,” a story of the life-saving ser-
vice, by .\Ir. Edward A. Rand.
The Scribners will issue shortly a volume containing
three plays by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson and Mr. \'.
E. Henley. The plays are “Deacon Brodie,"
Austin,” and “Admiral Guinea.”

-I 5_‘!i'J'@I_ ~_\ u :~ Ir tsauonb —->

Professor Krall, of Vienna, has discovered an ancient
Etruscan book among the wrappings of an Egyptian
mummy in the museum of Agram. It is likely to
prove the key to the decipherment of the Etruscan
language.
D. Appleton & Co. will publish immediately a two-
voluuie edition of the life of Lincoln by Herndou and
\Veik, with an introduction by Mr. Horace “'hite; also,
“ \Varriors of the Crescent," a story by Mr. \V. H. Da-
venport Adams.
S. C. Griggs & Co. have now in press a tran.;lation,
by Mrs. Mary Bushnell Coleman, of M. Lavisse’s " Fred-
erick the Great." The work has had much success in
France and Germany, and is said to be entirely worthy
of the author-‘s great reputation.
A series of articles on the portraits of Tennyson, by
Mr. Theodore Vvatts, will soon appear in “ The Muga-
zine of Art.” The selection of the illustrations has
been approved by Lord Tennyson’s family, and includes
all the authentic likenesses.
Continental critics seem to prefer “Enoch Arden”
to Tennyson’s other works. There are of this poem
seven French, six German, two Dutch, and two Italian
translations, besides translations into Spanish, Hungar-
ian, Bohemian, and Norwegian.
The “Easy Chair ” department of “ Harper’s Maga-
zine ” is to be discontinued, Mr. Curtis’s last paper un-
der this head being published in the November number.
The department was started in 1851, with Mr. Donald
G. Mitchell as its writer. Mr. Curtis took a part of the
Chair in 1853, and became its sole occupant in 1859.
Frederick Keppel & Co., of Chicago, New York, and
Paris, issue a handsomely illustrated “ Catalogue of
Etchiugs and Engravings," mostly published by them.
It includes over flve hundred numbers, and will be
mailed to any address upon receipt of the nominal sum
of ten cents. Among the numbers we notice Rajon’s
portrait of Tennyson, in three forms.
Professor Scan-tazzini’s "Handbook to Dante" has
been translated by Mr. A. J. Butler and will shortly be
published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co., who also an-
nounce Mr. C. L. Shadwell's text and translation of
“The Purgatory,” with introductory essay by Mr. \'al-
ter Pater. \Vc already have an American translation
of Scartazzini, made by Mr. Thomas Davidson several
years ago.
The announcements of Longmans, Green & Co. in-
clude: "Deer-Stalking in the Highlands of Scotland,"
by Lieut.-Gencral H. H. Crealock, in a sumptuous edi-
tion limited to 250 copies; “ Fifty Years in the Making
of Australian History," by Sir Henry Parkes; “ The
Ruined Cities of Mnshonaland," by Mr. Theodore
Bent; “ The Toilers of the Field,” by the late Richard
Jefferies; and “ King Poppy,” a poem by Owen Mere-
dith.
Thomas Woolner, R.A., died in London October 7,
the day after Lord Tennyson’s death. He was born in
1825. His work as a sculptor has been of the ablest of
his generation. His bust of Tennyson, in the library
of Trinity College, Cmnbridgc, is one of his best-known
works. As a poet, he published “ My Beautiful Lady"
(1863), lyrics collected from “The Germ,” and three
long blank verse poems: “Pygnlalion” (1881), " Sil-
enus " (188-1), alnl “Tiresias” (1886).
George Howland, Principal of the Chicago High
“Beau I School from 1857 to 1880, and Superintendent of the
entire public school systein of the city from 1880 to


1892.]
THE DIAL 933
1891, died at his home in Chicago, October 21, 1892,
at the age of sixty-eight. Besides one or two slender
volumes of verse, and some poetical translations from
Homer and Horace, Mr. Ilowland published a complete
translation, in English hexameters, of the “]Eneid,”and
a volume entitled " Practical Hints to Teachers in the
Public Schools,” in the “International Education ” series.
“ Science ” for October 7 announces an enlargement
to double the present size, provided the necessary sup-
port be forthcoming. In case the plan is carried out,
one half of each number will be prepared and printed
in London, thus assuring for the journal an interna-
tional character. The publisher states that nearly
$100,000 was expended upon “ Science ” during its
early years, being contributed by two gentlemen whose
names he is not at liberty to print. The review has de-
teriorated considerably of late, and the announcement
of its probable improvement is welcome.
Mr. R. S. Blackrnore, replying to a query concerning
the metrical character of many passages in his novels,
has recently made the following statement: “ It does
seem, when one comes to measure, that I have
(without the least intention) fallen into some sort of
rhythm, which argues perhaps weakness or too mechan-
ical pulsntion—as a man counts his steps to encourage
weary feet. However, it does not matter much, for I
am not of such mark as to lead the young astray.” It
is difi-icult, in spite of this disclaimer, quite to believe in
the absence of intention, when the effect is so very evi-
dent as it is in “ Lorna Doone.”
’TOl’I(.‘S IX I1EADING I’ERlOl)l(‘1\LS.
November, 18.92.
America Discovered by Phuznicians. T. C. Johnson. Califn.
A1-ithmetical Prodigy, The Latest. Alfred Binet. Pop. Sci.
Australia. Racing in. Illus. Sidney Dickinson. Scribner.
Bates, Henry Walter. Popular Science.
Burmese Art. Illus. lllagaztne of Art.
Business Profits. J. B. Mann. Popular Science.
Californian Fisheries. D. S. Jordan. Overland.
Cholera and Commerce. Erastus Wiman. North American.
Coffee in Guatemala. E. T. Parkhnrst. Californian.
Color in Flowering Plants. Alice Carter. Popular Science.
Columbian Exposition, Higher Aspects of the. Dinl.
Copyright in Works of Art. Jlaguzine of /lrt.
Cricket in the U. S. Illus. G. S. Patterson. Lippincott.
Critical Faculty, Evolution of the. Marian Mead. Dial.
Death-Masks. Illus. Laurence Hutton. Harper.
Democratic Outlook, The. \V. F. Han-ity. North A rncrirnn.
Designers of the Fair. Illus. F. D. Millet. Harper.
Dixon Bequests at Bethnal Green. Illus. Magazine of Art.
Driving. Illus. C. D. English. Lippincotl.
Education, Natural Method in. Wesley Mills. Pop. Science.
Education. True Lover of. H. G. Wells. Educational Rev.
Elections, Swiss and French. Karl Blind. North A mcrican.
Eurasia. Sara J. Duncan. Popular Science.
Free Trade in England. Lord Masham. Forum.
French Art — Realistic Painting. W. C. Brownell. Scribner.
French Feeling in Parisian Pictures. B. Hamilton. Mag. Art.
Garfield's Administration. L. A. Sheldon. C'nlifornian.
Gossip of an Ambassador at the Court of Charles II. Dial.
Hugo, Victor. Opinions of. Octave Uzonne. Scribnrr.
Hull House, Chicago. Jane Addams. Forum.
Italy’s Scientific Societies. \V. C. Cahall. Popular Science.
Library of the United States. A. R. Spofford. Forum.
Lick Observatory. Illus. M. W’. Shinn. Overland.
Living Beings, Synthesis of. A. Sabatier. Popular Science.
Mam, What We Know About. E. S. Holden. Forum.
Massinger and Ford. J. R. Lowell. Ilarper.
Millionaires. Lyman Allen. Californian.


Municipal Institutions in America. Jos. Chamberlain. Forum.
Nervousness, Modern. Dr. Bilsinger. Popular Science.
New Party livanted. T. Y. Powderly. North American.
Paperlllaker, First German. Edward Grouse. Pop. Science.
Parisian Boulevards. Illus. Theodore Child. Harper.
Politics and Pulpit. Bishop C. D. Foss. North American.
Posture, Indications of. T. L. Brunton. Popular Science.
Presidential Campaign of 1892. James G. Blaine. No. Am.
Psychology and Education. James Sully. Educational Rev.
Psychology, Comparative. Joseph Jastrow. Popular Science.
Puget Sound Indians. Illus. Rose Simmons. Overland.
Quarantine at New York. Dr. \‘\'. T. Jenkins. North An‘.
Renuu, Ernest. R. G. Ingersoll. North American.
Reasoning Animals. Allen Pringle. North American.
Riverside, California. Californian.
Santa Lucia Mountains. Illus. Mary L. Wliite. Ovcrlantl.
San F raucisco’s Pagan Temples. F. J . Masters. Californian.
Scandinavian in the U. 3., The. II. H. Boyesen. North Am.
Schools of Buffalo and Cincinnati. J. M. Rice. Forum.
School Question, The. Mgr. O'Reilly. North American.
Sociology in Higher Education of \Vomen. Atlantic.
Southwest, Pre-Colnmbians of the. J . J. Peatfiehl. Cnlif’n.
Sponge of the Florida Reef. Kirk Munroe. Scribner.
St. Louis. Julian Ralph. Harper.
Tariff, Commerce and the. R. M. McDonald, Jr.
Tariff, English Views of the. T. H. Farrer.
Tennysouiana: Tributesin Prose and Verse. Dial.
Theatres. Endowed, forAmerica. Mdme. Modjeska. Forum.
Thoreau's Seasons. L. J . Block. Dial.
Trees, Economical. F. Le R. Sargent.
University Spirit, The. J. M. Coulter. Educational Rev.
Van Beers, Jan. lllus. M. H. Spielmann. Jllagnzine ofArI.
\'euice’s Grand Canal. Henry James. Scribner.
lvaste Products Made Useful. Lord Playfair. North Am.
“lest Point, Education at. P. S. “lichie. Educational Rev.
\Vhite Girls. Trafiic in. M. G. C. Edholm. Californian.
“lhittier. G. E. “Ioodbnry. Atlantic.
\Vomen’s Colleges, Normal Training in. Educlional Review.
\'\'orld's Fair, Chicago in the. Franklin Macveagh. Scribner.
\'orld's Fair, Germany at the. W. H. Edwards. No. A m.
“'01-ld's Fair, Russia at the. J . M. Crawford. North .-lm.
Califln.
Forum.
Popular Science.
LIST or 1\'1-:� BOOKS.
[The following list, embracing 70 titles, includes all boo/rs
receiz.-ed by Tm: DIAL since lasl issue.]
ESSA YS AND LITERA TURE.
The Nature and Elements of Poetry. By Edmund Clar-
ence Stedman. \Vith photogravure frontispiece, _ Bro,
pp. ."».'!-Pl, gilt top, uncut edges. Honghton, Mifllin dz Co.
$1.50.
Dante and Beatrice: An Essay in Inter rotation. By
Lewis F. Mott, M.S. lfimo. pp. 48. \'. I . Jenkins. Pn~
per, ‘.25 cts.
Amerlcanisms and Brltlclsms, with Other Essays on
Other Isms. B Brander Matthews. Vllith portrait.
24n|0, pp. 190. 1.00.
HISTORY.
The Cradle of the Columbos. By the Rev. Hnph Flat-
tery, author of “ The Pope of the New Crusade. ’ ltimo.
pp. Mi. U. S. Book Co. Paper, 50 cts.
Old South Leaflets, Nos. 29 to 37. Comprising nine papers,
as follows : The Discove of America. Strabo’s Introduc-
tion to Geography, The Toyages to Vinland, Marco Polo
on Japan and Java, Columbus’s Letter to Gabriel Sau-
chez. Ameri 0 Vespucci’s Pint Voyage, Cortez on the City
of .\lexico, eath of De Soto, Voyages of the Cabots.
D. C. Heath & Co. Each, 5 cts.
POE TR Y.
Poems. By Julia C. R. Dorr. Com lete edition, with por-
trait, Hvo, pp. 471, gilt top. Clarles Scribner’s Sons.
S2..'.0.
Poems of Gun and Rod. By Ernest McGnfl'ey. Illus. by
Ii. E. Butler. Xvo, pp. 140. Charles Scribner’sSons. $1.75.


284
DIAL [NW 1.
THE
Songs about Life, Love, and Death. By Anne Reeve Al-
drich. lfimo, pp. 133, gilt top, uncut edges. Charles
Scribner’s Sons. $1.25.
From Heart's Content. By Clara Duty Bates. Bvo, pp. 128,
uncut. Morrill, Higgins & Co. In box, $1.25.
At the Beautiful Gate, and Other Songs of Faith. Ly Lurg
éiarcoéu. l8mo, pp. 117, gilt top. Houghton, Mifliin
0. 1.00.
Souvenirs of Occasion. By Sara Louisa Oberholtmer.
llimo, pp. 152. J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.00.
Rings and Love-Knots. By Samuel Minturn Peck, au-
thor of “ Cap and Bells.” '3-lino, pp. 150, gilt top. F.
A. Stokes Co. Orchid binding, $1.00.
Wordswoi-th's Grave, and Other Poems.
lvatson. Illus., ‘.’.4mo, pp. 9-1, gilt top. F. A. Stokes Co.
Orchid binding. $1.00.
FICTION.
Prince Serebryani : An Historical Novel of the Times of
Ivan the Ten'ible and of the Con uest of Siberia. By
Count Alexis Tolstoi. Translateddrom the Russian, by
Jeremiah Curtin. 12mo, pp. 430. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50.
Adventures of Sher-locks Holmes. By A. Conan Do le.
author of “ Micah Clarke. ” Illus., 12mo, pp. 307. liar-
per & Brothers. $1.50.
Zachary Phips. By Edwin Lassetter
“A es Surriage." lfimo, pp. 510.
& o. $1.25.
David Alden's Daughter, and Other Stories of Colonial
Times. By Jane G. Austin, author of “Standish of
Standish." llimo, pp. 316. Houghtou, Mifliindz Co. $1.25.
The Reputation of George Saxon, and Other Stories. By
Morle Roberts. lflino, pp. 280. _ Caasell Publishing
Co. 1.50.
Amor in Society: A Study from Life. By Julia Duhring,
author of “ Philosophers and Fools.” live, pp. 330. J. B.
Lippincott Co. $1.50.
Roland Graeme, Knight : A Novel of Our Time. B Agnes
Mauls Mochar, author of “Stories of New rnncs.”
l'.!mo, pp. 285. Fords, Howard & Hulbert. 81.00.
Mrs. Harry St. John: A Realistic Novel of Boston Fash-
ionable Life. By Robert Appleton. Illus., ilvo, pp. -105.
.\Iorrill, Higgins & Co. $1.00.
Illus. by
Fair to Look Upon. By Marv Belle Freeley.
W. L. Dodge. 12mo, pp. 180. Merrill, Higgins & Co. $1.50.
Armeis. and Others. By Mrs. Lindon W. Bates. Illus. by
\Vill Chapin. Uvo, pp. 2'31. F. J. Schulte & Co. $1.25.
Sylvester Romaine. By Charles Pelletreau, B.D. 12mo,
pp. 255. Price-McGill Co. $1.00.
Holiday Stories. By Stephen Fiske. author of "English
Photographs.” 12m'o, pp. 247. Pr-ice—McGill Co. 81.00.
Under Pressure. By the Marchesa Theodoli. 12mo, pp.
307. Macmillan & Co. $1.00.
Green Pastures, and Piccadilly. By William Black. New
revised edition, ltimo. pp. 421. Harper & Brothers. 90 cts.
B uner. author of
Houghton, Mifllin
h'l€W VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES.
Bonner‘s Choice Series: The Return of the O'Mahoney, by
Harold Frederic. Illus. 50 cts.
lV1errlll's Library: The Golden Bottle, or the Story of Eph-
raim Benezet of Kansas, by Ignatius Donnelly. 50 cts.
Price-McGi1l Co.'s Idle Moment Series: The Gilded Fly,
a political satire. by Harold Payne. 50 cts.
Neeley‘s Library of Choice Literature: Hypnotism. by
Jules Claretie; The Adopted Daughter, by Edgar Faw-
cett. Each, 50 cts.
Smith Publishing Co.’s Lakeside Series: Love’s Tempta-
tion, or a Heart Laid Bare, by Emilie Edwards. ‘.55 cts.
THE HOUSEHOLD.
Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical
Housewifery. B Marion Harland. " Majority edition,”
1‘.’mo, pp. -546. harlex Scribner’s Sons. $1.50.
Children's Rights: A Book of Nurse Logic. By Kate
Douglas Vviggin. liimo, pp. 235. Fl,i)ughton, Mifllin &
Co. $1.00.
Almost Fourteen: A Book Designed as a Gift from Pa-
rents to their Sons and Dau htem. By Mortimer A. War
ren. ltimo, pp. 153. Dod . Mead & Co. $1.00.
By \Villiam 1

TRAVEL.
The Oregon Trail : Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Monu-
tain Life. By Francis Parkman. Illus. b Remington.
-lto. pp. 411, gilt top. uncut edges. Little, Brown & Co.
Unique leather binding,
An American Missionary in Japan. B Rev. M. L. Gor-
don, M.D. ltimo, pp. 276. Houghton, Mifliin & Co. $1.25.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
The Tarifl Controversy in the United States, 1789-1315.
lvith a summary of the period before the adoption of the
Constitution. By Orrin Leslie Elliott, Ph.D. iivo, pp. ‘Z72,
uncut. Published by Leland Stanford, Jr., University.
Paper, $1.00.
RELIGIOUS.
The Human and Its Relation to the Divine. By Theo-
dore F. Wright, Ph.D. itimo, pp. 271. J. B. Lippincott
Co. $1.00.
The Every Day of Life. By J. R. Miller, D.D., author of
"SilentTimes.” llimo, pp. 283. T. Y. Crowell & Co. $1.
A Country Preacher: An Essay. By Alfred Yaple. 8vo,
pp. 22. Robt. Clarke dt Co. Paper, '25 cts.
HOLIDAY.
'The Poet's Corner; or, Haunts and Homes of the Poets.
B Alice Cochran. Illus. in nionotint, sq. l2mo, gilt
edges. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50.
Aquarelle Calendar for 1893. Twelve facsimiles of aquar-
ellee b W. H. McVickar and others. Size, 15:11. F.
A. Sto es C0. In box, 33.00.
TheFairy Calendar for 1893. Twelve facsimiles of wa-
tercolors by Maud Humphrey. Size 11‘;§x9. F. A.
Stokes Co. $1.50.
Kalendar of Beautie for 1893. Twelve facsimiles of wa-
tercolors by Maud Humphrey. Size, llléxill/_>. F. A.
Stokes Co. $1.50.
The Magic Laugh. By A. O. Kaplan. Illus. by Frank .\l.
Gregory. Oblong, tied, in a box. Robt. Clarke & Co.
T5 cts.
BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.
In Savage Africa; or. Six Years of Adventure in Confir-
Land. B E. J. Glave. With introduction by H.
Stanley. Tllus. bythe author and others. Bvo, pp. 247
R. H. Russell & Son. $2.00.
The Bunny Stories: For Youn People. By John Howard
Jowett. Illus. by Culmer Barnes. ~lto, pp. 210. F. A.
Stokes Co. $1.75.
A Rosebud Garden of Girls. By Nora Perry. author of “ A
Flock of Gir ." Illus., 12mo, pp. 287. Roberts Broth-
ers. $1.50.
Giovanni and the Other: Children Who Have Made Sto-
ries. By Frances Hodgson Burnett. Illus. by Birch.
Sm. -ito, pp. 193. Charles Sci-ibner’s Sons. $1.50.
The Beautiful Land of Nod. By Ella \'heeler Wilcox.
Illus., ~lto, pp. 142. Merrill, Higgins &' Co. -$1.50.
, Tom Clifton; or. Western Boys in Grant‘s and Sherman's
Army. By \Varren Lee Gnss. author of “Jed.” Illus.,
l‘.’mo, pp. 427. T. Y. Crowell & Co. $1.-1'10.
In the Blue Creek Canon. B Anna Chapiu Ray, author
of "Half a Dozen Boys.” ITlus., llimo, pp. 319. T. Y.
Crowell & Co. $1.25.
Monica the Mesa Maiden. B hire. Evelyn Raymond. an-
tlior of “Mixed Pickles." llus., 12n1o, pp. 357. T. Y.
Crowell & Co. $l.‘.!.'».
Kent Hampden. By Rebecca Harding Davis. Illus. by
Zogbaum. 12mo, pp. 152. Charles Scribner’s Sons. 81.00.
Uncle Bill's Children. By Helen Milnian, author of “Boy."
Illus., sm. -lto, pp. 1-18. J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.00.
The Medicine Lady. By L. T. Meade, author of “ Out of
the Fashion." 12mo, pp. -125. Cassell Publishing Co. S1.
Irish Fairy Tales. Edited, with introduction, by W. B.
Yeats. Illus., 18mo, pp. Cassell’s "Children's Li-
rary." 75 cts.
The Story of a. Puppet; or. The Adventures of Pinocchio.
By C. Collodi. Illus., llimo, pp. ‘J32. Cassell’s " Chil-
dren‘s Library." 75 cts.
La Belle Nlvernaise: The Story of an Old Boat and Her
Crew. By Al honse Daudet. Illus.. llimo,
Casscll's “ Chil ren‘s Library." 75 cts.
pp. '_':»_’.


THE DIAL
Q 5emi=1f-lfluntblg Ziaurnal of Shtzrarg Qlritirism, misrussiun, ant! liuformatiun.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) tspublished on the lat and 16th ofeach 1
month. Tlnls or SI.'BQCl.l‘.P'.l‘IOI, 82.00 a year in advance, postage prepaid I
in the United States, Canada, and filarico; in other countries comprised
in the Postal Union, 50 cents a year for extra postage must be added. ._
Unless otherwi-1e ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current
number. RIIHTANCIS should be ‘by check, or by express or postal
order, payable ta THE DIAL. SPICIAL Barns 'ro Cums and for I
s|tb.1e1-iptions with other publications trill be sent on application; and i
Sulrn Corr on receipt of 10 cents. Anvnnrislua Rxrns furnished on y
application. A ll communications should be uzlrlreued to i
THE DIAL, X0. 24 Adams Street, Chicago.
v
No.15.4. NOVEMBER 16,1892. Vol. XIII.


CONTENTS. PLO]
THE UNIVERSITY PRES . 295 I
PROBLEMS OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION . . 296
\
COMMUNICATIONS . . . . . . . . . 29s ‘
A Curious Piece of Literary History. H. W. Fay.
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT . fill
Newspaper Discussions of the Literary Work and I
“Yorkers of Chicago.—'I'he Syndicate of Associated
Authors and its plan for a Literary Voyage around the .
World.—The Question of Duty upon Re-bound Im-
ported Books.—A Valuable Acquisition of the Uni- I
versity of Chicago: the Doktor-Dissertationen of the
Calvary Library.
A VETERAN DIPLOMATIST’S MEHOIRS. E. G. J . 300
GEOLOGY AND ARCH./EOLOGY MISTAUGHT. T.
C. C/iamberlin . . 303
TWO NOTABLE BOOKS ON ETHICS. John Bascam. 307
RECENT ENGLISH AND CANADIAN FICTION.

William Morton Payne . . 309 i
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS . . . . . . . 311 ‘
Wordsworthls famous dictum on Poet:-y.—A parallel
edition of Columbus’s “first letter-.”—-Curious mat- 1
ter about the early Bibles of Americs.——Hints for
prospective travellers in Egypt.—A panoramic vol-
ume on the city of London.—M. Saint-Amand's pop-
ular histories.~Suggestive subjects lightly touched.
—A new volume on an old subject.
BRIEFER MENTION . . 313 ,
LITERARY NOTES AND NEW$ . . 314
LIST OF NEW BOOKS . 315
l in a separate article.
' rections in which university work is capable of ex-
‘ functions.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
That the university ideal includes something more

; than the teaching of those students who gather in
its lecture-rooms, is a. fact that our higher institu-
tions of education are coming more and more fully
to recognize. That it should be not only a centre
of learning for the few, but a direct source of light
and leading for the many, is the obvious corollary
of its history, broadly considered ; and it is grati-
fying to observe that this wider view of the univer-
sity function finds yearly an increasing embodiment
in various enlargements of its scope. The move-
ment for University Extension, in the special sense
of the term, ofiers possibilities hitherto but imper-
fectly appreciated, and, when it shall have emerged
from the present tentative stage of its development,
will probably remain as a permanent addition to
the forces that make for culture. This movement,
in its present achievement and promise, we discuss
But there are still other di-
tension. ’ It should be brought into closer relations
with the elementary and secondary work of educa-
. tion everywhere; it should leaven the whole edu-
cational lump with the yeast of its devotion to the
ideal ends of learning, and of its maintainance of
the high intellectual standards so greatly needed as
a protest against the material view of life. Illus-
trations of this sort of activity are afforded by the
recent Autumn Conference of the University of Chi-
cago, and by such efforts to re-act upon the methods
of lower instruction as have lately been put forth
by the authorities of Harvard University. The lat-
ter institution, in its ofi'er to examine technically
the work of the lower schools in Massachusetts and
elsewhere, and in its ‘~' Report on Composition and
Rhetoric,” has inaugurated a work of the highest
significance and value, and illustrated a sort of
work that might profitably be undertaken by other
universities.
A few weeks ago we called attention, in an arti-
cle on American periodical publications, to the
number and value of the special reviews emanating
from our universities; and we wish now to discuss
the general question of the University Press and its
In the new university idea, original re-
search plays a. part no less important than that of
instruction. Members of the university faculty are
given opportunities for investigation of their own,
. and understand that their work as instructors con-
sists, not only in imparting accepted knowledge, but
in training their students in the methods by which
the sum of knowledge is increased. And in mak-


296
THE DIAL
\~.�..'-fil-‘-¢:l ‘\‘\' §,..i>t \Qn&Q~_—_-~-

ing public, through a thoroughly organized press de-
partment, the results of such original work, the uni-
versity is engaged in a kind of extension quite as
important as any other. There are two ways of
shedding intellectual light upon a community: there
is the even and difiused radiance typified by the
ordinary methods of University Extension, and
there is the concentrated search-light typified by
the work that should be done by a University Press.
Work of this latter sort cannot meet the popular test
which puts but the one question: Is it self-support-
ing? It cannot be expected to pay in the practical
sense; the more valuable it is, the less likely is it that
it will bring any corresponding pecuniary return.
It would be a mockery for the university to encour-
age research without providing for the publication
of its fruits. Under these circumstances, it becomes
simply the duty of the university to assume the cost
of this work, a duty as clear as that of compensat-
ing its instructors for their services.
To the Johns Hopkins University we owe the first
distinct and unqualified recognition in this country
of the importance of the University Press. Pre-
vious to its foundation, a few of our colleges had
put forth occasional monographs or other publica-
tions, but no important and systematic work had
bee done in this direction. At the very start, how-
eved, the Johns Hopkins University organized a well-
equipped press department. and the record of its
sixteen years’ existence is one of which the institu-
tion may well be proud. “ The Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity has encouraged publication,” is the modest
statement made by President Gilman, in a recent
retrospect. To explain what the statement means
requires a catalogue. In the first place, it means
the publication of the “American Journal of Math-
ematics," the “American Chemical Journal,” the
“ American Journal of Philology,” and “ Modern
Language Notes,” —- four periodicals which are
recognized as the foremost American organs of their
respective subjects. It means, furthermore, the
publication of several series of the highest value to
scholarship: “ Studies from the Biological Labora-
tory,” “Studies in Historical and Political Science,”
and “ Contributions to Assyriology.” It means
also the publication of a great variety of miscel-
laneous volumes, including the valuable extra vol-
umes of the Historical and Political Science Studies,
and such works as Rowland’s plates of the solar
spectrum, Brooks’s collection of morphological mon-
ographs, and Harris's editions of oriental manu-
scripts. It even means the publication of a volume
of miscellaneous essays by the head of the philo-
logical faculty.
Stimulated by the example thus set, a number of
our other universities have developed press depart-
ments of much importance. From Harvard are
issued the “ Quarterly Journal of Economics " and
a valuable series of classical studies. From Co-
lumbia we have the “Political Science Quarterly,"
from Cornell the ‘* Philosophical Review,” and from
Clark the “Journal of Morphology” and " The

1
American Journal of Psychology.’ From many
other institutions. large and small, monographs and
volumes of special studies fitfully appear. The
newer universities are taking up this work with
special energy. Leland Stanford Junior has just
issued its first monograph, the earnest of many to
come; and the University of Chicago has planned
its work of publication upon so large a scale that it
bids fair to rival the institution which acted as the
pioneer in this department of educational enterprise.
The University of Chicago has, indeed, more frankly
than any other, recognized publication as an indis-
pensable adjunct to university work, and proposes
that each of its departments shall issue a special re-
view or series of studies.
\Vhile the endowment and prospects of such in-
stitutions as the Leland Stanford Junior University
and the University of Chicago may admit of a work
of publication thus liberally planned, the case is dif-
ferent with institutions of more limited resources;
and just what the latter should attempt to do be-
comes a question of serious practical importance.
A monograph published by some small college in
Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or Texas, may have the high-
est scientific value. but will fail to reach the audi-
ence to which it appeals, because students in the de-
partment to which it belongs are not accustomed to
look to that particular source for their information.
Local pride tends to encourage a great many pub-
lications of this scattering sort, which are made in-
effective by their furtive and sporadic issue. It-
would be far better for science, if less flattering to
the individual institution, for such work to be sent
to some organ of well-established authority, even if
issued under the auspices of a rival university. A
classical paper hailing from the University of North
Dakota, for example, is put to much better use if
sent to the "' American Journal of Philology” than
if published in pamphlet form at its place of origin.
When it becomes evident that the existing organs
have reached their limit, and cannot take care of
the original work in their respective departments, it
is then time to think of establishing others. And,
even then, the work of starting new organs should
be left to the larger and wealthier institutions. The
prevalence of comity in these matters, or the ar-
rangement of some systematic scheme of coopera-
tion, should be strongly urged in the interests of
all concerned. The responsibility of starting a new
scientific review is great, and should not be lightly
assumed. If the field in question is not yet ex-
ploited, or if there is good reason to believe both
that an additional review in some department is
needed. and that it can be edited without resort to
padding, then the time has certainly come for its
establishment. But the motive should be closely
examined to make sure that it is scientific, and not
the result of the self-advertising propensity. The
work of political and economic science has so wid-
ened of late years that three American reviews have
already come into being, and justified their claim
of the right to exist. while a fourth is promised for


1892.]
THE DIAL
early appearance.
plurality of American organs, and caution is far
better than precipitancy in entering upon a field al-
ready occupied. The advantages of gathering the
results of ‘research into a few foci are great, and
they are accompanied by the other advantages that
result from a process of careful editorial selection
and arrangement.
largest resources, some sort. of cooperation in their
work of publication is extremely desirable, and
would be attended by very slight practical difficul-
ties.
PROBLEMS OF UNIVERSITY
EXTENSION.
The new movement which is planned to carry
higher education to the masses has been called “ The
University on Wheels.” Since the mountain will
not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must needs go to the
mountain. University Extension is an attempt to
extend to a certain portion of society who desire a
higher culture, but are lacking in means or oppor-
tunity to obtain it, some of the advantages of col-
lege education. It discards an earlier theory, which
considered such education as suitable only for a se-
lect portion of mankind, and, finding the normal re-
sults of college education in increased facility in
the use of one’s self as distinctively a human and a
social being, it proposes to give to as many as pos-
sible what has hitherto been the possession of a
favored few. Taking this position, its promoters
have no sympathy with the eighteenth century
maxim that “A little learning is a dangerous thing ”;
rather, their motto is, “ Half a loaf is better than no
bread.”
That culture and refinement of mind, and ideas
and principles of conduct. are good possessions for the
many, must be maintained by anyone who believes
in progress. That the higher education, by intro-
ducing the mind to a knowledge of literature and
history, of science and philosophy,— the world of
mind and the world of matter,— lifts one, even if
by a small degree, out of a narrow and ignorant
egoism into a somewhat better comprehension of
his situation, and of his opportunity in life and in
society, is undeniable. If the employee classes of
our great cities — many of whom, under our system
of public school education. have made a fair begin-
ning —-can in some way be enabled to go beyond
the " three R's,” and make some acquirement in the

humanistic sciences which tend to make better 5
citizens as well as broader men, our educated
classes should give time and energy and money
toward the accomplishment of that end. The pro-
moters of University Extension believe that this can
be done; and they ask all friends of the people to
assist in making the higher education no longer an
aristocratic privilege of the leisured classes. They
have succeeded in enlisting the active sympathy of
But there are as yet few de- ,
partments of investigation which require such a .
For all but the institutions of “


= ucators of two countries.
both the great English Universities, and of nearly
every collegiate institution in the northern United
States. The attempt has been approved by the ed-
There is no longer any
debate as to its desirability : question seems to arise
solely as to its practicability.
The University Extension plan involves the for-
mation of local centres of instruction in town and
city, and the deputation of instructors from adjzv
cent colleges to give courses of lectures, followed by
“ quiz ” classes and question papers for those who
are in real earnest. This work is done in the even-
ings. In this way it is sought to bring to those who
are employed in business all day a culturestudy
which shall refine and humanize, and shall cherish
the ideal in lives by necessity much materialized.
That there is a demand for something of this sort,
the formation of so many centres in this country
and in England amply proves. The commodity
has been advertised, and there is a rush to ob-
tain it.
But it does not follow necessarily from these
premises that the seekers after education will be
benefitted by this new movement. Bacon says that
“ Studies serve for Delight, for Ornament, and for
Ability.” Unless the Extension work shall produce
for its clients something more than Bacon’s first
category, and possibly a little of the second, it will
answer no good purpose. It should do more than
amuse audiences and advertise lecturers. It should
educate the people to whom it extends its interest.
“ In at one ear and out at the other ” is the pro-
verbial fate of the “ popular ” lecture. If the Ex-
tension movement can do no more than that, it has
no vocation. College professors ought to be too
busy to be called upon merely to amuse the popular
caprice. If the lecture system — already over-
worked in many of our colleges, and the bane of
our theological seminaries —- is to become the chief
timber in this new educational structure, it would
be better not to build. No one gets an education
without doing the hard work himself; it cannot be
had through a pleasant titillation of the auditory
nerve. We look to hear a good deal less about the
lecturer and much more about the instructor, before
we shall be sanguine in regard to this movement.
Quiz classes, personal supervision of the work and
of the collateral reading, personal contact of teacher
and pupils, are the methods found necessary in
colleges whence educated men issue forth; and it is
not likely that anything less thorough will carry the
higher education to the masses. Experience has
proved this to be the only royal road to learning.
But if this method is to be adopted, whence is the
supply of instruction to come? Our American col-
leges are business institutions, and the professor
gives a quid pro quo for his salary. What atten-
tion he devotes to Extension work must be squeezed
out of his scanty leisure. A course of six weekly
lectures is a comparatively easy thing; but quizzes
and question papers, and examination papers,-—
surely he is duplicating his already full collegiate


298
[NOW 16,
THE DIAL

routine. Yet this work must be done, if done at
all, by the college professor. The amateur will not
answer, if this Extension experiment is not to de-
generateinto mere play. The University Exten-
sion professional in any large quantity is no bet-
ter, if the work is to catch the spirit of the large
work of education done in our colleges. A few
men at every college centre who can give their
whole time to the management of Extension work
will be an important factor for success, but the pace
must be set and kept going for University Exten-
sion instruction by University faculties. And the
Universities must give their best. for Extension au-
diences are mature and critical, and want their
money’s worth, far beyond the demands of college
students. Already, in and about Chicago, local
centres are finding that much learning and a doc-
tor’s degree from Leipzig or Berlin do not make I
an instructor, or prevent an audience from run-
ning away from the University, even though on
wheels; that, in addition, a lecturer must also be a
trained and tried teacher, magnetic in personality
and sympathetic with human nature, which he has
studied as well as books.
Yet, under the present circumstances, while the
University professor is the needed man, there is not
enough of him. The consequence is that the work
so far as done may be said to be sporadic,— it lacks
in continuity and in solidity. \Vhat is called the
“circuit ” system, by which one lecturer is “ boarded
‘round " by a group of associated towns, hardly
meets the difficulty. It is partially met only by the
confederation system, which joins a number of col-
leges in a cooperative work.
which now centres in Chicago. and includes, besides
the three Chicago institutions —— with their literary
departments at Hyde Park, Evanston, and Lake
Forest—- one other Illinois college, two in \Viscon-
sin, and three in Indiana. This association makes
use of the associated faculties of nine colleges in
answer to calls from local centres, and thus equal- ‘
izes the supply to the demand. as far as the former
goes. But the town of Reading in England has
apparently solved the problem how to get the max-
imum of instruction with the minimum of expendi-
ture. Christ’s college, Oxford, has adopted the
Reading Extension organization, and has pledged
itself to the support of an experienced Extension
worker, who shall give his full energy to Reading. .
As a complementary act the Government Science
School of Reading has entered into association with
the local Extension centre. Thus Reading will have
a local “ Extension College,” with a local staff of
instructors and an Oxford expert as director. If
a similar arrangement could be made by any of
our centrally located colleges, by which around it
as a centre might be gathered a group of local
schools — commercial colleges, or mechanics’ insti-
tutes, or night schools, or some of the multitude of
so-called colleges or universities dotted over our
West—tl1e saving of energy would be very great.
Extension work might then be done in large part in
Such a union is that ,
i are spurious, and not Sn1ollett's at all.
‘ trated Library edition.

, the class-room, under the direction of the local stafi
and under the supervision of the central faculty.
Such a union of colleges as that now centring in
Chicago might thus enlist hundreds of local centres
of teachers to meet the demand made by local
centres of students. This plan, if adopted, would
but lead on to the introduction generally of the
method just inaugurated by the University of Chi-
cago, which has organized an Extension faculty as
an adjunct of the University faculty. But we doubt
the wisdom of a rigid separation between the “ reg-
ulars " and the Extension men in any collegiate fac-
ulty. If every regular professor contributed to the
Extension work, the demand on any one would be
small, and the standard of attainment would be by
so much the higher. All this calls for money ; but
it is an educational postulate that education never
pays its way. The Universities must bear the
larger portion of the expense of Extension work, in
any event, if it is to “ go," and it must be endowed
if it is to be worth having. If this movement once
reaches a truly educational basis, it will be full as
easy to draw to it as to the more technical work of
the collegiate curriculum the financial assistance of
our business men, who are always best pleased by
any philanthropic venture which concerns the masses
as well as the classes.
C OJI M UNI CA TI ON “.
A CURIOUS PIECE OF LITERARY HISTORY.
1T0 the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Some interesting questions are suggested by the re-
cent curious literary discovery announced in a late num-
ber of “Tho Academy," of London, by the Rev. A.
L. Mayhew. He shows that the common translations
of “ Gil Bias," which are published as Smollett’s,
The three
chief modern editions of the book are George Rout-
ledge's, no date, bearing on its title-page the state-
ment, “Translated from the French of Le Sage by
Tobias Smollett”; Nimmo and Bain’s, 1881, in three

. volumes, the translation identical with Rontledge's, but
“preceded by a biographical and critical notice of Le
Sage, by George Snintsbury”; and the Bohn’s Illus-
All these modern editions of
“Gil Bias,” bearing the imprint of three most respecta-
ble publishers, with the name of Sniollet on their title-
pages, give to readers, not Smollett’s version of Le
Sage's book, but a wholly distinct and inferior one.
“These editions,” Mr. Mayhew says, “ have no right
i whatever to the name of Sinollett, as may be clearly
seen by comparing any passage taken from the authen-
tic translation by Slnollett with its equivalent as it ap-
pears in the pseudo-Smollett editions." Mr. Muyhew
prints in juxtaposition passages from the two versions,
much to the injury of the common one, which shows
itself very vulgar by comparison.
VVho, then, was the pseudo-Smollett of the publish-
ers? Mr. Mayhew has followed on his track in the
British Museum, and makes him out to be “ Benjamin
Heath Malkin, esq., M.A., F.S.A." That is his style,
as given on the title-page of the new edition of “Gil
Bias,” printed for Longman and other booksellers in


1892.]
299
THE DIAL
109. This edition had an advertisement decrying
Sinollett’s version in comparison with its own “more
easy and spirited transcript of the original.” It was
also adorned with engravings from pictures by R.
Smirke, R.A., which engravings appear in Bohn’s illus-
trated edition.
This whole matter is not only curious as a piece of
literary history, and as an illustration of the way in
which most people, critics included, accept a plausible
statement without challenge, or even injury; but it also
has importance from another point of view. Mr. King-
ton Oliphant, in his “ New English ” (1886), cites
Smollett as authority for certain new words, using, as
he says, Routledge’s edition; the learned editor of the
Stanford Dictionary follows Mr. Oliphant; others may
follow him, and so spread widely some fantastic phil-
ological errors. H. “K FAY.
Westborough, Mass., Nov. 5, 1892.
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT.
Every now and then some newspaper or popular
periodical attempts to discuss some literary work and
workers of Chicago, and the attempt is usually char-
acterized by woeful ignorance and an utter lack of
perspective. Vve have never yet seen a published treat-
ment of this subject that did not defeat its own ob-
ject; that did not make the subject ridiculous, however
serious the purpose of the writer. The contribution of
Chicago to literature is as yet very slender, but it is
not discreditable, and it represents, in the aggregate,
considerable amount of serious endeavor and praise-
worthy achievement. It is not, however, to be described
by cataloguing the books that newspaper writers have
put forth from time to time, and proclaimed (for each
other) with all the devices of puifery known to the art of
mutual admiration. A certain proportion of the really
creditable literary work done in Chicago has doubtless
been produced by professional journalists, but by far
the larger share has been done quietly and unobtru-
sively, and so has escaped notice in the summaries of
which mention has been made. The latest summary of
the sort appears in “ Frank Leslie's Monthly Maga-
zine” for November, and fails to present in anything
like the proper perspective the work of which it takes
random cognizance, while it altogether omits many of
the most serious literary workers of Chicago. Its critical
tone may be illustrated by the description of Major
Kirkland as combining the characteristics of Mr. How-
ells, of Mr. Ward McAllister, and — Heaven save the
mark!-of Louis Napoleon. Of its ignorance, the
description of the late George Howland as “a board
of trade man ” may be taken as an example and a
warning.
A number of American writers, including such
men as Mr. Joel Chandler Harris, Mr. Thomas Nelson
Page, and Mr. Paul B. Du Chaillu, as well as many of
the smaller fry, have recently organized as “ The Syn-
dicate of Associated Authors " for the purpose of depriv-
ing the middleman of his occupation by directly placing
their works before the press of the country In this, of
course, there is nothing very novel, but a decided nov-
elty is embodied in one of the plans of the syndicate.
It is proposed to charter a schooner, registered as be-
longing to the New York Yacht Club, and to start on a
literary voyage of discovery around the world. Mr. Du
Chaillu will be one of the party, and will be useful in
case the expedition should fall in with any gorillas. The
main purpose of the travellers will be the collection of
matter to be worked up in the form of fiction. Many
and weird will doubtless be the tales that these literary
Argonauts will bring back with them from foreign
parts. We have had cooperative fiction before, but
never, within our recollection, cooperative efiort for the
collection of its materials.
The vexed question of the duty upon imported
books published more than twenty years ago but re-
bound within that period, has come before the courts
again. The decision rendered by Judge Putnam, of
Boston, contains the following very sensible passage:
“Rebinding is not binding. The latter is new and
original work; while, ordinarily, the former is repair-
ing, and usually omits one or more of the recognized
steps in the latter. I regard them as entitled to free
entry, even though it also appeared that, in consequence
of accident or ordinary use, they had needed and re-
ceived repairs in all respects equal in extent to new and
original binding. I adopt the conclusions of the decision
of the Treasury Department of March 2, 1891 (10,800),
and hold that the books are entitled to free entry.”
Another phase of this question relates to bound books
in foreign languages, but we do not know that this has
been made the subject of a judicial pronouncement.
The existing tariff law places upon the free list books in
other languages than the English, saying nothing of
the binding, and there would seem to be no question as
to its interpretation. But the Treasury Department
has made for itself a reputation for creating difliculties
where none really exist, and importers of bound French
and German books may expect to pay duty on both
books and binding, as a penalty for their unpatriotic ac-
tion. But it is not likely that the time is far distant when
the tax upon knowledge will cease to disgrace our
statute-book, and when neither art nor literature will
have to pay for the privilege of admission to a country
that prides itself upon being free.
During the past five years no less than 9,082
Doktor-Dissertationen have been issued under the au-
spices of the German universities, the faculty of medicine
getting more than half the entire number, and the faculty
of theology having less than fifty to offer. The regular
publication of these dissertations is, in Germany, a rec-
ognized department of university work (although the
cost is defrayed by their authors), and a well-organized
system of exchanges results in the establishments of
many large collections in the principal university libra-
ries. It is matter for peculiar congratulation that
the University of Chicago, in its purchase of the Cal-
vary Library, has become possessed of one of the largest
collections of the kind in existence. While of little in-
terest to the general reader, these dissertations are of
great value to the special student, in whatever depart-
ment he may be at work, and a collection of this sort is
one of the most important possible adjuncts to univer-
sity work. From them, and from the scientific reviews,
the student alone may learn what has been done in his
special field of research. Their contents become grad-
ually filtered into books, but there is always a large re-
siduum that must be examined before the investigation
of any special problem can be entered upon without dan-
ger of doing over again something that has already been
done.


THE DIAL
[Nov. 16,
THE New BOOKS.

A VETERAN Dn>1.o.\1A'1"1s'r's .\IE.\io1ns.*
In two notable volumes which form the first
series of his diplomatic reminiscences, Lord
Augustus Loftus records the most signal mem-
ories of a portion of his long career of nearly
half a century spent in the foreign service of
Queen Victoria. The record of the earlier
years having been deducted as relatively un-
important, the period embraced reaches from
1837,— when, on the death of William IV. of
England, Lord Loftus received from Palmers-
ton his appointment as at-taché to the legation
at Berlin,—to 1862, when he accepted Lord
Russell’s ofl"er of the mission at Munich. Most
of this time was spent at the courts of Berlin
and Vienna. His aim in these memoirs has
been to present in consecutive narrative a faith-
ful historical account of leading political events
which came under his personal notice, and of
attendant diplomatic sinuosities ; and while the
work is fairly leavened throughout with the
lighter matters of anecdote and personal char-
acterization, its groundwork is the instructive
comment and reflection of a competent observer
upon leading phases of European politics dur-
ing the period discussed. Among the more in-
teresting of the events noted are the origin of
the Austro-Italian war, the startling peace pre-
liminaries resulting from a meeting of the two
Emperors at Villa France, and the constitu-
tion of a united Italy under King Victor Eman-
uel; while the writer’s outline —to be com-
pleted, we trust, in succeeding volumes — of
the progressive stages through which Prussia
passed, until, in 1871, in the palace of Ver-
sailles, the German Empire was proclaimed,
and King \Villiam I. of Prussia was invested
with the title, hereditary in the royal house of
Prussia, of “ German Emperor,” is informing
and fairly complete.
Lord Loftus was one of those rarely fortu-
nate persons whose lives have tallied through-
out with their natural bent and inclination, and
have fulfilled, so far as such fulfilments go in
this life, the aims of early aspiration. His first
introduction to society was at Brighton, the
usual winter residence of Vvilliain IV., the
“ Sailor King,” to whose consort, Queen Ade-
laide, his mother was then Lady of the Bed-
chamber. Lord Loftus relates that —~
‘Tin; DIPIDMATXC REMINISCENCES or Loan Ancrs-rus
Lorrns, P.C., 1837-1862. In two volumes, with Portrait.
New York '. Cassell Publishing Co.



“ To my great consternation, I was invited, with my
parents, on two occasions to dine at the Pavilion, and
at the age of eighteen it is permitted even for an Irish-
man to feel shy and nervous. On the first occasion I
was summoned after dinner to approach the King, when
His Majesty, with that genial kindness which was his
nature, and which completely put me at ease, asked me
what profession I was destined for. I replied that I
hoped to serve His Majesty in the Diplomatic Service;
to which the king replied good-naturedly, ‘ And so you
shall, my boy, and I will look after you.’ ”
On the death of William, in 1837, Lord
Loftus received his appointment to the Lega-
tion at Berlin, then headed by Lord William
Russell. The Berlin of 1837 was a village in
comparison with the Berlin of to-day, and it
was, socially speaking, thinks the author, a far
more agreeable place. The speculative spirit
and the fever for amassing wealth had not yet
invaded its precincts, and the Berliner was con-
tent to live simply and enjoy life in the frugal
old-German way. The society was small, and
made up chiefly of the court officials, the mil-
itary, and the diplomatic corps ; and those with-
in the charmed circle danced and flirted and
supped and married and were given in mar-
riage, unfettered by the Turveydropian for-
malities of an imperial court. Still,— says
our author,—
“ In those days no one was invited to Court who was
not hofliihig (court-eligible), and no Jews were ad-
mitted to its precincts. I remember a curious lllll8t1‘8.-
tion of this. A fancy-dress ball had been given by
Prince and Princess William of Prussia. There was a
fancy-dress procession to usher in the various quadrilles,
in which figured a stranger of the Jewish persuasion,
then residing at Berlin,—a member of a very wealthy
and highly respected family. The ball was so success-
ful that the King was anxious to see the costumes, and
invitations were issued in the King's name for its rep-
etition at the palace. A difficulty arose as to inviting
the Jewish stranger to the palace, although he had pre-
viously appeared at thc ball of Prince W'illiam. The
matter was referred to the King, who, in his laconic
manner, replied, ‘that if he asked Jews to his Court,
he preferred to ask his own Jews.’ ”
Strange, that the earthly l:0_fl'('il1i_q/vcit of the
“ chosen race " should be so universal a point
of dispute! The King of Prussia was a just,
merciful, and benevolent sovereign,—a gen-
uinc “ father of his people,” without, however,
the paternal propensity for caning them dis-
played by old Friedrich Wilhelm. He was
often humorous in doing a kind act ;— as in
the following incident:
“ A lackey who had been discovered, after the animal
déjeuner dansant, to have partakeu of certain red wine,
by the stains on his white livery, had been summarily
dismissed; he placed hilnself in the King's way, and fell
on his knees, asking forgiveness. The King granted
him his pardon, adding, ‘Dummer Kerl, warum hast


1892.]
301
THE DIAL
du nicht weiss gelrunken!’ (Stupid fellow, why didn’t
you drink white wine ?) ”
Frederick lVilliam III., though leading a se-
cluded life, attended to public affairs with a
conscientious devotion to the interests of his
subjects. Averse, from the purest motives, to
any political changes in the internal adminis-
tration of his country, he could not divest him-
self of the doctrine of the divine right of
kings, and of the expediency of absolute gov-
ernment. He had been reared in those prin-
ciples,—— had fought against the revolutionary
doctrines of the Napoleonic age,— and he clung
to them in his maturer years with persistency.
Indeed, says our author, “ it would not then
have entered into the brain of any Prussian
statesman to take a lead in proposing a consti-
tutional system of government.” But the
spirit of reform was abroad; and to the cath-
olic observer it was evident that a great patri-
otic feeling, a dawning idea of German unity,
had already been aroused, which it was as im-
possible to resist as it would be to curb the
rolling wave on the seashore. The author adds :
“l well recollect Lord VVillia1n Russell, who was our
able minister at Berlin, remarking in 1837, on stopping
in front of the University of Berlin (an imposing build-
ing opposite the King's palace), that ‘it would some
day be the Parliament House of Prussia.“
Repressive Mrs. Partingtons, with their leg-
islative brooms, were not wanting then; but
the tide of liberalism was setting in, and with-
in a few years of Lord Russell’s prophecy
Frederick William IV. convoked the first rep-
resentative body at Berlin. Speaking, in this
connection, of the initiative taken by the
students in the great national movement, Lord
Loftus, arguing for the removal of universities
beyond the pale of large capitals, observes:
“Of late years all the revolutions have been _-if not
instigated ~- led by the students. At Paris it was the
Ecole Polyteclmiqne that first appeared on the scene of
revolution; and in 1848, both at Berlin and Vienna, the
students played a principal part. I remember my as-
tonishment, in March, 1848, on entering Berlin by moon-
light with Sir Stratford Canning, at seeing the students
mounting guard at the Leipsiger gate; and still more
astonished was I to see on the following day the stu-
dents, in fancy uniforms and with Freischiirler hats, in
occupation of the Prince of Prussia’s palace, to save
which from destruction a large placard had been placed
with the inscription of ‘ National Eigenthum ’ (National
P'°P°1"t.l')-"
Apropos of the revolutionary period, and as
illustrative of the irrepressible Berliner Witz,
the writer relates that, after the Revolution, he
noticed a proclamation of the King’s addressed
“An meine lieben Berliner” (“to my dear
Berliners ”) , suggestively pasted over a cannon-

shot that had lodged in one of the pumps -— a
wooden structure, such as exist in all the Ber-
lin streets.
Prominent among the historical personages
characterized by Lord Loftus is Prince Met-
ternich, to whom he thus refers :
“ All that can be said in regard to his statesmanship
is that he never progressed beyond 1815, and that he
lived a hundred years too late. His character and na-
ture were more suited to the days of Louis XIV. than
to modern times. He was a grand seigneur in all his
thoughts and actions, dignified and courteous, with s
charm of manner that was most captivating. He was
of a noble and generous disposition, and with the im-
mense power he possessed (for he ruled for many years
the vast empire of Austria) history cannot record any
act of his of an ungenerous or revengeful nature. . . .
He was brought up in the school of absolutism, and it
cannot be denied that he remained steadfast and faith-
ful to its principles to the last. . . . But it is not the
less true that he foresaw in his latter years, with horror
and alarm, the great changes which were impending in
Europe, and which were to herald the introduction of
liberal institutions. To the saying of Prince Metter-
nich, shortly before his fall in 1848, ‘Apr-as moi le dc’-
luge,' the Red Socialists replied, ‘Et aprés le déluge,
nous.’ He had failed to see with that prescience which
is the mark of genius, that the oak which does not bend
to the storm is uprooted."
In 1844 Lord Loftus was appointed paid
attaché at Stuttgart, near which picturesque
town the late King of Wiirtemburg had erected
a beautiful villa. The King had a magnifi-
cent stud of Arab horses, which he had pro-
cured at great expense from Syria, and of
which he was very proud.
“ When Lord Brougham visited Stuttgart he was
taken round the stables by the King's Master of the
Horse. It was a bitterly cold day, and Lord Brougham,
slightly clad, and with trousers scarcely reaching to his
ankles, ran hastily through the stables, never looked at
a horse, and on coming out merely observed to the Mas-
ter of the Horse, ' That the money spent on the stables
would be more advantageously spent in building a suit-
able university for the education of the nobility/"
The Master of the Horse, expectant of the
usual eucomiums, was reduced to dumbness by
this caustic and not over-civil observation.
The King of W'iirtemburg was a staunch
Protestant, and our author remembers once,
when speaking of the power exercised over the
masses by the Catholic priesthood, and cou-
trasting it with the freedom of the Protestant
religion, hearing the King observe that “ Lu
d-z:fi'ércnce cntre les deum religions est que le
Cat/zolicisme est 'une Eglise sans religion, la»
Po-otestantisme est une religion sans Eglise.”
The observation is perhaps a citation from Pas-
cal. The King, despite his strong Protestant-
ism, was by no means attached to Prussia, the
great Protestant power of Germany, and for


302
[Nova 16,
THE DIAL

many years he strongly resisted the attempts
at Prussian hegemony. On one memorable oc-
casion he publicly declared, “ Er wiircle sick
nie einem Ilokenzollern unterwerfon " (He
would never place himself under a Hohenzol-
lern).
The legation at Stuttgart was at that time
also accredited to the Grand Duke of Baden,
and during the summer months Lord Loftus
accompanied his chief to Baden-Baden. At
this cheerful resort he enjoyed the intimacy of
the Grand Duchess Stephanie, “ one of the
most charming and intellectual princesses of
the epoch.” She was a near relative of the
Empress Josephine, and had been reared at
the Court of Napoleon I., by whom, in his vig-
orous re-shuffling of more or less elfete German
court-cards, her marriage with the Grand Duke
had been arranged. Though this marriage
was purely one of c0m'e-nance, and though the
first years of it were by no means tinged with
those roseate hues commonly ascribed to such
periods, the Duke’s constancy (a rare Grand-
Ducal phenomenon), and his unflaggin g tender-
ness, succeeded finally in winning first the es-
teem, then, naturally, the afiection of his bride.
Stephanie had two sons, both of whom (sup-
posedly) died in their infancy, and suspicions
were entertained that a court-faction favorable
to the next heir, the Grand Duke Louis, was
instrumental in “ removing” (a pleasant
euphemism for “ murdering ”) the innocent ob-
stacles to his succession. At all events there
was a mystery ; various stories were rife; there
was much back-stairs whispering and curious
surmise ; and it seems on the whole fairly
probable that at least one of Stephanie's chil-
dren was caught in the pitiless meshes of a
dark intrigue. Lord Loftus was told by an
old confidential servant of Grand Duchess
Stephanie that it was currently believed about
court that the second son — a fine child, with
an apparently strong grip upon life—had been
exchanged, during the momentary absence of
the nurse, for an infant that was at the point
of dying. The act was never proved, and gos-
sip of the sort is always to be taken cum grano.
“ Mankind,” as ponderously observed Dr.
Johnson — who, by the way, himself credited
and “ propagated " the “ mystery ” of the Cock
Lane ghost,-— “ loves to propagate a mystery ”;
but, however, some years after the death of
Stephanie’s sons, there occurred an incident
faintly corroborative of the story above, and
taken by many (including the unhappy mother)
as the sequel of that painful scrap of dubious

court-history. There appeared one morning
mysteriously at the gate of Niirnberg a boy of
thirteen or fourteen years of age, whose strange
and pitiful plight aroused first the curiosity, then
the suspicion, of the authorities. Timorous as a
hare, quite inarticulate, unable to give the faint-
est verbal clue to his identity or to the place
he came from, naively unaware of his worse
than “looped and windowed-raggedness,” tot-
tering uncertainly on limbs long unused to the
practice of walking, the unhappy waif soon fell
fainting in the middle of the street. Here was
a case to befog the parochial brain. The at-
tendant “ Bumbles,” however, were quick to
act, after the manner of their kind, and the un-
fortunate lad (being hungry) was promptly
taken to the police. When questioned he could
give no answer. Pen, ink, and paper were
produced, and, to render the mystery more
mysterious, he took the pen and traced his
name in legible characters. This show of eru-
dition (astonishing enough at that day) so
glaringly contrasted with accompanying signs
of hopeless idiocy, at once suggested impos-
ture; and the victim, though perishing with
hunger, was bundled ofi to the common jail
used for vagrants and lesser malefactors. Hap-
pily, he was followed to prison by an intelligent.
humane man, Dr. Daumer, who, with a pre-
science worthy of Copperfield’s friend, “ Hr.
Dick,” advised the jailer to give him some
food. A plate of meat and a jug of beer were
brought; but the boy, on seeing what was
placed before him, was seized with a violent
convulsion, uttering a cry of horror, and over-
turning. with every sign of aversion, the jug of
beer and the meat. This ill-treatment of the
national beverage was perplexing enough ; and
the Germanic mind was still more confounded
when the boy, recovering from the fright
brought on by the beer, seized a glass of
water and a scrap of bread, and ate and drank
with avidity. The marvel spreading, the
jail was presently thronged with visitors,
some bringing cakes and sweetmeats,— which
were treated as cavalierly as the beer,— and
one a little wooden horse, which the boy seized
with joy, caressing it and pressing it to his
breast as if he had found an old friend. The
sight of the toy had evidently stirred some
slumbering memory of a time when a gentler
hand than that of parochial beadleship was
busy with his fortunes. By degrees his eyes
became accustomed to light, and his ears to
sound ; and the striking of a neighboring clock,
at first indistinct, excited him even to tears.


1892.]
303
THE DIAL
The tones of musical instruments produced a
still more painful emotion ; and once, a regi-
mental band passing, he fell fainting to the
floor of his cell. Finally, kind Dr. Daumer —
doubting, as it seems, the propriety _of jailing
a fellow-being because he chanced to be espe-
cially wretched— obtained permission to adopt
him. His education was begun, and though
progress was slow, he was enabled at the end
of a year to furnish a half-coherent narrative
of his early recollections, for which we must re-
fer the reader to Lord Loftus’s pages. The
strange story spreading abroad, strangers came
in crowds to Dr. Daumer’s to catch a glimpse
of his pupil, one of whom, chancing to be alone
with him for a moment, struck fiercely at him
with a dirk, but with so false an aim that his
victim escaped with a wound in the forehead.
This murderous attempt proved that the boy
was not safe in Niirnberg, and he was taken to
Anspach and placed in charge of the celebrated
Dr. Fuhrmann, under whose care he became a
clever and amiable young man. Naturally,
surmise as to his identity was rife, and by some
it was held that he was the one of the sons of
the Grand Duchess of Baden who had been ex-
changed for the dying child. This plausible
belief was so strongly impressed upon Steph-
anie’s mind that she was most anxious to see
the young man, and an interview was arranged
at Frankfort-on-Main ; but again the secret
hand interposed, swift and resolute, and the
supposed changeling—secure at last from for-
tune’s bufiets — was found slain by a poinard-
thrust in a garden at Donaueschingen. To
the last, says Lord Loftus, the Grand Duchess
Stephanie persisted in the belief that she was
the mother of the murdered man,—who was, it
is scarcely necessary to add, the enigmatic
“ Caspar Hauser.” E_ G_ J_
GEOLOGY AND AR(rH2r:0LOGY MISTAUGI-I'1‘.*

When an author assumes the province of
“ providing for the public ” a volume “ discuss-
ing the broader question of man’s entire rela-
tion to the Glacial Period in Europe as well as
in America”(italics ours), and of “ not only
interesting the general public ” but of “ giving
a clear view of the present state of progress in
one department of the inquiries concerning

* Mzm AND rns GLACIAL Pr-zaxon. By G. Frederick Wright,
D.D.. L.L.D., F.G.S.A. Professor in Oberlin Theological
Seminary, Assistant on the U. S. Geological Survey, author
of “ Ice Age in North America,” “ Logic of Christian Evi-
dences,” etc. New York : D. Appleton 8: Co.

man’s antiquity,” and of setting this forth so
that “ rash speculations may be avoided, and
future investigations directed in profitable
lines ” (Preface), he cannot complain if his
right to assume such a function is put to the
test of a critical examination of what he writes.
N o one is entitled to speak on behalf of science
who does not really command it. N o one can
be trusted to lead the public who does not him-
self know the way accurately. The first ques-
tion is, naturally, how trustworthy is this work ?
There are many things in a volume of this
kind which the general public cannot judge.
It is desirable, therefore, to test it on points
of common knowledge. So we turn first to
the author’s treatment of elementary matters.
If he is sound here, he may yet slip in the more
intricate phases of the subject; but if he is in
error or confusion of thought here among the
simples, it is hardly worth while to trust him
beyond.
Professor Wright says (page 2): “A glacier
is a mass of ice so situated and of such size as
to have motion in itself.” “ The limit of a gla-
cier’s motion is determined by the forces which
fix the point at which its final melting takes
place.” To paraphase Lincoln, for those who
like that kind of a definition, that is about the
kind of definition they would like. A little
further on, the author says: “ Upon ascend-
ing a glacier far enough, one reaches a motion-
less part corresponding to the lake out of which
a river often flows. Technically, this motionless
part is called the névé.” As a matter of fact
the néré moves like other parts of a glacier, and
the signs of such motion are indicated in the
cut on the very page before the reader as he
follows this astonishing statement. The motion
of the névé has been a matter of common know-
ledge for half a century, and is absolutely be-
yond question. The comparison with a lake
is wholly misleading, and evidently springs
from a fundamental misconception of a glacier.
A few lines below, we are told that “ The néré is
the reservoir from which the glacier gets both
its supply of ice and the impulse which gives
it its first movement.” How a “ motionless ”
névé can give an “ impulse” to a glacier, passes
understanding.
The definitions of terminal moraines and ket-
tle-holes recognize only super-glacial material.
It is demonstrable, however, that most of the
American moraines were made up of material
from the bottom of the glaciers, and many ket-
tle-holes were formed in such material. The
definitions, therefore, while not incorrect 1n


304
[Nov. 16,
THE DIAL
"‘___*'--I4§$i—; ----_i._

themselves, are so incomplete and inapplicable
to the formations to be discussed in the book
as to be misleading. These faults lie within
the range of common elementary knowledge, i
and may be verified by any student. Many
like faults, of positive error, of statements so
imperfect as to amount to errors, and of con-
fusion and inconsistency of thought, character-
ize the whole book, and are the more harmful
in proportion as they are the less readily de-
tected by the non-professional reader.
As the book is entitled “ Man and the Gla-
cial Period,” we are naturally led to expect
special care and accuracy in determining the
age and relations of the deposits that contain
supposed implements and other relics of man.
The deposits on the Delaware river are the most
noted of these in eastern America, and are
among the most easily determinable. It will
not, therefore, be unfair to examine the discus-
sion of these somewhat critically, because the
value of the book hangs largely upon them.
There are on the Delaware two deposits in
which chipped fragments of rock, designated
in the book “ paleolithic implements,” are re-
ported to have been found. Both of these are
river deposits at the points where the relics oc-
cur, and both connect at the north with drift-
sheets in such a way that their relative ages
can be made out without difficulty by a com-
petent glacial geologist. The earlier deposit
is known as the " Philadelphia red gravel
and brick clay,” and the later as the “ Trenton
gravel.” Relics are reported to have been
found in the former at Claymont, in the latter
at Trenton. After the earlier deposit was laid
down, the land was elevated and a deep valley
cut in it by the Delaware. Afterwards, this
valley was partly filled up with the later deposit
—- the Trenton gravel. The interval between
the two was great. In the opinion of several
experienced glacialists, it was much greater
than all the time which has elapsed since the
deposit of the Trenton gravel. It is, there-
fore, of the utmost importance to a correct view
of the antiquity of man to place these two de-
posits in their correct relations to glacial his-
tory, and also to correctly interpret the sup-
posed relics.
The chief questions of popular interest are
three: (1) Are these chipped or flaked stones
really “ paleolithic implements,” or “ imple-
ments ” of any kind ? (2) Were they depos-
ited at the same time as the formations in which
they occur, or were they introduced at a later
time? (3) Are the formations correctly in-

terpreted, and properly placed in the glacial
series ?
Professor Holmes, of the United States Bu-
reau of Ethnology, has practically demon-
strated that these flaked stones are neither “ im-
plements ” nor “ paleolithic,” but are only the
chips, flakings, failures and rejects thrown aside
in the making of stone implements of the more
modern or neolithic type. He has found many
of the quarries at which the flaking process
was carried on, and has worked out the main
features of the process and imitated it with
ease and dexterity. Last year he conducted a
party of geologists from different parts of the
world, who were in attendance upon the Inter-
national Geological Congress and the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement of
Science at Wasliington, to one of these quarries
in a gravel deposit near that city, and showed
them tons of these pseudo-paleolithic “ imple-
ments and flaked stones,” and demonstrated
the method by which they were made. The
later and more complete results of Professor
Holmes’s epoch-marking investigations have
only very recently been given to the public,
and Professor Wright could not have used
them in the correction of his manuscript; but
a notable part of his results have been for
some time in print, and, as above indicated,
brought directly to the attention of scientists
generally. All these most radical investiga-
tions our author ignores, while professing to
tell the public “ the present state of progress.”
If the reader will look for himself at the cuts
of the so-called “implements,” we think he
will find an entire absence of any marks of
use upon them; and if he were to examine
wagon-loads of them, it would be only in the
rarest instances that any signs of use would
be found. He might probably as frequently
find marks of use on the cobble-stones about
a farmhouse, and for a like reason.
Some of the most careful and discriminat-
ing geologists in this country doubt whether
these chipped stones were deposited at the time
the formations with which they are now con-
nected were laid down. There are many ways
in which they might be introduced later, and
many reasons for thinking they were so intro-
duced. No geological expert of unquestioned
competence has ever yet, so far as we can learn,
found a single implement or stone flaked by
man, in a glacial formation in America, which
was clearly deposited contemporaneously with
it. Not a single find rests on expert geological
testimony. The finds may be genuine none


1892.]
305
THE DIAL
the less, for common testimony is worth some-
thing when it is conscientious, as it is, doubt-
less, in the most of these cases; but when an
author assumes to teach the people on behalf
of science, he ought to tell them what is science,
as distinguished from what rests merely on in-
expert testimony.
VVhen we come to inquire whether the for-
mations are correctly interpreted and their re-
lations to the glacial period properly set forth,
we find a singular confusion and inconsistency
of ideas. Professor VVright says (p. 261):
“ The age of these deposits in which implements
have been found at Claymont and at Trenton
will be referred to again when we come to the
specific discussion of the glacial period. It is
sufficient here to bring before our minds clearly,
first, the fact that this at Claymont is connected
with the river floods accompanying the ice at
its time of maximum extension, and when there
was a gradually increasing or differential de-
pression of the country to an unknown extent
to the northward.” By this “ difierential de-
pression ” he means the Champlain depression.
If it were possible under his views to suppose
that anything else was referred to, he makes
his meaning clear in his “ Ice Age in North
America,” where (p. 524), in discussing the
same question, he cites the marine deposits at
Montreal and in Vermont as proof of this de-
pression, and uses the term C/1(ml]1lr1[n. Now
these Champlain deposits occurred after the ice-
sheet had retreated beyond the St. Lawrence,
and the sea had come in and occupied the site
of Montreal and the Champlain Valley, and,
according to De Geer, extended as far as Lake
Ontario, Ottawa, and probably Lake Huron.
Professor Wright thus makes the Claymont de-
posit contemporaneous with the “ maximum ex-
tension ” of the ice, and at the same time with the
depression that accompanied the disappearance
of the ice-sheet from the United States. Either,
therefore, the author has confounded two widely
separated times of depression, and referred
the Claymont deposits to both, or else he holds
that the depression which accompanied the
“maximum extension” was the same as the
Champlain depression, or at least continuous
with it. But the later “ implement-bearing”
deposit, the Trenton gravel, comes in between
the maximum extension and the Champlain de-
posits, and was formed at a time of elevation.
Professor Wright says, on the same page:
“ The deposit of Trenton gravel occurred much
later [tha‘n the Claymont deposit], at a time
when the ice had melted far back towards the

head-waters of the Delaware and after the land
had nearly resumed its presentrelations of level;
if indeed it had not risen northward to a still
greater height.” The author is evidently un-
conscious of this confusion and inconsistency of
ideas. He is wrong in his placing of both the
“ implement-bearing ” deposits, as has been
clearly shown by the glaeialists of the New Jer-
sey and United States Geological Surveys.
The earlier deposit is contemporaneous with
one of the old drift-sheets which are chiefly
buried by the later drift in this region. A
part of the attenuated edge of the old drift,
however, extends some miles south of the ter-
minal moraine—a much later formation -
that crosses the Delaware near Belvidere. The
later deposit, the Trenton gravel, was strictly
contemporaneous with this Belvidere moraine.
It has been traced up the river by careful and
competent geologists and found to be connected
directly with the moraine. Professor Wright
makes the singular mistake of connecting the
Trenton gravel terrace with a terrace about one-
third its height and of much later formation.
On this central ground, therefore, where,
above all others, there should be clearness,
consistency, and accuracy, there is confusion of
thought, error in tracing simple deposits, and
fundamental misconception in interpretation.
The correct correlations have been pointed out
by at least three of the most experienced of
American glacialists. If Professor \Vright
saw fit to differ from these, as of course it was
his privilege to do, he should at least, out of
fairness to his readers and especially to his
clerical brethren, who are liable to be led into
embarrassing positions by quoting erroneous
views, have given the opinions of these ex-
perts accurately and clearly on a point so vital
to the subject. He does make quotations on
some phases of the subject, and does this in
such a way as to give the impression of consid-
erateness in this respect, but these quotations
relate to side questions, and tend the more to
disarm his readers of any thought of differ-
ences on the vital points. He entirely ignores
the most critical and careful work that has been
done on the correlation of these deposits—
that of Professor Salisbury and his associates
under the joint auspices of the New Jersey and
United States Surveys,— though this bears in
the most direct way on the main question and
stands opposed to his views.
The book is characterized by frequent in-
stances of this kind. Instead of pointing out
clearly and fairly differences of opinion on vital


306
THE DIAL
[Nov. 16,
“' ‘_"' *‘ifii-is-*-i=Is~:: xvi.-r.-..---¢

points, it is quite the habit of the author to
turn aside to discuss some unessential differ-
ence, and at length to leave this with a “ how-
ever this may be,” and an illusive impression
of candor, while the real issue is untouched.
The reader is thereby led to assume that the
main point is undisputed.
The author’s discussion of the other “ imple-
ment-bearing” deposits in the glacial regions
is scarcely more satisfactory. They are referred,
rather vaguely, to a stage of the retreat of the
ice; but even this will have to be forced to
make it cover the correct reference. The au-
thor says (p. 249): “ The expectation of find-
ing evidence of pre-glacial man in Ohio was
justified,” etc. Five pages later, he says:
“ Probably it is incorrect to speak of these as
pre-glacial, for the portion of the period at
which the deposits incorporating human relics
were made is well on toward the close of the
great Ice age, since these terraces were, in some
cases, and may have been in all cases, deposited
after the ice front had withdrawn nearly, if not
quite, to the water-shed of the St. Lawrence
basin.” The author thus seeks to justify a
prediction respecting evidence of “pre-glacial
man ” by relics deposited “well on toward the
close of the glacial period.” If the Ice age
were but a short single period, this might be
overlooked, if precision were of no consequence ;
but it has been demonstrated that the Ice age

was prolonged and complex, and the impres-
sion that these statements give is misleading.
The ages of some, if not all, of these deposits in
Ohio and Indiana have been carefully worked
out by Mr. Leverett, of the United States Geo-
logical Survey, and definitely connected with
specific stages of the invasion of the ice, not a
single vague stage of its withdrawal. But Mr.
Leverett’s work is ignored.
The finds near Little Falls, Minnesota, will
probably drop entirely out of the discussion
when the results of recent critical examination
are published and duly considered.
VVe feel justified, from the foregoing, in
making the summary statement that no one of
the alleged “implements ” is referred to its
proper place in glacial history. The author,
instead of giving the public “ Man’s entire re-
lation to the glacial period,” has given no in-
tegral part of it with accuracy and trustworthi-
ness so far as America is concerned. As he spent
“a summer in Europe,” be may do better there.
The remainder of the book is of like nature ;
but a review of all its errors, or even its chief
ones, is quite out of the question. l/Ve have


touched those that relate to its central theme
and are of the most general interest.
Not the least of the misleading features of
the book is found on its title-page. The author
entitles himself “ Assistant on the United
States Geological Survey." The inference of
the public naturally is that the work has the
sanction or at least the acquiescence of the Na-
tional Survey. The facts are due to the public
and to the survey, and are briefly these: In
1884, on his own application, Professor Wright
was employed to trace the border of the drift
across Illinois. To this he gave the month of
July. Later in the season, and during a part
of the following season, he reviewed some of
the border phenomena to the east which he had
previously studied, chiefly in Ohio and Penn-
sylvania. This work was done with industry
and enthusiasm, but was felt to be seriously de-
fective in discrimination, breadth, and correct-
ness of interpretation, and he was not assigned
further work beyond that incidental to the com-
pletion of his report. (Bulletin 58, U. S.
Geol. Surv.) When he announced his inten-
tion of publishing his former work (“ The Ice
Age in North America ”) he was strongly ad-
vised against it by the head of the Glacial Di-
vision, on the ground of the immaturity of the
investigations at that time, and the liability of
teaching the public erroneous views. He was
explicitly advised that in case he published the
work the Survey did not wish to be made in
any way responsible, and a termination of re-
lations, then only nominal, was suggested to
free himself and the Survey from embarrass-
ment. This wish of the Survey respecting its
own relations was disregarded. The title and
phraseology of the book convey the impression
of approval rather than disapproval. VVhen it
was learned that the present volume was in
preparation, and that further misuse of former
brief relationship was possible, a formal notifi-
cation that he had been dropped from the Sur-
vey was sent by the Secretary of the Interior
to Professor Wright. This should have been
received in July. Whether received in time
for changing the title or not does not greatly
alter the case, as the author has had no real
connection with the Survey for the past seven
years. The case is aggravated by the fact that,
while claiming relations to the Survey, the au-
thor ignores its most recent and critical work
on the formations most involved in his subject.
This is a very disagreeable statement to make,
but justice to the Survey and the public de-
mand it. T. C. CHAMBERLIN.


THE DIAL
307
Two NOTABLE Booxs ON E'rn1cs.*

There have recently appeared in the depart-
ment of ethics two works of marked ability,—
namely, Dr. Newman Smyth’s “ Christian Eth-
ics ” and Professor Borden P. Bowne’s “ The
Principles of Ethics.” \Vith little similarity
in the method of treatment, they are not unlike,
either in general plan or in the primary prin-
ciples which underlie them. Though the title
of the first work, “Christian Ethics,”_might
lead to an expectation of a treatment narrower
than the full field which belongs to Ethics,
and one limited by a single phase of faith,
there is little in the book open to this criticism.
The principles discussed are termed Christian
Ethics rather as assuming their fullest form ;
and touching their highest point, in Chris-
tian life, than as in any way opposed to any
other species of ethical truth. The temper of
the author is at once spiritual and liberal,
earnest and comprehensive. The work is in
no way narrow or dogmatic. With a little
shifting of phraseology, it would have the ap-
pearance of being a large rendering of our uni-
versal experience. The energy of hope and
depth of conviction are such as to make the
presentation stimulating and instructive to al-
most all readers. The work is full and com-
plete, covering well both the theoretical and
practical sides of the subject.
The author accepts freely both of the two
elements, so essential in conduct, the interior
power which discerns and enjoins excellence,
and the exterior discipline by which alone this
power is unfolded and directed.
“The natural history of conscience has been itself
(letermiued by conscience.” (P. 34.)
" Life, so far as we have any positive science of it,
always presupposes life.” (P. 35.)
“ Psychologically it is not true that all objects of de-
sire are pleasures,— that pleasure is the only thing de-
sired or chosen. For an object or end of activity may
be itself desired, and the pleasure accompanying the
choice may be a sign or justification of the choice of it
as reasonable, but not necessarily the object of the choice,
—the thing immediately desired and willed.” (P. 36.)
The force of Christian faith in the ethical
life of the race is identified with the slow his-
torical development of spiritual truth, itself the
leading phase in the unfolding of human his-
tory and the divine mind. lrvhat evolution
is to the natural sciences that is the historic
growth of truth in Christian belief.

"Cnn|s'r1An,ETnlcs. By Newman Smyth. New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Tnr. PRINCIPLES or E-rmcs.
New York: Harperdz Brothers.
By Borden P. Bowne.

“ The Old Testament marks the period of its imperfect,
yet real and growing, vitality and power. The morality
of the Old Testament was incomplete, in many respects
defective, and neither in its outward sanctions nor its
inward motives s. final morality for man; yet it was
real morality, striving towards better things, growing
from a genuine ethical root into the light and fruitful-
ness of the coming season of divine grace.” (P. 60.)
It does not detract, therefore, from the proper au-
thority of the New Testament as the immediate reflec-
tion and especially prepared and attested witness to
Christ, when we discern in it, as we have already dis-
covered in the Old Testament, signs of a growth in
knowledge of Christ, and a progressive Christianizatiou
of thought andlife by the spirit of Christ. (P. 62.)
“ These sacred writings, it is evident from what has
just been said, are to be taken as a whole and in the
moral and spiritual teaching which issues finally from
them, in order that they may constitute a normative au-
thority of faith and practice.” (P. 63.)
" Whatever special or unique authority Scripture may
have, it cannot have it apart from the Church to which
the Holy Ghost has been given. . . . We reject, there-
fore, as one-sided and perilous alike to faith in the Scrip-
tures and to the Christian law of conduct, any view of
inspiration which either puts the Bible in absolute su-
premacy above conscience, or, on the other hand, sub-
ordinates entirely the Scriptures to the Christian con-
sciousness of men.” (P. 72.)
" The Scripture is law to the Christian consciousness,
--to it, not independently of it. The Christian con-
sciousness,— all the knowledge and experience, that is,
which Christianity has gained of its Christ,—becomes
also in its turn law to the Scripturcs;_law of their in-
terpretation, of their criticism, of their verification, of the
selection and completion of their canon.” (P. 73.)
These are most pregnant assertions. Nor
is it easy to see how they can be set aside.
The divine revelation and those who receive it
are in active interplay. They are mutually
causes and effects. We cannot give an abso-
lute external authority to the Scriptures aside
from this unfolding process without profoundly
mistaking their office and restraining their
force. This is the leading idea of the book,
and a most significant one.
“History in its profoundest significance is a moral
and spiritual movement towards the ideal or the high-
est good.” (P. 144.)
“ In the Christian moral motive power we discover,
therefore, as its deepest and exhanstless source of power,
the working of the spirit of Christ. This is not a mi-
raculous grace, instantaneously changing sinful charac-
ter into all perfection. It is a spiritual Power which
works according to moral laws, and through the natural
processes of human life. It is the personal influence of
the holy spirit with the spirit of man. It is a divine
co-working with the human according to the nature of
man and the love of God in Christ. It is like the energy
of the sunshine in the fruit; it is the life of the vine
in the branches.” (P. 492.)
We wish to pass but one very secondary crit-
icism on the book. A writer, by virtue of his
very vigor, is sometimes obscure. Almost any


308
[Nov. 16,
THE DIAL
"" “ —'""-‘-4-4-.su=-_'. 1- .-.__ -_____
words serve with him to carry forward the
teeming thought as swollen waters float stones.
The constant use by Dr. Smyth of the word
“ consciousness ” for almost any degree or form
of conviction, seems to us an example in point.
“The Christian consciousness of life,” “ the
Christian consciousness of man,” “the moral
consciousness of our age,” “ the ethical re-
ligious consciousness,” “ the results of anal-
ysis of man’s moral consciousuess,”— these are
the phrases we meet with constantly. Nothing,
on the one hand, can be a more vague, vari-
able, undefined quantity than the Christian
consciousness of life. It must stand for all
subtle, evanescent ideals floating through a
thousand minds gathered up in a coherent ex-
pression. But we need, supremely need, and
must have, this word “consciousness” to ex-
press each man’s knowledge of his own mental
states, or the sum of these mental states. The
author so uses it in the phrase, “ the results of
analysis of man’s moral consciousness.” It
seems to be a very vicious habit to allow the
word “consciousness ” to range over the entire
field of personal and social experiences even in
their most indeterminate forms. We often
need to make a very precise appeal to con-
sciousness, and we should restrain the mean-
ing of the word that the appeal may be intel-
ligible.
The second work, by Professor Bowne, docs
not contain as full a discussion as the volume
by Dr. Smyth, but it covers in about the same
proportion theoretical and practical morals.
Both works attach something like their true
importance to existing social problems. Pro-
fessor Bowne expresses his purpose very con-
cisely in the preface:
“ Apart from this critical discussion, the work has two
leading thoughts. One is the necessity of uniting the
intuitive and the experience school of ethics in order to
reach any working system. The other is that the aim of
conduct is not abstract virtue, but fulness and richness of
life.” (P. iv.)
With him, as with Dr. Smyth, the mind’s
ideal, its inner growing grasp of the nature
and glory of life, is the supreme thing. There
is no more significant assertion in this field
than that of the present and eternal inappli-
cability of dogmatism — exact and final state-
n1ent,— to it, whether it be religious or scien-
tific dogmatism.
Professor Bowne justly lays great emphasis
on the continuous unfolding of moral truth.
“ The actual order of graded development in the
mental life cannot be understood as a modification of
its earliest phases, but only as the successive manifes-
tations of a law imminent in the whole development.”
(P. 10.)
“ The ideal does not admit of exhaustive definition;
and it exists in any given circumstances chiefly in a per-
ception of the direction in which human worth and dig-
nity lie. Hence its actual contents vary with mental and
moral development, but the sense of direction is fairly
constant.” (P. 117.)
The manner in which intuitive and empirical
morals are united is indicated in the following
passage:
" Schleiermacher has shown that there are three
leading moral ideas, the good, duty, and virtue. Each
of these is essential in a system which is to express the
complete moral consciousness of the race. “’here there
is no good to be reached by action, there can be no ra-
tional duty, and with the notion of duty vanishes also
that of virtue. Again, where there is no sense of duty,
but only a. calculation of consequences, we have merely
a system of prudence. This may be good enough in
its way, but it lacks moral quality. Such conduct may
be natural and allowable, but it is not regarded as vir-
tuous. For in such conduct we miss all reference to the
moral agent. It is a matter of wit and shrewdness only,
and is not a manifestation of virtuous character.” (P. 20.)
The pleasures of life, very various, and rec-
ognized more or less distinctly in their variable
value, constitute the only field in which moral
quality could be devoloped ; but their moral, ra-
tional rule is not, therefore, identical with these
enjoyments or subject to them. Out of this
material it constructs an ideal excellence, more,
far more, than the simple sum of its parts.
“ The ideal good is conscious life in the full develop-
ment of all its normal possibilities; and the actual good
is greater or less as this ideal is more or less approxi-
mated.” (P. 69.)
“ We must now inquire into the form and contents of
this inner law. This may be called subjective ethics,
as being the law founded, not in a consideration of ob-
jective consequences, but in the nature and insight of
the moral subject himself, or as being the law which the
moral subject imposes upon himself." (P. 98.)
The relation of ethics and religion is this:
“ Our moral nature has not been transformed, but the
conditions of its best unfolding have been furnished. It
is the same life but very different. The relations and
meanings of things have changed. Rights grow more
sacred; duties enlarge, and the sense of obligation deep-
ens." (P. 202.)
These passages sufiiciently indicate the trend
of the work. The discussion is penetrative
and quickening throughout, making the pe-
rusal of the book worth while, I was about to
say, even though the theme is so familiar;
perhaps it would be better to say, because a
theme so familiar has new light shot into it.
Professor Bowne has a very vigorous and an-
alytical mind. He takes to philosophy as a
duck to water. He is occasionally open to the
criticism that, with his ready strokes, he gives


THE DIAL
309
deeper wounds than there is any occasion for.
Empiricism, for example, as a philosophy
seems puerile to him, and he thrusts it aside
with a very imperative blow. Yet he, and we
all, owe very much to empiricism. In the final
product of thought, empiricism will furnish at
least one-half. The careless sweep of his blade
is indicated in the following extract:
“ This is notably the case with the ecclesiastical con-
science, which has varied all the way from the puerile
to the diabolical.” (P. 99.)
Joan Bsscon.
l{1~:(-1~:.\"r ENGLISH AND CAN.-\I)lA.\'
F1("r10.\'.*

A novel that bears the name of the author of “ A
Village Tragedy” is sure of respectful attention,
and it is with pleasant anticipations that the reader
will take up “ Esther Vanhomrigh." The anticipa-
tions will be more than fulfilled, for in this book
Mrs. lvoods has written one of the most remark-
able historical novels of recent years. The story of
Swift's relations with Stella and Vanessa does not
offer the most promising of themes. In the biog-
raphies of the great satirist and in the histories of
English literature it is not usually so presented as
to bring out the human interest that it must have
had. There is something enigmatic about it all,
and the extraordinary style of those portions of
Swift's writings that relate to it provides the sub-
ject with a thorn-set approach. It is the triumph
of the present author to have completely humanized
the story, yet without wholly divesting it of its char-
acteristic garb, and without departing from the fa-
miliar historical facts. In her treatment of these
facts we need only note the one point that she
decides in favor of a secret marriage between
Swift and Esther Johnson. The story is pathetic
almost to tragedy in its dealings with Vanessa’s ill-
starred passion for Swift, and an element of trag-
edy black and unrelieved is ofi’ered by the terror
“'Esrnzn YAzmonmoa. By Margaret AL. Woods. New
York : Hovendon Co.
DOROTHY WALLIS. An Autobiography, with Introduction
by “falter Besant. New York 1 Longmans, Green & Co.
THE IVORY GATE. By Walter Besunt. New York: Har-
per & Brothels.
Ham-:.\' TREVERYAN; or,'I'he Ruling Race. By John Roy.
New York : Macmillan & Co.
Acnr Assn. By Mrs. W. K. Clifford. New York: Har-
per & Brothers.
Roman Gnassn-:, Kruorrr. By Ag-nes Mauls Machar.
New York I Fords, Howard & Hulbert.
BEGGARS ALL. By L. Dougall. New York 1 Longmans,
Green & Co.
Vzmirlis.
& Co.
Tar; REPUTATION or GEORGE Saxon, and Other Stories.
By Morley Roberts. London 2 Cassell & Co.
Anvmvrrnss or Snznnocx Hounas.
Doyle. New York : Harper & Brothers.
By Vernon Lee. New York: Lovell, Coryell
B y A. Conan

of madness during these years already impending
over the strongest intellect of his age and country.
The delineation of Swift's character is accom-
plished with unfailing sympathy and insight; it is
one of the strongest pieces of portraiture with which
we are acquainted. \Ve should add a. word of
praise for the masterly way in which another famous
personage — Lord Peterborough — is made to live-
in these pages.
work is also remarkable; made so by their taste,
their restraint, and their imaginative vision.
book is one to be carefully read, for it has many
kinds of excellence, and they do not all appear upon
the surface.
Mr. \Valter Besant's story of “ Dorothy \Vallis”'
pretends to be an autobiography; but the fiction is-
transparent. It is told in the first person, to be
sure, but has no other disguise. The heroine is
thrown upon the world by the villainy of an uncle
who has made away with her fortune. This uncle
is a study in himself, but the excessive sanctimo-
niousness with which he is invested produces a sort
of low comedy effect, being sadly overdone. As
for Dorothy, she determines to go upon the stage,
and the book describes her experiences in seeking
employment. These are not sensational or melo-
dramatic, as might be expected, but sordid and rc-
pulsive, carefully enough studied. but disagreeable
to read about. Of the “masher” she has little ex-
perience ; of the manager, brutal and scheming. she
has much. Yet the picture of these lower strata. of
stagedom is not false in color; the author has evi-
dently sought to depict them exactly as they are, in
all their pettiness of detail, and with the occasional
bright spots by which they are now and then re-
lieved. The book is far more of a document than
a story. As the latter, its interest is exiguous: as
the former, it is a minute study of a phase of Lon-
don social life. Not even so easy a. concession to
the wishes of the reader is made as that of repre-
senting the heroine as successful in the end: she
wins little applause and no fame, but merely suc-
ceeds in obtaining a footing, and in earning the
slenderest sort of a. living. There is in the back-
ground, indeed. a mysterious person called Alec.
whom we suppose will provide for her eventually,
but whom we cannot forgive for permitting her to
lead for so long a life of so great privation and suf-
fering.
\Vhen the psychologists. a few years ago, began to
hint at the possibility‘ of a double or even a multi-
ple personality lurking within exceptional individ-
uals, they started a. theme of which the novelists
were not slow in taking possession, just as they have
taken possession, with sad enough results, of the al-
lied theme of hypnotism. Mr. Julian Hawthorne
was one of the pioneers in this field, and his ~‘ Ar-
chibald Malmaison " the product of his labors.
This story was chiefly valuable as an illustration of
what a little learning, tempered with a great deal
of ill-regulated imagination, could accomplish. Then
Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, seizing upon the psy-
For its descriptive passages the»
The-


310
[Nov. 16,
THE DIAL
chological possibilities of the subject, produced his
uncanny story of Jekyll and Hyde. Now comes Mr.
\Valter Besant with “The Ivory Gate," an essay in i
the same direction, and, it is needless to say. with-
out any grasp of the psychological problem in-
volved. But if he has not analysis, he has plenti-
ful invention, and his aptly-named story is abund-
antly entertaining. It tells us of a Mr. Edward
Dering, a cold-blooded and unimaginative lawyer, i
who in his other self appears as Mr. Edmund Gray,
a socialist of the most fantastic type. The author's
sympathies are evidently with Gray, and the latter's y
‘ certain picturesque incidents in the history of the
soeialistic sermons, which are not spared us, are
written con a-more, if not exactly with judgment.
Almost does he persuade us, so eloquent is the plea,
and so engaging the personality. Mr. Besant leaves
us very much in doubt as to what becomes of his
hero when the fact of his dual existence becomes
known to him. Logically, he would have to be put
under restraint as one insane, but the writer has a
tender feeling for his own creation, and leaves the
outcome to conjecture.
There is a suggestion of conscious pride in the
sub-title of Mr. Roy’s novel, of pride at thought of
the valorous deeds and imperial sway of English-
men. The suggestion is borne out by such a passage
as the following, one of several that occur in the
volume : “lvas there ever any finer fighting since the
world began than the fighting in the American war?
. . It warms my heart to read of them all, with
their English names, and English speech, and English
ways, and dogged English pluck; and I feel as
proud of the Stars and Stripes as I do of the Union
Jack. I look forward to the time when all the
empty places of the earth will be filled with En- ,
glishmen, banded together for good against the
world.” Mr. Roy's story is Anglo-Indian in scene, ,
and makes use of the Afghan war of 1879, among
other historical episodes. Yet in spite of this set-
ting, it is essentially a domestic narrative, and its
interest centres about the sufferings of an English
girl, successively bereft of father, husband; child,
and friend. Its Indian chapters are written with
intimate knowledge, and its English chapters with
duct of her life, and whose vagaries suggest a mind
that has nearly, if not quite, lost the balance it may
once have had. Her infatuation for, and marriage
to, the young adventurer who seeks her hand on ac-
count of the fortune that he thinks goes with it, is
simply preposterous, and spoils the story as a whole.
although the humors of its minor episodes may still
prove a source of enjoyment. Mrs. Clifford's touch
is growing lighter of late, and the narrative shows
an increase of flexibility over her earlier work.
Miss Agnes Maule Machar is a young Canadian
writer who has done somegood work in presenting
Dominion in romantic form. This field she seems
to share, at present, with Mrs. Catherwood, and has
cultivated it in a similar way. “ Roland Graeme.
Knight ” is, we believe her first novel, and is a work
of distinct promise, although too obtrusively didac-
tic to take rank as a work of art. The scene is
laid in a large American manufacturing town, and
the hero is a knight of the very modern sort self-
styled Knights of Labor. The story is really a so-
cialistic tract with but slight disguise. It is written
in a spirit of philanthrophy so ardent that it cannot
fail to enlist sympathy, but there is only too much
evidence that the author's heart has taken hopeless
precedence of her head. The intellect must co-
operate with the emotions in planning any possible
solution of the social problem, and Miss Machar
has entirely failed to realize the scientific aspect of
the relations with which her story deals. But there
are some admirable studies of character in her book ;
that of the hero, first of all, and that of the clergy-
man whose solution of all social questions begins and
ends in rhetoric. Such books as this are helpful,
although they miss attainment of their purpose
through lack of restraint.
Miss Dougall's “ Beggars All ” is a better book
than any account of its plot would indicate. A
young woman, the romance of whose life results from
' her answer to a matrimonial advertisement, hardly
seems to be the sort of heroine likely to prove en-
‘ gaging, nor does a professional burglar, however
tender feeling. The hero is a manly young fellow, t
whose tragic end makes one forget the slight weak- .
ness that marks his character.
in a straightforward way, and when a new figure
appears in its pages, we are given his previous his-
tory, and so feel acquainted with him from the
start. The writer puts a good deal of slang into
his conversation, and describes a game of cricket in
the peculiar jargon of that cult. The book is woe-
fully padded, even to the extent of occasional foot-
notes, probably to meet the Procrustean require-
ments of the three-volume form of English publica-
tion. but readers of such novels know instinctively
where to skip, and no great harm is done.
What interest is possessed by the “ Aunt Anne”
of Mrs. W. K. Clifford centres in the title-figure of
the novel. Aunt Anne is an old lady of amiable
The story is told .
ingenious his methods, seem to be the most attract-
ive sort of hero ; yet these are the elements of Miss
Dougall‘s story, and of them she has made a tale of
serious human interest. Her success results.from
a delicacy of touch that means delicacy of feeling.
and that carries her safely over many dangerous
places. Her narrative often verges upon absurdity.
i but never quite crosses the boundary.
character, who is hopelessly unpractical in the c0n- ,
Miss Paget's delicate and suggestive writing is
familiar to those who follow the course of modern
aesthetic criticism, and her essays in fiction have
been only less successful than her studies in art and
literature. \Ve may, then, take up the volume of
short stories to which the name of “Vanitas ” has
been given, with considerable confidence in an eu-
joyable hour. The confidence is certainly not be-
trayed, for these three “ polite stories ” are produc-
tions of a high degree of finish; they not only en-
tertain for the moment. but abundantly “give to


1892.]
311
THE DIAL
reflect” in the retrospect. That they are serious
in purpose is clearly enough foreshadowed in the
graceful dedication to a friend, to whom the author
gives this explanation:
“ For round these sketches of frivolous women there
have gathered some of the least frivolous thoughts,
heaven knows, that have ever come into my head; or
rather such thoughts have condensed and taken body
in these stories. Indeed, how can one look from out-
side on the great waste of precious things, delicate dis-
cernment, quick 'feeling, and sometimes stoical forti- ~
tude, involved in frivolous life, without a sense of sad- i
ness and indignation?”
One must not think from this that the writer has
made her moral too obvious;-it is, indeed, to be
read in her pages. but only through the medium of
a carefully refined art. The art is much like that
of Mr. Henry James, to whom the author has in-
curred an obvious debt in both style and manner;
and no one would accuse Mr. James of pointing
a moral too sharply. “ A Worldly \Voman ” seems
the best of the three stories, as it is the most
pathetic. Its moral, as Miss Paget tells us before-
hand, is “that frivolous living means not merely
waste, but in many cases martyrdom."
“ The Reputation of George Saxon ” was of the
literary sort, and was obtained (Mr. Saxon being a
gentleman of fortune) by purchasing the manu-
scripts of struggling and needy authors, and pub-
lishing them over his own name. This ingenious
device worked well for a time, but George's appe-
tite grew with what it fed on, and he attempted to
be too versatile. Poems and novels were followed
by works of history and philosophy in bewildering
succession; but their putative author soon discov-
ered that he must live up to the reputation thus
easily acquired, and that was no simple matter.
His efforts to cram that he might shine in the intel-
lectual circles that he frequented led to insanity and
suicide, which is a sufficiently impressive moral.
This story is one of half-a-score published by Mr.
llrlorley Roberts in a recent volume.
most ingenious and interesting. The others are
sketches of rather slender substance, and their
themes are taken from all parts of the world. The
discussion of romantic themes in a dull and matter-
of-fact way, but with considerable inventiveness, ap-
pears to be the chief characteristic of this volume of
stories.
lvhen Dr. Doyle published “The Sign of Four”
and “ A Study in Scarlet,” he projected a new fig-
ure into literature. Since then he has told us, from
time to time, of still other doings of his observant
and analytical hero, until the name of Sherlock
Holmes has come to stand for a distinct sort of lit-
erary sensation. He is a subtler detective than
Gaboriau ever imagined, he is omniscient upon all
subjects that relate to his profession, and his creator
has provided him with experiences so varied that
we can only wonder at the fertility of invention (lis-
played. “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,”
now published, deals with a dozen episodes —m0st
It is also the I

of them unfamiliar to us-—in the career of this
acute tracer of criminals and disentangler of intri-
cate complications. Some of them we have already
seen in the magazines, but most appear to be new.
“ A Scandal in Bohemia " tells how Sherlock
Holmes was for once outwitted. and, to make the mat-
ter still more humiliating, by awoman. “ The Five
Orange Pips” is a thrilling story of the Ku Klux
Klan. “ The Red-Headed League” is a striking
illustration of the author's originality. Although
there is a certain monotony in the mechanism of
these tales, there is none in their succession of inci-
dent. which is simply bewildering in its variety.
Dr. Doyle has signed work of far greater perma-
nent value than any to be found in this volume, but
he is responsible for nothing more absorbing of the
immediate interest.
W1LL1A.\1 MORTON PAYNE.
BRIEFS ON NEW Booxs.

\V1»n-:N \Vordsworth issued the see-
ond edition of the “ Lyrical Ballads ”
(1800) it was prefaced by a prose
essay in which he described the principles that had
governed his choice of subjects and his mode of
treatment. He declared that he had taken as
much pains to avoid what was known as poetic dic-
tion as others had taken to produce it. Moreover,
he asserted as a general principle that there neither
is nor can be any essential difference between the
language of prose and metrical composition; that
the true language of poetry is, as far as possible, a
selection of the language really spoken by men-,
that if metre be superadded thereto, a dissimilitude
between poetry and prose will be produced alto-
gether suflicient for the gratification of a rational
mind. This manifesto, which has been called “ as
famous in its way as the Declaration of Indepen-
dence,” furnished a text for Coleridge in his famous
Chapter XVII. of the -‘ Biographia Literaria.” In
it, Coleridge argued that the difference between
poetry and prose is one of logic, and therefore far
more essential in its nature than any merely acci-
dental difference of form. From these two remark-
able papers dates the whole of that still unsettled
controversy respecting the relations of poetry and
prose. \Ve have often wondered that two papers
marking such a milestone in the history of poetical
criticism should never have been reproduced side
by side, and apart from their contexts, for the con-
venience of the student. Until this is done, it is
well that we now have at least the Vvordsworth
Preface, together with his later ones prefixed to
later editions of the Poems, collected in a volume of
Heath's “ English Classics,” and ably edited, with
introduction and notes, by Professor A. J. George,
A.M. Taken together, they place in a striking
light n. side of the subject that had before been ig-
nored; the contemptuous aversion which at first
Wm'd.m-arlh's
fa mans dictum
on Poelry.


312
[Nov. 16,
THE DIAL
greeted them has long since given way to admira-
tion and often to acceptance; and after nearly a
century there are still few compositions of equal
length that contain so much of vigorous criticism
and sound reflection.
Apm_q,,,,fl,'._ THE famous “lfirst letterj’ of Colum-
tfon of ('olu:r:bu|’.r bus, announcing his discovery of
if "1 Mm‘ lands beyond the Atlantic, exists in
the original Spanish folio edition (discovered two
years ago), in a Spanish quarto edition, in nine
Latin editions (two of them pictorial). in one Ger-
man edition, and in four editions in Italian verse.
These were all printed in the fifteenth century.
The Lenox Library of New York has recently pur-
chased from Mr. Quaritch the only copy of the
Spanish folio known to exist. The sum paid is not
stated. but Mr. Quaritch is known to have asked
£1600 for it. Considering the fact that it is awork
of but four pages, it is probably the highest-priced
bibliographical treasure in existence. In the mean-
while. the Lenox Library has for some time owned
the four earliest of the Latin editions (all printed
in 1493 ), including the unique copy of ‘the pictor-
ial edition printed at Basle. The text of these four
editions has now been reprinted in a small volume by
the library authorities, and the volume also includes a
fac-simile reproduction of the pictorial edition, to-
gether with an English translation. The Latin
texts are printed on pages that face each other, so
that all four may be compared and variations quickly ,
noted. The bibliographical introduction to this val-
uable work is written by Mr. \Vilberforce Eames,
and describes all the early editions known to exist.
The book is printed on hand-made paper in a very
small edition, and is a very welcome aid to the his-
torian. Mr. Kennedy, President of the Lenox Li-
brary trustees, informs us that the library will soon
be thrown open to the public on every week-day, a
piece of news that students will _fully appreciate.
Tnams is much curious matter in the
"09": the early _ “ Early Bibles of America " (Thomas
mu" °'r‘4"'°"'”' Wliitaker). It contains fac-similes
of the English and the Indian title-pages of the Eliot
Bible of 1663, of the title-page of the German Saur
Bible of 1743, of the title page of the Aitken Bible
of 1782, and of that of the first Greek Testament
printed in America in the year 1800. It makes no
attempt to be exhaustive in its treatment. It men-
tions only such editions as for any reason possess
peculiar interest. It contains. in appendices, the
dedication to Charles II. of the Eliot New Testa-
ment of 1661 and of the Bible of 1663; the letter
of \Villiam Stoughton and others to the Governor
and to the Company for the Propagation of the
Gospel to the Indians in New England and Parts
Adjacent in America ; a list of owners of Eliot New
Testaments and Bibles, of which thirty-three copies
are owned in Europe and eighty-nine in the United
States; a memorandum of some of the prices paid
for Eliot Testaments and Bibles, ranging from S250
C'Ilr1'aux matter
to $2,900 for the edition of 1663; a list of owners
of Saur Bibles and of Aitken Bibles so far as known.
It instances some quaint translations: ‘- Except a
‘ man be reproduced he cannot realize the reign of
God.” " Paul, you are insanel Multiplied re-
search drives you to distraction.” "Immediately
he (Judas) came to the Saviour and said. Your most
obedient. Preceptor." Perhaps the time for a re-
vised version had not come in those days, or at those
hands.
A LI'I'l‘LE book with a good deal in
it is Mr. Rawnsley’s “ Notes for the
Nile” (G. P. Putnam’s Sons). It
contains wise hints for travellers in Egypt, and a
valuable list of books to be read beforehand and
of others to be used on the way. The volume be-
gins with an interesting chapter on Egyptian
tombs; follows with a sketch full of local color
of a visit to the Médfim Pyramid, that monument
of more than five thousand years’ duration; de-
scribes the Great Pharaoh Rameses II. and his
father Seti I. as they may now be seen in the Bfilfik
Museum; gives us the author’s vivid first impres-
sions of Thebes; and closes with spirited metrical
translations from the hymns of ancient Egypt, far
antedating the earliest Biblical records, from the he-
roic poem of Pen-ta-ur inscribed upon the wall of
the great Hall of Columns at Karnak, with Rameses
II. for its hero, and from the Precepts of Ptah-
Hotep, that oldest book in the world, bearing date,
the scholars tell us, more than fifty centuries ago.
Mr. Rawnsley has charm of style, scholarship, quick
observation, poetic imagination and feeling. and a
quiet pervasive sense of humor. The visit to Ram-
eses II. is an excellent example of his prose. and
the Festal Dirge of King Ateph a striking instance
‘ of his force as a translator. He has given fresh-
ness to a voice that had been long silent in Abra-
ham's day. A sonnet at the opening of the volume
shows that he can sing to his own tune also.
Ilinhf/1!‘ Inw-
.rpP(‘I|'rt Inn'-
ellers in I-.'g_:/pl.

MR. BESANT has made a. readable
volume of sketches of London (Har-
per & Brothers), from the time of the
Romans to the time of the Hanoverian kings. His
facile pen -— the pen of a practiced novelist —— glides
swiftly across the successive periods, giving us a
living portraiture of London citizens from age to
age. Perhaps the freshest part of the book is the
opening chapter, which deals with the fortunes of
the city of Augusta, which was not yet London, dur-
ing the interval between the withdrawal of the Ro-
man legions and the establishment of the East Sax-
ons on the deserted site. Mr. Besant says : "‘ I can-
not allow this chapter to be called a Theory. It is.
I venture to claim for it, nothing less than a Recov-
ery.” The volume is usefully illustrated with num-
erous wood-cuts of monumental remains. T hey
suggest to us what the now so great a city was like
in the varied stages of its growth, in British, Saxon.
i Norman. Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart. and Georgian
A umormn fr
1' ume on Ihz
city of London.


12292.]
313
THE DIAL
The panorama rolls out before us, and Mr.
Besant proves a genial showman. He does not un-
duly force his facts upon us. He is more concerned
with every-day folk than _with heroes and kings.
His abundant learning is digested and humanized.
He wipes the historic dust from his pictures before
bringing them into view.
days.
T1-11'-: " Duchess of Berry and the
Court of Charles X.,” the second of
the three Duchess of Berry volumes
(Saint-Amand’s “Famous Women of the French
Court” series, Scribner), fairly exemplifies the au-
thor’s talent as a popular historian, as well as his
remarkable knack of arranging flowers culled from
the literary parterres of other writers, into a sym-
metrical and harmonious nosegay of his own. Apart
from this ‘- genius for making excerpts,” as Carlyle
once called it, M. St.-Amand has a fair share of
the artistic temperament and faculty that evokes
the past for us, and paints it in its liveliest colors
and most striking outlines. \Ve find in his books
no prolixity of detail, no undue crowding of the
canvas with subordinate figures, no poaching on the
preserves of political or moral science; and, touch-
ing the last point, we fail,— with all respect to
Mr. Buckle,— to see why the historical narrator who
“sticks to his last” should be slighted for declin-
ing to saturate his recital with a thesis. History,
originally and intrinsically the epic relation of past
action, and what is known as the “philosophy of
history,” should be kept separate and distinct: and
M. Saint-Amand has wisely followed the bent of his
talent in choosing the former department. His
books have much of the romantic charm and more
than the historical fulness and veracity of the first-
rate historical novel.
Jl. Suinl-Aumn1l’|
popular Ilhloriel.
Miss REPPLIER made her mark by
stronger work than she has given to
her “ Essays in Miniature" (C. L.
Webster & Co.). They deal with suggestive and
provocative subjects, which she touches lightly on
the surface and lets go. It is well not to exhaust
a theme; it is well also not to vex an expectant ap-
petite. It is a dinner of crumbs and sips. You
just catch a flavor, and your plate is changed and
the waiter removes your glass ; your palate is balked,
and your digestion is trified with- It is a book to
read by a revolving light, an essay to each flash.
It is written on the principle of Mr. \Veller's love-
1etter,—- to stop when she will wish there was more.
It is very pleasant writing, what there is of it. It
reminds one of the hungry man at the restaurant,
who, on receiving his portion, supposed it a sample
only, and said to the waiter, “Yes, that's what I
mean: bring me some.”
Sugyulire
su P/jvcla lightly
touched.
T HE latest addition to Harper's series
of “ American Essayists” is a vol-
mne called “ Americanisms and Brit-
icisms.” by Brander Matthews. It is a collection
of eleven essays, all written in Mr. Matthews‘s own
A new rolmuw on‘
an old nubjecl.

engaging way; yet before one finishes the book,
one feels a slight protest as toward “something too
much of this." The single string is the highly pa-
triotic one of proving America’s literary indepen-
dence of England, and of showing how completely
the tables are turned since Sydney Smith asked his
famous question three-quarters of a century ago,
—“ Who reads an American book?” But it is
somewhat late in the day to be spending words over
that much quoted and long since answered question.
BRIEFER MENTION.
THE popular series of “Tales from Foreign Lands”
(McClurg) has just been enlarged by the admission of
two new volumes: Mrs. Gnskell’s “Cousin Phillis"
and a translation, by Miss Helen VV. Lester, of the “Mar-
ianela ” of Senor Galdos. \Vhile below the level of their
companion volumes, these two books are pretty pieces
of simple literature, and not uudeserving of their new
and attractive dress.
THE latest issues of foreign fiction in English include
M. Zola’s “Money” (Worthington), translated by Mr.
B. R. Tucker; M. Claretie’s “Hypnotism” (Neely),
by an unnamed translator; and "\Vith Columbus in
America” (\'orthington), a historical novel, which Miss
Elise L. Lnthrop has adapted (whatever that may mean)
from the German of Herr Falkenhorst.
THE merest mention must suffice for the following
new novels: “ Sylvester Romaine " (Price-Mt-Gill Co.),
by Mr. Charles Pelletreun; “ Mr. Witt’s \Vidow" (U.
S. Book Co.), by Mr. Anthony Hope; “ The Medicine
Lady" (Cassell — meaning the woman-doctor--by
L. T. Meade; “ ' ‘he Island of Fantasy " (Lovell, Geste-
feld & Co.), by Mr. Fergus Hume; “Joshua \Vray”
(U. S. Book Co. , by Mr. Hans Stevenson Beattie; and
“ The Woinaii "ho Dares ” (Lovell, Gestefeld & Co.),
by Mrs. Ursula N. Gestefcld.
“THE Every Day of Life" (Crowell), by Dr. J. R.
Miller, is a small volume of short papers, pleutifully in-
terspersed with qnotations, upon such subjects as “Mak-
ing Life a Song," “ The Secret of Peace,” and “The In-
fluence of Companionship.” The papers are really brief
sermons, simple and unaffected in manner, and bearing n.
message of sympathy and love. They offer consolation
to the despondent, and counsel to the perplexed.
SOME recently published text-books are: “ Historical
Essays of Macaulay” (Allyn & Bacon), edited by Mr.
Samuel Thurber; “ Selections for Memoriziug ” (Ginn),
compiled by Messrs. L. C. Foster and Sherman Wil-
liams; and “ The Children's First Reader” (Ginn), by
Miss Ellen M. Cyr.
SEVERAL additions have recently been made to the
modern language texts published by William R. Jenk-
ins. “La Lizardiere," by the Vicomte Henri de Bor-
nier, appears in the series of “ Romans Choisis," rom-
pleting the first score of issues under that title. M. C.
l-‘out:-1.ine's collection of extracts from “ Les Prosateurs
Franqais du XIXme Siecle ” is a. companion volume to
the “Poétes" of the same period and editor. It in-
cludes such very modern writers as MM. Maupassant,
Viaud, Richepin, and Coppée. M. Coppée has, besides,
a volume of “Extruits Choisis ” all to himself, edit Q
by M. George Castegnier. The extracts are in both
prose and verse, and the editor provides an English in-


314
[Nov. 16,
THE DIAL
troduction and notes. Mme. Berthe Beck is the editor
of the “ Fables Choisies de La Fontaine," a small vol-
ume, also provided with notes. “Camilla,” by Signor
Edmondo de Amicis, is published in the series of “ No-
velle Italiane,” and has a few English notes by Mr. T.
E. Comba. The same publisher has also issued two
grammars: “A Rational French Method,” by M. A.
Gautherot; and “Des Kindes Erstes Bnch,” by Herr
Wilhelm Rippe, which tries to do for German �hat
Bercy's “ Livre des Enfants ” does for French.
TH]-I following are recently published text-books for
schools: “ A Manual of Physics” (Putnam), by Mr.
Willinni Peddie, is a work of English origin, and de-
signed for university students. It is a very compact
treatise, and brought carefully down to date. Mr. M.
A. Bailey is the author of an “ American Mental Arith-
metic ” (American Book Co.), which provides problems
in bewildering variety. “ Leaves and Flowers ” (Heath),
by Miss Mary A. Spear, is a volume of plant studies
for very young readers.
Mn.1"os's “Paradise Lost” has just been added to
the exquisite series of “Laurel-Crowned Verse " (Mc-
Clurg). The text is edited by Mr. F. F. Browne, and
no apparatns—-except Milton’s own preface on the
fonn of verse-_is added. The “Selected Poems of
Robert Burns ” (Crowell) make a pretty volume, edited,
with biography, glossary, and notes, by Mr. Nathan
Haskell Dole. Two volumes of poems by Joaquin Miller,
“ Songs of Summer Lands ” and “ Songs of the Sierras"
(Morrill, Higgins & Co.), are issued in uniform and
not uupleasing style. Vl/e have also a very pretty re-
print of “Wordsworth’s Grave, and Other Poems”
(Stokes), from Mr. William \Vatson’s second edition.
Tm: “ Roundabout Books ” (Charles E. Brown 8: Co.)
are published expressly for the young, and we notice
with some surprise that they are made to include an
edition of Mrs. Brassey’s “Sunbenm" journal. The
book enjoys a deserved popularity, but hardly appeals .
to the tastes of children, pampered as they are in an
age of professional caterers to their wants.
PRO!-‘Ess0R G. C. Caldwell’s " Elements of Qualita-
tive and Quantitative Chemical Analysis” (Blakiston)
is a reprint of matter selected from the writer's previous
publications, together with a certain amount of added
matter unpublished in any other form. It is a text-
book intended for laboratory use.
THE gnomic counsel to hitch one’s wagon to a star
has its limitations. It suits the wagon well enough, but
it is cumbrous to the planet, and makes a litter along
its track. Triumphal chariots and state coaches are
not the only vehicles appended, but dirt carts and
wheelbarrows and dolls’ peralnbulators come tagging
on behind. Columbus is a good name to conjure with,
if only the big medicine-men would undertake the in-
cantation, if the whole tribe of authorlings would not
hurry to peddle their booklets along the line. “The
Career of Columbus,” by an English M. P. (Cassell),
“ The Vvritings of Columbus” (Webster), and a Co-
lumbian Calendar from Iowa, inevitably suggest such
comments. The Calendar runs from Friday, August 3,
when Columbus set sail, to Friday, October 12, when
the first land was sighted. It contains some pertinent
and much irrelevant matter. The translations of the
letters and reports of Columbus are not without inter-
est. They help us to do without Mr. Fiske, or Mr.
Wilisor, and get a little nearer to the hero, with only
a translator in between.

IJTEIIARY NOTES AND NE\'S.
Houghton, Mifilin & Co. have opened a branch oflice
in Chicago, under the management of Mr. G. H. Coflin.
Mr. George Meredith has been chosen to succeed
Lord Tennyson as President of the London Society of
Authors.
Messrs. 
Villiam and Charles Archer have added
“ Peer Gynt ” to their series of English translations of
Dr. Ibsen’s works.
The United States Book Company will bring out
Mrs. Oliphant’s new work, "The Literary History of
the Victorian Era.”
Houghton, Miffiin & Co.’s new “ Portrait Catalogue ”
has a fresh cover, designed by Mr. \'l'alter Crane,
and three new portraits.
“The Overland Monthly " for November has a richly
illustrated article on the Lick Observatory, by Miss
Millicent W. Shinn.
Thomas Whittaker announces “Leaders into Un-
known Lands,” by Mr. Arthur Montifiore, an account of
famous modern journeys.
Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft, the historian of the Pa-
cifie Coast, is at work upon a large volume to be de-
scriptive of the “'orld's Columbiau Exposition.
Professor Collin, of the University of Christiana, con-
tributes to the November “ Review of Reviews " a very
interesting article on Bjiirnson, dealing mainly with the
personality of the great poet and novelist.
A “History of the English Parliament," by Mr. G.
Barnett Smith, is announced by W'ard, Lock, Bowden
& Co. The work will fill two large volumes, and have
many fat--similes of documents by way of illustration.
Lovell, Coryell & Co. announce an édilion (Ie lure,
limited to 260 copies, of Mr. Barrie's “The Little
Minister." There will be ten etchings on Japanese pa-
per, initial letters in colors, and a biographical sketch
of the author.
The J. B. Lippincott Company announce “Broken
Chords,” by Mrs. George McClellan; “Atlina, the
Queen of the Floating Isle," by Mr. M. B. M. Toland;

,~ and an illustrated edition of “A Study in Scarlet," by
Dr. A. Conan Doyle.
The Cnpples Company announce for immediate pub-
lication “ Heinrich Heine - His VVit, \Visdom, Poetry,"
edited by Newell Dunbar; “The Real and Ideal in
Literature," by Frank Preston Sterns ; and “Txleama :
A Tale of Ancient Mexico," by J. A. Knowlton.
President Harrison has issued a proclamation extend-
ing to Italian citizens the privileges of American copy-
right under the law of 1891. This, of course, means
very little as long as an Italian author must have his
work printed in this country to secure copyright.
The latest publications of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
include : “ At Sundown,” by John G. Whittier ; “ The
Story of a Child," by Margaret Deland; “Japan in
History, F olk-Lore, and Art," by lvilliam Elliot Griffis ;
and “Somebody’s Neighbors," by Rose Terry Cooke.
The death last month of M. Camille Rousset, the
military historian, following close upon those of Re-
nan and Marmier, has created a third vacancy in the
French Academy, and many aspirants for immortality
will doubtless be aroused to activity by this triple op-
portnnity.
“ The Inland Printer” for November publishes a fine
pen-and-ink portrait of Alfred Tennyson, the work of


1892.]
315
THE DIAL
Mr. P. R. Audibert. In one respect, however, the art-
ist is in error. He represents the hair and beard of
the late poet as partly grey, whereas Lord Tennyson
wrote to Mr. William Watson, as late as April of this
year, that he never had a grey hair on his head.
Charles H. Sergei & Co. announce an edition of Vol-
taire’s works in English, to fill forty volumes. The suc-
cess of such an enterprise as this is at least questionable,
for Voltaire’s work was done so entirely for his own age
that it has for us only the force of a reverberaut histor-
ical echo. Still, it will be a satisfaction to have the
work in a substantially complete English translation.
The famous case of the two James Lane Aliens,
which contributed not a little to the gaiety of nations a
few years ago, appears to be paralleled by the case of
the two Williani Henry Bishops, just come to light. In
this case the well-known author finds his obscure double
in a writer who hails from Toledo, and who has been
engaged in putting forth literature for the political
campaign just ended.
A narrative of the voyage of the “Kite” with the
Peary Expedition to North Greenland, written by Dr.
Robert N. Keeley, Jr., surgeon to the expedition, and
Dr. G. G. Davis, will be published at once by Rufus C.
Hartranft, Philadelphia. It will make a thick octavo
volume, and will be illustrated from the remarkable
series of negatives made by Lieutenant Peary in the
course of his explorations.
M. Renan’s will directs his widow to superiutend the
publication of the two remaining volumes of his “ His-
toire du Peuple d’Israel.” He has also left a portfolio
of notes, dating from as far back as 1845. He is re-
ported to have said to Mme. Reuau : “ I feel forced in
committing the manuscripts to you to lay stress on the
value of some of the contents of that portfolio.” There
are no other literary remains of any great importance.
The latest addition to periodical literature is “ The
Sewauee Review,” of which the first number, dated No-
vember, is at hand. It is published quarterly under the
auspices of the University of the South, and follows the
fashion of the old English quarterlies in leaving its ar-
ticles unsigned. The names of their writers ‘will; how-
ever, bc given in the yearly index. The review will be
devoted to such subjects “as require fuller treatment
than they usually receive in the popular magazines, and
less technical treatment than they receive in specialist
publications.” The present number, of 128 pages, con-
tains valuable articles ou Thomas Hard_v’s novels, the
fiction of modern Spain, and other subjects. The tone
of the reviewis dignified, and it is in every way a cred-
itable addition to the list of American periodicals.
“ Was Chaucer Irreligious ? ” is the question that en-
gages a writer in the November number of “ Poet-
Lore,” and some exception is taken to the statements
made by Professor Louusbury in his recent “ Studies in
Chaucer.” This bright and suggestive literary monthly
promises for the coming year a narrative of Shake-
speare's theatrical career, by Mr. F. G. Fleay, and a
collection of letters by Mr. Ruskin, heretofore printed
in a private edition of a few copies only. Mr. Fleay’s
work, which is cast in the form of a historical novel,
will bear the following title: “ Gentle Will, Our Fel-
lowe. “'1-it in 1626, A.D., by John Heminge, Servant
of his Gracious Majesty King Charles I. Edited in
1892, A.D., as ‘all though feigned, is true,’ by F. G.
Fleay, Servant of all Shakespearian Students in Amer-
ica, England, Germany, or elsewhere.”

LIST or New BOOKS.
[T7lefoll0wing list, embracing I64 titles, includes all boo/cs
received by Tan Dun. since last z'ssue.'l
HOLIDA Y BOOKS.
Old Italian Masters. Engraved by Timothy Cole. With
historical notes by VV. J. Stillman. and brief comments
by the engraver. 4to, pp. 282, gilt top, uncut edges.
Century Co. In box. $10.00.
English Cathedrals: Canterbur , Peterborou h, Durham,
etc. By Mrs. Schuyler Van ensselaer. I us. with 15-I
engravings by Joseph Pennell, and with lans and dia-
mgr 4to, pp. 395, gilt top, uncut e ges. Century
o. 1.00.
In the Levant. By Charles Dudley Warner. In 2 vols.,
illus. with hotogravures, l2mo, gilt top, uncut edges.
Houghton, ifilin & Co. Slip covers,
The Great Streets of the World. By Richard Harding
Davis, Andrew Lang, Henry James, and othem. Pro-
fusely illus., 4to, pp. 253, gilt top. Century Co. $4.00.
Dorothy Q., thsr with a Ballad of the Boston Tea
Part , and randmother’s Story of Bunker Hill. By O.
W. Holmes. Illus.il;y P le. 12mo, pp. 130, silver gilt
top. Houghton, Mi in (é Co. $1.50.
An Attic Philosopher in Paris ; or, A Peep at the World
from a Garret, being the Journal of a Happy Man. From
the French of Emile Sonvestre. Illus., Bvo, pp. 190, gilt
top. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50.
The Seasons: S ring, Summer, Autumn, “'inter. By James
Thomson. n 4 vol.s., illus., gilt edges. Fates & Lau-
riat. In box, $4.00.
Sun Prints and Sky Tints. Original Designs, with appro-
priate Selections, by Irene E. Jerome. 4to, pp. 88. gilt
edges. Lee & Shepard. $3.00.
Genoa, the Superb: The City of Columbus. By Virginia
W. Johnson, author of “ A Royal Physician.” Illns. in
photogravure, Bvo, pp. 298, gilt top, uncut edges. Estes
& Lauriat. Slip oover, $3.00.
Zenobia, Queen oi’ Palmyra: A Tale of the Roman Em-
ire in the Days of the Emperor Aurelian. By William
are, author of "Julian.” Illus., 8vo, p . 432, gilt tap,
uncut edges. Fates & Lauriat. In box, 2.50.
Poems of Wordsworth. Chosen and edited by Matthew
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THE DIAL
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THE DIAL, X0. 2-l Adams Street, Chicago.
No. 155. DECEMBER 1, 1892. Vol.XIII.

CONTENTS.
PAGI
“EJ BLOT TIL LYST” lPoern). lV1'lliam Morton
Payne . . 335
LITERATURE ON THE STAGE . . . 336
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT 337
The “Stamp Plan ” for Checking Royalty Frauds.
—A New Theme for Poets: New Hampshirels Ap-
peal for a. Poem on F orest-Preserva.tion.~—The Dila-
toriness of the Columbian Exposition in Providing
for an Educational E-xhibit.——The Defects of the
Copyright Law of 1391.
COl\I.\IUNICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . .
A “ Time-Long ” Copyright. J. K.
Enquiry Regarding Editions of Udall. George Hempl.
MEMORIES‘ OF TENNYSON. RUSKIN, AND
BROWNING. E.G.J. . . . . . . . .339
A F ORTUN ATE OLD AUTHOR. Octave Thane! . . 342
RECENT BOOKS OF POETRY. lVilliarn Morton
Pa]/ne................344
Tennyson’s The Death of (Enone.— Whittier’s At _
Suudowu.—Mrs. Bates’s From Heart's Content.-
Miss Monroe’s Valeria, and Other Poems.—Perkins’s
Eleusis, and Lesser Poems.
HOLIDAY PUBLICATIONS
Cole's Old Italian Master-s.—Mrs. Van Rensselaer's
English Cathedi-a.ls.— Eleanor Lewis’s Famous Pets
of Famous People.—IIolmes’s Dorothy Q.—Arnold‘s
Selections from \Vordsworth’s Poems.— Pzu-kmnn’s
The Oregon Trail.—Thomson's Season.s.—Alice
Corkran's The Poets’ Comer.— Virginia Johnson’s
The Lily of the Arno.—Mrs. Phelps's A Lost “Iinter.
—.\Iiss Jerome‘s Sun Prints in Sky Tints.—— Selected
Photogravures.—Curtis’s Prue and I.—James’s Daisy
.\Iiller.~Longfellow’s Hyperion.—— Miss Stricklnnd’s
Lives of the Queens of England.—The Great Streets
of the W0rld.—Kn[)ln|1's The Magic Laugh.~Dob—
son’s Eighteenth Century Vignettes.—“ Darro ” edi-
tion of Irving's Alhan1brs.—The Golden Rod Series.
— Favorite Folk Balla.ds.— Miss Huse’s Rolnnd’s
Squires.—Page’s Morse Chan.—S0uvestre’s An Attic
Philosopher in Paris.—~Miss Humphrey's Kalendar of
Beautie. -—The Fairy Calendar. -—Aquarelle Calen-
dar.~Edns Lynll's The Autobiography of a Slander.
—Mrs. Browning’s Poems.— Selections from Isaac
Penington. —~ Miss Porter‘s A Gift of Love. — La
Bréte’s My Uncle and My Curé.
. 338
348
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS .
CONTENTS -—— Continued.

BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG
Jacobs’s Indian Fairy Tales.—Lang’s The Green
Fairy Book.— Miss Wilkins’s The Pot of Gold.-
Miss Bouvet’s Prince Tip-Top.—Julia Godda.rd’s
Fairy Tales in Other Lands.— The Chi1dren’s Li-
brary.—Hswthorne’s “louder Book, illustrated by
Walter Crane.—Mrs. Burnett’s Giovanni.—Sbock-
ton’s The Clocks of R0ndaine.—Ouida.‘s Bimbi.—-
Matthews’s Tom Pau1ding.—Johnson’s The End of
a Rainbow.-— Mrs. Molesworth’s The Next-Door
Hou.se.—Mrs. Molesworth’s Robin Redbrea.st.—
Alice \Veber’s An Alfair of Honour.—Heleu Mil-
man's Uncle Bill’s Children.——Fra.ncis’s The Boys of
the Mirthfield Academy.—Farrar‘s Through the
VVilds.—Hntchison’s The Boys’ Own Book.—Ms.ris.
Cox’s Jack Brex-eton.—Rebccca. Davis’s Kent Hamp-
den.—— Greene’s The RiverPnrk Rebellion.— Miss
Ray’s The Cadets of Flemming Hsll.— Miss Ray’s
In Blue Creek Caiion.—Mrs. Sidney’s Five Little
Peppers Grown Up.-Kirk Mum-oe’s Canoe—Mates.
Boyesen's Boyhood in Norway.—Trowbridge’s The
Fortunes of Toby Trafl'ord.—Mrs. Smith’s More
Good Times.—Olivia Wflson’s At the Sign of the
White Swan.—Allen’s Gulf and Glacier.—Ellis’s On
the Trail of the Moose.—Optic’s Fighting for the
Right.—Ca.stlemon‘s Marcy the Refugee.—Mrs.
Foot’s Rovings of n Restless Boy.—Miscellaneous
Books for Boys.——Mrs. Perry's A Rosebud Gnrden of
Girls.—-Miss Yonge’s The Cross R0ads.—Miss Rich-
srcl’s Hildegardifs Home.—Mi.scellaneous Books for
Girls.
Character-Building in Our Public Schools.— Afloat
and Ashore on the Mediterrsnean.—The Memorials
of an “Estimable La.dy.”—The Early Training of
Children.—To England and Back.
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS .
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
“EJ BLOT TIL LYST.”

[These words, meaning “Not for pleasure only,” are in-
scribed above the stage of the Royal Theatre ut Cnpenhngem]

Not merely for our pleasure, but to purge
The soul from baseness, from ignoble fear,
And all the passions that make dim the clear
Calm vision of the world; our feet to urge
On to ideal far-set goals; to merge
Our being with the heart of things; brought near
The springs of life, to make ns see and hear
And feel its swelling and pulsating surge:—
Such, Thespian art divine, thy nobler aim;
For this the tale of (Edipus was told,
Of frenzied Lear, Harpagon’s greed of gold ;--
And, knowing this, how must we view with shame
Thy low estate, and hear the plaudits loud
That mark thee now but pander to the crowd!
WILLIAM MORTON PA\'sF..
. 356


E336
[Dec-. 1,
THE DIAL
-cost of the artistic proprieties. That all these evils \
exist, and many more, is evident to the most casual
observer.
LITERATURE ON THE STAGE.
There has been of late, both in England and l
America, one of the periodically recurrent out-
bursts of criticism and discussion of the English-
speaking stage. its present degradation, and its pos-
sible future redemption. Attention has been called,
in all possible tones of indignation, to the old fa-
miliar facts; to the evils of the “star” system, .
to the alarming prominence of the spectacular
element in dramatic production, and to the insist-
ence of the public upon being amused. at whatever
The theatrical records of London, New .
York, and Chicago, alike give evidence of a noble
art degenerated into a mere amusement, and of the
almost complete severance of literature from the
stage. But talking about these evils is not likely
to prove effective in removing them. The talking 1
will be done by a few earnest people. and the un-
thinking masses will give, as before, the sanction
of their support to the dramatic monstrosities that
chiefly occupy our stage. Discussion of the subject
but supplies. after all, a new illustration of the
homely saying that “ a watched pot never boils”;
in other words, the kingdom of true dramatic art,
like a certain other kingdom, cometh not with ob- ‘
servation. The great periods of the art, when lit- r
erature securely trod the stage, did not result from
a deliberate and reasoned conclusion that such art
was a desirable possession, but were the sponta-
neous product of a heightened national conscious-
ness seeking for adequate expression. Such expres-
sion was found in the ages and countries of Peri-
cles and of Louis Quatorze, in the period of Span-
ish history that culminated with the glories of Cal-
deron and Lope de Vega, and at the time of that
vast expansion of the English spirit which produced
Marlowe and VVebster and Shakespeare. \Ve may
well wonder what manner of men they were who
flocked to their rude theatres in “ the spacious times
of great Elizabeth," and shared, with no adventi-
tious spectacular allurements to serve as a fillip, in
the pure intellectual delight offered by “ The Tem-
pest” or “ The Midsummer Night‘s Dream.” As
Mr. Symonds says, “There remains always some- f
thing inscrutable in the spontaneous efforts of a
nation finely touched to a fine issue.”
The stage of to-day certainly does not give us,
in England and America, any indication of “a na-
tion finely touched to a fine issue.” The play-
wright, not the poet, the contriver of puppets, not
the creator of characters, occupies the higher plane
of our existing dramatic art, while the lower plane
is hopelessly given over to the buffoon, who acts after
his kind. The situation is much better upon the
continent of Europe, for there, at least, the stage
has an unbroken and dignified tradition. If it can
boast few living writers of great distinction, it still
preserves its character as a. school of conscientious
acting, of correct diction. and of accurate enuncia- ,

dramatic poems.
tion. As a conservator of the national speech the
Théfitre F rancais is as important and influential a
body as the Académie Fran;-aise, while a. similar
function is fulfilled by the theatres of many Ger-
man cities and of the Scandinavian capitals. To
realize what this means, we have only to imagine
_ the derision that would greet the proposal to de-
cide some disputed question of English style or
prounciation by reference to the practise of the
stage in any English or American city. The ex-
planation of this difference is, of course, largely
political. The chief European governments have
always held the stage to be an educational institu-
tion, and, as such, a legitimate object of govern-
ment support. The noble motto of the Danish na-
tional theatre has been made the working rule of
the government-aided European stage. The Thea-
tre Frangais permits no week to pass without per-
formance of some work by Corneille, Racine. or
Moliere; the court theatres of Austria and Ger-
many as frequently produce the plays of Lessing
and Schiller, of Goethe and Shakespeare. But in
no theatre of the English-speaking world is the pre-
sentation of Shakespearian drama thus made a
matter of fixed weekly or even monthly recurrence.
Germany pays more reverence than we do to our
own dramatic poet, to the chief glory of all dra-
matic literature.
One might suppose that this neglect of a great
art would have long since led to the disappearance
of the drama from our literature. But the essen-
tial vitality of the dramatic form, and the inherent
fitness of our English speech to assume that mode
of expression, have given us, in spite of all discour-
agements. an almost unbroken succession of noble
Although our century refuses to
witness stage productions of the great works of En-
glish dramatic literature, and although they are de-
nied the support of even the reading public, they
are still produced in numbers, for the instinct of the
poet _well knows the value of dramatic expression,
and he will not abandon it, however the public may
scorn the product of his labors. Such poems as " The
Cenci” of Shelley and the “ Count Julian” of
Landor, or the plays of Browning and Swinburne,
had they been written by Frenchmen or Germans.
would not have had to wait long before taking their
proper places in the classic repertory of the stage.
And the greatest poet of our own age, had he not
been English, would have obtained more than a
grudging recognition, as fitted for stage purposes,
of but one or two of the magnificent series of his
historical and romantic dramas. Had a German
poet written “ Harold ” and “ Becket,” or a French
poet written “ The Foresters,” these works would
have had more than a cold succés d'estime, for
they would have reached a public quick to recog-
nize literary excellence in the drama, and prompt
to express its approval of noble workmanship. In
excellent dramatic work of a rank lower than the
first, our nineteenth century literature is also rich,
and to a degree which few readers and no mere


1892.]
THE DIAL
337

theatre-goers suspect. Such plays as Sergeant Tal-
fourd’s “ Ion” and Dean Milman’s “ Fazio,” both
of which once had a precarious tenure of the stage,
well deserve to be revived; the dramatic poems of
Sir Henry Taylor, Richard Hengist Horne, and
Westland Marston, are infinitely more deserving of
attention than nine-tenths of the plays actually
produced upon our stage. But they would be cav-
iare to the general audience, hopelessly dull in
appreciation of style, and trained to prefer buf-
foonery t.o comedy, melodrama. to tragedy, or, at
the very best, sentiment to passion.
The almost complete severance of literature from
the English stage is clearly enough shown by the fact
that the dramatic works of Tennyson have never
succeeded in gaining a foothold there. If a still
more striking illustration is wished, it can be fur-
nished by the experience of the Shelley Society in
its attempts to produce “The Cenci.” According
to English law, only licensed plays can be publicly
produced. An unlicensed play may be given pri-
vate performance, a term which means that no
money shall be taken at the doors of the theatre,
but which is otherwise so conveniently vague that
any such" performance, arranged in the best of
faith, may be undertaken only at considerable
risk of violating the law in some unsuspected way.
“The Cenci,” we must add, the greatest English
dramatic poem of the century, has steadily been
refused a license by the English authorities, al-
though several applications to legalize its perform-
ance have been made. In 1886, the Shelley So-
ciety gave a private performance of “ The Cenci ”
in a London theatre, in presence of perhaps the
most distinguished audience that recent years have
seen collected for any purpose whatever. But the
outraged dignity of the censorship was prompt to
act, and the manager of the theatre in question al-
lowed to continue his lease only on condition of
never thereafter lending his stage for the production
of an unlicensed play. In this centennial year of
the birth of Shelley, the Society wished to commem-
orate the occasion by a. repetition of “ The Cenci ”
performance, but found it impossible either to get
the play licensed for public representation, or to
find a manager willing to risk lending his theatre
for the private performance contemplated. So the
plan was abandoned, and a fresh victory scored for
the hosts of the Philistine.
VVhen matters reach such a pass as this, it cer-
tainly behooves the friends of literature to see if
something cannot be done to rehabilitate the stage.
It is not a little significant that an Independent
Theatre should have been organized in London not
long ago, and that some of the more thoughtful lit-
erary men of this country should have united to es-
tablish in New York the new Theatre of Arts and
Letters. The still older Theatre Libre of Paris
might at first seem to deserve mention in this cate-
gory, but certainly did not result from a similar
necessity, for French dramatic art needs no such
encouragement. But the London and New York

organizations have taken what is probably the best
method, in a country the genius of whose institutions
hardly admits of a stage subsidized by the govern-
ment. for the furtherance of an important and neg-
lected cause. The most valuable work yet done by
the Independent Theatre of London has been the
production of several of Herr Ibsen's dramas of
modern society, which certainly represent a ten-
dency in dramatic art deserving of encouragement.
The plans of the Theatre of Arts and Letters are
as yet somewhat indefinite, but the association with
the project of such men as Messrs. Edwin Booth,
, Joseph Jefferson, Augustin Daly, E. C. Stedman,
T. B. Aldrich, \V. D. Howells, R. \V. Gilder, and
George E. \Voodberry gives the best possible assur-
ance of a serious aim, and the employment of meth-
ods consistent with both the dignity of literature
and the best dramatic traditions. The production
of new plays is the object of the New York organi-
zation, but we wish that it might join with this ob-
ject that of the revival of old masterpieces. The
recent production, by the London theatre, of \Veb-
ster’s ‘* Duchess of Malfy," offers a suggestion upon
which it would be desirable to act. It reminds us
that the century which has partly neglected Shake-
speare has totally neglected the other men of that
great race of Elizabethans above whose level it re-
quired the stature of a Shakespeare to tower.
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT.
The Association of American Authors gave con-
siderable attention, at its last monthly meeting, to the
“stamp plan ” for checking royalty frauds on the part
of publishers. This plan, with whatever variation of
detail it be proposed, consists essentially in the furnish-
ing, by authors to their publishers, of stamps to be
affixed to all copies of hooks sold. The sentiment of
the meeting upon this subject was divided, and no defi-
nite action was taken. There is no doubt that there
are serious practical objections to a “stamp plan";
there are the minor difliculties of extra labor and re-
turned copies, and the major difficulty of thwarting any
publisher who is set upon dishonesty. The publisher
who might wish to act fraudulently would find it easy
enough to distribute unstamped copies of books in terri-
tories from which evidence of his guilt would not readily
he forthcoming. A bookseller in some Californian town
would be unchallenged in offering for sale the un-
stamped work of a New York writer. There is not one
chance in a liundred that the fraud would come to the
author’s knowledge. As a protection for English an-
thors securing copyright under the law of 1891, the
“ stamp act ” would be still more completely inadequate.
The Secretary of the New Hampshire Forestry
Commission, writing to a Boston paper, makes a pathetic
appeal to the literary craft of the country for a stirring
poem upon the preservation of the mountain forests of
the State. The lumberman is wielding his destructive
axe, to the imminent danger of the industries dependent
upon power from the streams below, and, unfortun-
ately, the wooded areas of the State are almost entirely
private property. This is a vastly important question,
not only to New Hampshire, but to the country at


338
[Dec. 1,
THE DIA L
large, and a. healthy public sentiment 'upon the subject
seems slo� to develop. So Mr. J. B. Harrison, who
may be addressed at Franklin Falls, N. }l., believing
that the pen may prove itself mightier than the axe,
asks the poets of the country to help him in his strug-
gle. The time is certainly well chosen, for the presi-
dential campaign is over, and considerable rhythmical
energy is doubtless seeking new channels of expression.
We would suggest that Mr. Harrison look to Kansas
for the assistance so greatly needed. Kansas has many
poets, and they are poets of the versatile sort to whom
all themes are equally fit for the purposes of song. Be-
sides, the New Hampshire problem does not exist in
Kansas, so the latter state may grapple with it without
fear of being charged with defective patriotism. If a
poem in defense of monometalism were called for, or
one denouncing government loans to farmers, for ex-
ample, a Kansas poet could hardly be expected to meet
the request with enthusiam.
The delay, on the part of the \Vorld's Colum-
bian Exposition authorities, in providing a building for
the educational exhibit is simply inexcusable. Of all
the objects for which the Exposition exists, none is of
greater importance than this and none should be more
carefully considered and liberally provided for. Even
with the utmost promptitude in making up for the past
neglect of educational interests, the exhibit is now
likely to be defective for lack of snflicient time in
which to prepare it. The educators of Europe and
America have naturally delayed active preparations
until they could be assured that education was to be
recognized by the Exposition authorities, and either
ignorance or inefficiency on the part of the latter is the
only possible explanation of the fact that the erection
of an educational building is still in doubt. It is prob-
able that some exhibits are already lost, as the result of
this dilatory policy,—to give it a considerate name,—
and it is certain that those responsible for this policy
will be held strictly to account for whatever shortcom-
ings may result from it. If the educational exhibit
fails to be what it is reasonable to expect, the position
of those who shall have contributed to the failure will
be anything but enviable.
The government of this country now gives copy-
right protection to English, French, German, Swiss, Bel-
gian, and Italian authors in accordance with the law of
1891. But this protection is made little more‘ than a
mockery for English authors, and a complete mockery
for all the others, by the indefensible provision of our
law requiring manufacture in this country. THE DIAL
gave cordial support to the movement which resulted
in enactment of the present law, believing it to be all
that was obtainable under the conditions then existing,
and much better than no law at all, but it op'posed and
opposes the condition of American manufacture, and
trusts that a more enlightened congress will soon do
away with the obnoxious requirement that now makes
International Copyright so nearly a barren ideality.
We trust also that short shift will be given the barbar-
ous tax upon art and knowledge by which books and
pictures are treated as if they were infection-bearing
immigrants. The time ought to come, and that speed-
ily, when American and European scholars shall be per-
mitted to exchange their publications by the medium of
the postal service, and when an English book shall be
purchasable by an American student directly from its
publishers. The evidence of final enlightenment to be
given by a repeal of the taxes upon books and pictures

ought to be further emphasized by a repeal of the
equally indefensible tax upon the instruments of
scientific research. The increased tax upon microscopes
was not the least of the minor iniquities of McKinley-
ism, and ought to be one of the first to disappear from
the statute-book.
COMMUNICA TIONS.
A “TIMEJJONG” COPYRIGHT.
(To the Editor of Tm: DIAL.)
Your admirable St. Louis correspondent, H. “T. E,
while speaking of the destructive competition of the
dead writers with the living, touches the nail on the head
when he brings up the question of copyright world-wide
and time-long. \Vhy not drive in that nail and clinch it ?
Of course none of us would_-even if he could—-
silence any voice in order that his own might be heard.
Let every written word, old or new, stand or fall on its
own merits; but let all stand on a level as to the com-
mercial market. \Vhy should paid labor come in com-
petition with unpaid labor ? Suppose a new Defoe to-
arise, and write a new “ Robinson Crusoe,” as good as
the old and yet unlike it ; suppose him to treat with a
publisher for publication on a royalty. The publisher
would naturally say: “You know you have your old
namesake to compete with.” “ Yes, but I suppose I
stand an even chance with him.” “ \‘l-'ell, scarcely;.
seeing that Thomas and Richard and Henry can take
his book free from any royalty.”
To put it in another form _suppose the world's law
was such that though you should build a house fit to en-
dure forcver, yet at the end of a certain number of
years it should cease to belong to you, your heirs, ex-
ecutor, or assigns, and begin to belong to everybody who
chose to enter and occupy it. \Vonld not the building
of good houses be somewhat discouraged ? J_ K_
Chicago, Novembw 5, 1892.

AN ENQUIRY REGARDING EDITIONS OF UDALL.
(To the Editor of Tm: Dun.)
I take the liberty of making use of your journal to-
iuquire whether any of the librarians of this country
have under their care one or more of the following edi-
tions of Udall’s works:
Ralph Roister Doister: Edition of 1818, London; edi-
tion of 1821, London; edition of 1830, London (in
“The Old English Drama,” printed and published by
Thos. \Vbite).
“Epislola N uncupatoria ” or “ Floures for Latin Spe-
Icynge, selected and gathered oute of Terence and the
same translated into Englysshe ”; any edition.
I shall be thankful for any information as to where»
these volumes may be found. GEORGE I-[Emma
Ann Arbor. Nov. 38, 1893.
A QUARTERLY “Journal of Economy,” under the
able editorship of Professor J . Lawrence Laughlin, is
announced by the University of Chicago, and the first
number will appear about the middle of this month. It
will contain articles by the editor, by M. de Lavesseur,
and by Herr Max VVirth. Early next year, the Uni-
versity will also begin publication of “ The University
Ex_tension World," edited by the Extension Faculty.


1892.]
339
THE DIAL
THE New BOOKS.

Mnmonnss or TENNYs0N, Rvsxm, AND
BRO\'NIXG.*

In these pleasantly-written records of her
three illustrious friends (or rather four, as
Mrs. Browning is included), the author has
freely blended biographical fact with the ac-
count of her own impressions and apprecia-
tions, the personal element rather preponder-
ating. One is not, of course, to expect from
the pen of Mrs. Ritchie confidences of the sort
known as “ breezy ” or “ startling,” which are
apt to form the staple of personal reminiscence.
Of the rather questionable convention permit-
ting espials into the lives of notable people that
would be held impertinences elsewhere, Mrs.
Ritchie has not availed herself. We find in
her pages no hint of those interesting skeleton-
closets which the biographer is expected to un-
lock. Her book, delightful and informing
though it is. is even lacking in that anecdotal
quality which its title seems to promise; and
the reader who might be pleased to learn, for
instance, from a source so authentic, that Mr.
Ruskin, is, entre nous, “ no better than he
-should he,” or that Mr. Browning, in the in-‘
tervals of composition, used to refresh himself
by chastising Mrs. Browning, will be disap-
pointed. Tacitly acquitting her readers at the
outset of ill-bred curiosity, Mrs. Ritchie has
nicely distinguished throughout between the
things that may be, and the things that should
not be, given to the public. This refinement
of tone and treatment has a charm in itself.
Aside from their literary grace, perhaps the
most noticeable thing in the “ Records" is
the strain of genuine, almost unquestioning,
admiration. At times, and especially in the
paper on Ruskin (which is, by the way, largely
a commentary, with abundant quotation, on
“ Praaterita ” ), the writer’s turn for hero wor-
ship is almost pathetic. But the hero worship
is at least sincere ; and it has, moreover, now-
adays something of the charm of novelty. Ac-
customed as we are to having our enthusiasms
chilled to the marrow by critics of the school
of M. Scherer; to measuring off merit with
the Vernier, and weighing out praise on the
jeweller’s scales, Mrs. Ritchie’s whole-hearted
admirations are refreshing. They give one,
as it were, the cheery sensation of emerging

'R£comJs or Tannvsox. RUSKXN, Ann Bizowxmo. By
Anne Thackeray Ritchie. Illustrated. New York: Harper
& Brothers.

from a damp cellar into the sunshine. \Ve
have spoken of her special enthusiasm for Rus-
kin. Criticism -— ever impatient of a cult —-
has, we know, been pretty busy picking holes
in the Ruskinian coat; and artists especially
(we mean performers, as contradistinguished
from talkers) have spoken disrespectfully of
Mr. Ruskin’s pretensions. But Mrs. Ritchie,
in her fine womanlike enthusiasm, ignores these
carpings ; she accepts her hero in his entirety—
his political economy, his paradoxes, his dithy-
rambic art-criticism, his self-contradictions, his
provoking way of mistaking his own likes and
dislikes for general principles, and the rest.
How much of Mr. Ruskin’s vogue has been
due to his marvellous gift of expression, she
does not stop to consider; and even at this
point, his very stronghold, we remember that
Ruskin has been assailed. Let us turn for
enlightenment to M. Scherer:
“The influence of Carlyle’s mannerism has been
considerable. He has given birth to a whole genera-
tion of writers, disdainful of that manliness of style
which consists in saying things worth saying in the
best way possible, and set above all on the refinements
of the virtuoso, or even the tricks of the charlatan.
Some great talents in England have been ruined in
this deplorable school. Mr. Ruskin ended like Carlyle
himself by passing from the recherche to the bizarre,
and from affectation to mere mystifying. Yet there
are still some who feel themselves strong enough to be
sincere and simple, and they are worth all the more for
it. Mr. Matthew Arnold has, I should think, as many
ideas in his head as Carlyle, and as much poetry in his
soul as Mr. Ruskin, and yet he does not think himself
obliged to speak like a mystagogne.”
How beauty vanishes under the microscope I
But there are many of us, doubtless, who will
prefer being wrong with Mrs. Ritchie to being
right with M. Schcrer in these matters; for
this endless quenching of our beacon-lights,
or, at best, the showing them to be mere can-
dles magnificently refracted in the haze of our
imaginations, carries with it the unpleasant
consequence of making us uncomfortable, and
the disastrous one of wrecking our faith in hu-
man performance.
Such was our author’s preconceived ideal of
Mr. Ruskin that she confesses she was shocked,
on visiting him at Coniston, to find that he
had an umbrella .-
" I remember noticing, with a thrill, the umbrella-
stand in the glass door. So Mr. Ruskin had an um-
brella just like other people! "
We admit that an umbrella is not a poetical
object, nor is it at any time a fit emblem of
the Muse. There is, too, some inconsistency
in a man’s blotting the face of Nature with one,
and at the same time railing at factories, rail-


340 THE
DIAL [Dee 1.
ways, etc., on the ground of their defacing the
landscape, as Mr. Ruskin has done. But what
man lives out his ideals, or is a hero to his
valet, or does not reverse the glass when he
views his own shortcomings? The world is full
of these disparities (as Mrs. Ritchie’s father
never tired of telling us), of this lack of corres-
pondence between the hero as we paint him
and the hero as he is ; and everywhere in life
“ (lu sublime au ridicule il n’y a qu’un pas.”
“ Even in the highest pathos of the World
Tragedy,” says Heine, “bits of fun slip in.
The desperate republican who, like Brutus,
plunged a knife to his heart, perhaps smelt it
first to see whether someone had not split a
herring with it,-- and on this great stage of
the world all passes exactly the same as on our
beggarly boards.” Caesar, we know, wore paint
and false curls, Alexander had a crick in his
neck, eloquent Gibbon was so fat that he could
11ot rise from his knees after telling “love’s
flattering tale,” Doctor Johnson wore foul linen,
the Queen of Scots wore a wig, Mr. Kipling
wears spectacles, and Mr. Ruskin carries an
rimbrella. “ Such is the excellent foppery of
the world. ” We were ourselves once shocked
to find an eminent, almost a saintly, man whom
we had revered from afar, wearing a green
plush waistcoat with glass buttons.
_But Mrs. Ritchie is not of the school that
sees nothing in the sun but his spots. There
is one anecdote of Mr. Ruskin—-to us pain-
ful, and hinting at sensibility gone mad—
which she tells in an implicit way, almost ar-
guing a lack of humor:
“Another legend, which I cannot vouch for either,
but which seems suitable somehow, begins with a.
dream, in which Ruskin dreamt himself a Fr-nn'ciscan
friar. Now I am told that when he was at Rome there
was a beggar on the steps of the Pincio who begged of
Mr. Ruskin every day as he passed, and who always
received something. On one occasion the grateful heg-
gar suddenly caught the outstretched hand and kissed
it. Mr. Ruskin stopped short, drew his hand hastily
away, and then with a sudden impulse, bending for-
ward, kissed the beggar’s check. The next day the
man came to Mr. Ruskin’s lodging to find him, bring-
ing a gift, which he offered with tears in his eyes. It
was n. relic, he said, a shred of brown cloth which had
once formed part of the robe of St. Francis Assisi,
where he beheld those frescoes by Giotto which seemed
to him more lovely than anything Tintoret himself had
ever produced. I personally should like to believe
that the mendicnnt was St. Francis appearing in the
garb of a beggar to his greutdisciple, to whom also
had been granted the gift of interpreting the voice of
nature.”
To less generous souls than .\Irs. Ritchie's it
will occur that a man who coddles and in-

dulges his emotions to the point of publicly
kissing street beggars, is getting on dangerous
ground.
Our author first saw Mr. Ruskin at the house
of Mrs. John Simon, who, says Ruskin, in the
eleventh chapter of “ Paeterita,” “ in my moth-
er’s old age was her most deeply trusted
friend ” :
“ It was at this lady's house, sitting by the kind hos-
teas of many a year to be, that the writer first saw the
author of ‘Modern Painters,’ while at the other end of
the table Mr. Simon, now Sir John, sat carving, as was
his wont, roast mutton—‘ be it tender and smoking and
juicy’—and dispensing, as is still his wont, trimmings
and oracles and epigrams with every plateful. I
could even now quote some of the words Ruskin spoke
on that sunnner’s evening in Great Cumberland street
and I can see him as he was then almost as plainly as
on the last time that we met. His mood on that first
occasion was one of deep depression, and I can remem-
ber being frightened, as well as absorbed, by his talk.
\Vas he joking? Was he serious? I could hardly
follow what he said then, though now it all seems sim-
ple enough. But good company is like good wine, and
improves by keeping, and let us hope that this applies
to the recipients as well as to the feast itself. Ruskin
seemed less picturesque as a. young man than in his
later days. Perhaps gray waving hair may be more
becoming than darker locks, but the speaking, earnest
eyes must have been the same, as well as the tones of
that delightful voice, with its slightly foreign pronun-
ciation of the r, which seemed so familiar again when
it welcomed us to Coniston long, long years after.
Meeting thus, after fifteen years, I was struck by the
change for the better in him; by the bright, radiant,
sylvan look which 5 man gains by living among woods
and hills and pure breezes.”
Mrs. Ritchie’s second meeting with Ruskin
occurred many years later at Low Bank
Ground, on Coniston Lake, and not far from
his delightful retreat, Brantwood:
“ He, the master of Brantwood, came, as I remem-
ber, dressed with some ceremony, meeting us witlfa
certain old-fashioned courtesy and manner; but he
spoke with his heart, of which the fashion doesn’t
change, happily, from one decade to another; and as he
stood in his tall hat and frock-coat upon the green, the
clouds and drifts came blowing up from every quarter
of heaven, and I can almost see him while he talked
with emphasis and remembrance of that which was
then in both our minds.”
Low Bank Ground is, as we have said, but
a little way from Brantwood, which is approach-
able from it by land or water. “ A dash of
the oars. and you are there," said Ruskin:
" The sun came out between rain clouds as the boat
struck with n hollow crunch against the stones of the
' tiny landing pier. 'I'imoth_v from the farm, who had
come to pilot us, told us �itl| a syinpzitlictic grin that
‘ Ur. l{u.<kin-- ‘ ltooskin, ' I think he called hini— ‘ had
built t’ pier, and set t' stoan himsel,' wi’ the other
gcntlcnivn, but they had to send for t' smith from the
1 village to niukc t' bolts faaster.’ "


1892.]
341
THE DIAL
The house, says Mrs. Ritchie, “ is white, plain,
and comfortable,” a path up a garden of fruit
and flowers, of carnations and strawberries,
not “ unprofitably gay,” serpentining with
bright zig-zags to the lawn in front,— a dwell-
ing planned for sunshine, and sunshine on the
English lakes, smiling out liumidly, for the
most part, between showers, is of a quality so
rare and sweet that it counts for more than in
other places. Close by is Coniston Lake, with
its peaceful vistas and pleasant watery sounds,
the splash of the wavelets, the rustle of the
sedge, the “ lapwing’s solitary cry,” the startled
plunge of water-rat or otter,— of Naiad and
VVater-Nixie, one likes to fancy, for place and
master are propitious. As for Brantwood it-
self, says the author, the brightness,—
“The squareness, and its unaffected eomfortableness,
were, I think, the chief characteristics. You had a gen-
eral impression of solid, old-fashioned furniture,of amber
colored damask curtains and coverings; there were Turn-
ers and other water-color pictures in curly frames upon
the drawing-room walls—a Pront, I think, among them ;
there was a noble Titian in the dining-room, and the
full-length portrait of a child in a blue sash over the
side-board, which has become familiar since then to the
readers of ‘Pneterita’; and most certainly was there
an absence of any of the art-dipthongs and peculiari-
ties Ofr modern taste; only the simplest and most natu-
ral arrangements for the comfort of the inmates and
their guests. Turkey-carpets, steady round-tables, and
above all a sense of cheerful, hospitable kindness,
which seems to be traditional at Brantwood. For
many years past Mrs. Severn has kept her cousin's
house, and welcomed his guests with her own. . . That
evening_the first we spent at Brantwood_the rooms
were lighted by slo� sunset cross-lights from the lake
without. Mrs. Severn sat in her place behind a silver
urn, while the master of the house, with his back to
the window, was dispensing such cheer, spiritual and
temporal, as those who have been his guests will best
realize. Fine wheaten bread, and Scotch cakes in many
a crisp circlet and crescent" (does not the reader know
these same Scotch cakes ?—scones they call them.
N ext to Burns and Sir Walter they are Scotia’s choic-
est fruit), “ and trout from the lake, and strawberries
such as only grow on the Brantwood slopes. Were
these cups of tea only, or cups of fancy, feeling, in-
spiration ? And as we crunched and quaffed, we list-
ened to a certain strain not easily to be described,
changing from its graver first notes to the sweetest
and most charming vibrations.”
There are a number of these familiar home-
pictures, kindly, graphic, characteristic, in
Mrs. Ritchie’s pages.
The paper on the Brownings is thoroughly
delightful, rather more personal than the
others, and showing in its characterizations
many traits of close and delicate observation.
Mrs. Browning, especially, is brought home
to us with a half dozen significant touches
more explicit than chapters of labored analy-


sis from a heavier hand. Says Mrs. Ritchie :
“I dou’t think any girl who had once experienced it
could fail to respond to Mrs. Browning’s motherly
advance. There was something more than kindness in
it; there was an implied interest, equality, and under-
standing which is very difficult to describe and impos-
sible to forget. . . . To the writer's own particular
taste there never will be any more delightful person than
the simple-minded woman of the world, who has seen
enough to know what its praise is all worth, who is sure
enough of her own position to take it for granted, who
is interested in the person she is talking to, and uncon-
scious of anything but a wish to give kindness and at-
tention. This is the impression Mrs. Browning made
upon me from the first moment I ever saw her to the
last. . . . Perhaps all the more vivid is the recollec-
tion of the peaceful home, of the fireside where the logs
are burning while the lady of that kind hearth is estab-
lished in her sofa corner, with her little boy curled up
by her side, the door opening and slmttiug meanwhile
to the quick step of the master of the house, to the life
of the world without as it came to her in her quiet
nook. . . . \Vhether at Florence, at Rome, at Paris,
or in London once more, she seemed to carry her own
atmosphere always, something serious, motherly, abso-
lutely artless, and yet impassioned, noble, and sincere.
I can recall the slight figure in its thin black dress, the
writing apparatus by the sofa, the tiny inkstand, the
quill-nibbed pen_ the unpretentious implements of her
magic. ‘ She was a little woman; she liked little
things,’ Mr. Browning used to say."
And this “little woman” who “loved little
things,” the fond motherand home-keeping
wife, neither a shrill debater nor a clamorous
mover of the previous question nor a seeker to
delve when she should spin, has, nevertheless,
a place with the immortals. Mrs. Ritchie's
pictures of her friend recall Schi]ler’s lines—
" Ehret die Frauen ! sie fiechten nnd weben
Himmlische Rosen ins irdische Leben.”
For with all her genius and her learning—
at eight years old she read Homer in the orig-
inal, “holding her book in one hand and nursing
her doll on the other arm ” — Mrs. Browning
filled the German poet’s tender ideal, blending
in a harmonious whole qualities and acquire-
ments often foolishly thought incompatible.
“ Sure enough of her own position to take it
for granted,” as our author says, her fame is
remote enough from the sorry sort of recogni-
tion that rewards the persistent claimant and
the unwearied scrambler.
A note from Mrs. Ritchie’s diary kept when
she was quite a young girl reads:
"I think Mrs. Browning is the greatest woman I
ever saw in all my life. She is very small, she is brown,
with dark eyes and dead brown hair; she has white
teeth and a. low curious voice; she has a manner full of
charm and kindness; she rarely laughs, but is always
cheerful and smiling; her eyes are very bright. Her
husband is not unlike her. He is short; he is dark,
with a frank, open countenance, long hair, streaked


842
[Dec. 1,
THE DIAL

with gray; he opens his mouth wide when he speaks; he
has white teeth.”
And here the girlish memoranda wander off.
Almost the first time the author recalls Mr.
Browning, he, with Thackeray and Mrs. Bro�n-
ing, was discussing spiritualism:
“ My father was always immensely interested by the
stories told of spiritualism and table-turning, though he
certainly scarcely believed half of them. Mrs. Brown-
ing believed, and Mr. Browning was always irritated
beyond measure, by the subject. I can remember her
voice, a sort of faint, minor chord, as she, lisping the ‘ r ’
a little, uttered her remonstrating ‘Robert!’ and his
loud dominant barytone sweeping away every possible
plea she and my father could make; and then came my
fa.ther’s deliberate notes, which seemed to fall a little
sadly—his voice always sounded a little sad—upon
the rising waves of the discussion.”
Carlyle appears in the Tennysonian notes
occasionally — and once characteristically:
“ It was about this time that Carlyle introduced Sir
-John Simon to Tennyson one night at Bath House, and
made the often-quoted speech, ‘There he sits upon
a dung-heap surrounded by innumerable dead dogs ’;
by which dead dogs he meant ‘(Enone ’.and other Greek
versions and adaptations. He had said the same
thing of Landor and his Hellenics. ‘I was told of
this,’ said Lord Tennyson, ‘and sometime afterward
repeated it to Carlyle: " I'm told that is what you say
of me.” He gave a kind of guifaw: " Eh, that wasn’t
a very luminous description of yon, ” he answered/"
Perhaps the best compliment Tennyson ever
received, thinks Mrs. Ritchie, was one day
when walking in Covent Garden, when he was
stopped by a rough-looking man, who held
out his hand and said: “You’re Mr. Tenny-
son. Look here, sir, here am I. I’ve been
drunk for six days out of the seven, but if you
will shake me by the hand, I’m d—d if I ever
get drunk again.” Let us hope the “ record-
ing angel” was as lenient here as on another
memorable occasion. - A less appreciative ad-
mirer was the Freshwater boy who, being asked
“ if he knew Mr. Tennyson,” replied, vaguely
but confidently, “ Yes, he makes poets for the
Queen.” “ lvhat do you mean?” asked the
amused questioner. “ I don’t know what they
means, but p’liceman often seeln him walking
about a-making of ’em under the stars.” Per-
haps the boy spoke wiser than he knew; for
“ Mr. Tennyson ” has, in a sense, made poets
—sou|etimes, we fear, without much ground
for rejoicing in his handiwqrk.
Before tak'iug leave of Mrs. Ritchie’s read-
zable volume, a word of praise for its mate-
rial features should be added. Holiday buyers,
-especially, will note its combined attractions of
good paper, good print. tasteful binding, and
sound, artistic illustration.. E_ G_ _;_

A I“0R'1‘UNA'1‘E OLD AUTn0R.*

Before me are two editions of Jane Austen’s
works. One offers a chaste elegance of silver
gray shot with hints of green with gold letter-
ing, the other is brave in motley green and red-
aud-gold, and has a solid backing of dark red
leather. It is hard to choose between the let-
terpress, where both editions are so admirable.
One edition is from the press of Messrs. Mac-
millan & Co., the other from that of Messrs.
Roberts Brothers.
I have a fancy that Miss Austen would be
vastly pleased with any of these charming
books. They well fit the daintiness, the unerr-
ing and unobtrusive good taste, that are distin-
guishing characteristics of her work. A strange
fate has been hers! She wrote to a cold au-
dience, sometimes fit, always few. So little
was she admired in her lifetime, that her
nephew could say: “ Sometimes a friend or
neighbor . would condescend to speak
with moderate approbation of ‘ Sense and Sen-
sibility,’ or ‘Pride and Prejudice’; but if
they had known that we in our inmost secret
thoughts classed her with Madame d’Arblay
or Miss Edgeworth, or even with some other
novel-writers of the day whose names are now
scarcely remembered, they would have consid-
ered it an amusing instance of family conceit I ”
“Northanger Abbey” was sold to a Bath
publisher for fifty dollars; and having bought
the MS., the Bath publisher was afraid to pub-
lish what seemed to him such unsalable ware,
and, in the end, Miss Austen bought it back.
For “Sense and Sensibility ” she received less
than a hundred and fifty pounds, which she nev-
ertheless regarded as a “prodigious recom-
pense ! ” It is true that certain distinguished
critics spoke warmly of her, but, in general,
she seemed to have as fair a chance of gently
slipping down to oblivion as any writer of the
day.
Her work is so unlike any other work of her
generation, so out of reach of the taste of the
times, so devoid of vivid action and even vivid
emotion, and of that vigor that comes from the
use of vigorous motives, that it would seem
beyond hoping that, in a hundred years from
the time of her beginning to write her books.
they should be studied patiently enough to re-
"JAns Aus'r1=:n‘s Novnns. Bdited b3i.R. B. Johnson. In
ten volumes, illustrated. New York : Macmillan &'. Co.
JANE At7s'rsr<"s Novena. In twelve volumes. illustrated.
Boston: Roberts Brothers.
Tun S-roar or Jane Aus'rsn’s LIFE-
Adams. Chicago: A. C. l\lcCl\u-g & C0.

By Oscar Fay


1892.]
THE DIAL
343

veal their own exquisite merits, and that at
this distant day she should have a greater au-
dience than she had during her life. Yet this
it is that has happened. The truest picture of
every-day life in the early part of the century,
just because it is the truest, has been studied
with an ever-increasing delight. And there are
some things very modern about her, so com-
monly styled “ the prim Jane Austen.” She
has our aim, to see life truly if we may not
see it whole. Her range is narrow, but not so
her vision; she enlightens every corner. Her
people are commonplace, but they are alive.
The meek little homesick Fanny Price (she
has no more finery about the names of her
heroines than she has about their characters),
Elizabeth Bennett, with her quick eye and sharp
tongue and warm heart, Emma and Knighton,
the soft little Charlotte, the unprincipled Lady
Susan and sweet Anne Eliot,— do we not give
them the same regard or criticism that we keep
for our acquaintances in the flesh? Perhaps,
if one felt in a carping mood, one might send
Lady Susan out of the gallery, for she really
is the frankest of dissemblers, and dissects her
arts for the admiration of her correspondent
rather too much in the fashion of Richardson’s
great villain. But there is no flaw of this
kind in Emma or Anne, or in good Mrs. Ad-
miral Cox, who saves her husband, one is per-
suaded, just as skilfully in his course through
the business of life as she does from the posts
when he (and she) drive the gig!
In one way Miss Austen is certainly “ prim.”
She wrote only of the people and the afi"airs
that she knew ; and the people that she knew
valued appearance. She was expected by the
manners of her time to range herself on the
side of her virtuous characters, as well as to de-
clare for Virtue itself. And, being a conscien-
tious and “ high-principled ” woman, she faith-
fully did her duty in this respect. But the
spirit of humor is not so easily banished ; al-
though J aue Austen was expected to talk like
a prig and make her heroes do likewise, she is
all the time smiling at her own or her charac-
ters’ priggishness. It is too harsh to call her
cynical, but, having the keeuest sense of the in-
congruous, she smiles rather than weeps over
folly.
In her earliest novels there is a serene ab-
sence of pathos, and, indeed, to the end she
does not take the tearful joy that some of us
moderns display in the minor chords. Yet
there is atrue pathos, as deep as it is unaf-
fected, in Anne Eliot's speech to Harvill in

“ Persuasion ” : “ God forbid that I should un-
dervalue the warm and faithful feelings of any
of my fellow-creatures. . . . No, I believe you
capable of everything great and good in your
married lives. I believe you equal to every
important exertion and to every domestic for-
bearance, so long as —- if I may be allowed the
expression—so long as you have an object.
I mean while the woman you love lives, and-
lives for you. All the privileges I claim for
my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you
need not covet it) is that of loving longest
when existence or when hope is gone.”
There is a deeper note in her last stories,
“ Persuasion ” and “ Emma ” and “ Mansfield
Park,” than in the earlier books, which run
smoothly, as, indeed, life among prosperous
and well-bred people is likely to run. What
a pathetic figure is poor, harmless, silly Miss
Bates! And there is a real and affecting touch
in the joy of Sir Thomas Bertram to reach the
home where his arrival creates only dismay!
But the abiding impression left is not of sad-
ness or sympathy, but a very quiet, sly humor.
It is not unkind, but it is amazingly keen.
Take, for instance, the description of Robert
Ferrar, whose “ face expressed a strong, nat-
ural, sterling insignificance,” or of the Mor-
land family: “ A family of ten children will
always be called a fine family where there are
heads and arms and legs enough for the num-
ber, but the Morlands had little other right to
the word, for they were in general very plain.”
This spontaneous and placid humor that
found its meat everywhere, must have been one
of the fortunate circumstances of Miss Austen’s
life. It was as active in her letters and in her
familiar intercourse as in her books; it gave
herself and her nearest friends pleasure as long
as she lived. Her nieces and nephews adored
her, because she was not only always kind but
always amusing. Perhaps her sense of humor
helped her as much as her principles to never
intrude her own concerns, and to be always in-
terested in the concerns of others. All the tes-
timony agrees that, particularly in her family
circle, she was unselfish in little things and in
great. After her funeral, “ her brothers,” says
the youngest mourner there, “ went back, sor-
rowiug, to their several homes. They were
very fond of her and very proud of her. They
were attached to her by her talents, her virtues,
and her engaging manners; and each loved
afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some niece
or daughter of his own to the dear sister Jane
whose perfect equal they never expected to see.”


344
[Dec. 1,
THE DIAL
Very dear all her life was this affection to
Jane, very dear also the success of her bro-
thers in the world, for there is no denying
that she valued prosperity and success. \Vhy
should she not, being a sensible rather than a
spiritual woman‘? Though she was unselfish
and there was a strain of unobtrusive heroism
in her patience, she had an honest relish for
the good things of the world,—— a good dinner,
with a glass of orange wine, a pretty gown, a
good position in the world, the fond admira-
tion of kindred and friends, the consideration
of the neighbors. And she soundly hated
evangelicalism! She lived in a tumultuous
time, when moral and social problems were
fighting to the death, and all Europe was at
war. But never a breath from the savagery
outside disturbs her peaceful drawing-rooms.
She has left some admirable and spirited por-
traits of naval ofiicers,-— but her brothers were
in the navy. It is not to be inferred that she
was not patriotic, was not interested in public
events, only that she lived out of range of them.
It was her inflexible principle to write only
about what she understood.
Two other omissions have struck me in her
work. She describes almost no characters in
humble life, and she has almost nothing to say
of the scenery through which her gentle stream
of narrative meanders. Mr. Oscar Fay Adams,
whose Story of Jane Austen’s Life is the best of
the later biographies, will have it that she loved
nature, but her theory of art forbade her pans-
ing to describe it, lest thus the story be impeded.
It is, however, likely that a love for nature as
strong as Scott's, let us say, would have con-
quered a place for its expression, just as his
did. Her love for nature, one suspects, was
like her religious principles, sincere but not ex-
uberant. She had, indeed, none of that irri-
table sensitiveness that is at once the torment
and the glory of the poetic artist. The hap-
pier, she!
What was given her to do, what she under-
stood how to do, she did with the infinite pa-
tience and the infinite skill of an inspiration
that is the offspring of an unwearying obser-
vation. In her own field she is never likely
to be surpassed. Therein again she is fortu-
nate. And to sum it all up, how fortunate is
the human being of whom it can be said that
the praise on his tombstone is just! In truth,
we may echo her epitaph, for “ she opened her
mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue was the
law of kindness.”
OCTAVE THAN]-IT.

IKECENT BOOKS OF 1'01-ITR\'.*

Lord Tennyson’s posthumous volume— the
last new volume bearing his beloved name that
the world will ever welcome —sets a worthy
crown upon the glorious achievement of over
sixty years. Again we may say, as of each of
its recent predecessors, that the voice speaking
from its pages,
“ Grown now to godlike — neither old nor young —
Rings through the world in an immortal prime."
lve shall but slowly learn to comprehend
exactly what it is to greet the appearance of
the poet’s last volume. Since 1850 and “ In
Memoriam,” no period of five years has passed
without bringing some rich new gift of song
from the master’s hand. Few men now living
are old enough to remember a time when the
name of Tennyson was not the central name of
English poetry, when the appearance of _a new
volume of his verse was not certain to eclipse
all other literary events. This last of all pos-
sible new volumes reminds us, indeed, that we
have seen “ the extinction of one of those bea-
con-lights of humanity which often remain
nnkindled for generations, and, when extin-
guished, leave as long a darkness behind them.”
How long and ho� black the darkness left be-
hind we shall gradually come to know ; we can-
not realize it yet.
The contents of this volume will, we think,
come to rank nearly or quite as high as those
of the “Tiresias ” and “ Demeter” volumes;
that is, with the very noblest work of the poet.
We can only glance at these contents within
our present limits. The graceful dedication
of the volume to one unnamed but unmistak-
able is followed by an equally graceful dedica-
tion to Professor Jowett of “The Death of
(Enone,” which is given the place of honor.
This poem, which at once takes its place with
the classical idyls, from the earlier “ (Enone ”
to “Demeter and Persephone,” that star the
poet’s long track, is followed by “ St. Telema-
chns,” a wonderful piece of blank verse which
tells how the Eastern anchorite, called to Rome
by a vision, died in the arena, and, by his

‘Tris DEATH or (1-Ixonn, Akbar's Dream, and Other
Poems. By Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate. New
York : Macmillan & Co.
Ar SUNDOWN. By John Greenleaf Whittier.
Houghton, Mifflin dz Co.
Fnom HEABT'B Corrrszrr. By Clam Doty Bates.
cago: Morrill, Higgins & Co.
Vaumu, and Other Poems. By Harriet Monroe. Chi-
cago: A. C. McClur-g & Co.
Euznsis. and Lesser Poems. By William Rufus Perkins.
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & C0.
Boston :
Chi-


1892.]
345
death, put an end to the gladiatorial combats.
The following passage will always stand as one
of the noblest examples of Tennysonian blank
verse I
“ And once a flight of shadowy fighters erost
The disk, and once, he thought, n shape with wings
Came sweeping by him, and pointed to the West,
And at his ear he heard a whisper ‘ Rome,’
And in his heart he cried ‘ The call of God ! '
And call’d arose, and, slowly plunging down
Thro’ that disastrous glory, set his face
By waste and field and town of alien tongue,
Following a hundred sunsets, and the sphere
Of westward-wheeling stars ; and every dawn
Struck from him his own shadow on to Rome."
“ Akbar’s Dream,” the longest of the poems,
is based upon the life of the great Mogul em-
peror, who seems to have been a Marcus Aure-
lius of the East. The poem is in blank verse,
and is mainly cast in the form of amonologue, ,
in which the speaker makes eloquent defense
of the policy of religious tole!-ation of which he
was afterwards the martyr. “The Bandit’s
Death ” and “Charity” are two ballads of
great beauty, the former having almost the
dramatic intensity of “ Rizpah,” the poet’s ac-
knowledged masterpiece in this kind. In '-‘ The
Church-lvarden and the Curate,” the poet has
once more made use of the Lincolnshire dia-
lect, and the experiment is no less successful
than formerly. “ Mechanophilus,” a short
poem suggested by the introduction of the rail-
way, happily illustrates the poet’s faculty for
shaping to his own uses the triumphs of ma-
terial civilization. A still happier illustration
of the way in which Tennyson always kept in
touch with modern inquiry is provided by the
opening lines of “ St. Telemachus,” the poem
from which we have already quoted:
“ Had the fierce ashes of some fiery peak
Been hurl‘d so high they ranged about the globe 1’ ”
Thus science becomes poetry, and Krakatoa
furnishes the text for a tale of the early Chris-
tians. “Rifiemen Form” is a stirring lyric
written as long ago as 1859, and here pub-
lished by request. “ The Bee and the Flower ”
is already