scences who have con-
tributed information of their own or the result of re-
searches, the debt of the present edition is very great,
for it attempts to summarize the labors of more than
half a century on Shelley's text, and on his biography
so far as the biography is bound up with the text. In
dealing with this whole body of Shelley literature, I
have treated it precisely as I should do in the case of
Shakespeare, thinking that what concerns Shelley be-
longs now to the world, and that contributions made to
our knowledge of him are made for the world's sake."
The Memoir of less than seventy pages is
in every way admirable. Here again the ed-
itor distinguishes himself by what he does not
say. In succinctness it is comparable to Mr.
Leslie Stephen's work in the "Dictionary of
National Biography"; but Mr. Woodberry's
greater freedom as to space gives him an op-
portunity for many descriptive particulars
which add grace and vividness. The only
fault one finds with it is that, like the life it
portrays, it ends too soon. A detailed biog-
raphy of Shelley, written with such taste and
sympathy, is still a desideratum. Mr. Wood-
berry succeeds in giving a very pleasing pic-
ture of the man and of his outward life,— so
far, at least, as so sad a life can be pleasing.
Of literary criticism there is none, and of moral
comment very little. The author is very skil-
ful in making the facts, and the citations from
the biographical material left by Shelley's
friends, speak for themselves, and in evoking
from the bare narrative an impression of the
man's character. For the poet's literary his-
tory, the reader is referred to the citations from
his correspondence in the Notes.
All in all, this may safely be pronounced the
best edition of the great poet, both for the stu-
dent and the general reader. No introduction
to Shelley's life has yet been produced to which
there is, on the whole, so little to object as to
the Memoir here offered. It is calculated to
draw men to the poet, and thus to be of great
use to the world. Mr. Woodberry hints in
the preface that "notes upon the sources of
the poems, or in illustration or criticism of
them," may yet "be furnished in a separate
publication." Why should not such notes be
embodied in a future issue of the work itself?
And why not subjoin to the Memoir, after the
excellent fashion of the French, an essay char-
acterizing and interpreting the chief works of
Shelley, and defining his genius in its great-
ness and its limitations? Such an essay would
be most helpful, especially to younger readers,
and to many others whose eyes dazzle and
whose heads reel in the bright altitudes to
which Shelley bears them. And such an es-
say no one is more capable of writing than Mr.
Woodberry.
The production of this admirable edition at
this time is a most auspicious sign of renewed in-
terest in a poet to whom neither the critics nor
the reading public have yet done justice. His
life and work were fragmentary and incomplete
indeed, but not therefore ineffectual, as Arnold
thought. The proper symbol of this life and
work is not a truncated cone, but a blasted and
broken tree. The growth of his character was
continuous at the base as well as at the top.
No other poet, not even Shakespeare, dying be-
fore the age of thirty, would have left so many
titles to admiration. It is his glory to have
surpassed the " highest reaches " of other poets
in the attempt to express
"One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest."
Melville B. Anderson.
Ireland Stanford Jr. University.
Some Reconciliations of Faith
and Reason.*
There are many things marvellous in our
time, yet hardly anything is more marvellous,
as indicating the activity and freedom of
thought, than that six books from such remote
sources as those whose titles are given below,
with such largeness and liberty of inquiry and
so permeated with spiritual insight, should
offer themselves at the same instant for our
consideration. Such a fact shows that the
skeptical and critical temper which so often
disturbs us has no more uprooting power
among the sturdy products of faith than has
the wind that makes itself audible by virtue of
the withered leaves that linger on the trees of
a forest, ready shortly to break out every-
where in fresh life.
"The Coming Religion," by Thomas Van
* The Coming Religion. By Thomas Van Ness. Bos-
ton: Roberts Brothers.
The Genesis and Growth of Religion. By the Rev.
S. H. Kellogg, D.D. New York: Macmillan & Co.
The Gospel of Life : Thoughts introductory to the Study
of Christian Doctrine. By Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D.,
Bishop of Durham. New York: Macmillan & Co.
The Distinctive Messages of the old Religions. By
the Rev. George Matheson, M.A., D.D. London: Black-
wood & Sons.
Guide to the Knowledge of God. By A. Gratry, Pro-
fessor of Moral Theology at the Sorbonne. Boston: Roberts
Brothers.
Some Lights of Science on the Faith. By Alfred Barry,
D.D., D.C.L. New York: Longmans, Green, & Co.


1893.]
247
THE DIAL
Ness, has a very clear, definite, and practical
purpose. It is conceived in an earnest and
liberal spirit, and is addressed to a class of
minds that share a like temper. We wish it
much success. It endeavors to show how the
religion of Jesus, the religion of science, and
the religion of humanity coalesce in a wider
faith, and how in this faith they bring to each
other mutual correction and enlargement. The
purpose of the author is popular, not critical,
and we make, therefore, no objection to his use
of the word religion in a sense otherwise
scarcely admissible. The drift of his thought
seems to us sound and invigorating. It is pre-
cisely that which the great diversity, and at the
same time narrowness, of our religious beliefs
demand. We unite with the desire of the au-
thor, that some "new hope and trust" may be
called forth by the wider, more stimulating
outlook which this presentation involves.
Looking at the book on the critical side, we
find points of difficulty. The author affirms,
as if it were a necessary and undoubted truth,
the capricious character of the miracle. If the
miracle is capricious, it certainly must disap-
pear from our faith. It has often been offered
and urged in a very capricious form, and has,
in this form, been rejected by more thoughtful
minds. We do not see, however, that the mir-
acle is necessarily capricious. It necessarily
transcends some physical dependence or law,
but the affirmation that the universe is, in its
inner and rational force, wholly contained
within and bound to its physical terms, seems
to us an arbitrary, that is, a capricious, asser-
tion. We do not read the spiritual, rational
world, in which man is the most significant and
best known term, in this way. We interpret
the Larger Reason by the less large, and so
rendered, reason swells like an ocean within
its physical shores, but is not wholly confined
to those shores. In long periods and wide re-
lations, it makes its shores rather than is made
by them.
"The Genesis and Growth of Religion " is
a course of eight lectures given at Princeton
Theological Seminary. The first lecture is oc-
cupied with a definition of religion, and the
next three with controverting the doctrine of
evolution in religion in the forms offered by
Tiele, Spencer, and Max Miiller. The last
four lectures discuss the author's own view of
the genesis of religion. His conclusions lie
well within later orthodox limits.
"The great unique phenomenon of the Hebrew mon-
otheism, as a conquering power through the ages, is in-
explicable and unaccountable on merely natural grounds.
... It only receives a satisfying explanation when it
is recognized as due, even as the Holy Scriptures con-
tinually assert, to the supernatural grace and special
providence of the one living God, working redemp-
tively in history through chosen individuals of a chosen
race and nation, for the final deliverence of our fallen
nature from the supremacy of sin and the dominion of
the curse" (p. 274).
The method of discussion is fair, thorough, and
instructive. Nothing is set aside by mere au-
thority. The author finds the occasion of re-
ligion in the natural endowments of man, and
in the manner in which these have been called
out by a divine revelation. He holds that our
first parents, closely as they may have been
united by physical descent to previous forms
of life, were not, on the intellectual side, of a
debased and intermediate order of being; that
the primitive state in spiritual development was
one of a relatively pure theism, and that the su-
perstitions which, in later times, have been prev-
alent among men have arisen by degeneracy.
The facts deduced to support these conclusions
are especially significant. He regards the law
or tendency in religious movement to be from
a purer to a less pure faith,— the reverse of
that indicated by simple evolution,— and that
the ground so lost by the race has been recov-
ered only by divine intervention.
This view certainly involves extensive and
important facts not sufficiently considered in
the ordinary presentation of religion as a purely
spiritual development. If there has been ad-
vance in faith, retrogression is an equally con-
spicuous and more universal fact. The con-
clusion of our author seems, however, an ex-
treme one, like that to which he opposes it.
Steady progression is not involved in a theory
of development cautiously put. Progress in
civilization, in civil liberty, in art, has been
made by a succession of higher positions, each
attained in a different place and by a distinct
people, and each accompanied by a marked de-
cline. Does not evolution involve this very
idea of a succession of varieties enclosed by
other varieties less fortunate than themselves,
and all giving place in turn to any higher man-
ifestation? Decline and disappearance are in
evolution the correlatives of growth.
The author staunchly, and, as it seems to us,
correctly, asserts the inherent capacity for re-
ligious truth in the human mind. But if man
is possessed of fitting powers, and if the world
in its physical and spiritual formation appeals
as a reciprocal fact to these powers, then re-
ligious development becomes a kind of neces-


248
[April 16,
THE
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sity. Indeed, without this inherence of faith
in the world itself any supernatural calling out
of faith must he fitful and ineffective. Our
Lord says in the parable of Lazarus: If they
hear not Moses and the prophets neither will
they be persuaded if one rose from the dead.
Any supernatural aid, to be in the least de-
gree successful, must be deeply grounded in
and thoroughly concurrent with the natural.
The third volume, that of Bishop Westcott,
is a product of one of those rich, productive
minds with which it is good to be in commun-
ion quite aside from the immediate conclusions
enforced. The spirit of the work is suffi-
ciently indicated by these words from the pre-
face: "There can be no opposition between
Reason and Faith. If Reason is the energy
of the sum of man's highest powers — of his
true self—then Faith is the highest energy of
Reason" (p. xx.). The book gives "the sub-
stance of lectures " which were rendered for a
long period at Cambridge. The general plan
of the work is a statement of the problems of
life as we find them in our own experience;
the conditions under which we resolve these
problems; the solutions given to them prior to
Christianity; the solution of Christianity and
the considerations which commend it. The dis-
cussion allows full scope to that wise, wide,
penetrative, and candid temper which belongs
to the Bishop of Durham. The book is too
comprehensive and full of material to be
handled advantageously in a brief notice. The
most and best which such a notice can do, is to
commend it to perusal and study.
A characteristic feature of the work is the
catholic spirit with which it recognizes the one-
ness of religious truth everywhere, the essen-
tial universality of the spiritual movement of
the race, and, united with it, a strong assertion
of the supernatural character of Christianity.
"It must take account of the totality of life by which
all the parts of creation are united in a mutual, though
dimly seen, interdependence. And thus we come at
last to a general notion of its office to reconcile, to dis-
cipline, to hallow" (p. 98).
"The religious history of the world is the very soul
of history; and it speaks to the soul" (p. 100).
"In the case of fictitious revelations, it is possible to
find an explanation of their origin and acceptance in
the circumstances under which they were received. In
the revelations of which the Bible is the record, we
maintain that such an explanation is impossible. In
this case there is indeed a divine fitness which connects
every revelation of God with the circumstances under
which it is given; but the circumstances do not pro-
duce, nor have they even a tendency to produce, the
revelation of which they are the condition " (p. 110).
We believe that there is in this attitude a touch
of the error to which we have previously ad-
verted. To magnify the supernatural element
in Christianity, in contrast with the natural ele-
ment, is not to uncover the interior power of
divine truth, but to hide it. The natural, and
the natural alone, discloses the hold of the di-
vine thought on the entire world, structurally
and historically.
"The Distinctive Messages of the Old Re-
ligions " is a book like and unlike the one just
noticed. It is like it in liberality of temper,
in seeking in the great forms of religious faith
more just impulses, and in reconciling the relig-
ious history of the world with itself by means
of the fuller expression of these points of van-
tage in Christianity. It is unlike it in being
wrought out under a bold, elastic, theoretical
method. It is historical in general form, but
has very little of the cautious, accumulative
manner of presentation which belongs to a
truly empirical inquiry.
The author uses the words which contain his
theory in so unhesitating, and yet in so loose,
a way as to make almost any conclusion possi-
ble to him. His theories have the vagueness
and mobility of clouds taking on new forms be-
fore we have at all grasped the old ones. This
drawback is present in so extreme a form as
greatly to mar the value of the work. This
fault of method is illustrated in the following
passages:
"I think it will be found that the distinction between
a poetic and a prosaic statement lies essentially in one
principle — incarnation. The definition I would assign
to poetry is the 'incarnation of truth.' The poet gives
to every thought a body. He clothes one thing in the
likeness of another thing" (p. 46).
"As long as you reverence that which is personal
you can no more escape the idea of incarnation than
you can escape your own shadow. It does not mat-
ter where you place the personality; you may lay
it in the heavens above, or you may deposit it in the
depths beneath. Assign it what locality you please, it
is an incarnation still, and an incarnation equally. It
is an incarnation because it is personal" (p. 52).
We do not say there is no underlying truth in
these assertions, but that this truth is so change-
able that we lose it in one form the moment
we gain it in another. In the same spirit the
author says: "No man can aspire to anything
that has not at some time been his." On this
hasty assertion he proceeds at once to unite
Brahmin ism as a faith of aspiration with Chris-
tianity. The entire movement of the work
should be much more sober and patient to be
at all convincing.
We are desirous, in speaking of the volume


1893.]
249
DIAL
entitled "Guide to the Knowledge of God,"sim-
ply to inform the reader of our hasty comment
what he can find in this work. The introduc-
tion, by William R. Alger, assigns the work
and the author a very supreme position. We
have no doubt that many will sympathize with
this very glowing estimate. But we have no
more doubt that many more would form a very
different opinion, and regard what the first
class accept as clear sunlight as scarcely equiv-
alent to moonshine. The author has a very
elevated, active, spiritual temper. His convic-
tions are the overflow of commingled thought
and feeling, and have for him the certainty
which attaches to them in his own experience.
The theodicy which attracts him in the past
is that of those who in a greater or less degree
have shared his intuitive tendency. Plato, St.
Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Pas-
cal, Leibnitz, and many others are dealt with
extendedly.
The work is not modern in its spirit or
method. It walks to its conclusions by long
strides sustained chiefly by the spiritual strength
of its author. We are by no means wholly out
of sympathy with this temper, though it fails
to meet most of the demands of our time, and
becomes at length wearisome. The volume is
a large one. About three-quarters of it is oc-
cupied with a consideration of the theodicies of
the past, and one-quarter with supplementary
matter and an extended discussion of the rela-
tions of reason and faith. Faith is with the
author a fuller, richer, more penetrative rea-
son. Though in giving our quotation, we may
seem to be sampling our building by a single
brick, yet the following passage is so fully per-
meated with the general temper of the work as
to disclose it at once to the intelligent reader:
"Sound reason is that which is not parted from its
source in the soul and in God. The source of reason is
the light itself which God gives. The origin in the
soul of this gift is variously called divine sense, natural
faith, the attraction of the desirable and the intelligible,
the hidden spring. The actual moment, or, if you pre-
fer, the point, at which the natural light of God touches
and solicits the soul,— that point, that moment, that
root, that gift, as you may choose to call it, is the
source of reason. Sound reason is that which is not
parted from this source in the centre of the soul, and
which finds in this faith its orientation, in this hidden
spring its impulse towards truth, and in this divine sense
or contact its assurance" (p. 449).
"Some Lights of Science on the Faith" is
a very thoughtful, able work, written by one
who has deep insight into the physical and
spiritual world. As the theme is difficult and
the style complicated, the book is not, how-
ever, popular. The title is somewhat mislead-
ing. The author does not so much bring sci-
entific knowledge to the illumination of faith,
as point out the consistency of the doctrines of
faith, with some of the leading principles of
science, such as heredity, evolution, the unity
of the race. The later lectures are little more
than a defense of Christian theory against the
conflicting notions of science.
The author, while wisely concessive to the
new methods of thought induced by science, is
thoroughly theological in his own conceptions,
and his own frame of mind; too much so to see
how deep are the inroads of the modern tem-
per on the earlier one. Theology has so long
opposed the supernatural to the natural, has so
grievously misunderstood and disparaged the
natural, that it involves an entire change of
front, on its part, to put the natural in the
foreground, and bring forward the supernat-
ural in support of it, and in subordination to it.
This Dr. Barry does not do. He sees some-
thing of the harmony of the two; but the su-
pernatural with him still leads the natural.
He does not yet fully see that the invisible per-
petually feeds the visible, and is infused in it as
its unfolding life. There must for a long time
remain wide differences between earnest and
able men at this point — the balance in one
whole of natural law and supernatural guid-
ance. We, most of all, need a better defi-
nition of the supernatural. So long as it stands
primarily for the miracle, for overwhelming
and constraining force, the conflict between the
two will remain. When we come to under-
stand by the natural simply causal connection,
and by the supernatural, free spiritual rela-
tions, this disagreement will disappear, and
we shall recognize the supernatural as the true
soul and inner significance of the natural.
Williams College. JOHN BaSCOM.
The Ethics of Evolution.*
The signs of the times everywhere indicate
constantly increasing activity in the direction
of Evolutionary literature. The first period of
springtide preparation is over, and unless we
are much mistaken the immediate future will
bring with it a full harvest of miscellaneous
growths ■—■ wheat and tares together. Of the
vast number of publications which we may thus
* A Review of the Systems of Ethics founded on the
Theory of Evolution. By C. M. Williamg. New York:
Macmillan & Co.


250
[April 16,
THE
DIAL
expect to issue from the press during the next
few years, the large majority will doubtless
belong to a class which might very well be
spared. Taking the development theory, now
universally accepted though by no means uni-
versally understood, as their point of depart-
ure, these, we foresee, will devote themselves
to the chivalrous charge of making that theory
fit down upon the special doctrines of the
older theologies, and of proving, by analogy
rather than by argument, that those doctrines
implied and demanded the principles of Evo-
lution long before the days of Darwin and
Spencer. The world has often enough before
seen similar efforts on the part of the old
thought to claim the new thought as its own
— when the new thought is too strong to be
gainsaid; and if we should be called upon
to pass through another such period of at-
tempted readjustment, it is only what history
would lead us to anticipate. A few works only
will reveal an unbiased and scientific desire to
trace the great laws of Evolution, without re-
gard to any preconceived theories whatsoever,
into their broader applications to sociology,
morality, and religion.
It is just to state at once that the volume be-
fore us, Mr. C. M. Williams's "A Review of
the Systems of Ethics," belongs to this small
latter class. That Mr. Williams has thrown
any fresh or very strong light upon the ques-
tions of which he treats, can hardly perhaps
be said. But at least he writes with thor-
ough knowledge of the bases of Evolution,
and of the theories of its leading exponents;
at least he brings to his undertaking clear in-
telligence, calm judgment, and that single eye
for truth which is the best endowment of the
scientific spirit. The result of his labors, there-
fore, may be taken as a sound and acceptable
contribution to the literature of a subject, the
immediate and far-reaching importance of which
is now no longer at issue.
The work, which is a bulky one, falls into
two divisions; the first, exigetical, the second,
original and constructive. In Part I., Mr.
Williams sets his hand to the enormously dif-
ficult task of summarizing the opinions and
conclusions of the most important writers
already in the field. More than 250 pages
are thus devoted to an exposition (which is an
exposition merely and not a criticism) of the
ethical doctrines of Darwin, Wallace, fiaeckel,
Spencer, Fiske, Rolph, Barratt, Stephen, Car-
neri, Hoffding, Gizycki, Alexander, and Ree.
A compendium of this kind is a terrible tax
on any author's powers of concentration and
interpretation; and consisting as it necessar-
ily does, of a long series of the closest lines of
argument, given in their tersest and most ab-
stract forms, with few illustrations and no ex-
pansions, it imposes an equal strain upon the
courage and attention of the reader. No such
epitome can in the nature of things ever take the
place of the works themselves; and any student
who should rashly turn to these pages in the hope
of finding a quick road to familiarity with the
teachings of the great Evolutionary apostles,
would not go far before realizing that in this
case the shortest way round is likely to prove
a very thorny and nigged way home. Still,
for the purposes which Mr. Williams had in
view, the work was worth attempting, and the
synopses may be used with advantage by those
who, already well grounded in such literature,
desire simply to refresh themselves as to the
main lines of Evolutionary thought. Judging
from the outlines given of the works of authors
whom we ourselves know best, we should say
that the undertaking has been accomplished
with great judgment and no little skill. How
comprehensive it is made within the narrow
limits necessarily imposed, is shown by the
fact that in the forty-eight pages assigned to
Mr. Spencer's ethical theories, besides the
whole first volume of the "Principles of
Ethics," with the part on "Justice," are in-
cluded " Social Statics," and the most weighty
of the author's essays dealing with the ques-
tions of morality.
Having thus gone over the ground covered
by his forerunners, Mr. Williams proceeds, in
Part II., to his own work of construction. A
careful introductory discussion of the concepts
of Evolution deals particularly with the " broad-
ening process" which these concepts have un-
dergone since Darwin first brought them be-
fore the world. Here we are at once made
aware of Mr. Williams's praiseworthy anxiety
(afterwards frequently re-illustrated through-
out the book) to sound in every case the defin-
ite scientific meanings of the terms employed.
It is difficult for even clear-headed students to
appreciate the confusion constantly introduced
into questions of this kind by the apparently
almost unavoidable tendency shown by our best-
chosen vocabularies to take a metaphysical col-
oring. Mr. Williams has a healthy horror of
metaphysics; but while striving throughout to
keep well upon the solid ground of science, he
is equally alive to a tendency in science itself
which is fraught with scarcely less danger —


1893.]
251
THE
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the tendency, namely, to select certain import-
ant factors in natural processes, and by exclu-
sive attention to these, to raise them unwit-
tingly into a position of artificial prominence.
To choose between the organism and the en-
vironment, and to treat one as a positive, the
other as a negative factor, "one as active, the
other as passive, one as independent, the other
as dependent, one as invariable, the other as
alone variable," is, as he very properly main-
tains, in dealing with the question of "pro-
gressive heredity," to make a purely arbitrary
division. The following paragraph contains
suggestions which, while they could at no
period of scientific thought be altogether inap-
propriate, have perhaps a special timeliness
just now.
"In dealing with the complexity of nature, whether
mathematically or logically, we cannot grasp all factors
at once, and so are obliged to regard some sides to the
exclusion of others, to disregard the variable and de-
pendent nature of some factors in the consideration of
that of others. The method is useful as well as neces-
sary . . . ; but we are too apt to forget that we are
dealing with half-truths, devices of reason, and come
to regard them as whole truths. Thus the abstraction
of Natural Selection is too often elevated to a separate
entity, a particular power residing in the environment
as such. It is, on the contrary, a mere fiction, a de-
vice for assisting our comprehension of complex action
and re-action" (p. 305).
This gives us the key-note of a warning which
Mr. Williams says has "to be kept in mind in
our future investigations; we are apt to take
our analyses for the syntheses of nature."
Realization of the dangers of these two ten-
dencies helps Mr. Williams to avoid many pit-
falls in the following discussions of "Intelli-
gence and End," "The Will," and » The Mu-
tual Relations of Thought, Feeling, and the
Will in Evolution." The first of these chap-
ters takes into consideration the various aspects
of the question as to the possibility of finding
with any approach to certainty a " limit-line"
to reason in animal life, and includes an ex-
amination of some of the teleological theories
which have grown out of, or have been grafted
upon, the doctrine of Evolution. It is too late
in the day to look for any new revelation on
the time-worn subject of the freedom of the
will, which has surely given rise to more waste
of intellectual energy and the production of
more argumentative futility than any other
question that has ever bewildered the mortal
mind. Yet no small credit is due to Mr. Wil-
liams in that he has endeavored to look at this
subject directly, with a steady vision, unob-
scured by the thick clouds of subtle but mean-
ingless dialectics by which metaphysicians have
so long befogged the issues involved. The
pages given up to this discussion yield us illus-
trations, among the best in the volume, of clear
scientific method, and the application of Evo-
lutionary principles to the various aspects of
the problem is followed by eminently satisfac-
tory results.
We now come into closer touch with ethical
questions properly so-called, and a lengthy
chapter is devoted to the consideration of the
development and inter-relations of egoism and
altruism. Here Mr. Williams does not go
quite so far as we ourselves should wish in the
assertion that altruism is no less primordial
than egoism. In the very lowest forms of life,
activities favoring race-preservation must be-
gin as early as activities favoring self-preser-
vation; and as Mr. Spencer has shown (" Data
of Ethics," chap, xii.), the development of
each has in course of evolution shown increas-
ing dependence on development of the other.
True, however, to his principle not to read
back into sub-human conduct the ideas and
feelings by which we know human conduct to
be accompanied, Mr. Williams treats primitive
activities which postpone the individual to the
species as "prototypes" only of human altru-
ism. Emphasizing the statement of Lubbock
concerning the "irregularity and apparent ca-
price" of mutual assistance among ants, he
maintains that " the implication is that all this
apparent altruism is mere automatism," and
quotes the assertion of Carneri, to which we
suppose no exception can be taken, that "the
assistance reaches exactly so far as is necessary
for the preservation of the species." Yet Mr.
Williams admits that, along with other argu-
ments against automatism, in the inferences to
be drawn from it, it may properly be urged
that "as far as we assume the existence of
consciousness at all in any species or individ-
ual, we must assume pleasure and pain, pleas-
ure in customary function, pain in its hin-
drance"; which means that, as soon as con-
sciousness comes into play, race-subserving
activities must be backed up by pleasure quite
as strongly and consistently as activities sub-
serving the life of the individual. This seems
to us to lie at the root of the matter, so far as
the often-raised question of the "origin " of
altruism is concerned. But as Mr. Williams
rightly points out, the significance of the terms
is progressive; and morever, since the require-
ments of life are somewhat different in different
species, we may suppose that the directions of


252
[April 16,
THE
DIAL
evolution in altruism may vary to some extent
as well.
This carries us forward to the question of
Conscience, which Mr. Williams of course re-
gards as a faculty innate in the modern civil-
ized individual though of gradual acquisition
in the race. Some discussion of the Intu-
itional and Utilitarian systems follows, which
is in the main adequate, though Mr. Williams
does not seem to us to appreciate to the full
the attitude of Mr. Spencer. In the follow-
ing chapter on "The Moral Progress of the
Race as Shown in History," we have a remark-
ably strong plea in favor of the reality of our
advance — a plea not uncalled for at a time
when, along with unprecedented activity to-
wards amelioration in almost every direction,
we are asked to believe that the conditions of
life are on the whole growing harder with
every passing year. The tabulation of facts
concerning the moral development of the great
nations of antiquity especially deserves atten-
tion. Then come the concluding divisions of
the work — a chapter on the " Results of Eth-
ical Inquiry on an Evolutionary Basis," and
one on "The Ideal and the Way of Its At-
tainment."
Has the theory of Evolution added anything
of solid or permanent value to our ideas of
morality? This is a question often asked, not
only by the uninitiated, but even by many who
accept the modern doctrine on its biological
sides. Mr. Williams answers with an em-
phatic affirmative. Indeed, the results wrought
by Evolution in moral theory are even greater
than those which it has brought about else-
where, for the natural sciences already to some
extent recognized the "element of constancy
ordinarily called law," while no ethical system
had as yet taken this element into due account.
Thus Evolution has "unified and clarified the
attempts made to discover a basis for moral
principles, and has rendered that foundation
for the first time secure; it has cleared away,
with one sweep, the rubbish of ancient super-
stition, made exact methods possible, and raised
Ethics to the plane of a Science " (p. 515).
It is true that it has added nothing new or en-
tirely unconnected with previous theory. All
science is an evolution, and in science, as else-
where, the new grows out of the old. "But
Evolution brings with it, nevertheless, a differ-
ence of degree that finally issues in a differ-
ence of mind." This is clearly shown, for ex-
ample, by the relation of its doctrine of the
Moral Sense to the crude statements of the
older Utilitarianism upon the one hand, and to
the transcendental teachings of the orthodox
Intuitionalism upon the other.
In the closing chapter, Mr. Williams takes
for brief consideration a few of the prac-
tical issues of the day. The contest between
individualistic and socialistic methods and
ideals is dealt with, and there is an admirable
exposure of the folly of the ancient but still
serviceable evangel of a " return to nature."
The questions of education, state protection of
children, the condition and prospects of wo-
men, criminal law, and capital punishment are
also touched rapidly, but with firm hand; and
in relation to all such matters of immediate
controversy Mr. Williams argues that —
"The conflict between the principles of justice and
mercy, known to theological ethics, resolves itself, from
a higher point of view, into the question of justice only.
The mercy which is not justice, is either mercy to one
at the expense of others, or mercy that spares the of-
fender in one respect to his own greater disadvantage
in another " (p. 578).
Mr. Williams's conclusions concerning the fu-
ture progress of the race are marked by an un-
flinching, though temperate, optimism. The
spirit of his book is earnest, the style lucid and
often energetic; while here and there the sci-
entific argument is lighted up by flashes of
high enthusiasm which remind us that the au-
thor has brought to his task strong feeling as
well as clear thought.
William H. Hudson.
Ldand Stanford Jr. University.
Briefs ox New Books.
Pro/essor Maui- A THIED edition of Prof. R. G. Moul-
ton's "Shakespeare as a Dramatic
Dramatic Art. Artist" ( Macmillan ), "revised" in
respect of certain changes in the theoretical second
part of the book, and "enlarged " by the analyses
of three additional plays, attests the growing popu-
larity of Professor Moulton's work. Popularity
Professor Moulton's work has always had, but it is
only in recent years that the American public has
had its attention called to it, and has had oppor-
tunity to test its method and results; it is only in
recent years, moreover, if we mistake not, that
vigorous claims have been asserted for this method
as a final and definitive method, and above all, as
a " scientific " method, for the serious teaching and
study of literature. Of the two parts into which
the book is divided, the first, or practical part,
consisting of analysis and commentary on nine of
the plays, is acute, subtle, and brilliant, although
marred by over-insistence upon a new terminology,
emphasized by capital letters, which in the end is


1893.]
253
THE DIAL
presented as the basis of a new "science" of liter-
ary aesthetics. The treatment is eminently sug-
gestive and presents much criticism which is sound,
although clothed in almost too clever a phraseology.
Its interest, however, is largely speculative, like the
interest of the writings of Gervinus, Snider, and
most of the other commentators, and as such can
hardly be regarded as wholesome material or safe
precedent in the study of Shakespeare by untrained
minds. The second, or theoretical portion of the
book, including the introduction on the science of
criticism, while almost altogether polemical, is the
portion which has the greatest "actuality" for
American readers. While this portion also is bril-
liant and suggestive work, it is a strange mixture
of sound ideas and of specious argument. Discus-
sions like those on the central turning points in
Shakespeare's plays, on metrical changes marking
emotional changes, on poetic justice, and on the
supernatural in Shakespeare, are valuable contri-
butions, while the principle of the distinction be-
tween differences in kind and differences in degree
in literature, although not a new discovery, is one
that will bear frequent repetition so long as it is
not forced into unreasonable and mechanical appli-
cations; moreover, the fundamental principle of
dramatic effect as the guiding rule, apart from the
consideration of the unities or other mechanical
restrictions both in the composition and in the in-
terpretation of a drama, is one which has worked
almost a revolution in modern theories of criticism,
and here receives excellent statement. But the
main argument of the introduction in favor of a
so-called inductive science of literary criticism, while
very plausible and brilliant, seems to us based upon
a fundamental misconception, and is throughout in-
fected by a persistent fallacy of analogical reason-
ing. It is too long a question to discuss in this
space, but the gist of the error lies in the inexact
and confused senses in which the words "induct-
ive," " scientific," and similar terms are used. One
of the first rules of the rhetorics is to warn us that
analogy is useful for illustration but not for proof.
In other points we might take issue with Professor
Moulton; for example, in his reading of the history
of criticism, which throughout (it is true that he
has Wordsworth's authority for it) is cited only as
to its failures and black spots. The citations from
Rymer, for example, while admirably telling for
our author's point, do very scant justice to the crit-
ical acumen of that clever writer, who was by no
means Professor Moulton's man of straw or the
mere "simpleton " that Mr. Saintsbury calls him.
Shakespeare's age gave Shakespeare practical ap-
preciation; moreover, critical appreciation was ac-
corded him by Ben Jonson, Milton, Dryden, and
others, although of course in mere passing phrases,
since critiques and reviews were not the fashion of
the day. It would be hard to ask for fuller appre-
ciation than that accorded him in the verses pre-
fixed to the second folio and headed "I. M. S."
The truth is that, as a general rule, only a roman-
tic age will fully appreciate a romantic age, as
doubtless only a classic age fully appreciates a
classic age; and a criticism based on "rules" and
"canons" is usually brilliant in theory but fatuous
in application,— fatuous because perfunctory and
mechanical. —
iw. <md Pk°!- * J- Mclaughlin's " Liter-
methods of Lit- ary Criticism for Students ( Holt) is
trary CrUicUm. & collection of extracts from the best
English critical writers of the last three centuries.
As such it is especially valuable at a time when lit-
erary critics are writing so many criticisms that it
often seems (and for other reasons, too) as if they
had no time to consider carefully what must be the
right bases for such work as they have to do. Such
a tendency, however (if there be one), arises largely
from a current freedom from established authority
in these matters, which has also brought about a
search for such bases more diligent than has here-
tofore been known. There are few nowadays who
defer greatly to the once binding dicta of "the
Stagirite," to "the immortal Vida," or to " the name
of one Boileau." Thus emancipated from leading
strings, there are who criticise on the spur of the
moment as the spirit may chance to move them,
while others sedulously inquire if there be not de-
visable some more perfect system to take the place
of that they have outgrown. For these last there
has appeared in recent years not a little of a char-
acter, sometimes instructive, sometimes stimulating,
and that from all sides. Not only have the pro-
fessed critics of literature propounded views of a
very interesting nature, but suggestive ideas have
appeared in treatises devoted more particularly to
music or to painting. Psychologists too, and even
physiologists, have brought forward a good deal
upon the subject of aesthetics that one cannot afford
to neglect. With such a plentitude of material it
is not unnatural to desire to review the course of
critical opinion in the field of literature, and here
Professor McLaughlin's book is a great help. In-
tended primarily for students, the book is a collec-
tion of extracts from the works of English critics
from Sidney to Pater. With a view to his original
purpose, the editor has prefixed an excellent intro-
duction in which are many good ideas on the study
of literature, and has added also some hints for the
study of the extracts. But the book has also a
wider scope, for on reading it one has a chance to
consider (or reconsider) the opinions of those in
their day most competent to judge of literature.
In such a collection it is of course impossible that
in all cases definite theories of criticism could be
presented; indeed it was sometimes necessary that
the extract should exhibit principles rather by ex-
ample than by precept. One might think that in a
book like this there would be much of purely his-
torical interest. But on the whole such is not the
case for the reason that most of the matters upon
which these judges pronounced have not by any
means come to settlement, even at the present day.
It is still worth while to read Sidney's " Defense of


254
[April 16,
THE
DIAL
Poesy " for his doctrine that the final end of poetry
is the perfection of our nature, just as it is still
worth while to read Addison's exposition of what
constitutes a fine taste for literature. One cannot
in such a hook find everything that one thinks
would be properly there. In this case the chief
omission was rendered necessary by the plan
of the book, which set out to deal only with En-
glish authors. Still it seems as though some way
might have been devised for giving the student
some notion, if only in an appendix, of the critical
method of Taine, not merely because it is an im-
portant factor in the literary criticism of the pres-
ent day, but also because it has been applied with
such brilliancy to the study of English Literature.
Within its possibilities, however, the book serves two
good ends. It provides the younger student with
much that will serve to guide toward paths hitherto
unimagined and it offers the more experienced
reader an opportunity of considering his own ideas
by the light of the methods of others. From all
which, it is greatly to be hoped, much good will en-
sue as regards the literary taste of very many.
In his " Morocco as It Is" ( Harper),
pZuZi Present. Stephen Bonsai, Jr., compresses
a good deal of information, largely
first-hand, concerning a country which is fast be-
coming an important factor in European politics.
The great fertility of Morocco (the author thinks it
destined to again become " the granary of Europe "),
its strategic value, and its internal political insta-
bility, have long made it an object of jealous regard
to the European powers. Ten years ago, Bismarck
hazarded the prophecy that towards the close of
our century the Western question would cause as
great a stir in diplomatic circles, and would event-
ually occasion as much bloodshed, as did the East-
ern question in the fifties. It becomes important,
then, to know something about Morocco, past and
present; and to the general reader who does not
care to make a special comprehensive study of the
subject, Mr. Bonsai's book may be recommended.
It summarizes the main phases of the "Western
question," points out the specific interest in Morocco
of the several Powers, and gives a lively picture of
the Moorish court and people. About half the vol-
ume is devoted to a brief rSsumS of Moroccan his-
tory and polity and to the account of Sir Charles
Euan-Smith's recent mission to Fez, the remainder
being taken up with the story of the author's own
experiences in the country as correspondent of the
London press. Mr. Bonsai is an energetic news-
gatherer, and he was driven at times to certain
rather swash-bucklering methods — including re-
volver-flourishing, boxing and tweaking of Moor-
ish ears, knocking off of sacred turbans, etc.—
which seem, on the whole, to have been defensible.
The treatment accorded the "Christian pig" by
the true believers is certainly not of the sort that
turneth away wrath. The following is a rather
mild sample: "As we rode out of town the Fazi
were more insulting than even heretofore. The
men glowered and frowned, and even the children
cursed us in their childish trebles. 'May the true
God strike thee to the ground, Christian!' shrieked
a toddling hopeful of four, and one and all, in what
seemed a concerted unison, spat at our feet as we
rode by. Just before reaching Bab Sigma we came
to the earthly resting-place of a great saint, one of
whose most pronounced attributes was a personal
animosity against me. From time immemorial al-
most he eats and drinks and sleeps, and performs
other saintly functions on a huge dung-heap by the
Bab Sigma. His hair was long, and hung over his
shoulders in kinky curls. Seeing me coming and not-
ing my general appearance of a traveller who will
not return he prepared to give me a warm 'send
off.' For a moment he girded up his loins and pre-
pared for the supreme effort in execration. I mean
this figuratively, for, as usual, he was stark naked,
without even a fig-leaf. 'May the curse of the
true God blast thy life, Christian! May thy grand-
mother rot in the seventh story of hell! May no
children grow up in thy household!' He staggered
to his feet and stretched out his bony hand, his
emaciated arm, towards me, with an imprecating
gesture which was certainly forcible and pictur-
esque." One of the best chapters contains a de-
scription of the Kairouin University, in the early
Middle Ages reputed one of the greatest in the
world, and now fondly hoped to be the repository
of valuable manuscripts saved from the burning of
the Alexandrian Library,— among them, perhaps,
the missing classics, the lost books of Euclid and of
Livy, etc.
„ „ ,., It is a little curious that much of
treatment of Wag- the best appreciation of \V agner
ner'.-Parri/al." ghould CQme ^ ug fpom Fren<jh
sources. In contrast to the Chauvinism that has
hissed Wagner from the Parisian lyric stage, and
given rise to some of the most disgraceful episodes
in the history of the Opera, we are shown, on the
part of serious French critics, a development of the
Wagner cult that leaves nothing to be desired for
sincerity or intelligence. M. Julien's book about
Wagner is the best that has yet been written in
any language. Among the later French Wagner-
ians M. Maurice Kufferath is conspicuous, and a
translation of his book on Wagner's "Parsifal" is
now before us (Tait). This book first discusses
the origins of the " Parsifal " legend, giving sum-
maries of the poems of Chretien de Troies and
Wolfram. Then it presents an analysis of Wag-
ner's libretto, showing to what extent he has fol-
lowed the mediaeval story-tellers, and to what ex-
tent his own genius has modified, unified, and spir-
itualized the myth. We are next given the story
of the development of the work in Wagner's mind,
and the principal facts about its composition and
performance. Finally, the score is subjected to a
careful study, and described, with illustrative nota-
tion, from the standpoint of the technical musician.


1893.]
255
Through the
land of the
M. Kufferath is a " Parsifal " enthusiast ( as no one
who has really studied that wonderful creation can
help being), and falls occasionally into the rhapsod-
ical style of treatment that is so difficult to avoid
when one tries to express in words the character
and meaning of a great musical creation. But he
sins in this respect far less than Liszt, for example,
or than most of the writers who have undertaken
similar tasks. His analysis of the score is no less
scholarly than that of Wollzogen, and is far more
readable. The book is illustrated from photo-
graphs of the Bayreuth stage.
"Sketches of Life and Character
in Hungary" (Macmillan) is a some-
•• merry Magyar,." phap8odjcal but altogether
bright and chatty account of a flying summer trip
taken by two young English ladies from Oxford
through the land of the Magyars. Margaret
Fletcher is responsible for the sketchy writing and
Rose LeQuesne for the sketchy illustrations. Under
the potent protection and skilful direction of Count
Esterhazy, to whom their book is dedicated, pos-
sessed of healthy youthful energy and enthusiasm,
and released from the conventions of English so-
ciety, these girls enjoyed thoroughly the "pageant of
costume," and the mingled courtesy, curiosity, and
kindness of the people. Heralded as they were, by
dispatches from the famous Count, they everywhere
received ovations such as in our country would only
be accorded to some distinguished statesman or
writer. The Hungarian girls even handed over
their sweethearts that the English ladies might
learn the vertiginous csdrdds; and indeed, the
"merry Magyars" made the journey a veritable
whirl of sight-seeing, feasting, and dancing. The
book is interesting rather as a clever narrative of a
summer frolic than as adding anything serious to
our knowledge of Hungary or its people.
„ . "At the North of Bearcamp Wa-
Summerand r
Autumn in rural ter (Houghton), by Mr. J? rank
Wew England. jg ft collection of twenty-one
rather brief sketches, the chronicles of a stroller in
New England from July to December. The vol-
ume is well freighted with the lore of forest and
stream, and leaves the reader with an agreeable
sense of having had a mild outing himself. Mr.
Bolles's literary modus operandi is a sufficiently
simple one. He sets out for a country walk (usu-
ally at an appallingly early hour), and then pro-
ceeds to register his day's impressions seriatim. If
a certain tree has eighty-seven branches, and not
eighty-six or eighty-eight, and if his "magnificent
black Spanish cock" crows so many times at so
many minutes to four in the morning, Mr. Bolles
tells us so, scorning evasion, and declining to bate a
branch, or a crow, or a minute. He is, in short, a
close observer and a precise reciter, somewhat in
the vein of Richard Jefferies and Mr. Hamilton
Gibson; and, like those writers, renders us the ser-
vice of sharpening up our senses to out-of-door na-
ture. The book is prettily bound in pale grey and
silver, and it will prove a pleasant and helpful com-
panion for the holiday pilgrim to rural New En-
gland.
The "History of English" (Mac-
A popular ana rf , ° \
readable Hittory mi 11 an ), written by Mr. A. C. Champ-
o} Engl neys, is a popular account of the ori-
gin and development of the English language, with
preliminary chapters upon the general principles of
philology and the languages of the Indo-European
group. It has numerous illustrative passages se-
lected from texts of all epochs, and presents the
whole subject in orderly and perspicuous fashion.
"We are not acquainted with a better popular man-
ual of the sort, and it has of course the advantage
of being abreast of recent work done in philology.
The book is distinctly readable, and sometimes sac-
rifices dignity to what are supposed to be the exi-
gencies of popular exposition. We are told, for
example, that the law of Laulverschiebung "was
discovered (not invented, or passed in the German
Parliament) by a German named Grimm." The
parenthesis is something of an impertinence, and
even a popular audience would be justified in re-
senting this sort of " writing down " to its supposed
level of intelligence. But Mr. Champneys has, on
the whole, given us an excellent book, and one that
ought to have a useful mission.
Work,and The autllor of "The Mound-Build-
reiiaofthe ers, their Works and Relics," the
Mound-Builder.. Rey Stephen D peet; ha8 bee„ for
fifteen years and more editor of the "American
Antiquarian." During this time Mr. Peet has writ-
ten many articles for his magazine upon a wide
range of topics in American Archaeology. These
articles are to be republished by the author in
book form, under the general name "Prehistoric
America." Five volumes are planned, of which
this is the first. This present volume comprises the
articles upon the Mound-Builders. It includes chap-
ters upon the Mound-Builders and the Mastodon,
the Mound-Builders and the Buffalo, Burial Mounds
of the Different Districts, Migration of the Mound-
Builders, etc. It also goes into a study of the re-
ligious beliefs of the Mound-Builders, as shown by
their works and relics, and undertakes a comparison
of the relics from the mounds and those of modern
tribes. A large amount of material is discussed
and many pictures are given. The work is pub-
lished by the author.
. Both in matter and in manner, John
book on the Frederick Rowbotham's "Private
Great Compo,er,. L;f(J o{ ^ Composers" (Whit_
taker) is a very poor performance, being really lit-
tle better than gossip, with a preference for dwell-
ing on the foibles and frailties of the musicians un-
der discussion, rather than upon their insight and
genius. Even poorer than the literary features are
the artistic ones, the portraits in some cases resem-
bling caricatures of the familiar faces. But the


256
[April 16,
THE
DIAL
book is saved from worthlessness by complete bibli-
ographies, chronologically arranged, of the writings
of its fifteen names, appended to the story of each.
Such bibliographies, being not readily accessible
without consultation of musical dictionaries or other
voluminous volumes, will make this a valuable book
of ready reference, and entitle it to a better place
on the library shelves than it could otherwise se-
cure.
BRIEFER MENTION.
A new and very attractive edition of Lord Lytton's
novels (Little, Brown & Co.) is in process of publica-
tion, and will occupy forty volumes. The type is new,
and the presswork is excellent. Each volume will have
an original etching by Mr. Edmund H. Garrett. The
volumes are of convenient size and bound in tastefully
decorated covers. "The Caxtons," in two volumes, in-
augurates this handsome edition, and from two to four
volumes are promised monthly. Such an edition of Bul-
wer has long been needed, and will form a welcome ac-
cession to the shelves.
Major Ross-of-Bladensburg, C.B., has written for
the "Rulers of India " series (Macmillan) a life of the
Marquess of Hastings, who was Governor-General of
India from 1813 to 1823, and who is chiefly remem-
bered for his suppression of the Marat ha revolt. The
author's arrangement of matter is not very perspicuous,
and his style is defective. We are told of one of the
characters that "he went alone into the jungle much
infested by tigers and disappeared." His disappear-
ance, under these circumstances, is not surprising, but
we wonder that he got into the jungle at all.
"Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobio-
graphical Chapter and in a Selected Series of His Pub-
lished Letters" (Appleton) is the cumbersome title of
a work in which Mr. Francis Darwin has produced, in
abbreviated single volume form, the larger "Life and
Letters" of his illustrious father. He has omitted
many of the strictly scientific letters, and added an ac-
count of his father's manner of working. Most of the
matter that the general reader will find of interest has
been preserved in this volume.
The fifth and sixth volumes of the Dryburgh " Wav-
erley" (Macmillan) give us "The Black Dwarf," "A
Legend of Montrose," and "Old Mortality." Messrs.
Walter Paget, Lockhart Bogle, and Frank Dadd are
the respective illustrators of these novels. To the new
popular edition of Mr. Black's novels have just been
added " Sunrise," " White Wings," and " The Beautiful
Wretch" (Harpers). Finally, the "American Notes"
and " Pictures from Italy " have been put together into
a volume of the new dollar edition of Dickens, an edi-
tion originally intended to comprise only the more pop-
ular novels, but which seems to be growing into a com-
plete set (Macmillan).
The "Select Writings and Letters of Gregory, Bishop
of Nyassa " have been translated (and duly annotated),
by Mr. William Moore and Mr. Henry Austin Wilson,
for the "Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers of the Christian Church" (Christian Literature
Co^. Dr. Philip Schaff and Dr. Henry Wace are the
editors of this important collection of patristic theology,
and the present volume is number five of the second
series.
The dry but irresistible humor of "Coffee and Re-
partee," by Mr. John Kendrick Bangs, will commend
the little book to a wide circle of amusement seeking
readers, and will remind many of them of the classic
of breakfast-table literature, although the author's man-
ner is sufficiently distinctive to protect him from the
charge of imitation. The booklet appears in the " Black
and White " series (Harpers), of which other volumes,
also just issued, are as follows: "Giles Corey, Yeoman,"
a prose drama by Miss Mary E. Wilkins; " Whittier," a
sketch by Mrs. James T. Fields; and "The Japanese
Bride," a social study by Mr. Naomi Tamura.
IilTERARY NOTES AND NEWS.
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's forthcoming book will be en-
titled "Many Inventions," not " Many Intentions," as a
number of papers have recently told us.
Mr. Douglas Sladen has written a work upon "The
Canadian at Home" which, after running as a serial in
a London paper, will appear in book form.
"Phillips Brooks in Boston: Five Years' Editorial
Estimates," by Mr. M. C. Ayres, is announced for early
publication by Mr. George H. Ellis, Boston.
The concluding two volumes of Renan's "Histoire
du Peuple d'Israel" were, it is said, already in type and
fully corrected at the author's death. They are an-
nounced to appear this month.
Mr. E. L. Pierce will publish this month the conclud-
ing volumes of his "Memoir and Letters of Charles
Sumner." In preparing this work Mr. Pierce is said
to have read 40,000 letters left by Mr. Sumner.
Mr. Fraser Rae, who introduced Taine to the En-
glish public through the medium of an article in "The
Westminster Review " for 1861, is now occupied with
a book on the life and works of the great Frenchman.
We recently mentioned Mr. Arthur Sykes's transla-
tion of Gogol's " Revizor," stating that it was the first
translation of that comedy to appear in English. Mr.
W. M. Griswold calls our attention to the existence of
an earlier translation, published in London two years
ago.
Mr. Black, says the London " Literary World," works
at novel-writing all the winter, and plays at fishing and
yachting all the summer. When engaged on a story he
is so sensitive to noise that he has his meals set in a
room five removes from his study, and goes there to get
them. Even then, should the servant slam a door, his
inspiration is upset.
The first number of the "Pall Mall Magazine," con-
ducted by Lord Frederic Hamilton and Sir Douglas
Straight, will appear early in May. It is to be pub-
lished by Messrs. Routledge & Sons, in London, Man-
chester, and New York, and the price will be one shill-
ing. It is intended that the illustrations shall be one
of its principal features.
The late M. Jules Ferry was a journalist and pam-
phleteer of very considerable ability. In his younger
days he contributed to the "Gazette des Tribunaux," a
French law journal, and for several years after 18G5 he
was on the staff of the " Temps." The fame of his best-
known work was due to its title, "Les Comptes fantas-
tiques d'Haussmann." This appeared just after Gautier
had written on " Les Contes fantastiques " of Hoffmann.


1893.]
257
According to Mr. Arthur Waugh, the London corre-
spondent of the New York "Critic," the novel of the
season has appeared. It is the work of a woman who
writes under the name of "Sarah Grand," and has for
its curious title " The Heavenly Twins." It is described
as a didactic novel, dealing with the relations of the
sexes, and puts once more the question of Bjijrnson's
"En Hanske " — are the morals of men and women to
be judged by different standards?
Mr. Fisher Unwin has arranged to reissue the " Mer-
maid Series" formerly published by Messrs. Vizetelly
& Co. The series, as it at present stands, contains six-
teen volumes; but these will be added to as occasion
requires, retaining the original 'scheme of publishing
literal reproductions of the text of the old dramatists,
with notes and introductions. The three forthcoming
volumes which have not yet appeared will be: "The
Best Flays of Ben Jonson," with introduction and notes
by Mr. Brinsley Richards and Prof. C. H. Herford.
A complimentary dinner to Mr. T. B. Aldrich was
recently given at the Aldine Club of New York. Mr.
John Burroughs was one of the speakers, and, referring
to his earlier speech at the Authors' Club anniversary,
he told how he had recently received from a clergyman
in South Dakota a very complimentary letter in which
the writer told him that he had read with great pleasure
Mr. Burroughs's speech, and had preached a sermon on
it, taking his text from Ezekiel. "If you have ever
written anything," said the worthy preacher, "I should
be glad to see it"!
The identification of the spot where Shelley's body
was burned on the beach at Via lleggio, which was suc-
cessfully made by Signor Guido Biagi, has given occa-
sion for a small volume by him, "Gli Ultimi Giorni di
P. B. Shelley," in which the author tells the well-
known story oT the last months of Shelley's life, and in-
cludes all that was material in the article previously
published by him in "Harper's." The entire set of
official documents relating to the drowning and burning
are given, with the evidence of the surviving spectators
of the last rites; and the narrative portion is written
with feeling and poetic sentiment. The publication is
one of several Italian incidents occasioned by the poet's
centenary, of which the most notable in literature was
the issue of a translation of the " Prometheus Unbound,"
"Prometeo Liberato," by Mario Rapisardi. Besides
the memorial erected at Via Reggio, a stone will be set
up in Rome on the Verospi palace in the Corso, com-
memorating Shelley's residence there. This is done at
the instance of Signor Ettore Ferrari, the Duke of Ser-
moneta, and other citizens of Rome. Italy, it may be
remarked, has honored Shelley almost from his death;
the first translation from his works into Italian, that of
the "Adonais," dating from 1830.—The Nation.
Topics in Leading Periodicals.
April, 1893 (Second Lilt).
American Speech, Future of. Din I (April 16).
Anarchism. Victor Yarros. Arena.
Arbitration, Compulsory. Chester A. Reed. Arena.
Automatic Writing. B. F. Underwood. Arena.
Boston Camera Club. IUus. Benj. Kimball. New. Eng. Mag.
Brain Surgery. William A. Hammond. North American.
Brooks, Phillips. C. C. Everett. Harvard Graduates Mag.
Brussels Conference, The. Charles Foster. North Am.
Buffalo. Frederick J. Shepard. New Eng. Magazine.
Celestial Gotham. Allan Forman. Arena.
Christianity, Authority in. G. C. Lorimer. Arena.
Cleveland, Boyhood of. IUus. Review of Reviews.
Cleveland's New Cabinet. Illns. WoodrowWilson. Rev. of Ree.
Colleges in Early Days. A. McF. Davis. Harv. Grad. Mag.
Currency and Democratic Party, The. North American.
Dress Reform. Illns. Review of Reviews.
Earth, Interior of the. G. F. Becker. North American.
Educational Thought in Germany. Educational Review.
Evolution, Ethics of. W. H. Hudson. Dial (April 10).
"Fads " in Public Schools. Helen E. Starrett. Arena.
Faith and Reason, Reconciliations of. John Bascom. Dial (16).
Fiction, Future of. Hamlin Garland. Arena.
Fine Arts, Study of the. C. H. Moore. Harv. Grad. Mag.
Modern Language Instruction, Reform in. Educational Rev.
Mothers, Good and Bad. Amelia E. Barr. North Am.
Mystery in Fiction. George M. Fenn. North American.
Negro as a Mechanic. Robert Lowry. North American.
Parliament of Religions, nius. Dr. Barrows. Rev. of Reviews.
Pension List, Revision of the. North American.
Physics, Elementary, Teaching of. Educational Review.
Protection. Arthur L. Perry. New England Magazine.
Quaker-Spiritualist Revival in Russia. Rev. of Reviews.
Realism, and What Is to Come of It. H. M. Stanley. Dial (16).
Sarcey, Recollections of. E. G. J. Dial (April 16).
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. M. B. Anderson. Dial (April 16).
Shipbuilding. Philip Hichborn. North American.
Student Associations, International. Educational Review.
Switzerland, Initiative in. W. E. McCrackan. Arena.
Tenement House Problem in New York. Arena.
Trinity Church. Illus. Phillips Brooks. New Eng. Magazine.
Walton's Angler. James L. High. Dial (April 16).
World's Fair Charges. George R. Davis. North American.
IiisT of New Books.
[The following list, embracing 47 titles, includes all books
received by The Dial since last issue.\
HISTORY.
Venice: An Historical Sketch of the Republic. By Horatio
F. Brown, author of "Life on the Lagoons." Illus.,
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Columbus: The Story of the Discovery of the New World.
Compiled from accepted authorities, by Frederick Saun-
ders. Illus., 12mo, pp. 145. Thomas Whittaker. $1.25.
The French Revolution. By Charles Edward Mallet.
12mo, pp. 307. Scribner's " University Extension Man-
uals." $1.00 net.
Through Colonial Doorways. By Anne Hollingsworth
Wharton. Illus., 16mo, pp. 237. J. B. Lippincott Co.
$1.25.
BIOGRAPHY.
Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Sidney
Lee. Vol. XXXIV., Llwyd — Maccartney. Large 8vo,
pp. 450, gilt top. Macmillan & Co. $3.75.
LITERARY MISCELLANY.
Homer and the Epic. By Andrew Lang, M.A. 12mo, pp.
424. Macmillan & Co. $2.50.
Analytics of Literature: A Manual for the Objective Study
of English Prose and Poetry. By L. A. Sherman, Uni-
versity of Nebraska. V-'ino, pp. 468. Ginn&Co. $1.40.
Literary Blunders: A Chapter in the "History of Human
Error." By Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A. 16mo, pp. 226.
A. C. Armstrong & Son. $1.25.
The Best Letters of William Cowper. Edited, with in-
troduction, by Anna B. McMahan. 16mo, pp. 302. A.
C. McClurg & Co. $1.00.
The Letters of Charles Dickens. Edited by his Sister-
in-law and his eldest Daughter. 12mo, pp. 763. Mac-
millan & Co. $1.00.
Phillips Brooks' Addressee. With introduction by Rev.
Julius H. Ward. With etched portrait, 18mo, pp. 174,
gilt top. C. E. Brown & Co. $1.00.


258
[April 16,
THE
DIAL
The Famous Allegories : Selections and Extracts for Read-
ing and Study. By James Baldwin, Ph.D., author of
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POETRY.
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The Shadows of the Lake. By Frank Leyton. Fourth
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REPRINTS OP STANDARD POETRY.
The Iliads of Homer. Translated by George Chapman. In
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The Poetical Works of John Dryden. "Albion" edi-
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F. Wame&Co. $1.50.
FICTION.
Without Dogma: A Novel of Modern Poland. By Hen-
ryk Sienkiewicz, author of "The Deluge." Trans, by
Iza Young. 12mo, pp. 423. Little, Brown, & Co. $1.50.
The World of Chance. By William Dean Howells, author
of "Th« Quality of Mercy." 12mo, pp. 375. Harper &
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Six Cent Sam's. By Julian Hawthorne. Illus., 12mo, pp.
332. Price-McGill Co. $1.25.
Elizabeth: Christian Scientist. By Matt Crim, author of
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Evelina; or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into
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Don Quixote. Translated by John Ormsby, and edited by
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Arena Library Series: Redbank: Life on a Southern Plan-
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Bonner's Choice Series: The Child of the Parish, by Marie
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Rand, McNally & Co.'s Globe Library: The Master of St.
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TRAVEL SKETCHES.
Island Night's Entertainments. By Robert Louis Stev-
enson. Illus., 12mo, pp. 220. Charles Scribner's Sons.
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Silhouettes from Life: On the Prairie, in the Backwoods.
By Anson U. Hancock, author of " Old Abraham Jack-
son." 12mo, pp. 158. C. H. Kerr & Co. $1.00.
SCIENCE.
The Law of Psychic Phenomena: A Working Hypothesis
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Modern Meteorology: An Outline of the Growth and Pres-
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The Measurement of Electric Currents. By James Swin-
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NATURAL SCIENCE.
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The Rose: A Treatise. By H. B. EUwanger. With intro-
duction by Geo. H. Ellwanger. 16mo, pp. 310. Dodd,
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THEOLOGY AND RELIGION.
Primary Convictions. Being Discussions Delivered
at
pp.
Columbia College. By William Alexander. 8vo,
322. Harper & Bros. $2.50.
The Place of Christ in Modern Theology. By A. M.
Fairbairn, M.A. 8vo, pp. 556. Chas. Scribner's Sons.
$2.50.
Present Day Theology: A Popular Discussion of Leading
Doctrines of the Christian Faith. By Lewis French
Stearns. With portrait, 12mo, pp. 563. Chas. Scribner's
Sons. $2.50.
The Tragedy of the Agee; or. Calvary and Gehenna. By
Prof. Wm. D. T. Travis, A.M. Dlus., sq. 8vo. Philadel-
phia: The Thompson Publishing Co. $1.50.
Vobiscum Deus: The Gospel of the Incarnation. By Will-
iam F. Faber, author of "The Church for the Times."
16mo, pp. 187. A. D. F. Randolph & Co. $1.00.
In Spirit and in Truth : Essays by Young Ministers of the
Unitarian Church. With introduction by the Rev. James
de Normandie. 12mo, pp. 163. George H. Ellis.
The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged. 32mo, pp. 594.
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BOOKS FOR SOLDIERS.
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78. D. Appleton & Co. 50 cts.
THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION. For
'Authors: The skilled revision, the unbiassed and com-
petent oriticism of prose and verse; advice as to publication.
For Publishers: The compilation of first-class works of
reference. — Established 1880. Unique in position and suc-
cess. Indorsed by our leading writers. Address
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 70 Fifth Ave., New York.
/} AAP t>1(^ JKJ A A History of the Indian Wars
CV7 IVlLZfVl^SllySI. with the First Settlers of the
United States to the commencement of the Late War; to-
gether with an Appendix containing interesting Accounts of
the Battles fought by General Andrew Jackson. With two
Plates. Rochester, N. Y., 1828.
Two hundred signed and numbered copies have just been
published at $2.00 each.
GEORGE P. HUMPHREY,
25 Exchange Street, Rochester, N. Y.
Joseph Gillott'S
STEEL TENS.
GOLD MEDALS, PAEIS, 1878 and 1889.
His Celebrated Plumbers,
303-404-170-604-3 3 2
And bis otber styles, may be bad of all dealers
throughout the world.
JOSEPH GILLOTT & SONS, NEW YORK.


1893.]
259
THE DIAL
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Main Offices "BOOK OF THE FAIR": Nos. 30 and 31 Auditorium Building, CHICAGO.


260
[April 16, 1893
THE DIAL
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262
[May 1,
THE DIAL
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contains all the poems included in the volume entitled "The
Princes' Quest, aad Other Tales," a small edition of which
was published in 1884.
Surely this is poetry, and poetry of a high order; of such are these
''We advise i
poems by William Watson,
noetic literature to possess th
i all who love the best in i
)lves of this volume."—The Critic.
THE STICKIT MINISTER
And Some Common Men.
By S. R. Crockett. 12mo, cloth, $1.75.
THE SKEPTICS OF THE ITALIAN
RENAISSANCE.
By John Owen. 8vo, cloth, $3.50.
Just Published. 12mo, (1.25.
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ORNAMENT.
By F. Edward Hulme, F.L.S., F.S.A., Author of " History,
Principles, and Practice of Heraldry," etc. With nearly
200 illustrations. 12mo, $1.25.
THE EVOLUTION OF DECORATIVE ART.
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the art of modern races of mankind. By Henry Bal-
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Charles James Wood. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
Macmillan If Co.'s List of Books by American Authors will be sent free by mail, postpaid, upon application.
MACMILLAN & CO., Publishers, New York City.


1893.]
263
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264
[May 1, 1893.
THE DIAL
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No. 165. MAY 1, 1893. Vol. XIV.
Contests.
PAOE
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS 205
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT 207
LUCY LARCOM. James L. Onderdonk 207
A FORGOTTEN POET: THE LIFE AND POETRY
OF JOHN CLEVELAND. Clinton Scollard . . 208
COMMUNICATIONS 270
The Future of American Speech. Oliver Farrar
Emerson.
The Teaching of Our Mother Tongue. Frederick
Ives Carpenter.
English Literature at a State University. Daniel
Kilham Dodge.
Literature at Indiana University. George E. Fellows.
A Question of Propriety. E. G. J.
FELIX DAHN'S REMINISCENCES. James Tafl
Hatfield .273
AN INSIDE VIEW OF WATERLOO. Joseph Kirk-
land 275
THE EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF
EVOLUTION. George Baur 278
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. D. E. Spencer 280
RECENT BOOKS OF POETRY. William Morton
Payne 281
Miss Thomas's Fair Shadow Land. — Riley's Green
Fields and Running Brooks. — Field's Second Book
of Verse.— Field's with Trumpet and Drum.—Hath-
away's The Finished Creation. — Gale's A Country
Muse. — Thomson's The City of Dreadful Night. —
Beeching's A Paradise of English Poetry.—Miss
Repplier's A Book of Famous Verse. — Stryker's
Dies Iree.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 285
A question in ^Esthetics. — Studies in the English
Mystery Plays. — A thoughtful and readable book
on Tropical America.—An aid to the appreciation of
the technique of Painting. — A much-needed histor-
ical study.—An English Grammar on historical prin-
ciples. — English Syntax, past and present. — The in-
dustrial arts of the Anglo-Saxons.
BRIEFER MENTION 287
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS 288
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 289
LIST OF NEW BOOKS 2<J0
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
The death of Mr. Symonds, at Rome, on the nine-
teenth of April, has removed from the field of En-
glish letters one of its most graceful and accom-
plished representatives. He had only reached the
age of fifty-two (Shakespeare's age), but his death
was not wholly unexpected. Many years ago he
was forced to leave England by pulmonary disease
that threatened his life, and to take up a practi-
cally permanent residence at Davos, in the Enga-
dine. His life in this mountain home has been de-
scribed by himself in a number of charming mag-
azine articles, and by his daughter in a recently
published volume. He occasionally ventured upon
short excursions from his seat of exile—mostly into
Italy for the collection of the material required by
his literary work — and it was evidently upon one
of these excursions that he gave up, a few days ago,
the long struggle with ill health.
His enforced residence in what was, for the lit-
erary worker, an almost complete solitude, has left
its mark upon the work of his later years. Ab-
sence from all libraries but his own has given to
much of that work an inadequate character, and
left it lacking in the accuracy demanded by modern
scholarship. For these defects, considering their
excuse, he has been subjected to unfairly harsh
criticism. It is really remarkable, under the con-
ditions, that his work should have as high a scientific
character as that with which it must be credited,
and it surely offers a case in which the verdict of
justice should be tempered by that of mercy. On
the other hand, the author's long freedom from the
distractions of English life enabled him to become
a prolific worker, and the literary activity of his
later years lias been very marked. He has produced
new volumes in rapid succession, and most of them
have been volumes of unquestionable importance.
Much of his later work has been shaped by the
necessities of his isolated situation, and has taken
forms that did not require the resources of great
collections of material. His translations from the
Italian, and his subtle analyses of the principles of
aesthetic criticism, are illustrations of this general
statement, although we must admit that the most
important of his later works, the life of Michel-
angelo, had to be, and was, based upon an exhaus-
tive study of the contemporary documents. As
these were to be found in Italy, a country within
his reach, he was enabled, even in his years of ex-
ile, to produce one work of capital scientific value.
Whatever form Mr. Symonds might give to his
work, it was, like that of the great Frenchman
whose loss we have so lately mourned, essentially
critical in spirit, and its author will be remembered


266
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
among the critics, rather than among the poets, the
travelers, or the narrative historians. But his crit-
ical method was radically unlike that of his French
contemporary, being as subjective as that of Taine
was objective. He constantly sought to place him-
self within the mind of the writer or historical
character with whom he was engaged, to see the
world with his eyes, and to treat the environment as
secondary in time if not in significance. Taine, as
we all know, deduced the man and his work from
the surrounding conditions; Symonds took the man
and his work as the data of the problem, seeking
to understand rather than to account for them.
We are not here concerned to compare the two
methods of work. Both of them are capable of ex-
cellent results, and either of them, if carried far
enough, involves the other. It is sufficient to say
that a writer committed to the one does not, as a
rule, realize all the possibilities of the other, and falls
short of that synthesis of the two that will produce
the criticism of the future.
When Schelling spoke of architecture as frozen
music, he sounded the keynote of what we may call
the romantic manner in criticism. "In romantic
writing," as we are told by Professor Sidney Col-
vin, "all objects are exhibited as it were through
a colored and iridescent atmosphere. Round about
every central idea the romantic writer summons up
a cloud of accessory and subordinate ideas for the
sake of enhancing its effect, if at the risk of con-
fusing its outlines." To Mr. Symonds as a critic
this definition of romanticism closely applies. A
student of all the arts, a lover of natural no less
than of non-created beauty, he was constantly bring-
ing one set of impressions to the aid of another.
He delighted in illustrating poetry by the phrases
of landscape, and painting by the language of mu-
sic. Those who will have only the clean-cut critical
phraseology of Sainte-Beuve and Arnold resent the
exuberance of Symonds, and do imperfect justice
to its beauty as well as to its power of making a
lasting impression. If they admit the latter qual-
ity, they will say that the impression is false, that
the half-lights of romanticism are misleading, and
that each artistic or other embodiment of beauty
has its distinct province, forgetting that all forms of
beauty appeal to the same emotional consciousness,
and that the law of association is no less valid in
the emotional than in the intellectual sphere. Pro-
fessor Tyrrell, in a satirical sketch of the modern
methods of classical study, says: "To study the
works, for instance, of the Greek dramatists is no
longer a road to success as a scholar, or as a stu-
dent. No: you must be ready to liken ^Eschylus
to an Alpine crevasse, Sophocles to a fair avenue
of elms, and Euripides to an amber-weeping Phse-
thontid, or a town-pump in need of repairing."
This is clearly a reference to such books as Sy-
monds's " Studies of the Greek Poets," and yet that
book has done more to rouse an enthusiasm for Greek
poetry and foster a desire for its acquaintance, than
all the unromantic tomes of the grammarians.
One subject Mr. Symonds made his own, and by
his work done upon that subject he will be chiefly
remembered. The Italian Renaissance has had
historians of more minutely accurate scholarship,
and its separate phases have perhaps found occa-
sional treatment subtler and more profound than it
was in his power to give them. But the period as
a whole, its political and domestic life, its literature
and art, received at his hands a treatment that
lacks neither grasp nor sympathy, that is distinctly
the best and most attractive in English literature.
This treatment is chiefly embodied in the series of
seven volumes, beginning with "'The Age of the
Despots " and ending with the " Catholic Reaction,"
but is also to be sought in the masterly life of
Michelangelo, in " An Introduction to the Study of
Dante," in the verse and prose translations from
Italian literature, and in the host of studies and
sketches from time to time contributed to the pe-
riodicals. Upon the fascinating period with which
all this work deals the best part of the author's
thought was centred, and modern criticism offers
few instances of so close an adaptation of a writer
to his theme. Both by temperament and by train-
ing he was the man for the work, and the way in
which, the main body of the work accomplished, he
has lingered upon the outskirts of his chosen field
of study reveals the extent to which the subject took
possession of his mind and sympathies. The au-
thor's studies of other literatures than the Italian
are chiefly represented by his work on the Greek
poets, his essay on Lucretius, his "Sidney" and
"Shelley " in the " English Men of Letters " series,
his " Jonson" in the series of "English Worthies,"
and his thick volume entitled "Shakespeare's Pre-
decessors in the English Drama," intended to be the
first volume of a complete history of our great dra-
matic period. His volumes of travel in Italy and
Greece are genuine literature, exemplifying the
wealth of his learning, the justness of his percep-
tions, and the beauty of his style. His original
verse, considerable in amount, falls short of being
great poetry, but may be read with keen pleasure,
and appeals strongly to the reflective mind. His
essays on the principles of aesthetics are burdened
with verbiage and not always lucid in enunciation,
but they are weighty enough to amply repay their
readers. When we consider his work as a whole
we are impressed with its range, its sanity, and its
devotion to the Goethean ideal of the good, true,
and beautiful. His death makes a conspicuous va-
cancy in the rapidly thinning ranks of our older
writers, and upon no other shoulders does his par-
ticular mantle seem yet to have fallen.
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT.
A Dante Exhibition has just been opened in Lon-
don, under the direction of Mr. Philip Wicksteed. Ac-
cording to the "Satnrday Review," the exhibits, with
the catalogue, "form a sort of personally-conducted
tour through the ' Divine Comedy.'" There are cases of


1893.J
267
THE DIAL
books and manuscripts, charts illustrating the geo-
graphy and cosmography of Dante's time, pictures of
various sorts, and a collection of gems "to show the
symbolical significance of colors and examples of pre-
cious stones mentioned by Dante." The books and
manuscripts are said to constitute the most satisfactory
feature of the Exhibition, and include a MS. of Boethius,
a splendid Book of Hours, and the commentary (1481)
of Cristofero Landino, from the Vernon collection.
There are also early editions, Aldine and others. The
pictures range all the way from Botticelli to Rossetti,
and their relevancy to the subject is not always appar-
ent. The Exhibition must be of great interest, and we
wish it were a part of the World's Fair, although we
have no desire to pose in the character of Dives.
In connection with our discussion, in the last
number of The Dial, of the possible degradation of
onr language into a dialect form of English speech, and
with the communication from Professor Emerson in
this issue, it may be well to call attention to Mr. Lowell's
weighty words upon this subject, as found in one of the
essays of his posthumous volume. "The purity, the
elegance, the decorum, the chastity of our mother-
tongue, are a sacred trust in our hands. I am tired of
hearing the foolish talk of an American variety of it,
about our privilege to make it what we will because we
are in a majority. A language belongs to those who
know best how to use it, how to bring out all its re-
sources, how to make it search its coffers round for the
pithy or canorous phrase that suits the need, and they
who can do this have been always in a pitiful minority.
Let us be thankful that we too have a right to it, and
have proved our right, but let us set up no claim to
vulgarize it. The English of Abraham Lincoln was so
good not because he learned it in Illinois, but because
he learned it of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible,
the constant companions of his leisure." No better an-
swer than this could be made to the preposterous claim
that American literature should be written in a lan-
guage of its own. It may come to be so written — Dr.
Hall is of the opinion that it is so written already — but
the change, whether achieved or prospective, is uo mat-
ter for self-gratulation.
During the progress of the work done in prepar-
ation for the Colombian Exposition, there have been a
number of occurrences to show that those having the
work in charge were better fitted to deal with the ma-
terial problems involved than to grasp the relations be-
tween the Fair and the higher culture. The latest of
these occurrences is perhaps the most noteworthy in its
display of ineptitude. We are given to understand that
certain pianists — the great and only Paderewski being
one—already engaged for concerts in the Music Hall
may not be permitted to play upon the instruments of
their choice. This would, of course, be equivalent to
breaking the engagements with them, for no artist con-
cerned for his reputation will play upon a piano with
which he is unfamiliar. The reason assigned for this
extraordinary resolution—which we cannot believe will
be really persevered in — is that the manufacturers of
the pianos in question have withdrawn their exhibits
from the display of musical instruments. Into the
merits of this dispute we do not care to enter, but only
a sadly sophisticated mind could seriously pretend ttiat
the refusal of a manufacturer to exhibit his pianos
could be made the reasonable grouud of a refusal, by
the Exposition authorities, to allow Mr. Paderewski to
use one of those pianos in his concerts.
LUCYLARCOM.
Miss Lucy Larcom, who died on the 17th of
April, well-known and beloved by all readers of
American poetry, was born at Beverly, Mass., sixty-
seven years ago, and began to compose verses as
soon as she could write. The New England of
that era was still dominated by Americans. Luxury
and poverty were alike unknown. Farmers' daugh-
ters held it no reproach to work in the factories, and,
like countless other girls in her station of life, Miss
Larcom, while still young, was obliged to work for
her own support. The operatives of the Lowell
mills were for the most part from the native pop-
ulation, and remarkable for their high order of in-
telligence. They furnished us with the first, if not
the only, instance of a purely industrial community
conducting a purely literary magazine. The " Low-
ell Offering" was established in 1841, the contrib-
utors being confined to the female mill operatives.
This enterprise, which lasted for years, may be re-
garded as one of our literary landmarks. The
reader will recall Mr. Dickens's admiration of the
intelligence of these working-girls, who, after twelve
hours of tedious work every day, could still find
time to cultivate music and literature. "Of the mer-
its of the 'Lowell Offering' as a literary produc-
tion," he says, " I will only observe, putting entirely
out of sight the fact of the articles having been writ-
ten by these girls after the arduous labors of the
day, that it will compare advantageously with a great
many English annuals." The published edition at one
time amounted to 4000 copies. A volume of extracts
from the "Offering" was published by its editor,
Miss Farley, in 1847, and two years later Charles
Knight published in London another selection from
its pages, entitled "Mind among the Spindles."
Miss Larcom, though still a young girl, was
among the brightest contributors to the " Offering."
Her articles indicated such ability as greatly to im-
press Mr. Whittier. It was doubtless due as much
to the encouragement of the good Quaker poet as
to any other cause that Miss Larcom achieved her
literary successes. After leaving the mills, about
1846, she came to Illinois, taught school, and studied
for three years at the Monticello Seminary. After
she had returned to her native state, she always re-
called with feelings of pleasure her sojourn in the
West, writing years later, when she had already
created a name for herself:
"Two worlds I live in. East and West;
I cannot tell which world is best;
The friends that people both are dear;
The same glad sun
Shines into each; far off is near,
And then is now, and there is here:
Both worlds are one."
Two of her poems, "Hannah Binding Shoes"
and " Skipper Ben," have gained for her an interna-
tional reputation. She has written others equally
good, though not so well known. Like Whittier,
she was the poet of American life. Some of her
ballads are worthy of the elder poet, and it is but


268
THE DIAL [Mayl,
just to state that "The Old School House" antici-
pated hy several years the famous poem of Whit-
tier on a similar theme. Such character sketches
as "Mehetahel," "Phebe," "Goody GrunseH's
House," and " Sylvia," are all her own. The re-
gions celebrated in Whittier's verse re-appear in
hers, and the White Mountains gain an added
charm from the felicity of her descriptions. One
of the Ossipee Hills is named after her— "Lucy's
Peak." She sympathized with Whittier in his anti-
slavery views, and like him wrote some stirring
patriotic poems, her " Loyal Woman's No" being
one of the most popular lyrics of the war.
Her descriptive genius was not confined to New
England themes. The breath of the prairies, as well
as of the sea and the mountains, breathes through
her poems. Her "Elsie in Illinois" is as true a
picture of Western life as " Hannah Binding Shoes"
is of New England. In a brief sketch like this, ex-
tended extracts are out of the question. It is suffi-
cient to call attention to these Western pictures, find-
ing space for quotation of only two stanzas from
"A Prairie Nest."
"Nature, so full of secrets coy.
Wrote out the mystery of her joy
On those broad swells of Illinois.
Her virgin heart to Heaven was true;
We trusted Heaven and her, and knew
The grass was green, the skies were blue,
"And life was sweet! What find we more
In wearying quest from shore to shore?
Ah, gracious memory! to restore
Our golden West, its sun, its showers,
And that gay little nest of ours.
Dropped down among the prairie flowers I"
In her religious poems we are again reminded of
Whittier, but her '• Songs of Childhood," as became
the editor of Our Young Folks," are among the
best of their kind.
Miss Larcom's career in literature and in life
was intensely American. She represented a by-
gone generation, it is true, but there is probably
but one of our living female poets of that generation
who is as widely known. It is no exaggeration to
assert that no other country could have so developed
her genius. She represented the feminine as Whit-
tier the masculine side of what may be fairly called
Americanism in literature. There is an eminent
fitness in the fact that within a year she should
be called to follow in the footsteps of this gentle
master, whom she revered with almost a daughter's
devotion. James L. Onderdonk.
A FORGOTTEN POET.
A GLANCE AT THE LIFE AND POETRY OF JOHN
CLEVELAND.
In the history of English Literature there is no
poet, among those once held in high repute, over
whose work the " mantle of forgetfulness " has fallen
more completely than over that of John Cleveland.
To the ordinary reader of poetry, Cleveland is
wholly unknown; to the student, he is little more
than a name. Yet he was one who bore a vital
part in the literary, political, and social life of his
age. During the Cromwellian wars he was the
most popular English bard, and at the time Milton
with difficulty found a publisher for "Paradise
Lost," Cleveland's poems were in eager and con-
stant demand.
Though the perusal of Cleveland's work is likely
to afford but little pleasure, there are reasons why
he should not fall into utter oblivion. He was one
of those men in whom lay the possibilities of more
than ordinary, if not of great, achievement. The
spirit of the age into which he was born was ad-
verse to the development of his finest powers. He
saw dimly,— never clearly,— that the poetic tide
was setting toward wrong channels, yet he had not
the force to stem it. Had kindlier influences been
brought to bear upon his life, had peace instead of
turmoil surrounded him in his mature years, he
might have made a strong resistance to the grow-
ing flood, though he never could more than slightly
have diverted it, so irresistible was its impetus.
Poetry at the beginning of the reign of Charles
I. had taken on the affectations of the school of
the Neapolitan, Marini, and there soon began to be
a slow but sure movement toward that precision
and starched stiffness of form which culminated
with Pope in the next century. The license and
unrestrained freedom of the Elizabethans had al-
ready come into disrepute; nature was more and
more being regarded from a false and wholly per-
verted standpoint; the "metaphysical " had made
its appearance as an element in poetics; and, on
the whole, the condition of English literature bore
a strong resemblance to the unsettled condition of
English politics. A fondness for conceits, for far-
fetched similes, was leading the poets to the mad-
dest hyperbole. Such was the prevailing literary
atmosphere when John Cleveland, having been
born at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, on June
20, 1613, and schooled at Hinckley under a cele-
brated Presbyterian clergyman, Richard Vines,
went to Cambridge, and was there admitted as a
student to Christ's College in the year 1627.
The spirit of the Italian, Marini, was strong at
this period both at Oxford and Cambridge, and
Cleveland is said to have outdone the most devoted
disciples of this school. He obtained his degree in
1631 as a member of Christ's College, but in 1634
was made a fellow of St. John's, where he passed
the remaining years of his university life.
The first direct record that we have of Cleve-
land's active interest in national affairs is an ac-
count of his strenuous but vain attempt to prevent
the election of Oliver Cromwell as member of Par-
liament for Cambridge. This was in 1640, and at
this time Cleveland, with extraordinary foresight,
is said to have prophesied the fatal events that
were to follow. Oxford had honored Cleveland
with the degree of Master of Arts in 1637, and
thither the poet retired when the royal forces began


1893.]
269
THE
DIAL
to be unsuccessful in the eastern counties. He was
received with marks of great favor, for just before
this he had begun discharging the arrows of his
satire which rankled like thorns in the sides of the
Covenanters. It was probably while at Oxford that
he composed " The Rebel Scott," the most noted of
his satirical poems.
In 1645, the poet was made Judge Advocate of
the garrison at Newark under the governor, Sir
Richard Willis. Here he performed his duties with
much skill and diplomacy, while he continued to
harass the enemies of Charles with stinging ridi-
cule from his pen. When, in 1646, Newark, the
last royal stronghold, surrendered, in accordance
with the wishes of the King, Cleveland was allowed
to go free. We now lose trace of him for nine
years. That he lived with royalist friends during
this period is probable, for he was entirely without
means of support. He was not altogether idle,
however, for he composed at least two elegies upon
King Charles. It must have been during these
years, too, and when he felt the weight of adversity
and poverty, that he addressed the following lines
to a patron:
"I have a suit to you that you would be
So kind as send another suit to me."
We next hear of Cleveland in 1655, when he
was seized and thrown into Yarmouth prison. It
was while he was confined at Yarmouth that he ad-
dressed his noted petition to Cromwell,— a petition
couched in direct and logical terms, and showing a
fine courage and manliness. The poet's frankness
and fearless spirit had its effect upon Cromwell,
and he gave orders for Cleveland's release,— a
most generous act on the Protector's part, be it
confessed, for the man he was setting free had
lampooned him without mercy.
Cleveland now found in London a benevolent
patron. This worthy Maecenas appears to have
been the poet's fellow townsman, the counsellor
Oneby. The sun of prosperity having again risen,
Cleveland took chambers at Gray's Inn, and be-
came a prominent member of a club of royalists to
which " Hudibras " Butler is said to have belonged.
Then, as the pathway of life was daily growing
brighter, he was attacked by an epidemic fever,
and died on the 29th of April, 1658. It is re-
corded that his friends gave him "a splendid fun-
eral," and poets vied with one another in singing
his praises both in English and in Latin. He was
buried in the Church of St. Michael Royal, which
was swept away by the deluge of fire that purged
London in 1666.
It was as a satirist that Cleveland was best known
and most highly esteemed during his lifetime, and
it is as a satirist that he will retain what slight hold
he has upon fame. Yet, as was at the outset stated,
he saw possibilities in other directions. His first
ventures into the realm of poesy betrayed a most
extravagant species of Marinism, and this tendency
to exaggerate was always one of his most marked
characteristics. He was often wont to goad a sim-
ile to death. In his " Fuscara, or the Bee Errant,"
full as it is of single lines of great beauty, fancy
runs completely mad, and so too in "The Sense's
Festival." The best example of his efforts in the
vein of the cavalier bards is a poem " Upon Phyllis
Walking in the Morning before Sunrise." In this
he shows a freshness and charm that remind one of
Herrick. Here is an excerpt:
"The winged choristers began
To chirp their matins, and the fan
Of whistling winds like organs played,
Until their voluntaries made
The wakened earth in odors rise
To be her morning sacrifice.
The flowers, called from out their beds,
Start and raise up their drowsy heads;
And he that for their color seeks
May see it vaulting to her cheeks,
Where roses mix; no civil war
Divides her York and Lancaster."
It is difficult to quote with entirety from Cleve-
land. He is rarely sustained, and not infrequently
offends against tbe canons of good taste. The
song entitled " On Black Eyes," however, is quite
as happy as some pieces by his contemporaries to be
found in anthologies of to-day.
"In faith 'tis true I am in love;
'Tis your black eyes have made me so;
My resolutions they remove.
And former niceness overthrow.
"Those glowing charcoals set on fire
A heart that former flames did shun,
Who, heretic unto desire,
Now's judged to suffer martyrdom.
"But, Beauty, since it is thy fate
At distance thus to wound so sure,
Thy virtues I will imitate,
And see if distance prove a cure.
"Then farewell mistress, farewell love,
Those lately entertained desires
Wise men can from that plague remove;
Farewell black eyes and farewell fires."
The most extravagant of Cleveland's poems are
two entitled "For Sleep" and "Against Sleep."
In these he outdoes Crashaw in the use of hyper-
bole. One moment sleep is "grief's antidote,"
"soul's charter," "bodie's writ of ease," "reason's
reprieve," " life's serenest shore," "a smooth-faced
death," and " the firm cement of unraveled hours";
the next it is "joy's lethargy," "the sense's cur-
few," "night's winter," "an unexplored chaos,"
"the unfathomed gulf of time," and other things
equally doleful.
Passing from all this folly, we find that Cleve-
land was probably the first English poet to make
deliberate use of the dactyl and anapest,— that is,
if we do not take into account the pre-Chaucerian
rhymesters. Here was his opportunity of winning
for himself a permanent place in literature; and
had he not been turned aside by force of circum-
stances, those ear-catching measures that have so
delighted latter-day readers and poets might have
been given to the language more than a century
earlier. In some of Cleveland's political pieces is


270
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
heard the trip of the anapest, and also in a rollick-
ing poem reminiscent of the poet's early Cambridge
days. In a fantastic, impetuous lyric, " Mark An-
tony," the dactyls go madly chasing one another.
In form this is the precise counterpart of Scott's
famous song in the "Lady of the Lake,"—
"Row, vassals, row for the pride of the highlands."
May it not be possible that Scott, poring over an
unearthed copy of Cleveland's poems (almost as
little known in Scott's time as now), came upon
and was fascinated by the stanza in which the
whimsical poem is cast, and adopted it for his own
uses?
The confusion, the spite, the bitterness of civil
war, turned Cleveland's thoughts and energies to-
wards those whom he considered the worst foes of
the State,— the growing, the successful party that
opposed the King. He quitted his experiments
with anapests and dactyls, and began dealing strong
blows with iambics. He was the first poet to cham-
pion the royal cause, and from the beginning of the
conflict until the surrender of the garrison at New-
ark he was untiring in his spirited attacks. He
made himself very repugnant to the Covenanters,
for we hear him spoken of by one of that body as
"that grand malignant of Cambridge." As a sa-
tirist Cleveland has much of the virility of Donne.
He uses to the best advantage his powers of exag-
geration, and even the tough Puritans winced under
his lash of ridicule. He is at his best in "The
Rebel Scott." In this scourging fashion he begins:
"How! Providence! and yet a Scottish crew!
Then Madam Nature wears black patches too."
In another poem he urges Prince Rupert on with
vehement lines; he raises an ironical "Hue and
Cry after Sir John Presbyter"; he shows burning
indignation in the " King's Disguise"; and bursts
forth in bitter vituperation in verses upon Crom-
well. From these satires of Cleveland Butler drew
his inspiration for " Hudibras," one of the most re-
markable satirical poems in the language, neglected
though it is by modern readers; while Andrew
Marvell and even Dryden felt their influence.
In the character of Cleveland there is much to
admire. He was steadfast in his principles when
such men as Waller cringed and vacillated; he
entered into the thick of the conflict with arm and
pen while Cowley and Davenant fled to the French
court, serving the cause far away from the actual
scenes of struggle and distress. In a ponderous
tome, "The History and Antiquities of Leicester-
shire," compiled when an "s" still had an "f "-ish
look, there is a portrait of the poet taken from a
painting by the artist Fuller. The face is strong
and noble, set in a frame of long waving hair. In
one hand is a scroll upon which is inscribed "The
Rebel Scott," and encircling the portrait are these
lines,—
"This, this is he, who, in poetic rage,
With scorpions lashed the madness of the age."
Clinton Scollard.
COMMUNICA TIONS.
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN SPEECH.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
The article on the Future of American Speech in the
last issue of The Dial is one with which I agree in
many particulars, notably its plea for good books instead
of trivial and trashy books, and of good English instead of
sensational and bad English. As a student of language,
however, and especially as one acquainted somewhat
with the history of our English speech, I must dissent
both from some of the facts cited, and from some of
the conclusions drawn. For example, it has been es-
tablished by indisputable proofs that Chaucer did not in
any sense create the English language, nor did Luther
create the German language, and without knowing Ital-
ian I have no hesitancy in saying Dante did not "cast
in definite mould " the language of Italy. Chaucer, the
scholar tells us, simply used the dialect with which he
was familiar, the English of his native London, and
that this dialect, by virtue of its being the language of
the principal centre of English life and thought, not by
reason of Chaucer or any other single individual, be-
came the standard literary language of Britain. In
fact, the distinct coloring of southern dialect shown in
Chaucer's works has left little if any trace in the liter-
ary English of to-day. Chaucer, instead of creating
the language, but marks the period at which London
English began to occupy the place it has since held as
the literary language of Britain.
What now of American English in the light of mod-
ern linguistic science? We all know that English of
a fairly good sort, certainly not a peasant dialect of
England, was brought to this country in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Since that time, while we
have been much influenced by the literary language of
Britain, we have also been developing under the nat-
ural conditions of our national life a language in which
any careful observer may find many words and idioms
not now used in England. In other words, except for
the unpleasant sense we usually attach to the term, we
have an American dialect. Considered from the stand-
point of London English, which is of course the natural
development on English soil, American English is a
dialect. Considered from an equally true point of
view, it is now, whatever it was in the past, the fairly
homogeneous language of sixty or seventy millions of
people, and it would be a misnomer to call it a dialect
in any such sense as is implied by saying that York-
shire has a dialect. In fact, we have here the strange
phenomenon of the language of a colony developing
into the language of twice as many people as there are
in the mother country. Moreover, the exponent of lin-
guistic science puts aside all demurrer to this by saying
simply, it was inevitable; for no two countries can be
so separated as America and England, and retain ex-
actly the same language. He will doubtless add, more-
over, that no known power can now bring the two de-
velopments from the same parent stock completely to-
gether, although he will also say with The Dial that
the two languages may never become unintelligible, and
may even be kept from diverging widely.
Let me say at once that I believe this as a scientific
fact, and that in believing and stating it I put aside all
patriotic motive. For certainly this is not a question
of patriotism but of language science. It was a dream
of Dr. Johnson, when he made his dictionary, that he


1893.]
271
THE DIAL
could "fix the language and put a stop to alterations."
Our own lexicographer, Webster, was wiser, for nearly
a century ago he used language which even now, as far
as we are concerned, is a fulfilled prophecy. In the
preface to his dictionary of 1806 he says:
"In each of the countries peopled by Englishmen, a dis-
tinct dialect of the language will gradually be formed; the
principal of which will be that of the United States. In fifty
years from this time, the American-English will be spoken
by more people than all the other dialects of the language,
and in one hundred and thirty years, by more people than
any other language on the globe, not excepting the Chinese."
But do not suppose I am advocating a laissez /aire
doctrine in language either from choice or from neces-
sity. All honor to good books and to the power they
have of becoming a part of us, and so indirectly in-
fluencing the language we use. Nor must we rely
wholly upon the schools. The few good books that can
ever be made a part of the school and college curri-
culum will have slight power to affect American En-
glish, unless to them be added the constant reading of
good books outside the school, in youth and in maturity,
a constant and widespread appreciation of that litera-
ture which our cousins across the sea will not prevent
us from reading, even if they claim it as their special
inheritance. But I would emphasize the fact that if we
would have a literature of our own, we must have a
language genuinely ours. And if that literature is to
be characteristic of us as a people, the language must
first grow up naturally out of the conditions of our life.
Sooner or later we must get over either trying to imi-
tate our British cousins, or feeling deeply grieved when
they kindly point out that we are not in all respects
like themselves. We may continue to appreciate the
best in them; we must still work out in our own way
the best in us. Oliver Farrar Emerson.
Cornell University, April SO, 189S.
THE TEACHING OP OUR MOTHER TONGUE.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
The question which The Dial takes up in its last
issue as to ways and means for the reformation of the
language written and spoken in America is one of lively
and present interest. As to the need of this reforma-
tion, with due deference to writers of the Walt Whit-
man school of speech, there can hardly be two opinions.
But the number of opinions as to admissible methods of
reform can be safely set down as infinite. Among these
methods the one which aims at improvement in the
teaching of English in the schools will probably be ac-
cepted with least dissent, and it is therefore doubtless
well to begin the battle at this point. Already we are
beginning to feel the stir of change in the teaching of
our mother tongue and of all the literature that is em-
bodied in it. "The pathway to perfection is through a
series of disgusts," says Mr. Pater, and although the
divine discontent with the English of the schools which
Mr. Adams and the Harvard committee have voiced is
as yet somewhat too practical and near-seeing, the dis-
gusts of Dr. Hall and of The Dial aim somewhat
higher and look to a wider perfection than that which
can be stated in terms of college admission require-
ments in English.
Ln this wider field the chief matter for dismay is the
apathy of content with which the present state of our
speech is viewed by the ogre of Public Opinion. To
inoculate Public Opinion with the virus of discontent is
the worthy task of the future. Let ns begin by admit-
ting that we are all of us halting and unsure of speech
and that there is little health in us. A long toil with
the elements of expression is the first great labor of
education. But after all, it is not lack of proficiency
in the mechanism of expression which marks out the
American speech for suspicion; we are only too facile
in attaining to the pedestrianism of prose. It is the
lack of the qualities of distinction, of purity of speech,
of style iu the wider sense, which is degrading our cur-
rent language. We lack ideals. Writing has ceased
to be an art, and has become a trade, to be mastered
by rules (if even by rules), and not by travail of spirit.
Perhaps one cause of this state of things, aside from
the evil influence of the democratic ideal in such con-
cernments, is that our American taste in matters of
style, after being formed on the narrow models of Ad-
dison and the eighteenth century writers in general
(witness Irving and his contemporaries), has since out-
grown their ideals of expression and has long been cast-
ing about without success for something better, until
out of so much free experimentation the present law-
lessness and slovenliness of style have resulted. It is
time to build up a new ideal of writing. What ideal
the American public will filially accept is the problem
before us. The reestablishmentof the artistic spirit in
a national literature at any epoch is usually brought
about by a recurrence to certain models of style, either
native or foreign. It is perhaps significant in this in-
stance that, as has been remarked, there is at present
a tendency to renew the study of the great Elizabethan
models of English literature. The "Augustan" age
has had its day. The "flaming modern Anglicisms"
(to use a pretty phrase of Lord Blackstone's) cultivated
by the Carlyles and Froudes of our time, as well as the
tedious Saxonisms of Freeman and the Germanizing
school, have shone awhile, and now their light is fading.
In the cycle of influences it were fitting that the great
and vital style of the Elizabethans should have its turn,
the style of Bacon, Hooker, Sidney, and a score of
others. It is a style of infinite richness and distinction,
and the study and imitation of its vital characteristics,
whatever other danger it might present, would not pre-
sent the danger of confirming our democratic speech in
the overflowing platitude towards which it is now di-
rected. Frederic Ives Carpenter.
Chicago, April 17, 1893.
ENGLISH LITERATURE AT A STATE
UNIVERSITY.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
Iu no study is the choice of methods so closely con-
nected with local conditions as in that of English litera-
ture. The point of departure, the amount of work, and
the kind of work, must all be determined mainly by the
character of the preparatory schools and the average
home surroundings of the pupils. Undoubtedly ninety
per cent of the students at Columbia College are pre-
pared at private schools, while an almost equally large
proportion of the Cornell students obtain their training
in the public schools of the state. In certain states,
furthermore, greater attention is paid to English than
in others, and the same holds good of different schools
in the same state. Although the second main condition,
the degree of culture in the home, cannot be definitely
tabulated, allowance can and must be made for it. In
the following account, I wish to outline very briefly the


272
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
future policy of the University of Illinois as regards the
teaching of English literature, a policy arranged in
strict accordance with the local conditions, as these have
impressed themselves upon me after a year's close ob-
servation. The omission of language studies is due not
to their absence in the course but to the fact that they
do not come within the scope of my subject.
One of the first difficulties that presented themselves
was how best to give a general survey of the subject
that should be both clear and comprehensive. Such a
survey should aim at three results: 1, to indicate the
main lines of literary development; 2, to impress the per-
sonalities of the different authors upon the students; 3, to
interpret the most characteristic works of these authors.
The first two of these results may be best achieved,
I am inclined to think, by lectures, the third by text-
books with explanatory notes, supplemented by home-
reading. There can be no intelligent treatment of lit-
erature that does not bring out the relation it bears to
life, and yet this principle, familiar to triteness, is, I
fear, too often neglected in our college classes.
The proper treatment of American authors was an-
other stumbling block. My experience has led me to
believe that they should not be treated separately but
incorporated with the study of English prose and po-
etry of the nineteenth century. Indeed, I should be
inclined to go farther and leave this work entirely to
the high school.
There remains to be considered the introductory study
of literature by the scientific students, who now form a
section by themselves. As this is the only literary work
open to them, a modification of the course is evidently
called for. Some connection, also, should be made be-
tween it and their professional studies. This latter need
will be met hereafter by a device which, to the best
of my knowledge, is a novelty in the college curri-
culum. After the completion of the general survey,
which is accomplished in the first two of the three
terms, the spring term will be devoted to the critical
reading of scientific prose. Representative extracts
from Darwin, Audubon, Agassiz, Buckle, Herbert Spen-
cer, and others, will be discussed, together with the
characteristics of the men themselves. Thus, while ob-
taining a knowledge of good writing, the student of sci-
ence will at the same time gain a broader professional
culture. This same principle could be applied with ad-
vantage in the case of students of art and music.
My Shakespeare class is conducted on a plan that
would undoubtedly shock many good people. The reci-
tations often become debates, in which each member is
not only allowed but encouraged to express his own
opinion on any disputed point. After a month of this,
I had the satisfaction of being told by one of the most
intelligent men in the class that for the first time in his
life he had enjoyed reading Shakespeare. Some weeks
ago, while " The Merchant of Venice " was being read,
Mr. Denton J. Snider delivered a lecture on that play
at the University. The following morning he came
into my Shakespeare class, the work being a discussion
of the lecture. As the class was dispersing, one of the
members asked me if I thought Mr. Snider would be
willing to talk to them that afternoon. His consent fol-
lowed immediately upon my request. For an hour he
talked, answered questions and met objections, to the
great delight and profit of seventy-five students. The
very fact that his listeners did not agree with all that
he said constituted the main value of the talk, for it
inspired thought. It is not always possible to enliven
one's Shakespeare class in such a way; it is possible,
however, to make the story of his works a real living
thing, and if this element be lacking it is not the fault
of Shakespeare.
The special treatment of the other subjects must be
dismissed with a word. The chief aim is to give as com-
plete an impression as possible of each author studied.
Wherever it is practicable, the "Globe" editions are
used as text-books, and in the literary courses philology
and grammar are kept severely in the background, ex-
cept in so far as these are necessary to the proper un-
derstanding of the meaning.
One special feature, though not a part of the regular
course, and I shall close. Having noticed a very slight
acquaintance with contemporary literature among my
students, I started some months ago a series of informal
talks on present literary topics, held every Friday after-
noon and open to all students. While attended by com-
paratively few, from seven to twenty, these meetings
have been not without value in encouraging culture.
Among the subjects treated were, "Authors I Have
Met," " American Essayists," " Ibsen," " The American
Short Story." Discussion is encouraged, and the sub-
jects are chosen by the class from a number suggested.
Daniel Kilham Dodge.
Champaign, III., April 18, 1893.
LITERATURE AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
It is interesting to notice Mr. Brander Matthews's
objection to C. in The Dial of April 1. Mr. Matthews
instructs Mr. C. that if he will get a catalogue of Col-
umbia College he will change his opinion that "Har-
vard is the only institution where any considerable num-
ber of courses in pure literature has been offered to
advanced students." If Mr. Matthews will obtain a cata-
logue of Indiana University, he will see that Columbia
is not "the only institution in America that has a pro-
fessorship in literature in addition to a chair of En-
glish language and literature, and a chair of rhetoric."
For two years Professor Edward Howard Griggs and
one instructor have given courses in the study of pure
literature. These courses include a study of the great-
est literary masterpieces, of the growth of literature in
the various races and epochs, and of the evolution of
literature in relation to life.
George Emory Fellows.
Bloomington, Ind., April 21, 1893.
A QUESTION OF PROPRIETY.
(To the Editor of The Dial. 1
My attention has been called to a communication in
"The Nation" of April 20 holding up the following
sentence from my recent article, " A Trio of Notable
Women," as an awful example of impropriety: "Under
her hospitable mahogany were frequently stretched the
eminent legs of Mrs. Barbauld, Sir James Mackintosh,
Dr. Southey," etc. It may be worth while to say, for
the benefit of the worried objector, that the playful ex-
pression objected to is an old one, well seasoned, and
justified by good usage. Thackeray was partial to it,
and rang many changes on it. You may find an in-
stance iu Chapter IX. of "The Great Hoggarty Dia-
mond." E G j
April 25, 1893.


1893.]
273
THE
DIAL
8Cfje Wtto Books.
Felix Dahn's Reminiscences.*
The unequalled fascination of a well-justified
autobiography is shown in the delightful pages
of the " Erinnerungen von Felix Dahn," which
we are told contain zwar nicht" Dichtung," nur
"Wahrheit aus meinem Leben." Dahn's early
life is connected entirely with Munich, where
both his parents were for more than a lifetime
leading actors in the Bavarian court theatre.
It is a happy, wholesome boy's life which meets
us, whose story can stand on the same shelf
with "Tom Brown" and Aldrich's " Story of
a Bad Boy."
The home was on the border of that superb
park, the "English Garden," through which
the rushing Isar speeds, and which gave a
charming prospect at all seasons; best of all
for young Felix, there was behind the house a
great garden enclosure, in whose beautiful and
quiet shades the growing boy, who showed
always a finely-strung and sympathetic nature,
lived and dreamed his unconscious poetry in
communion with the multiform plant and ani-
mal life about him. Yet not only reveries,
but hard blows and knocks have much place
in the eight years of boyhood here, namely in
the ffitterspiele, of which Dahn says, "They
were the greatest happiness of my boyhood,
perhaps the greatest and purest of my life."
His youthful imagination, first fired by Schil-
ler (from whose works he learned to read at
the age of five), found endless delight in his-
tory. Someone gave him the fourteen vol-
umes of Becker's "Weltgeschichte," which
he read through again and again, and in
dreams and visions of the night took part in
all wars and battles, and negotiated with kings
and envoys. Half-a-dozen youngsters make the
great back-garden their meeting-place, and
after vivid representation of the main line of
action, the chief warlike scenes are fought over,
the trellises, summer-houses, and bowling-alley
forming points for daring assault and valiant
resistance, with weapons which came very near
being perilous to life and limb. There was an
aesthetic training in all this warfare, for the
resources of costume and armor from which
the boys (sons of artists or actors) drew, played
no small part in developing an artistic sense.
There was also developed an admirable profi-
* Erinnerungen Ton Felix Dahn. In three volumes. Leip-
zig: Breitkopf und Hartel.
ciency in the use of all imaginable weapons,
a hardened and active body, and a spirit of
self-control in the midst of the fight; and
these experiences tell for realism in much of
Dahn's later descriptive writing. Like many
gifted men, Dahn exhibited great powers at
an early age, reminding one of Mill or Macau-
lay. At sixteen he is quit of the gymnasium
with distinction, and enters the University of
Munich a passionately industrious student,—
a character which he ever afterward main-
tains.
A little before this, a new romantic motive
enters the boy's life when he first meets upon
the street a pretty girl (" Didosa "), an appari-
tion which overwhelmed him with an entirely
new consciousness of the JSwig-weibliche, hold-
ing him under an all-potent influence for full
seven years, and inspiring many thousand
verses,— though he never ventures to address
a spoken word to his goddess, whom he con-
trives to pass daily on the street. The senti-
mentality of all this would seem highly absurd
were it not for its intense reality to his finely-
organized temperament; but the whole episode
is not the least poetic chapter in the life of
our author, and of its protective influence he
says:
"Wenn ich in meine Ehe getreten bin so rein und
uuberiihrt wie eine Jungfrau, wenn ich mir die Phan-
tasie und die Erinnerung unbefleckt erhalten hatte und
babe—, ich verdanke das und die ideale Weihe auch
all' meiner spateren heissen Liebespoesie dem schdnen
Kinde, der stummen Heiligen, die ich nie gekiisst:
Dank und Segen immerdar ttber ' Didosa !'"
In the University he is drawn irresistibly to
philosophy (aged 16 !) and follows it with a
devotion to study and a parsimony of time for
all other attractions (including the ordinary
diversions of the German student) which are
almost incredible. (A vigorous polemic against
the whole corps-system is one of the longer ar-
gumentative parts of the work.) Preeminent
in influence over him is the philosopher Karl
von Prantl. His adored instructor was in these
days beginning to excite the invidious suspic-
ion of the ultramontane party, which somewhat
later removed him from his philosophic chair,
the signal of attack being Priest Oischinger's
pamphlet, "Der Anthropologismus des Dr.
Prantl kritisch beleuchtet." Our young knight
of the Hitterspiele shuts himself in his room
day and night, writing in a high glow of in-
dignation, and brings out after forty-eight
hours the first "scientific" product of his in-
tellect, which made a printed pamphlet of some
fifty pages; the work sold successfully, and


274
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
made no small sensation at the time. In
1852 Dahn leaves for Berlin to spend a year
in strenuous work at law and philosophy, a
year of undoubted fruitfulness for his intellec-
tual and literary development. There come to
the surface indications of rare personal attrac-
tiveness in this fresh-spirited, high-minded boy,
which makes him a great favorite in what are
rightly the best homes in Berlin. The bril-
liant group of younger scholars and authors
soon discover and make a companion of the
young poet,— for his last few years have been
very productive in this field. Fritz Eggers,
Kugler, Fontane, Heyse, Zollner, Scherenberg,
and Otto Koquette welcomed him into their cir-
cle of choice spirits. He is made much of in
the home of Frau Birch-Pfeiffer, with whose
much-admired daughter (later Frau Wilhel-
mine von Hillern) an intimacy arises which
almost ends in marriage. The utterly candid
account of this relationship furnishes several
very readable chapters.
As is to be expected in so open a "Confes-
sion," the author makes a free statement of his
philosophical position, which is by no means
that of orthodox Christianity, despite its gos-
pel of "renunciation." Its chief tenets are:
An objective idealism, an ideal monism, the
unity of "the world" and "world-law," rejec-
tion of both materialism and supernaturalism,
and subjection of the single to the higher gen-
eral law as the basis for religion, morals, and
law.
The third volume has to do with the last years
in Munich (1854-1863) as legal practioner and
Privatdocent in the University. As a sort of as-
sistant for three years in justices' courts, Dahn
obtained a wholesome practical knowledge of
daily affairs and human nature; especially of
the Bavarian peasant, who, it may be said, is
not precisely the ideal figure of art and fiction.
A moving description is given of the dreaded
final "Asuessorpriifung," lasting two weeks,
from which the young man carried off first
honors in the kingdom of Bavaria. Such a
distinction opened up the most seductive pros-
pects in legal life. The Minister of the In-
terior urges him to become an assistant in his
department, promising him a rapid and bril-
liant career in the service. Dahn, who had
gone into legal work only as the necessary
opening to academic life, does not waver in his
purpose, and has the moral support (the only
kind he will consent to receive) of his father.
"Let the young man follow his heart!" says
the latter; and at the age of twenty-two the
hopeful Privatdocent begins his six years of
hard, unremunerated labor, under the utmost
stress for money, and tormented always by
fear of financial dependence. For support,
there is some work on King Max's " Bavaria,"
which suddenly fails in time of need, and a
long bitter experience of servile hack-writing
for bread, on subjects uncongenial and unfa-
miliar, which must be driven through in hot
haste for publication, and whose result is so
often returned as " unavailable." Despite his
personal popularity in the city, there was a cer-
tain lack of practical recognition on the part
of the powers that were, helped along by the
fact that the youth had already become not a
little "famous" as a philosophical speculator
and a writer of verse. We have this observa-
tion:
"An individual who is a university professor can carry
on any sort of secondary avocation without losing caste,
or forfeiting his reputation among ministers or peri-
wigged colleagues as a blameless craftsman. He can
ride, fish, bunt, play croquet and lawn-tennis, go trav-
eling for no scientific purpose, play chess and skat till
stars and (long before !) thoughts begin to pale; can
paint in oil and water-colors and in the open-air, play on
instruments to driving his fellow men deaf; can frit-
ter away every evening till midnight in society endowed
with intellect — or money ! — especially he can be a
politician to the death, passing term after term away
from his university in Parliament or in the lower or
(rarely) upper chamber of his own state; he can adorn
all voters' meetings with his orations, write political
leaders daily, carry on political journals, sit for hours
in the city council, or, as a father of the church, main-
tain its existence or (as far as such a thing can be im-
agined) reform it. All this, though it takes inconceiv-
ably more time, is permitted, and is in some degree
helpful to a career. But woe to him who has Imagin-
ation, and gives it out in verses 1 From that very hour
he is looked at with shrugging of the shoulders, as one
who has fallen from his dignity. Let him be never so
beloved and stimulating as a teacher, let him have pub-
lished more and better scientific work than his col-
leagues, judges and censors who have not been contam-
inated by Imagination; 'tis of no avail, the poet, even
though he be undoubtedly gifted, has lost his birth-
right, and even if he have complete success, such gross
violation of propriety is to be 'looked at with censure.'
Ah, how many of these Patriarchs of the Faculty would
be benefitted by a single grain of Imagination! With-
out ascertain amount of it, nothing can be produced or
given form, even in science."
In the midst of such burdens and anxieties
we find Dahn, as in Berlin, a very welcome
guest in the best circles. He draws some in-
teresting contrasts between North and South
German social habits. The centre of the most
stimulating academic intercourse at the time
was the Thiersch household. At the reunions
here, eating and drinking were kept commend-
ably in the background; music, conversation,


1893.]
275
THE
DIAL
and an occasional little impromptu address filled
up the short evening from eight to eleven. At
nine o'clock Herr Hofrath Thiersch wandered
in, often with an open hook in his hand, fresh
from his work in his library, continuing his
thinking aloud. Once he broke into an ani-
mated discussion on agricultural chemistry,
with the words: "No, no, the Idea has an ac-
tual existence in Plato!" Imagine the cold
horror of a well-bred company in Chicago, for
instance, at such an intrusion! There were
also distinguished artistic, musical, and literary
gatherings at Kaulbach's, Bluntschli's, and
Father Dahn's, and a group of young poets,
"The Crocodiles," under the dictatorship of
Geibel, which included Heyse, Lingg, Boden-
stedt, and Melchior Meyer.
To many, the richest chapters will be those
(24-31) which tell of Dahn's intimate rela-
tions with Riickert and Scheffel. The great
figure of Riickert, standing at the end of the
classic period of German poetry, shows its
most attractive personal side. His frank re-
cognition of Dahn's boyish talents was the
cheering note of victory which made waiting
for success an easy thing. Scheffel and Dahn
are perhaps the most nearly related in point of
gifts of moderu writers, and it is helpful to
one's good opinion of humanity to find that
they were best of friends.
There is not much publication in this stren-
uous period, but the beginnings of much later
work. The " Kampf um Rom " (which Dahn
does not consider his best work, in spite of its
great popularity) owes its origin to the polit-
ical relations between Italy, Austria, and France
in 1858. The next year it was laid away, in
a general feeling of distrust as to poetical gifts.
(Later, 1874, Dahn knelt before the stove to
burn up the whole manuscript. Chancing to
notice a few passages which seemed to him
rather good, he stood up and read them to his
wife, before committing them to the fire. She
took the paper from his hands, saying in her
own decided way, " You shan't burn that up ! ")
Finally, under worries and excessive mental
work, health is threatened, and on physician's
advice Dahn makes a sojourn in the Tyrol and
northern Italy, employing his time chiefly in
exploring the ancient archives in the deserted
and haunted city, Ravenna. Almost in despair
as to future resources, he receives the joyful
news of an appointment to an "extraordinary
professorship" in the legal faculty of Wiirz-
burg, with a salary of three hundred dollars a
year. Later volumes are to treat of his pro-
fessor's life at that place, Konigsberg, and
Breslau.
The charm of these volumes lies in their
frankness, their invincible sprightliness, and
the society into which they lead us; their effect
is helped, rather than hindered, by the free
and discursive treatment. Throughout there
is an idyllic touch of natural and artistic beauty,
and a high idealism with which we whirling
Americans find it sometimes good to come into
contact. Nowhere do we remember to have
seen truer or more lasting friendships recorded.
Lastly, these books are welcome and of perma-
nent value, not only for the near view they
give of poet, novelist, jurist, and dramatist, but
because we recognize in Dahn,— from his en-
thusiastic absorption in his chosen theme, and
from his heroic studies in this special field,—
the typical exponent of Germanics, in the wid-
est sense of the term.
James Taft Hatfield.
Northwettern University.
An Inside View of Waterloo.*
On his return from Elba (March, 1815),
Napoleon found France divided in his favor,
and all Europe united against him. He prob-
ably hoped for a general peace, but was con-
fronted by a general war. Every power en-
tered the adverse coalition, and the ambas-
sadors he tried to send out were all stopped at
the very frontier of France and sent back to
Paris.
This being the situation, while I may not
dispute Mr. Ropes's opinion, put forth in his
new "Campaign of Waterloo," that the army
with which the great commander invaded Bel-
gium to meet Wellington and Bliicher was
one of the best he ever commanded, and easily
the best of the three in the field, yet a feeling
will intrude that the men composing it fought
rather as a " forlorn hope" than as a cheerful
and confident body of soldiers, foreseeing not
only honor and glory but victory and repose.
One general officer, with his staff, deserted to
the enemy before a blow was struck. The
Prussians at Ligny, though defeated (June
16), fought with an obstinacy which showed
that Napoleon's lessons in the art of war had not
been lost upon them. On the same day Ney
actually failed in his attack on the British-
Continental force at Quatre Bras, though the
•The Campaign or Waterloo : A Military History. By
John Codman Ropes. New York: Charles Seribner's Sons.


276
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
French Marshal (Ney) had more men under
his command (not all engaged) than had Wel-
lington.
The two battles were going on at the same
time, within sound of each other's guns; and
one whole French corps (d'Erlon's), through
Ney's failure to do his best, passed the en-
tire day vibrating between the two, not fir-
ing a shot in either; though to act on Quatre
Bras would have defeated Wellington, and to
act on Ligny would have turned Bliicher's de-
feat into a ruinous rout. In either case Wa-
terloo never would have been lost and won —
never would have been fought. Later, Napo-
leon thought that Bliicher was retreating south-
east toward Namur (his base), while in fact the
tough old fighter—seventy-three years old and
badly hurt in the battle—abandoned his base,
stuck to the fighting line, and went straight
northward to Wavre, where he was close to
Wellington's left elbow when (June 18) the
death-struggle took place at Waterloo. Na-
poleon's mistake made him detach Grouchy,
with 33,000 men, to follow Bliicher and his
Prussians, while he himself pursued Welling-
ton and his conglomerate force toward Brus-
sels. If Napoleon had not made that mistake,
Waterloo might still have been lost and won;
only the winners and losers would have changed
places.
Grouchy found what road Bliicher had taken
and obeyed Napoleon's instructions to follow
him,— obeyed them too literally; for when, at
Walhein, he heard the guns at Waterloo to
the northwest, he still marched north, because
the Prussians had marched north. Then when
he reached Wavre, he attacked the single di-
vision left there, while Bliicher, with two
whole corps, had gone west to Waterloo, to fall
on the French right and roll it up like a scroll.
If Grouchy had cut across, and taken Bliicher
in flank (as General Gerard had urged when
they heard the guns), again the fortune of the
day would have been other than it was; for
Wellington was on his last legs when Bliicher
made his terrible diversion.
On the field of Waterloo Napoleon found
the English-Dutch-Belgian-Hanoverian-Bruns-
wicker force — only 31,000 of the 93,000 be-
ing English — in a strong position, and ready
to fight him. At daybreak (June 18) he too
was ready, so far as the massing of his army
was concerned; but it had rained steadily for
days together, and the ground was in a terrible
condition, especially for cavalry. The rain
stopped during the morning, and at one in the
afternoon the French began the fight. Four
hours of death and destruction followed, and
up to that time success had favored the French.
One Dutch-Belgian brigade had been driven
off the field, and the advance post on the En-
glish centre — La Haye Sainte — was held by
their enemies. It might be called the key to
the position, for it gave an enfilading fire to the
French artillery. Then, far away to the east-
ward, on the heights of St. Lambert, the dark
line of Bliicher's advance began to be visible—
a cloud that would never clear away from Na-
poleon's horizon. If the battle had begun three
hours sooner, and continued as it had begun,
Bl—cher would have been too late, and again
history would have a different tale to tell.
Ney, who at Quatre Bras had fallen short of
his high reputation, also did poorly at Water-
loo. Hougomont, in front of the British right,
was a stone house, surrounded by stone walls
and gateways, all loop-holed for musketry.
Ney, in command of the French left, had the
task of taking it, and set about the job in an
unpardonably cruel and wasteful way: by send-
ing infantry against it without first making
way for them with his artillery. All day the
brave French assailed it, ineffectually; losing,
it is said, 2000 killed in that one spot, and
wrecking the Second Corps so that when the
final and crucial test came those troops were
unavailable. The test was when Napoleon had
to turn his whole attention to the Prussians,
leaving Ney in command in front of the En-
glish-allied force. Ney, essentially a cavalry
officer, did what would now be thought sui-
cidal, and what even then proved a disastrous
failure: he sent all the cavalry he could mus-
ter to attack the English infantry massed in
squares of regiments. The entire attacking
force was ruined; not a single English square
was broken by the cavalry. (Some were crushed
by the French artillery.)
The sacrifice of the French infantry around
Hougomont was what threw Ney upon his cav-
alry for the assault of the English centre after
his chief had gone off to fight the Prussians;
and then when, later, Napolean himself and
the Guard itself had been thrown fruitlessly
against the same centre, and had been fairly
and flatly beaten, the absence of the splendid,
ruined cavalry made the defeat a rout, and
Waterloo Napoleon's last battle.
The all-day pounding of Napoleon's 250
pieces of artillery, the early rout of the Dutch-
Belgian brigade (which, by the way, had been
falsely, cruelly, and improperly thrown out


1893.]
277
THE
DIAL
into an exposed place quite in front of the
centre), the exhaustion under the wild assaults
of the cavalry, these blows, together with the
other casualties of battle, had thinned the En-
glish line to a thread. Whole regiments had
ceased to exist, and there were no new ones to
take their places. The enfilading fire from
the newly-captured elevation of La Haye Sainte
made much of the English line "untenable,"
in soldierly parlance. Sir James Shaw-Ken-
nedy, who was on this part of the line, says:
"La Haye Sainte was in the hands of the
enemy, also the knoll on the other side of
the road, also the garden and ground on the
Anglo-Allied side of it. Ompteda's brigade
was nearly annihilated and Kielmansegge's so
thinned that those two brigades could not
hold their position."* Yes, it was "unten-
able," and yet the indomitable Britons held it.
"They did not know they were beaten." The
Iron Duke sat on his grey horse and rode back
and forth along the wreck of his line, cool and
quiet — silent except where some regiment
needed a word of encouragement or admoni-
tion. Such was the state of things when, about
7 p. M., Napoleon felt free to leave the re-
pulsed Prussians on his right and make the ef-
fort of his life,—strike the blow which proved
to be his last.
Of the 12,000 men composing the Guard
<the " Old," the " Middle," and the "Young"
Guards), he had 4000 or less at his disposal.
Himself joining and addressing them (not at
their head, as is absurdly said), he turned them
over to Ney, who threw them against the
same sore spot, the centre, the place where had
occurred the only French success of the day,
and where lay the only avenue of retreat for
the English in case of defeat. They made their
assault — perhaps the most famous charge in
all history.
How did they advance? What was their
formation for that awful half-mile march? It
was in column, the narrow, deep formation,
wherein only the front-rank men see their road
and their enemy; their followers feeling the
blows, but powerless to return them. It would
be absurd for a single non-military critic to find
fault with a formation sanctified by immemo-
rial tradition and used by the great master of
battle, if it were not that the whole fighting
'Sir Jamea was a very distinguished soldier of the Penin-
sular War (where he was known as "The Intrepid "), and a
writer as well. He was a staff officer on duty near the centre
at Waterloo, and was a most intimate friend of the Duke of
Wellington. Mr. Vernon Shaw-Kennedy, of Chicago, is his
ii
world has since condemned and abandoned it.
But now that it is a thing of the past, one won-
ders that it endured so long after the use of
fire-arms made it an absurdity. The phalanx of
spear-armed men was formidable against spear-
armed foes; but the phalanx of musket-armed
men is the mere sport of cannon and musketry
— a pasture for flanking bullets and plunging,
tearing cannon-shot.
This devoted body of veterans advanced with
a front (in echelon) of only seventy men! The
French cannon, which had been pouring their
shot into the enemy's thin, dwindling line, sud-
denly ceased; while the cannon opposed to them
volleyed and thundered with redoubled feroc-
ity. The English infantry reserved its volley
until the leading files of the assault were within
—it is said—thirty paces; then it opened fire,
and the head of the most advanced column went
down like grass before a prairie-fire; and like
a prairie-fire the destruction in front carried
destruction with it to all beyond. The Guard
recoiled—and that was " the end of all things."
The British and their associates sprang for-
ward on the retreating masses, and the Em-
peror himself was hurried to the rear. But
there the indomitable Bliicher — soldier from
scalp to toe, and a violent personal hater of
Napoleon — had renewed his assault and made
it triumphant. There were those who thought
the English-Allied line had done enough and
that the pursuit should be left to the Prus-
sians, but the Iron Duke would not have it so.
He said — or others have said for him — that
to leave the Prussians to gather the spoils
would make the world think that the Prus-
sians had won the victory. They surely did
not. Whether they could or could not have
done what the English did that day may be left
in doubt. We of the Anglo-Saxon race are
prone to think that the line of Waterloo would
not have been held by any other race on earth
except our own.
At the crossing of the Dyle, some five miles
away, a hundred pieces of French artillery
were captured. This shows the completeness
of the allied victory. Brave Grouchy,* whose
error of omission was one of the many causes
leading to the disaster, was left in command
of the relics of the army. Brave blundering
Ney was tried, condemned, and shot as a
traitor to Louis XVIII., the Bourbon King of
* M. Masure, a connection of Marshal Grouchy, now on
duty in Chicago on the French Commission to the World's
Columbian Exposition, indicates the family feeling to be that
the Marshal stood too much in awe of Napoleon, and fol-
lowed his ordera too implicitly.


278
[May 1,
THE DIAL
France, who, by the way, was all this time at
Ghent, safely beyond the hearing of the bat-
tles waging in his behalf.
So there were six possibilities, the occur-
rence of any one of which would either have
prevented Waterloo or reversed its result: (1)
A quicker seizure of Quatre Bras by Ney,
whereby his lost day would have been saved,
and d'Erlon's corps thrown upon Bliicher's
right and rear, forcing the Prussians to retreat
to Namur on the southeast instead of Wavre
on the north. (2) A better handling of d'Er-
lon's troops, whereby either English or Prus-
sians would have been crushed. (3) Wiser
orders to Grouchy. (4) Wiser interpretation
by Grouchy of the orders he did receive. (5)
An earlier attack at Waterloo (supposing it
to have been physically possible). (6) Less
haste and waste after the attack did begin.
On the other hand, certain better disposi-
tions might have been made by the Allies,
with more or less probable effect on the out-
come. Wellington could have had his force at
Quatre Bras twenty-four hours earlier. He
could easily have had Colville's 18,000 men
added to his fighting-line at Waterloo, for they
were idle all day within reach of his right and
rear.
But after all, " che sara sara." It was to be,
and it was. Even if Bliicher had gone one
way and Wellington another, if Brussels had
been taken and Belgium declared for Napoleon;
there were still England, Prussia, Russia, Aus-
tria, Holland, and the rest to deal with, and
France, if not hostile, yet exhausted and di-
vided. Imperialism was doomed, and now it is
dead. Peace to its ashes! — and on its ashes
Peace thrives. Continued peace and liberty in
France will yet overthrow imperialism in Ger-
many and both Waterloo and Sedan be avenged.
Curious are the winnowings of history. Cam-
bronne, with his "Xa Garde meurt, et ne se
rend pas," is not even mentioned in Mr. John
C. Ropes's " Campaign of Waterloo," of which
work a few words in closing this article.
The book is one of simple facts, military and
personal, and is more readable than a novel.
To a reader who has ever seen war, it is en-
trancing; he begrudges the time taken from
it even to eat and sleep. He inevitably agrees
with most of Mr. Ropes's conclusions, except
perhaps where he forgets that even soldiers are
not mere machines, and finds fault with delays
that were evidently only pauses for sleep. On
paper it is easy to start men at dawn (3 A. M.
at that time and place) to obey an order given
at midnight; but in the field it is often shown
that the troops who hear the hateful reveille
when their sleep is at its deepest and best are
passed on the march by others who were allowed
to rest three hours longer.
Another criticism must be made, one regard-
ing Mr. Ropes's style, clear and graphic as it
is. The book is marred by the continual repe-
tition of one error,— an error so obvious that
it would not pass the proof-room of a leading
Chicago daily paper. I mean the misuse of
"have been,"— its repetition where its second
appearance is not only superfluous but erro-
neous: "As for Ziethen, he could not have
come up till half-past seven o'clock, which
would have been to late for him to have been
of any use to the English" (p. 328). The
author means that it would have been too late
to be of use. It can never be too late to have
been anything. The error occurs constantly;
the examples if brought together would make
a string of sentences equalling the well-known
test phrase: "If I had known it had been you
I should have tried to have gone to have seen
vou- Joseph Eibkland.
The Experimental Investigation op
Evolution.*
The importance of experimental study of the
higher problems of evolution, as to which biol-
ogists are now pretty well agreed, is strongly
set forth by the eminent French biologist, M.
De Varigny, in a series of lectures originally
delivered in the Edinburgh "Summer School
of Art and Science," and now collected into a
volume. As stated in his preface, he has not
attempted to cover the whole subject of evolu-
tion; and he has, naturally, given most atten-
tion to facts and documents from French
sources. His especial purpose is to show what
should be done, in future, on behalf of the
evolution theory, and his conclusion is that the
only method of securing any further advance
in solving the problems of organic evolution
is by experiment. In the first lecture is given
a general statement of the evolution hypoth-
esis, and the gradual growth of this hypothesis,
especially in French literature. The ideas of
Claude Duret (1605), de Maillet (1748), Rob-
inet (1766),Buffon (1761-6),Lamark(1809),
and Geoffry St. Hilaire, are summarized. Es-
* Experimental Evolution: Leotures delivered in the
"Summer School of Art and Science," Edinburgh. By
Henry De Varigny, D.Sc. New York: Macmillan & Co.


1893.]
279
THE
DIAL
pecial attention is called to the veteran French
botanist Naudin, who in 1852 published a very
interesting paper on the Origin of Species, in
the "Revue Horticole." Naudin says:
"We do not think that Nature has made her species
in a different fashion from that in which we proceed
ourselves in order to make our variations. To say the
truth, we have practised her very method. When we
wish, out of some zoological or botanical species, to ob-
tain a variety which answers to such or such of our
needs, we select out of the large number of the indi-
viduals of this species so as to make them the starting
point of a new stirp, those which seem already to depart
from the specific type in the direction which suits us,
and by a rational and continuons sorting of the descend-
ants, after an undetermined number of generations, we
create types or artificial species which correspond more
or less with the ideal type we had imagined, and which
transmit the acquired characters to their descendants
in proportion to the number of generations upon which
our efforts have been bearing. Such is, in our opinion,
the method followed by Nature; as well as by ourselves;
she has wished to create races conformable to her
needs, and with a comparatively small number of prim-
itive types, she has successively, and at different peri-
ods, given birth to all the animal and vegetable species
which people the earth."
To this the author remarks: "Now this method
is exactly that which we know under the name
of Natural Selection and Artificial Selection."
Naudin's name deserves, therefore, a high place
in the history of the progress of evolutionary
thought.
De Varigny gives a review of the general
proofs of evolution—palaeontological, embryo-
logical, morphological. None of these is abso-
lutely conclusive, however, and the only true
method is to demonstrate the transformation of
one species into another. To do this experi-
mental evolution is necessary. He recites the
facts that lie at the basis of experimental trans-
formism and at the same time display its con-
ditions and its methods. Of these he distin-
guishes three groups: The first and most
important comprises the facts that illustrate
variability in the state of nature — natural or
"spontaneous" variability; the second group
includes the facts of variation under domesti-
cation and culture; the third presents the facts
illustrating the direct influence of environ-
ment as a factor of modification and trans-
formation. The interest of these lectures con-
sists not only in the comprehensive account of
the researches and experiments of others, but
also of the new experiments made by the au-
thor himself. He shows that a high degree of
variability exists among animals and plants in
the natural state as well as under domestica-
tion, and that through the modification of en-
vironment we are able to determine some
changes in organisms. These facts provide
the basis and suggest the methods of experi-
mental transformism. These methods must
rest upon the basis of experiment as applied
to the efficiency of the factors of evolution.
The author accepts, with Le Conte, five such
factors: First, environment; second, use and
disuse; third, natural selection; fourth, sex-
ual selection; fifth, physiological selection.
He gives many suggestions in regard to the
nature of these experiments, and then remarks:
"What is required for their execution is an institu-
tion of some sort specially devoted to this line of in-
vestigation. It appears to me that this institution
should comprise the following essential elements: Rather
extensive grounds; a farm with men experienced in breed-
ing, agriculture, and horticulture; some greenhouses, and
a laboratory with the common appliances of chemistry,
physiology, and histology. Of course this must be lo-
cated in the country. It is very important to have ex-
perienced farm-hands, and a good chemist and bistolo-
gist are necessary in the staff of the institution. Into
the details of the work of the chemists, histologists, and
physiologists, it is not necessary now to enter; the mere
enumeration of the varied facts that have been quoted
shows that their services are of the utmost usefulness,
and are quite necessary for the investigation of the re-
sult. The cooperation of many outsiders might be of
great use. Young men might spend some time—three,
four, or five years, or more—in attending especially to
some of the experiments in course of execution, in the in-
vestigation of some special points. Many friends of sci-
ence also could do good work and help greatly by agree-
ing, for example, to cultivate in various localities the same
species of plant, or to cooperate in breeding special va-
rieties of animals, and reporting the results. The insti-
tution for this experimental investigation would thus be-
come the headquarters for all that concerns evolution,
and its influence would make itself felt in all depart-
ments of natural history, and thus create a strong cur-
rent in the line which, sooner or later, must be opened.
That this will be the case, I do not entertain the slight-
est doubt. The thing must be done. It is a matter
of money — as usual. The matter is of sufficient im-
portance when we consider that nothing less is proposed
than an application of experiment to the solution of one
of the highest problems of science, and the one in which
thinking mankind is most interested."
With the expression of these hopes, the au-
thor finishes his highly interesting book. We
fully agree with him that experimental work
in biology is of the greatest importance for the
future. The matter has been fully considered
in the programme of courses in biology at the
University of Chicago. "It is a matter of
money—as usual," De Varigny says, correctly.
May we hope that this will prove a small mat-
ter for Chicago, and that it will soon have the
first biological experimental station.
Geoege Baub.
University of Chicago.


280
[May 1
THE DIAL
The Irrepressible Conflict.*
"The Anti-slavery Movement" might very
well be the title of the first two volumes of Mr.
J. F. Rhodes's « History of the United States."
Mr. Rhodes proposes to write the history of
the United States from 1850 to 1885. The
parts already published treat almost exclu-
sively of the Slavery Question from the Com-
promise of 1850 to the election of Lincoln, the
discussion of tariffs, homesteads, and the like,
during the same period, being reserved for sub-
sequent volumes.
A chapter is devoted to the rise of the Anti-
slavery Movement to 1850, and there is a very
interesting and valuable examination of negro
slavery and of its effects. Whatever plausible
arguments in justification of it were advanced
at the South before the war are clearly pre-
sented; but this very fairness of statement
only serves to reveal in fuller light the utter
rottenness of the system. The reader will con-
clude this chapter with the feeling that under
a thorough analysis there was complete lack
of the slightest redeeming«feature in slavery,
that in no particular and from no point of view
could a case be made out for it. The author
shows the greatest familiarity with the growth
and changes of public opinion as mirrored in
the daily and weekly press. The Northern and
the Southern newspapers have been thoroughly,
it would almost seem exhaustively, searched
for all the light they throw upon the progress
of the struggle.
The brief but lively and effective estimates
of the character and career of public men form
a conspicuous feature of the work. Every
reader must feel that in the main Mr. Rhodes's
judgments are singularly fair. Whether con-
sciously or not, the author has made the inter-
est of these two volumes centre about Douglas.
While the great ability and force of Douglas
are fully recognized, he is regarded, in re-
spect to his advocacy of "popular sover-
eignty," as actuated solely by ambition for the
Presidency. Mr. Rhodes portrays in strong
colors the betrayal of faith and the evil policy
involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Partic-
ularly noticeable, also, is the way in which the
author brings out the fact that while in 1854
the North seemed solid against Douglas's meas-
ure, his doctrine of "popular sovereignty"
was, as an instrument for making Kansas free,
* History or the United States, from the Compromise
of 1850. By James Ford Rhodes. Vol. I., 1850-1854; Vol.
II., 1854-1800. New York: Harper & Brothers.
afterwards to win him hundreds of thousands
of Northern adherents. Mr. Rhodes conveys
the idea that Douglas did not in 1854 believe
in his own doctrine, but thinks that his earlier
bad motives and bad statesmanship were largely
redeemed by his course after 1858.
Exception may be taken to the relative
prominence given to certain matters. Notably
a much fuller exposition of the Dred Scott case
would be desirable, even at the expense of the
interesting account of the yellow fever in New
Orleans, which, in fact, appears out of place.
The author might go more fully into strictly
constitutional questions without detriment to
the readable character of his book.
But the principal criticism to be passed
upon the work is that it misses the most com-
prehensive point of view. United States his-
tory has been written as if but for the slavery
question we should have had no history worth
the writing, whereas in fact it would be much
better worth the writing. Our real history
consists, first, in our national growth and, sec-
ond, in the advance of democracy in politics
and economics. It must therefore be treated
in the light of the great vital forces of national
unity and of democratic progress. Slavery is
to be studied merely as an obstacle to their
regular and normal working. The most sig-
nificant and far-reaching aspects of the occu-
pation of Kansas or of Texas are entirely in-
dependent of the slavery question. Slavery
threatened to disrupt the Union, and, even if
this extreme danger had not existed, the social
and economic system of the South was irre-
concilable with our national purposes and des-
tiny. So that, after all is said, the War of
1861 was a war for the Union, and if it be-
came also a war for the overthrow of slavery
where it existed, it was because slavery was in-
compatible with real national unity, with strong
harmonious national development.
In fact, the matter has an even broader as-
pect. The fundamental fact in all modern po-
litical history is the development of national
unity,— what some have been pleased to term
in our own case "manifest destiny,"— the in-
clusion under one government of peoples whose
traditions, interests, feelings, are sufficiently
similar to permit of political union. So strong
is this tendency that it has led in many cases
to more or less successful attempts to create
the necessary conditions for the desirable po-
litical amalgamation. In every European state,
let us repeat, this principle of political unity
and national development has been fundamen-


1893.]
281
THE DIAL
tal, and the same forces that everywhere in
Europe have been for centuries tending toward
the formation of larger and larger political ag-
gregates have always made the American peo-
ple instinctively feel that, with the exception
of lands whose populations were clearly inca-
pable of ready assimilation, every possible inch
of North America must be secured for the es-
tablishment of one homogeneous, politically
united nationality. However unjustifiable may
have been the annexation of Texas in the way
and for the purposes it was actually acquired,
it was still desirable and necessary that Texas
should be ours, for the same reasons that it
was desirable and necessary that the South
should not form a separate nation. Thus the
slavery struggle is the subordinate and not the
principal fact in our history; it is to be studied
in its dependence upon the irresistible expan-
sion of American democracy.
Consider, for example, the light thrown by
taking this proper standpoint upon Douglas's
contention that to reject "popular sover-
eignty " was to abandon our fundamental prin-
ciple of self-government. The true answer to
this is to point out the relation of the principle
of national unity to the principle of democ-
racy. Under modern conditions the former is as
essential and sacred a principle as the latter.
And so it is the people as a whole that must
decide questions vitally affecting the whole
country. The overthrow of slavery was essen-
tial to the accomplishment of our national ends,
and the question could not be left to local op-
tion. Douglas failed to see that the Jacksonian
theory of democracy must prevail over the Jef-
fersonian. It may be added that problems
have again presented themselves in which this
relation of national interest and a close na-
tional bond to the democratic principle ought
to be insisted upon.
But it will be many a long year before the
materials for the history of our national growth
have accumulated. And when they have been
collected, and are ready for the treatment of
the philosophical historian, many another year
may pass before the man for the work appears.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rhodes's work remains one
of the most valuable accounts of the slavery
struggle yet published. The interest of the
reader is sure to grow as he turns the pages,
and it is safe to say that the stirring history of
the period has not been told in a more forcible
and vivid way.
David E. Spencer.
University of Michigan.
Recent Books of Poetry.*
Among our younger American poets (who will,
so soon, be the oldest to remain with us) there is
none to whom we may look with more confidence
that the torch will be worthily borne than to Miss
Thomas. Each of her published volumes, since the
first, has been a distinct advance upon what went
before; each of them has been marked by increased
ripeness of thought and purity of style. The place
that their author occupies among our singers has
long been clearly defined, but every added collec-
tion of her verse has given new and more emphatic
authenticity to the title by which that place is held.
"Fair Shadow Land," the newest of these collec-
tions, is singularly free from defects. Here and
there is a word or a phrase that falls below the
dignity of the context; now and then a theme too
essentially trivial to fit the author's method of spir-
itualization —too light to bear the ethical burden
laid upon it — engages the attention. But in the
main the work is sober and adequate in subject-
matter, compact and noble in expression. Note
how all these conditions are fulfilled in the little
poem called " Lethe":
"Remembrance followed him into the aides.
They met. Awhile mute Sorrow held him thrall.
Then broke he forth in spirit words and sighs:
'Great was my sin! bat at my contrite call
Came pardon and the hope of Paradise;
If this be Heaven, thy blessing on me fall 1'
She looked. Peace filled her unremembering eyes;
She knew him not — she had forgotten all."
The conditions are also fulfilled — yet how differ-
ent the task! — in the exquisite lyric, " On the Eve
of Sleep," in four stanzas, two of which we repro-
duce:
"What is stiller than two blossoms kissing
Charily with petal tips?
Sweeter than the dew-drop that their kissing
Doth unsphere — and down it slips?
What is dimmer than the night-moth groping
For the lily's nectared lips ? —
Oh, stiller, sweeter, dimmer, is the first approach of Sleep!
(Yet guard us in that moment, lest thy boon we may not
keep!)
* Fair Shadow Land. By Edith M. Thomas. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Green Fields and Running Brooks. By James Whit-
comb Riley. Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Co.
Second Book of Verse. By Eugene Field. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons.
With Trumpet and Drum. By Eugene Field. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
The Finished Creation, and Other Poems. By Benja-
min Hathaway. Boston: Arena Publishing Co.
A Country Muse. New Series. By Norman R. Gale. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The City of Dreadful Night. By James Thomson.
With introduction by E. Cavazza. Portland, Me.: Thomas
B. Mosher.
A Paradise of English Poetry. Arranged by H. C.
Beeching. In two volumes. New York: Macmillan & Co.
A Book of Famous Verse. Selected by Agnes Repplier.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Dies Irj{: Three New Rhymed Versions. By Rev. M.
W. Stryker. F. H. ReveU Co.


282
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
".What is stranger than the moonlight mingling
With the red lire of the west?
Wilder than an Amazonian forest
Where no foot the mould hath pressed?
Dearer than the heart's most secret brooding
On the face it loveth best ? —
Oh, stranger, wilder, dearer, is the first approach of Sleep!
(Oh, guard us in that moment, lest we waver back and
weep!)"
To invest with spiritual meaning the moods and
aspects of nature has been the task of the modern
romantic spirit. We may say, with Mr. Raskin,
that to do this is to be misled by a "pathetic fal-
lacy"; we cannot agree with him in the opinion
that such attribution of human passions to natural
objects is a mark of poetical inferiority. Miss
Thomas often recurs to this method of objectiva-
tion, as in the verses,—
"The rocks are divulged, that hidden and cruel lie,
Under the waves in wait, as the beast in its lair!
Huge and harmless they shoulder the dusk night air;
A lighthouse gleams — they are charmed by its soreerous
eye!"
"Dead Low Tide," the poem which includes these
verses, offers an excellent illustration of the ethical
uses to which nature may be put by a mind that
insists upon providing the picture with a lesson.
We quote the closing stanzas:
"There is rest from motion, from toil; yet it is not rest!
The sounds of the land and the sea-sounds falter and cease;
The wave is at peace with the shore, yet it is not peace!
As the soldier at truce, as the pilgrim detained on his quest,
Baffled and silent, yet watchful, all things abide
The turn of the tide.
"I too abide. To the spirit within responds
The baffled yet watchful spirit of all things without.
'Shall I rest forever, beleaguered by sloth and doubt?'
'Not so; thou shalt rise and break the enchanted bonds.
And the limit that mocked thee with laughter shalt override
At turn of the tide!'
"Still higher the Night ascends, and star upon star
Arises by low-lying isle, and by headland steep,
And fathoms with silver light the slumbering deep . . .
Hark! was it a lapsing ripple along the bar?
Hark! was it the wind that awoke, remembered, and sighed?
Is it turn of the tide?"
Miss Thomas has always been an appreciative stu-
dent of the classics, and many of her poems are
tinged with reflections of Greek and Roman thought.
In fact, her noblest work is probably that which
deals directly with themes taken from classical his-
tory or mythology, or which is colored by their ray
serene. We need but recall such poems as " Deme-
ter's Search," " Lityerses and the Reapers," or some
of the lyric numbers of "The Inverted Torch."
There is in the new volume no poem more beauti-
ful than that which recounts what an ambitious
modern novelist calls "the touching incident of
Arria-Paeto." We can only quote a part of this
poem, and select the closing stanzas:
"With the dower of her beauty upon her she stood in his
wavering sight;
A true Roman wife, he beheld her, the peer of a true
Roman knight.
'Hast thou lost the old way, O my lord, dost thou need one
to set thee aright?'
Still smiled the red lips of Arria.
"And, smiling, she laid her warm hand on the steel true-tem-
pered and cold.
'This were the way!' (She has driven the point through her
tunic's white fold!)
'This it the way, — none other; but Pajtus, it hurts not —
behold! '—
And hushed were the lips of Arria.
"Oh, horror! oh, pity! oh, love! But now is no moment to
weep;
Let the bright death, from her heart to his own, importu-
nate leap;
Ay, for it hurts not when life flitteth forth from its cabinet
deep,—
Forth to the soul of Arria!
"One touch of her consecrate lips, one instant above her he
stands;
In the next he hath caught the life-drinking blade in his
two firm hands.
He hath tried the old way,—the old way that ever mocked
tyrannous bands,—
Now forth to the soul of Arria!"
Mr. Riley's new volume of poems is largely in
dialect, and dialect so treated as to open many a
glimpse into the workings of homely human nature.
But, excellent of its kind as all this work is, the
author's talent appears to us better employed in
efforts of a more serious sort. Is it not almost a
waste of poetic energy to expend upon the restricted
realism of dialect composition a power that com-
mands, as Mr. Riley's does, the broader horizons
of soul-life, and surprises the secrets of universal
nature. Such a poem as the following two-stanzaed
pearl is worth many a string of dialect beads. The
verses are of " The Singer."
"While with Ambition's hectic flame
He wastes the midnight oil,
And dreams, high-throned on heights of fame,
To rest him from his toil,—
"Death's Angel, like a vast eclipse,
Above him spreads her wings.
And fans the embers of his lips
To ashes as he sings."
Mr. Riley's insight into natural beauty is sympa-
thetic and true. His "Ditty of No Tone," "piped
to the Spirit of John Keats," seems at the first
glance a mere echo, but a closer study of its im-
agery shows the work to be essentially the author's
own. We quote the second of three stanzas:
"Deep silences in woody isles wherethrough
Cool paths go loitering, and where the trill
Of best-remembered birds hath something new
In cadence for the hearing — lingering still
Through all the open day that lies beyond;
Reaches of pasture-lands, vine-wreathen oaks,
Majestic still in pathos of decay ;—
The road — the wayside pond
Wherein the dragon-fly an instant soaks
His filmy wing-tips ere he flits away."
Note the entire absence of predication—so marked
a characteristic of modern poetry. Note also the
exquisite selection of material and felicity of dic-
tion. Such poetry deserves very high praise.
Mr. Eugene Field's "Second Book of Verse"
marks a distinct improvement upon his first. The
workmanship is more careful, there are fewer in-
felicities of diction, and fewer lapses from good


1893.]
283
THE
DIAL
taste. Mr. Field's verse never reaches a high level
of seriousness, and the more serious its aim, the
more apparent is the artificiality both of sentiment
and expression. A possible exception to this dic-
tum is offered by the best of his lyrics of childhood.
In these the sentiment is genuine, and the expres-
sion less strained than elsewhere. But Mr. Field's
successes are achieved upon the lower, although by
no means unworthy, planes of the humorous dialect
ballad, the reminiscence of travel, and the song of
the antiquarian or bibliomaniac. In the first of
these categories " Modjesky as Cameel" occupies a
high place. It is one of several dialect poems of
the West that are quite as good as Mr. Harte's
work in similar vein. Of the humorous travel-
sketches "Carlsbad" is quite our favorite. Prob-
ably the gem of the entire collection is the fancy
entitled " Dibdin's Ghost," a poem that must reach
the heart of every lover of rare books. The poet
relates how the ghost of Dibdin appeared to him in
a dream.
"I bade him welcome, and we twain
Disoussed with buoyant hearts
The various things that appertain
To bibliomaniac arts.
'Since you are fresh from t'other Bide,
Pray tell me of that host
That treasured books before they died,*
Says I to Dibdin's ghost.
"' They've entered into perfect rest;
For in the life they've won
There are no auctions to molest,
No creditors to dun.
Their heavenly rapture has no bounds
Beside that jasper sea;
It is a joy unknown to Lowndes,'
SayB Dibdin's ghost to me."
The dreamer asks his visitor if wives are admitted
to that blissful sphere, and learns that there are
but few of them —
"The few are those who have been kind
To husbands suoh as we."
The condition of the majority is thus described:
"' Oh, no! they tread that other path.
Which leads where torments roll,
And worms, yes. bookworms, vent their wrath
Upon the guilty soul.
Untouched of bibliomaniac grace,
That saveth such as we,
They wallow in that dreadful place,'
Says Dibdin's ghost to me."
- Mr. Field's songs of childhood occupy so distinct-
ive a place in his work as a whole that he has col-
lected the best of them into a special volume, "With
Trumpet and Drum." To furnish forth this charm-
ing volume both of his collections of verse have
been drawn upon, and we are given such delightful
pieces as "The Sugar-Plum Tree," "Buttercup,
Poppy, Forget-me-not," and "Wynken, Blynken,
and Nod." As the writer of these lyrics Mr. Field
has a secure place in the hearts of his readers, what-
ever they may think of the familiar license with
which he has handled his Horace, or of the verbal
vulgarisms to which he has chosen to give currency
in many of his verses addressed to a maturer public.
The quotation from Longfellow upon the title-
page of Mr. Hathaway's volume, said to be a trans-
lation from "Frederich von Logan," does not speak
well for the typography of the book, and we may
say at once that the mechanical execution of the
work is about as bad as possible. This is a de-
fect in any book, and peculiarly a defect in a book
of poetry. As for the matter of the volume, that
is another question. Mr. Hathaway writes verse
philosophical in its cast and semi-didactic in its pur-
pose. An excellent example is "My Creed."
"They have some truth, whatever creed professing,
Who follow in the way that Duty leads;
The simple souls and faithful find a blessing
In all the creeds;
He has the noblest faith, no creed confessing,
Who writes his faith in deeds.
"We still, with vision prone, the truth dividing.
Read what the letter, not the spirit, saith;
Still in the old, time-honored creeds is hiding
Fear's awful wraith;
Yet human hearts can find no peace abiding
Save in the ampler faith
"That all Earth's pilgrim souls, nor unforgiven,
Whatever devious ways their feet have trod,
Purged of each base desire, by sorrow shriven,
Love's chastening rod,
Or soon or late, in the wide courts of Heaven,
Shall find their home in God."
An interesting group of Mr. Hathaway's poems
embodies the favorite attempt of philosophical poets
to spiritualize the myths and legends of the primi-
tive world. He cries:
"Oh! for the mystic key
To all your silent wards, where thought may climb
Into a purer world of thought, and reach
To realms that change not with the change of time;
Where Art, more bold and free,
Shall shape, through finer Art, your truths sublime
Into our meaner thought and grosser speech."
The myths of Actseon and of Antaeus are among
those chosen for treatment, and the result, if a
little vague and rhetorical in expression, is interest-
ing. Mr. Hathaway's miscellaneous pieces are of
very unequal value. On one or two occasions he
attempts to be humorous, and the result is melan-
choly. But the poet's message, taken altogether, is
sweet and wholesome, and the critic, of whose func-
tion the writer expresses a scorn not wholly de-
served, will find more to praise than to condemn in
Mr. Hathaway's work.
In Mr. Norman Gale's " Country Muse " —
"You shall read of spreading cress,
The velvet of the sparrow's neck;
Sometimes shall glance the glowing tress,
And Laura's snow without a speck.
"The crab that sets the mouth awry,
The chestnut with its domes of pink;
The splendid palace of the sky.
The pool where drowsy cattle drink,"
and of many other things pastoral. Mr. Gale has
revived a somewhat artificial manner of song with
moderate success. His lyrics breathe a true feeling
for nature and for the simpler types of humanity


284
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
that grow up in close contact with nature. His
turn of phrase is often original, although rarely
original in the striking way that compels attention.
The gift of song is his in but moderate measure.
He rarely violates the principles of taste, and his
work is uniformly pleasing, although we may hardly
call it strong or impassioned.
An American edition of "The City of Dreadful
Night" comes to us in so attractive a shape that, as
we turn the pages, the pessimism of the poem seems
less black than before. The genius of our English
Leopardi deserved this tribute to "the unique and
sinister beauty" of his principal poem, for, reject
for ourselves with what vehemence we will Thom-
son's view of life, the fact remains that it was his
view, and no one can doubt the awful sincerity of
its depiction. Pessimism was with Thomson no
fancy, no intellectual toy for the amusement of the
hour; it was rather, as with Leopardi and Scho-
penhauer, the master-word of the great enigma of
existence. Perhaps the most genuine testimony
to the power with which Thomson's message was
fraught was offered by Philip Bourke Marston
— himself well attuned by sorrow to that mood
— in the two sonnets inscribed by him to James
Thomson.
"Still, still the same, this City of Dreadful Night —
Still does it hear a sound of lamentation.
As of a conquered, broken-hearted nation;
Still glowers the Sphinx, and breaks us with her might
Of unresponsive front. There is no light —
There is no hope — God, there is no salvation."
This edition of the poem has an admirably sym-
pathetic introduction by Mrs. Cavazza, and a care-
fully prepared bibliography by Mr. Bertram Dobell
and Mr. J. M. Wheeler. It also prints, as an ap-
pendix, two of Thomson's shorter poems, "To Our
Ladies of Death" and "Insomnia," both well fitted
to serve as pendants to his gloomy masterpiece.
The two handsomely-printed buckram-bound vol-
umes in which Mr. H. C- Beeching has arranged
"A Paradise of English Poetry" offer a consid-
erable volume of carefully selected verse. Mr.
Beeching classifies his selections in ten general
groups; excludes all authors still living or subject
to copyright; leaves out sonnets for the not very
satisfactory reason that "they do not mix well with
lyric and dramatic poetry, but are best read, as
they have been best written, in a sequence"; and
abridges his extracts at his own caprice, without
always making mention of the omissions. Except
upon the two points last mentioned we have no
quarrel with Mr. Beeching's performance of the
compiler's task; he has shown excellent taste in
his choice, and included enough work to satisfy
most moods. His selection shows a somewhat more
marked preference for the older poets than is to be
fully accounted for by the exclusion of authors liv-
ing or in copyright, but this is not necessarily a de-
fect; there is much truth, indeed, in his statement
that " a candid reader who compares the most mod-
ern expression of an idea with some older one con-
tained in this volume will not uniformly find the
preponderance on the side of the former."
In preparing "A Book of Famous Verse," Miss
Agnes Repplier, who has also become the gleaner
of an anthology, has had a childish audience chiefly
in view. What a child likes, she says, are "mar-
tial strains which fire the blood, fairy music ringing
in the ears, half-told tales which set the young heart
dreaming, brave deeds, unhappy fates, sombre bal-
lads, keen joyous lyrics, and small jewelled verses
where every word shines like a polished gem."
All these things may be found in her collection,
while the canons governing exclusion are quite as
satisfactory. Children are not to be imposed upon:
"It is useless to offer them mere rhymes and jin-
gles; it is ungenerous to stint their young, vigorous
imaginations with obvious prattle, fitted dexterously
to their understandings. In the matter of poetry,
a child's imagination outstrips his understanding;
his emotions carry him far beyond the narrow
reach of his intelligence." Upon these admirable
principles of selection, Miss Repplier has made a
book that fairly rivals those of Mr. Lang and Mr.
Henley.
To the odd hundred and fifty English versions of
the "Dies Irae" already existing, the Rev. M. W.
Stryker, president of Hamilton College, has been
constrained to add three more, two with single and
one with double rhymes. These versions, with the
Latin text and a literal prose translation, prefaced
by some historical comments upon the hymn and
its translators, are published in a neat little vol-
ume. Mr. Stryker's preface spells "though " with
half the usual number of letters, and indulges in a
florid rhetoric of which a few examples may be
quoted. The power of the "Dies Ira," we are
told, is "amazing and immortal." "Here speaks
the unsophisticated sense of the moral necessity of
that assize without whose certainty the present
postponements of equity would leave the sover-
eignty of Holiness unintelligible." "Imagination
and devotion fly amid these sombre skies with
clasped hands, and with faces which, tho strained
with the agonies of conviction, are wet with tears
whereon the gospel has set rainbows." "These
surf-beats of emotion answer to realities which only
a covenant with falsehood can gainsay, and which
a hypnotized conscience, tho it can forget, can never
abate nor postpone." The preface from which we
quote is clearly theological rather than critical. As
for the versions, they compare favorably with most
of the earlier ones. It is only because the trans-
lator insists so strenuously upon the necessity of
exact rhymes that we call attention to this version
of the " Mors stupebit":
"Death shall stand aghast, and Nature,
When to make response, the Creature
Snrgeth to that judicature."
It is but just to say that this is the only poor rhyme
in Mr. Stryker's best version.
William Mokton Paynk.


1893.]
285
THE DIAL
Briefs ox New Books.
A Question
in ^Esthetics.
"How it is that proportion, unity,
and all that is included under beauty
of form, has come to be so promi-
nent an ingredient in aesthetic impression, is one of
the most interesting points in the science." This
remark was made some time since by Mr. Sully in
his essay "On the Possibility of a Science of ^Es-
thetics," and it is in some sort an answer to the
question here indicated that is now offered by Pro-
fessor G. L. Raymond in his "Genesis of Art-form"
(Putnam). It shows, as many other things have
shown, the extreme value of that very stimulating
essay, that Mr. Sully should have further remarked
that the matter "possibly admits of no definite
solution except in connection with a study of other
developments of the human mind." Whether Pro-
fessor Raymond had or had not considered this
suggestion, he has proceeded in his inquiry with
the view that the action of the mind in the methods
employed in the composition of art-forms is identi-
cal with its method in scientific classification. ( The
expressions are taken from the preface.) The
theory upon which the book is based is that as in
scientific classification the aim is to emphasize in
each object of thought the ideas which are essen-
tial to the purposes of classification, so in art the
aim of composition is to emphasize in each work of
art the idea which it is the main purpose of the
artist to express. The book is worth the attention
of those interested in the development of the science
of ^Esthetics. Whether one agree with the author
or not, we believe that such an attempt to solve one
of the important questions of aesthetic study must
demand consideration. For our own part we must
admit a certain scepticism on first consideration as
to the value of the main proposition. It appears
evident, indeed the author almost says as much,
that the principles deduced are incidental to art
and not essential, that is to say they are not among
those elements which make art just what it is and sep-
arate it from other things. It is worthy of remark
that the author does not specifically consider the ele-
ment of beauty. Indeed the word itself hardly occurs
in the whole course of the book: nor does he often
express the idea by implication. Hence the princi-
ples he expounds, while they may enable one to dis-
tinguish between bad work and work that is not
bad, do not take one very much farther. They do
not enable us to distinguish between the fairly good
and the supremely excellent. It is here that one
begins to have a certain mistrust of the theory it-
self, plausible though it seems to be on first thoughts.
The question at once arises, Is it not probable that
there are some other elements in art composition
which are the distinctively art-elements, and if so,
are not these the elements really important in con-
sidering the matter? And if we of choice neglect
the essential features, can we assume that our con-
clusions concerning the incidental ones will not
need material revision by the light of those princi-
Studies in
the EngtUh
Mystery Plays.
pies which we have neglected? But this is a mat-
ter which each student can decide for himself.
While the book merits the attention of those more
particularly engaged in the study of art, it will also
be interesting to the general reader, for whom, in-
deed, it is in some respects particularly intended.
It has a great number of illustrations which, though
some of them are not any too satisfactory from an
artistic standpoint, almost always serve to comple-
ment the text very fully. The ideas are presented
in a style .somewhat popular, although not always
particularly lucid. It seems, in fine, as though
almost anyone would get from it some good ideas.
In a book on art, the artistic character of the book-
making is always worthy of remark. In this case,
the author having resolutely set aside the consider-
ation of the beautiful in writing the book, it was
not unnatural that the publishers should have been
equally stern in the making of it. We could wish,
however, merely with reference to practical con-
venience, that they had not used such heavily glazed
paper, and that they had given the book a better
binding.
A notable thesis, creditable in
many ways as a specimen of research
in English literature in an American
university, is Mr. Charles Davidson's "Studies in
the English Mystery Plays," presented to the fac-
ulty of Yale University in 1892. The subject
chosen represents one of the many possible and
profitable fields for the serious investigation of ad-
vanced students in "pure literature" recently dis-
cussed in The Dial. Possibly it also represents
the tendency of the day to neglect the intimate
study of great literary masterpieces as units con-
taining in themselves abundant material for schol-
arly consideration, and to press back research more
and more into remote and unexplored regions of
folk-lore, of popular and comparative literature, and
of mediaeval sources. But this tendency, if it really
does exist, is doubtless natural and justifiable, and
any apparent neglect of real literary study will be
easily redressed by the segregation of the newer
studies in our universities into separate departments
like the newly established Department of Compara-
tive Literature at Harvard. The stupendous mass
of mediaeval literature offers results " monotonous
as literature, but invaluable as supplying a common
starting-point for national literature," and as such
it is worthy of the most thorough study. Even to
the student of the literature of masterpieces, some
study of amorphous and primitive literature should
be prescribed, if for nothing more than to teach
him by contrast the real meaning of literary
art! The present essay is an attempt "to ex-
plore one of the sources of the English drama,
and to solve some of the problems presented to us
in the mass of inchoate dramatic material known as
the English Mystery Plays." Interesting as it is in
its bearings on English literary history, it is only
within the last fifty years that the greater bulk of


286
[May 1,
THE
DIAL
this material lias been put in print and made ac-
cessible to scholars, and although various attempts
to analyze and classify portions of it have recently
been made, Dr. Davidson is to be credited with the
first bold and systematic attempt at a compara-
tive analysis of the whole material from the point
of view of modern scholarship. His conclusions
are highly interesting, although cast in such shape
as to be with difficulty apprehended by any but the
specialist in this particular field. The newness of
the material in part excuses this, but we feel that
Dr. Davidson, in the form of his essay, has imi-
tated too closely the tiresome baldness of the Ger-
man models of thesis-writing. The Germans them-
selves are following a mediaeval tradition, but our
American universities should feel themselves at lib-
erty to improve upon the mediaeval model. At
any rate, we shall take the liberty to advise any-
one who may desire to consult Dr. Davidson's in-
teresting and suggestive essay to begin by reading
the last chapter of general conclusions first, how-
ever " unscientific " and "uninductive " such a pro-
cess may seem, in order to save himself from read-
ing at random in many preceding pages.
a ,i , j Mr. Isaac N. Ford's "Tropical
A thoughtful and _ 1
readable book m America (ocnbner) is, conipact-
Tropicai America. Qegg consideredi one of the mogt
readable and solidly informing books of South
American travel that we have seen. The author
is a wide-awake journalistic writer, thoroughly in
touch with current national questions and interests;
hence his point of view throughout is largely polit-
ical, commercial, and economical, though the pic-
torially descriptive element is not lacking. Mr.
Ford's route embraced St. Thomas, Martinique and
Barbadoes, Para, Pernambuco, Rio, Montevideo,
Valparaiso, Lima, Guayaquil, Cartagena, Jamaica,
Havana, the chief Mexican and Central American
towns, and many intermediate points of interest.
The start was made shortly after the Brazilian rev-
olution of 1889, and the chapters touching this
event and giving the author's impressions and con-
clusions are still of considerable interest. Mr. Ford's
patriotism received some pretty severe shocks in
South America. He writes, for instance: "If any
American, meek and lowly in spirit, have a vora-
cious appetite for humble pie, let him take passage
for the Platte. He will find Montevideo and Bue-
nos Ayres the most enterprising cities of the south-
ern hemisphere, and in each harbor he will see a
magnificent merchant fleet, representing every mar-
itime nation except his own. ... I was fully pre-
pared, after landing and passing the customs line,
for the look of bewilderment on the face of the
genial proprietor of the French hotel, when he was
asked to direct me to the American consulate. . . .
He was too polite to be offensive, and apparently was
unwilling to confess that he was unaware of the pres-
ence of any American functionary in the city. . . .
Shop-keepers doing business within a block of the
office had never heard of an American consul. . . .
American ships enter the harbor so infrequently
that the children of Montevideo are growing up in
ignorance of the mighty industrial nation that styles
itself 'The Grand Republic'" The book is thought-
fully and impartially written; and it presents, in
moderate space, a careful study of the growing na-
tions to the south of us, with whose destinies our
own must become more and more closely inter-
woven. There is a route-map with a number of
acceptable photographic plates.
An aid to the Ix his capital little book, " Art for
1lT^Se0/ Art's Sake" (Scribner), Mr. John
of Painting. 0. Van Dyke essays to help the gen-
eral amateur to a perception and appreciation of
the technical qualities of painting. Mr. Van Dyke
writes lucidly and pointedly; and we fancy there
are few readers who will close his book without at
least a dawning conviction that a picture is prop-
erly to be regarded as something more than the mir-
ror of one's own sentimentalities, something more
than a pictorial story, a pictorial poem, a pictorial
jest, or a pictorial homily. There is nothing more
disheartening to the painter than the inability of
the public to discern, or exasperating to him than
the Philistine tendency of the uninitiated critic to
underrate, precisely those qualities by which he, the
painter, distinguishes a work of art from a daub.
To decry technique is to decry the very bone and
sinew, the sine qua non of painting. Without it,
genius itself, lacking expression, is futile; with it,
even mediocrity accomplishes something. Mr. Van
Dyke does not treat, except incidentally, of the
history, theory, or philosophy of art. He essays
throughout to bring us round to the painter's point
of view, to teach us, not how to paint a picture, but
how to appreciate one intelligently after it has been
painted. With this object in view he explains and
illustrates such purely artistic motives as color, tone,
atmosphere, values, perspective, etc., defining and
fixing technical terms, citing well-known pictures
and pointing out their good and their bad qualities,
and dwelling as far as possible upon modern art —
of which, as he justly observes, "we have too poor
an opinion." The text is illustrated with a num-
ber of half-tone plates after mediaeval and modern
painters—among which we are glad to find the
noble Pietk of Francia (in the British National
Gallery), which we do not remember to have seen
reproduced before. The seven lectures composing
the volume were delivered before the students of
Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers Colleges — with
the incidental effect, one hopes, of convincing the
hearers that life offers other, and perhaps higher,
pleasures than those derived from battering the
shins of a rival on the foot-ball field.
A much-needed
historical study.
Mr. William Roscoe Thayer, in tak-
ing "The Dawn of Italian Inde-
pendence " for the subject of a his-
torical study, has chosen a theme that has long been
calling aloud for treatment in the English language.


1893.]
287
THE DIAL
Mr. Probyn's admirable sketch is not sufficiently
detailed to be satisfactory, and Reuchlin's exhaust-
ive history has not found a translator. Mr. Thayer,
moreover, brings to his subject full sympathy and the
sense of historical perspective. The two volumes of
his work ( Houghton ) cover the period from 1814 to
1849, from the Congress of Vienna to the fall of
the Venetian Republic. It is to be hoped that the
author will devote two more volumes to the events
of the twenty years following. Mr. Thayer's work
has serious defects, as well as qualities that call for
praise. The introductory section, which sums up
Italian history from the earliest times, is far too
ponderous, and might fittingly have been compressed
into a single chapter. As it is, the author hardly
reaches his real subject before the middle of the
first volume. The author's style, too, is open to
criticism: it is over-rhetorical, and it deals far too
largely with broad generalizations. It has horta-
tory and apostrophic features that a better judg-
ment would have expunged. What redeems the
narrative from these faults is its admirable sym-
pathy with the cause of Italian freedom and its
keen interpretation of the characters and the mo-
tives of those who took prominent parts in the
struggle. Mr. Thayer understands Mazzini, and
does full and glowing justice to his career. He
also does full justice (of another sort) to Metter-
nich and Pius IX. His second volume, devoted
mainly to the events of 1848-49, is far better than
his first.
An Engiuh ^*K' Henry Sweet's "Short Histor-
Grammar m hu- ical English Grammar" (Macmillan)
toricat principle,. jg ^ abridgement of the historical
portions of my New English Grammar," and a care-
ful examination of its contents leads us to indorse
fully the claim that within the present limits " it will
be found to contain all that is really essential to the
beginner." Commencing with the history of the
language, the author gives a condensed but clear
account of the chief influences exercised during
the three main stages — old, middle, and modern
English. The more detailed division of periods
shows some novelties. The chapter on phonetics
is of course based originally upon the author's
"Handbook." Throughout the rest of the book
the treatment is by periods. At times the discus-
sions seem to follow too closely the title, as, for ex-
ample, in the case of modern plural forms of the
substantive and the declension of the adjective.
Many will be surprised, too, by Dr. Sweet's partial
return to the old-fashioned classification of regular
and irregular verbs, instead of strong and weak,
which he claims cannot be maintained in modern
English. He offers, however, a compromise in
consonant and vocalic. The latter part of the book
is devoted to composition and derivation, of which
there is not too much, but just enough. The word-
list, for it is not really an index as stated, deserves
special mention. The very full table of contents
does away with the necessity of an index proper.
Dr. Sweet's book is one we have been waiting for
so many years — an historical English grammar
that can be used as a text-book.
While no less welcome than Sweet's
£S2£$E3. gnunmw, Dr. Leon Kellner's « His-
torical Outlines of English Syntax"
(Macmillan) is less distinctively a text-book — it
seems to be intended more for the study than for
the class-room. Being a companion to Morris's
"Historical Outlines of English Accidence," its
general arrangement follows that of the earlier
work. The scientific study of syntax has hereto-
fore been unaccountably neglected, not only in En-
glish but in almost all other modern languages.
Dr. Kellner's work makes a good beginning in the
awakening of an interest in this important branch of
linguistics that is sure to come. After an introduc-
tory explanation of the fundamental principles of
syntactical change and development, the author
takes up in detail the three main branches of the
subject, the sentence, the parts of speech, and the
order of words, keeping constantly before the reader
the historical development of each. Specially val-
uable are the discussions of the complex sentence
and the synoptic tables of the subjunctive mood.
A treatment of the Scandinavian element in En-
glish syntax would have been a valuable feature of
the book, but this is evidently reserved by the au-
thor for his fuller treatment of syntax, the appear-
ance of which has been worthily heralded by the
book before us.
_. . , , . , Mr. T. B. Harbottle has trans-
Tne mauttruil t „ , _ _
art, oj the lated from the French of Baron J.
Anglo-Saxon,. ^ Bay(J an importan(. wofk upon
"The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons," and
the translation is published (Macmillan) in a hand-
some quarto with steel plates and illustrations in
the text. The field in which the author has worked
is one that has been somewhat neglected, although
the materials for its investigation have been accu-
mulating in abundant measure. After an introduc-
tory chapter on " The Invaders of Britain in the
Fifth Century," the author discusses at much length
the subjects of Anglo-Saxon arms and fibulas, and
more briefly a number of other subjects, including
necklaces, hair ornaments, buckles, vases, and pot-
tery. The text of the work is little more than a
collection of roughly classified fragmentary notes,
and the translation is imperfect. But the work is
beautifully printed, and its plates and cuts supply
their possessor with a well-stocked museum of An-
glo-Saxon archaeology.
BRIEFER MENTION.
A single-volume double-column edition of Dryden's
complete poems (Warne), with a memoir of the author,
has just been published. It includes all the original
poems, many songs from the plays, and most of the
translations from Greek and Latin authors. Dryden's
introductions have been reproduced, a few notes sup-


288
[May 1,
THE DIAL
plied, and the text carefully collated from the best
editions. The modern reaction against "Glorious John"
has been carried to something of an extreme, and it is
well that the carping critics should be confuted by mul-
tiplications of his text.
Three welcome volumes of the "Knickerbocker
Nuggets" (Putnam) are devoted to a reprint of Chap-
man's "Iliad," with outline illustrations and Chapman's
preface. For once, the rather objectionable square shape
of this series of volumes is justified, for Chapman's four-
teen-syllabled verse requires a wide page to keep the
lines from running over. This classic of English poetry
has been less read than it deserves owing to the lack of
handy editions, and we thank the publishers for placing
it before us in the present convenient form.
The "Book-Lover's Library" brood (Armstrong),
which numbers some good items in its list, also includes
two, at least, that can hardly offer a sufficient excuse
for their being. These two are by Mr. Henry B.
Wheatley, the editor-in-chief of the series, and the lat-
ter of them, entitled "Literary Blunders," must be of-
fered as a joke, as it bears evidence of being little
more than a compilation from "English as She Is
Taught," "English as She Is Spoke," and the cata-
logues of country booksellers. Its one redeeming fea-
ture, if it has any, is the very full and exhaustive in-
dex which seems to have been compiled in all serious-
ness.
"The Duchess of Berry and the Revolution of 1830"
(Scribner), the last of the three volumes devoted to
the Duchess of Berry in M. Saint-Amand's popular
series, evokes vividly the dramatic scenes of the revo-
lution which brought about the July monarchy of Louis
Philippe. The author's unerring eye for the picturesque
is, as usual, manifest throughout, and the work is, like
its predecessors, a striking example of the useful art of
popularizing, without vulgarizing, history. The good
work of the translator, Mrs. Elizabeth Gilbert Martin,
calls for a word of praise.
Miss Mabel F. Wbeaton has abridged and edited
Ormsby's translation of " Don Quixote " for the use of
schools, and the work appears as a volume of the " Clas-
sics for Children " (Ginn). Would that our school chil-
dren might get this sort of literature for their reading,
and that the "reader " were cast out upon the ash-heap
for good! With the abundance of such reading now
available, it is mere stupidity on the part of school offi-
cers to longer permit the use of those patchwork things
known as reading-books.
Uniform with their edition of "Charles Auchester,"
Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co. have now published a
two-volume reprint of Miss Sheppard's " Counterparts."
This novel never attracted the attention given its pre-
decessor, although almost equally remarkable, when we
consider the age of the writer and the speed at which it
was composed. Mr. George P. Upton, who introduced
the new edition of " Charles Auchester," provides this
novel also with an appreciative introduction. The work
is very tastefully printed, and is better worth reading
than the large majority of new books of fiction.
"Mr. Punch's Prize Novels" (U. S. Book Co.), by
Mr. R. C. Lehman, recall, at a distance, the condensed
novels of Thackeray and Mr. Bret Harte. They are
very amusing. Here are a few of the titles: "Bob Silli-
mere," by Mrs. Humphry John Ward Preacher; "A
Buccaneer's Blood-Bath," by L. S. Deevenson; "Burra
Murra Boko," by Kippierd Herring; "Joanna of the
Cross Ways," by George Verimyth; and "The De
Cognac," by Walter Decant. The parody of Mr. Mer-
edith is particularly good.
Volume 34 of the "Dictionary of National Biog-
raphy" (Macmillan), under the editorship of Mr. Sid-
ney Lee, begins with Llwyd, a name pronounceable by
none save Welshmen, takes us through the remainder
of the letter L, and gets a good start upon the Macs.
The work of Mr. Leslie Stephen, the former editor, is
admirably illustrated by the articles on Locke, Lord
Lytton, and Macaulay. The second Lord Lyttou is
treated by Dr. Richard Garnett. Lockhart, Lodge, and
Lyly also come within the scope of this volume.
Literary Xotes axd News.
The latest volume of the "Grands Ecrivains Fran-
cais " is " Lesage," by M. Eugene Lintilhac.
"El Nuevo Mundo," a poem by Mr. Louis J. Block, is
announced for immediate publication by Messrs. Charles
H. Kerr & Co.
The long-desired and long-promised Baedeker's
"United States" is almost ready for publication by the
Scribners. We give it a cordial welcome in advance.
A new and cheaper edition of Symonds's life of
Michelangelo has appeared. A study of Walt Whit-
man, by the same author, has just been published in
London.
The forthcoming volume by Mine. James Darmes-
teter (Miss Mary Robinson) is entitled "Retrospect,
and Other Poems." It will include elegiac verses on
Ernest Reuan and H. Taine.
The "Century" for May will contain some " Recol-
lections of Lord Tennyson," by Mr. John Addington
Symonds, and a poem by Mr. Aubrey de Vere iu mem-
ory of the Laureate. Mr. F. Marion Crawford will
contribute an article on "Joseph Bonaparte in Borden-
town."
Mr. William I. Fletcher, librarian of Amherst Col-
lege, will open his summer School of Library Economy
on July 24, and close it on August 26, giving daily in-
struction in the meantime, the class being regarded as
beginners ignorant of library work. Mr. Fletcher may
be addressed at Amherst.
The recent organization of English "Women Writ-
ers " will have a festival on the 31st of this month.
The Committee in charge of the affair includes Mrs.
Molesworth, Mrs. L. T. Meade, Mrs. E. Bobbins Pen-
nell, Mrs. William Sharp, Mrs. Graham R. Tomson,
and Miss Clementina Black.
Mr. Thomas J. Wise writes to the London "Book-
man," giviug an account of a copy of Landor's "Sim-
ouidea," recently acquired by him, and supposed to be
unique. But Professor Colvin, writing to the " Athen-
R3um," states that a copy of the work is included in the
Forster Library at South Kensington.
President Thwiug of Adelbert College offers two
prizes (of thirty and twenty dollars respectively) for
the two best essays on "The Value of a College Edu-
cation for a Boy." The competition is limited to boys
who are actually members of the graduating classes of
high schools or fitting academies, and the essays must
be sent to President Thwing by the first of next Au-
gust.
A new Carlyle anecdote, told by Provost Swan, is of
timely interest. Mr. Swan and Carlyle were great


1893.]
289
THE
DIAL
friends, aud the former used to tell with real gusto how
the author of "Sartor" narrated to him, during Tiis
last visit to London, an interview that he had with Mr.
Gladstone. Carlyle was, of course, like the Liberal
leader, a great talker, but it seems that in a speaking
match he came off second best. The account of the in-
terview as given by Carlyle to Mr. Swan was, "He
thocht he was richt, and I thocht / was richt; but wi'
the gab o' him the body fairly spak me doon."
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have just published
"The Life and Work of John Ruskin," by Mr. W. J.
Collingwood, in two volumes and in two editions. The
four-books into which the volumes are divided relate to
(1) The Boy Poet [1814-1842]; (2) The Art Critic
[1842-1860]; (3) Hermit and Heretic [1860-1870];
(4) Professor and Prophet [1870-1892]. The large
paper edition has a number of extra illustrations,
among them some very interesting photogravure por-
traits of Ruskin never before reproduced, the originals
of which were kindly furnished by his life-long friend,
Charles Kliot Norton.
"The Publisher's Weekly" prints this interesting
note: "The entire Bible, translated by the Rev. Hiram
Bingham into the language of the Gilbert Islands in
the Southern Pacific, was printed, April 10, at the
Bible House in the presence of several friends of the
indefatigable missionary, to whom bound copies were
presented as souvenirs later in the day. For thirty-
four years Mr. Bingham has worked at his translation,
and for the last ten months has devoted himself to read-
ing the proofs of the Bible in a language which he has
first reduced to writing, completing a vocabulary and
constructing a grammar for his purpose. Another Bible
is thus added to the list of the American Bible Society,
which now sets the Scriptures in 242 languages."
The London " Literary World " supplies the follow-
ing interesting information about a popular French
writer: "Jules Verne is said to be engaged on his sev-
enty-fourth novel. The report may readily be cred-
ited, seeing that for several years past the 'scientific
story-teller' has produced a volume every six months.
Though the literary world does not seem to know it,
'Jules Verne ' is only a pen name. The novelist is by
birth a Pole—a native of Warsaw—and his real name is
Olchewitz. When he began to write he adopted the
expedient of translating the initial syllables of his fam-
ily patronymic (which in English means ' beech') into
its French equivalent, and in this way he got 'Verne.'
He is the youngest of three brothers, of whom the
eldest died a few years ago, at the age — so it was said
— of 110! He studied law to begin with, but had no
success in it; and since he published his first scientific
novel, ' Five Weeks in a Balloon,' in 1865, he has lived
entirely by his pen."
The papers have recently given, among their foreign
news, reports of the discovery, by Professor Rendel Har-
ris, of a Syriac manuscript of the Gospels. That the
discovery is not exactly a new one appears from a let-
ter by Mrs. Lewis in the "Athenaeum," from which we
extract a few sentences. "Perhaps your readers may
be interested to hear that the palimpsest of Old Syriac
Gospels which I discovered and photographed fully
during my visit to the Convent of St. Catherine on
Mount Sinai, with my sister, Mrs. James Y. Gibson,
in February, 1892, has now been transcribed by Prof.
Bensly, Mr. Rendel Harris, and Mr. F. C. Burkitt.
The photographs which I took last year of its 356
pages were shown by me in the month of July to
Mr. Burkitt, to whom I pointed out that the earlier
writing contained at least the Synoptic Gospels. A
closer examination by him and Professor Bensly re-
vealed the fact that they are of a type allied to the
Curetonian; and now the result of these gentlemen's
labours and of Mr. Rendel Harris's is that we have a
text of all the Four Gospels complete, with the excep-
tion of some eight pages. An edition will be given to
the public with as little delay as possible."
Some interesting results have been obtained from the
researches of the American School of Archaeology at
the Herseum, or Temple of Hera, situated between Ar-
gos and Mycenae. The excavations, which are being car-
ried on by about 200 workmen, under the superintend-
ence of Dr. Charles Waldstein, have revealed the site
and foundations of the ancient temple mentioned by
Homer, which was burned down in the year 423 B.C.
A platform of polygonal pavement has been laid bare,
above which was found a layer of debris containing
fragments of charred wood, melted bronze, and other
indications of a conflagration. Numerous specimens of
pottery of so-called Mycenaean proto-Corinthian and
geometrical patterns have been obtained. These and
the other works of art found are all of the remotest an-
tiquity, and form a discovery of considerable import-
ance and value. The British School of Archaeology has
now concluded the excavations which have been carried
on during recent years with much success at Megal-
opolis. Researches will be begun next week at .-Egos-
thena, a little to the north-east of Corinth, where some
remarkably perfect remains of fortifications dating from
the fifth century B.C. exist. It is hoped that the site
of the ancient temple of Melampus, mentioned by Pau-
sanias, will be discovered.— London Times.
Topics in Leauixg Pehiodicals.
May, 189S (First List).
Alcohol and Distillation, Discovery of. Popular Science.
Apples, Decay of. Illus. B. D. Halgted. Popular Science.
Arizona, Lost Races of. R. E. L. Robinson. Californian.
Beveridge, Kiihne. Illus. Gertrude Atherton. Lippincott.
Bonaparte, Jos., in Bordentown. Marion Crawford. Century.
Braddock's Campaign. Illus. George Washington. Scribner.
Brooks, Phillips. Rev. Arthur Brooks. Harper.
Californian Writers. Illus. Californian.
Cincinnati, Society of the. Illus. John Bunting. Lippincott.
Cleveland, John, Poetry of. Clinton Scollard. Dial.
Colorado and its Capital. Julian Ralph. Harper.
Columbian Exposition, The. Illus. Candace Wheeler. Harper.
Columbian Exposition, The. Illus. J. J. Peatfield. Californian.
Columbian Exposition. IUns. Mrs. Van Rensselaer. Century.
Columbus, Vespucius, and Magellan. Illus. Californian.
Com£die Francaise at Chicago. Francisque Sarcey. Scribner.
Confucian Ethics in Japan. J. H. De Forest. Andover.
Country Printer, The. Illus. W. D. Howells. Scribner.
Dahn, Felix, Reminiscences of. J. T. Hatfield. Dial.
Decorative Painting at the Fair. IUns. W. L. Fraser. Century.
Dietary for the Sick. Sir Dyce Duckworth. Popular Science.
Evolution, Experimental. George Baur. Dial.
French Scare of 1875. The. Mr. De Blowitz. Harper.
Glacial Man in Ohio. Illus. G. F. Wright. Popular Science.
Japan, An Artist in. Illus. Robt. Blum. Scribner.
Japanese Folk-Lore. Helen Gregory-Flesher. Californian.
Japanese Home Life. Illus. W. Delano Eastlake. Pop. Science.
Johnson, Samuel William. Illus. Popular Science.
Kashmir. Illus. Francis P. Lefroy. Californian.
Larcom, Lucy. James L. Onderonk. Dial.
Lowell, James Russell. Illus. Charles E. Norton. Harper.
Ministry, Primary Qualifications for. D. N. Beech. Andover.


290
[May 1,
THE DIAL
Modern Preachers' Advantages. Andover.
Mnir, John. Illus. John Swett. Century.
New York. Illus. Thomas A. Janvier. Harper.
Nicaragua Canal, The. R. H. McDonald, Jr. Californian.
Nicaragua. Illus. Gilbert Oaul. Century.
Oswego State Normal School, The. Illus. Pop. Science.
Pension Bureau, The. A. B. Casselman. Century.
Poetry, Recent Books of. W. M. Payne. Dial.
Pope, A. A., and Good Roads. L. M. Hanpt. Lippincott.
Quebec. Illus. Henry Loomis Nelson. Harper.
San Francisco Architecture. Illus. E. C. Peixotto. Overland.
Science and the Farmer. C. S. Plumb. Popular Science.
Sea, Our Knowledge of the. G. W. Littlehales. Pop. Science.
Sheep Shearing on the Santa Barbara Islands. Illus. Overland.
Silk Culture. Illus. Overland.
Silver Question, The. F. I. Vassault. Overland.
St. Louis. Illus. James Cox. Lippincott.
Switzerland a Nursery of Politics. Joseph King. Andover.
Symonds, John Addington. Dial.
Tennyson, Recollections of. John A. Symonds. Century.
Ward, Artemus, Relics of. Illus. D. C.Seitz. Century.
Waterloo, An Inside View. Joseph Kirkland. Dial.
Wealth. A. P. Peabody. Andover.
Woman in Horticulture. Maggie D. Brainard. Californian.
List of New Books.
[The following list, embracing 51 titles, includes all books
received by The Dial since last issue.\
BIOGRAPHY.
Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne. By
Horatio Bridge. Illus.. 16mo, pp. 200. Harper & Bros.
$1.25.
The Earl of Aberdeen. By the Hon. Sir Arthur Gordon,
G.C.M. G. With portrait, 16mo, pp. 330. Harper's
"Queen's Prime Ministers Series." 81.00.
Lavengro : The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest. By George
Barrow, author of "The Bible in Spain." With intro-
duction by Theodore Watts. Illus., 12mo, pp. 400. Ward,
Locke, Bowden & Co. 75 cts.
Service In Memory of Phillips Brooks, D.D., held in
Music Hall, New York, Feb. 16, 1893. With portrait,
8vo, pp. 46. Thos. Whittaker.
ESSAYS, ETC.
Excursions In Criticism: Being Some Prose Recreations of
a Rhymer. By William Watson. Kimo, pp. 166. Mac-
millan & Co. $2.00.
Essays In Literary Interpretation. By Hamilton Wright
Mabie. 12mo, pp. 220, gilt top, uncut edges. Dodd,
Mead & Co. $1.25.
The Choice of Books. By Frederic Harrison. 32mo, pp.
163. Macmillan & Co. T5 cts.
Stories from the Rabbis. By Abram S. Isaacs, Ph.D.
16mo, pp. 201. C. L. Webster & Co. $1.25.
Shadows of the Stage. By William Winter, author of
"Shakespeare's England. Second Series, 32mo, pp.
367. Macmillan & Co. 75 cts.
Reveries of a Bachelor ; or, A Book of the Heart. By Ik
Marvel, author of " Dream-Life." 24mo, pp. 233. F. T
Neely. 30 cts.
MUSIC AND ART.
The Philosophy of Singing. By Clara Kathleen Rogers.
16mo, pp. 218. Harper & Bros. $1.50.
The Evolution of Decorative Art: Its Origin and Devel-
opment, as Illustrated by the Art of Modern Races of
Mankind. By Henry Balfour, M.A. Illus.. 12mo, pp.
130, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $1.25.
POETRY.
Old John, and Other Poems. By T. E. Brown, author of
"Betsey Lee." 1 -'mo, pp. 250, uncut. Macmillan &
Co. $1.75.
King Poppy. By the Earl of Lytton. 12mo, pp. 306, gilt
top, uncut edges. Longmans, Green & Co.
Under the Scarlet and Black : Poems Selected from the
Undergraduate Publications of Iowa College. Edited by
H. S. McCowan and F. F. Everest. 32mo, pp. 82, gilt
top. Grinnell, la.: Herald Pnb'g Co. $1.00.
The Conquest of Mexico and Peru: An Historical Narra-
tive Poem. By Kinohan Cornwallis, author of "The
Song of America and Columbus." 12mo, pp. 443. New
York: Office Daily Investigator. $1.00.
FICTION.
Stories of a Western Town. By Octave Thanet. Blus.,
16mo, pp. 243. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.25.
Dai-Maria: A Romance of the Time of Napoleon I. By
Mrs. Lawrence Turnbnll, author of " The Catholic Man."
With frontispiece, 16mo, gilt top, pp. 200. J. B. Lippin-
cott Co. $1.25.
The Dictator: A Novel of Politics and Society. By Justin
McCarthy, M.P., anthor of "A Short History of Our
Own Times." 12mo, pp. 362. Harper & Bros. $1.25.
John Holden, Unionist: A Romance of the Days of Des-
truction and Reconstruction. By T. C. DeLeon, author
of "Creole and Puritan." Blue., 16mo, pp. 338. The
Price-McGUl Co. $1.50.
A Tillyloss Scandal. By J. M. Barrie, author of "The
Little Minister." 12mo. pp. 270, gilt top. Lovell,
Coryell & Co. #1.25.
Something Occurred. By B. L. Farjeon, author of " In a
Silver Sea." 12mo, pp. 331, Geo. Rontledge & Sons.
#1.00.
Some Little of the Angel Still Left. By Mrs. John M.
Clay. 12mo, pp. 242. Robt. Clarke & Co. #1.00.
The Stormy Petrel: An Historical Romance. By Col. John
Bowles. Illus.. 16mo, pp. 349. A. Lovell & Co. $1.00.
Shandon Bells. By William Black. New edition, 16mo,
pp. 428. Harper & Bros. 80 cts.
NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER, LIBRARIES.
Lee & Shepard's Good Company Series: Simplicity
and Fascination, by Anne Beale ; Lost in a Great City,
by Amanda M. Douglas. Each, 50 cts.
Price McOill Co's. Idle Moments Series : Major Matter-
son of Kentucky, by St. George Rathbome. 50 cts.
Taylor's Broadway Series : The Sorceress, by Mrs. Oli-
phant. 50 cts.
Neely's Library of Choice Literature : Madam Sapphira,
by Edgar Salt us. 50 cts.
Neely's Popular Library : Cosmopolis, by Paul Bourget.
25 cts.
JUVENILE.
Heroic Happenings, Told in Verse and Story. By E. S.
Brooks, author of " Historic Boys." Illus., 8vo, pp. 227.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.00.
FOLK-LORE.
Voodoo Tales: As Told Among the Negroes of the South-
west. Collected by Mary Alicia Owen. Illus., 8vo, pp.
310.- G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75.
REFERENCE.
Llpplncott's Oazeteer of the World : A Complete Pro-
nouncing Gazeteer, containing notices of over 125,000
places, with information respecting every portion of the
Globe. New revised edition, quarto, pp. 2900. J. B.
Lippincott Co. $12.00.
A Handbook for Travellers In Japan. By Basil Hall
Chamberlain and W. B. Mason. Third edition, revised
and re-written, with fifteen maps, 12mo, pp. 460. Chas.
Scribner's Sous. $5.00.
Orthometry : A Treatise on Versification, with a new and
complete Rhvming Dictionary. By R. F. Brewer, B.A.,
author of " Manual of English Prosody." 12mo, pp. 376.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.00.
Blbllotheca Americana, 1893: Catalogue of Books and
Pamphlets relating to America. 8vo, pp. 274. Robt.
Clarke & Co. 50 cts.
SCIENCE.
American Types of Animal Life. By St. George Mivart,
F.R.S., author of " Essays and Criticisms." 12mo, pp.
374. Little, Brown & Co. $2.00.


1893.]
291
THE DIAL
The Philosophy of Individuality ; or. The One and the
Many. By Antoinette Brown Blackwell, author of " Stu-
dies in General Science." 8vo, pp. 519. G. P. Putnam's
Song. $3.00.
The Meaning-and Method of Life : A Search for Religion
in Biology. By George M. Gould, A.M. 12mo, pp. 297.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. 81.75.
Laws and Properties of Matter. By B. T. Glazebrook,
M.A. 16mo, pp. 184. Appleton's "Modern Science
Series." $1.00.
RELIGION.
Sermons. By George William Douglas, S.T.D. 12mo, pp.
294. A. D. F. Randolph & Co. $1.50.
Survivals In Christianity : Studies of the Theology of Di-
vine Immanence. By Charles James Wood. 12mo, pp.
317. Macmillan & Co. $1.50.
Ideal Suggestion through Mental Photography: A
Restorative System for Home and Private Use. By
Henry Wood, author of "God's Image in Man." 8vo,
pp. 163. Lee & Shepard. $1.25.
ETHICS.
The Esthetic Element in Morality, and its Place in a
Utilitarian Theory of Morals. By Frank Chapman Sharp,
Ph.D. 8vo, pp. 131. Macmillan & Co. 75 cts.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES.
The American Commonwealth. By Jamei Bryce, author
of "The Holy Roman Empire." Third edition, revised
and rewritten. Vol. I., 8vo, pp. 724. Macmillan & Co.
$1.75.
The Independent Treasury of the United States: Ita His-
tory, Organization, and Influence. By David Kinley,
A.B. 12mo, pp. 329. "Library of Economics and Pol-
itics," No. 1. T. Y. Crowell & Co. $1.50.
The Silver Situation in the United States. By F. W.
Taussig. LL.B. 12mo, pp. 133. Putnam's "Questions
of the Day." 75 cts.
The Political Value of History. By W. E. H. Lecky,
LL.D. 12rao, pp. 57. D. Appleton & Co. 75 cts.
Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa. By Henry M.
Stanley. Ill us., 32mo, pp. 8tt. Harper's "Black and
White Series." 50 cts.
America's Compact with Despotism In Russia: A Lec-
ture. By William M. Salter. Paper, 8vo, pp. 22. J. B.
Lippincott Company.
ROBERT CLARKE & CO.'S
Bibliotheca Americana—1893,
Containing 7488 titles of Books and Pamphlets in all
classes of Americana. Price: 50 cents in paper, $1.00
in cloth, net. Sent by mail, prepaid, on receipt of price.
ROBERT CLARKE & CO., Cincinnati.
THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION. Fob
'Authoks: The skilled revision, the unbiassed and com-
petent criticism of prose and verse; advice as to publication.
For Publishers: The compilation of first-class works of
reference. — Established 1880. Unique in position and suc-
cess. Indorsed by our leading writers. Address
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 70 Fifth Ave., New York.
/J AAP Q in A History of the Indian Wars
(l/11Vini\.I^/1I\S1. with the First Settlers of the
United States to the commencement of the Late War; to-
gether with an Appendix containing interesting Accounts of
the Battles fought by General Andrew Jackson. With two
Plates. Rochester, N. Y., 1828.
Two hundred signed and numbered copies have just been
reprinted at $2.00 each.
GEORGE P. HUMPHREY,
25 Exchange Street, Rochester, N. Y.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.'S
NEW BOOKS.
The Life and Work of Jobn T^uskin.
By W. G. Collingwood. With portraits and other
illustrations. 2 vols., 8vo, $5.00.
A biography of this illustrious man by one who was for
many years Mr. Ruskin's private secretary. It contains let-
ters by Ruskin, Carlyle, Browning, etc., and much other
matter never before published. It is a most welcome work
to all who appreciate Ruskin's unique greatness as a writer on
art and ethical questions.
Large-paper Edition. Limited to 250 copies.
Printed on hand-made paper, with portraits and
other illustrations not included in the library edition.
In 2 vols., 8vo, S15.00 net.
Donald CNlarcy.
A story largely of college life, full of vivacity,
energy, enthusiasm, deepening in character as
responsibilities arise; a story of decided power
and interest By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps,
author of "The Gates Ajar," etc. $1.25.
tA Cathedral Courtship,
And Penelope's English Experiences. Two
very bright and entertaining stories by Kate
Douglas Wiggin, author of •' The Bird's Christ-
mas Carol" (50 cents), "The Story of Patsy"
(60 cents), "A Summer in a Canon" ($1.25),
"Timothy's Quest" ($1.00). With illustrations,
$1.00.
Sally Hows, and Other Stories.
By Bret Harte. 16mo, $1.25.
The first story is of Georgia, in the period following the
war: the three others relate to California, and are in the style
in which Mr. Harte is unrivalled, both in the stories them-
selves and in the art with which they are told.
The Atlantic Monthly for May
Contains, with other Papers,
The Columbian Exposition and ^American
Civilisation. By Henry Van Brcnt.
'Tis Sixty Years Since in Chicago.
By Judge Caton, of Illinois.
Individuality in Birds.
By Frank Bolles.
European Peasants as Immigrants.
By Professor Shaler.
Hawthorne in U^prth Mams.
By Bliss Perry.
Frames Jlnne Kemble.
By Colonel Henry Lee.
$4.00 a Year; 35 cents a Number.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston.


THE DIAL
[May 1, 1893.
CALIFORNIA.
Jill the principal WINTER PRESORTS OF CALIFORNIA are reached
in the most comfortable manner over the tAtchison,
Topeka, &■ Santa Fe Railroad,
THE SANTA FE ROUTE.
PULLMAN VESTIBULE SLEEPING CARS leave Chicago daily, and
run via Kansas City to San Francisco, Los ^Angeles,
and San T>iego, without change.
Excursion Tickets and detailed information can be obtained at tbe following offices of the
Company: 201 Broadway, New York; 332 Washington Street, Boston; 29 South Sixth Street,
Philadelphia; 136 St. James Street, Montreal; 68 Exchange Street, Buffalo ; 148 St. Clair Street,
Cleveland; 63 Griswold Street, Detroit; 40 Yonge Street, Toronto; 169 Walnut Street, Cincin-
nati; 101 Broadway, St. Louis; 212 Clark Street, Chicago.
JOHN J. BYRNE, GEO. T. NICHOLSON,
Ass't Pass. Traffic Manager, Gen'l Pass, and Ticket Agent,
Chicago, III. Topeka, Kan.
Imperial folio, new type, surfaced paper, beautiful and artistic illustrations. Publication in parts to begin with Open-
ing of Exposition. Sold only by subscription.
The Book of the Fair.
An Historical and Descriptive presentation of the World's Science, Art, and Industry, as viewed through the
Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. Designed to set forth the Display made by the Congress of Nations,
of human achievements in material forms, so as the more effectually to illustrate the Progress of Mankind in all
the departments of Civilized Life.
By HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT.
BESIDES THE REGULAR EDITIOX, AX EDITION DE LUXE, LIMITED.
THE BANCROFT COMPANY, Publishers, {ESSE^ESJ
SAN FRANCISCO. CAL.
Building. CHICAGO, ILL.
No Library can be complete in American History without Mr. Bancroft's Works, consisting of Native Races, Central
America, Mexico, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, California, Northwest Coast, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana,
British Columbia, Alaska, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado, Popular Tribunals, California Pastoral, California
Inter-Pocula, Essays and Miscellany, Literary Industries.
11 It Is certainly a worthy scheme, and carried out most conscientiously. "—London Spectator. "Written with dramatic penetration and
genius."—British Quarterly Review. "A monument to the writer's intelligence and Industry."—Xete York Herald. "Admirable for its rigor
and freshness."—London Timet. "Mr. Bancroft's volumes will increase In value as the years go by."—Boston Traveller. "Prom these volumes
must be drawn, hereafter, the only trustworthy history of these parts."—Century. "He is the Herbert Spencer of Historians."— Boston Journal.
"Most remarkable and instructive work. "—London Post. "Lays the generation under a debt of obligation."—Chicago Inter-Ocean. "One of
the noblest literary enterprises of our day."—John G. Whittier. "It will mark a new era in history writing."—Chicago Times. "His volumes
are really a marvel of research, discrimination, and industry."—New York Tribune. "Many English and American writers of eminence, includ-
ing Carlyle, Herbert Spencer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sir Arthur Helps, J. W. Draper, W. H. Lecky, and J. R. Lowell, have already testified to
the value of Mr. Bancroft's historical labors."—London Times.
A new book entitled The Resources and Development of Mexico, 8vo, illustrated, has just been issued in
Spanish and in English. It was written by Mr. Bancroft at the request of President Diaz, every part of the Republic being
visited for the latest and most accurate information.
THE BANCROFT COMPANY, Publishers, {f^T^fcSfSL0"*
Main Offices "BOOK OF THE FAIR": Nos. SO and SI Auditorium Building, CHICAGO.
THE DIAL FUSS, CKICAOO.


THE DIAL
Ji SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF
%iUxnt% Criticism, discussion, antr Information.
EDITED BT I Volume XIV.
FRANCIS F. BROWNE. ( Ho. 166.
CHICAGO, MAY 16, 1893.
10 eu. a copy.) Office: 24 Adams St.
52. a year. ( Stevens Building.
Charles Scribner's Sons' New Books
'It is certainly the beet biography of Wagner that hat) appeared in English, if not really the best that has appeared in any 1
ly set forth, and the volumes are a monument of earnest and careful devotion t*
Art Out of Doors.
Hints on Good Taste in Gardening. By Mrs. Schuyler
Van Rensselaer. 12mo, $1.50.
Landscape gardening in its application to the beautifying of coun-
try places is the subject of this book. Mrs. Van Rensselaer discusses
the treatment of grounds, roads and paths, piazzas, pattern beds,
trees, etc., with a fine artistic taste and a genuine love of nature.
WAGNER AND HIS WORKS.
The Story of his Life, with Critical Comments. By Henry T. Finck. With portraits. 2 vols., 12mo, $4.00.
"It is certainly the best biography of Wagner that has appeared in English, if not really the best that
Wagner's life and work are honestly and admiringly set forth, and the volumes are a monument of earnest and <
attention and respect."—Philadelphia Time*.
Art for Art's Sake.
Seven University Lectures on the Technical Beauties of
Painting. By John C. Van Dyke. With 24 illustra-
tions. 12mo, $1.50.
"They take a broad survey, they deal with the points it is worth
while to know about, they are perfectly lucid, and are very charming
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294
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1893.]
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THE DIAL
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THE DIAL, No. 24 Adams Street, Chicago.
No. 166. MAY 16, 1893. Vol. XIV.
Contents.
PAOE
THE OPENING OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION . 297
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT 299
OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF LEARNING IN A
DEMOCRACY. F. I. Carpenter 299
COMMUNICATIONS 300
Another Version of the Belgian Campaign. F. P.
Stearns.
Wanted — A Newspaper. Hiram M. Stanley.
Some New "American " Words. A. H. N.
The Shelley Memorial Fund: Closing Acknowledge-
ment.
THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. E. G.J. .303
TRIUMPHANT WAGNERISM. William Morton
Payne 306
THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. Andrew C.
McLaughlin 310
THE STORY OF A CAVALRY REGIMENT. Wil-
liam E. Furness 311
THE PROGRESS OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT. Ar-
thur B. Woodford 313
Kirkup's History of Socialism.— Sprague's Socialism
from Genesis to Revelation. — Engels's Socialism
Utopian and Scientific. — Schoenhof's Economy of
High Wages.— Gould's Social Condition of Labor.—
Thompson's Theory of Wages.— Van Ornum's Why
Government at All 1 — Tucker's New Movement in
Humanity.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 316
A condensed summary of Modern Philosophy.— The
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BRIEFER MENTION 319
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS 320
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 321
LIST OF NEW BOOKS 321
THE OPENING OF THE GREAT
EXHIBITION.
The first day of this month, under conditions of
cloudy skies and chilling atmosphere, in the presence
of more than a quarter of a million spectators, with
simple but effective open air ceremonies, the Colum-
bian Exposition was formally inaugurated. Con-
sidering the hurry of the final preparations, the ex-
ceptionally adverse weather of the preceding weeks,
and the novel problems arising from the presence
of so vast a concourse of people, the opening day
passed off satisfactorily, and left upon the minds of
those sharing in its festivities an impression of won-
der at the way in which the initial difficulties of the
enterprise had been surmounted, and of respect for
the organization of effort that had brought so many
people together, made their stay so comfortable,
and given them so much to enjoy. It may be truth-
fully said that the facilities for lodging and trans-
portation were equal to the demand and met the
severe tests to which they were subjected. Few days
of the coming six months will repeat the strain put
by the day of opening upon hotels and carriers, and
we may consider the problem of accomodations al-
ready solved.
The problems of construction and installation are
well on their way towards solution, and no serious
complaint can be made of the progress already
achieved. None of the great exhibitions of the past
was in full working order at the time of opening,
and it would have been folly to expect that this, the
largest of them all, would fail to offer many unfin-
ished phases. The creation of the Fair meant the
conversion into a park of more than a square mile
of land, little of which had before been reclaimed
from its natural condition of woodland and swamp.
It meant, further, the erection upon this land of
four hundred buildings, great and small, the great-
est of them upon a scale hitherto unattempted in
architectural history. It meant, finally, the filling
of these buildings with interesting and beautiful ob-
jects brought from all parts of the earth. This im-
mense work is not yet done, although more than
thirty millions of dollars, exclusive of the cost of
exhibits, has already been expended upon it. But
every day marks a noticeable advance towards the
completion of the work, and the first month of sum-
mer will find little or nothing unfinished.
The people who thronged the grounds upon the
opening day, however, had abundant demands upon
their attention. Those who devoted themselves to
the exhibits found a sufficient number of these in
readiness to keep them busy in hurrying from place
to place. The Art Building alone, although not
more than a third of its galleries were ready for


298 THE
DIAL [May 16.
inspection, offered material for many days' study.
The Horticultural Building, only a small part of
which was thrown open, was besieged by crowds
throughout the day. Machinery Hall was naturally
a centre of attraction. The exhibits of the United
States Government and of the Fisheries were in
very satisfactory shape, and had no lack of visitors.
But the spectators, as a rule, preferred to remain
outdoors, strolling about the grounds, navigating
the lagoons in gondolas and electric-launches, watch-
ing for glimpses of distinguished visitors, staring at
the Coreans with their queer hats or at the Egyptians
in their many-colored robes, listening to the music,
or, selecting some point of vantage, gazing with rapt
admiration at the wonderful vistas which all the arts
of form and color had combined to produce.
For the fact cannot be too much insisted upon
that here, upon the shores of the great inland
sea, the labors of the past three years have con-
verted a barren waste into one of the most beauti-
ful spots of earth. The noble architecture of the
buildings, the noble painting and sculpture with
which they are adorned, and the noble landscape
setting which art no less than nature has provided
for them, combine to gratify the aesthetic sense as it
has rarely been gratified in the history of the world.
Venice itself is hardly more beautiful, and one is
reminded of Venice not only by the gondolas that
gracefully skim the inland waters, but also by the
bridges, the steps leading to the water's edge, and
the reflections of the marble palaces. Even the
pigeons of St. Mark have their analogue in the
flocks of gulls that wheel over the lagoon and dot
the surface of their liquid element. Particularly is
this resemblance borne in upon the mind of those
who approach the Fair from the lake, and for whom
the long low line of buildings, gleaming in the sun-
light with a thousand opalescent tints, gradually
takes on distinctness of form and symmetry of
grouping. Many are the points of view, and each
has its peculiar charm. Each hour of the day, too,
has its charm; the hour of sunrise clothes the scene
in one kind of beauty, the hour of noon in another,
and the hour of evening twilight in still another.
We need not wonder that in the present unfin-
ished condition of the exhibits contained within the
buildings, visitors prefer to remain without; in
no previous international exhibition have the exter-
nal features offered such a challenge to admiration,
or so successfully rivalled the attractiveness of any
possible indoor display of the products of manufac-
ture and of art.
Those who can devote but a brief period to the
exhibition will, of course, do well to wait until the
coming weeks have given their finishing touches to
the work. But no one need fear disappointment
even at the present time, for the Fair already offers
infinite resources for enjoyment. The Art Build-
ing and the Music Hall alone will repay almost any
pilgrimage and any stay. In the one, a large pro-
portion of the collections, including the magnificent
French galleries, are already open and complete;
in the other, daily morning concerts of classical
music, and frequent afternoon concerts in addition,
are given by one of the largest and best orchestras
in the world, under the unsurpassed leadership of
Mr. Theodore Thomas. In fact, those who have
for a main object in visiting the Fair the gratifica-
tion of the aesthetic sense may almost as well come
now as at any later date, for the summer months
will offer little, excepting warmth and sunlight,
that is not already offered those who care more for
the beautiful than for the practical.
Two features of the Fair call very distinctly for
adverse criticism, but in neither case is the fault
distinctly chargeable to the Exposition authorities.
As matters now stand, the gates of the Fair will
be closed on the one day of the week when it is most
desirable that they should be opened. The wanton
inhumanity of this rule finds little sympathy among
the directors and commissioners, the responsibility
resting with Congress, or rather with certain hyper-
critical members of Congress who, with question-
able right, voted for the restriction. Whether, un-
der the circumstances, the Fair authorities would
be justified in disregarding the restriction, is a
complicated and delicate question. The arguments
in favor of such action seem to be at least as good
as those advanced upon the other side, and it is
quite possible that the question may be ultimately-
settled in accordance with the plain dictates of jus-
tice and humanity. The other feature which calls
for emphatic protest is found in the high scale of
charges adopted by most of those to whom conces-
sions have been awarded. Here, again, the author-
ities are but indirectly responsible, only in so far as
they have failed by their contracts to protect the
public from extortion. The fact remains that most
of the services offered by the holders of concessions
are charged for at exorbitant rates. This is par-
ticularly true of the restaurant service, the guide
and chair service, and the service of gondolas and
launches upon the lagoons. The charges for ad-
mission to many of the "side-shows" are also far
in excess of what is reasonable. In these matters,
the Exposition authorities should rigidly hold the
concessioners to the letter of their contracts, and it
is only fair to say that they show a disposition so
to do. The hotel and lodging-house keepers of
Chicago are, of course, beyond control, and we can
only hope that the greed already displayed by most
of them will overreach itself in the usual way, of
which outcome the signs are promising. Mean-
while, the Fair proper may be both reached and seen
at little expense, the admission fee as well as the lo-
cal transportation charges being entirely reasonable.
It was not to be expected that the cost of living in
Chicago would remain wholly unchanged by the
Fair — the experience of all past Expositions was
against any such hope,—but it was and is desirable,
in the interests of everybody concerned, that the
inevitable increase should be a moderate one. Upon
this question the force of public opinion should make
itself felt, speedily and with no uncertain emphasis.


1893.]
299
THE DIAL
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT.
Mr. Gladstone is fond of surprising the public,
and his latest effort of the sort is one of his most suc-
cessful. Of all possible successors to the Laureateship,
Mr. Ruskin is the last whose name would have occurred
to us. And yet, after the first shock is over, there are
reasons to regard the nomination as a fitting one; it
would be ideal if—this is, of course, a very big "if "—
Mr. Ruskin were only a poet. But that title his warm-
est admirers would hesitate to accord him, in spite of
the two volumes of his boyish verse that have recently
been reprinted. Their author himself has never cher-
ished any illusions upon the subject, and the suggestion
that he should fill the place left vacant by Lord Tenny-
son must have been quite as unexpected to him as to the
public. The nomination must be judged upon the broad
grounds of general fitness; of technical qualification
there is simply no question. Looked at from this point
of view, no nomination could be more satisfactory. If
any man now living is deserving of the highest honors
that England has power to bestow, that man is clearly
John Ruskin. He represents, as Tennyson did, the con-
science of the race in its noblest development, and his
work and life embody the sane ethical standards and
the wise conservatism that were given such perfect illus-
tration by his predecessor. In the words of his stead-
fast friend, Professor Norton, "No other master of
literature in our time has more earnestly and steadily
endeavored to set forth for the help of those whom he
addressed whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure,
and lovely; or in his own life has more faithfully tried
to practice the virtues which spring from the contem-
plation of these things and their adoption as the rule of
conduot." The laurel, passed from his head to an-
other's, will at least be, as he receives it, and as Tenny-
son received it,
greener from the brow
Of him who uttered nothing base."
That the recipient of this honor should accept it in
any active sense is not to be supposed. Mr. Ruskin
deliberately abandoned verse for prose as a vehicle of
expression at a very early age, and it is not likely that
he will return to verse-making, even as the Laureate
of England. Indeed, active work of any sort is now
hardly to be expected of him, although he has been, of
late, measurably restored to health.
Mr. Theodore Thomas, in his capacity as mu-
sical director of the Columbian Exposition, has recently
been attacked by certain of the Chicago newspapers
with a malignity which is fortunately too marked to in-
jure anyone but those responsible for the splenetic out-
burst. Brutal as the attack has been, it was made
still more brutal by being directed in part upon Mr.
Paderewski, whose great kindness in delaying his de-
parture for Europe and in volunteering a return to Chi-
cago in order to play at the opening concert of the Fair
was deserving of the warmest gratitude. The incredi-
ble insults that were instead heaped upon him must
make many an outsider wonder if Chicago be a civilized
city after all. Of course, no one will believe that Mr.
Paderewski was thus attacked merely because he claimed
the right to play upon his own piano — a right so clear
that it was probably never before called in question with
any artist — or that the assailants of Mr. Thomas have
no other motive than is based upon his assertion of the
equally indisputable right to control his own orchestra.
Such attacks as that we are now chronicling are usually
masked beneath a pretext of some degree of plausibil-
ity, but in this case the assailants of Mr. Thomas were
lacking in the common cunning that contrives some sort
of concealment of its real animus. Even the positive
lies that have been freely circulated were chosen with
childish disregard of the fact that they were easy of ref-
utation. No intelligent person could take seriously the
preposterous notion that the instruments used at the con-
certs should be restricted to those exhibited in their
proper place by their manufacturers, or that it was the
business of anybody but the musical director to say
anything about the iustruments to be played upon. Mr.
Thomas, being at the same time a leader in his pro-
fession and a self-respecting person, could not possibly
have submitted to auy restriction upon the freedom to
produce his effects by his own means, and has very
properly preserved a dignified silence under the attacks
to which he has been subjected. But it is pitiful to
think that such an attack, so obviously instigated by a
few manufacturers of musical instruments, should have
been made through the medium of any reputable news-
paper.
OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF LEARN-
ING IN A DEMOCRACY.
One of the finer threads through the labyrinth of
history directs us to the curious consideration of the
estimation in which learning has been held in dif-
ferent ages. Never, perhaps, has learning been
purely esteemed; learned men have always had to
practice an ambidextrous art, cherishing the pure
ends of study in privateness, but devoting their open
energies to the satisfaction of the world's paymas-
ters. Spinoza was forced to the drudgery of a
handicraft; Kant hardly earned freedom of thought
by the drudgery of teaching; while Socrates only
escaped the necessity of serving the world by living
a life of the simplest wants.
The great flowering time of the Athenian democ-
racy gave magnificent scope to the creative genius
of art, although it may be thought that there was
overmuch distraction from the still air of delightful
studies. Aristotle somewhat later founded the sci-
ences, aided by the endowment of royal patronage.
But the thing to note at the one period or the
other is that in these earlier days of the emancipated
human intellect men on the whole were wise enough
to justify learning for the single attempt to satisfy
their curiosity about the brave new world and its
mysteries, whether considered in its surpassing un-
ity under the form of the Platonic idea or in its
endless multeity under the forms of the Aristote-
lian categories. So also in practice, however rest-
less became the moralistic sestheticians, men were
content to let the arts teach them and to delight
in them, without much care for their justification
on the stock-exchange. After groping blindly in
the dark of twenty centuries, we have not been
able to hit upon a more perfect ideal than this,
— the ideal of a learning devoted to the satisfac-
tion of the rational curiosity of man and the ideal
of an art accepted without distrust as a means of


300
[May 16,
THE DIAL
pure pleasure and of humane edification. And
the loss of these ideals as thus maintained in the
state is not altogether made up to us by the gain in
moral and spiritual ideals which the world has made
since then. There are so many of us after all who,
if we were forced to choose between the Hebrew
civilization on one hand, with all its moral might
and with all its intellectual and artistic barrenness,
and the Greek civilization, with its final blindness
to the essential moral law but with its saving tem-
per of intellectual and artistic perfection, on the
other hand, would be instantly ready to take the
latter at its cost rather than the former. But the
choice is not necessary ; we are heirs of all the ages,
though daily we do ourselves the great wrong of re-
jecting and of setting up limitations in our ideals.
If learning in Greece enjoyed its best estate, in
the Dark Ages certainly it was at its lowest ebb.
With the barbarians came the desolation of ideas.
Such learning as survived turned to a hubbub of
untranslatable polemics. Only those whose pride
it is to construe darkness dare grope their way into
this hopeless abyss of more than Miltonian chaos.
The child of this darkness is the phantasmagoric
learning of the Middle Ages,— a riot of the over-
taught, untutored mind of man through the world
of disembodied ideas. Great ideas indeed were
toward in individual minds, and a fermentation of
knowledges was beginning. Roger Bacon is of this
age. The philosophy of Aquinas, too, evil in method
as it was, is nevertheless obscurely great. But or-
ganized learning was hopelessly pervert, and from
this time we date the odium in which pure scholas-
tic pursuits have ever since been held in the popu-
lar subliminal consciousness. The Renaissance, it
is true, changed all this. It re-established the arts
as well as might be ; it saw the re-awakening of the
pure intellectual curiosity of man. There are few
periods on which the mind dwells more lovingly
than on this brimming and beautiful Renaissance-
period, those sad, bad. mad, glad days of human
springtide. But we have to remember that the
Renaissance transmitted to us the lassitude for its
excesses and the bitter though wholesome purgation
of puritanism. Its work remains incomplete. It
shifted to our shoulders the burden of a thousand
new and unsolved problems.
Of these problems the problem of Democracy is
the greatest and most portentous. Democracy is
the dominant force of the day, and like every new
historic ideal it exacts in its youth a slavish homage
from men. The older ideals yield to it or are cher-
ished in secret only by despairing idealists. So lit-
tle are the minds of men capable of entertaining
more than one great ideal at one time! Generous
as is the ideal of Democracy, it has shown itself
thus far (in spite of the paradox) a selfish and de-
vouring ideal. The arts no longer aim first of all
at excellence in their kind; they have become toys
of popular approval. Knowledge and learning are
no longer the fruit of disinterested curiosity ; we rest
content with what we have, and the only function
of learned men is to aid in the extension, the pop-
ularization of learning and knowledge. Or at best,
the trades of research are justified on the plea of
an immediate utility. Even the men of learning,
the directors of our great universities, have begun
to yield their assent to these ideas. Democracy
truly has set the pace. Its ideals have swallowed
up all others.
It is time for a reaction against the exclusiveness
of the Democratic ideal. Man's spirit should be
fed not by one ideal but by many. In the ultimate
analysis Democracy too, noble as is its pure ideal,
must be regarded not as an end but as a means.
Other aims of the human spirit are of equal value
and in the end must assert themselves. Manhood,
reason, the rights of the individual soul, the instinct
for perfection and for distinction,—these are things
that are not answerable to Democracy. Learning
and art are the servants of these things, and as such
they too are not answerable to Democracy. Art as
the symbolic representation of life to the delight of
the human spirit, and learning as a disinterested at-
tempt to satisfy the pure curiosity of the human
spirit, are in the nature of things forever linked
with the progress of manhood and reason in all their
periods and contribute towards that progress ser-
vice as important, as genuine, and as admirable
as the service that Democracy, with its triune
ideal of liberty, equality, and fraternity, contri-
butes. Learning is as much an end in itself as
is Democracy, inasmuch as it answers to a genuine
and permanent human need; and a civilization
which attempts to belittle or degrade any one of
the paramount interests of the human spirit,—
whether the interest of the moral law in any of its
complex manifestations, as love or as public justice
and the rights of humanity, or the interest of art,
or the interest of the spiritual law and the religious
instinct, or the interest of learning and of intellec-
tual curiosity,— a civilization which neglects any
one of these interests does so at its peril.
Frederic Ives Carpenter.
COMMUNICA TIONS.
ANOTHER VERSION OF THE BELGIAN CAMPAIGN.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
We are indebted to Mr. John C. Ropes not only for
the most thorough and impartial account of the Water-
loo campaign that is accessible to English readers, but
for a more rational and satisfactory view of Napoleon's
whole career than has heretofore been given to the pub-
lic. The subject, however, still appears to be inex-
haustible. I have read with interest Major Kirkland's
article on Mr. Ropes's book in The Dial for May 1,
although I do not entirely agree with his standpoint.
The Waterloo campaign is the most interesting one
of modern times, for its problematic character, the fear-
ful loss of life occasioned by it, and a certain dramatic
quality, like the fifth act of a tragedy, which reached
its climax in the immolation of the Uld Guard.

V


1893.]
301
THE DIAL
The political importance of the campaign has often
been estimated too highly. It was the battle of Leip-
sic in 1813 that broke the power of Napoleon, and after
that he had nothing more than a ghost of a chance so
long as Austria, Prussia, and Russia remained united
against him. That they would have remained so is
proved by the fact that their alliance continued for
more than thirty years longer without any other object
apparently than to preserve the peace and prevent dem-
ocratic revolutions. Those who, like Byron, look upon
Napoleon as a homicide and butcher of mankind can-
not be aware that after his return from Elba he of-
fered the allies peace during his own and his son's life-
time, and that they were at first disposed to accept
these terms. Nothing but the terror of Napoleon's
genius can excuse the great Powers for declining his
proposal; and it seems a shame that the man who proved
himself foremost in the art of war should not have been
permitted to show what he could also do in the arts of
peace. But it is only on grand occasions that history
accomplishes the best results; and the lives of fifty
thousand men were sacrificed in two days in order to
maintain the principle of hereditary right in politics.
No one knew better than Napoleon the desperate er-
rand on which he went. Even if he had succeeded in
driving Wellington into the sea and pushing Bliicher
across the Rhine, there was little chance that he could
sustain himself against the forces that would afterward
have been brought against him. Only a continuation
of miraculous successes could have saved him, and his
fate was practically decided before the battle of Wa-
terloo was half finished.
It has been said that his army in this campaign was
one of the best he ever commanded; but this is hardly
a fair statement. The rank and file of his troops was
largely composed of veterans, but his best generals,
with the exception of Ney and Soult, were gone. Mas-
sina was an invalid, Junot and Lannes were dead, Murat
was in Italy, and Victor declined to serve. Mr. Ropes
thinks Napoleon made a mistake in stationing Davoust
at Paris, but it was essential to have a reliable man in
command at the seat of government, and we should be
cautious in judging such matters in the light of sub-
sequent events. To have replaced Grouchy with Mas-
sina and D'Erlon with Victor might have made a great
difference in the result of the campaign. In addition
to this, an American student who was residing in Paris
during the hundred days, and in his old age wrote an
account of it for the " Atlantic Monthly," noticed that
the French cavalry were not well mounted. This fol-
lowed as a matter of course from the immense destruc-
tion of horses during the retreat from Moscow, and
gave the English cavalry, charging down the slope of
Mt. St. Jean, an easy superiority.
The battle of Ligny was a brilliant victory for Na-
poleon, for it was the only square defeat (if we except
Liitzen) that Bliicher ever sustained. His mistake, if
he made one, would seem to have been in attacking the
French line too soon, instead of remaining on the de-
fensive until their fury had spent itself. He was like-
wise unfortunate in receiving an injury from the fall of
his horse at the most critical moment of the battle.
General Hambly's remark that Napoleon directed his
first attack against Bliicher because the French were
used to beating the Prussians is a clear case of inter-
national jealousy. The facts are that the French have
never defeated the Prussians except when commanded
by Napoleon in person and in Davoust's nominal battle
of Armstadt. The same French army that defeated a
superior force of English and Dutch at Fontenoy was
afterwards defeated by Frederick the Great with a very
much smaller force. Napoleon evidently attacked Blii-
cher because his cantonments were nearer the Freneh
line than those of the English, and also because he
knew that Bliicher was always ready for a fight. One
cannot help suspecting that the slowness of Wellington's
movements arose from a deliberate purpose to let Blii-
cher receive the first shock of war.
Grouchy appears to have been sent in pursuit of the
Prussians because he was in command of Napoleon's right
wing. According to Thiers, his appointment was a polit-
ical one,—the same sort that did so much mischief to the
Union cause in our Civil War. He belonged to the old
nobility whom Napoleon at this time was desirous to
conciliate. His previous record does not indicate that
he was a suitable person to send on such a difficult er-
rand. He had only thirty thousand men in his com-
mand, a force sufficient to pursue a defeated antagonist
of ordinary skill, but not for such a general as Bliicher.
Grouchy was probably very much afraid of Bliicher,
aud it is no wonder that he did not follow him up with
greater alacrity.
Mr. Ropes is to be congratulated on having recog-
nized the true character of the action at Quatre Bras.
It was properly a Freneh victory. Napoleon did not
expect Marshal Ney to defeat Wellington, but only to
hold him in check while he himself should deal with the
Prussians. Ney was aware that Wellington's army was
twice as large as his own, and could not, of course, an-
ticipate the reinforcements that might be brought
against him at any moment. It was even better for
him to be finally driven from his ground than to waste
the lives of his men in an offensive movement. Tiele-
man's fight with Grouchy was of the same description.
Wellington's army was by no means equal to B1U-
cher's. He had only about twenty thousand British
veterans, and these with fourteen thousand Brunswick
Prussians formed his chief support. The rest of his
force consisted of Dutch, Belgians, Hanoverians, and
English volunteers. How, then, are we to explain the
fact that Napoleon defeated Bliicher in less than three
hours, while he was not able to defeat Wellington in
seven? The plainest answer is: Good fortune and the
strength of Wellington's position. Bliicher was obliged
to concentrate on the best ground he could find at Ligny,
or retreat. Wellington selected his battlefield at leis-
ure, and Marshal Marmont noticed that he had a rare
faculty for choosing strong positions. Napoleon's dis-
advantage was in this case that he was either obliged
to fight Wellington on his own ground or to retreat.
The farm of Hougomont and La Haye Saint were like
two strong castles in advance of the Duke's army, and
the crest of the hill largely protected his second line.
It is possible he understood the art of repulsion and at-
tack by column better than Napoleon's other antagonists,
but this would not apply to Napoleon's first attack on
the left wing of the allied army. Wellington did not
anticipate this movement, and had stationed his weakest
troops there. According to his biographer, the Belgians
and others all ran away, leaving only three thousand
English to resist a column of seventeen thousand French.
This must be an exaggeration, but it proves what a close
shave the case must have been. If Napoleon had ad-
vanced his right wing for a determined conflict, it seems
as if he must have won the battle.
Marshal Ney is credited with some errors at Wa-


302
[May 16,
THE DIAL
terloo, but we should also consider what might have
happened if he had arrived after the battle was fin-
ished and Napoleon on the way to Brussels. Major
Kirkland thinks that none but Anglo-Saxon troops could
have held out as Wellington's force did that day. We
might congratulate ourselves on this if a large portion
of them had not belonged to other races. The High-
landers who repulsed the Old Guard are supposed to
have been the best soldiers in the British army. The
Irish also are good fighters. More depends on disci-
pline, and a good general, than on nationality. Napo-
leon's second at Leipsic was fully equal to Wellington's
defence at Waterloo, and his army was composed largely
of Frank P. Stearns.
Boston, Mass., May 3, 1893.
WANTED—A NEWSPAPER.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
I remember seeing not many years since in a Chi-
cago paper an account of an infanticide headed in star-
ing heavy-face type, "Killed Her Kid." While such
an atrocity could not now occur, yet it is generally ad-
mitted that even now our newspapers are miserably un-
reliable, trivial, and vulgar. If the primary function of a
newspaper is to accurately record as they occur events
of historic significance, first in the city whose name it
bears, and secondly in the country and world at large,
then is the press of to-day a flat failure. The worst fault,
in my opinion, is the gross inaccuracy. Not an event
which has come under my personal notice and which I
afterward found reported in the papers do I remember
as accurately reported, and often there was the merest
travesty of reality. Surely there is one kind of compo-
sition which cannot be too realistic, and that is the
newspaper article. The aim at making news articles
lively and entertaining at all costs, often by an absurd
showy attempt at literary style, tends towards the ut-
most looseness as to truth.
While the popular demand is and always will be for
the greatest quantity of sensational reading matter for
the least money, yet I believe that in Chicago and the
tributary Northwest there are thousands of sensible
thoughtful men who would welcome a daily devoted to
recording progress rather than retrogression, to chron-
icling the most significant events in the daily develop-
ment of industrial, commercial, artistic, scientific, so-
cial, and political life, rather than in emphasizing
caaualities, scandals, gossip, and crime. Suppose guch
a paper started as an eight-page daily. The general pro-
portion for news would be the first three pages to the
city and suburbs, then two to the country at large, then
one to foreign countries, one to science, art, and litera-
ture, and one to religion, charity, education, and miscel-
laneous. Each department should have its own edi-
torials, and in addition special articles prepared by the
most competent hands on questions of the day, after the
general style of "The Forum " or "The North Ameri-
can Review." Every article, news or discussion, should
be signed. As unimpeachable accuracy is the aim, it
might be well to offer large prizes to anyone detecting
false statements in its columns.
The expense of conducting such a paper must be met
largely by endowment. As a newspaper de luxe it must
charge at least five cents per copy, and it should help
itself financially by its advertising space, and by semi-
weekly, weekly, and monthly editions. It should seek
to make itself indispensable to professional men, to
current topic circles, and to schools. The value of such
a paper in raising the tone of the press would be
immense, and this alone would justify sinking capi-
tal very liberally as in a church or university. No
time is more auspicious than the Columbian year for
Chicago to show itself in this important matter the
most progressive of American cities, and to exhibit, not
the biggest newspaper in the world, but the best.
Hiram M. Stanley.
Lake Forest University, May 5, 1893.
SOME NEW "AMERICAN" WORDS.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
In reading the admirable paper in your issue of April
16, on "The Future of American Speech," I am re-
minded of several words which are now apparently
crystalizing and threaten to become recognized ele-
ments of our language (or dialect) perhaps a decade
hence.
"Enclosed please find porno" writes a business man,
and the reader of his letter learns that " porno" is brief
for post-office money-order. A religious paper gives a
long account of a Cail meeting. Fortunately it ex-
plains that "Cail" means the Church Association in
the Interests of Labor. A learned professor in Church
History gives his students some very interesting items
regarding the Angal Councils. One would look in vain
in the index of any Church History published for-the
word " Angal." It was merely intended to aid the stu-
dent to remember the names of the provincial synods
Aneyra, Neo-Cassarea, Gangra, Aquileia, and Laodictea,
whose canons were adopted by a subsequent Decumen-
ical Council. Probably this list could be extended, but
enough instances have been given to illustrate a method
of coining words that is not likely to improve our lan-
guage. This class of newly coined words is probably
small at present, but who can tell how large it is likely
to become within, say, the next ten years, among a peo-
ple whose tendency it is to reduce the name of a rail-
road to a series of initials? A. H. N.
New Orleans, La., May 3, 1893.
THE SHELLEY MEMORIAL FUND.
(To the Editor of The Dial. )
The American members of the committee to provide
the funds for the Shelley Memorial, at Horsham, Sussex,
England, acknowledge with thanks the following sub-
scriptions made since the former report:
Charles B. Dunn, Chestnut Hill, Pa. . 825 00
Daniel C. Oilman, Baltimore, Md. . . 5 00
Arthur M. Dodge, New York City . . 10 00
Henry Cabot Lodge, Nahant, Mass. . 10 00
T. Niles, Boston, Mass 25 00
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston, Mass. 50 00
Sarah W. Whitman, Boston, Mass. . . 25 00
$150 00
Amount previously acknowledged, 204 25
Total $354 25
This amount has been remitted to Jas. Stanley Little,
Esq., of Horsham, Hon. Secretary of the Shelley Com-
mittee. The American subscription is herewith closed.
T. B. Aldrich,
R. W. Gilder,
E. C. Stedman.
New York City, April 28, 1893.
_


1893.]
303
3Efje Nrfo Booka.
Throvgh Colonial Doorways.*
A wholesome revival of interest in Colonial
and Revolutionary times, and a manifest desire
to learn more, not only of the great historic
events of our heroic period, but also of its do-
mestic and social life, renders the dainty vol-
ume before us, "Through Colonial Doorways,"
timely and acceptable. As the author, Anne
Hollingsworth Wharton, implies in the open-
ing chapter, the lighter side of Colonial life has
been relatively overlooked. We have natu-
rally been so occupied with the sterner virtues
of the fathers and mothers of the Republic,
with their sacrifices, privations, and love of
civic liberty, that we tend, perhaps, to regard
them as bloodless types and exemplars of ex-
cellence, rather than as men and women to be
loved with human affection. The conventional
Colonial picture, Mrs. Wharton thinks, needs
brightening and humanizing; therefore it is
to its lighter phases that she addresses herself.
Pier little book is not, nor does it assume to be,
even an attempt at a comprehensive study of
Colonial manners. It is essentially a collec-
tion of seven brief essays descriptive of early
American social life, based upon and freely in-
terspersed with extracts from private letters
and diaries of the period, for the use of which
the author expresses indebtedness "to numer-
ous friends." Much of the charm of the vol-
ume springs from Mrs. Wharton's unfeigned
sympathy with her theme ; and it may be added
that the hearty " Americanism," the pride in
American traditions and American ancestry,
that quickens her pages, shows in refreshing
contrast to certain simian tendencies in a con-
trary direction with which our countrymen are
sometimes charged. For the class of Ameri-
cans, therefore, who seek to further their social
claims by the rather feeble shift of divesting
themselves of their nationality, the book offers
food for some not unprofitable reflection. The
author has chosen her numerous quotations
with an eye to their graphic force and color,
and they are aptly strung together on a thread
of running comment or narrative sometimes
quietly humorous and usually fairly pertinent.
Mrs. Wharton's material, "scrappy" as it is
and gathered from diverse sources, is naturally
rather intractable: and those who have them-
* Through Colonial Doorways. By Anne Hollings-
worth Wharton. Illustrated. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippin-
cott Co.
selves undertaken to weld into tolerable con-
tinuity a store of not too coherent extracts will
pardon an occasional hint of irrelevancy.
The aim of the book is, as already implied,
to brighten a rather sombre picture, and to
show us the men and women of Colonial times,
not posing for the dignity of history, but in
their lighter moments, and as Teniers or An-
thony Watteau would have painted them. The
scraps of familiar gossip and anecdote culled
from the yellowed pages of diary and letter
often serve better than pages of labored analy-
sis of character to place us en rapport with
their subjects. The stately Washington, for
instance, becomes much more a flesh-and-blood
personality, and much less a stony synthesis of
abstract virtues, when, in a letter written by
Mrs. John M. Bowers, one reads that when
the writer was a child six years of age the Gen-
eral dandled her on his knee and sang to her
about "the old, old man and the old, old wo-
man who lived in the vinegar-bottle together";
or when General Greene, writing from Mid-
dlebrook, says: "We had a little dance at my
quarters. His Excellency and Mrs. Greene
danced upwards of three hours without once
sitting down. Upon the whole we had a pretty
little frisk." John Adams, too, who does not
seem to have been a favorite with his contem-
poraries, comes down to us with a great acces-
sion of amiability in a sketch of his wife's,
where he is shown mildly submitting to be
driven about the room with a switch in the
hands of an equestrian grandchild; and when
Dr. Franklin's daughter, Mrs. Bache, begs
her "dear papa" not to reprimand her so se-
verely for desiring a little finery in which to
figure at the Ambassador's and when she " goes
abroad with the Washingtons," for surely
"he would not care to see her dressed with sin-
gularity, or in a way that will not do credit to
her father and her husband," it is pleasant to
fancy the sage relaxing, as it were, into the
father and the man. There being many old
letters and diaries, yet untouched, brightened
with these "trivial fond records," it seems,
thinks our author, a task not unworthy of the
later historian to gather them together and to
present to this generation more characteristic
pictures of their ancestors, drawn with a freer
hand and touched with the familiar light of
every-day discourse. She learns that —
"One young girl of the present time was strongly at-
tracted towards her own great-grandmother by read-
ing a letter written by her to her mother in Newport,
asking her to send her from thence ' a sprigged muslin


304
[May 16,
THE
DIAL
petticoat, and the making of an apron such as all the
girls are wearing.' A rather more modest request, this,
than that of Miss Eliza Sontbgate, who begged her
mother for five dollars with which to purchase a wig for
the next Assembly, because Eleanor Coffin had one, and
it was quite impossible 'to dress her hair stylish with-
out it.' Placed thus in touch with her great-grand-
mother's longings and aspirations, which flowed in the
same frivolous channel as her own, this young descend-
ant suddenly realized that they were of one flesh and
blood, and gathering and piecing together all that could
be learned from older members of the family of this
lady of the last century, she has become the heroine of
romance so thrilling and so sweet, that the girl of to-
day may be said to entertain for her unknown ancestress
a more than ordinary affection."
One of Mrs. Wharton's pleasantest chapters
treats of " A Bundle of Old Love Letters";
and conspicuous among the missives cited are
some quaint specimens from the hand of Will-
iam Penn, addressed to Hannah Callowhill,—
whose family name is made familiar to modern
Philadelphians by the street that bears it. It
is perhaps a little hard to picture the Proprie-
tary in the role of a lover, and " sighing like a
furnace" under the shade of his reverend broad-
brim. Yet even Quakers are, after all, but
men; and our author assures us that among
Penn's letters are some that glow " with all the
ardor and warmth of youthful affection." This
is, perhaps, putting the case a little too strongly.
If Mrs. Wharton's extracts are fairly represen-
tative, we should say that in Penn's letters the
fire of an Abelard is rather unduly quenched by
the circumspection of a Barkis. Certainly, the
more cantharidian terms are always promptly
chilled and abashed, so to speak, by the con-
text,— as in the following tearful effusion.
"And now let me tell thee, my Dearest," pro-
ceeds Mrs. Callowhill's swain, somewhat in the
key of the Burial Service —
"That tho' there are many qualitys for which I ad-
mire thee, as well as love thee, yet yt of Compassionat-
ing the unhappy is none of the least. And whatsoever
pittys has love, for it springs out of the same soft
ground; and can never fail, as often as there is occasion
to try it. That my Dearest II. has been a Mourner, a
Sympathizer, an inhabitant of Dust, and so weaned from
the common tastes of pleasure, yt gratify other Pal-
lats, does so much exalt her character with me, yt if
this were all she brought, she must be a treasure to yt
happy man y t has a Title to her. And since, by an unusual
goodness, she has made it my Lot, it shall be as much
my pleasure as she has made it my duty to make her
constantly sensible how much I am so of my obligation
to her."
In another letter to Hannah we find some
allusions to William Penn, Jr., who, it seems,
had "just had his hair cut," and whom his
father describes as being " lively yet tender."
History records that William Junior's "liveli-
ness " waxed with increasing years, and that in
later life he signalized himself and scandalized
his friends by the wrenching-off of door-knock-
ers, beating of the watch, and other midnight
exploits not at all in keeping with the precepts
of George Fox. This letter closes with the in-
ventory of an accompanying hamper, a Barkis-
like assault on the citadel of Mrs. Callowhill's
affections that must have been followed by a
speedy surrender:
"I presume ( writes the thoughtful lover) by the
next wagon there comes an Hamper directed to thy
father, the Contents for thee. Viz. 3 Gallons of light
french Brandy, one of wh' pray present to thy Mother.
I ordered 2 lbs of Chocolate to keep them company.
My Daughter prays thee to accept of 3 small pots of
venson, yt she says will keep well and are of her own
manufacture, as were all the last. She is concerned
her pig brawn was not ready wh' she faucys would not
have been a disagreeable way of eating a pig, but another
season will do. These are little things and yet would
express, tho' meanly, Love that is Great."
Certainly, great love was never, at least,
more substantially expressed; and the pig him-
self, modestly conscious of his own merits,
might well have elected to stand before his
judges in the guise of brawn. There are cer-
tain touches of characteristic diplomacy in these
love-letters of Penn's. The conciliatory gal-
lon of "french Brandy," for instance, to the
mother-in-law in spe was a Machiavellian stroke.
In a subsequent letter, the lover (having re-
flected, perhaps, on the rather Homeric con-
tents of his hamper), shows some concern touch-
ing the health of his mistress; and he concludes
his epistle with an earnest recommendation to
"take some pills " that he sends her, with a
certain medicinal water to be imbibed " three
days before the full and changes of the moon."
A letter-writer of a very different complex-
ion was the Rev. Elias Keach, of whose epis-
tolary ravings our author presents some aston-
ishing specimens. Before the pipings of this
vacant shepherd, Sir Piercie Shafton himself
"pales his uneffectual fires." Direct expres-
sion was apparently an impossibility with Mr.
Keach; and one shudders to think of what his
parishioners must have endured. In the let-
ter quoted at length by our author, the writer,
after apologizing to his sweetheart for " rush-
ing his rude and unpolished lines into her He-
roik and most Excelent Presence," plunges
into a most distracting sea of euphuism, and
emerges (more dead than alive, one fancies),
with the following pearl:
"That the Silver Streams of my Dearest Affections
and faithfull Love will be willingly received into the
Mill Pond of your tender Virgin Heart; by your hall-


1893.]
305
THE DIAL
ing[?] up the flood gate of your virtuous Love and Af-
fections; which will completely turn the Wheeles of your
Gracious will and Understanding to receive the golden
graines or Effects of my Steadfast love and unerring
Affection whicli will be in Loyall respective and Oblig-
ing Service so Long as Life Shall Last and such a
thrice Happy Conjunction; may induce many to bring
of golden graines of rejoicing to our Mill and River of
joy and contentment and we ourselves will sing ye Epi-
thalmy; this is the Earnest (yet Languishing) Desire
of his Soul who hath sent his heart with this Letter."
That the dithyrambic Keach received from his
flame what the Germans call a basket, is pro-
bably the "Earnest (yet Languishing) De-
sire" of our reader.
Among the later Colonial love-letters cited
are those of Abigail Smith (afterwards Mrs.
John Adams) whose letters, with their femi-
nine lightness and very easy play of wit and
fancy, form a cheerful contrast to the lumber-
ing conceits of Mr. Keach. Abigail was the
daughter of the Rev. William Smith of Wey-
mouth, a facetious divine who sometimes car-
ried his humor into the pulpit. It is related
that Mr. Smith's aristocratic parishioners ob-
jected to John Adams because he was the son
of a small farmer, and was, moreover, himself
a lawyer,— two facts, they held, which made
him ineligible to marry the daughter of a man
in whose veins "flowed the bluest of New En-
gland blue blood." The pastor thought other-
wise ; and he accordingly favored his flock with
a sermon on the text, " For John came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say,
He hath a devil," the latter clause referring to
the groom's profession, then not held in much
repute in New England. Abigail's letters are
genuine love-letters in their tone of earnest de-
votion, and one notes therein hints of the stir
and excitement of the military doings about
Boston, of the scarcity of provisions, etc.,—
especially of pins, which seem to have become
as rare as diamonds:
"I wish (she writes) I could come and see you. I
never suffer myself to think you are about returning
soon. Can it, will it be? May I ask — may I wish
for it? When once I expect you—But hush! Do you
know it is eleven o'clock at night? . . . Pray don't
let Bass forget my pins. We shall soon have no cof-
fee, nor sugar, nor pepper here; but whortleberries and
milk we are not obliged to commerce for. I saw a let-
ter of yours to Colonel Palmer by General Washing-
ton. I hope I have one too. Good-night. With thoughts
of thee I close my eyes. Angels guard and protect
thee; and may a safe return ere long bless thy Portia."
They were Portias, and Callistas, and Flo-
rios in those days — not Johns and Abigails;
but the burden of the song was much the same,
and one seems to catch something of the heart-
beat of the times in the correspondence of
these long-buried lovers. In another letter,
written while John Adams was undergoing the
un-romantic process of vaccination, "Portia"
says-:
"By the time you receive this I hope from expe-
rience that you will be able to say that the distemper
is but a trifle. Think you I would not endure a trifle
for the pleasure of seeing you? Yes, were it ten times
that trifle, I would. But my own inclinations must not
be followed. I hope you smoke your letters well be-
fore you deliver them. Mamma is so fearful lest I
catch the distemper, that she hardly ever thinks the
letters are sufficiently purified. Did you ever rob a
bird's nest? Do you remember how the poor birds
would fly round and round, fearful to come nigh, yet
not knowing how to leave the place? Just so they say
I hover round Tom whilst he is smoking my letters."
The occasion was prosaic, but the simile it
called forth is a pretty one; and we regret,
with our author, that John Adams's answer to
these letters were not preserved.
It is a curious literary and historical fact,
says Mrs. Wharton, that Benedict Arnold, who
was notorious for his extravagance in public
and private life, was extremely parsimonious
in the matter of love-letters. By the evidence
of a recently-discovered letter it is shown that
Arnold made the same amatory composition
do general duty, using it as a sort of blank
form, and testing it upon at least two ladies of
his choice,— thus showing that the man who
sells his post to his country's foes may well be
capable of further degrees of perfidy. The
missive in question was first addressed to a
Miss A., who seems to have been proof against
its rhetoric, and it was afterwards used by
the thrifty suitor in offering himself to Miss
Peggy Shippen, whom he married in 1779.
The letter, as addressed to Miss Shippen, may
be found in Arnold's "Life of Benedict Ar-
nold." It is a fair sample of the prevailing
florid style of love-letter—rather in the vein of
Mr. Keach. "If Miss Shippen had realized,"
observes Mrs. Wharton, with feminine scorn,—
"That her suitor had written to an earlier love that
'her charms had lighted up a flame in his bosom which
could never be extinguished, that her heavenly image
was too dear to be ever effaced, and that Heaven's
blessing should be implored for the idol and only wish
of his soul,' she might with some reason have hesitated
to bestow her hand upon so trite a lover, who could
find no fresh adjectives to match her charms."
Mrs. Wharton's paper descriptive of "The
Meschianza,"* a fete given to General Sir Wil-
liam Howe by the British officers previous to
his departure for England, is graphic and sug-
*Or, Mischianza — from the Italian mescere, to mix, and
mischiare, to mingle.


306
[May 16,
THE
DIAL
gestive. Philadelphia's aristocratic citizens, de-
scended mostly from old English stock, were still
loyal, or, at least, neutral, sticking, as Graydon
puts it, "to their ease and Madeira"; and we
find that while Washington and his half-clad
army were shivering upon the bleak hill-sides of
Valley Forge, the Quaker city could, upon oc-
casion, doff her sober drab, and mingle in the
gayeties of the conqueror. Dancing assemblies,
theatricals, etc., marked the advent of the Brit-
ish in Penn's "faire greene country towne,"
and fitly heralded the full-blown glories of the
fete that celebrated the departure of that hero
of whom the sarcastic Jerseyman wrote:
"Threatening to drive us from the hil],
Sir William marched to attack our men,
Bat finding that we all stood still,
Sir William he — marched back again."
The luckless Andre was a leading spirit in
the Meschianza, and the nature of his duties
may be inferred from a letter of his written in
1779 to Miss Peggy Shippen:
"You should know (he writes) the Mesquianza made
me a complete milliner. Should you not have received
Supplies for your fullest equipmeut from that depart-
ment, I shall be glad to enter into the whole details of
cap-wire, needles, gauze, etc., and to the best of my
abilities, render you in these trifles services from which
I hope yon would infer a zeal to be further employed."
We cannot here enter circumstantially into
Mrs. Wharton's spirited account of the Mes-
chianza— the piece de resistance of which was
a tourney rivalling in pomp, if not in bruises,
the " gentle and joyous " affair at Ashby. For
the behoof of the patriotic reader, however, we
may add that the general joy of the occasion
was somewhat chilled by a brisk attack on the
British redoubts made by the Continentals un-
der Captain Allan McLane, who suceeded in
firing the abatis at the north of the city, and
in giving the garrison a pretty fright. Says
our author:
"When the flames reddened the sky the ladies, doubt-
less, clapped their hands with delight, wondering at the
beauty of the illumination, which illusion was encour-
aged by the officers, and later, when the roll-call was
sounded along the lines aud the guns of the redoubts
fired, the guests were assured that this was all a part of
the celebration, and the dancing continued."
There were, of course, many sober and patri-
otic Friends who looked askance at these un-
timely frivolities; and when the Americans
finally regained possession of Philadelphia an
effort was made by the Whigs to exclude from
their social gatherings the ladies who had taken
part in the Meschianza. A compensatory ball
was given at the City Tavern to those "who
had manifested their attachment to the cause
of virtue and freedom by sacrificing every con-
venience to the love of their country." Our
author's account of the Meschianza is fitly
closed by the following extract from the victor-
ious Anthony Wayne's message to the fickle
fair who had graced it with their presence:
"Tell those Philadelphia ladies who attended Howe's
assemblies and levees that the heavenly, sweet, pretty
red-coats — the accomplished gentlemen of the guards
and grenadiers have been humbled on the plains of Mon-
mouth. The Knights of the Blended Roses and of the
Burning Mount (the rival bands at the tourney) have
resigned their laurels to Rebel officers, who will lay
them at the feet of those virtuous daughters of America
who cheerfully gave up ease and affluence in a city, for
liberty and peace of mind in a cottage."
Mrs. Wharton's little book is, as we have
said, a timely and wholesome one. The in-
creased interest in Colonial and Revolutionary
times is a good sign—especially at a period of
our national growth when the native patriot-
ism is necessarily somewhat diluted by a dozen
or so exotic patriotisms. Such books help to
foster a pride in things which should not be
allowed to fade from the American memory;
and thus, incidentally, tend to counteract a
spirit of — shall we say ? — " flunkeyism " that
often impels the younger nation to play the ob-
sequious ape to the follies of the elder. The
publishers have done their part with much taste,
and the illustrations are suitable and pretty.
E. G. J.
Triumphant Wagnerism.*
Mr. Finck did not need to apologize for
writing a new biography of Richard Wagner.
No satisfactory treatment of Wagner's life and
work has, up to the present time, been printed
in the English language, and probably no liv-
ing English writer was as well qualified as
Mr. Finck, both by training and by tempera-
ment, to supply the obvious need of such a
work. The book by the late Dr. Hueffer is
admirable, as is also that by Herr Nohl (trans-
lated by Mr. G. P. Upton), but these books
are the merest outline sketches. Mr. Praeger's
recent work deals very fully with a few pe-
riods of Wagner's life, but leaves the others
almost blank. Herr Glasenapp's biography,
scholarly and dull, has never found a transla-
tor. The monumental work of M. Jullien has
recently appeared in English, and no student
of Wagner can afford to be without it, but the
* Waonkr and His Works: The Story of His Life. With
Critical Comments. By Henry T. Finck. In two volumes.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.


1893.]
307
THE
DIAL
author understood Wagner's character very
imperfectly, although he did substantial jus-
tice to Wagner's work. One who could write
of Wagner the man, " il est d£nue de noblesse,
et n'echappe a aucune des faiblesses de l'hu-
maine nature," was clearly not the one chosen
to interpret to the world the essentially noble
and lovable character of his subject. Wag-
ner's correspondence with his dressmaker, his
outbursts of petulent anger, his appeals to his
friends for financial aid, the harshness of his
polemical writings, and his failure to accept
with perfect and enduring fortitude the hard
conditions of exile — these are weaknesses, no
doubt, but they are not the materials upon
which to base any fair estimate of his person-
ality. If ever a soul was "perplexed in the
extreme" by the struggle with adverse fate it
was that of Richard Wagner. Eager to give
the world of his best, the world would have
none of it; conscious of the greatness of his
work, he found it everywhere assailed by ig-
norance, intrigue, and calumny. We may say
of him, as Rossetti of Dante:
"Alas t the Sacred Song whereto
Both heaven and earth had set their hand
Not only at Fame's gate did stand
Knocking to claim the passage through,
Bnt toiled to ope that heavier door"
which not Florence, but Germany, shut upon
him; not, happily, "forevermore," but long
enough to steep his soul in bitterness. What
exile meant to Wagner is not often realized.
Himself a poor performer on the piano, he was
for all those years deprived of the pleasure of
hearing his own music almost as completely as
the similar satisfaction was denied to Beethoven
during his closing years of deafness. Over
and over again he was tempted to enter Ger-
many incognito that he might hear Liszt con-
duct "Lohengrin " at Weimar. Bnt the dan-
ger that he would have incurred by so doing
was a very real one; it must be remembered
that Roeckel, his fellow-revolutionist of Dres-
den, languished in prison for thirteen years as
the consequence of his rash patriotism, and to-
wards Wagner the court of Saxony remained
implacable, refusing all requests for permission
to return. The bitterness of exile to Wagner
was far greater than to Hugo, of whom we
naturally think in this connection, and it would,
perhaps, have been unreasonable to expect from
the German the unbending fortitude of the
Frenchman. It would be unjust to reproach
Wagner too severely because he had no " Ulti-
ma Verba " for the oppressor, or because there
was a touch of the sycophant in his efforts to
minimize his revolutionary activity and to re-
gain the lost favor of kings. We may say,
era passent, that Mr. Finck does not give us a
very clear idea of this phase of the composer's
life. Mr. Praeger is more satisfactory, and
his devotion to Wagner is quite as great as
that of the present biographer.
Mr. Finck's book has, we regret to say, other
and more serious defects than this. It is very
unsatisfactory in style, being generally bois-
terous, often flippant, and sometimes vulgar.
It is exceedingly unfortunate that a serious life
of Wagner should tell us of " Hiilsen's heroic
efforts to down" Wagnerism, of the "big
head" displayed by a certain conductor, or of
the "versified rot" of the pre-Wagnerian li-
brettists. Nor do we admire the taste displayed
by the author when, after duly castigating one
of the anti-Wagnerian critics, he adds: "The
moral of this little tale is that an attempt to
make out that Wagner was a fool is very apt
to take the direction of a boomerang." In-
stances of this detestable journalistic style fre-
quently disfigure Mr. Finck's pages. The
pages are also disfigured by far too extensive
an introduction of the curiosities of Wagnerian
criticism. Early in the work Mr. Finck an-
nounces his intention of serving his readers,
from time to time, with the more "edifying"
of these criticisms, " as a sort of releve between
the aesthetic and biographic courses." He keeps
his word only too well, and the effect is that
of wearisome repetition. The opinions ex-
pressed of Wagner's music by such men as Mr.
Bennett, M. Fetis, and Dr. Hanslick are doubt-
less among the most delicious absurdities of
modern criticism, and their authors were clearly
"Prachtexemplare of the Philistine," but Mr.
Finck quotes them much too frequently. A
little of this sort of thing goes far, and who-
ever wants more of it has only to refer to Herr
Tappert's "Wagner Lexicon." Mr. Finck
tells us in a note that he has collected fresh
material in quantity sufficient to make a new
"Lexicon " of this sort. In fact, this polem-
ical feature of the author's treatment of Wag-
ner meets the fate of Macbeth's "vaulting
ambition," and makes us almost sympathize
with the slain whom Mr. Finck slays once more.
Indeed, not content with mere slaughter, he
tramples upon the bodies of his victims, scalps
them, and holds the trophy exultantly aloft. In
one case he tells us with apparent glee, how one
of the critics became insane and "was placed
where he belonged—in a lunatic asylum." It
is quite clear that the author thinks he belonged


308
[May 16,
THE
DIAI
there, with the rest of the pack, all the time.
All this is distinctly unpleasant in its effect,
and the author's apology is inadequate when he
says: "These critics are self-impaled; they
helped to make Wagnerian history, and I, as
veracious historian, am bound to chronicle the
facts. Besides, these men had no end of fun in
ridiculing Wagner and his admirers in former
years; now that the tide has turned, have we not
a right to a little fun at their expense?" A
right, undoubtedly, but the question here is one
of taste, not of right. Another characteristic of
Mr. Finck's manner is found in his use of
the adjective "funny" to designate anything
with which he does not agree. Thus, we are
told of the "funny" ideas of the critics and
the "funny" musical philosophy of Schopen-
hauer. In construction Mr. Finck's work is
loose-jointed and makes a patchwork impres-
sion. As a minor defect we may mention the
fact that the titles of Wagner's works, musical
and literary, are given sometimes in German,
sometimes in English. To give them in the
latter form has been the author's rule, but there
are several exceptions. For "Das Liebesver-
bot" the less generally familiar sub-title, "The
Novice of Palermo," is used with no apparent
warrant.
Having glanced at the defects of Mr. Finck's
work, we must not neglect to do justice to its
merits, for it is, in spite of its shortcomings, the
most important work upon its subject in the
English language, and is likely to retain that
position for years to come. In the first place,
it is a work of great industry, aided by the
collections of many years. The author tells
us that, aside from the use made of Wagner's
own writings, he has depended almost wholly
upon his own experiences and collections, and
upon the recently published collections of let-
ters and other documents. To previous biog-
raphers he claims indebtedness " for less than
a twentieth part of the material contained in
these two volumes," and the claim may be al-
lowed. As a storehouse of facts, taken mostly
from original sources, the work is of high ac-
curacy and value. It tells the story of Wag-
ner's life very completely, although the auto-
biography, if ever published, will probably
make material additions to our knowledge.
Mr. Finck's summaries of the music-dramas
are useful for reference, and, what is more, are
readable. His analyses of the prose writings
show an instinct for selecting the right things
and emphasizing the right points. His statis-
tics of the performances of Wagnerian opera
are abundant and useful. His critical exposi-
tion of Wagner's aims and achievements is ad-
mirable. The criticism is based upon the broad
principles of art rather than upon the technical
principles of composition, and this is the proper
method for a popular biography. The criti-
cism reveals clear insight and comes as near to
a verbal interpretation of Wagner's immense
power as any with which we are acquainted.
We can imagine a more adequate criticism, but
to imagine it is one thing, and to produce it
another. Sometime we shall doubtless have a
more searching discussion of Wagner's concep-
tion of the drama, and of the relation of his
work to myth, to religious emotion, and to other
aspects of culture. But the possibility that
some one else may do better is no reason for
grudging Mr. Finck the praise that is his due
for having done so well.
A few waifs and strays from the thousand
pages of this work are worth noting for their
novelty or their originality. It is not generally
known that Wagner wrote a "Columbus"
overture at the age of twenty-two, a work that
has been lost. We should have had it for the
opening of the Columbian Exposition. After
Wagner became famous he was the prey of the li-
brettist, and some three thousand " books" were
offered him at different times. One of Wag-
ner's critics went so far as to publish a serious
attempt to prove him a lunatic, the charge be-
ing based upon his vanity, his love of luxury,
and his belief that he was a victim of persecu-
tion. Mr. Finck's comment is amusing: "The
funniest part of this business is that in a coun-
try where almost every man suffers from me-
galomania, the one man who had the best
claim to the title of genius should have been
pronounced a lunatic." Mr. Finck quotes a
passage from Jean Paul as the most curious co-
incidence in the history of the fine arts. The
passage is this: "Hitherto Apollo has always
distributed the poetic gift with his right hand,
the musical with his left, to two persons so
widely apart that up to this hour we are still
waiting for the man who will create a genuine
opera by writing both its text and its music."
The coincidence is in the fact that this sen-
tence was written at Bayreuth in the very year
of Wagner's birth. But, as Mr. Finck shows
us in his discussion of the Leitmotiv, the ideas
to be developed by the composer were already
in existence, and there were Wagnerians before
Wagner just as there were Darwinians before
Darwin.
Of the many misunderstandings to which


1893.]
309
THE
DIAL
Wagner's critics gave currency, some survive
in popular consciousness to the present day,
and no part of Mr. Finck's work is more ef-
fective than that in which he combats these de-
lusions. It is indeed exasperating to be told
that Wagner despised melody, or that he sub-
ordinated the vocal to the orchestral parts of
his work, and the author is not unjustified in
the indignation of such a passage as the follow-
ing: "To be accused of abolishing melody,
when no one was ever more truly melodious;
to be accused of destroying musical form when
he was the real creator of organic form for
dramatic music ; to be accused of despising and
abusing the great masters, when no one ever
worshipped them as he did; to be accused of
egotism, commercialism, puffery, sybaritic in-
dulgence, when he had really sacrificed the
comforts of almost his whole life to the attain-
ment of a seemingly impossible ideal; to be
accused of all these things, not ten times, but
ten thousand times, until all the world believed
the mammoth lie, — was this an experience to
make a man amiable in his feelings and con-
duct toward the world?" We are still in-
formed by the unthinking and the ignorant
that the Italian style is vocal and the Wag-
nerian style is not. Whereupon the author
aptly remarks: "Any second fiddler or flutist
can play at sight the florid arias of such an
opera as Rossini's 'Semiramide,' whereas to
the human voice they are utterly antagonistic,
as is proved by the fact that of all living
singers that florid specialist, Madame Patti,
alone can execute them correctly. That the
lovers of this kind of practically wordless, in-
strumental 'song' should call Wagner's mu-
sic, in which every word is distinctly heard,
'unvocal,' is about as topsy-turvy and as funny
as anything in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta-
plot." As for the people who say that "Tris-
tan and Isolde" is unmelodious, the author
expresses his opinion upon that subject in un-
mistakable terms: "The whole work, like a
Bach score, is polyphonic; that is, every har-
monic part is a melody, a continuous melody.
Often two or more melodies are heard at a
time, in illustration of the complex dramatic
emotion. It is a ' forest of melodies' which the
myopic cannot see on account of the 'trees.'
It is an emancipated melody no longer depend-
ent on the dancing-master's geometrical figures,
but moving on with a free dramatic rubato; no
longer imprisoned in one key, but going about
from key to key, unfettered, on the bridge of
modulation, thus illustrating the relationship of
all the keys." Of course, those who really
know Wagner do not need to be told these
things, or that Wagner had no lack of appre-
ciation from the men of genius who were his
contemporaries, from such men as Liszt, and
Franz, and Saint-Saens. The latter composer,
writing of "Die Walkiire," said: "A thou-
sand critics writing each a thousand lines a
day for ten years would injure this work about
as much as a child's breath would go towards
overthrowing the pyramids of Egypt."
Mr. Finck's book is the paean of triumphant
Wagnerism. It is a story of artistic conquest
to which history offers few parallels. We do
not always like the way in which, for the pur-
pose of emphasizing the significance of Wag-
ner's work, the author decries the work of
other composers, estimable in their fashion.
In this respect he might well take a lesson
from Wagner himself, who could write of even
Meyerbeer in such terms as these: "He can
readily find the richest, noblest, and most soul-
stirring musical expression. I recall here espe-
cially some passages in the well-known scene
of love and anguish in the fourth act of the
'Huguenots,' and above all, the wonderfully
touching melody in G flat major, which, sprout-
ing like a flower from a dramatic situation
that makes every fibre of the human heart vi-
brate with a voluptuous thrill, is a passage to
which few things in music, and only the most
perfect, are comparable." Wagner said many
harsh things about Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn,
and others, but he did generous justice to the
praiseworthy features of their work. Even
the Italian opera writers found more mercy at
his hands than at those of his biographer.
Wagner's place among composers is now
safely assured. In his adaptation of music to
the purposes of dramatic art he has won a posi-
tion for which there is no rival claimant. As
a musician pure and simple, he must be ranked
with the first, with Bach and Beethoven. By
a curious vagary, Mr. Finck omits Beethoven
from his list of the greatest creative com-
posers, and substitutes Schubert and Chopin.
Elsewhere he says, speaking particularly of
the last act of the "Gotterdammerung," that
it " makes Beethoven's form seem mere child's
play in comparison, and surpasses even the
polyphonic ingenuity of Bach's genius." It
would, perhaps, be better to leave for twentieth
century criticism this extreme of eulogy, and
yet, when under the spell of the act referred
to, or of the love passages in "Tristan and
Isolde," or of the sublime closing scenes of


310
[May 16,
THE
DIAL
"Die Meistersinger" and of "Parsifal," are
there any, even among the most timid, who
have not whispered to themselves something of
the sort, upon whose minds has not been irre-
sistibly borne the conclusion that the composi-
tion of these works marked for music a triumph
beyond any that had gone before?
William Mohton Payne.
The American Commonwealth.*
The Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancas-
ter is said to be a sinecure, a convenient office
for a wise man with sound judgment, whose ad-
vice in the English Cabinet is desired but who
is not expected to give his attention to the de-
tails of administration. Fortunate it is for litera-
ture that Mr. Bryce has not given himself up to
the toil of a more exacting office. He has found
the time to enter upon a careful revision of his
great book upon America. The first volume
of the third edition is now published and the
second volume will be issued in a few months.
The revision is not a book-selling ruse. The
text and notes have been carefully examined
and often changed. Slight alterations in
phraseology indicate that there has been the
closest scrutiny of every word. New laws and
new state constitutions have been studied and
the text amended to correspond with the new
facts.
One or two examples will illustrate the char-
acter of the revision. In speaking of state con-
stitutional conventions, the first edition asserts
that they are now " merely advisory " bodies.
The present edition guardedly states that they
are " usually advisory " bodies. The correction
was made necessary by the astonishing act of the
Mississippi convention of 1890, which, though
summoned under a statute, created and enacted
a new constitution in spite of an express clause
in the existing constitution providing for trans-
mittal to the people of all alterations in their
fundamental law. Another example of a dif-
ferent kind will show that the book has