and the author did not hesitate
to shower praise upon the Japanese as the ablest
rivals of the Muscovite and as the sole vigorous
champions of the higher civilization in the
Orient. At the close of the war (during which
Mr. Weale was a careful personal observer of
Far Eastern affairs) appeared a more ambitious
work under the title "The Re-shaping of the
Far East." In this book the status of China,
Japan, Korea, and Manchuria, and of the Occi-
dental powers represented in the Orient, was
described at great length: but the author felt
obliged to recall much of his earlier laudation
of Japan and to substitute for it an attitude of
moderate censure, particularly when Korean
affairs were under consideration. In 1907 the
third book in the series was published, "The
Truce in the East and its Aftermath." In it the
author advanced to a more pronounced arraign-
ment of Japan, maintaining that Japanese
aims and ideals had developed in a direction
absolutely different from that which had been
expected, and that they had become plainly sub-
versive of the best interests of the Orient and
of the world at large.
The volume now under review, " The Coming
• The Coming Struggle in Eastern Asia. By B. L. Putnam
Weale. Illustrated. New York: The Macmillan Co.
Struggle in Eastern Asia," is hardly the ablest
and most convincing of the series, but it con-
tains much that is worth while, and in relation
to Mr. Weale's personal views it marks a full
and unreserved conversion from the pro-
Japanese of five years ago to the strongly anti-
Japanese of to-day. The book is presented by
its author as "a careful revaluation of the old
forces in the Far Eastern situation, as they dis-
played themselves during the first half of this
year (1907)." It falls into three parts, the
first dealing with "Russia Beyond Lake Bai-
kal," the second with "The New Problem of
Eastern Asia," and the third with "The
Struggle Round China."
The first part comprises a very detailed
description of conditions in easternmost Russia
as the author found them during an observation
trip in the autumn of 1906. The starting-point
is Vladivostock, which, it is pointed out, has
become once more "the outlook post, the ad-
vanced entrenched position of great White
Russia." After an interesting exposition of
the commercial and military strength of this
point, the author goes on to tell of the Ussuri
railway, Khabarovsk and the Amur province,
and the present status of Manchuria. The
fundamental fact, in Mr. Weale's judgment, in
the whole problem of the future of Eastern Asia
is the steady, irrisistible, inevitable advance of
Russia — of European Russia — toward the
Pacific. "The Siberia of the story-books,"
he declares, "has already disappeared never to
return. Siberia must now be looked upon as
the exact Russian equivalent of the American
Far West or the new Canadian Northwest.
Railways, a great movement of virile men and
women, agricultural machinery, houses of brick,
wood, and stone, and all the inventions of a mar-
vellously inventive age, — in a very short inter-
val these can make an unconquered country,
which is inhabited by inferior races and is
gifted with a wholesome soil and climate, a new
piece of Europe, as European as the countries
of the old world, as white as the whitest." It
is Mr. Weale's conviction that they not only can
do this, but that they are already rapidly doing
it in Asiatic Russia.
The second part of the book is taken up with
a consideration of the present state of Japan,
with reference to government, industry, com-
merce, finance, military and naval strength,
colonies, emigration, and international relations.
Despite the strong anti-Japanese slant already
mentioned, the treatment is candid and illumin-
ating. Not the least valuable chapter for the


1908.] THE
DIAL 59
general reader is one describing very clearly the
actual workings of the Japanese imperial gov-
ernment, accompanied by the complete text of
the much misunderstood Japanese constitution
of 1889. This is followed, in the third part,
by a similar interpretation of present-day China.
Although one may not glean from it a great
deal that is really new, one cannot put his hands
upon a more sane, compact, and readable dis-
cussion of the subject in English.
Frederic Austin Ogg.
The Larger Problems of Heredity.*
We learn from the Preface to this book that
it " is intended as an introduction to the study of
heredity, which everyone admits to be a subject
of fascinating interest and of great practical
importance. . . . Simple the exposition cannot
be, if one has any ambition for thoroughness;
but it is probably simple enough for those who
have got beyond the pottering, platitudinarian
stage, which deals in heredity with a capital H."
This quotation may be supplemented by the
remark that the book has the usual qualities of
Professor Thomson's writings; that is to say, it
is intelligible, pleasant to read, and distinguished
by a broad outlook. If it does not contribute
any important original facts, it is at least suf-
ficiently original in the matter of treatment, while
at the same time impartial enough to furnish an
adequate exposition of all the more noteworthy
points of view. At the present time, when there is
a growing sense of the immense practical impor-
tance of the subject, following close on the heels
of numerous remarkable discoveries, the value
of a work which is at once up to date and capable
of being understood by any ordinarily intelligent
person can scarcely be exaggerated. It is not
too much to say, that no one is fitted to deal with
the problems which are now looming large on the
horizon of human affairs, who has not paid atten-
tion to such matters as are discussed in Professor
Thomson's book. We are not exactly prepared
to insist that the perusal of the work should be
a sine qua non for all who propose to exercise
the rights of suffrage or of parenthood; but it
can scarcely be doubted that if it were possible
to enforce such a ruling, great benefits woidd
result.
Professor Thomson is not one of those who
would reduce sociology to a mere branch of
zoology. Himself a keen sociologist, he recog-
• Heredity. By J. Arthur Thomson. New York: G. P.
Putnam's SonB.
\ —
nizes fully that human society contains many
elements which cannot be interpreted — at any
rate at present —by purely biological reasoning.
To treat human consciousness and its conse-
quences in a purely biological way is as mis-
leading as the reduction of biological phenomena
to mere chemistry and mechanics. Whatever
one may believe as to ultimate possibilities,
whatever monism may be one's philosophical
creed, humanity spells words which, whether or
not composed of mere letters of the biological
alphabet, mean something very different from
those letters themselves, singly or collectively.
All of this is fully and frankly recognized; and
because of this, the reader will accept with a
better heart the weighty advice of biology to
sociology — advice no more to be brushed aside
than that of the physical sciences to biology
itself.
"By the education of conscience on a scientific basis
there is already arising a wholesome prejudice against
the marriage and especially the intermarriage of sub-
jects in whom there is a strong hereditary bias to certain
diseases — such as epilepsy and diabetes, to take two
very different instances. Is it Utopian to hope that this
will extend with increasing knowledge, and that the
ethical consciousness of the average man will come more
and more to include in its varied content < a feeling of
responsibility for the healthf ulness of succeeding genera-
tions?' ...
"The argument always used against deliberate pre-
ferential mating on a eugenic basis is that our ignorance
is immense. And this must be frankly admitted. Yet
there are some things that we do know. . . .
"That the best general constitutions should be mated,
is the first rule of good breeding. That a markedly
good constitution should not be paired with a markedly
bad one, is a second rule, — a disregard of which means
wanton wastage. A third rule is that a person exhibit-
ing a bias towards a specific disease should not marry
another with the same bias. ... In other words, every
possible care should be taken of a relatively sound stock.
The careless tainting of a good stock is a social crime"
(pp. 305-306).
All this will have to contend with a wall of
ancient prejudice; nevertheless, —
"The basis of preferential mating is not unalterable;
in fact, we know that it sways hither and thither from
age to age. Possible marriages are every day prohibited
or refrained from for the absurdest of reasons; there is
no reason why they should not be prohibited or refrained
from for the best of reasons — the welfare of our race.
For the average man, instinctive 'falling in love ' will
probably remain a safer guide than any scientific eugenic
counsels, but there is no reason to doubt that eugenic
considerations will in the course of time enter sub-
consciously into the prolegomena of that mysterious
process."
On the other hand, the process of selection
cannot be left to Unaided " nature."
"It has often been said that modern hygiene, in tend-
ing to eliminate our eliminators — the microbes — is


60
[August 1,
THE
DIAL
destroying a most valuable selective agency which has
helped to make our race what it is. This seems a little
like saying that the destruction of venomous snakes in
India is eliminating a most valuable selective agency
which has helped to evolve the Wisdom of the East.
"It is difficult to find justification for the enthusiastic
confidence which some seem to have in the value of
microbes as eliminators. Which microbe? Surely not
that of plague, which strikes indifferently, and is no
more discriminately selective than an earthquake.
Surely not that of typhus, which used to kill weak and
strong alike. Surely not that of typhoid, which may
strike anyone, and does not confer more than a passing
immunity. And so on through a long list."
In other words, these microbes merely spare
those resistant to themselves, a form of selection
which produces results quite disconnected with
higher human values, and only of importance
from any standpoint in the presence of the dis-
eases. In the competition of race with race,
where some have undergone this kind of evolu-
tion while others have not, the outcome has a
terrible significance — the tax which in the one
case has been exacted through the centuries,
being in the other levied all at once, as it were;
but for intraracial ends, especially in the light
of modern science, the microbes may well be
dispensed with. So says Professor Thomson.
"At present we can only indicate that the future of
our race depends on Eugenics (in some form or other),
combined with the simultaneous evolution of Eulechnics
and Eulopias. 'Brave words,' of course; but surely not
'Utopian'!" (p. 308).
It must not be supposed that the book con-
sists principally of propagandist argument; it is
full of recitals of the most interesting and im-
portant facts, which we make no attempt to
summarize. It is for these that it should be
read, because they supply the materials from
which everyone may draw his own conclusions.
In the attempt to be perfectly clear, the author
has practically repeated himself a good deal in
different places; but this no doubt has an ade-
quate pedagogical justification, assuming that
the reader is not a specialist. Although the
work may fairly be described as up to date, the
progress of the subject is such that in the mere
processes of printing and publishing any treat-
ment gets belated. Thus it happens that the
recent important residts of Tower and Mac-
Dougal throwing light on the causes of variation
have either not been considered or have reached
the author so recently that it was impracticable
to make use of them. That Tower's work was
not unknown to Professor Thomson is evident
from the fact that he cites it in the bibliography
and copies some of the figures from it.
T. D. A. COCKERELL.
Recent Poetrt.*
When Mr. Swinburne told the tragic story of the
Lombard queen, some years ago, it seemed as if he
had carried to its utmost extreme the reaction from
the exuberant and verbose manner of his earlier
dramatic period. But "The Duke of Gandia"
shows that a further extreme was still possible, for
nothing is more marvellous about this new work
than its compression, its bareness of ornament, and
its success in making suggestion a substitute for
speech. For these reasons it does not lend itself
readily to quotation. One fine passage of consider-
able length may, however, be given, with the ex-
planation that it is spoken by CsBsar Borgia, after
he has done to death his brother Francesco, to the
grief-stricken Alexander, their father.
"What they Bay and what thou sayest I hold
False. Tho' thou has wept as woman, howled as wolf,
Above our dead, thou art hale and whole. And now
Behoves thee rise again as Christ our God,
Vicarious Christ, and cast as flesh away
This grief from off thy godhead. I and thou,
One, will set hard as never Ood hath set
To the empire and the steerage of the world.
Do thou forget but him who is dead, and was
Nought, and bethink thee what a world to wield
The eternal God hath given into thine hands
Which daily mould him out of bread, and give
His kneaded flesh to feed on. Thou and I
Will make this rent and ruinous Italy
One. Ours it shall be, body and soul, and great
Above all power and glory given of God
To them that died to set thee where thou art —
Throned on the dust of C«esar and of Christ,
Imperial. Earth shall quail again, and rise
Again the higher because she trembled. Rome
So bade it be: it was, and shall be."
What is probably the most striking evidence of the re-
straint under which the poet has placed himself in the
composition of this grim tragedy is the fact that only
a single lyric — and that of four lines only — occurs
in the entire work. These are the lovely words of the
song, the last upon the lips of the doomed Francesco.
"Love and night are life and light;
Sleep and wine and song
Speed and slay the halting day
Ere it live too long."
* The Duke op Gandia. By Algernon Charles Swinburne.
New York: Harper & Brothers.
The Golden Hyndb. and Other Poems. By Alfred Noyes.
New York: The Macmillan Co.
The Dark Ages, and Other Poems. By " L." New York:
Longmans, Green, & Co.
The Dead Friendship, and Other Poems. By Litchfield
Woods. Glasgow: Frederick W. Wilson & Co.
Songs op Life and Love. By Hay Aldington. London:
David Nutt.
Wild Honey prom Various Thyme. By Michael Field.
New York: The A. Wessels Co.
Poems. By Robert Underwood Johnson. New York: The
Century Co.
Lyrics and Landscapes. By Harrison 8. Morris. New
York: The Century Co.
Voices and Visions. By Clinton Scollard, Boston: Sherman.
French. & Co.
From Quiet Valleys. By Thomas S. Jones, Jr. Clinton,
N. Y.: George William Browning.
Gypsy Verses. By Helen Hay Whitney. New York:
Duffield & Co.
A Scallop Shell op Quiet. By Caroline Hazard. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin A Co.


1908.]
(31
THE DIAL
"That shalt not thou," says the assassin, and the
dagger is plunged into Francesco's breast. One old
trick of Mr. Swinburne's diction has become a man-
nerism in the present poem. We refer to the
enjambement which carries a thought over to the
first syllable of the next line. Four examples of
this may be found in the passage above quoted, and
innumerable others elsewhere in the work. Artist-
ically, the effect of this device is admirable; it
heightens our sense of the verbal economy at which
the poet has so evidently aimed throughout. This
marvellous work, which no other poet now living
could dream of equalling, is of small dimensions,
consisting of but four hundred verses, divided into
four brief scenes. But it bears all the burden of a
full-grown tragedy.
These remarks about Mr. Swinburne's tragedy
may fittingly be followed by an account of the vol-
ume in which Mr. Alfred Noyes pays reverent
homage to his master. It is another case of
"The youngest to the oldest singer
That England bore,"
for Mr. Noyes is the latest comer to the ranks of
those to whom poetry is a high and sacred mission,
and his tribute was evoked by the occasion of Mr.
Swinburne's seventieth birthday. We have space
only for the last two of the four stanzas.
"For he, the last of that immortal race
Whose music like a robe of living light
Re-clothed each new-born age and made it bright
As with the glory of Love's transfiguring face,
Reddened earth's roses, kindled the deep blue
Of England's radiant ever-singing sea,
Recalled the white Thalasstan from the foam,
Woke the dim stars anew,
And triumphed in the triumph of Liberty,
We claim him; bnt he hath not here his home.
"Not here! Round him to-day the clouds divide.
We know what faces thro' that rose-flushed air
Now bend above him — Shelley's face is there,
And Hugo's lit with more than kingly pride;
Replenished there with splendour the blind eyes
Of Milton bend from heaven to meet his own;
Sappho is there crowned with those queenlier flowers
Whose graft outgrew our skies,
His gift: Shakespeare leans earthward from his throne
With hands outstretched. He needs no crown of ours."
We particularly welcome in Mr. Noyes the recur-
rence of that note of deep and lofty patriotism which
is the glory, not only of Mr. Swinburne, but also of
Milton and Shelley, of Wordsworth and Tennyson,
the note which has been conspicuously missing from
the blatant mouthings of the latter-day singers of
imperialism. We find it in "The Empire-Builders,"
which thus begins and thus ends:
"Who are the Empire-builders 1 They
Whose desperate arrogance demands
A self-reflecting power to sway
A hundred little selfless lands?
Lord God of battles, ere we bow
To these and to their soulless lust.
Let fall thy thunders on us now
And strike us equal to the dust.
"For hearts that to their home are true
Where'er the tides of power may flow,
Have built a kingdom great and new
Which Time nor Fate shall overthrow:
These are the Empire builders, these
Annex where none shall say them nay,
Beyond the world's uncharted seas,
Realms that can never pass away."
We find the same note in the fervent stanzas " In
Time of War."
"And here to us the eternal charge is given
To rise and make our low world touch God's high:
To hasten God's own Kingdom, Man's own heaven,
And teach Love's grander army how to die.
"No kingdom then, no long-continuing city
Shall e'er again be stablished by the sword;
No blood-bought throne defy the powers of pity,
No despot's crown outweigh one helot's word.
'• Imperial England, breathe thy marching orders:
The great host waits; the end, the end is close,
When earth shall know thy peace in all her borders,
And all her deserts blossom with thy Rose."
The classical poems in this volume constitute an
important group. Even such worn themes as
Orpheus and PhaSthon and Perseus receive a touch
of fresh grace in this poet's handling. "The Last of
the Titans," for example, tells of the Atlas myth,
and of how the slayer of Medusa turned the giant
to stone. Here is a fine passage descriptive of the
Titan's solitude.
"Beneath him, like a tawny panther-skin,
The great Sahara slept: beyond it lay,
Parcelled and plotted out like tiny fields,
The princedoms and the kingdoms of this earth,
Mountains like frozen wrinkles on a sea,
And seas like rain-pools in a rutted road
Dwindling beneath his loneliness. Above
The chariots of ten thousand thousand suns
Conspired to make him lonelier, and rolled
Their flaming wheels remote, so that they seemed.
E'en Alioth and Fomalhaut, no more
Than dust of diamonds in the abysmal gloom.
So from a huger loneliness he gazed
Over the world where, faint as morning mists
Drifting thro' shadowy battles on the hills,
Drifting thro' many a pageant touched with red,
Cities of men and nations passed away."
Mr. Noyes is singularly happy in his lyrical mea-
sures, and his song has the spontaneity of a bird's
carolling.
"When that I loved a maiden
My heaven was in her eyes,
And when they bent above me
I knew no deeper skies;
But when her heart forsook me,
My spirit broke its bars,
For grief beyond the sunset
And love beyond the stars."
It is a true poet that we have represented by the
above extracts, a poet of such rare quality as to mark
him as the peer of the best among the younger
generation. He is certainly of the rank of Mr.
Phillips and Mr. Watson, and he surpasses the
former in freshness of vision, the latter in facility
of utterance.
A cultivated and reflective mind, dwelling upon
themes of art, religion, history, and the legendary


62
[August 1,
THE DIAL
past, finding for its thoughts and fancies a striking
form of individual expression —this is the substance
of what is offered us by " L.," in "The Dark Ages
and Other Poems." If not always poetical, the
author has a vigorous form of speech that reaches its
mark, as in this section of his titular poem.
"Men call you 'dark.7 Was Chaucer's speech a muddy
stream,
The language born of Norman sun and Saxon snow?
Was Langland's verse or Wyclif's prose mere glow-worm's
gleam?
And the tales
Of Arthur's sword and of the Holy Grail,
And Avalon, the isle where no storms blow:
From such romance did no light glance?
Have we not heard a tongue
Whose word the Saxon thralls
Would scorn to speak above their muck-rake and their fork,
The speech of barrack-rooms and music-halls,
Where every fool has flung
The rotten refuse of Calcutta and New York?"
Here is a writer who knows what he thinks, and is
not chary about saying it. Other pieces reveal a
charm that is lacking in the above quotation, and
of these "The Bells of Venice " may be taken as an
example.
"Ring out again that faltering strain,
Cease not so soon,
Sweet peal that brought to me the thought
Of some deep shadowed English lane
Across the blue lagoon.
"The water street where oarsmen meet
And shout ahead,
The glowing quay, all noise and glee,
Seemed hallowed as when angels' feet
Touched Jacob's stony bed.
"On pearly dome and princely home
Day's glory dies:
Once more the bells' low murmur tells
That faith is not a line of foam
Nor life a bridge of sighs."
The religious note here sounded is the one most
characteristic of the author's mood, and is reechoed
in a majority of tbe pieces that make up his volume.
A sort of vivid subjectivity, which makes it fairly
clear that the verses are something more than fabrica-
tions — are in some degree the distillation of expe-
rience— is characteristic of "The Dead Friendship,
and Other Poems," by Mr. Litchfield Woods. We
may illustrate this statement by quoting the deeply-
felt stanzas entitled "This My Heart."
"In this my heart I find a mimic world
Of love and hate, and happiness and tears.
The joys and sorrows of the earth lie furled
Within its subtle deeps. With hopes and fears
Its wide domain I conquer and explore,
Of sin and goodness finding more and more
In this my heart.
"In this my heart I stand upon the height
Where God his state in love and beauty keeps;
In this my heart I dwell in unstarred night
Of sin and horror. Sinking to the deeps
Of blackest Hell I find my spirit's kin.
There lies all beauty, love and hate and sin
In this my heart.
"In this my heart are gardens of delight,
And caverns vile of ruin and decay.
With this my heart I plumb the darkest night,
And span the brightness of a fairer day.
There dwells enshrined a blessing and a curse,
The beauty and horror of the universe,
In this my heart."
A strain of melancholy, and a tendency to brood
over the darker aspects of life, lead us to suspect
that Mr. Woods is still a comparatively young poet.
Whether he has realized, or only anticipates, the
evanescence of the flush of joy that comes with
early years we are not prepared to say, but it is cer-
tain that "Youth's Farewell" expresses the mood
of this critical transition in terms of singular beaut}-.
The poem is too long to reproduce, save for its clos-
ing stanzas.
"Ah! on her eyes in fondness dwell,
Beyond those orbs is fairyland;
Ah! look and take a long farewell,
Upon the fragile hand
Breathe out thy yearning in a trembling kiss,
Breathe out youth's soul and so youth's dreams dismiss.
"One long last kiss, one long last look
Into those heart-compelling eyes,
And youth is but a closed book,
Life's morning splendour dies;
Ne'er will return its rapture and its zest,
Though oft desired in memory's unrest.
"Ah! youth, thy moments fly too soon,
Though pure and bright, yet brief the trance,
Come turn thy face towards the noon,
Bid farewell to romance;
The daylight grows, life's morning rapture dies,
Whilst others throng to feed upon those eyes."
Of the sonnets in this volume we must quote one
example, "The Unattainable."
"With heart insurgent 'neath my clasped hands,
With weary eyes on far horizons fed;
My spirit wanders in enchanted lands
Where pale rose dawns and amber sunsets shed
Eternal loveliness; where all my dreams
Walk with glad eyes the shining courts of gold;
And where my hopes, transfigured in the beams
Of purest light, arise and cry,' Behold,
We give thee all the dreams of thy desire,
Release thy spirit from its prisou bars,
Thou canst outsoar the sunset's amber fire,
Reap for thy soul the heavens' wealth of stars;
And gaze forever with unwearied eyes
On far horizons where new realms arise.'"
This is one of some score of sonnets, all in the
Shakespearian form, and all of unusual distinction.
Miss May Aldington's verses are called "Songs
of Life and Love," the two terms being taken as
coextensive, as far as this little volume reports.
"Love Watches " is the name given to the following
pair of stanzas.
"I watch the blue veins in your hands,
With ever wondering longing;
I watch the red blood in your lips,
And feel my pulses throbbing.
"I watch the sea, the earth, the sun,
God's wonders in the making;
But for the love-light in your eyes,
I watch with heart that's breaking."


1908.]
63
THE
DIAL
To this lyriBt, an assonance seems quite as good as
a rhyme, and she freely uses it as a substitute.
The two ladies who merge their separate indi-
vidualities into the imagined character of "Michael
Field" have earned for that name the sincere ap-
plause of all lovers of poetry. For a quarter of a
century volumes thus ascribed have made their
appearance in a continuing series, and the latest of
them, "Wild Honey from Various Thyme," is no
whit inferior to its predecessors. Here are nearly
two hundred lyrics and sonnets, packed with thought,
and arresting in their originality of expression. Let
us take, to begin with, this truly Emersonian crys-
tallization of an idea.
"But if our love be dying let it die
As the rose shedding secretly,
Or as a noble music's pause:
Let it move rhythmic as the laws
Of the sea's ebb, or the sun's ritual
When sovereignly he dies:
Then let a mourner rise and three times call
Upon our love, and the long echoes fall."
Classical myths, sometimes set forth by bare de-
scriptive process and sometimes moralized, are the
subjects of a large number of these poems. We
select "Mintha" for our illustration.
"Dusk Mintha, purple-eyed, I love thy story —
Where was the grove,
Beneath what alder-strand, or poplar hoary
Did silent Hades look to thee of love?
Mute wert thou, ever mute, nor did'st thou start
Affrighted from thy doom, but in thy heart
Did'st bury deep thy god. Persephone
Passed thee by slowly on her way to hell;
And seeing Death bo sore beloved of thee
She sighed, and not in anger wrought the spell
Fixed thee a plant
Of low, close blossom, of supprest perfume,
And leaves that pant
Urgent as if from spices of a tomb."
The following sonnet is called "Constancy," and
the idea has rarely found as striking an expression.
"I love her with the seasons, with the winds,
As the stars worship, as anemones
Shudder in secret for the sun, as bees
Buzz round an open flower: in all kinds
My love is perfect, and in each she finds
Herself the goal: then why, intent to teaze
And rob her delicate spirit of its ease,
Hastes she to range me with inconstant minds?
If she should die, if I were left at large
On earth without her — I, on earth, the same
Quick mortal with a thousand cries, her spell
She fears would break. And I confront the charge
As sorrowing, and as careless of my fame
As Christ intact before the infidel."
One more sonnet, this time a pure interpretation of
nature, shall end our extracts from this significant
collection. It has " Inept" for a title.
"What is the burthen of this gold sunshine
That burns across the wideness of decay,
Or stamps its splendour on the forest pine,
Or lifts — a token torch — one sweet-fern spray?
Why would it brand so deep? The meadows spread
Untarnishable in their pomp of dew,
Or frost, or clear meridian: overhead
Droppeth the night; but one must creep into
The brake to hide one from the harvest moon,
So wide she stares. Qreat stars that shed no boon
Flame through the orchard apples laid in heaps.
Why this profusion of September fire
Poured where the thistle in the tilth grows higher,
Laid over the broad fields where no man reaps?"
Such work as this produces the gratifying effect of
dry champagne upon a palate cloyed by the exces-
sive sweetness of most ordinary verse.
At discreet intervals during the last score of years
Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson has put forth modest
volumes of verse which have charmed thoughtful
readers by their grace and sincerity. Now that we
have the contents of these volumes (with a few
additional pieces) brought within a single pair of
covers, we realize with some surprise how great a
quantity of good work the author has done, and how
considerable a poet he is. This is clearly a case in
which the effect of the whole is greater than the sum
of the effects produced by the several parts. For
one thing, the collective volume shows us the sur-
prising breadth of the poet's range. There are lyrics
of nature and life, sage moralizings, and poems of
personal and occasional character in great number
and variety. Then there is the important group of
poems inspired by patriotic and historical themes.
And then, best of all to our liking, there are the
many pieces which reveal the writer as a whole-
hearted lover of Italy. We are going to quote
"Love in Italy" as an exquisite example, although
the lyric is now many years old, and is perhaps as
familiar as anything Mr. Johnson has ever written.
"They halted at the terrace wall;
Below, the towered city lay;
The valley in the moonlight's thrall
Was silent in a swoon of May.
As hand to hand spoke one soft word
Beneath the friendly ilex-tree,
They knew not, of the flame that stirred,
What part was Love, what Italy.
li They knew what makes the moon more bright
Where Beatrice and Juliet, —
The sweeter perfume in the night.
The lovelier starlight in the star;
And more that glowing hour did prove,
Beneath the sheltering ilex-tree, —
That Italy transfigures Love,
As Love transfigures Italy."
And now let us associate with this song the closing
stanzas of a poem only a few weeks old — a poem
in which the praise of Italy is conjoined with a
tender tribute to a dead friend, "To One Who
Never Got to Rome," to Edmund Clarence Stedman.
"The path to Adonais' bed,
That pilgrims ever smoother wear,
Who could than you more fitly tread ? —
Or with more right from Ariel dead
The dark acanthus bear?
"Alas! your footstep could not keep
Your fond hope's rendezvous, brave soul!
Yet, if our last thoughts ere we sleep
Be couriers across the deep
To greet us at the goal,


66
[August 1,
THE
DIAL
The puzzling talc^0™**™ years aS° Mr" Charles
of Chatterton's Edward Russell undertook the study
life ana work. 0{ Chatterton's strangely puzzling
life and literary work. Bristol, the boy-poet's home,
the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, and all
other sources of possible information about his sub-
ject, have been visited by the biographer, and all
extant documentary evidence has been examined;
and as a result we now have a handsomely printed
and illustrated volume entitled "Thomas Chatter-
ton, the Marvelous Boy" (Moffat, Yard & Co.).
In his very preface Mr. Russell damages his case
by claiming too much. Not only does he roundly
deny that Chatterton was guilty of literary forgery,
but he pronounces his writings "works of the first
order of genius, works ever since the marvel of all
persons that have considered them, works profoundly
affecting the body and the development of English
poetry." With a lurking fear, however, that he
may not have succeeded in proving his client's in-
nocence and in shifting all the blame on to the
antiquary-surgeon Barrett and the hard-hearted
Horace Walpole, he amusingly adds that if the
wonderful boy was a literary forger he had tempta-
tion enough and excuse enough, and we ought now
to forgive him and remember only his lovable
qualities and his undisputed literary genius. The
lovable qualities we can admire without being told,
on what authority does not appear, that whenever
he passed the throng of beggars in front of Colston's
school, on his way to get a book from the circulating
library, "he emptied his pockets among them," and
so denied himself the book for which his soul was
thirsting, and so also found himself compelled to
carry more parchments, genuine or forged, to
Surgeon Barrett. "On a calm survey," says the
author, as if forgetting that he is washing Chatterton
as white as snow, "the only real amazement will
be that this boy did nothing worse than palm off his
counterfeit antiques upon two foolish men." The
advocate protests too much; he lacks the calmness
of conviction, and so fails to convince the reader.
The interest, too, of his story — and Chatterton's
life can never fail to be interesting — suffers from
its disputatious tone ; it is told with an emphasis that
seems to leave no reserve forces behind. Masson's
short and pathetic account, which Mr. Russell makes
no mention of in his references to previous biog-
raphers, is more effective than this later, more
elaborate, and undoubtedly better-informed work,
although the thoroughness with which the author
prepared himself for it is worthy of high praise.
A new brief "^* we are human," writes Mr. John
biography Macy in beginning his life of Edgar
of Pot. AHan poe> jn the „ Beacon Biog-
raphies " series (Small, Maynard & Co.), "we crave
to know when Shakespeare was married, and on
what occasions Poe befuddled his fine brain; but
the Poe that lives is the dreamer of dreams imaged
in the pensive head that adorns the University of
Virginia." Sympathy with poets, the writer further
declares, should transcend defense of their private
morals. Perhaps so; but even with the best of
endeavors to maintain the cool literary temper, a
warmer human interest will make the reader regret
Byron's irregularities, Shelley's untenderness to his
first wife, and Poe's lack of manly self-control. This
very natural interest of ours in a poet as a human
being Mr. Macy recognizes so far as to touch on the
main facts of Poe's troubled life; and of the weak-
ness that chiefly caused it to be troubled he says
an illuminating word. Correcting those who call
Poe's infirmity alcoholism or dipsomania, he says:
"Alcoholism is disease resulting from excessive
drinking: anyone may develop it with perseverance.
Dipsomania is an uncontrollable thirst for alcohol:
it exists as a disease, even if the thirst is not gratified.
There is yet a third condition which can exist with-
out excessive or continuous indulgence and without
an initial morbid craving. Under this condition the
'patient' is affected by alcohol and other drugs as
if he were a cold-blooded animal. There is imme-
diate unbalance, hysteria, insanity, a poisoned con-
dition. Such, according to the evidence, was the
effect of liquor on Poe." Mr. Macy's essay — for it
is, of necessity, hardly more — dwells rather on Poe
the short-story writer than on Poe the poet. The
short story, moreover, he unhesitatingly pronounces
"the only type of literature to which America has
made a considerable contribution of distinguished
quality." Has anyone noted the curious parallelism
between Poe and Whistler in their whimsical fibbing
over birth-place and birth-year? Each falsely claimed
Baltimore as birthplace, and both were shy about
giving their age. Both, too, were for a brief space
students at West Point, if history is to be believed.
This last is noted by Mr. Macy. His little book
sustains the general excellence of the series to which
it belongs.
.... , "To learn to know the Alps well is
A half-century f ,
of mountain- little short of a liberal education.
climbing. Of tn^; one ;g more than half per-
suaded after reading Mr. Frederic Harrison's book,
"My Alpine Jubilee " (Smith, Elder & Co.), which
is made up of ten short articles and letters, most of
them reprinted from the " Cornhill Magazine," the
"Westminster Review," and "The Times." The
volume opens with six letters written home last
autumn from Lake Leman, fifty-six years after the
writer's first visit to the Alps in his student days.
It is cheering to find Mr. Harrison still as keen as
ever for a tramp (if not too arduous) in the moun-
tains, and far more appreciative of their charms than
in his youth, rich in adventure and ever fresh delights
though those early days of summit-scaling are
acknowledged to have been. The middle altitudes
must now content him, but what they have to offer
was largely missed in those former mad scrambles
to reach the topmost peaks. But even in that far-
off time of half a century ago Mr. Harrison was no
unobservant mountain-climber. Two articles written


1908.]
65
THE
DIAL
Bkiefs on New Books.
New ttudia of There are certain authors whose
Blake. KeaU. stability and discrimination in judg-
Seou, Shelley. ment are always assured; we recog-
nize their distinct merits and limitations, and are
seldom disappointed in their products. Sometimes
such evenness, especially in a critical essayist, sug-
gests a craftsman rather than a scholar; but a tone
of earnest appreciation quite counteracts any such
mechanical effects. Mr. Stopford Brooke has
achieved the skill of the craftsman, without losing
his individual traits as a critic with a keen perception
of literary art His earlier studies of Browning and
Tennyson have been followed by other volumes in
uniform style, covering a wider range of subjects.
His new "Studies in Poetry" (Putnam) include
essays on Blake, Keats, Scott, and three on Shelley.
The studies of Shelley impress the reader as the
most vital, and they seem to furnish the special
reason for the book. If the tone of the " Inaugural
Address to the Shelley Society" is occasionally open
to censure for petulance in recalling the comparisons
which have been made between Shelley and Byron,
the later pages of the essay are sound in balanced
criticism on both poets. Mr. Brooke emphasizes
his admiration for Shelley's lyrics in this inaugural
address, and expands the hints there stated into a
worthy essay on the same subject. He justly calls
attention to Shelley's absorbing impulses of thought
and emotions which left their impress not only on
the shorter lyrics but also in lyrical outbursts in many
of the dramas, notably "Prometheus," "Hellas,"
and " Epipsychidion." A separate essay is devoted
to the last-mentioned personal poem. There are
some new interpretative thoughts and fitting re-
phrasing of recognized qualities of mind and soul
in the detailed analyses of "The Cloud" and "Ode
to the West Wind." Two distinctive traits of
Shelley are summarized as "the power of making
fresh myths out of nature, and that of describing
nature imaginatively and yet with scientific truth."
Keats and Shelley suggest to most critics both resem-
blance and divergence. The author has here traced
the mental isolation of Keats from the political and
material struggles of his age, his reversion to ideals
and symbols of classic and medi»val beauty, and
his childlike sensibility to nature. With almost
ecstatic praise he commends his best odes as "above
criticism, pure gold of poetry — virgin gold." The
publication of the complete poems of William Blake
in a new edition two years ago re-awakened interest
in this painter-poet who was both visionary and
radical and whose recognition has come so slowly.
Mr. Brooke has studied Blake's lyrical poetry in
relation to the development of English literature;
he has also emphasized his spiritual love of nature,
which made him a true precursor of Wordsworth.
Blake's poetic passion informed and beautified many
of his meditations on the political, social, and relig-
ious problems of his day. The quotations which
reveal the poet's childlike yet progressive nature are
well chosen from "Poetical Sketches," "Songs of
Innocence," and "Songs of Experience." Many a
reader in middle life will echo the sentence in the
essay on Sir Walter Scott, "I am sorry for the chil-
dren who are not brought up on the poetry of Scott."
With just appreciation, this poetry is extolled for its
power of kindling romantic feelings and imaginative
delights over past scenes, and for awakening fervor
to learn more of historic scenes, heroic characters,
and knightly ideals.
Chapter* in The second instalment (Volume III.)
the itruagie for of Professor James MacKinnon's
human liberty, u History of Modern Liberty "(Long-
mans, Green, & Co.), the first two volumes of which
were reviewed in The Dial a year ago, deals with
the struggle with the Stuarts in England and Scot-
land in the seventeenth century, and is a continua-
tion of an ambitious task already well advanced;
namely, the tracing of the historical development of
liberty in modern times. The first volume, it may
be repeated, was of an introductory character, being
limited to a review of the origin and results of the
movements for political and social emancipation in
the middle ages. The second volume dealt primarily
with the intellectual and religious movements as
exemplified in the Renaissance and Reformation and
their results upon the political and social life of the
time. The present volume is to be followed by five
others, concluding with the revolutionary and eman-
cipation movements in the nineteenth century. The
scene of the struggle described in the earlier volumes
was mainly on the continent; after that it was shifted
to England and Scotland, where the new impulse
received its most powerful expression. There the
contest began with the opposition of parliament to
the arbitrary rule of James I., was continued during
the reign of Charles II., included the opposition to
the "military despotism" of Cromwell, and ended
with the abdication of James II. The struggle was
marked by such incidents as Milton's plea for intel-
lectual freedom, the efforts of Roger Williams,
William Penn, John Locke, and others, in behalf of
toleration, and the demand of certain obscure sects
for social as well as religious emancipation. In
Great Britain the struggle produced important re-
sults; it gave her the first place among the full
countries of Europe, transformed her into a land of
refuge for the exiles of other nations, and helped to
foster "those larger aspirations which resulted in
the widening of political rights, the broadening of
intellectual and religious liberty, and contributed to
engender that free self-consciousness, that spirit of
daring enterprise, which led to the expansion of
British power and the establishment of free common-
wealth beyond the British shores." The same criti-
cism which was directed against the earlier volumes
may be made of the present one; namely, that much
of the story deals only in a remote degree with liberty,
and that the author's failure to cite his authorities
detracts from the value of the work to serious students
of history.


68
[August 1,
THE DIAL
Notes.
A new and complete edition of Mr. Madison Cawein's
poetry, in five volumes, with an introduction by Mr.
Edmund Gosse, is announced by the Bobbs-Merrill
Company.
With the title, "Good Citizenship," the Henry
Altemus Co. publish a small volume containing the two
Chicago addresses made in 1903 and 1907 by the late
Grover Cleveland.
Miss Elizabeth Robins, author of " Come and Find
Me " and "The Magnetic North," has completed a new
novel to appear during the Fall under the title, "The
Mills of the Gods."
"The Appreciation of the Drama," by Mr. Charles H.
Caffin, will soon be added to the Baker & Taylor Co.'s
excellent " Appreciation " series, which already includes
volumes on music and art.
An English book which should prove of unusual inter-
est to Americans is "George III., as Man, Monarch,
and Statesman," by Mr. Beckles Willson, to which
Messrs. Jacobs & Co. have obtained the rights for this
country.
Two small volumes of Newman reprints, published by
Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co., give us "The Church
of the Fathers " and " University Teaching," the latter
volume being the first part of Newman's "The Idea of
a University."
Professor Sidney G. Ashmore has edited "The
Comedies of Terence" for college students, and the
volume is published at the Oxford University Press.
Professor Tyrrell's text is followed, and both introduc-
tion and notes are elaborate.
"A Guide to the Paiutings in the Churches and Minor
Museums of Florence," by Miss Maud Cruttwell, is an
illustrated handbook that the art student will do well
to take with him on his Italian pilgrimage. Messrs.
E. P. Dutton & Co. are the publishers.
"A History of the Ancient Egyptians," by Professor
James H. Breasted, now published by tie Messrs.
Scribner, is a condensation of the author's longer work,
and, as such, provides a brief and authoritative account
of the subject in the light of the most advanced scholar-
ship.
Mr. Charles Lane Hanson's "English Composition,"
published by Messrs. Ginn & Co., is the latest of the
long series of books prepared for the use of high school
beginners. It supplies the ubusI blend of rhetoric with
English grammar, and is plentifully provided with exer-
cises.
Mr. Edward Augustus George is the author of a vol-
ume of essays on "Seventeenth Century Men of Lati-
tude," meaning such forerunners of the liberalized
modern theology as Chillingworth, Taylor, Browne, and
Baxter. The book is published by Messrs. Charles
Scribner's Sons.
The Letters of Edward Lear, the famous author of
"The Book of Nonsense," will appear next Fall with the
imprint of Messrs. Duffield & Co. The volume is to be
edited by Lady Strachey, and will contain Lear's letters
descriptive of his journeys as a painter to Corfu, Mount
Athos, and Albania.
Besides the new special edition of " Little Women"
lately issued, Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. have in
preparation for early Fall publication a new illustrated
edition of Miss Alcott's " Spinning Wheel Series," which
includes the four volumes entitled "Spinning Wheel
Stories," "Silver Pitchers," " Proverb Stories," and " A
Garland for Girls." These four books are all to be
printed from new plates, and will have new and attrac-
tive illustrations and cover designs.
One of the most important of forthcoming biographies
will be Mr. Ferris Greenslet's Life of Thomas Bailey
Aldrich, a large octavo volume which promises to be
very rich in letters. The illustrations will be portraits,
pictures of the author's home at various periods of his
life, and other views.
A volume on "How to Appreciate Prints," by Mr.
Frank Weiterkampf, Curator of the Print Department
of the New York Public Library, is announced by
Messrs. Moffat, Yard & Co. They will also publish an
elaborately illustrated book by Miss Elisabeth Luther
Cary entitled "Artists Past and Present."
A leading place among the coming season's publica-
tions will undoubtedly be taken by the authorized biog-
raphy of James McNeill Whistler, which Miss Elizabeth
Robins and Mr. Joseph Pennell have long been working
upon. The J. B. Lippincott Co. will publish the work
in two large and elaborately-illustrated volumes.
Very little has hitherto been written about that inter-
esting and quaint people, the Servians. Messrs. Page &
Co. will publish shortly a work entitled "Servia and
the Servians," by M. Shedo Mijatovich, which is said to
give a very vivid account of the religious and social life,
the institutions and the traditions of the Servian folk.
Marx's "Value, Price, and Profit," edited by Mrs.
Aveling, and Herr Paul Kampffmeyer's "Changes in
the Theory and Tactics of the (German) Social-
Democracy," translated by Mr. W. R. Gaylord, are two
small volumes for the furthering of the socialist propa-
ganda, recently published by Messrs. Charles H. Kerr
& Co.
Fletcher's "The Knight of the Burning Pestle,"
edited and very copiously annotated by Dr. Herbert S.
Murch, is a new volume of the " Yale Studies in English,"
published by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. This volume
is similar in form to those which have given us, in the
same series, critical editions of a number of Jonson's
comedies.
Miss Anne Bush Maclear's monograph on "Early
New England Towns " will be found useful by teachers
and students of American history. The special subjects
discussed are courts, finances, public lands, schools, the
church, and the government. This work is published
by Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. for Columbia
University.
New books of essays by Dr. Samuel M. Crothers,
Miss Agnes Repplier, and Professor Bliss Perry are
promised for publication during the coming season by
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin Company. They will also
publish important new books by President Charles W.
Eliot, Professor George H. Palmer, Dr. Lyman Abbott,
and Professor Paul H. Hanus.
The Providence Club for Colonial Reprints has repro-
duced, in an edition limited to one hundred copies, the
"Invitation Serieuse aux Habitants des Illinois," by
"Un Habitant des Kaskaskias," as first published at
Philadelphia in 1772. The reprint is a facsimile, and
the work has been edited by Messrs. Clarence Walworth
Alvord and Clarence Edwin Carter.
By special arrangement with the English publishers,
the H. M. Caldwell Co. will issue in September " The
Century Shakespeare," complete in forty volumes, with


1908.]
60
THE
DIAL
an exhaustive introduction to each volume by Dr. F. J.
Furnirall. Each volume will also include a full and
comprehensive glossary and a complete series of notes.
An important feature of the "Century Shakespeare"
will be an up-to-date and popular account of Shake-
speare's life and work by Dr. Furnivall and Mr. John
Munro.
The Macmillan Co. publish for the University of
Michigan a monograph, by Miss Orma Fitch Butler,
entitled "Studies in the Life of Heliogabalus." This
Roman unworthy might, we should imagine, make the
subject of an interesting book: we may hardly thus
describe Miss Butler's production, which is a typical
example of unreadable seminar-literature.
"Government by the People," by Mr. Robert H.
Fuller, is a small book published by the Macmillan Co.
It gives an account of the laws and customs regulating
the election system and the formation and control of
political parties in the United States. It is a book that
every first voter, to say nothing of hardened practitioners
in politics, should read and seriously ponder over.
"Ohio before 1850," being a study of the early influ-
ence of Pennsylvania and southern populations in Ohio,
written by Dr. Robert E. Chaddock, is a recent Columbia
University monograph published by Messrs. Longmans,
Green, & Co. Other publications in the same series
are "Factory Legislation in Maine," by Mr. E. Stagg
Whitin; "Consanguineous Marriages in the American
Population," by Dr. George B. I .(mis Arner; and
"Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician," by Dr. Frank H.
Hankins.
A Balzac Museum has begun to take form and sub-
stance at Passy, the Parisian suburb where the novelist
lived during his most productive period, from 1842 to
1847. There, at 47 Rue Raynouard, the little house
that Balzac hired for six hundred francs a year has been
purchased by a group of big admirers and is to be turned
into a public museum after the pattern of the Victor
Hugo Museum in the Place des Vosges. It is proposed
to furnish the house in the style of Louis Philippe's
time, and to fill it with all sorts of Balzac relics.
Balzac's former landlady is said to be still living at
Passy and to be entertainingly communicative concerning
her famous tenant.
The untimely death of Professor Louis Dyer, follow-
ing a surgical operation in London, about the middle of
July, will be greatly deplored by the large circle of
his friends and admirers in England and America.
Though he had lived at Oxford for many years, and was
a lecturer at Balliol College, Professor Dyer had re-
tained his connection with America by correspondence,
by occasional visits and lecture tours, and by his pub-
lished letters. He was not one of Mr. Bernard Shaw's
Greek scholars who know little Greek and nothing else.
Before entering Harvard College he had studied in
Europe. He graduated with final honors in modern
languages as well as in classics, and he has always been
honorably distinguished among American classicists
for the breadth and range of his culture. He was for
gome years assistant professor of Greek at Harvard.
His published works include an esteemed edition of
Plato's "Apology " and "Crito,'' a volume of studies in
Greek religion and antiquities entitled "The Gods in
Greece" (reviewed in The Dial for October, 1891),
and a recent work on Machiavelli. In its earlier years,
he was a valued contributor to The Dial. Professor
Dyer was fifty-seven years of age.
Topics in Leading Periodicals.
August, 1908.
Actress, a Popular, Chapters from the Life of — II. Pearton.
Adirondack Camps, Luxurious. Alice M. Kellogg. Broadway.
Agricultural College on WheeU. James F. Dorrance. Pearton.
Album on the Center-Table. The. Eugene Wood. Everybody'*.
Aldrich Letters, A Group of. Ferris Greenslet. Century.
Aldrich-Vreeland Bill. The. Theodore Oilman. No. American.
American Art Scores a Triumph. Giles Edgerton. Crafttman.
American Farmer Feeding- the World. World'* Work.
American Horse. The. C. B. Whitford. World To-day.
American Trading around the World. World'* Work.
Andes, Skyland in the. Marrion Wilcox. Putnam.
Arctic Color. Sterling Heilig. ifcClure.
Art Effort, Value of. Frank Fowler. Scribner.
Atlantic City, Boardwalkers of. F. W. O'Malley. Everybody':
Atlantic Liners' Longshoremen and Dockers. Everybody'*.
Bancroft, George. William M. Sloane. Atlantic.
Baseball: The National Game. Bollin L. Hartt. Atlantic.
Baths and Bathers. Woods Hutchinson. Cotmopolitan.
Beecher and Christian Science. M. B. White. Cosmopolitan.
Bigelow, John: Elder Son of Democracy. J.Creelman. Pearton.
Bismarck, Talks with. Carl Schurz. McClure.
Black Hand Power and Mystery. Alfred H. Lewis. Broadway.
Boys, The Awkward Age of. G. Stanley Hall. Appleton.
"Boz " and Boulogne. Deshler Welch. Harper.
Bryan's Convention. Samuel E. Moffett. Review of Reviewt.
Bully the Ox, Story of. Charles D. Stewart. Atlantic.
Bunk-House, A, and Some Bunk-House Men. ifcClure.
Business Career, A Commonplace. F. Crissey. World To-day.
Chautauqua. The. Trumbull White. Appleton.
Chemical Fertilization. Alfred Gradenwitz. World To-day.
Children's Carnival, The. Harold E. Denegar. World To-day.
Children, What our Cities are Doing for. G.E.Walsh. Craftsman
(ihristian Science Cures. One Hundred. R. C. Cabot. McClure.
Christianity. The Salvation of—I. CharlesF.Aked. Appleton.
Churchill, Lady Randolph, Reminiscences of—IX. Century.
Clam-Bake, The. Henry J. Peck. Century.
Cleveland, Grover. Henry L. Nelson. North A merican.
Cleveland as a Public Man. St. Clair McEelway. Rev. of Revt.
Cleveland at Princeton. Henry Van Dyke. Rev. of Reviews.
Commercial Education in Germany. World To-day.
Commercial Greatness, Our Era of. O.S.Straus. World't Work.
Congressman, The First Speech of a. V. Murdock. American.
Currency Law, The New. J. H. Gannon, Jr. Pearton.
Drought,SavingThreeCounties from. H.H.Dunn. World Today.
Egypt, The 8pell of—IV. Robert Hichens. Century.
Egyptian Art, Ideal of. Sir Martin Conway. No. American.
ElizabethanPageant.Revivingthe. PaulP.Foster. WorldTo-dav.
Endowments: Their Relation to Insurance. World't Work.
Enfranchised Woman. What it Means to Be an. Atlantic.
England and America, Political Campaigning in. Atlantic.
English Thatohed Roofs. Herbert M. Lome. Craftsman.
Esperanto in Germany. Otto Simon. North American.
Export Success, A Story of. E. J. Bliss. World't Work.
Export Trade, Pioneers of. U. D. Eddy. World't Work.
Face Factory, The. Eugene Wood. Broadway.
Fiction in Lighter Vein. Charlotte Harwood. Putnam.
Foreign Investors, The Ways of. World't Work.
Foreign Parasites and their American Prey. Broadway.
Foreign Tour at Home—VI. Henry Holt. Putnam.
Foreign Trade, Technique of. E. N. Vose. World't Work.
Formosa, The Japanese in. W. C. Gregg. Review of Reviewt.
Freighters of the Seas, The. Edgar A. Forbes. World't Work.
French Finance in 1907. Stoddard Dewey. Atlantic.
Gasolene Prairie Schooner, The. Walter E. Peck. Scribner.
Gibbons. Cardinal. Forty Years Ago. Day A. Willey. Putnam.
Gloucester Days, Old. Elinor Macartney Lane. Appleton.
Good Government. C. J. Bonaparte. World To-day.
Grant and the Facts of History, " Mr. Dooley " on. American.
Great Actor, — Must He Be a Genius 1 B. Matthews. Muntej.
Guatemala's Transcontinental Route. M. A. Hays. Rev. of Revt.
Gyroscope, The. Arthur Gordon Webster. Review of Reviewt.
Gyroscope, Applications of. J. F. Springer. Rev. of Revs.
Half-Disabled Folk. J. Madison Taylor. Lippincott.
Halstead, Murat: Great American Journalist. Rev. of Reviewt.
Hate, A Story of. Gertrude Hall. McClure.
Henry, Edward L.: Painter of Good Old Times. Broadway.
Herd, A Tenderfoot's First. Edgar B. Bronson. Pearton.
Heroine, the Modern, Morals of. Elizabeth Bisland. No.Amer.
Hospital Methods,Improvement in. E.K.Tompkins. Craftsman.
Ibsen Harvest, The. Archibald Henderson. Atlantic.
Indian Compound, Life in an. Mary A. Chamberlain. Atlantic.
Inland Seas. Romance and Tragedy of. J.O. Curwood. Putnam.
Ireland, The New —VI. 8ydney Brooks. North American.


70
[August 1,
THE
DIAL
Irrigating an Empire. Herbert Vanderboof. World To-day.
Irving, Henry, Last Years with. Ellen Terry. McClure.
January, William :Valjean of To-day. B.Millard. Cosmopolitan.
Kern, John Worth. Frederic A. Ogg. Review of Reviews.
Kittens, My. Carmen Sylva. Century.
Labor Disputes, Injunctions in. Francis M. Burdick. No. A mev.
Latin America. John Barrett. World's Work.
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Literary Criticism, Honest. Charles M. Thompson. A tlantic.
Magazine Illustrators. Qustavus C. Widney. World To-day.
Maine after Forty-seven Years of Prohibition. Appleton.
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Morgan, J. Pierpont. Alfred H. Lewis. Cotmopolitan.
Motor Boat, Across Europe by — IV. H.C.Rowland. Appleton.
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Negroes, Agricultural Extension among the. World To-tlay.
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Northern Question, The. Britannicus. North A merican.
Occult Phenomena —V. Hamlin Garland. Everybody's.
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Paris by Night. Marie Van Vorst. Harper.
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Postal Savings-banks. George v. L. Meyer. North American.
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Problem Novels, Some. Elisabeth Luther Cary. Putnam.
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Psychical Research. Sir Oliver Lodge. Harper.
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Rocky Mountain Endurance Race, The. M.Muir. World To-day.
Rome, Ancient, The Heart of. Arthur S. Riggs. Munsey.
St. Gaudens, Augustus. George B. McClellan. Putnam.
Scott, Thomas A.: Master Diver. F. H. Smith. Everybody's.
Shenandoah, Scars of War in the. J. D. Wells. Metropolitan.
Sherman, James 8. William E. Weed. Review of Reviews.
8mall Farms Yielding Large Returns. Craftsman.
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List of New Books.
[The following list, containing 57 titles, includes books
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY.
The Daughter of Louis XVI.. Marie Therese Charlotte de
France, Duchesse D'Angouleme. By G. Lenotre; trans, by
J. Lewis May. Illus., Svo, gilt top, pp. 343. John Lane Co.
$4. net.
Lord Kelvin: An Account of his Scientific Life and Work.
By Andrew Gray. Illus. in photogravure, etc., 12mo, gilt
top. pp. 816. "English Men of 8cience." E. P. Dutton &
Co. $1. net.
The Roman Empire, B. C. 29—A. D. 476. By H. Stuart Jones,
M.A. Illus.. 12mo, pp. 476. "Story of the Nations." G. P.
Putnam's Sons. $1.50.
From LI ban to Tsushima: A Narrative of the Voyage of
Admiral Rojdestvensky's Fleet to Eastern Seas, including
an Account of the Dogger Bank Incident. By Eugene S.
Politovsky: trans, by F. R. Godfrey. 12mo, pp. 307. E. P.
Dutton & Co. $1.50 net.
The Tragedy of Korea, By F. A. McKenzie. Illus., 12mo.
pp. 310. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2. net.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Essays Political and Biographical. By Sir Spencer Walpole;
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gilt top, pp. 317. E. P. Dutton & Co. $8. net.
Views and Reviews. By Henry James: with Introduction
by Le Roy Phillips. 12mo,gilt top, uncut, pp.241. Boston:
Ball Publishing Co. $1.50 net.
The Writings of Samuel Adams. Collected and edited by
Harry Alonzo dishing. Vol. IV., 1778-1802. Large 8vo. gilt
top, pp. 431. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $6. net.
DRAMA AND VERSE.
Omar Repentant. By Richard Le Gallienne. Oblong l6mo,
gilt top. New York: Mitchell Kennerley. 76 cts. net.
Everyman: A Morality Play. Edited, with Introduction and
Bibliography, by Montrose J. Moses. Illus., 12mo, pp. 161.
New York: Mitchell Kennerley. $1. net.
The Lilies. By Henry P. Spencer. 12mo. pp. 31. Boston:
The Gorham Press. $1.
The Banners of the Coast. By Archibald Rutledge. 8vo.
pp.47. Columbia, 8. C.: State Company. $1.
From the Footlights of Song. By Charlotte M. Packard.
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The Soul of the Singer, and Other Verses. By H. Graham
Du Bois. 12mo, pp. 44. Boston: The Gorham Press.
Jephtha Sacrificing, and Dinah: Two Dramatic Poems.
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Golden Rod and Lilies. By R. W. Gilbert. 12mo. gilt top.
pp. 188. Boston: The Gorham Press.
FICTION.
Together. By Robert Herrick. 12mo, pp. 595. Macmillan Co.
$1.50.
The Land of the Living. By Maude Radford Warren. Illus.,
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Villa Rubeln. By John Galsworthy. 12mo, pp. 299. G. P.
Putnam's Sons. $1.50.
Marotz. By John Ayscough. 12mo, pp. 415. G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $1.50.
The Power Supreme. By Francis C. Nicholas. With frontis-
piece. 12mo, pp. 347. Boston: R. E. Lee Co. $1.50.
The Old Allegiance. By Hubert Wales. 12mo, pp. 315. New
York: Mitchell Kennerley. $1.50.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.
The North West Passage: Being the Record of a Voyasre
of Exploration of the Ship "Gj6a," 1903-1907. By Roald
Amundsen: with a Supplement by First Lieutenant Hansen.
In 2 vols., illus. in photogravure, etc., gilt tops, 8vo. E. P.
Dutton & Co. $8. net.
Five Months on a Dereliot; or Adventures on a Floating
Wreck in the Pacific. By Edwin J. Houston, Ph.D. Illus..
12mo, pp. 360. Griffith & Rowland Press. $1.25.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY.
Christian Epoch-Makers: The Story of the Great Missionary
Eras in the History of Christianity. By Henry C. Vedder.
12mo. pp. 368. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication
Society. $1.20 net.
Short Studies of the Heroes of the Early Church. By
Emma A. Robinson. 12mo, pp. 186. Jennings & Graham.
50 cts. net.
The Young Christian and the Early Church. By J. W.
Conley. 16mo, pp. 170. Philadelphia: American Baptist
Publication Society. 50 cts. net.
Child Study for Sunday-School Teachers. By E. M.
Stephenson and H. T. Musselman. 16mo, pp. 144. Phila-
delphia: American Baptist Publication Society.
The Immortality of the Soul. By Sir Oliver Lodge. 12mo.
gilt top. pp. 101. Boston: Ball Publishing Co.


1908.]
71
THE DIAL
Historical and Literary Outlines of the Old Testament.
By Robert Allen Armstrong. 12mo, pp. 61. Morgan town,
W. Va.: Privately printed by the author. Paper.
Bel. the Christ of Ancient Times. By Huso Radau. Large
8vo, pp. 55. Open Court Publishing Co.
SCIENCE AND NATURE.
The Perfect Garden: How to Keep it Beautiful and Fruitful.
By Walter P. Wright. Illus. in color, etc., 12mo, gilt top,
pp. 406. J. B. Lippincott Co. 12. net.
Essays on Evolution: 1889-1907. By Edward Bagnall Poulton.
8vo, grilt top, pp. 479. Oxford University Press.
Subcutaneous Hydrocarbon Frotheses. By F. Strange
Kolle. Illus., 12mo, pp. 153. New York: The Grafton Press.
$2.50.
Borderland Studies. By George M. Gould. Vol. II., 8vo,
pp.311. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co.
Science of Anthropology: Its Scope and Content. By Juul
Dieserud. 12mo,pp.200. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co.
EDUCATION.
New-World Speller. By Julia H. Wohlfarth and Lillian E.
Rogers. Illus., 12mo.pp. 160. Yonkers.N.Y.: World Book Co.
The Educational Process. By Arthur C. Fleshman. 12mo,
pp. 336. J. B. Lippincott Co.
The Study of Nature. By Samuel C. Schmucker. Illus. in
color, etc., 12mo. pp. 308. J. B. Lippincott Co.
TJberwunden. By Otto Ernst; edited by James T. Hatfield.
With portrait. 16mo. pp. 68. Henry Holt & Co. 30 cts. net.
BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.
The Blue Peter. By Morley Roberts. With frontispiece, 12mo,
pp. 235. L. C. Page & Co. $1.50.
The Winter's Tale. Illus. by Helen Stratton. 12mo, pp. 63.
"The Lamb Shakespeare for the Young." Duffield & Co.
80 cts. net.
Betty of the Rectory. By Mrs. L. T. Meade. With frontis-
piece, 12mo, pp. 370. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The Book: Its History and Development. By Cyril Davenport.
Illu8..12mo. pp.258. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co. $2. net.
Inscriptions of the Nile Monuments: A Book of Reference
for Tourists. By Garrett C. Pier. Illus., 8vo, gilt top, pp. 357.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $5. net.
Dictionary of the English and German Languages. By
William James. Forty-first edition; 12mo, pp. 592. Mac-
millan Co. $1.50 net.
Guess Work: 101 Charades. By Emily Shaw Forman. 12mo,
pp.62. Boston: TheGorhamPress, tl.
The Peasant Songs of Great Rnssla as they are in the
Folk's Harmontzation. Collected and transcribed from
phonograms by Eugenie Lineff. First series; 4to, uncut,
London: DavitNutt. Paper.
Wilderness Homes: A Book of the Log Cabin. By Oliver
Kemp. Illus., 12mo, pp. 155. Outing Publishing Co. $1.25 net.
The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of
North America (Acadia). By Nicolas Denys; trans, and
edited, with Memoir of Author, Collateral Documents, and
a Reprint of the Original, by William F. Ganong. Large 8vo.
uncut, pp. 625. Toronto: The Champlain Society.
Islandloa: An Annual relating to Iceland and the Flske Ice-
landic Collection in Cornell University Library. Edited by
George W. Harris. Vol. I., large 8vo, uncut, pp. 125. Ithaca,
N. Y.: Cornell University Library. Paper, $1.
The Burning of Chelsea By Walter Merriam Pratt, nius.,
12mo, pp. 147. Boston: Sampson Publishing Co. $1.50.
The Philosopher's Martyrdom: A Satire. By Paul Carus.
Illus., 12mo, pp. 67. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co. $1.
Sour Sonnets of a Sorehead, and Other Songs of the Street.
By James P. Haverson. Illus., 16mo, pp. 62. H.M.Caldwell
Co.
Fads or Facts P By M. Rayon. With frontispiece, 12mo,
pp.114. Chicago: M. 8. Publishing Co. 75 cts.
The Rubaiyat of a Huffy Husband. By Mary B. Little.
12mo. BoBton: The Gorham Press.
Saga-Book of the Viking Club. Illus.. 12mo. pp. 421. London:
Viking Club. Paper.
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THE DIAL
& Semt'sjJHontfjlg Journal of Etterarjj Crttutam, UtsniBston, ant Informatfon,
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THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Entered aa Second-Clae* Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office
at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3,1879.
No. 532. AUGUST 16, 1908. Vol. XLV.
Contents.
PAOB
THE GRANDISONIAN MANNER 75
CASUAL COMMENT 77
The rapturous quality in literature. — The con-
science of the hook-borrower. — The late dean of
American dramatists. — Old-time literary New
England. — The death of Katharine Prescott
Wormeley. — The public library and the children.
— The adventures of Pedro Serrano. — The new
editor of "Uncle Kemus's Magazine." — The rudi-
mentary quality of illustration in color. — The
newest Shakespeare gospel. — A nonagenarian
optimist. — Agreement on a Shakespeare memo-
rial. — Literature in the laundry.
NORWAY TO ALASKA IN A HERRING BOAT.
Percy F. Bicknell 80
OLD ESSAYS AND A NEW PLAY BY "VER-
NON LEE." F. B. R. Hellems 82
THE LIBERATOR SAINT OF ITALY. Louis
James Block 83
A NEW VOLUME OF GROVE'S DICTIONARY
OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. George P.
Upton 86
THE FIRST CONSUL AS A COUNCILLOR SAW
HIM. Henry E. Bourne 86
RECENT FICTION. William Morton Payne ... 88
Booth's The Poet-Girl. — Bindloss's Delilah of the
Snows. — Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thurs-
day. — Benson's Lord of the World. — Begbie's
The Vigil. —Post's Retz. —Scott's The Princess
Dehra. — Barr's Young Lord Stranleigh. — Pottle's
Handicapped. — Gardenhire's Purple and Home-
spun.— Hopkins's Priest and Pagan. — Durham's
The Call of the South. — Miss Potter's The Golden
Ladder. —Neith Boyce's The Bond.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 91
A compact study of Rembrandt's life and work. —
Four poets of a "troubled day." — A summer
meeting of the Continental Congress, 1783. — Brit-
ish Colonial Administration in the For East. — A
pleasant mixture of guide-book and romance. —
Essays, critical and biographical.
NOTES 93
THE GRANDISONIAN MANNER.
In a paper from the pen of Lady Grove,
published recently in the London "Chronicle,"
comment is made on the withdrawal of certain
gentlemen from the " mixed " clubs (" cock and
hen " clubs is the current slang term) to which
they had belonged, and which they had joined
while the clubs were still exclusively for men,
but which they had left in high dudgeon at the
subsequent admission of women — an innovation
that they held to be destructive of the very
raison d'etre of club life. That is, these gen-
tlemen, one might argue, had joined their clubs
in order to escape the amenities of polite society,
and felt themselves aggrieved when oalled upon
to -observe those amenities. An acquaintance
of ours who has no home ties and no fixed hab-
itation of her own deplores her lot because she
finds it irksome, as perpetual boarder or guest
in other people's houses, to wear always her
"company manners."
This hatred of formality, this ever-present
tendency to revert to primitive unconvention-
ality (and primitive savagery), is neither wholly
bad nor wholly good ; but in this rapidly-moving
twentieth century of ours, when we fancy we
have hardly time to be polite, the obvious dan-
ger is that too little attention will be paid to the
cultivation of the minor morals, of the suave
and gracious manners that bespeak a cultured
leisure. What better corrective to the rude
haste, the selfish scramble, of a money-making
age could be devised than a deliberate reading,
or re-reading, of "Sir Charles Grandison "?
From one who "taught the passions to move
at the command of virtue," as Johnson said of
Richardson, the reader may take a lesson in
the ordering of his daily walk and conversation.
Nothing is too trivial to be treated with dig-
nity and gravity by the excellent printer-author.
"In these small instances," he makes one of his
minor personages say, "are the characters of
the heart displayed far more than in greater."
To the men and women of Richardson's novels
the little things of life are abundantly worth
while. They hurry over nothing, they slight
nothing. An old lady of Sir Walter Scott's
acquaintance always chose " Sir Charles Gran-
dison " to be read to her as she sat in her elbow


76
[August 16,
THE
DIAL
chair, because she knew that were she to fall
asleep in the course of the reading she should
lose nothing of the story, but should find the
party where she left them, — conversing in " the
cedar parlour." In the important things of life,
as in courtship and marriage, the stately delib-
eration is marvellous to behold. In paying his
addresses to Harriet Byron, Sir Charles makes
his advances by parallels, beginning with the
estimable grandmother and redoubling his cau-
tion as he approaches the citadel itself. His
delicacy causes him to doubt whether Miss
Byron will pardon, or should be permitted to
pardon, an earlier passion cherished by him
for the unfortunate Clementina della Porretta.
But he takes Miss Byron's hand, and is bowing
over it at page 65 of the sixth volume; at page
81 the actual offer of marriage begins, and it
extends to page 89, the suitor talking almost
uninterruptedly the while and (it is needless to
add) expressing himself in admirable English.
The priggishness of our paragon of a hero is
of course undeniable, if one chooses to dwell
on that aspect of his character. His delicacy
amounts, to some readers, almost to effeminacy;
and hence he has been maliciously styled one of
the author's principal female characters. Even
the heroine finds fault with his faultlessness.
"A most intolerable superiority!" she exclaims;
"I wish he would do something wrong, some-
thing cruel." That is only uttered, however,
under an overpowering sense of her own inferi-
ority, or imagined inferiority. It is significant
that Richardson at first intended to call his book
"The Good Man."
That it purifies the heart and refines the
manners to commune with the virtuous char-
acters depicted by the author of " Pamela"' has
been often enough asserted by his admirers.
Diderot even found in Richardson's novels an
intellectual stimulus of a high order. "I have
observed," he declares, "that in a company
where the works of Richardson are being read,
either privately or aloud, the conversation at
once becomes more interesting and animating."
Diderot's seventeen pages of glowing eulogy in
the Journal Etranger — a panegyric inspired
by the recent death of the novelist — can no
longer be taken seriously; yet there is some-
thing rather pleasing in finding this keen-witted
Frenchman so overcome with admiration for the
worthy Englishman that he vows he will part
with other portions of his library if he must, but
Richardson he will keep — on the same shelf
with Moses, Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles;
and he will read them by turns.
There is an old-world charm in the very
formality with which Richardson's characters
address one another. Even to his sisters Grandi-
son is always " Sir Charles," and they are not
accosted by him as plain Charlotte or Caroline,
but as "sister Charlotte," or "my dear Caro-
line." Charlotte, on her part, habitually calls
her elder sister " Lady L -," and her brother-
in-law is either " Lord L "or " my lord."
All the more amusing, as well as surprising, is
it to catch Miss Grandison, in a moment of •
excessive familiarity and self-forgetfulness, ex-
claiming, "Such another word, Harriet, and I'll
blow you up!" Again we detect her using the
slang expression, "I'll be hanged if —," an
unseemliness for which the exemplary Miss
Harriet fails not to call her to account in a
gentle way.
But by far the most edifying passages in the
book are found in the conversations that Sir
Charles carries on with the various characters of
the story. Upon his father's death what could
be more praiseworthy than the judicious resolve,
concerning both parents, thus expressed to his
cousin Everard : " I will have an elegant but not
sumptuous monument erected to the memory of
both, with a modest inscription that shall rather
be matter of instruction to the living than a
panegyric on the departed. The funeral shall
be decent, but not ostentatious." And the fol-
lowing, from a young man in his twenties, is
unexceptionable (Sir Charles is addressing his
two sisters and Miss Harriet Byron): "Our
passions may be made subservient to excellent
purposes. Don t think you have a supercilious
brother. A susceptibility of the passion called
love, I condemn not as a fault; but the contrary.
Your brother, ladies, (looking upon all three,) is
no Stoic." In the end, of course, he gracefully
yields to his " susceptibility of the passion called
love" and succeeds, with one entire volume to
do it in, in getting married to the admirable
Harriet; but lest even then he should have left
on the reader's mind some impression of un-
seemly haste, he takes still another volume to
make his exit from the stage in a leisurely and
graceful and dignified manner.
That he would never suffer his horses' tails to
be docked is one, and a not insignificant, claim
to our approval of Sir Charles. No smallest
occasion to show his humanity was neglected by
him; and he found ways, some of them rather
extraordinary, to do good and to smooth the path
of life for others. For a profligate uncle he finds
an excellent and suitable wife, having before
that preached so moving and improving a ser-


1908.]
77
THE
DIAL
mon to his errant kinsman on the wickedness
of his conduct that the sinner gives vent to his
feeling of remorse in the following somewhat sur-
prising manner:
"«By my soul,' said he, and clapped his two lifted-up
hands together, ' I hate your father: I never heartily
loved him; but now I hate him more than ever I did
in my life.'
'■' My lord!'
"< Don't be surprised. I hate him for keeping so long
abroad a son who would have converted us both. . . .
0 my sister, how have you blessed me in your son.'"
A most striking illustration of Sir Charles's
unfailing graciousness of demeanor even in very
trying situations is furnished by a letter that he
wrote to his spendthrift father, just after that
dissipated gentleman had applied to his son for
consent to raise money (to pay a gambling debt)
by mortgaging a part of the family estate. The
son most magnanimously and respectfully replies:
"Why, sir, did you condescend to write to me on the
occasion, aa if for my consent? Why did you not send
me the deeds ready to sign? Let me beg of you, ever
dear and ever honored sir, that you will not suffer any
difficulties, that I can join to remove, to oppress your
heart with doubts for one moment. . . . Permit me, sir,
to add, that, be my income ever so small, I am resolved
to live within it. And let me beseech you to remit me
but one half of your present bounty."
Let it be admitted without dispute that
Grandison is to us a highly unreal, impossible,
and even ridiculous character, endowed as he
is with every virtue, every grace, and every
worldly advantage, that a fairy godmother could
have bethought her to bestow upon him at birth,
and exhibiting his perfections with an elaborate
mock-modesty through seven closely-printed
volumes. Nevertheless, if the reader of a less
naively sentimental age will but take up the
book in a spirit of indulgence and not let his
sense of humor get the better of his good-
humor, he may possibly find himself not wholly
unbenefitted by a leisurely perusal of the story
in all its pitiless length. A month of one's
spare hours might be passed in far worse com-
pany than that of the dramatis persons so
amusingly enumerated at the beginning of the
work under the headings, "Men," "Women,"
and »Italians."
An unknown work by Ibsen has recently been dis-
covered, and will probably be included in an edition of
his unpublished pieces which is now in preparation. The
utle of the new discovery is "Song at Akershus," Aker-
shus being the name of a fortress in Christiania. It
dates from Ibsen's early years, and is in form a roman-
tic tale. A plan for transforming Ibsen's house into an
Ibsen museum has been put forward of late, and is said
to have met with support.
CASUAL COMMENT.
The rapturous quality in literature is what
all readers hunger for as they take up each succes-
sive " book of the year " or phenomenal" best seller,"
but the rapture does not always follow. The older
and sadder and wiser we grow, the less easily are
we ravished by current sensational fiction, however
great and however increasing may be our calm delight
in our favorite old authors. It is with some interest
and pleasure, therefore, that we hear from London
an instance of undoubted ravishment. "The Blue
Lagoon," by Mr. A. De Vere Stacpoole — a book
regarded by Mr. Jacob Tonson as emphatically " the
book of the season " — was taken up one night by a
literary woman of good taste and judgment as she
was combing her hair before going to bed. She began
to read, and when, an hour and a half later, she came
to herself and laid the book down, she found herself
still seated before her dressing table, comb in hand,
having scarcely moved in all that interval of rapt
delight. This involuntary tribute the teller of the
story pronounces to be one "which could not perhaps
be surpassed in all the history of criticism." But it
is surpassed by at least one other instance. Sir Joshua
Reynolds was once travelling in the country when, at
an inn where he chanced to stop for the night, he hit
upon a copy of Johnson's " Life of Savage," then just
published; and he began to read it without so much
as sitting down, but stood by the fire with the book
in one hand and his arm resting on the mantelpiece.
When he at last finished his reading and returned
to the world about him, he found his arm quite stif-
fened and benumbed by its long continuance in one
position. , . .
The conscience of the book-boreower is well
known to be as easy as an old shoe in the matter of
returning borrowed books; and the return of public
library books — if it were not for the necessity of
returning them in order to get others, and if it were
not also for the prick of the two-cents-a-day fine on
over-due volumes—might well become the exception
rather than the rule with many a thoughtless user
of the free library. It is not, however, the ordinary
little-reflective reader-for-pleasure who alone inclines
to sin in the thoughtless retention of books over-time;
librarians themselves, as Mr. Andrews of the John
Crerar Library remarked at the library meeting at
Minnetonka, are not noted for promptness in return-
ing borrowed books. Conspicuously dilatory, too,
are the privileged patrons of college and university
libraries. We have had personal experience of faculty
members retaining library books for six months, and
even a year, without so much as a blush of shame
when requested to consider the rights of others. One
amusing, and it is to be hoped wholesomely instruc-
tive, incident comes to mind. One of these un-
punctual borrowers came to the library in hot quest
of a much-needed volume, and was thrown into a
fever of vexation and impatience on being told that


78
[August 16,
THE
DIAL
it was out Nothing would do but that the record
of the book should be looked up at once and the book
itself called in as soon as possible under the rules.
Search was accordingly made, and the volume was
found charged (under an ancient date) to the appli-
cant himself. ....
The late dean of American dramatists,
Bronson Howard, who has just died in his sixty-sixth
year, was the prolific author of unusually popular
and successful plays. Probably his " Shenandoah"
has been witnessed by more play-goers throughout
the country than any other drama now on the stage,
with the exception of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which
still travels the backwoods circuit to the unfailing
delight of rural audiences. That Mr. Howard was
capable of even better work than he furnished so
abundantly and acceptably at the call of theatre-
managers and star-actors, has been thought by more
than one observer of his rise from inconspicuous
journalism to international fame as a playwright
Other noted plays of his, besides "Shenandoah,"
that readily come to mind are "The Henrietta,"
"Diamonds," "The Banker's Daughter," "Aris-
tocracy," and (among his later dramas) "Peter
Stuyvesant" which he wrote in collaboration with
Professor Brander Matthews, and "Kate," written
only two years ago. That the American stage
should, in quick succession, have suffered the loss
of its most gifted and scholarly actor, Richard
Mansfield, and of its most experienced and success-
ful playwright, Bronson Howard, is cause for deep
regret . . .
Old-time literary New England loses another
link in the chain connecting it with the present, in
the death of Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton, at her
home in Boston, on the 10th of the present month.
Born in Connecticut in 1835, Mrs. Moulton's literary
activities began almost with the beginning of the
half-century and continued until near the time of her
death. She was a prolific writer of stories and poems
for the magazines, and of literary criticisms for vari-
ous publications; while her published volumes in
prose and verse number some twenty titles. Her
work as editor was also notable, including a collec-
tion of the poems of Philip Bourke Marston, to which
she prefixed a touching and appreciative memoir;
and she rendered a similar service for Arthur
O'Shaughnessy, the Irish poet. Mrs. Moulton's own
poems are marked by sincerity and artistic skill, and
in all she did she showed herself a cultivated and
conscientious literary worker. Few indeed are now
left of the group of New England writers to which
Mrs. Moulton belonged.
The public library and the children are,
between them, producing a lively centre of literary
activity at Cleveland, Ohio, where, under the com-
petent direction of Librarian Brett, the intellectual
needs of young readers are being administered to in
a variety of novel and effective ways. An attractive,
instructive, well-illustrated, and thoroughly interest-
ing pamphlet or "hand-book " was prepared by the
Library Board, primarily for the information of the
attendants at the late annual convention of the Na-
tional Educational Association in Cleveland, and also
for the citizens interested in the library work going
on among their children; and this hand-book, entitled
"The Work of the Cleveland Public Library with
the Children," is now, through Librarian Brett's kind-
ness, offered to such of our subscribers as choose to
ask for it "The work as outlined in this hand-
book," writes Mr. Brett in a personal letter, " repre-
sents various phases of its development here, but in
many instances it is not peculiar to our library."
Enough, however, is peculiar and original to make
the pamphlet a notable contribution to the literature
of public library administration. The chapter on
"Home Libraries," of which there were thirty-two
in operation last year, reveals some especially novel
features. ...
The death of Katharine Prescott Wormeley
occurred at her summer home in Jackson, N. H.,
August 4, at the age of seventy-eight. Miss Worme-
ley was much more than the translator of the standard
English version of Balzac and the first to popularize
the great French novelist in America. Finer and
nobler than her work as translator and biographer
was her service in the cause of charity and of girls'
education. Though she was born in England, she
warmly espoused the cause of her adopted country
during our Civil War, and was a leader in the work
of the United States Sanitary Commission. A his-
tory of that Commission and its work, and a later
book called "The Other Side of War," are relics of
this period of her life. The Girls' Industrial School
at Newport, founded by her and maintained at her
own risk for three years, after which it was incorpo-
rated with the city's public school system, is another
monument to her philanthropic zeal. Perhaps Miss
Wormeley's distinguishing characteristic was sym-
pathy and appreciation: the ability to enter heartily
into the spirit actuating other workers helped to make
her the sympathetic and faithful translator she so
abundantly proved herself to be. She had the true
artist's delight in her work, and her very recent maga-
zine paper giving her reminiscences of the second
funeral of Napoleon shows her to have been far more
than a hack writer or literary drudge.
...
The adventures of Pedro Serrano, a Spanish
castaway who may have given Defoe the idea for
his "Robinson Crusoe," might perhaps with some
profit be brought out, by an enterprising modern pub-
lisher, in a form suitable for young people's reading.
Garcilaso de la Vega's "Comentarios Reales" give
the story on the authority of a person who knew
Serrano and had often heard him relate his strange
experiences. The island on which he was wrecked
was but a patch of sandy reef in the Caribbean Sea,


1908.]
79
THE DIAL
and the seven years' sufferings of Serrano give by
comparison an air of ease and luxury to Robinson
Crusoe's life on his wooded and fertile Juan Fer-
nandez. This Caribbean episode dates back prob-
ably to the early sixteenth century. An English
translation of the "Comentarios " appeared in 1688;
and as Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" was not pub-
lished till 1719, he may well have read Garcilaso's
narrative before writing his own. These facts about
Serrano and his extraordinary history, as told by
Mr. John D. Leckie in "Chambers's Journal," sug-
gest the possibility that Serrano rather than Selkirk
may have served as Defoe's model in framing his
immortal story. Or was it more probably a combi-
nation of the two? ...
The new editor of "Uncle Remus's Mag-
azine" is, appropriately enough, the late Joel
Chandler Harris's son, Mr. Julian Harris, who had
been associated with his father in literary work,
had secured the necessary financial backing for the
magazine, had acted as its assistant editor, and had
taken an active part in its business management.
He is reputed an able writer, and indeed has col-
laborated with his father in two books not yet pub-
lished. From an announcement that appears in
the August number of the magazine we learn that
the late editor desired no monument, but chose to be
remembered by a brief line informing the readers
of his periodical that it was "founded by Joel
Chandler Harris." To his son and successor his
impressive injunction was: "Keep the magazine
clean, wholesome, and fresh with the best and
simplest in life. Never let it become just a money-
making machine." The promised continuance of
the publication in the spirit of its founder is subject
for congratulation. . , .
The rudimentary quality of illustration
in color, as at present produced, with such pride
of achievement, in some of our leading monthly
magazines, must have impressed itself on many
readers of those magazines. Undoubtedly the time
will come when the colored picture of our day will
look as laughably crude and childish as does now
to us the old woodcut of our grandparents' spelling-
book. A writer on book-illustration in the July
"Book Monthly " informs his readers that "the first
English printed book to be illustrated was Caxton's
'Myrrour of the Worlde,' printed in 1481. The
blocks were quite elementary in character, thus
resembling indeed all the woodcuts of English books
for a long time." And he adds, " Is it not a far cry
from those days to the present colour-book done in
the three-colour process?" By no means; there is,
instead, a certain sort of similarity of crudeness in
the two. ...
The newest Shakespeare gospel is preached
by Dr. Peter Alvor, who, in a book just published
at Hanover and entitled " Das Neue Shakespeare-
Evangelium," endeavors to persuade the world that
all the so-called Shakespeare tragedies were written
by the Earl of Southampton, and all the comedies
by the Earl of Rutland; but that, in order to escape
political persecution, these noble authors induced a
second-rate actor, William Shakespeare by name, to
assume responsibility for the plays, and paid him
well for this use of his name. Rutland's claims to
the authorship not only of the comedies, but of all
the plays, have already been defended by another
German Shakespeare scholar, Professor Karl Bleib-
treu, who ridicules this notion of a divided author-
ship. "All for Rutland" is his motto; nothing for
Southampton, nothing for Shakespeare, nothing for
Bacon even, does he allow.
...
A nonagenarian optimist, Professor William
Matthews, author of "Getting on in the World"
(which is said to have sold to the extent of 70,000
copies in this country and to have been translated
into Norwegian, Swedish, and Hungarian), had his
recent birthday brightened by the visits of admiring
friends. At present he is confined as a patient in
the Emerson Hospital in Boston, having met with
an accident that makes him temporarily unable to
walk. The life of this somewhat copious author of
books helpful to young men and not hurtful even to
older persons is a fine comment on the products of
his pen. The veteran author is still writing, even
in bed, and hopes soon to leave the hospital and
prosecute his literary work with renewed vigor.
. . •
Agreement on a Shakespeare memorial of
some kind will doubtless result from the action taken
by the recent joint meeting of the Shakespeare Me-
morial Committee and the National Theatre Shake-
speare Memorial Committee at London. The meet-
ing was held at the Mansion House, there was a large
attendance, and the Lord Mayor presided. As most
of those who have been prominent in urging that the
memorial take the form of a theatre rather than a
huge statue in Portland Place are named as members
of the new joint executive committee, there is good
ground to hope that the much-discussed National
Theatre will one day rise in memory of the world's
greatest dramatist . , ,
Literature in the laundry, even in the
Chinese laundry, is not necessarily smothered and
suffocated by the steam from the washtub. In a
street-car in the suburbs of Boston — Boston, of
course — there was recently to be seen the rather
unusual spectacle of a Chinese laundryman intently
reading a book; and, what is more, the book was
discovered to be Dr. Lambourne's work on "The
Fundamental Fact in Mythology." Does not such an
incident make the Yellow Peril seem considerably
less imminent? If the Celestial Kingdom is to fur-
nish us scholars and philosophers to keep our linen
white, it were ingratitude and folly to clamor for
exclusion laws.


80
[August 16,
THE DIAL
Norway to Alaska in a
Herring Boat.*
To write well, one must first have something
to say. Captain Roald Amundsen, commander
of the first successful Northwest-Passage expe-
dition, has something of prime importance to
relate, and his straightforward narrative makes
not only one of the best books of Arctic explo-
ration but one of the best books of adventure
of any sort that have ever been written. Of
course the existence of a continuous passage
through the northern seas, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, had been well enough known for
half a century or more, thanks to the devoted
labors of Parry, Franklin, Collinson, Rae, and
other British explorers; but no vessel had as
yet succeeded in threading the difficult and dan-
gerous route continuously from ocean to ocean.
Captain Amundsen's undertaking to accomplish
this in a little herring boat of forty-seven tons
was by many regarded as foolhardy, but it was
plain that no vessel of deep draught or great
breadth of beam could hope to navigate the
shallows and pick its way through the floating
ice of those far-northern waters.
Roald Amundsen, according to his much too
brief account of his early youth and his boyhood
ambitions, was a born explorer and Arctic voy-
ager. Nothing could still within his breast the
call of the North-Polar seas, and he early began
to fit himself for what he felt to be his life work.
Seal-hunting in the far north was followed by
an Antarctic voyage in the capacity of mate to
the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien
de Gerlache, 1897-1899. "It was during this
voyage," says the author, "that my plan ma-
tured: I proposed to combine the dream of my
boyhood as to North West Passage with an aim,
in itself of far greater scientific importance,
that of locating the present situation of the
Magnetic North Pole." On returning home
the enthusiastic young explorer made his way
to the Meteorological Institute of his own
country, and thence to Hamburg to submit his
project to the greatest living authority on ter-
restrial magnetism, Professor G. von Neumayer,
Director of the German Marine Observatory.
The ardent Norwegian was hospitably received
by the German savant, who even went so far
• The Northwest Passage. The Record of a Voyage of Ex-
ploration of the Ship "Gjoa." 1903-1907. By Roald Amundsen.
With a supplement by First Lieutenant Hansen, Vice-Com-
mander of the expedition. With illustrations and maps. In
two volumes. New York: K. P. Dutton & Co.
as to furnish his visitor with instruction at the
Observatory in the details of magnetic obser-
vations and the use of magnetic instruments.
Advice and encouragement were also sought
from the greatest living Scandinavian explorer,
Dr. Fridtjof Nansen; then followed some years
of wearisome endeavor to raise funds for the
proposed expedition, an endeavor too persistent
to fail; and at last, in the early summer of
1903, ship, crew, and cargo were all in readiness,
and the adventurous party of seven sailed from
Christiania.
The long voyage lasted, if we may credit the
title-page of "The Northwest Passage," from
1903 to 1907; but Cape Nome, which was
practically the end of the all-important "pas-
sage," was reached in the late summer of 1906,
nor does the narrative pursue further the for-
tunes of either ship or crew, though one may
infer that the " Gjoa's " voyage was continued at
least to San Francisco. What thereafter became
of the sturdy craft the reader would much like
to know — a curiosity that is not in the smallest
degree gratified by the author.
Captain Amundsen does well not to preface
his narrative with an exhaustive history of
Northwest-Passage exploration before his time.
The books are numerous enough on this subject,
and we are just now eagerly interested in the
"Gj6a " and the seven young Norwegians who
man her, and who convey the impression of being
rather a party of rollicking schoolboys escaped
from their books than a serious band of dis-
coverers, carrying their lives in their hands and
intent on great ends. Such preliminary and
interspersed account as is given of what had
already been effected by Franklin and others in
their search for the long-desired passage is too
brief and hasty to be altogether trustworthy.
That, however, need not destroy one's confidence
in the author's record of his own and his com-
panions' achievements. What they did and saw
and suffered is set down with the simplicity,
restraint, and directness characteristic of the
true hero's account of his deeds. Difficult navi-
gation, sledge excursions that were not exactly
summer picnics, meteorological and magnetic
observations under trying conditions, the exac-
tion of some degree of respect and decorum from
the swarming Esquimaux that beset them in
their winter cpiarters, and the continual problem
of food, fuel, and shelter in the cruel cold of
those latitudes—that, in brief, indicates the work
that was cut out for Captain Amundsen and his
little crew. No doctor accompanied the expedi-
tion, and, although the commander essayed the


1908.]
81
THE
DIAL
part of physician when occasion demanded, one
life was lost before the voyage was completed;
and one life out of seven was more than a deci-
mation of the entire force. Two men, however,—
one a Norwegian, the other an American —were
found to repair as far as possible the sad loss.
Among many perils more or less exciting,
even in the author's quiet narration, one
especially deserves mention. The vessel had
grounded in the shallows of Franklin Strait,
the north wind blew a gale accompanied by sleet,
and the spray was dashing over deck and rigging.
After consulting with his comrades the captain
decided to try to get the ship off with the sails.
With much exertion they were set. The nar-
rator continues:
"Then we commenced a method of sailing not one of
us is ever likely to forget even should he attain the age
of Methuseleh. The mighty press of sail and the high
choppy sea, combined, had the effect of lifting the ves-
sel up and pitching her forward again among the rocks, so
that we expected every moment to see her planks scat-
tered on the sea. The false keel was splintered and
floated up. All we could do was to watch the course of
events and calmly await the issue. As a matter of fact,
I cannot say I did feel calm as I stood in the rigging
and followed the dance from one rock to another. I
stood there with the bitterest self-reproach. If I had
set a watch in the crow's nest, this would never have
happened, because he would have observed the reef a
long way off and reported it. Was my carelessness to
wreck our whole undertaking, which had begun so auspi-
ciously? Should we, who had got so much further than
anyone before us — we who had so fortunately cleared
parts of the passage universally regarded as the most
difficult — should we now be compelled to stop and turn
back crestfallen?"
By throwing overboard the deck cargo and thus
enabling the ship to rise a little higher under
wind and wave, she finally and with many ter-
rific bumps got off the reef and into compara-
tively navigable waters.
Another and an earlier narrow escape from
destruction is worth noting. A furious fire one
day broke out in the engine-room, right among
the tanks holding two thousand gallons of petro-
leum, and was only extinguished after the most
daring and energetic exertions from all hands.
The Fates on the whole were kind to these bold
adventurers, but few readers will be tempted to
try a yachting cruise along the northern coast
of our continent, rich in incident though such a
voyage might be.
The pages devoted to the Esquimaux and
their ways are fresh and interesting. Unversed
in the native dialects, these Norwegians yet con-
trived to talk, with some degree of volubility,
with the round-faced men of the icy North; and
the intimate studies made of a few more strik-
ing or more intelligent individuals among them
are, in a human way, worth all the geographical
and scientific information in the entire two vol-
umes. Here is a picture of Talurnaktu, a
Nechilli Esquimau, who was taken into the
camp on King William Land:
"His toilet was grand. Next to his skin he wore a
blue woollen guernsey, over this a hunting shirt, and
outside an under-coat (anorak). His understandings
were clothed in a pair of moleskin trousers. All these
were worn-out old clothes discarded by Lindstrom. 'I
shall darn them during the winter,' he said; but mean-
time he left the rags as they were. On his head he had
an old cycling cap, to which he had attached a dirty
collar by way of ornament. Take him all round he was
really a regular ''Arry,' and always cheerful. He
smoked and chewed tobacco, and he did all he could to
conduct himself like a white man. He took great pride
in about six hairs, half an inch long, growing on his
upper lip. He spoke with the utmost scorn of men who
had no moustache. He was as strong as a bear, and, as he
was so willing, he was a splendid fellow to have as help."
Sad but not surprising is the white man's
influence on these natives of the hyperborean
ice-fields as noted by the author.
"During the voyage of the ' Gjiia' we came into con-
tact with ten different Eskimo tribes in all, and we had
good opportunities of observing the influence of civilisa-
tion on them, as we were able to compare those Eskimo
who had come into contact with civilisation with those
who had not. And I must state it as my firm convic-
tion that the latter, the Eskimo living absolutely isolated
from civilisation of any kind, are undoubtedly the hap-
piest, healthiest, most honorable and most contented
among them. It must, therefore, be the bounden duty
of civilised nations who come into contact with the
Eskimo, to safeguard them against contaminating influ-
ences, and by laws and stringent regulations protect
them against the many perils and evils of so-called civ-
ilisation."
A supplementary chapter narrates inter-
estingly the events of Lieutenant Hansen's
surveying expedition to the east coast of Vic-
toria Land, which he christened " King Haakon
VII. Coast." This account is from the lieu-
tenant's pen. The scientific observations con-
ducted by Captain Amundsen and his assistants,
with various instruments brought for the pur-
pose, must be counted the most valuable fruits
of the voyage; but, although the subject is not
entered upon in detail, it appears that several
years must elapse before the necessary calcula-
tions are completed to render these observations
of actual service to mankind. The determina-
tion of the magnetic north pole is no holiday
pastime. As to the Northwest Passage itself,
it is obviously of no commercial or other use
now that it is found; and in fact the only really
fresh achievement to be credited to the " Gj6a"
is the accomplishment of the hitherto short
unnavigated section of the passage in the neigh-


82
[August 16,
THE DIAL
borhood of Cape Colborne. Nevertheless, the
very fact that there was no business profit in
this arduous undertaking makes us admire the
high-spirited explorers who risked their lives
and endured a three-years' banishment from the
civilized world for the sake of an idea.
The narrative is not free from bewildering
inconsistencies, which sometimes amount to
positive inaccuracies. For instance, an early
chapter has one passage that makes the " Gjoa"
sail through BeOot Strait, between North Som-
erset and Boothia Felix, while the context, as
well as the indicated route on the map, shows
plainly that the vessel passed through Barrow
Strait, north of North Somerset, and down
through Franklin Strait to King William Land.
The illustrations are abundant and, being chiefly
from photographs, trustworthy and helpful. The
maps are also useful, but are not drawn on a
scale large enough to display every movement
of vessel and sledge. The English translator's
name is withheld, though he has no reason to
be ashamed of his work, so far as one can see.
It is worth noting as a sign of the book's appar-
ent popularity that there are published simul-
taneously versions in Swedish, Finnish, Russian,
German, and Italian, besides the original Nor-
wegian edition. Percy F. Bicknell.
Old Essays and a New Play by
"Vernon IjEE."*
The talented woman whose name in real life
is Violet Paget, although she writes over the
more prosaic and non-committal signature of
"Vernon Lee," has given us a new edition of
"Limbo, and Other Essays," with the addition
of a drama entitled "Ariadne in Mantua." The
author's first book appeared when she was only
twenty-four years old, a rather youthful age to
publish such a work as "Studies in the Eight-
eenth Century in Italy." During the three sub-
sequent decades she has been writing attractive
essays, stories, dialogues, and so forth, and has
gradually won well-deserved recognition. She
is master of an easy, at times almost conversa-
tional style, that makes the reader feel he is
being treated en intime; and it is naturally
delightful to enter into such relations with an
unusually clever woman. But " Vernon Lee" is
decidedly more than clever — she is clairvoyant
and sympathetic. Her eyes have looked into
life and have bidden her judgment be merciful.
• Limbo, and Other Essays. With a new drama, " Ariadne
in Mantua." By Vernon Lee. New York: John Lane Co.
In literature her studies have been comprehen-
sive and thorough, although the results thereof
are never obtruded pedantically. While an
intimate topographical knowledge of most of
Western Europe is implied by her writings, her
years have been spent largely in Italy, which
she knows as few descendants of the Goths
and Vandals have ever known the winsome land
beyond the Alps. For her, Italy is the nearest
point of approach to the land east of the sun
and west of the moon; and with this feeling the
reviewer assuredly cannot quarrel as he faces a
flood of memories. Perhaps, too, there is a lit-
tle of the personal equation in the feeling that
our author is most attractive when dealing with
Italian themes; but there can be no doubt that,
in general, her most successful essays are of the
"travel-and-place" type. In the present vol-
ume, for instance, "Ravenna and her Ghosts"
is incomparably better than the eponymous
chapter. Indeed, "Limbo" is so far from de-
serving the place of honor that it is decidedly
the least attractive section of the book. On the
whole it may be said that " Vernon Lee" can
hardly appeal to readers who have not had a
little of her good fortune in the way of leisure
and travel, or have not at least caught sight of
the spirit of leisure in the flux of things and
learned to send the spirit journeying whither
the body cannot fare. Within this circle, how-
ever, she will be keenly enjoyed.
"Ariadne in Mantua" seems to us an ex-
ceptionally charming closet drama. The action
takes place in the palace of Mantua during
the reign of Prospero I. of Milan. The young
duke is under the spell of a benumbing melan-
cholia. One Diego, a famous singer, has been
summoned from Venice to gain access to his
Highness's confidence and to aid in relieving
the strange obsession. It soon transpires that
Diego is the courtesan Magdalen, who had been
the Duke's genuinely beloved mistress when he
was serving abroad. The invalid is restored to
health without discovering the identity of his
lost love and the healing singer. In the last
act he marries his cousin; and at the festival
Diego presents a masque treating of Ariadne's
desertion by Theseus and her refusal to be com-
forted by Bacchus. The ending must be left
for those of our readers who care to peruse the
play. Throughout the drama the characters
are well limned. But perhaps the most remark-
able is the Duchess Dowager; for here a woman
writer has convincingly depicted a virtuous
woman of noble birth as being infinitely mer-
ciful and tender to an erring sister who sprang


1-908.]
88
THE DIAL
from the gutter. The language is consistent
with the respective personce, and worthy of the
theme, occasionally rising to a lofty level. The
parallel between the myth and the events in the
play is never allowed to become too prominent;
nor do the players ever lose their human interest
from being representatives of a problem. The
playwright frankly avows her feeling that" these
personages had an importance greater than that
of their life and adventures, a meaning, if I may
say so, a little sub specie ceternitatis. For
besides the real figures, there appeared to me
vague shadows cast by them, as it were, on the
vast spaces of life, and magnified far beyond
those little puppets that I twitched." This
modestly voiced hope seems to us thoroughly
justified, and we are glad to recommend the
play to any reader who is willing to ponder a
little on the relation between "mere impulse,
unreasoning and violent, but absolutely true to
its aim," and "the moderating, the weighing, and
restraining influences of civilization." Tradi-
tion, Discipline, Discretion, — in the presence
of these necessary and victorious factors of
progress what shall become of untutored love
and the eternal cry of the human heart?
F. B. R. Hellems.
The Liberator Saint of Italy.*
The story of the great Mystics makes an
interesting and remarkable chapter in the prog-
ress and development of mankind. Side by side
with the religions and philosophies that have
been the profound and influential teachers of the
race has moved the procession of specially illu-
mined men and women who have emphasized
the deepening message of the ages from a stand-
point and comprehension more or less individual,
and furnishing a witness of the unfolding truth
cogent and alluring. The Mystics have labored
diligently within the field of the established
faiths, but often with distinct antagonisms to
popular ruling doctrines and institutions. In-
deed, they have usually occupied the place of
reformers and liberators; they have made vehe-
ment attacks upon privilege and prerogative,
the sources of manifold and tyrannizing evils;
they have been voices in the wilderness, crying
out against manifest and powerful wrong; they
have brought healing and regeneration from
direct contact with essential life and thought.
* Saint Catherine op Siena. A Study in the Religion,
Literature, and History of the Fourteenth Century in Italy. By
Edmund O. Gardner, M.A. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
The Mystics have appeared in all nations and
times. The mind of Japan was singularly sus-
ceptible to the revelations which make the sub-
stance of the Mystic's report and narrative;
even in prosaic and moralistic China there were
reactions against the prevalent Confucianism
that lifted the veil from before the sanctuary;
in India the Gita-Govinda rivals the Song of
Songs in its impassioned disclosures of relations
that are to be found discussed at length in Mystic
literature everywhere; and the Bhagavat- Gita
presents a dialogue which has found its echoes
again and again in books. Persia was a luxu-
riant soil for the growth of poems that indicate
and illustrate experiences not belonging to the
ordinary light of the common day; even the
skeptical Omar has in some interpretations been
made the bearer of a transcendent intelligence.
The Song of Solomon aroused the middle-age
thinkers to a long line of kindred and supra-
mundane revelations. Plato, Philo, Plotinus
deal with realms to which the thought of man
is not unaccustomed, but which require an un-
wearied wing and an unusual exercise of energy.
The Mystic, however, found a most congenial
home and a responsive audience during the
Middle Ages. The ardent subjectivity of man-
kind awoke to a wonderful consciousness of it-
self, and began to discover regions hardly known
before. Bonaventura, Bernard of Clairvaux,
Nicholas of Cusa, Saint Catherine of Siena,—
these belong to a cloud of witnesses who have an
extraordinary message to deliver, and who pre-
sent it with singular nobility and marked unan-
imity. The Mystic tradition has come down to
modern times in France, in England, in America;
the transcendentalist has had his tale to tell, and
has told it with inspiration and charm.
It may be an easy exercise of the skeptical
understanding to sweep all this long and con-
tinuous history into the limbo of the abnormal
and the hysterical; it may certainly be said
that there are sane and reasoned philosophies
whose content differs in no wise from that of the
genuine mystical literatures. With the com-
plete discrediting of the mystical, we shall also
be obliged to discredit these. It may be that
Plato and Hegel and Emerson have dwelt in a
vague and hazy dreamland, and that modern
culture and life can have in them, after all, only
an historical interest; but with the disappear-
ance of these from a real part in the experiences
of to-day, shall we also get rid of Dante and
Goethe and sundry other poets and men of
letters? The question can only be raised here,
without any attempt at discussion.


84
[August 16,
THE DIAL
Catherine of Siena, mystic as she was, had
her doubts; but she found a way of meeting
them. We quote from her:
"I will teach thee [said the Voice in her heart] how
to distinguish My visions from the visions of the enemy.
My vision begins with terror, but always, as it grows,
gives greater confidence; it begins with some bitterness,
but always groweth more sweet. In the vision of the
enemy, the contrary happens; for in the beginning it
seems to bring some gladness, confidence, or sweetness,
but, as it proceeds, fear and bitterness grow continuously
in the soul of whoso beholds it. . . . But I will give
thee another sign more infallible and more certain. Be
assured that, since I am Truth, there ever results from
My visions a greater knowledge of truth in the soul;
and, because the knowledge of truth is most necessary
to her about Me and about herself, that is, that she
should know Me and know herself, from which knowl-
edge it ever follows that she despises herself and honors
Me, which is the proper office of humility, it is inevi-
table that from My visions the soul becomes more
humble, knowing herself, and knowing Me better."
This is, of course, the mediaeval method of
stating the fact; but even at the present time
the easy and pleasurable way of the physiological
analysis, with its complicated experimental sta-
tions, is not an unquestionable one of reaching
the truth. Moreover, the speculative results of
the visionaries have often found fruitful demon-
strations in the realms of history and reality.
The Mystics have been of all grades and
varieties — illiterate and cultured, peasant and
nobleman, pauper and prince; they have occu-
pied every station in life and performed every
sort of labor; they have ploughed the seas and
discovered new continents like Columbus; they
have disposed of refractory Parliaments like
Cromwell; they have crowned monarchs against
seemingly overwhelming odds like Jeanne d'Arc;
they have transformed a whole world like Martin
Luther. They have bled on the field of battle,
they have been burned in the fires of martyr-
dom, they have died on the cross, for the Truth's
sake. They can, however, be properly divided
into three classes — the Quietists, whose lives
are given to contemplation; the Voluntarists,
who rush into the mad whirl of the world and
pluck victory from the jaws of the impossible:
and the Intellectualists, who give an account of
themselves and develop a psychology of the
Mystic consciousness. It seems likely that they
will continue to appear in the future as they
have done in the past.
The subject of the exhaustive and captivating
study immediately before us, Saint Catherine
of Siena, was the comparatively uneducated
daughter of Jacomo and Lapa di Benincasa,
simple and earnest people who did all in their
power for the large family with which they were
blessed. She was born on the 25th of March,
1347, the feast of the Annunciation, which
according to Sienese reckoning was the first day
of the new year. Saint Francis of Assisi had
died a hundred and twenty years before, and
Dante had passed from exile a quarter of a cen-
tury earlier. Petrarch was then forty-three
years old; Boccaccio had not yet written the De-
cameron; Chaucer was probably a boy of seven;
Charles King of Bohemia had been elected
Emperor; and Pope Clement VI. ruled at
Avignon. Italy was still the "hostelry of
sorrow " and not yet the "lady of provinces."
The cities were in the hands of remorseless
tyrants, or, if they pretended to govern them-
selves, were subject to internal conflicts and
hostile attacks from their neighbors. Hordes
of mercenary soldiers held allegiance now under
this one and now under that, and gave misrule
additional horrors. The moral condition of
ruler and citizen was no better than the politi-
cal -, pestilence and disease came with resistless
strength and malignity.
Catherine of Siena was to pass into this scene
and this atmosphere with words of admonition
and hands of healing. Her power was shown
early; visions floated before her, and her voca-
tion was soon determined. She met with the
usual opposition from home and friends, but she
went forth undeterred to the fulfilment of her
work. She joined the Sisters of Penance of
St. Dominic, called in Siena the Mantellate, —
not nuns, strictly speaking, but devoted to the
service of religion while remaining in their
homes. Her life became painfully rigid and
austere; her soul was evidently set apart for
special labors and duties.
Gradually a body of faithful disciples and
adherents gathered about her, members of the
Mantellate, women of culture and noble birth;
then priests, who recognized her right of leader-
ship, and later men and women from every
walk in life. Chief among her followers were
the Fra Raimondo du Capua, later Master of
the Dominicans, who wrote her story, the
authentic source of information about her, and
Stefano Maconi, the Carthusian, a man of the
same mould as herself. The fellowship found
ample toil waiting for it. Catherine was a leader
and commander, —
"A wonderfully endowed woman with an intuition so
swift and infallible that men deemed it miraculous, the
magic of a personality so winning and irresistible that
neither man nor woman could hold out against it, a
simple untaught wisdom that confounded the arts and
subtleties of the world; and with these a speech so
golden, so full of mystical eloquence, that her words,


1908.]
85
THE DIAL
whether written or spoken, made all hearts burn within
them when her message came. In ecstatic contempla-
tion she passes into regions beyond sense and above
reason, voyaging alone in unexplored and untrodden
realms of the spirit; but when the sounds of the earth
break in upon her trance, a homely common sense and
simple humor are hers, no less than the knowledge
acquired in these communings with an unseen world."
Catherine soon entered upon her great tasks.
The fellowship at different times occupied differ-
ent abodes; they grew into a significant power
in Siena. Catherine was a preacher of win-
ning charm and singular allurement; she per-
suaded many into an abandonment of lives that
brought forth unwholesome fruits. Siena was
torn by feuds and hostile factions, and Catherine
was recognized as a mediator in their internecine
quarrels. Nor was Siena alone aware that a new
spiritual force had arisen in Italy. She was to
play a part in the settlement of political dis-
turbances in Milan and Pisa and Lucca and
Florence. She now began the series of letters
which continued during the remainder of her
days. They contain her hopes and dreams,
they exhort priests and potentates to bring
about that reformation of Church and State
which will give peace and unity to Italy; they
voice again the aspirations which make up the
political creed of her predecessor Dante, and
which burst forth with renewed vigor in the im-
passioned demands of her successor Savonarola.
Into the details of this struggle, and this
mingled defeat and victory, we cannot enter
here. She threw herself with unrestrained ardor
into three large projects — a mistaken zeal for
another crusade, urged by the Pope; the reforma-
tion and regeneration of the prelacy; the return
of the Pope to Rome from his exile in Avignon.
This last had already been fiercely brought to
the attention of Gregory XI., by the Swedish
Mystic and Prophetess, Birgitta, then residing
in Rome. " Unless the Pope," was the message of
Birgitta, " comes to Italy in the time and in the
year appointed, the lands of the Church, which
are now united under his sway and obedience,
will be divided in the hands of his enemies."
The difficulties of the time had brought on
the bitter war between Florence and the Pope;
the cities vacillated between the two; Bernabo
Visconti, the sinister tyrant of Milan, gave
gloomy counsel and fomented discord; Giovanna,
the pleasure-loving and mysterious Queen of
Naples, intervened and increased the bitterness
of the conflict; Catherine with her fellowship
was called to Florence, and from there sent to
Avignon. This was the crowning labor of her
life. The Florentines behaved with wily and
astute treachery; the counsellors about the Pope
built up every sort of obstacle, palpable and
tenuous, between her and the Holy Father; she
maintained her spiritual supremacy, held him
firm to the purpose, and after incredible tribula-
tions, natural and apparently supernatural, re-
stored the Pope to the Imperial city.
Her great work was done. In the year
following, and at the coming of the schism,
when several Popes claimed the legitimacy of
their election, Catherine espoused the cause of
Urban VI. She came to Rome at his invitation,
and there, after enduring prolonged and violent
suffering, induced perhaps by the austerity of her
life, she made the great transition, surrounded by
her unfaltering friends, on April 29, 1380.
Toward the close of her life, Catherine took
thought for the written word she was leaving
behind her. In the early autumn of 1378 she
completed her remarkable book, the Dialogo
or Libro della Divina Dottrina. The volume
is a series of Dialogues, in which the mystical
doctrines of the Saint are unfolded at length,
and in which the views presented in Catherine's
letters are more fully expounded. The letters
number nearly four hundred. These are writ-
ten to kings and mendicants, saints and sinners,
priests and popes. They are done with authority
as of one who had the right to speak and give
counsel and admonition. When the names of
the patriotic lovers of Italy .are spoken, no one
should forget the name of Catherine of Siena.
For the work of Mr. Edmund G. Gardner,
exhaustive and scholarly, one can only have
that admiration which mastery of a subject in-
evitably invites and receives. Mr. Gardner
knows Italy, its life, its history, its religion, its
ideals, as few men know any country, even their
own. It is superfluous to say that the original
sources of information have been at the author's
command, and the libraries of Italy have been
laid under contribution. The subject is treated
at length, and with perhaps extreme detail; but
the picture of the fourteenth century in Italy is
significant and convincing. The author is in
full sympathy with the noble woman who makes
the centre of his portrayal, and not blind to the
difficulties which surround so arcane a subject.
There is sometimes to be found the scholar's
besetting sin, a too impressive display of erudi-
tion, and a too close adherence to authorities,
with a consequent lack of finish; but happily,
since Pater wrote, the critic's office has been
merged in that of the interpreter's. The work
is a superb one, worthy of the fine setting which
the publishers have given it, — in illustrations


86
[August 16,
THE
DIAL.
and binding and printing a book which delights
the eye as its contents delight the mind.
The orderly arrangement of the work is
particularly noteworthy; notwithstanding the
wealth of detail, clearness is never sacrificed,
and the picture becomes more effective with
every added stroke ; indeed, as in every history
worthy of the name, the interest accumulates
with the progress of the narrative. The book
must take its place with the important ones on
its subject. It contains also a well-selected
Bibliography and a copious Index.
Louis James Block.
A New Volume of Grove's Dictionary
of Music*
The fourth volume of the revised " Grove's
Dictionary of Music and Musicians" extends
over the space represented by Q, R, and S.
These three letters have necessitated an entire
volume, but as " Song," " Sonata," " Suite," and
"Symphony," the exhaustive biographies of
Schumann and Schubert, and sketches of promi-
nent musicians and composers such as Rossini,
Rubinstein, Spontini, Spohr, Smetana, Strauss
(Richard), Saint-Saens, Svendsen, Sullivan, and
such technical articles as " Scale " and "Singing,"
have presented themselves for consideration, it
is difficult to see how the aggregate of matter
from these letters could have been treated in
any less space. "Sonata," " Suite," and " Sym-
phony" remain substantially as they appear in
the first issue of the Dictionary. "Song," how-
ever, has been greatly extended (now occupying
eighty-one pages), as well as enriched and sup-
plied with numerous illustrations by the scholarly
research and skilled knowledge of Mrs. Edmond
Wodehouse.
The biographical sketches are not always
satisfactory. Some of the old ones, whose sub-
jects are becoming antiquated, might well have
been shortened to make room for more extended
sketches of contemporary composers. This
exception, however, cannot be taken to the
sketch of Richard Strauss, prepared by Mr. Mait-
land, the editor of the Dictionary. It is not a
sentence too long, considering its merit, and if
it had been shortened we might have missed the
well-deserved strictures of Mr. Maitland upon
this newly-risen genius who seeks to surprise " by
independence and impertinence." Those who
are not blown about by every "new wind of
* Grove's Dictionary op Music and Musicians. Edited by
J. A. Fuller Maitland. M.A. Volume IV. Illustrated. New York:
The Macmillan Co.
doctrine " that spreads abroad from Germany
will agree with Mr. Maitland's conclusion:
"It is of course too soon to guess what Strauss's posi-
tion among the musicians of the world may ultimately
be ; while he is still young enough to admit that hia
main object is to shock and startle, he is not too old to
change his convictions."
Let us hope he will do so, and eventually pro-
duce some work which does not require an eluci-
datory programme to render it intelligible.
The article on "Symphony Concerts" is
interesting from its local point of view, as it con-
tains the history of eight American symphony
orchestras, viz., the Boston Symphony, Brooklyn
Philharmonic, Theodore Thomas Orchestra, Cin-
cinnati Symphony (recently disbanded), Phil-
harmonic Society of New York, New York
Symphony, and the Philadelphia and Pittsburg
orchestras. The historical facts in the life of
our own Chicago orchestra are correctly given
except in one regard. The writer, a New York
musical critic, says that at the end of the first
period of the contract the guarantors were dis-
couraged by the losses entailed by the concerts
and by "certain unpleasant experiences in which
Mr. Thomas had become involved as Musical
Director of the World's Fair in 1893." It
would have been historically correct to say that
they were "disappointed," not "discouraged,"
by the losses, and that Mr. Thomas's World's
Fair experiences had no more to do with the
orchestra's affairs or the guarantors' feelings
than the rising of the sun. But New York will
never be exactly just to Chicago. Its angle of
western vision has always been distorted.
Upon the whole, this volume is a worthy
companion to its three predecessors, notwith-
standing some faults of omission. But why
should such a dignified and important musical
work of reference be disfigured with such a
hodge-podge of mediocre and poorly-executed
illustrations in these days of pictorial excellence?
There is no excuse for it.
George P. Upton.
The First Consul as a Councillor
Saw Him.*
Dr. Fortescue has brought Thibaudeau's
memoirs of Bonaparte out from the scholarly
seclusion where for two or three generations
they have remained practically inaccessible to
the general reader, who may take his novels in a
foreign tongue but must have his history in the
• Bonaparte and the Consulate. By A. C. Thibaudeau.
Translated and edited by G. K. Fortescue, LL.D. New York:
The Macmillan Co.


1908.]
87
THE
DIAL
vernacular. It is well that their value should
be emphasized by the fact of translation. The
frequency with which one meets quotations from
them in the better books on the period shows the
estimate which scholars long ago placed upon
them. They certainly rank with the Memoirs
of Miot or Mollien, and the Recollections of
Chaptal.
Thibaudeau's wide political experience, as
well as his confidential relations with Napoleon
and Josephine, enhance the value of his obser-
vations. He had first come up to Paris with his
father, who had been chosen a member of the
States General. He was himself a member
of the Convention and of the Council of Five
Hundred. In the Convention he acted with the
Mountain party, though in no slavish spirit, for
be refused to join the Paris Jacobin club on the
ground that this might interfere with the inde-
pendence of his decisions as a legislator. When
the Consulate was organized, he was appointed
a member of the Council of State. If the
conversations of the Councillor are, as we have
every reason to suppose, the conversations of
Thibaudeau, he enjoyed the confidence of Gen-
eral Bonaparte to such a degree that he could
frankly express his disapproval of the transfor-
mation of the Consular government in 1802.
Bonaparte merely remarked that it was time he
got rid of his dreams. Josephine also trusted
Mm, for she told him of the difficulties and
anxieties growing out of the intrigues of Napo-
leon's brothers, who were urging the establish-
ment of an hereditary regime in order that their
own position might be magnified.
The memoirs were written in 1827, when
Thibaudeau, as one of the regicides who had
adhered to the government of the Hundred Days,
was an exile in Brussels. He had already pub-
lished two volumes of his autobiography, touch-
ing the periods of the Convention and the
Directory. They seem to have excited the anger
of the Bourbon authorities, and, through diplo-
matic intervention, he barely escaped expulsion
from the Netherlands. This accounts for the
fact that in the new volume he abandons the
autobiographical form and presents anonymous
recollections, leaving himself quite in the back-
ground. The lapse of time between the Con-
sulate and the later years of the Restoration
would ordinarily impair our confidence in the
accuracy of Thibaudeau's testimony. There is
more than one indication, however, that his state-
ments do not rest upon memory alone, but upon
notes carefully made at the time. There is a
passage in the chapter on "Discussions on the
Civil Code " which gives an important indication
in this matter. Thibaudeau is criticizing Locre's
official report of the discussions in the Council,
because Locre had "reduced all the speeches
to a cold, measured, uniform style . . . which,
far from having flattered the First Consul by
making him speak like the rest . . . detract
immensely from the freedom, vigour, and origi-
nality of Bonaparte's own words." In order
to support his criticism, Thibaudeau placed in
parallel columns the official version of Bona-
parte's words "and his actual words as they
were carefully taken down by another hand." Dr.
Fortescue suggests that this other hand was Thi-
baudeau's, and that he had either an unusual
verbal memory or a system of short-hand. At
all events, he ascribes to him special skill in
reporting debates and conversations, not only for
this period but also for the periods that preceded.
He does not throw much light on the reasons for
his confidence, save that he believes that a com-
parison of Thibaudeau's reports with others will
carry conviction of the superiority of his ver-
sions. From the point of view of the historical
method, this leaves something to be desired.
These memoirs cover nearly every phase of the
Consulate, the organization of the administra-
tion, the principal problems of the government,
and even the manoeuvres by which the Consulate
ceased to be a republican and became a monarchi-
cal government. Perhaps the most important
chapter is the one already mentioned, the " Dis-
cussions on the Civil Code." These discussions
illustrate Bonaparte's share in the making of the
code. The tone of his remarks must always be
a surprise to one familiar mainly with the
Napoleon of diplomacy and war. They are not
a series of judgments, given with an air of
finality, but the opinions expressed wear the
garb of reasonableness. Certain of his remarks,
recorded in a subsequent chapter where the
question of taxation is raised, are still more sur-
prising. He is made to say:
"There is neither liberty nor property in a country
in which the amount of taxation to be levied from each
individual varies from year to year. . . . Why is public
spirit so wanting in France? because every proprietor is
obliged to pay his court to the powers that be. If he falls
into bad odour he may find himself a ruined man. . . .
In no other country are the people so servile to the
Government as in France, because here all property is
dependent on its good will . . . Nothing has been done
in France on behalf of property. The man who would
devise a good law on the cadastre would deservea statue."
There is much information of the lighter sort
also in the memoirs. Especially interesting is
the gradual evolution of a court etiquette, the
stages of which Thibaudeau seems to have


88
[August 16,
THE
DIAL
indicated with the minute particularity of a con-
vinced but somewhat disillusioned republican.
The reader is amused at the experimental
changes in official costume, and at the tribula-
tions of the persons who were obliged to use in
state processions public cabs, simply covering
the numbers with paper. Among the minor
though not unimportant features of this record
are Napoleon's conversations with Josephine,
who, Thibaudeau says, though most of a lady
of all at the new court, detested the theatrical
effects which were sought, and sighed for greater
privacy and freedom from false constraint.
Dr. Fortescue has done his work as editor
well, though the volume has an unnecessary
number of misprints or slight errors. It is to
be hoped that he will carry out the intention
he announces of presenting a translation of
Thibaudeau's "Memoires sur la Convention
et le Directoire." These would not have the
advantage of Napoleon's magical name, an
important consideration from the publisher's
point of view, but they make up one of the most
informing descriptions of the later periods of the
Revolution. Henry k Bourne.
Recent Fiction.*
His real name is Maurice Ethelbert Wynne, but
he is called "the Spawer" in the dialect of the
sea coast vicinage which he has sought out in the hope
of being able to accomplish something in his chosen
work of musical composition. A concerto is strug-
gling toward creation in his brain, and he needs a
restful and inspiring environment. He secludes him-
self in a farmhouse, cultivates no acquaintance save
that of the local parson, and proceeds to " invite his
•The Post-Girl. By Edward 0. Booth. New York: The
Century Co.
Delilah of the 8nows. By Harold Blndloss. New York:
Frederick A. Stokes Co.
The Man Who Was Thursday. A Nightmare. By G. K.
Chesterton. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
Lord of the World. By Robert Hush Benson. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co.
The Vioil. By Harold Begbie. New York: Dodd. Mead
& Co.
Retz. By Van Zo Post. New York: The McClure Co.
The Princess Dehra. By John Reed Scott. Philadelphia:
The J. B. Lippincott Co.
Youno Lord Stranlbiqh. By Robert Barr. New York:
D. Appleton & Co.
Handicapped. By Emery Pottle. New York: John Lane Co.
Purple and Homespun. By Samuel M. Gard#nhlre. New
York: Harper & Brothers.
Priest and Pagan. By Herbert M. Hopkins. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
The Call of the South. By Robert Lee Durham. Boston:
L. C Page & Co.
The Golden Ladder. By Margaret Potter. New York:
Harper & Brothers.
The Bond. By Neith Boyce. New York: Duffleld & Co.
soul" to self-expression. But one night when he
has been seated at the piano he is startled by hear-
ing a sob just outside his window. Rushing out, he
contrives to capture the agitated girl who has been
listening to his music; and in this manner we make
the acquaintance of one of the most winsome and
altogether adorable of the heroines of recent fiction.
Her name is Pamela, but everyone calls her Pam, and
her daily task is to carry the post. Thus the story
which concerns her gets its name, "The Post Girl."
As the story goes on, the Spawer's thoughts become
in ever-increasing measure detached from his profes-
sional work, and in corresponding measure attached
to his new acquaintance. Not to labor the point over-
much, he falls in love with her, and she is generously
responsive, albeit her bearing is only such as befits
the purest and most instinctively refined of maidens.
But it so happens that the hero's troth is already
plightedelse where, and he has a conscience. He
resolves to leave Pam, although it will be like pluck-
ing out his heart-strings, and the separation is about
to be effected when an opportune letter (whereby
hangs still another tale which we have not space to
include) sets him free. Then there is a stirring
scene of mutual rescue from the rocks and waves,
then there is the discovery of Pam's gentle birth and
worldly expectations, and then there is the close of
of it all, with unlimited happiness in prospect. The
scenario of Mr. Booth's story is thus of the simplest,
but he has invested his situations and his character-
izations with a charm so great that his every chapter
maintains the reader in a condition of alternate sus-
pense and satisfaction, both of which are delightful.
Two other characters are portrayed for us with extra-
ordinary vividness — those of the loquacious parson
and of the sullen schoolmaster who also loves Pam
and almost forces her to his will. Besides telling a
fascinating story, the author puts a good deal of him-
self into the book, and his many reflective and de-
scriptive pages give us a happy blend of shrewd
wisdom and sly humor, to say nothing of their verbal
beauty. He has a manner almost Meredithian in its
richness, but without the Meredithian asperity. He
has given us what is probably the best novel of the
summer, because it is the most human and the most
appealing.
Mr. Harold Bindloss has found a fetching title
for his latest novel, but " Delilah of the Snows" is
something of a misnomer, for it applies only to a
rather unimportant episode of the book. The story
is little more than a replica of the author's previous
productions, telling us again of the struggle for
fortune and love of the English settler in Canada.
This time the hero is a gold miner, and the scene
of his activity is among the mountains of British
Columbia. The narrative is vigorous and straightfor-
ward, without nicety of style, but wholesome in tone,
and moderately interesting. Although his work no
longer has the freshness of interest it possessed when
we first made its acquaintance, Mr. Bindloss may
still be counted upon to tell a readable story.


1908.]
89
THE
DIAL
Among our audacious latter-day sophists, who so
neatly make the worse appear the better reason, Mr.
Chesterton is gaining a high place. Indeed, he may
almost dispute the honors of leadership with the
priest-in-chief of the cult of paradox, Mr. G. Bernard
Shaw. His latest "budget of paradoxes " takes the
form of a novel — or, rather, of a fantastic invention,
which has to be described as fiction because it bears
no conceivable relation to reality. Even the author
balks at his own imaginings, and passes off the whole
invention as a dream when he comes to the last chap-
ter. It is called "The Man Who Was Thursday,"
and has to do with the conflict between anarchy and
order. A central council of anarchists, seven in
number, bear the names of the days of the week
(which accounts for our title), and, under the lead-
ership of an awe-inspiring Sunday, develop their
programme of treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The
gigantic humor of the conception is that these seven
men are really Scotland Yard detectives, spying
upon each other; for each of them thinks that all
the others are genuine anarchists. The amount of
fun that Mr. Chesterton gets out of this situation
may readily be imagined, as well as the opportunity
it affords him for the exercise of his talent for
paradox. Like most dreams, the story grows more
wildly impossible as the awakening is neared. It is
a highly entertaining yarn, and exhibits the author
in the light in which he ought always to be viewed
— the light of a man not for a moment to be taken
seriously upon any subject, but simply to be ad-
mired for a combination of nimble wit with diabolical
cleverness.
"This is a terribly sensational book," writes
Father Benson in introducing his "Lord of the
World" to his readers. Since his story leads up to,
and ends with, the day of judgment, the preliminary
warning would appear to be justified. "Then this
world passed, and the glory of it," is the closing
sentence of a book as daring in conception as Mr.
Moody's "Masque of Judgment" The period of
the story is some centuries ahead of the present time.
Air-ships and other mechanical inventions are com-
monplaces, and the problem which confronts man-
kind is the impending conflict between East and
West. This menace is finally removed through the
efforts of a mysterious personage named Felsen-
burgh, an American who has the gift of tongues
and an irresistibly persuasive individuality. He is
hailed as the deliverer of mankind, and the great
powers of the world unite in making him their
supreme arbiter. But his triumph is the triumph
of a godless materialism, and will not be complete
until the Church, the last bulwark of effete super-
stition, is wiped out of existence. Consequently,
the Church is attacked in its central citadel; Rome
is annihilated by a fleet of dynamiting airships, and
the entire hierarchy is believed to be destroyed.
The triumph of Antichrist ( as incarnated in Felsen-
burgh) seems to be definitive, but a remnant of the
upholders of the faith has been miraculously spared,
and has found refuge in Palestine. There it renews
its organization in a manner suggestive of the times
of primitive Christianity, and there it awaits the last
onslaught of the powers of evil. The last day dawns
upon the field of Armageddon, and the portentous
approach of doom is impressively pictured. But the
author's imagination balks at the final cataclysm,
and puts it all into the simple sentence quoted above.
A sort of repressed intensity, the product of spiritual
fanaticism, is the distinguishing mark of this extraor-
dinary invention.
Matters of private and sentimental interest are
woven into the narrative just described, but only in
a perfunctory way; in the case of "The Vigil," by
Mr. Harold Begbie, the element of human interest
is much more considerable, and yet religious discus-
sion occupies so large a part of the book as to make
extensive tracts of it unreadable. The discussion,
moreover, does not involve the momentous issues
that appeal to the imagination in Father Benson's
story, but deals with such futilities as the celibacy of
the English clergy and the merits of rival methods
of inculcating Christian doctrine. Fortunately, these
arid passages are to a certain extent segregated,
and the author's genuine talent, which lies in an
altogether different direction, may be enjoyed by
itself. That talent takes the form of an insight into
the types of character to be found in an English
village — a community of miners and fisher-folk —
that is really remarkable. A combination of the
shrewd observation and humor of Dickens and
George Eliot is noticeable in many places, and
makes the book worth while, despite its heavy load
of theological verbiage.
"Retz " is a historical romance vaguely placed in
the fifteenth century, when, the French monarchy
was still struggling with Burgundy for supremacy.
The hero, a scion of an ancient German house, ap-
pears upon the scene in Flanders at the .age of
twenty, and proceeds to carve for himself a career.
He is at once a doughty warrior, a consummate strate-
gist, and a Prince Charming; and he juggles with
kings and dukes and bishops in right masterful fash-
ion, until he has settled the affairs of Europe to his
own taste. The book fairly reeks with romance, and
bears about as much relation to reality as an Arabian
Nights' Entertainment. Structurally, it is incoher-
ent, but its episodes are exciting enough to make us
condone the fault of amorphous plan. Who Mr.
Van Zo Post, the author, may be, we do not know;
but we cheerfully allow his dedicatory claim that he
has ever followed the torch of the spirit of adventure.
We learned to know the Princess Dehra from
"The Colonel of the Red Huzzars," one of the best
of recent " Zenda " romances. We now resume her
charming acquaintance in a book which bears her
name as a title, for her inventor, Mr. John Reed
Scott, has ingeniously contrived to make her the
heroine of a sequel to his earlier romance. The
device is very simple. The sudden death of the old
king leaves the court at sixes and sevens, for the
decree which named Armand his successor has mys-
teriously disappeared, and the wicked Ferdinand is


90
[August 16,
THE
DIAL
thereby enabled to scheme anew for the defeat of
his rival. So the old days of adventure and intrigue
are merrily renewed, and the excitement is sustained
for the length of another volume, and until the lost
decree turns up, which means the final discomfiture
of the villain (it seems to be final) and the union of
Armand with his Princess.
Mr. Robert Barr is a very uneven writer, being
capable of producing as puerile a book as "The
Measure of the Rule" and as fine a specimen of
historical romance as "Tekla." This unevenness of
quality seems to result from an attempt to be more
versatile than nature permits. "Young Lord Stran-
leigh " is one of Mr. Barr's better books — perhaps
one of his best. Primarily, it is a tale of adventure,
dealing with the discovery of a rich gold-bearing reef
near the west coast of Africa, and with the attempt
of an unscrupidous syndicate to filch the treasure
from its rightful claimant. As far as plot goes, the
narrative is commonplace; but the character of Lord
Stranleigh gives it the mark of distinction. This
example of the British aristocracy is to outward seem-
ing an indolent and lackadaisical creature, whose
chief interests are his food and his apparel. But
when he is once enlisted in the effort to thwart the
wicked syndicate, his affectation of simplicity and
helplessness turns out to be no more than the mask
of a highly intelligent and resourceful personality.
The gold is brought safely to London, and eventu-
ally saves the Bank of England from bankruptcy,
which is a sufficiently exciting climax to the story.
It amounts to some two hundred million pounds
sterling, which shows the writer to be possessed of a
generous imagination.
A rather insignificant novel entitled "Handi-
capped" is the work of Mr. Emery Pottle. The
title is suggestive of the race-track, and the story
has a distinctly " horsey" flavor. The scene is near
New York, and the interest centres about the rivalry
for a maiden's hand of two men — an estimable
country gentleman and a wild Irish youth who is a
cub by nature and a jockey by profession. The
maiden yields to the Irishman's tempestuous wooing,
but is saved from the consequences of her perverse
judgment by a timely accident (in Madison Square
Garden) which eliminates him from the situation.
The story is natural enough, and exhibits some
skill in characterization and dialogue, but does
not at any point gain much hold upon the reader's
attention.
"Purple and Homespun," by Mr. Samuel M.
Gardenhire, lives up to its title by introducing us to
social types as widely separated as the English aris-
tocracy and the denizens of the East Side. Mr.
Gardenhire's noble lords and labor agitators are
depicted with equal verisimilitude. The book also
provides an agreeable mixture of politics and social-
ism and financial scheming and human interest. Its
central figure is a young man of thirty-six who has
become a millionaire and a United States Senator by
force of native ability. His birth is of the humblest,
and the secret knowledge that his father is a drunken
old reprobate makes him hesitate a long while before
declaring his love for the daughter of the British
ambassador; but he ventures it at last, with a full con-
fession, and is rewarded. In this respect the story
turns out in the anticipated way, but in some others
it yields surprises. We hardly expect (from a novel-
ist) that a long-drawn-out struggle between capital
and labor will end in anything less exciting than a
riot, but in this case it leads only to amicable adjust-
ment with the best of feeling on both sides. Nor do
we expect, when a young woman has been wronged
in her youth by a scion of the British aristocracy, that
she will do other than spurn him when she reappears
as a beautiful and attractive heiress; but in this case
she forgives and forgets, even to the extent of marry-
ing her betrayer. At first thought, these surprising'
conclusions suggest a departure from truth to life:
but second thought rather suggests that they are only
a departure from truth to the novelist's convention,
and perhaps for that very reason truer to life than
most novelistic conclusions. Mr. Gardenhire's style
is stodgy, but he has packed a good deal of experi-
ence into his pages, and thereby made them quite
readable.
Mr. Herbert M. Hopkins, in his "Priest and
Pagan," has given us a neatly-contrived novel of
somewhat colorless type. The opening smacks of
romance, for it tells of the reappearance in New
York of a man supposed to have been drowned in
the Adriatic a year before; and when we are ap-
prised of his intention to keep his escape a secret,
and start life over again under a new name, we anti-
cipate interesting complications. But they do not
occur, and the sequel is tame, although it does lead
to the hero's suicide. He is the "pagan " of the title;
the " priest" is the rector of a parish in the Bronx,
and the heroine, for whom these two contend, is a
nice girl who seeks relief from her monotonous
suburban existence by doing a vaudeville "turn " in
a variety theatre. Mr. Hopkins has more style than
invention, and it is a pity that so carefully wrought
a story should not prove more effective.
The negro question, as viewed by the excitable
Southern imagination, is the theme of Mr. Robert
Lee Durham's novel entitled "The Call of the
South." Mr. Durham has created a disagreeable
situation, and made the most of it. Hayward
Graham is a young man of engaging qualities
descended from a line of soldiers, a Harvard student
and famous athlete, but cursed with a strain of negro
blood. He enlists for the war with Germany which
has has been brought on by Venezuelan complica-
tions, gives distinguished service to his country, and
incidentally saves the life of his commanding officer.
That officer afterwards becomes President, and
Graham becomes a footman in his household em-
ployment, having concealed his identity by a change
of name. The motive for this extraordinary course
of action is supplied by his secret admiration for the
younger daughter of the President. A romantic
entanglement follows between the servant and his
young mistress, and leads to a clandestine marriage.


1908.]
91
THE DIAL
"When the secret is known, the consequences are
disastrous. The President loses his second election,
and dies from the shock of disappointment combined
with the sense of family disgrace. The daughter
gives birth to a child who is abhorrent to her sight,
and her mind gives way. Her husband refinlists as
a private in the Philippine service, and the story
abruptly ends. The purpose of the book is plainly
to enforce by a horrible example the argument that
any attempt to give social recognition to the negro
must needs result in a mingling of the races. To
our mind, this is a far-fetched conclusion; but Mr.
Durham represents the view so widely preva-
lent in the South and so incomprehensible to the
Northern mind. The difficulty is a serious one, no
doubt; but there is such a thing as losing one's head
in attempting to deal with it.
Miss Margaret Potter, after various romantic
excursions into foreign parts and remote periods,
has returned, in "The Golden Ladder," to the region
of reality. It is a very sordid reality which she de-
scribes, beginning with life in a Chicago boarding-
house and ending among the financial monarchs of
Wall Street Her hero is a sturdy and ambitious
youth from the country, who comes to Chicago to set
his foot upon the golden ladder which most unimag-
inative Americans are trying to climb, and reaches
the topmost rung in New York, to which metropolis
the scene is after a while transferred. The heroine
(we call her that in default of a more exact desig-
nation) is a daughter of the woman who keeps the
Chicago boarding-house, a girl of physical charms
and depraved instincts. She tempts the youth to
sin, and then, not foreseeing his successful future,
forsakes him for the garish allurements of the stage.
When the scene shifts to New York, she is far down
the road of degradation, while her former lover wins
high rank among the manipulators of markets and
the promoters of enterprises. Gilded wretchedness,
although of different kinds, appears to be the final
lot of both. Miss Potter's novel is inspired by a
fierce indignation, aroused at sight of the mammon-
worship which is bringing our civilization near to
shipwreck, and she pours unsparing scorn upon
American life as she sees it. The motive is fine,
but the thing is overdone, and misses its proper
effect through vehemence of expression. Charles
Dudley Warner might have shown her how to do
the same thing in a more quiet and artistic manner.
Miss Potter has also to learn the value of reticence,
for some of her bits of description and dialogue are
calculated to bring a blush not to maiden cheeks
alone. On the whole, we are inclined to think that
"The Golden Ladder " has done a thing well worth
doing after a fashion in which it distinctly ought not
to be done.
We are getting a little tired of the neurotic young
woman who makes unreasonable demands upon life,
and is unhappy because it turns out to be less excit-
ing than she would like to find it. A typical example
of this sort of woman, who worries over her own
emotions until her whole moral fibre is weakened, is
found in the heroine of "The Bond," by "Neith
Boyce." The marriage bond is what is meant, of
course, and it is treated throughout the book as some-
thing against which to chafe rather than as an ac-
cepted and sacred safeguard. The young woman
in this particular case has health, a devoted husband,
and an artistic gift of her own as a refuge from
vagrant thoughts. She is, in fact, so happy when
first introduced to us that she is quite sure that it
cannot last, and deliberately sets out to make herself
miserable by brooding over an imaginary future of
misery. This morbid type of character occurs, of
course, as a by-product of the life which we moderns
lead at such high pressure, and the novelist has a
right to describe it; but she can hardly expect it to
appeal to the sympathy of sane and balanced minds.
The heroine's destiny is worked out, after a fashion,
without external disaster, and she comes to a sort of
broken-spirited acceptance of life as it is. We could
wish that the author's delicate talent had been em-
ployed upon a worthier theme, or a theme bearing a
closer relation to normal existence.
William Morton Payne.
Briefs ox New Books.
A compact.tudv lt WOuId be diffionlt to 8Pecify &
of Rembrandt'* book that more completely fulfils its
life and work. purp08e tnan Professor G. Baldwin
Brown's volume on Rembrandt (Scribner). To
condense into a modest volume of 327 pages a
comprehensive study of the life and art of the dis-
tinguished Hollander was a task that could be per-
formed in a satisfactory manner only by one having
not merely intimate acquaintance with the works of
the master, but clearly defined views and aptitude
for methodical statement. These qualifications Pro-
fessor Brown has in a marked degree, and they are
reflected in the well-ordered plan of his book. In-
stead of combining the biographical, the historical,
and the critical aspects of his subject in a continuous
narrative, he has treated them in separate divisions;
and in considering Rembrandt's output as an artist
there is a further division into chapters dealing with
his drawings, his etched work, and his paintings.
In this arrangement there is both advantage and
disadvantage. The reader is spared the confusion
of passing backward and forward between state-
ments of fact and higher artistic criticism, but at the
cost of a view in which the artist's works in the dif-
ferent media necessarily seem somewhat unrelated,
and the steady progression of his development can
be kept in mind only by conscious effort on the part
of the reader. On the other hand, there is gain in
convenience for reference, and in compactness. In-
deed, it is extremely doubtful whether such a mass
of information as Professor Brown gives could be
presented in the same amount of space in any other
way. In the discussion of controverted points, Pro-
fessor Brown is careful to present all sides, and his


92
[August 16,
THE DIAL
conclusions may be accepted as fairly representing
the consensus of opinion of the best authorities.
Seldom in a popular monograph does one meet with
such scholarly treatment, combined with breadth of
vision and catholicity of judgment. There is perhaps
a trifle too much insistence upon subjective qualities,
such as the profundity of Rembrandt's insight into
character; and not quite enough stress is laid upon
the purely aesthetic side of Rembrandt's art. In the
main, however, the author has kept closely to the
view which he states with such admirable clearness:
"The general conception of a piece from the point
of view of its subject, and its envisagement as a
composition in form and colour, are, in the theory of
modern painting, a single act. It is not the case of
a thought consciously and deliberately clothed in an
artistic dress, but of a thought that would have no
existence save in so far as it is expressible in art."
Without illustrations, a book of this kind would be
shorn of much of its utility as well as attractiveness.
Excellent half-tone reproductions of forty-eight of
Rembrandt's works are given, the list including a
number of those not commonly seen, as well as many
of his recognized masterpieces. Ample indexes are
included; and we miss only, what would have been
a desirable addition, a bibliography of the more im-
portant among the very large number of books of
which the great Dutch master is the subject. Taking
it all in all, Professor Brown has given us the best
book on Rembrandt's life and work that has been
prepared for the general reader.
Without comprehending the principle
?Z£l££va» °f relationship which led Dr. Stop-
ford A. Brooke to group together four
such diverse men and poets as Matthew Arnold, A. H.
Clough, Dante Rossetti, and William Morris in one
volume with the title "Four Victorian Poets" (Put-
nam), we can still appreciate the insight and illumi-
nation of his treatment of them. A review of the
history of English poetry from 1822 to 1852 forms
an introductory chapter, wherein stress is placed
upon the reaction from the democratic ideas of
Shelley and Byron, the interval of lethargy, and the
revival of political, artistic, and religious freedom.
"Into the midst of this whirlpool of thoughts and
hopes and passions, political, social, ideal, democratic,
but chiefly religious and theological, Clough and
Arnold were cast." These two men are associated
in our memories both as friends and fellow-sufferers
from the disturbed intellectual and theological con-
ditions which tended to foster doubts and a " stoic
sadness " in the earlier manhood of both poets. "Our
troubled day " is what Arnold called it. Dr. Brooke
has said truly that" nearly all of Arnold's best poetry
has an elegiac note." Clough's mental and spiritual
conflicts are traced from his Oxford days to the last
years of a life which seemed to end prematurely, "as
he passed from the speculative to the constructive
phase of thought." Rossetti and Morris are natu-
rally joined in several characterizations; they both
rebelled against the sordid life and speculative criti-
cism of their age, and both, like Keats, turned to the
past for inspiration. Although Morris in later life,
urged into contact with the darker phases of existence
by his "passionate humanity," became enlisted in
the cause of socialism, yet as a young man he was
more detached from his age than Rossetti was. The
latter's quality of "unwearied symbolism," in both
painting and poetry, is emphasized, as well as the
fusion of Italian and English influences in his work.
Morris, like Arnold, was felicitous in his recital of
great stories of the past, his range of subjects includ-
ing legends and hero-tales of Greek, mediaeval, and
Norse history. Whether remembered as a poet,
socialist, or artistic craftsman, his dominant trait will
be found in idealism, in hope and faith of a better
future; poetized in such diverse visions as "News
from Nowhere " and " The Message of the March
Wind." .
A tummer The Continental Congress, which met
cZunentai"" ■* Philadelphia in the autumn of
Cow/rest. J7ss. 1774 and assumed control of national
affairs until the assembling of the Congress under
the Constitution was assured in 1789, sat in no less
than six different places, being the victim of the vicis-
situdes of war. All general histories describe the
wanderings of this body of legislative-executives; but
it has remained for Mr. Varnum Lansing Collins in
"The Continental Congress at Princeton" (Univer-
sity Library) to make a special study of the coming
of the Congress to Princeton, New Jersey, after the
revolt of the Pennsylvania troops drove its members
from Philadelphia. Sessions were opened in the
classic village (probably in the residence of Colonel
Morgan) June 30, 1783, and continued until No-
vember following, when adjournment was made to
Annapolis. The period was that really following the
Revolutionary War, and might be considered unin-
teresting save for the fact that here began to be
manifest that general apathy in public life which
eventually well-nigh ruined the experiment of the
republic before matters were righted by the Phila-
delphia Convention. Mr. Collins's work is published,
appropriately, by the University Library of Prince-
ton, and the author has given a Princeton setting to
the whole. His chapter on Princeton in 1783, that
on the reception given the Congressional visitors, and
on the presence of the members of Congress at the
annual Commencement exercises of the College, pre-
sent a true picture of the accustomed quiet of the
Jersey village, broken by this momentous incursion.
Monotony of narrative is prevented by the descrip-
tions of the visit of General Washington to Congress,
of the arrival of the Dutch minister, and of the theft
from the village postoffice of a mail-bag which con-
tained the official correspondence of the members of
Congress. The author has collected his material from
original and authentic sources, and has fashioned it
into a readable narrative. The volume is one that
will appeal to the general reading public, and is yet
of value to the student.


1908.]
93
THE
DIAL
RHtuh Colonial Since the publication, two years ago,
Adminitirution of Mr. Alleyne Ireland's important
in the Far East. work on the « Far Eastern Tropics,"
the appearance of his larger and more important
work on " Colonial Administration in the Far East"
has been awaited with interest. The first two
volumes are now issued, with the imprint of Messrs.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. They are given entirely to
Burma, and excite admiration by their thorough-
ness and compactness, and wonder at the immense
amount of labor and preparation which they imply.
With untiring industry the author has gathered and
tabulated a vast amount of information on every
branch of the colonial administration in Burma and
on every interest in the Province, which has hitherto
been available only by reference to a multitude of
scattered reports, issued by many departments, deal-
ing often with only a limited period of time, avail-
able only by journeyings to the offices and chanceries
concerned, and known there frequently only to
those attached to that particular branch of the ser-
vice. Mr. Ireland expressly says in his preface that
"no attempt has been made to make the report
attractive to the general reader; no effort has been
expended in giving the work an appearance of
originality, which, whilst it might perhaps add some-
thing to the literary reputation of the reporter, would
detract from the utility of the work." The work is
therefore a book of reference only, but it is one of
distinct and unique value. According to the plan
which Mr. Ireland has imposed upon himself, his
own criticisms and conclusions will follow the com-
pletion of the Report proper, and will be contained
in a final volume. All the other colonial adminis-
trations, British and foreign, are to be similarly
treated, presumably with equal thoroughness and
accuracy. It is to be hoped that this important and
meritorious enterprise will appeal not in vain for
public appreciation and support, especially for that
of reference libraries where it must become a useful
and indispensable handbook in its field.
a pieatant In these days of almost universal
»uMeioo* going to and fro about the earth,
and romance. books of travel vie with fiction in
popularity as light literature, and the clever author
has learned to combine the two genres into a divert-
ing mixture of guidebook and romance. Anne
Warner's " Seeing England with Uncle John " (Cen-
tury Co.) is an unusually entertaining example of this
type. Uncle John is a truly comic character, as good
in his way as the inimitable Susan Clegg; and in
spite of the pitfalls of the sequel, he is just as funny
in England as he was in France — which means that
his creator has an excellent understanding of both
the satiric method and the foibles of the elderly Amer-
ican gentleman who goes travelling, apparently, just
to get it over with. Baggage, fires, and Baedeker
supply Uncle John with standing causes for dissatis-
faction, while each place he rushes through adds its
special grievance to his long list of such. His mono-
logues to his long-suffering companion, Dilly t and to
his neice Yvonne and her husband, supply the humor;
and Yvonne's letters to her mother, recounting the
various stages in her vain pursuit of Uncle John
through Scotland and England, describe the things
that Uncle John might have seen, but did n't, owing
to his haste and the misadventures that dog his erratic
course. Yvonne is as typical as Uncle John, and
almost as funny. Dilly and some of the minor char-
acters are a little overdone, — and so, we think, is
Yvonne's ceaseless flow of information, which lacks
the strongly personal note needed to give it interest.
As information, however, it seems to be thoroughly
reliable; and an index — the preparation of which,
the author declares, was a much longer task than the
writing of the book — makes reference to particular
facts easy.
Essays -f>au^ Elmer More's fifth series
critical and of "Shelburne Essays" (Putnam)
biographical. },ave( wjtn two exceptions, the fa-
miliar footnote which shows them to be, in form at
least, reviews of current publications; and one of
these exceptions ("The Praise of Dickens") is
inspired by the fine "National Edition" of the
perennially popular novelist and by current appre-
ciations of his work, while the other ("The Cen-
tenary of Longfellow") has necessarily much of
the character of a critical review. The chapters,
eleven in number, are already familiar to readers
of "The Nation"; the Longfellow essay, however,
appeared in "The Washington University Bulletin."
In the pages of so accomplished a literary artist as
Mr. More one looks for, and finds, many an apt
phrase that lingers in the mind. "The jumping
staccato of Mr. Chesterton " and "Mr. Chesterton's
ebullition of doubtful epigrams" refresh us more,
probably, than they will Mr. Chesterton.
Notes.
A volume of " Musical Memories " by Mr. George P.
Upton, embodying his recollections of famous musical
artists of the last half-century, is a welcome announce-
ment by Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co.
» The Winter's Tale " is the latest volume of « The
Lamb Shakespeare for the Young," published by Messrs.
Duffield & Co. in what is not the least pleasing section
of their " Shakespeare Library."
In a literary way, doubtless the most important pub-
lication of the forthcoming season will be Mr. Swin-
burne's study of " The Age of Shakespeare," which the
author regards as his most notable prose work. Messrs.
Harper & Brothers will publish the book in this country.
New novels by Frederick Palmer, Eden Phillpotts,
Elizabeth Robins, Edward Peple, Cyrus Townsend
Brady, John Luther Long, and Tyler de Saix are con-
tained in the Fall announcement list of Messrs. Moffat,
Yard & Co.
Those who have become interested in the world move-
ment to provide industrial insurance and old age pensions
for wage earners will find a new and suggestive treat-
ment in the recent book of Dr. Alfred Manes on " Die
Arbeiterversicherung in Australien mid Neu-Seeland,"


94
[August 16,
THE DIAL
being volume eighteen of the series of Dr. Zacher," Die
Arbeiter-Versicherung in Auslande." The experience
in Australasia is thus far very full of promise.
Mr. Austin Dobson's essays about books are always
pleasant reading, and many book-lovers will be inter-
ested to hear that he is preparing a new collection,
which, under the title " De Libris," will be published in
this country by The Macmillan Company.
"With the Battle Fleet," by Mr. Franklin Matthews,
to be published in the early Fall by Mr. B. W. Huebsch,
will embody a record of the recent voyage of the Atlantic
Fleet from Hampton Roads to San Francisco, including
accounts of the ships' visits to various South American
ports.
It is rumored that there exists an unpublished novel
by Mr. George Meredith, which, according to present
arrangements, will not be issued for some years after
the author's death. It is a coincidence that Count
Tolstoy has lately finished a novel, to which he has
attached the same condition of posthumous publication.
As an English novelist, Mr. John Galsworthy has
now "arrived," and the republication of his earlier
books is in order. Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons have
just issued new editions of " Villa Rubein " and "The
Island Pharisees" for the new public created by the
author's later successes.
A volume on Canada in Sir C. P. Lucas's "Historical
Geography of the British Colonies " will be published
shortly by the Oxford University Press. The author,
Professor H. E. Egerton, confines himself to history,
starting with British Rule to the Quebec Act, and ending
with the Dominion of to-day; and the volume contains
several appendices, ten maps, and an index.
A notable educational book on Houghton M it'll in
Company's Fall list will be a volume of essays and
addresses entitled " The Teacher," by Professor George
H. Palmer and Alice Freeman Palmer. It will have a
special interest for those who have read the recently-
published Life of Alice Freeman Palmer, as it will con-
tain the only papers by her which are to be published.
An edition of the works of Jane Austen, in ten vol-
umes, each with a reproduction after water colors by
A. Wallis Mills, is announced by Messrs. Duffield & Co.
The text of the uovels has been revised for this edition
by Mr. R. Brimley Johnson, who furnishes also biblio-
graphical and biographical notes. The water color
drawings, by one of the artists of "Punch," are an
attempt to reproduce faithfully the details of the period
of which Jane Austen wrote.
There is much bibliographical activity in the United
States at the present time. Mr. Paul Brochett, of the
Smithsonian Institution, is preparing a bibliography of
aeronautics; Mr. George F. Black's bibliography of gip-
sies is on the eve of publication, and comprises about
1800 titles; an elaborate work of the same nature on
music is being prepared by Mr. L. M. Hooper, of the
Brookline Public Library; and proposals for the publi-
cation of a Canadian bibliography, to contain about
16,000 titles, have been issued by Mr. A. H. O'Brien, a
lawyer, and Mr. L. J. Burpee, Librarian of the Carnegie
Library, Ottawa. We note also that a bibliography of
Virginia has been undertaken by the Virginia State
Library; it will relate entirely to the Colonial period, and
will be prepared by Mr. William Clayton-Torrence.
The death of Mr. W. S. Smyth, at South Haven,
Mich., on the 4th of this month, deprived the publishing
trade of one of its oldest and most esteemed members.
Mr. Smyth had been for over a quarter of a century
prominently identified with the publication of school-
books, at first with the house of Giun & Co., Boston, and
later with that of D. C. Heath & Co., of which firm he
became vice-president, with especial charge of the
Chicago branch of the business. The earlier part of his
active life was spent in educational work; graduating
at Wesleyan University in 1863, he became principal of
Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania, afterwards of
Casenovia Seminary in New York, and later dean at
Syracuse University. He was a man of breadth and
culture, and of high ideals in personal and business life.
THE
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THE DIAL
S &emi*fflonttjIp: Journal of Eitrrarg Criticism, WiKvauAtm, ants Information.
THE DIAL (Sounded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16lh oj
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THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Entered as Second-Class Hatter October 8, 1892, at tbe Post Office
at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3,1879.
No. BSS. SEPTEMBER 1, 1908. Vol. XLV.
Contents.
PAGE
THE WORLD OF WONDER 103
CASUAL COMMENT 105
The iniquities of book-publishers. — The life of a
busy and useful bookman.—The advantages of the
smaller colleges. — Free libraries in the Dark Con-
tinent.— The sterility of optimism. — The kindli-
ness of authors.—Open or closed shelves for public
libraries.— How to enjoy books, though a librarian.
— The vogue of devotional hymns. — Base uses of
famous houses.
COMMUNICATIONS 108
Milton's "Comus" in Western Woods. Marian
Mead.
A Correction from Captain Amundsen. E. P.
Dutton 4- Co.
AN EXPERIMENT IN ART EDUCATION. Percy
F. Bicknell 109
THE RE-WRITING OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
Edwin Erie Sparks 110
TWO FAMOUS FLEMISH PAINTEKS. Walter
Cranston Lamed 112
TWO RECENT BOOKS ON SPAIN. George Griffin
Brownell 113
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH TRAGEDY.
C. M. Hathaway. Jr 116
A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF THE PHILIP-
PINES. James A. LeRoy 116
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 118
Why are we right-handed or left-handed'.' — Plays
which Shakespeare did not write. — The "psychic
researches" of an astronomer. — Informal talks to
schoolmasters. — About peacocks, flowers, gardens,
and other things. — The story of a famous Irish
beauty.
NOTES 120
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS .... 121
LIST OF NEW BOOKS 122
THE WORLD OF WONDER.
The scene is in Iceland, and the year is
1220. There has been a day of battle between
the Bishop and the opposing chieftains.
"Arnor said to Sighvat, 'It has been a hard bout,
kinsman!'
"< Aye, hard indeed!' says he.
"Arnor said: 'I have been poorly all the summer;
but when word came to me from Reekdale that they
wanted help, all my aches left me, so that now I am as
fresh as ever I was in my life.'
"■That is what you might call a miracle,' said Sighvat.
"Arnor answers: 'It is what I would call an occur-
rence, and not a miracle.'"
This anecdote from the sagas is given us by
Professor Ker in an address made to the Viking
Club. It has an obvious moral for any age,
possibly more for our own than for most others,
and may be particularly recommended to the at-
tention of those who waste their energies in the
pursuit of the will-o-the-wisps of certain forms
of pseudo-philosophy which are much in vogue
at the present day, and which are the despair
of the rational intelligence. The conception of
an ordered and law-bound universe, which is the
chief conquest of science, and which the advanc-
ing years steadily solidify, falls dishearteningly
short of general acceptance. The heredity of
the race at large predisposes most men to prefer
imagination to observation, and to welcome what
is irrational because it satisfies the instinctive
craving for wonder.
Now this craving for wonder is too essential
an attribute of the human spirit to be ignored
by science, or to be contemptuously ruled out
of court in the great cause of man versus nature.
Imagination has a claim upon the mind no less
legitimate than fact, and the dry light of reason
is naturally less attractive than the iridescent
coloring of fancy. But the two are not hope-
lessly at odds, as a superficial view would seem
to set them, and the real world of science affords
abundant scope for the exercise of the faculty
of wonder. As science extends its boundaries,
new Alps on Alps arise before its broadening
view, and the mysteries which satisfy the child-
ish imagination are replaced by mysteries of
more unfathomable depth. The function of
knowledge is indeed to regulate the imagination,
but at the same time to afford it a vaster scope
than ever before. Truly "on her forehead sits


104
[Sept. 1,
THE
DIAL
a fire" potent to reveal hitherto unapprehended
realms of wonder to the clarified vision. But
just as the truest freedom of human action lies
within the limits of submission to social law (as
Goethe knew), so the genuine freedom of the
imagination is to be achieved, not by flouting
science, but by accepting its restraining intel-
lectual guidance.
The quarrel of science, then, is not with the
imagination as such, but with its superstitious
vagaries and its perversities of flight. It clings
to the toys of childhood when it might instead
rejoice in the use of the instruments of explora-
tion which science so freely offers. The cheap
imposture of "spiritualism'' still numbers by
thousands its willingly deluded victims, and
its superstitious taint may be detected, although
disguised by refined verbiage, in some of our
highest-sounding philosophies. There is no
essential difference between the "messages"
delivered, through knockings or otherwise, by
the vulgarest of charlatans, and the drivel of
such familiars as "Mr. Phinuit" as reported
by our gravest adepts in psychical research.
That crude manifestations of either sort should
be taken seriously as attesting the existence of
a spirit-world affords a melancholy illustration
of the depths to which credulity may descend.
It takes Thoreau s vigorous language to char-
acterize adequately the state of mind which is
moved by such evidence.
"Most people here [in Concord] believe in a spirit-
ual world which no respectable junk bottle, which had
not met with a slip, would condescend to contain even
a portion of for a moment, — whose atmosphere would
extinguish a candle let down into it, like a well that
wants airing; in spirits which the very bullfrogs in our
meadows would blackball."
Mr. Watts-Dunton has dwelt at much length
upon the fact that the literature of the nine-
teenth century, in its reaction from the didactic
materialism of the eighteenth, is chiefly char-
acterized by a revival of the sense of wonder.
Man is governed by two great impulses, "the
impulse to take unchallenged and for granted all
the phenomena of the outer world as they are,
and the impulse to confront these phenomena
with eyes of inquiry and wonder." Yet the
very century which is thus marked is also the
one in which positive knowledge has made more
gigantic strides than in any century preceding.
So far from deadening the sense of wonder,
this increasing rationalization of the world for
human consciousness has made it ever more
strange in its underlying meaning, and more
pregnant in its spiritual possibilities. This ap-
pears to be a paradox, but it is the expression
of a highly significant truth. Science admits it
in such words as these of Huxley: "Anyone
who is practically acquainted with scientific
work is aware that those who refuse to go be-
yond fact, rarely get as far as fact." "Natural
knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has
found the ideas which can alone still spiritual
cravings." But, as we have already urged,
while science opens new vistas of legitimate
wonder, there is always the danger for undis-
ciplined minds, that they will find in its teach-
ings, imperfectly apprehended, only a new
warrant for straying into the bog of supersti-
tion in pursuit of some will-o'-the-wisp of the
unregulated imagination.
So deep-seated is the irrational instinct in
our imperfectly developed nature, so prone are
the most intelligent of men to abdicate at times
the throne of thought and mingle incognito with
the superstitious populace, that one now and
then almost despairs of the human mind, and
is tempted to give up the strenuous search for
ultimate truth and take refuge in that comfort-
able philosophy which teaches that truth is
whatever men wish to believe and think is good
for them. This sugar-coated gospel of intellec-
tual despair, this specious plea for opportunism
in the management of the intellectual processes,
is just now very much in fashion, but its evasion
of all the difficulties at issue does not exactly
commend it to the entirely serious thinker. It
is discouraging, indeed, to make a list of some
of the men who have most deeply influenced
our modern age, a list including such men as
Carlyle and Buskin and Arnold and Renan and
Tolstoy, men whose nobility of temper com-
mands our respect and even our veneration, and
then ask, with a recent English critic: "Is there
any one of them who has not tried at times to
storm our judgment instead of convincing it, or
has not bewildered our mind by some perversity
or extravagance?"
The critic just quoted is writing about Lord
Morley, who stands in contrast with such men
as have above been named because "he never
leaves us in doubt about his meaning, motive,
or method." And then follows this striking
sentence: "The chief reason why he is a stand-
ard writer is that he is a standard mind, and at
a time when standard minds are rare." Now
the standard mind does not waver before the
gusts of doctrine, because it is convinced of a
fundamental order in the universal structure.
But its abiding belief in such an order serves
only to heighten its sense of wonder as it studies
the workings of the cosmic process. Such a


1908.]
105
THE
DIAL
conviction does not desiccate the mind, but
swells it with the sap of luxuriant growth. It
is Lord Morley who, in the very cause of war-
fare upon superstition, pays tribute to the
"moods of holiness, awe, reverence, and silent
worship of an unseen not made with hands"
which are among the unalienable riches of the
human spirit. The mind that has truly recon-
ciled itself with universal law does not chafe
under the salutary restraint, and the wonders
which it has discarded as childish figments give
place to others, sublimer far, as the imagination
rises to loftier planes. In the new world of
wonder thus revealed there is abundant room
for romance, even if ghosts are banished, and
for a religious faith that needs no miracles as
crutches to support its tottering footsteps, but
that stands erect in its own strength, with shin-
ing eyes directed toward the unseen.
CASUAL COMMENT.
The iniquities of book-publishers form a
theme apparently of perennial charm. Just why
this particular class of business men should be singled
out for wholesale reprobation in the public prints
would be harder to understand were we not to take
into account the nature of their business and the usual
source of the attacks. The production and sale of
books, while essentially a commercial function, is in
a sense a semi-literary one also, and this makes its
doings and methods matters of interest in the literary
world. Then it is an old, old story, that the relation
of publisher and author is one that it is not always
possible to manage sweetly; and when disagreements
come and antagonisms arise, what more natural than
that the author with a grievance, imaginary or real,
should find his handiest and most effective weapon
in his pen? He is, in fact, too handy in its use; he
is often hasty, sometimes angry, and liable to write
not wisely but too well. Such a Boanerges of the
pen has lately appeared in the columns of the once
decorous " Academy " of London, in an article bear-
ing the ingratiating heading, "The Insolent Pub-
lisher." Of course after such a happy beginning we
know at once that all will go affably and well. And
we are not disappointed; the gentleman certainly
has a full pen, and writes up to his heading. To
him, the Publisher (generically speaking; he does n't
bother with him individually) is not only " insolent"
wherever his dealings with authors are concerned, —
he is " a huckster in intellect," "ignorant and puffed
up," "impudent, greedy, vain," as lacking in courtesy
and manners as he is "pusillanimous " and imbecile
in his business methods. He has various other un-
desirable qualities, but the chief and most unendur-
able one is his insuperable insolence. He has " an
insolent view of the public, an insolent and contempt-
uous view of the serious author, and an insolent and
contemptuous view of the whole business of letters";
with the crowning culpability of being "a waddling
mass of insolence." With which unflattering picture
of the lordly British publisher, we leave him to the
mercies of his countrymen and his reckoning with
the Society of Authors. Coming back to our own
land, we find a recent article, very different in sub-
stance as well as in regard for the amenities of civil-
ization, not to say of literature, but containing some
pretty strenuous criticism of book-publishers, in the
pages of "The Atlantic Monthly." This article is
on "Honest Literary Criticism "—something which
it says does not exist in America. This is rightly
regarded as a grave defect; and the charge against
the publishers is a serious one when the author de-
clares that the fault is primarily theirs. This charge,
repeated in many forms, runs through the dozen
pages of the article. This author too has his bogy,
which he tirelessly pursues. Not the publisher in
his capacity of Insolent One, but in that of the Silent
Bargainer, is the object of his attack. "The Silent
Bargain " — something weird and mysterious, like
Lawson's furious one-sided combat with "The Sys-
tem " or Faust's compact with the Devil — is the
device by which American publishers have accom-
plished the wholesale debauchery of American lit-
erary criticism.- This sinister "Silent Bargain" is
made by the book-publisher with the publisher of
book reviews, and consists simply in the use of adver-
tisements as bribes for favorable notices of books.
It is a quiet affair, but business-like and effective:
nothing need really be said, — the understanding is,
"No favorable notices, no advts," and that is all
there is about it. This is the spirit and the practice,
according to this writer, dominating literary criti-
cism in this country. The statements are made in
a large generic sense — like saying that all men are
liars, which even in our blask day is thought too
sweeping, and likely to do injustice to the few pos-
sible exceptions when a comparatively truthful man
is found here and there in the byways and corners
of the land. It may be that the rash Scriptural
generalizer's preliminary utterance -— "I said in my
haste" — could be meditated with profit by this
f roward critic of criticism in America.
• • •
The life of a busy and useful bookman was
that of Mr. A. R. Spofford, which came to an end
last month, after more than fourscore years. Mr.
Spofford began active life, before he was twenty
years old, as a bookseller and publisher in Cincin-
nati; he then spent several years in journalism, in
the same city. His life-work, however, was in the
Congressional Library at Washington, where, as
librarian or assistant, he was in continuous service
for nearly half a century. Mr. Spofford's interest
in books did not concern merely their care and cus-
tody; his knowledge of their contents was prodi-
gious, and covered all subjects and many languages.
If a visitor to the library wished material for a


106
[Sept. 1,
THE
DIAL
speech, an article, a sermon, or a book, Mr. Spofford's
ready hand, guided by his inexhaustible memory,
found at once the desired volume, — if not on the
crowded shelves of the old Congressional Library,
then with equal readiness it was plucked from the
pile upon the floor, the desk, the chair, the table,
wherever it temporarily reposed, in a disorder that
was hopeless to others but never seemed to trouble
him. Sometimes when a book was not in his own
library he would tell at once in what library it could
be found, and even its location — in what particular
stack or alcove, on what shelf, and even what posi-
tion on the shelf; and he was seldom at fault, either
in locating the book or in its proving to be the right
one for the case. But with all his wonderful knowl-
edge of books, there was one kind that he could not
or did not care to understand — account books; and
this defect at one time came very near involving
him in a serious difficulty with the Government.
Mr. Spofford as librarian had charge of fees received
from copyrights entered in his office as required by
law; and when his accounts were audited, in 1895,
it was found that he was $22,000 short. This was
an astounding disclosure — probably to no one more
so than to Mr. Spofford. He had no idea what had
become of the money, and as no one suspected him
of dishonesty his friends made good the shortage and
the Government accepted the settlement. When, a
little later, the library was removed to its new build-
ing, the astonishing discovery was made that the
drawers in Mr. Spofford's desk contained large
amounts of money — bills, money orders, checks —
stuffed away among dusty papers accumulating
during a period of a quarter of a century. He was
allowed to keep the money, which he had already
replaced, but was wisely relieved of further responsi-
bilities of a financial nature. The position of assist-
ant librarian, which he held for the last ten years
of his life, pleased him better, as it enabled him to
give all his time and energies to the kind of books
he really understood — which, as has been said,
included all kinds but account books.
• • •
The advantages of the smaller colleges is
a matter much discussed of late, particularly in
connection with Mr. John Corbin's book, "Which
College for the Boy ?" lately reviewed in our pages.
The interest of the subject may justify a quotation
from a thoughtful and sensible letter that has come
to our notice in a New York journal. "Why these
plaints," asks the writer, " from discouraged mothers
and others about popular education in the East,
when there are a dozen or more colleges whose
doors are open at trifling expense to the ambitious
and industrious student, institutions which offer as
good courses in the classics, modern literature,
mathematics, history and philosophy, as the large
university?" Then follows some not extravagant
praise of the writer's own college, Middlebury, in
Vermont, where his "fees to the college during the
entire four years' course amounted to less than
$50. . . . The great universities have their advan-
tages, and they are open to those who can afford
them. By many, however, the advantages of the
small college, for undergraduate work, are con-
sidered superior, irrespective of expense. Be that
as it may, the small New England college offers to
those of slender purses four years of wholesome,
gladsome life in the country, and a college educa-
tion the worth of which is dependent upon the char-
acter of the student himself." It is the after life
in the great world that tests the worth of the pre-
paratory training, and many useful lives and noble
characters owe much of their foundation to the
smaller but by no means inferior colleges, in the
West as in the East. The "still air of delightful
studies" so dear to Milton is not exactly the prev-
alent ah- at our monster universities, with their
students numbering into the thousands, and their
activities and interests counted by the score or by
the hundred. ...
Free libraries in the Dark Continent are
shooting their radiant beams in an ever-widening
circle. Not that public libraries are yet very plenti-
ful in the Desert of Sahara or in the rubber forests
of the Congo; but in South Africa, within the juris-
diction of Dr. Muir, Superintendent General of Edu-
cation in Cape Colony, there has been a rapid growth
of these institutions within the last fifteen years. The
schoolhouse serves as the natural depository for these
collections of books; the separate library building
will come later. The remarkable growth in this
department of public education is thus reported by
the Superintendent: "In 1892 there were only
twenty-two school libraries in circulation; five years
later there were 123; the following five years saw
the number doubled, and the total of 1902 ( 247)
was trebled by 1907 (733). But the past twelve
months have witnessed the most remarkable headway
of all, for in May, 1908, there were no fewer than
1548 libraries scattered throughout the schools of the
colony. These libraries are somewhat unevenly dis-
tributed among the different school board areas, and
in size they range from the modest bookcase, with
its couple of dozen books, in many a private fartn-
school, to the well-stocked shelves of some of our
colleges, where a couple of thousand volumes are
available. The Cape division is in the proud posi-
tion of having a library for every school, and the
combined collections, if we mistake not, contain some
30,000 books." . . .
The sterility of optimism, so far as the pro-
duction of soul-stirring works of literature is con-
cerned, is touched upon by the London "Nation"
almost at the same time (curiously enough) with
Mr. Charles Leonard Moore's treatment of the
theme in the course of his recent Dial article on
"The Solidarity of Literature." Mr. Moore made
our optimism and lack of depth " largely due to our
material success, and to the fact that we have never
known, as a nation, defeat, despair, and crushing
grief." A remarkable similarity of thought is to be


1908.]
107
THE DIAL
noted in the English writer's article. "What
weighs on our novelists," he declares, "with even
greater pressure [than insincerity in dealing with sex
problems] is the optimistic idealism which has the
greatest aversion for any picture of life that is
sombre, tragic, or even uncompromising. This
mental temper . . . makes directly for lack of depth
in our novelists. . . . Should our national prosperity
have to meet the rude shock of a European war, or
grave peril to any part of the empire, we should
immediately see arrive a far more serious school of
writers to interpret for us the handwriting on our
walls." Illustrations of the quickening influence of
national adversity upon a nation's literature are
spread before us in the history of Italy, of Poland,
of Hungary, — and, prosaically prosperous though
we are, of our own country in its internecine conflict
over slavery. Yet, though we do not deny the soul
of goodness in things evil, and the office of suffer-
ing in revealing life's deeper meanings, it is hard to
believe that misery and anguish and even the dark-
ness of deadly sin constitute the only soil whence
springs the literature of power. "L'Allegro" has
its potent charm no less than "II Penseroso."
• • •
The kindliness of authors has been less
written about than their irritability and bad temper.
Walter Savage Landor's tempestuous outbursts of
passion are more striking than Louise Chandler
Moulton's little unremembered acts of kindness and
of love. The throwing of a dinner service—china,
silverware, viands, tablecloth and all — out of the
window into the garden, is more theatrical than
listening on a bed of pain to a would-be novelist's
reading of his own crude attempts at story-writing;
nevertheless one is glad to preserve the memory of
such unobtrusive services to struggling authors, —
and Mrs. Moulton's life was full of them. As a
sympathetic notice of her death puts it, "she did
not seek requital; she did not demand gratitude;
she asked only opportunity to confer benefits. Her
reward was to be beloved to a degree known to very
few women." She seems to have had no enemies,
impossible though it is often asserted to be to make
warm friends without at the same time creating
enmity in other quarters. Even envy and malice
from her own sex shrank ashamed from attacking
one so eager to turn her own success to the profit
of others. ...
Open or closed shelves for public libraries
is a matter in which a judicious compromise seems
the better plan. Sufficient freedom for practical and
sensible purposes can be given without turning the
public loose in the book-stack, while special permis-
sion for unrestricted freedom can be accorded in
special cases. This plan, already noted by us as in
operation at Peoria, is favored by Mr. Ranck, the
Grand Rapids librarian, whose methods and aims
have occasionally in the past furnished matter for
approving comment in these columns. In his recent
Annual Report he says: "The need of a larger place
in which to keep a well-selected collection of twelve
or fifteen thousand volumes is being felt more and
more every year. A collection of this number of
volumes would answer the needs of perhaps 80 or
90 per cent of the adults who use the Circulation
Department; and to have a relatively small, well-
selected collection of this kind would be of greater
service than to have free access to the whole collec-
tion of the Library's books." The whole collection,
it may be added, is about ninety-three thousand
volumes. . . .
How to enjoy books, though a librarian, is
not an insoluble problem, any more than is " how to
be happy, though married." For the third time in
its more than thirty years' history, the American
Library Association at its late convention devoted
its attention to books rather than to methods of
handling and housing and circulating books. Such
papers as that by Mr. Henry E. Legler, of the
Wisconsin Public Library Commission, on "The
Dear and Dumpy Twelves," and the one by Dr.
Thwaites on "How to Get Parkman Read" —
followed by bright, snappy, two-minute talks on
various noteworthy books — helped to remind the
assembled librarians that literature may serve other
uses besides cataloguing and classifying and shelf-
listing and gum-labelling. Those who (often to their
sorrow) have so much to do with the mere outsides
and perishable materialities of books like now and
then to have it newly impressed upon them that
worth makes the book, the want of it the tiresome
imitation, and the rest is all but leather (or more
often cloth) and laminated wood-pulp.
...
The vogue of devotional hymns, when the
hymns really appeal to the people, is something pass-
ing belief. That the collection of " Gospel Hymns"
bearing the name of Ira D. Sankey, who has re-
cently died, was a popular book, must have been
patent to anyone at all curious in the matter. The
occasion of the hymn-writer's death has brought to
public notice the fact that this work and the same
author's, or more properly compiler's, "Sacred
Songs," "Gospel Choir," and '* Christian Endeavor
Hymn Book " have circulated to the extent of more
than fifty million copies. And yet there are those
who assert that the English and the Americans are
not music-lovers. Perhaps they would even cite the
foregoing in confirmation of their assertion.
...
Base uses of famous houses might furnish a
theme for a long chapter in literary history. The
same wind that wafts to our shores reports of the
saving of Coleridge's house at Nether Stowey, of
Johnson's father's house at Lichfield, of Balzac's
house in the suburbs of Paris, and of other historic
dwellings, brings news of the conversion of Ruskin's
Denmark Hill house at Camberwell, where he wrote
parts of "Modern Painters," into "a boarding-house
for gentlemen." Surely, the irony of fate could no
farther go.


108
[Sept. 1,
THE DIAL
COMMUNICA TIONS
MILTON'S "COMUS" IN WESTERN WOODS.
(To the Editor of Thb Dial.)
The writer thinks it but a simple act of justice, as
well as a matter of interest to your readers, to make
some mention in your columns of a literary event of such
merit and distinction as the recent open-air perform-
ances of Milton's " Comus " by the Donald Robertson
Company at Ravinia Park. It is not often that those
who care for the greatest poetry are offered such an
opportunity of high enjoyment. It must be admitted,
first of all, that there were serious flaws in at least the
rendering seen by the present writer. The worst of
these were a number of most regrettable lapses of
memory, by most of the actors, in the delivery of the
lines, every syllable of which is sacred to the lover
of poetry. Then, the parts of the two Brothers were
very inadequately conceived, and distinctly below the
level of the other acting. Again, one could have dis-
pensed with some part of the uproar, especially that of
the dancing village swains, which too closely recalled
that of Comus's crew, but lately subsided.
But one is glad to have done with these obvious
criticisms, and go on to the grateful task of trying to
express something of the delight which the masque
awakened. Turf and trees and moonlight contributed
their gentle influences; but the charm, the real poetic
atmosphere, emanated from the actors who so fully
entered into the power and beauty of the verse. Of
course the recitation of lines so complex, with inversions
and word-uses so remote from the familiar, is one of
the difficulties of the piece, increased by the conditions
of delivery in the open air. Another is the great length
of the speeches; while of course not all minds can be
moved by the lofty thoughts which inspired Milton in
the composition. But these obstacles seemed, for the
most part, to lend wings to the imaginations of Mr.
Robertson and his chief players. Miss Marion Redlich
as the Attendant Spirit, and Thyrsis, Miss John as the
Lady, and Mr. Robertson as Comus, were more than
satisfying; they really inspired. They delivered the
great verse with a fitting sense of its meaning and
beauty; they succeeded in creating a genuine poetic
illusion; they brought out to the full the deep spiritual
force of the piece. Miss Redlich brought to the part
of the Spirit a high sweetness and earnestness which
made the shepherd disguise ever transparent, and
opened and closed the action with a worthy music.
Mr. Robertson's Comus well expressed Milton's con-
ception,— a being rooted in sensual evil, yet intelleotual
enough to play the philosopher and to find the best part
of the game in the enslavement of others; high enough,
also, to feel the moral beauty of the Lady, and to quail
and suffer before its light. The beautiful imaginative
poetry of the lines received from Mr. Robertson a treat-
ment truly sympathetic.
Of Miss Alice John as the Lady one hardly knows how
to speak without seeming extravagance. The nobility
of her conception of the part was assisted by her per-
sonal graces, her nobility of head and form and bearing.
Simplicity was rightly the key-note of all. Milton's
own Lady was a gentlewoman, acting a heightened and
transfigured version of an experience of her own, made
lastingly beautiful by the utmost art of a great poet.
As such a gentlewoman, under such conditions, appeared
Miss John. Nothing there was of the cheap or mere-
trioious, nothing of the trivial twang of the stage. At her
first appearance, lost in the benighted wood, a girl's fright
and weakness were expressed as simply but convinc-
ingly as Madame Modjeska used, on her first entrance
in " Twelfth Night," to put before us the sufferings and
weariness of the shipwrecked Viola. But her womanly
strength shines out when, in her perplexity, she resolves
to have faith, to trust the promised protection of Comus;
and its clear unquenchable light beams still but radiant
throughout the temptation scene. Miss John's work is
too quiet, with the quietness of strength, fine and true,
to catch the applause of those whom only contortion and
violence can move; but all who care for the deep beauty
of this scene must find satisfying food for thought in
her rendering of it, — her calm reliance, amid the obvi-
ous bewilderment of sense, on an inward strength; her
expression of profound, still passion of the soul, which
leaves the mind all clear to refute the wily sophistry of
the false god.
The delicious song and dancing of the nymph Sabrina
(Georgie Kennicott) in her rush-and-lily adorned dress,
with water-sprites attending, delightfully closed the main
action of the piece, whose incidental music, it must be
added, U as charming as Milton's praises would lead us
to fancy.
Milton's genius was not dramatic, and a masque is
not a play. The interplay of action and emotions on
individuals is not the interest to seek in such a com-
position, which is to the full drama somewhat as early
Tuscan bas-relief to sculpture in the round. The Comus
indeed "masks " in the guise of persons high thoughts
and the passion of Milton's philosophic youth. To suc-
ceed, as these actors have done, in making poetry so
lofty and so exquisite live and take shape, is a high
achievement. Marian Mead.
Chicago, August 17, 190S.
A CORRECTION FROM CAPTAIN AMUNDSEN.
(To the Editor of The Dial.)
In connection with your review of Captain Amund-
sen's book, "The North-West Passage," in The Dial
of August 16, we note in the last paragraph that your
reviewer points out some inaccuracies in the text, namely,
first of all that the "Gjoa " is made to sail through
Bellot, while the context and map show that it passed by
it. We have the following letter from Captain Amundsen
on this matter — and it seems only fair to him that some
acknowledgement should be made, as the error seems
to be due entirely to the translator.
"The editor of The Athenaeum sends me this morning his
journal of the 11th July with a notice concerning my book,
in which he tells me that I have been wrong in some names
when I say that I passed 'through Bellot Strait.' I have
now been looking to this, and find that there hag been an
error in the translation of my book, which please state as
follows. In the original text, p. 44,1 say, in speaking about
the Bellot Strait: 'Kl. 8 om morgenen passerte vi San
straedet,' which has been translated by you: 'At 8 A. M. we
passed through the strait;' but ought to have been, 'At
8 A. M. we passed the strait,' not through. It is a very bad
mistake, which ought to be rectified as the difference is a
very great one to everybody who studies the geography of
the book."
In justice to Captain Amundsen, we hope you will
give space to this letter. E p ddxton & Co.
New York, August US, 1908.


1908.]
109
THE DIAL
An Experiment in Art Education.*
That Professor Sir Hubert von Herkomer,
eminent artist and art teacher, and for nine years
Slade Professor of the Fine Arts at Oxford, oc-
cupying there the chair recently left vacant by
Ruskin, should have pronounced and original
views on the subject of art education, is only
what one would expect and desire. His book,
"My School and My Gospel," describing his
twenty-one years' experiment in art education
at Bushey, is a sort of apologia pro arte sua,
and, as such, is not wanting in that personal and
distinctive element that seldom fails to impart
interest and reality to the narrative in which it
is present.
It was in 1883 that the Bushey school, des-
tined to become rather famous in the world of
art, opened its doors to some twenty-five pupils
of both sexes, the only requirement for entrance
being "a head from life, drawn in charcoal,"
and the tuition fees being nothing whatever.
The enterprise was purely a labor of love. Its
author had " made his career," as he expresses
it, and he wished to put to a practical test
certain pet theories of his own in art education.
Under such conditions, the school was Professor
Herkomer, and Professor Herkomer was the
school. Of the first beginnings he writes:
"We were making a school under conditions never
perhaps before attempted —- a school of art in a village.
It was all an experiment, and no master in the world
could have made it a success without the full-hearted
and enthusiastic co-operation of the students. It was
my good fortune to have the right material at the be-
ginning, which was all-important for such a novel
undertaking. An art atmosphere had to be created,
and nobody, who has not tried to make a special atmo-
sphere of this kind, can know what the task entails."
The effect of the school on the sleepy little
village was interesting: the atmosphere created
by master and pupils seems to have pervaded
the primitive hamlet, to some extent, and to
have caused a desire in those breathing it for
some of the refinements and luxuries of modern
life which they had hardly given a thought to
before. A few words now on the peculiar doc-
trine taught at Bushey. The author tells an
anecdote of a famous painter who, every day,
before putting brush to canvas, knelt down and
prayed fervently to be protected from his model.
In much the same way the Bushey art students
seem to have been taught to pray for protection
• My School and My Gospel. By Professor Sir Hubert von
Herkomer. C.V.O.. R.A.. D.C.L., etc. Illustrated. New York:
Doubleday, Page & Co.
from their master. The personality of each
pupil, his idiosyncrasy even, the distinctive
quality of his work, was what the teacher tried
to reach and devolop.
"The result of this method of teaching has been that
the world cannot recognise my pupils in their works,
and it will probably be said that I left no < school' behind
me. But I never could understand the advantage of
squeezing the supple mind of a young painter into a
master's manner, from which he may never wholly extri-
cate himself. It was the word 'quality' that most puz-
zled and baffled the students; the weaker thought it was
something / wanted, and did not realize that it was an
essential part of good art. The word was on every lip;
it was heard in the street of sleepy Bushey; it was heard
in the social gatherings of the students; it was the last
thought of the student when he went to bed, and the first
when he got up. This question of quality certainly was
the most difficult thing to get them to understand. How
thankful I was when at last I could point to a particular
part in a study that had attained the desired quality; and
how bitterly disappointed I felt when I saw it slip away
again, sometimes to return no more."
Elsewhere in the book he says: "I made the
very foundation of my teaching 'the awakening
in the student of the sensitiveness to painter-like
qualities,' and the discovery of individual bent.
By this method it was interesting to note how
every successful student produced a different
kind of quality and brush work, clearly proving
that the insistence on that phase in the technique
in no way interfered with the development of his
own personal idiosyncrasy." In this teacher's
system, care was taken that theory should follow
and not precede practice. "The student must
4 build up,' as it were, on himself first; he must
make some edifice in which to house the wider
and immovable principles that underlie all mon-
umental art. No master can be the builder of
that edifice." It was another marked feature of
Professor Herkomer's system to give personal
advice and assistance to his pupils after they left
his school and launched out for themselves.
Their emancipation, wisely or not, was made
gradual. They took studios in the village, under
the master's eye, and were encouraged to consult
him freely. Thus the abruptness of passage
from the life class to the painting of portraits
professionally, or the execution of other inde-
pendent work, was modified for them, greatly to
their advantage if we may credit their teacher.
The discontinuance of Professor Herkomer's
teaching, after twenty-one years of signal suc-
cess, and the closing of the Bushey school prob-
ably forever, were due to something like an
accident—some legal difficulty concerning build-
ings and grounds. On such slight events do the
destinies of empires and of art schools depend.
But those were crowded years of glorious life for


110
[Sept. 1,
THE DIAL
the founder and head of the school. What he tells
us incidentally of the by-producte of his own and
his pupils' industry — the mezzotint engraving,
the music-composing, the play-writing and play-
acting and scene-painting, the school-magazine
writing and editing, and other pursuits congenial
to artists — makes it plain that a full and busy
and sanely enjoyable life was lived at Bushey in
those days. Considerable space and a number
of illustrations are devoted to the highly success-
ful and somewhat famous dramatic performances
given in the master's private theatre at Bushey
and attended by celebrities from the great world
outside — all, of course, untainted by the slight-
est suggestion of commercialism or professional-
ism or of anything but the pure love of art. An
excellent story is told of an outsider's attempt to
turn to personal profit a charity performance of
the Herkomer company by buying up all the
tickets in advance and advertising them for sale
at double the price paid. But the artist theatre-
manager turned the tables on the speculator by
immediately advertising two additional charily
performances of the same play, with tickets at the
old price. The mortifying and pecuniarily dis-
astrous result to the speculator can be imagined.
Of this portion of his life, when manifold
interests and occupations were crowding every
waking hour and not a few that should have
been given to sleep, the author, who confesses
himself to have been ever a glutton for work,
says:
"This was the period of my life when the work I
imposed upon myself was so excessive that even greed
could ask for no more. I worked at my portraits
and subject-pictures, and I did etching as usual, con-
sidering these to be my first duty. But to this all-
sufficient labour must be added the designing of details
for my house, which was in course of erection; the
preparation of lectures for Oxford, where I held the
Slade Professorship; the uninterrupted attendance at
my school; the building-up of a stage-picture for the
play; the writing of music for the same; the irritating
work of correcting the copied parts for the orchestra;
and, finally, the most severe strain of all on the nerves
— the rehearsing of a new play. I leave it to the reader
to judge if this was a normal state of things. Yet dur-
ing these months of excitement I was in good health,
and retired to bed long after midnight without any
feeling of fatigue. I had no assistance from stimulants,
as I was a water-drinker and a non-smoker. But it was
the result of the domination of mind over body for
the time being — a condition, however, that could not
last. Nor did it; for I have since paid the price for
that pleasure-period in long years of bad health."
In the course of his narrative the author takes
occasion to illustrate his theory of personality in
art by an apt quotation from Mark Twain.
"But methods of work are as various as are the
temperaments of human beings. The mystery of tem-
perament — or call it a 1 person's nature' — is interpreted
by that master, Mark Twain, thus: 'Through all this
steady drift of evolution the essential detail, the com-
manding detail, the master detail of the make-up re-
mains as it was in the beginning, suffers no change and
'can suffer none; the basis of the character, the temper-
ament, the disposition, that indestructible iron frame-
work upon which the character is built, and whose shape
it must take, and keep throughout life. We call it a
person's nature.'"
The rich and varied experience of the author,
who was, with his other tastes and gifts, some-
thing of a psychologist, gives meaning and value
to the following reflection:
"In my readings of psycho-physiological works, I
have not yet found an explanation of that mysterious
cerebral condition, when a man suddenly feels he is ripe
for a certain mental action. A stray word from another
person may effect the ignition in the brain, and cause all
the faculties required for that mental action to spring
into life. It was ever so with me. A word from a col-
league started my etching period; a word pointed to, and
set me on to, enamelling; a word (and that from my
eldest son, when he was only a Harrow boy) proclaimed
the moment for the theatrical venture; even this book
is the outcome of a word from a literary friend."
And the "literary friend" deserves our
thanks. The story is told in a clear, rapid
style, enlivened by frequent touches of humor,
and, with all its fine and high idealism, exhibit-
ing a keen, practical common sense and a know-
ledge of the world and its human inhabitants
that not all devotees of art are noted for possess-
ing. There is something, too, of the sixteenth-
century Italian craftsman's resource and ver-
satility in Sir Hubert von Herkomer. Born in
Florence three centuries earlier, he might have
been a second Benvenuto Cellini. He has cer-
tainly proved his ability to write an autobio-
graphic narrative not less interesting in its way
than Cellini's. The illustrations, mostly by the
author or his pupils, are many and full of char-
acter. The volume is handsome, even luxurious,
in its style. Percy F. Bicknell.
The Re-writing of American History.*
It sometimes happens that a historical writer
lives to find that his efforts have influenced the
general view of the period or person about whom
he writes; but not so frequently does an author
announce his intention of reconstructing public
opinion about a period of history so hackneyed
as is the American Revolution. Mr. Sidney
George Fisher, a member of the Philadelphia
bar, who has hitherto set several lances against
* The Struggle for Amekican Independence. In two
volumes. By Sidney George Fisher. Philadelphia: J. B. Lip.
pincott Co.


1908.]
ill
THE
DIAL
accepted opinions in his various "true" con-
tributions to American history, now devotes
himself to the task of amending all existing his-
tories of the Revolution, which are " able theat-
rical efforts, enlarged Fourth of July orations,
or pleasing literary essays on selected phases of
the contest."
Assuming that "no complete history of it
[the struggle for Independence] has ever been
written upon the plan of dealing frankly with
all the contemporary evidence and withholding
nothing of importance that is found in the
original records," and that some of the most
important factors in the struggle "have always
been left to persons who were unable or unwil-
ling to reveal them," the author proceeds to lift
the veil upon the hitherto obscure position of the
Loyalists and their conflict with the Patriots,
the war made by the latter upon the former,
the controversy caused by Howe's manner of
carrying out his instructions, and the Clinton-
Cornwallis controversy.
He also finds no intelligent history of the
various Navigation acts, the Smuggling acts,
and the Writs of Assistance, — whether the
writs ceased after American resistance, or were
continued in the other colonies. The effect of
the revolt on British colonial policy he finds in-
adequately treated, as also the lessons learned
by the mother country. The Tory party has
hitherto been pictured as an angel of darkness,
and the Whig as an angel of light. No historian
has described the twelve or thirteen acts which
the colonists wished repealed, the conciliatory
measures advanced by Britain, and her " gentle
and mild efforts " to persuade the Americans to
remain in the empire. While " Bancroft's labo-
rious pages and Hildreth's colorless chronicle"
are illuminated by "a very few citations, and
these rather unimportant," Fiske's "beautifully
written" books are devoid of these aids to the
reader in weighing the evidence submitted. Ar-
raigning existing histories of the Revolution as
"written for profit, ignoring the sources, with-
holding evidence," and ignoring the fact that the
revolt was the result of a "long uncertain strug-
gle between the two opposing forces of colonial
empire and separate independence " still existent,
the author defines his "true " historical series,
of which this volume is to be a part, as an effort
to lead the reader back to the documentary evi-
dence which constitutes the truth, so that the
rising generation may learn to admire truth
more than popular and clever generalizations.
Agreeable to these claims and this announce-
ment, the reader naturally looks in Mr. Fisher's
pages for much new evidence, and expects to
see many new sources there revealed. In this,
however, he is likely to be disappointed. A
glance through the footnotes shows constant
repetition of use of the American Archives, the
Annual Register, and the Journal of the Con-
tinental Congress; of the works of Hutchinson,
Niles, Stedman, Elliot, Jones, Drake, and the
plagiaristic Gordon; and also the writings of
Washington, the Adamses, Reed, and others —
sources used by every writer upon the period.
Apparently the novelty of sources must lie in
the contemporary pamphlets, which have been
freely consulted and often with excellent effect.
Notwithstanding the avowed intention of the
author to revise accepted history, the reader
finds that in but few instances is there a depart-
ure from accepted opinions. Even the varia-
tions are statements of the view of the author
rather than the discovery of some hitherto
unused authority. To illustrate: instead of
treating the Boston Tea Party as a spontaneous
outbreak of some turbulent young-bloods of the
lower social class, or a desperate effort on the
part of the patriot leaders to prevent the tea
being landed and confiscated at the expiration
of twenty days, the author pronounces it a delib-
erate attempt of the radicals of Boston, incited
by messages from Philadelphia (!), to precipi-
tate "an outbreak which would commit the
party all over the country to a more violent and
radical position."
The narrative opens with a description of the
Navigation acts, prefaced by a chapter on the
growth of free thought and movement after
the Reformation, and closes with the disbanding
of the American forces after the Revolutionary
War. An added chapter discusses one of the
points claimed to have been omitted by prior
writers. In it the author finds that England
retrieved commercially the loss of the thirteen
American colonies by the conquest of rich
India, but that she has not in the further ex-
tension of her colonial system ameliorated the
conditions which caused the American colonies
to revolt. All her colonists are still " political
slaves."
Descriptions of campaigns fill most of the two
volumes, discovering little in novelty of state-
ment or setting, but giving more than the
accustomed space to incidents of the by-wars
of England with France, Spain, and Holland.
Balance and proportion are well preserved,
except where local interest is permitted to pre-
dominate, as in giving an entire chapter to the
mediaeval tourney held by the British officers in


112
[Sept. 1,
THE
DIAL
Philadelphia as a farewell to Lord Howe. The
verdict of the public will probably be that the
author has scarcely met the standard of novelty
announced in his preface; that his " true " his-
tory of the American Revolution does not differ
in large degree from those heretofore written;
but that he has produced two interesting volumes
on the subject which will be found attractive by
the growing constituency of American historical
muiers- Edwin Erle Sparks.
Two Famous Flemish Painters.*
Mr. Weale's sumptuous volume on the two
famous Flemish painters, the brothers Van Eyck,
is remarkable chiefly for its artistic rather than
its literary features. The author, indeed, makes
no pretension to literary skill; he does claim,
however, that he has had access to all existing
sources of information, and has been able to
obtain reproductions of nearly all the paintings
of the Flemish brothers, some of which are here
published for the first time.
Upon its artistic side the book is a notable
contribution to the art works of recent years.
The illustrations are mostly photogravures that
are rarely beautiful examples of this art, and
are of great interest and value both to the stu-
dent and the lover of pictures. They are so
accurate as to bring the true spirit of the painters'
work before one, and it almost seems at times
as if they even suggested the brilliant color for
which the Van Eycks were so justly celebrated.
It is rare indeed to find a work of art so pro-
fusely and conscientiously illustrated, and in
such a thoroughly artistic way. The reproduc-
tion of the central part of the Adoration of the
Lamb is quite a marvel of photographic work,
and the same may be said of many others of the
illustrations, especially the portraits. Some of
these are wonderful in conveying the intense
vitality and strength which pervade the por-
trait work of Jan Van Eyck.
The author is known as an authority on the
art of the Netherlands, and his work embodies
the results of long and patient research. It
contains practically all that is known of the
lives and works of these famous Flemish artists.
This is not so very much, with all his pains-
taking; and the biographical part of the book
is necessarily brief. Of the life of Hubert, the
elder brother, nothing is known of the earlier
•HtJBBKT and Jan Van Eyok: Their Life and Work. By
W. H. James Weale. Illustrated in photogravure, etc. New
York: John Lane Co.
years, and as to his later years there is but
scant information. The last nineteen years of
Jan's life can be fairly well traced, although in
outline chiefly.
These two men have undoubtedly had a very
great influence upon the art of oil painting;
indeed many people still believe that they were
the originators of this branch of art. It is
true that the works of the Van Eycks were of
very early date, for Hubert is supposed to have
been born about 1365, and Jan about 1385;
but oil painting had been known long before
that time. What they really did invent was a
new method of using oil in painting. They
superimposed wet color upon wet color, which
had not been done before, and thus achieved a
brilliancy and luminousness so remarkable that
it is not strange people thought their way of
painting an entirely new thing in the world of
art. This wonderful luminous brilliance re-
mains in their pictures to-day, a most eloquent
testimony to their consummate skill in using
this artistic medium, the real power of which
had been perceived by them for the first time
in the history of painting.
Some of the greatest painters of that early
time must have been much influenced by the
work of the Van Eycks. Leonardo da Vinci
was born in 1452, just eleven years after the
death of Jan Van Eyck. Holbein was born in
1497, more than fifty years after Jan's death.
There can be no question that Holbein's work
was greatly stimulated by that of the Van Eycks,
for many of his portraits are almost exactly in
their manner. In the work of Leonardo thiB
influence is not so strongly to be felt, but there
are traces of it even with him. In fact, it may
truly be said that there is no painter in oil who
does not owe something to these wonderful men.
Of this branch of his subject, Mr. Weale,
strangely enough, has nothing to say. He does
not deal with art criticism or art history to any
great extent; but he does refer one to the books
where these matters may be found. More im-
portant still, he gives a series of reproductions,
most admirably done and most carefully and
minutely described, whereby it is made possible
to judge for oneself of the power and value of the
artists' works. By these reproductions, and the
author's very remarkable descriptions of them,
one is put in touch with the real spirit and
method of the Flemish brothers. Their master-
piece is the "Adoration of the Lamb," which
was painted for the Cathedral of Ghent, having
been given to that church by Judoc Vyt and
Elizabeth Borluit his wife, whose portraits ap-


1908.]
113
THE
DIAL
pear in two of the panels. It is not known
how much of this picture was painted by Hubert
and how much by Jan, but it is certain that the
two brothers were quite alike in their spirit and
in their method in painting it. The spirit was
that of true piety; the method embodied an art
in painting higher than had ever been known
before. Brilliance of color, minuteness in de-
tail, and skill in perspective far beyond previous
knowledge, characterize this work so far as the
technical part of it is concerned. There are
grievous faults in drawing, and even in per-
spective; but in color it is a wonder and delight.
The picture is somewhat panoramic in character,
as it attempts the representation of many saints
and groups of holy people quite impossible to be
really united in one composition; but there is
one clear point of unity, and that is the pure
religious spirit that pervades the work. There
are processions of warriors and saints and her-
mits and angels, and there are many scenes from
the Bible story from Genesis to Revelation.
As a background for all these things are mar-
vellously painted landscapes, with walled towns
and towers, rivers, bridges, trees, and meadows,
painted with utmost fidelity, though almost in
miniature, yet a lovely background nevertheless,
and in themselves quite exquisite. The picture
is almost a history of religion, and it certainly is
one of the earliest and truest revelations of the
art of oil painting.
There are other religious pictures of great
value and beauty, especially some of the Ma-
donna and Child. It is in these, and in the
portraits, that the influence of the Van Eycks
upon Holbein can be easily traced. The draw-
ing of the child in the Holbein Madonna at
Dresden is almost identical with Jan VanEyck's
representation of the Christ in His Mother's
arms. There is, however, a beautiful story
about Holbein's Madonna, telling that she is
not holding the Christ Child in her arms, but a
sick child brought to her for healing, while the
Christ Child stands at her feet. This is prob-
ably the truth about Holbein's wonderful Ma-
donna; but it is nevertheless true that the
drawing of the child in the Madonna's arms
might almost have been copied from one of Jan
Van Eyck's pictures.
In the portraits of Jan Van Eyck the resem-
blance to Holbein is still more evident. Really,
both masters adopted the same method. There
is an amount of minute detail so marvellously
wrought out by both these painters that it
seems almost impossible that a broad and strong
effect should be produced. Yet it is produced,
and the portraits stand out with a vividness that
tells not only of the man's character but throws
light upon the history of his time. Such tell-
ing of history in portraiture means genius. It
was this that Velasquez and Rembrandt did;
nor has anyone ever surpassed their work. But
Holbein and Jan Van Eyck are not far behind
in portraiture, though they worked so many
years before the other great masters who fol-
lowed in their footsteps, at least to a certain
extent.
It seems that the elder of the Van Eyck
brothers dealt little with portrait painting. It
was Jan who painted the great portraits, and
his fame must rest upon these even more than
upon the religious pictures, because of their
wonderful fidelity and truth to nature, which
the subject itself often forbids in pictures of
Madonnas and Saints. There is a richness of
color and a tenderness of thought in these old
Flemish painters that lingers about their works
like a sweet fragrance as of rose-leaves in an
ancient vase. This peculiar quality is quite dis-
tinctive of the Van Eycks, and will remain their
own so long as pictures exist.
Walter Cranston Larned.
Two Recent Books on Spain.*
Perhaps no country of Europe has suffered
so much as Spain from the delineations of
travellers who have returned to write and print
their more or less hysterical impressions of the
land of the guitar and the Castanet. It is the
more refreshing, therefore, to find two serious
and sympathetic studies of that country and its
people, by writers, both Englishmen, who have
been familiar with their ground for a quarter
of a century. Both, it is true, are re-working
old material, although they now present it in
new and ampler form. Both hesitate, as well
they may, to recommend Spain to the ordinary
tourist. One of them, Mr. Havelock Ellis,
writes in the preface to his book on "The Soul
of Spain":
"Spain is not an easy land to comprehend, even for
intelligent visitors; and taken as a whole, it is by no
means a land for those who attach primary importance
to comfort and facile enjoyment. . . . She is interesting
and instructive, in the highest degree fascinating for
those who can learn to comprehend her, but these must
always, I think, be comparatively few. For these few,
however, the fascination is permanent and irresistible.
It is a fascination not hard to justify."
•The Sol i, of Spain. By Havelock Ellis. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co.
In Spain. By John Lomas. New York: The Macmillan Co.


114
[Sept. 1,
THE
DIAL
Mr. Ellis's book is an attempt to interpret
the genius of the Spanish people, as it is re-
vealed in history, in religion, in literature, and
in daily life. There is no descriptive writing,
no record of personal experience, no discussion
of political, industrial, or commercial conditions,
but a thoughtful analysis of the "essential
Spain," which, he says,—
"Represents the supreme manifestation of a certain
primitive and eternal attitude of the human spirit, an
attitude of heroic energy, of spiritual exaltation, directed
not chiefly toward comfort or gain, hut toward the more
fundamental facts of human existence."
There is perhaps little that is new in the book,
yet the discussion, being philosophical and sug-
gestive, forms interesting reading. The follow-
ing sentence illustrates the general content as
well as the style of composition.
"The people of Spain — still sound at the core, and
with a vigour of spirit which has enabled them to win
strength even out of defeat — showed at one period at
least in their history, from the conquest of Toledo to
the conquest of Seville, an incomparable strength, free-
dom, and vitality; even later, Spain still had the energy
to find and to colonise the other hemisphere of the globe;
and later still, to bring spiritual achievements of im-
mortal value to the treasure-house of humanity; while
the forceful and plastic genius of Spain has moulded
one of the strongest and most beautiful forms of human
speech and one of the most widely diffused."
Throughout his study of Spanish traits and
temperament, Mr. Ellis finds much African
influence. He sees everywhere the underlying
characteristics of the primitive savage — the
word to be used in its larger sense. Thus, the
simplicity, intensity of feeling, and love of idle-
ness of the Spaniard, coupled with his aptitude
for violent action, his austerity, his stoicism, his
indifference to pain, as well as his delight in
form and ceremony, are all manifestations of the
aboriginal spirit. A general survey of Spanish
life to-day and in the past shows that the ideals
of valor and of heroism, the point of honor,
the pride of the beggar, ceremonialism, mili-
tarianism, the Inquisition, the bull-fight, the
Dominican order, the Cid, Loyola, Cervantes,—
indeed, nearly every characteristic usually sup-
posed to be Spanish, as well as the principal
institutions and personages of Spain, have
their fountain-head in the elemental aborigine.
Whether this is our old friend Probably Ar-
boreal, or not, is unstated.
The Spanish woman receives kindly treat-
ment in Mr. Ellis's hands. He studies her ana-
tomically and otherwise with painstaking care.
Full consideration is given to the pigmentation
of her eye, the texture of her skin, her hair,
hands, feet, bust, and hips, without omitting the
length of her skull or the peculiar curve of her
spine. Her dash of eastern blood is responsible
for the calm steadiness of her eye, as well as for
the muscular control of her face which renders
it a living shield. And this explains what has
always been a mystery to us of northern race, her
seeming composure under the blazing mirada
or "long gaze" of the courteous Spaniard.
The Spanish woman has reached high eminence
in literature, in war, in movements for social
reform, and even in the bull-ring. She may be
unable, it is true, to read or to write.
"But there is perhaps no European country where
one realizes so clearly how little this really means. A
Spanish woman of the people, who finds it a laborious
task to write her own name, may yet show the finest tact
and knowledge in all the essential matters of living."
Mr. Ellis finds the women of present-day
Spain superior to the men, both physically and
intellectually. Far be it from the reviewer to
take issue with this conclusion, yet he cannot
quite follow the author's reasoning when he
accounts for this phenomenon by the sad deple-
tion of Spanish manhood through wars, the
Inquisition, and emigration to the New World.
"We might explain the fine qualities of Spanish women
to-day by supposing that, while the stocks that especially
tend to produce fine men have been largely killed out,
the stocks that tend to produce fine women have not
been subjected to this process."
Just what kind of stock it is that produces fine
women while leaving their brothers weak, the
author does not say.
Looking at the country as a whole, Mr. Ellis
notes remarkable progress in cities and towns
during the last two decades. Spain even stands
ahead of most European states in the application
of electricity. Discontent with the old order
and zeal for the new have resulted, however, in
the loss of many picturesque features which
heretofore have constituted Spain's charm for
the foreign visitor. There is no complaint at
the betterment of hotels, the improvements in
sanitation, or the increased facilities for travel;
but there is genuine regret at seeing fine old
churches used as convenient attachments for
electric wires, and the talking-machine, or
cinematograph, replacing the guitar and the
malaguena.
That there is also a certain moral awaken-
ing in Spain is shown by the recent movement
to eliminate the most objectionable features
of the bull-fight. This has been approved by
prominent espadas — Mr. Ellis calls them
"toreadors."
It may surprise Americans to read that our
war with Spain and her consequent disburden-


1908.]
115
THE
DIAL
ment of Cuba and the Philippines are the
cause of much of her later development. In
the author's words:
"The war has been beneficial [to Spain] in at least
two different ways. It has had a healthy economical
influence, because, besides directing the manhood of
Spain into sober industrial channels, it has led to the
removal of artificial restrictions in the path of com-
mercial activity. It has been advantageous morally,
because it has forced even the most narrow and ignorant
Spaniard to face the actual facts of the modern world."
The Introduction to "The Soul of Spain,"
together with the chapters on "The Spanish
People," " The Women of Spain," and " Spanish
Ideals of To-day," contain all the matter that
properly falls under the title of the book.
The chapters treating of Seville, Don Quixote,
Valera, Ramon Lull, and other disconnected
subjects, are evident padding. Much of the
matter has appeared previously in reviews and
magazines.
While Mr. Ellis's book is useful for the
library, Mr. Lomas's, as its title " In Spain"
might imply, is serviceable on the spot. With
true English assurance, the author expresses the
belief that the traveller " may take it in his hand
as his sole guide and counsellor, and find in it
all the information, other than that of local and
ever-varying character, which he will need in his
journeyings." The work is, indeed, a revised,
re-written, and enlarged edition of the author's
"Sketches in Spain," published in 1884. It is
a fine book mechanically, containing a good fold-
ing map and fifty excellent mostly new full-page
photographs. The showy red cover is stamped
with the arms of Spain in Spanish yellow.
The style of writing is uninspired, to say the
least; while the great mass of detailed informa-
tion, the result of careful observation and con-
scientious record, produces a guide-book effect
which is not attractive to the general reader. It
is really a guide-book—a sort of Baedeker, with
light clothes covering the dry bones of that pro-
saic but useful work. Mr. Lomas tells us the
proper train to take, where to obtain the best view,
what to visit, and when. He names the pictures,
describes the chapels, altars, pulpits, and tombs,
and points out which window to study. To
many there will seem to be an overweight of
ecclesiastical architecture; for if the churches
were omitted, the book would probably be re-
duced a third in size. Although the principal
Spanish paintings are designated, the criticism
of them is too general and too fragmentary to
be valuable or satisfying.
The chapters are arranged in the form of an
itinerary, beginning at Irun, proceeding south-
ward by way of Burgos, Valladolid, and Sala-
manca, to Madrid, thence through the cities of
Andalucia to Gibraltar, and back by Granada
and the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona.
Northern Spain is then crossed, visiting the
principal towns to Vigo, where the trip ends.
This tour occupies about six months, starting at
the close of October, wandering through the
south in the winter months, taking the Mediter-
ranean in early spring, and sailing away before
hot weather begins. It is a long trip, yet not
a leisurely one. Let no man imagine, if he goes
with Mr. Lomas, that he is to sit at little cafe
tables and watch the life drift lazily by. Every
day is a busy day, although perhaps not a hard
one. The traditional hardships of Spanish travel
are thus dismissed:
"Every needful comfort, and, indeed, not a little
luxury and up-to-date fruits of science, will be met with;
and if, here and there, something be lacking, there will
be shown such an amount of goodwill and helpfulness,
such honesty and laborious striving to make up for de-
fects, that the want will call only for a laugh."
Like most writers on Spain, Mr. Lomas has
not been able to refrain from depicting a bull-
fight, although he is mercifully brief, remember-
ing possibly that we have heard it all many
times before. We find nothing new in his ac-
count except the novel statements that chulos
carry " red flags," and that the matador uses a
"short Toledo blade."
In common with Mr. Ellis, the author per-
ceives a great advancement in Spain during the
last twenty-five years. He says:
"It has become possible to pass and to uphold laws
ensuring security of life and property. The almost un-
unrivalled natural resources of the country are being
rapidly developed; liberal institutions are being set on
foot; the national indebtedness has shrunk into manage-
able proportions, and the foreign creditor is content.
Notable efforts are being made to free the land from
the tyranny of priestcraft."
Both of these volumes are substantial addi-
tions to our rapidly growing stock of books
descriptive of this interesting country. "The
Soul of Spain " will be enjoyed at home by the
man who is interested in the history and psy-
chology of nations, even though he may not
subscribe to the savage or superiority-of-woman
theories. "In Spain" will be most helpful to
the traveller, and more especially to the anti-
quarian or the ecclesiologist. Neither book has
any special message for the idle or purposeless
traveller. Not much consideration can be shown
the " nimble tourist" by men who devote a week
to Toledo. George Griffin Brownell.


116
[Sept. 1,
THE DIAL
The Development of English
Tragedy.*
In tracing the course and development of
English tragedy, Professor Thorndike first ex-
plains the meaning and scope of the term, and
of the two principal ideas — the Senecan and
the Mediaeval — which enter into it. He then
shows how these two elements fused in early
English tragedy, and how the resultant English
form developed and reached its height in the
hands of Marlowe and Shakespeare; how the
evolution proceeded, under the less wholesome
conditions of English life in the times of
James I. and Charles L, in the work of the
later Elizabethans and especially Beaumont
and Fletcher; how this somewhat hectic and
unwholesome English literary tradition, as it
existed at the closing of the theatres in 1642,
was carried on at the Restoration; how French
pseudo-classic influence steadily worked upon
this English tradition for a century, — the con-
flict between pure English tragical tradition and
the pseudo-classic being shown in the work
of Dryden, Lee. and others, — until out of the
two was established a highly conventionalized
stereotyped form which was the recognized
legitimate tragedy of the eighteenth century,
and extended over into the nineteenth. He
points out the elements of revolt from this con-
ventionalized type in Lillo's " George Barnwell"
and in the practise of the writers of the romantic
movement so far as they turned to tragedy. But
these elements of revolt came to naught, and this
history of the tragic type comes to an end with
the retirement of Macready from the manage-
ment of Drury Lane in 1843.
Professor Thorndike is quite right in attri-
buting to the theatrical conditions of the time
much of the responsibility for the failure of the
great poetical romantic movement of 1790-1832
to produce tragedy. The two patent theatres
which alone had the right to produce tragedies
were overstocked with older plays, and in gen-
eral were moribund. Opportunity and incen-
tive for the great poets to learn the needs of the
theatre, and to adapt their conceptions to the
requirements of actual performance, were lack-
ing. The poets wrote dramas which, however
brilliant in composition, were not actable, and
thus arose a closet drama of great literary merit.
To the lover of true drama, these closet dramas
are a sad memorial of what might have been.
* Traobdy. By Ashler H. Thorndike. Professor of English
in Columbia University. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
One cannot but think that some of these men
could have met both demands — could have
written plays which were good for the stage
and good as literature; and thus the long con-
tinued separation between literature and the
stage might have been avoided.
Professor Thorndike's book is the third to
appear in Professor Neilson's series of histories
of English literature by types, following " The
Popular Ballad " by Prof. F. B. Gummere and
"The Literature of Roguery" by Mr. F. W.
Chandler. One may have some doubts as to the
practicability of treating all English literature
on this plan, but Professor Thorndike has demon-
strated that tragedy may be so treated to advan-
tage. He has traced the development of tragedy
skilfully, and has held firmly to the idea of its
evolution as a species. Except, perhaps, for the
chapter of fifteen pages on Shakespeare, he has
not deviated from his purpose. The species is
his interest, not the individual; and, with the
single exception noted above, individuals are
treated as stages of the developing species, not
in a series of individual essays as in Ward's
"English Dramatic Literature."
The interest of the book consists in its han-
dling of familiar matter from this unifying point
of view, rather than in its contribution of new
facts to scholarship; although it is but fair to
say that Professor Thorndike has had to work
almost from the ground up in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, and that his book is dis-
tinctly a contribution to our knowledge of this
period. On the whole, he is to be congratulated
on the accomplishment of a piece of sound
scholarly work. c M Hathaway, Jb.
A Guide to the Study of the
PHILII'PINES.*
The volume of " Bibliography of the Philip-
pine Islands '' is issued as a part of the extended
series on » The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898,"
and a small edition of it is also issued as a sep-
arate publication. The text proper of the series
— i. c, its historical documents — ended with
Volume 52, and the two remaining volumes of
the fifty-five are to be given to an analytical
index.
The series as a whole is a monument to the
untiring devotion of the editors, Mr. James A.
* Bibliography op the Philippine Islands, Printed and
Manuscript. By James Alexander Robertson. Cleveland: The
Arthur U. Clark Co.


1908.]
117
THE
DIAL
Robertson and Miss Emma Helen Blair. They
have accomplished their task amid many un-
toward circumstances. Not long after the first
volumes of the series had appeared, in 1903, it
became apparent that there was not yet sufficient
interest in the past of the Philippines to furnish
the financial support necessary for a work of this
magnitude. But the publishers, facing the loss,
stood by the editors in the determination to carry
out their undertaking. And the latter have kept
at the task while for five years their only hope
of reward lay in the recognition of work well
done. Forced to a strict economy in the prose-
cution of their enterprise, they have at the same
time been obliged to enlarge their personal activ-
ities as editors and producers of material, while
also burdened with the drudgery of the merely
clerical labors which such a work involves.
Scholarly fidelity of this sort deserves mention;
and this is the excuse for a digression at the very
beginning of this review. The series of which
this Bibliography forms a part is not without its
defective features, failures of omission chiefly;
it is doubtless not as good as its own editors
could have made it with better support and more
substantial encouragement. But it is neverthe-
less a work of great significance and value — the
most important achievement in its field, and
. indispensable in any Philippine library or col-
lection.
This Bibliography is one more proof of the
care and conscientiousness that have gone into
the editing of the work as a whole; and like-
wise it gives evidence of the knowledge accu-
mulated during the preparation of the preceding
volumes. Passing over, for the moment, the
discussion of its scope, it may be said that,
within the limits which he outlined for himself,
Mr. Robertson's work is both thorough and
accurate. Down to the special index of names
which closes the volume, painstaking attention
to detail is everywhere apparent.
After stating the purposes and limitations of
the volume, Mr. Robertson gives some fifty pages
of usefully condensed information regarding the
chief public and private collections of Philippine
manuscripts and printed works in the world;
also regarding Philippine linguistics, maps and
cartography, photographs and views, museum
collections, etc. The collections of manuscripts
in Spain occupy, of course, preferential import-
ance of space; and owing to the special value
of the Seville archives for Philippine history, a
dozen pages are taken up with the indexes of
Philippine documents there preserved. Only
lately, Professor H. E. Bolton, investigating the
national archives in Mexico City, turned up a
lot of suspected but hitherto unlisted material
on the Philippines; and the scope of that material
is here indicated. The information as to the
chief collections of Philippina in the United
States is of direct practical value to any Amer-
ican student who may take up serious work in
this hitherto neglected field.
Only a fourth of the bibliographical text pro-
per is devoted to printed works. First comes a
list of the major Philippine bibliographies, with
some very practical and pertinent commentaries
thereon, — the list also including various minor
works in Philippine bibliography and special
bibliographical lists, even also notes of rectifica-
tion in periodicals as well as pamphlets and
books. There follows a list of other bibliog-
raphies mostly general in their nature, under
which the Philippines or some phase of them
are treated; also catalogues of public and pri-
vate libraries and sales catalogues listing Philip-
pina. This list, and the one following it, covering
books and pamphlets on the Philippines which
append bibliographies or contain bibliograph-
ical data scattered through their text, possess a
reference value quite unique, as the information
is nowhere else available. The last and largest
list of printed titles is the only one that falls
under the head of General Bibliography. It
is comprised almost entirely of printed books,
pamphlets, etc., which have been published in
whole or in part in the preceding fifty-two vol-
umes of "The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898,"
with the addition of some few very rare works
which have not been drawn upon directly for
that work. The special value of this list lies
in the descriptions, location of copies so far as
known, and other data regarding the rarer
works on the Philippines.
The bulk of the volume is devoted to manu-
scripts. Here the first hundred pages are
occupied with a chronological list of the manu-
scripts published in whole or in part in the
series of which this Bibliography is a part.
Very complete descriptions, especially of the
more important of these manuscripts, are also
afforded. In the second and larger list of
manuscripts, those not published in the series,
descriptions are sometimes appended, and some-
times not. Some of these manuscripts have
been cited from other Philippine bibliographers
and authors, who have not always described or
located them. The memoranda made in various
archives for this work in many cases give only


118
[Sept. 1,
THE DIAL
the dates and a general idea of the character of
the manuscripts that have not been transcribed.
Moreover, the work was originally planned to
cover Philippine history only up to 1800, which
is one reason for there being relatively fewer
manuscripts of the nineteenth century. How-
ever, the Ayer Collection in Chicago and the
manuscripts in the Library of Congress, these
latter relating mainly to Guam, have helped in
part to fill the hiatus here ; and full descriptions
are also given of manuscripts in these two libra-
ries. Of course, one volume could not begin to
hold a complete list of manuscripts about the
Philippines; nor has the time come when any-
one could make such a catalogue. Even the
better-known collections of such manuscripts
in the archives of Spain have not yet been
thoroughly overhauled; while the archives of
Manila and those at Mexico City—to mention
two highly important sources for the future
study of Philippine history — remain as yet
uncatalogued, and the latter scarcely examined.
But this volume presents, as stated in the in-
troduction, "more manuscript Philippine titles
than all other bibliographies together"— many
more, in fact. Moreover,"manuscripts are cited
for almost each year of the Spanish regime;
and thus the manuscript division forms in itself
almost an epitome of Philippine history."
Mr. Robertson, then, has not undertaken to
prepare a full comprehensive bibliography of
the Philippines. Such a work could not be com-
prised in any one octavo volume. This opening
still exists, for none of the Philippine biblio-
graphies previously published has fully covered
the field, even of printed titles. Retana's recent
Aparato bibliogrdfico lists more titles than any
other, and is useful in many ways; but the most
practical working biHiography, especially for
the American student, is that formed of the two
lists of Mr. A. P. C. Griffin (Library of Con-
gress) and Mr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, both
published in one volume by the Bureau of
Insular Affairs of the War Department at
Washington. This work being readily avail-
able, Mr. Robertson's purpose has been, as
regards printed Philippina, to point out the
sources for a complete study of Philippine bib-
liography, while also setting forth the main
data regarding rare works in this field; and to
list manuscripts in a way hitherto unattempted.
This task, well performed, makes a work sui
generis and indispensable for every library pre-
tending to cover this field at all and for every
special student therein.
James A. LeRoy.
Briefs on New Books.
Why are we The TOot of ■? evU> in.Dr- George
righthanded M. Gould's philosophy, is eye-strain.
or unhanded f Qr, to put it less epigrammatically
and more truthfully, the eye and its diseases are
of more far-reaching significance than is commonly
suspected. In Dr. Gould's book on " Righthanded-
ness and Lefthander!ness " (Lippincott) the eminent
oculist clearly, and for the first time so far as we
know, shows the part played by the eye in deter-
mining which shall be the dominant hand and foot.
Historically, righthandedness begins with the choice
of that hand to hold and throw the spear, and of the
left to carry the shield and protect the vital organs,
the position of the heart dictating this division of
duties. Then, the right being the operating hand,
the right eye is naturally called upon more than
the left to watch and guide its motions, until, by the
hereditary transmission of acquired peculiarities (in
which the author declares himself a believer), the
right eye, and with it the right hand and foot and ear,
acquire an almost invariable superiority over their
mates. In the vaguely groping and sprawling infant
it is the hereditarily dominant eye, says our oculist-
author, that decides which hand and foot shall have
the preference in action; and with this instinctive
choice comes also the beginning of that differentia-
tion in the cerebral hemispheres which makes the
sinistral" the correlated centre for speech-phonation"
and also for speech-writing. The exceptions, the
left-handed — some six per cent of mankind — are
accounted for by the occasional enforced develop-
ment of sinistro-expertness because of accident or
disease; and this peculiarity, though not commonly
traceable from father to son, reappears sporadically
in the race. Grievous is the wrong done to a left-
handed child in trying to make him over into a
right-handed one. The speech-centre has become
located, the left eye has established its superiority,
and nothing but confusion and eye-strain and all
sorts of misery can result. The book's eight chap-
ters, two of which are reprinted from "Biographic
Clinics," and the others collected from medical and
scientific journals, treat chiefly of writing and the
writing-posture in relation to the eyes and to spinal
curvature, with useful advice and information in
other kindred matters. The author's preliminary
list of previous theories as to the origin of right-
handedness omits the shield-and-spear explanation,
as if it were here advanced for the first time, which
of course it is not The eye's leading part in the fix-
ing of righthandedness or lefthandedness is proved,
in some sort at least, by embryology.
Piavt which ^ 's a curi°us point — upon which
Shaketpeare only Doctor Johnson could make the
did not write. adequate gibe — that not only is a
Shakespearean editor required to determine what
plays may rightfully be attributed to the master,
but in collecting the plays wrongfully attributed to
Shakespeare the apocryphal editor must exercise a


1908.]
119
THE
DIAL
similar care and shut out of his volume those plays
that have not often enough been wrongly attributed!
Some two-score plays have had the dangerous honor
of being assigned to Shakespeare; but fourteen of
these, in the editor's opinion, may legitimately find
place in "The Shakespeare Apocrypha," a volume
carefully put together by Mr. C. F. Tucker Brooke,
a Rhodes Scholar who is at present Senior Demy
of Magdalen College, and which is issued from the
Oxford Press. Mr. Brooke's collection meets a defi-
nite need. Many a student of Elizabethan drama,
not to speak of many a reader of Shakespeare, has
often wished to have ready access to the pseudo-
Shakespearean dramas, only a few of which, like the
"Two Noble Kinsmen," have been conveniently at
hand. To have now in one volume not merely the
often reprinted plays, but also (in seven instances)
the first really careful modern reprint, and in one in-
stance ( " Sir John Oldcastle ") the only reprint of the
only right version, is a real boon. To name the con-
tents is to give a sufficient comment on Mr. Brooke's
volume: Arden of Feversham, Locrine, Edward III.,
Mucedorus, Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Lord Crom-
well, The London Prodigal, The Puritan, A York-
shire Tragedy, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Fair
Em, Two Noble Kinsmen, The Birth of Merlin, Sir
Thomas More. Of these plays Mr. Brooke gives us
a careful text in the old spelling, and adds a well-
written fifty-page introduction and some notes. It
is unfortunate that the notes are so scanty: herein
the volume fails of being definitive. It is to be hoped
that in a future edition the editor will add copiously
to his annotations, and thus make his book indis-
pensable. When so much has been well done, it
is a pity not to do the needful rest and make the
work completely satisfying. Regarding the plays
rejected, there is no need to quarrel with the editor's
taste: as in an anthology, both rejection and inclu-
sion are extremely provocative of dissent in some
quarter or another. Mr. Brooke has, at the very
least, made a good choice of plays.
The "ptyehic Anyone who has perused M. Flam-
rttearchet"of marion's writings upon procedures
an aitronomer. seemingly at variance with the recog-
nized laws of nature will anticipate that there is
nothing notable to be found in the more extended
work lately appearing in English with the title
"Mysterious Psychic Forces" (Small, Maynard &
Co.). The book is, indeed, a compilation, with re-
cent additions, of a long record of stances with
"mediums " of all sorts and conditions, whose chief
occupation is that of moving tables and "material-
izing " theatrical properties in a more or less baffling
manner. Upon such narratives a rather extreme
"spiritualistic" interpretation is elaborated. To one
convinced of the soundness of this position, or one
inclined to such belief, the collected data must be
tremendously portentous. To one who expects that
investigations emanating from a man with astronom-
ical training would be marked by the qualities we
should naturally look for from such a source —
exactness of conditions, laborious accumulation of
evidence, expertness in detecting sources of error,
and caution in conclusions — the record will be
equally disappointing. The author assumes at the
outset of his studies a definiteness of attitude and
confidence of elimination of sources of error whioh
he would not assume at the close of a long astro-
nomical research. M. Flammarion is, indeed, the
conspicuous example of a man of science utterly con-
fused, even dazed, by the overpowering dominance
of " facts "; quite unmindful that the type of " fact"
that thus staggers his reason but reflects the manner
of his predilections. Had he really described facts,
the record would have been brief: "In the presence
of such and such a medium, I have apparently
observed such and such behavior of inanimate ob-
jects. I did not succeed in discovering how the
effect was produced." Just what the interest or the
interpretation of the alleged phenomena may prove
to be, when their modus operandi is frankly con-
fessed, is still left to uncertainty.
With no apologies or acknowledg-
«W Roger Ascham, Mr.
Arthur Christopher Benson has en-
titled his latest book "The Schoolmaster" (Putnam).
However, he has scarcely anything to say on the
subject of classical education, his pleasantly informal
chapters having to do with the general relations be-
tween masters and pupils and between the master
and his colleagues, with brief dissertations on such
subjects as holidays, sociability, religion, moralities,
intellect, originality, praise, discipline, devotion, and
a few more of like sort; and so it need not be feared
that he has stolen any of the excellent Ascham's
thunder. The book is announced as a companion
volume to the author's " Upton Letters," and it serves
as an acceptable sequel and complement to that
thoughtful and stimulating work. It has also some-
thing more of definiteness and reality and terseness
than that series of imaginary letters, admirable and
"convincing " though those letters are. As a sample
of the later book's quality, let us quote a few lines
that might well be pondered, not only by school-
masters, but also by others, perhaps by book-reviewers.
"One form of affectation has, I believe, very bad
results. It is the custom of many teachers to speak
as if all the authors whom they were expounding
were equally valuable. I do not think that anything
destroys the critical and appreciative faculties in boys
so quickly as this. I believe myself that it is good
for a teacher to have strong prejudices, just as Dr.
Arnold's feeling for Livy partook, as his pupils said,
of an almost personal animosity." The writer takes
occasion to deplore the present excessive devotion to
athletics in school and university, a protest rendered
the more effective from his own record as a football-
player. Like many who write much and easily, Mr.
Benson has his mannerisms, among which one can-
not but note his fondness for the word "apt" to
denote customary action, a usage of questionable cor-
rectness, but pardonable if not carried to excess.


120
[Sept. 1,
THE DIAL
About peacock.. In the middle ages> and long before,
flower..parden.. the peacock was regarded as a sym-
and other thing., bol of eternity, of immortality. Thus
we are informed in the preface to "The Peacock's
Pleasaunce" (Lane) —a collection of graceful, al-
most poetical, essays on themes chiefly rural, and
having to do largely with birds and gardens and
flowers, and also weeds, while two addresses on art
education complete the volume. The book is by
"E. V. B." (in quotation marks), who is apparently
a woman, and one of fine sensibilities, mystical in
her moods and given to symbolism in their literary
expression. In the semi-suggestions of the super-
natural that sprinkle her pages, as well as in the veil
of mysticism thrown over all, there is something
almost Hawthornesque — a nameless charm that
makes one forgive the "fine writing" in which the
author is prone to indulge. Let us quote one short
passage which, with many others, falls on the ear
with more than a faint reminder of Hawthorne. The
Professor's daughter has seen a startlingly strange
insect, and the Professor says: "' Call me should
the thing reenter the house. I will immediately
come, and will straightway bottle him; or I will con-
strain him weightily between the leaves, within the
covers of one of my biggest books.' Having thus
spoken, the Professor retreated into his study, shut-
ting out the whole of the outside world, immersed, as
was his wont, for hours in the old, strange world of
books — for him more familiar, more illimitable than
the other." Seven photo-prints of handsome pea-
cocks, and a fanciful frontispiece also containing
peacocks, appropriately illustrate the book.
The .torv 0/ H°race Bleackley's "Story of a
afamou. Beautiful Duchess" (Button) proves
iH.h beauty. to be a biography of Elizabeth Gun-
ning, a famous Irish beauty who became successively
Duchess of Hamilton and of Argyll, served as one
of Queen Charlotte's ladies of the bedchamber, and
was otherwise a person of much social distinction.
The book presents a very attractive appearance; the
binding, press work, and illustrations do ample justice
to the elegance of the theme. The story is enter-
taining and easily read; it might be objected that
the author has included a needless amount of petty
scandal, but it is hard to give a truthful picture of
English society in the eighteenth century without
including a certain amount of such material. Still,
after completing the book the reader is likely to ask
if the author's efforts have really been worth while.
No doubt the Duchess was as good and womanly as
she was beautiful, but she scarcely requires a biog-
raphy of nearly four hundred pages, which, while it
adds much to our knowledge of the Duchess, adds
little to that of her country and age. Aside from a
tendency to idealize his subject, the author appears
to possess the qualities of a good historian, which
might have shown to better advantage in a larger
field. Some charming portraits of the Duchess, and
of other notables of her day, add materially to the
attractiveness of the volume.
Notes.
Mr. Mitchell Kennerley publishes a new edition of
"Everyman," for which Mr. Montrose J. Moses has pre-
pared notes, a bibliography, and an elaborate introduction.
The Oxford edition of Keats, as edited by Mr. H.
Buxton Forman, is now reissued by Mr. Henry Frowde
in inexpensive form, with clear type, thin paper, and
bright red covers.
A manual of "Elementary Algebra " is one of the
"Twentieth Century Text-Books " of the Messrs. Apple-
ton. It is the joint work of Professor J. W. A. Young
and Lambert L. Jackson.
Two new volumes in "Lippincott's Educational
Series " are the following: "The Educational Process,"
by Mr. Arthur Gary Fleshman, and "The Study of
Nature," by Dr. Samuel Christian Schmucker.
The John Lane Co. publish an illustrated edition of
the play "Beau Brummel," as written for the late
Richard Mansfield by Mr. Clyde Fitch. A portrait of
the actor and several other illustrations adorn the
volume.
"A Dictionary of English Literature," by Mr. M.
McCroben, is published by the Messrs. Routledge (New
fork: Dutton) in their " Miniature Reference Library."
It is a dictionary of English authors only, with lists of
their works.
"A History of Art," by Dr. G. Carotti, revised by
Mrs. Arthur Strong, is published by Messrs. E. P.
Dutton & Co. It is a compact volume with many
miniature illustrations, and is devoted to ancient art
alone. Presumably one or more volumes upon modern
art will follow.
The Macinillau Co. send us a new edition (the forty-
first), entirely revised and greatly enlarged, of William
James's " Dictionary of the English and German Lan-
guages." Both vocabularies are included in a single
volume of over eleven hundred pages. It makes a
compact and inexpensive work, and, as such, is to be
highly commended.
A collection of " The Peasant Songs of Great Russia,"
collected and transcribed from phonograms by Miss
Eugenie Lineff, is published by the Imperial Academy
of Science at St. Petersburg. The text is in both
Russian and English. Mr. David Nutt is the agent in
England and America for this publication, the present
issue being the first of a series.
Mr. George P. Upton's "The Standard Concert
Guide" (McClurg) is a condensation of the three vol-
umes devoted respectively to oratorios, cantatas, and
symphonies, that have long been in favor with concert-
goers. Enough new matter has been added to bring
the work down to date, and some sixty portraits of
composers embellish the volume.
We are glad to note, as a sign of returning pros-
perity in the book trade, that the New York branch
of the old established house of Cassell & Co., which of
late years has existed chiefly as an agency of the London
house, intends to enter actively into the business of book
publishing again. Mr. W. B. Hadley is to be the man-
ager of the New York business, which makes a creditable
showing in its list of books for Fall publication.
German texts published by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co.
are as follows: Rudolf Baumbach's "Der Schwieger-
sohn," edited by Dr. Otto Heller, and Herr Otto Ernst's
"Ueberwunden," edited by Dr. James Taft Hatfield.
From Messrs. D. C. Heath & Co. we have " Ratsinadel-


1908.]
121
THE
DIAL
geschichten," by Fraulein Helene Bohlau, edited by Miss
Emma Haevernick. From the Charles E. Merrill Co.
we have Goethe's "Hermann und Dorothea," edited by
Mr. Richard Alexander von Minckwitz.
Messrs. Walter S. Hinchman and Francis B. Gum-
mere have joined forces to produce a volume of suc-
cinct "Lives of Great English Writers from Chaucer
to Browning" (Houghton). These biographies, over
thirty in number, are each from ten to twenty pages in
length, and give only essential facts, with little or no
attempt at literary characterization. It is difficult to
account for some of the omissions, but the work as we
have it is well done, and students of English literature
will find it useful.
L. Mylius Erichsen, the Danish explorer, who met his
death in a snowstorm while travelling over the ice on
the northeastern coast of Greenland, as told in a cable-
gram from Copenhagen a few days ago, was better
known to his countrymen as an author and poet than
as an explorer. His best known works are "Tatere"
(Gypsies), a play; "Vestjyder" (West-Jutlanders), a
book of short stories; "Strandingshistorier " (Stories of
Shipwrecks), another book of short stories; "Isglimt"
(Ice Gleams), a book of poems; "Den jyske Hede"
(The Jutlandish Heath), a most thorough description
of that part of Denmark; "Greenland," a record of his
former explorations in that frozen country. Mr. Erich-
sen also had the distinction of being the first Danish
poet to make a serious and intelligent effort to describe
the actual conditions of the neglected fishermen on the
west coast of Jutland, and to point out a practical way
of bettering their condition. Mr. Erichsen was only in
his thirty-sixth year at the time of his death.
Topics in Leading Periodicals.
September, 1908.
Airship, The Modern—I. Frederick Todd. World'* Work.
Alexander. John W., Art of. Christian Brinton. Muntey.
Amateur Athletics as a Business. World To-tlav.
American Aristocrat. Making an. W.A.Johnston. Broadway.
American Drama, Self-expression and the. P. Mackaye. No. A m.
Amusing the Million. Frederic Thompson. Everybody'!.
Appomatox Court-House To-day. T. D. Pendleton. Muntev.
Barrett. John: American Citizen. K. A. Wilson. World Today.
Better Building, Need for. World't Work.
Birney, William V.: Painter of Cheerful Yesterdays. Broadway.
Black Hand, The. Lindsay Denison. Everybody''.
Boston, England. A Trip to. W. D. Howells. Harper.
Bret Harte's Heroines. Henry C. Merwin. Atlantic.
Building of Arts at Bar Harbor, The. O. Johnson. Century.
Building, Unbuilding a. Winthrop Packard. Atlantic.
Burma. Province of. James M. Hubbard. Atlantic.
California's Inland Waterways. C.E. Edwards. World To-day.
Camera. Wonders of the. C. H. Claudy. World Today.
Campaign Contribution, The. Alfred H. Lewis. Broadway.
Campaign. Labor Unions and the. Henry White. No. Amer.
Campaign Orator, The. John T. McCutcheon. Appleton.
Canadian Poet-Laureate. The. Alberta Wolhaupter. Putnam.
Cape Breton. The French Shore of. H. J. Smith. Atlantic.
Carnegie and his Home in Scotland. Muntey.
Castro: Tyrant or Liberator 1 Everybody's.
Cattle Kings, Last of the. French Strother. World't Work.
Celluloid Drama. The. Harris M. Lyon. Broadway.
Christianity, Salvation of—II. Charles F. Aked. Appleton.
Churchill, Lady Randolph, Reminiscences of — X. Century.
Circus, Other Side of the. Hugh C. Weir. World Today.
Cleveland, Grover. Herbert N. Casson. Broadway.
Coasts, Our Helpless. Rupert Hughes. Broadway.
College Bred Women. The Modern. G. Stanley Hall. Appleton.
Comparisons, As to Certain. Thomas R. Lounsbury. Harper.
Country Clubs and Club Life. John G. Speed. Broadway.
Country School, A New Kind of. O. J. Kern. World't Work.
Czarina, The. and her Daughters. T. Schwarz. Muntey.
Delirium, In the Wonderland of. Charles Roman. American.
Egypt, The Spell of—V. Robert Hichens. Century.
Electioneering on the Wrong Side. H. M. Brett. Century.
Emperor William. A Private Portrait of. O. Mirbeau. American.
English Notabilities. Reminiscences of. Ellen Terry. McClure.
English Working-woman and the Franchise, The. Atlantic.
Eyes and Vision from Worm to Man. A. Ayere. Harper.
Federalism, The New. Henry W. Rogers. North A merican.
Fireless Locomotive, A New. C. A. Sidman. World To-day.
Foreign Criminals in New York. T.A.Bingham. iVo. Amer.
Foreign Tour at Home — VII. Henry Holt. Putnam.
Fresh Woods and Pastures New. A. I. du P. Coleman. Putnam.
Fulton, Robert, Early Life of. Alice C. Sutcliffe. Century.
Godkin, Edwin Lawrence. James F. Rhodes. Atlantic.
Gold. F. W. Fitzpatrick. Metropolitan.
Great Lakes, The—VI. James O. Curwood. Putnam.
High School, — Where it Fails. W. McAndrew. World't Work.
Hongkong. American Consulate at. A.P.Wilder. World To-day.
Illinois: The Heart of the U. S. J.P. Munroe. Atlantic.
Immigration Problem. Common-Sense View of the. No. Amer.
Ireland, The New —VII. Sydney Brooks. North American.
Italy and the Triple Alliance. Salvatore Cortesi. No. American.
Jackson, General, "Peggy " O'Neal and. Putnam.
Johnson, Andrew, in the White House — I. Century.
Kendall, Sargeant, Art of. Charles H. CafBn. Harper.
Killed or Wounded Employees, The Law of. Everybody'!,
Labor and the Tariff. Lucius F. C. Garvin. North American.
Life Insurance, Romance of—IV. W.J.Graham. World To-day.
Life's Handicaps. Luther H. Gulick. American.
Manley, Thomas R.: American Landscape Painter. McClure.
Men, The Moulding of. Herman Scheffauer. Lippincott.
Meredith. George. Archibald Henderson. North A merican.
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Mississippi. Moods of the. Raymond 8. Spears. ^itlaniie.
Modern Magazine. Literary Spirit in the. Lippincott.
Mortgages as Investments. J. L. Houghteling. World Today.
Motor Boat, Across Europe by—V. H.C.Rowland. Appleton.
My Story —I. Hall Caine. Appleton.
Natural Gas, — What it has done for Indiana. World To-day.
Naval Warfare of the Future. Hudson Maxim. Metropolitan.
Negro, What to Do about the. R. S. Baker. American.
Newport, the Maligned. Gouverneur Morris. Everybody't.
New Yorker,an Old,Reminiscencesof. P.Gassner. Metropolitan.
Nicknames of Famous Americans. Lyndon Orr. Muntey.
Occult Phenomena — conclusion. H.Garland. Everybody't.
Olympic Games, Americans Win the. H.Ware. World To-dav.
Orchards, Protecting, from Frost Damage. World To-day.
Osteopathy — I. E. M. Downing. Metropolitan.
Ottoman Empire, The Regenerated. Mundjl Bey. No. American.
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Presidential Campaigns, Financing. F. A. Ogg. World Today.
Prohibition. —Does it Pay t —HI. Trumbull White. Appleton.
Promoters' Victims. World't Work.
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Research, The Paradox of. John G. Hibben. North American.
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Senate, My Election to the. Carl Schurz. McClure.
Sight and Sound Magic in the Wireless Age. Broadway.
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Social Reconstruction To-day John Martin. Atlantic.
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122
[Sept. 1,
THE
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List of New Books.
[The following lilt, containing 60 titles, includes books
received by The Dial since its issue of August 1.]
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY.
The Diary of a Lady - in - Wait in if. By Lady Charlotte Bury;
edited, with Introduction, by A. Francis Steuart. In 2 vols..
with portraits in photogravure, etc.. 8vo, Kilt tops. John
Lane Co. 17.50 net
The Constitutional History of England: A Course of Lec-
tures. By F. W. Maitland. 8vo. pp. 647. G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Si so net.
The "Londons " of the British Fleet. By Edward Fraser.
Illus. in color, etc.. 12mo, gilt top, pp. 252. John Lane Co.
$1.50 net.
The Justice of the Mexican War. By Charles H. Owen.
12mo, pp. 291. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net.
Mr. Gladstone at Oxford, 1890. By C. R. L. F. Illus.,
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Sir William Temple: The 8tanhope Essay, 1908. By Edward
S. Lyttel. 12mo. uncut, pp. 87. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
DRAMA AND VERSE.
The Poetlo Old-World: A Little Book for Tourists. Com-
piled by Lucy H. Humphrey. 16mo, gilt edges, pp. 513.
Henry Holt & Co. $1.60 net.
Poems for Travelers. Compiled by Mary R. J. Du Bols.
16mo. gilt edges, pp. 496. Henry Holt & Co. $1.60 net.
Bean Brummel: A Play in Four Acts. Written for Richard
Mansfield by Clyde Fitch. Illus., 12mo, pp. 142. John Lane
Co. $1.so net.
GalUo : The Prize Poem on a Sacred Subject, 1908. By St. John
Lucas. 12mo,uncut, pp. 15. Oxford: B. H.Blackwell. Paper.
Andrea, and other Poems. By Gascoigne Mackie. 16mo,
uncut, pp. 63. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
The Death of Gracchus: A Tragedy. By Edwin Sauter.
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B90klet of Sonnets. By Charles Leonard Stone. i6mo.
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NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE.
The Garden of Epicurus. By Anatole France; edited by
Frederic Chapman, trans, by Alfred Allinson. Limited
edition; 8vo. gilt top, uncut, pp. 240. John Lane Co. $2.
Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack Room
Ballads. By Rudyard Kipling. Pocket edition; ltmo, gilt
top, pp. 217. Doubleday, Page & Co. Leather, $1.50 net.
The Book-Hunter. By John Hill Burton; edited by J. Her-
bert Slater. With portrait, 12mo, gilt top, pp. 269. E. P.
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Poetical Works of Keats. Edited, with Introduction and
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FICTION.
The Firing Line. By Robert W. chambers. Illus., 12mo,
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The Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel: A Romance of the
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Annt Maud. By Ernest Oldmeadow. With frontispiece in tint,
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Weeping Cross: An Unworldly Story. By Henry Longan
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The Car and the Lady. By Percy F. Megargel and Grace S.
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A Dissatisfied Soul and A Prophetic Romancer. By
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The Alps In Nature and History. By W. A. B. Coolidge.
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SCIENCE.
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Insect Stories. By Vernon L. Kellogg. Illus., 12mo, gilt
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ART AND MUSIC.
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The Standard Conoert Guide. By George P. Upton. With
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BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
A Dictionary of English Literature. By M. McCroben.
32mo, pp. 214. "Miniature Reference Library." E. P.
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Classified Catalogue of the Carnegie Library of Pitta-
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Classified Catalogue of the Carnegie Library of Pitts-
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BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.
The Fortunes of the Farrella. By Jessie de Home Vaizey
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A Child's Guide to Pictures. By Charles H. Caffin. Illus..
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Little Maid Marian. By Amy E. Blanchard. Ulus. in tint.
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Heroes and Greathearts and their Animal Friends. By
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How to Dress a Doll. By Mary H. Morgan. Illus.. 16mo.
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EDUCATION.
Physical Geography. By M. F. Maury; revised and largely
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American Book Co. $1.20.
Latin Prose Composition, based upon Cicero. By Henry C.
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Latin Prose Composition, based upon Caesar. By Henry C.
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Exercises In Value Theory, based upon "Value and Dis-
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MISCELLANEOUS.
The Old Yellow Book: Source of Browning's The Ring and
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uncut, pp. 345. Carnegie Institution of Washington. Paper.
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Historic Houses and their Gardens. Edited by Charles
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The Naturalisation of the Supernatural. By Frank Pod-
more. Ulus., 8vo, gilt top, pp. 374. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
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The Future Life and Modern Difficulties. By F. Claude
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King Solomon and the Fair Shulamlte, from "The Song
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Labor and Neighbor: An Appeal to First Principles. By
Ernest Crosby. With portrait. 12mo, pp. 166. Chicago:
Louis F. Post.
Book of the Supervisors of Duchess County, N. Y., A.D.
1718-1722. Large 8vo, pp. 72. Poughkeepsie, N. Y.: Vassar
Brothers' Institute. Paper.


1908.]
123
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The Bohemian Jinks: A Treatise. By Porter Garnett. Illus.,
12mo. gilt top, pp. 137. San Francisco: Bohemian Club.
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'' Dame Curtsey's " Book of Guessing Contests. By E11 ye
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How to Get a Position and How to Keep It. By S. Roland
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Dont's for Bachelors and Old If aids. By Minna Thomas
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No. SS4. SEPTEMBER 16, 1908. Vol. XLV.
Contents.
PACK
BOOKS OF THE COMING YEAR 166
ARNOLD AND LOWELL. Charles Leonard Moore 157
CASUAL COMMENT 159
"Light through work."—The leaden-footed library
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Hamlet as an undergraduate. — Library activity in
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