reaks the back
strangely-assorted gathering. The essays of a more
of musical endurance, and people admit quite
general character are, besides that which gives the
collection its title, “Some Thoughts on Musical frankly that they find him intolerable.” Most of us
who have been curious to know whether our friends
Criticism” and “Music and Science.” In one of
really cared for music have had that experience
his earliest pages, Mr. Apthorp remarks that “mu-
more than once. A longer review than the present
sic is a subject on which all logic is wasted”; but
we are inclined to think that he refutes his own dic-
would be needed to do justice to the acuteness, the
tum on more occasions than one, for if these essays
insight, and the genuine musicianly feeling of Mr.
illustrate anything besides their special subjects it | Apthorp's volume. Our only regret is that he should
not have polished his style a little more, avoiding,
is the fact that an appeal to the reason may be made
on behalf of music quite as well as on behalf of any
for example, such a solecism as “neither ... were,'
and that he should countenance the common mis-
other art. The author appeals throughout to the
spelling of Händel's name.
intelligence, and eschews altogether the rhapsodizing
that passes for criticism with many writers. Yet “ The English
How wide our forefathers would have
he by no means countenances the common notion
opened their
eyes if they could have
that “the musician is capable only of a merely in-
“Study of Fiction." foreseen that novel-reading would
tellectual enjoyment of music.” On this point he become a serious study in the closing years of the
even uses strong language, and goes so far as to say century, and be urged as an important element in
that “ of all the wrong notions that have ever be general education! Here and there an old-fashioned
muddled the human mind, this is the most utterly objector still raises a protesting voice; but the Zeit-
idiotic.” But to feel the beauty of music is one geist is against him, and it is now impossible for the
thing, and to put the feeling into words is quite an student to ignore what has come to be ( with the pos-
other. To attempt the latter is simply to attempt sible exception of poetry) the most typical and gen-
the impossible; and Mr. Apthorp confines himself erally cultivated of the literary arts. Even the pul-
to the things that really can be said by one rational pit—that last bulwark of conservative prejudice —
being to another. With the motive that sends the has taken kindly to the novel, and many a sermon
majority of listeners to concert-room or opera-hall is preached upon some popular fiction of the day.
- the desire to hear someone sing or play, rather The University Extension people, in their effort to
than the desire to hear the performance of some provide pabulum of sufficient tenuity to be easily
work the author has no great patience.
• For
assimilable by delicate digestions, have with pecu-
what, think you, does the average music-lover look liar avidity seized upon fiction as providing instruc-
first, when he reads the advertisement of a concert tion and entertainment in suitable proportions, and
in the newspapers? In ninety-nine cases out of a it is wholly natural that we should have at last a
hundred he looks first to see who is to be the solo University Extension manual upon “ The English
performer; what the programme is to be interests Novel” (Scribner). This little book, which is a his-
him only secondarily. Show me the man who looks torical and critical sketch of the subject from the
first to see what is to be played or sang, and I will earliest times down to “ Waverley," is the work of
hold him in my very heart of heart
as a music Professor Walter Raleigh, an experienced English
lover who deserves to be a musician!
These are
teacher. It is rather dry in manner, but presents
golden words; and let no one fancy himself a lover a well-arranged conspectus of fact. We are half
of music in the true sense unless he can put the ques- through the book before we reach what most peo-
tion to himself, and honestly answer it in the right ple suppose to have been the first English novelists ;
way. Sensible, well-put things abound in these es but undoubtedly something must be said in such a
says, and a touch of humor is not lacking. “ I have history of the “ Morte Darthur” and “Euphues,"
heard many people complain that fugues are dry; of “ Arcadia” and the “Spectator,” and even of less
you might say, with equal reason, that demijohns direct precursors of the modern novelist.-Prof.
are dry — some are and some are not, — it all de W. E. Simonds, who at the same time has published
pends upon what is in them.” Fugues naturally “ An Introduction to the Study of Fiction" (Heath),
remind us of Bach, and lead us to say that the es is even more inclusive, for he begins with “ Beo-
say on that composer is one of the best apprecia- wulf” and “ King Horn.” His book consists of
tions of his genius with which we are acquainted. a few pleasant chapters on the more marked his-


1895.]
57
THE DIAL
66
torical phases of the subject, followed by a dozen This knowledge and skill, combined with the bril-
rather lengthy extracts, ranging from the pagan liant career set forth in the book, make it one of
epic of our Saxon forebears to Fielding and Sterne. absorbing interest, perhaps the best in the series.
“A bare introduction to the study,” and no more, Unlike most military biographies, it is free from
is what the author has sought to offer his readers. painful personal controversies. General Hancock
There are some useful chronological tables, and a was of generous and loyal spirit, obeying heartily
list of a hundred novels, English and Continental, even when acting under orders that he knew were
“which, for one reason or another, are quite worth bad. He had the power of infusing his own sol.
reading.” Our only quarrel with the list is that it dierly spirit and enthusiasm into his men, and so
strangely omits the name of Tourguénieff, although of bringing his brigade or division or corps into
Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoieffski appear. This is action to the best advantage, and of leading it
much like leaving Scott out of a list of English nov through the most trying marches without loss of
elists, or Shakespeare out of a selection of Eliza-spirit.
spirit. Not till the very end of the campaign of
bethan dramatists.
1864, after the awful experiences and losses of that
terrible summer, were “his lines broken, his men
“ A History of English Literature for
driven from the ground, guns and colors taken un-
A text-book of an
Secondary Schools" (Harper), by
(Harper), by der his eye.
old-fashioned sort.
Never before had he seen his men
Mr. J. Logie Robertson, is a text fail to respond to the utmost when he called upon
book of the old-fashioned sort, admirable as a com-
them personally for a supreme effort.” It was a
pact presentation of accurate fact, but calculated to
blow from which he never recovered, though all
encourage cramming, and to substitute memoriter
acknowledged that he had done all that could be
work for that acquisition of power which should be done under the circumstances. General Walker's
the real aim of every student. The subject is book is more than a sketch of Hancock's career :
neatly divided up into periods and groups, cut-and-
it contains spirited descriptions of nearly all the
dried critical opinions are provided, and a conspec battles in which the Army of the Potomac was en-
tus of the facts of political history served as an ac gaged, from the Peninsular campaign through 1864.
companiment. Beyond the general misconception
The best of these descriptions are those of Gettys-
of the purpose of a text-book, the work is not open burg, where Hancock won his greatest glory, and
to much technical criticism. There is an occasional
the capture of the Salient at Spottsylvania. The
comment which strikes one as curiously platitudin- successive commanders of the Army, especially
ous, such as the following: “ The religious novel Burnside, Hooker, and Grant, are freely criticised
is a remarkable feature of current fiction, and prob- by General Walker ; yet the criticism is not bitter,
ably owes its origin to the skepticism of the age.
but eminently fair.
No treatment of Shakespeare, even the briefest,
should ignore, as Mr. Robertson's does, the periods
Another of the stories of the triumph
in the poet's development. A serious lack of per-
Josiah Wedgwood of brains and will and character over
spective is often noticeable, particularly when Scotch
poverty and physical weakness is
writers are concerned. On these occasions only given us by the veteran biographer Samuel Smiles
does the writer display a touch of enthusiasm ; and
in his “Life of Josiah Wedgwood " (Harper). The
one cannot refrain from thinking that he considers
world never tires of these splendid triumphs, and
the work of mere Englishmen poor stuff. The at they supply a healthy stimulus to ambition. Of
tempt is made to provide extracts as well as history, greater interest, however, because less familiar, is
which cannot be done to any satisfaction at all in a the history of the development of artistic pottery,
book of this size. American writers are supposed
American writers are supposed and of a great industry out of the humble making
to come within the author's plan, but the few par-
of butter-pots and porringers that occupied the
agraphs they get are grudging and inadequate. We meagre population of Burslem till his time. Young
cannot, on the whole, accord the book any other
Wedgwood began life with twenty pounds and a
than an extremely qualified commendation. frail body, ever tormented with pain and often un-
able to leave his bed. His inquisitive mind was not
The military
The “Great Commanders Series " content with the poor processes that had contented
career of (Appleton) rightly includes the story his fathers and forefathers. His eagerness for ex-
of the military career of General | periments caused his brothers to set him adrift from
Hancock, one of the most splendid soldiers that the the family business. But his keen business ability
Civil War produced, though he never held an inde and insight soon brought him success.
A new
pendent command. It has been written by General ware was discovered and put upon the market as
Francis A. Walker, who was a member of Hancock's soon as the preceding was no longer popular. The
staff, out of the full knowledge gained through his queen allowed her name to be attached to one of
personal knowledge of his hero, personal participa- the standard wares, a vast foreign trade was built
tion in many of the stirring scenes with which the up, and fortune and national reputation came to
book abounds, and several years of labor spent upon him. To this day he ranks as one of the great men
his “ History of the Second Army Corps.” The of the eighteenth century in England. This success
book also shows the literary skill of a trained writer. was won by his ceaseless costly experiments with
and his work.
General Hancock.


58
[Jan. 16,
THE DIAL
materials gathered from every part of the world, and book, which is preëminently a candid and compre-
by the application of true art to even the humbler hensive treatment of the greatest of orators, and a
products of his potteries. He developed the manu- philosophic discussion of the turbulent times which
facture of artistic vases, cameos, portraits, and other made his life so tragic. It is refreshing to find this
pieces of high excellence which nobility and royalty work unstained by hero-worship, the blot on the
were eager to purchase. Among the interesting pages of Froude and many others, who have at-
incidents of the book are the account of the making tempted sketches of Roman statesmen. Especially
of the great table-service of nearly a thousand pieces commendable is the scientific spirit of treatment
for the Empress of Russia, the preparation of which which forms the background of the work. We might
occupied about eight years; that of his relations call it a laboratory study, in recognition of the fact
with the sculptor Flaxman, who long furnished de that it is studiously compiled, for the most part,
signs for his products ; and the copying of the Bar from original sources of information, chiefly from
berini, or Portland Vase, and other works of an the incomparable letters of Cicero himself,— letters
tiquity. The book is written in the well-known still in their primeval purity, unimpaired by the red-
commonplace style of the author, with numerous pencil marks of the editor. Mr. Strachan-David-
repetitions, yet clearly, and with full knowledge of son appropriates these letters with a lavish hand,
the subject and his work.
supplementing them with just enough of his own
narrative to keep the chain of facts intact. Any
The ninth and closing volume of
Closing volume of
other method of writing the biography of the an-
Professor Huxley's Professor Huxley's collected essays
collected essays.
cients must necessarily draw too freely on the im-
is entitled “Evolution and Ethics
agination of the author. Mr. Strachan-Davidson's
and Other Essays” (Appleton). It includes the
translations are excellent for their solid expression
Romanes Lecture of the title (provided with some
and lack of all frothiness. We are struck by his
fifty pages of prolegomena for the confutation of
clear statement of the positions of the Nobles and
captious critics); a paper, dated 1886, on “Science
and Morals "; another, dated 1890, entitled “ Cap-relations which existed at various stages between
the Knights, and his unclouded treatment of the
ital—the Mother of Labour”; and the contents of
Cicero and his contemporaries, Cæsar, Pompey, and
the pamphlet of 1891 on “Social Diseases and Anthony. Never were they made plainer. We are
Worse Remedies.” Now that the man against whose
impressed also by the occasional paragraphs on
pretensions and activities that pamphlet was directed
has been received with open arms by so many of
Roman politics, which, in point of “favoritism,"
our fellow-countrymen, Professor Huxley's objec- to have differed greatly from our own. This book,
“log-rolling,” and corruption by wealth, seems not
tions to "corybantic Christianity" are given a re-
though written two thousand years after the birth
newed timeliness. Professor Huxley, in his preface,
remarks that, “ Mr. Booth's standing army remains
of Cicero, is opportune. During this great lapse of
time the lustre of Cicero's name has not been dimmed.
afoot, retaining all the capacities for mischief which
Mr. Strachan-Davidson's excellent biography will
are inherent in its constitution. I am desirous that
be found to give in the best form what modern stu-
this fact should be kept steadily in view; and that
dents demand. Abundant foot-notes testify to the
the moderation of the clamour of the drums and
faithful work which the production of the book has
trumpets should not lead us to forget the existence
cost its author.
of a force which, in bad hands, may, at any time,
be used for bad purposes.” It is extremely satis-
Another of the pretty books that are
factory to note the completion of this series of Pro-
printed in London by the Messrs.
lo Poetry."
fessor Huxley's miscellaneous writings. However
Dent, and sold in this country by
their timeliness may become impaired, their useful the Messrs. Macmillan, is called “The Prelude to
ness for other purposes as examples of clear-cut Poetry,” and is edited by Mr. Ernest Rhys. It
cogent argument, and of a popularization which de is designed as the first volume of a series called
tracts nothing from the dignity of science—will out “ The Lyrical Poets," and the volumes to follow
live more than the present generation. The author will be made up of selections from the lyric treas-
has, all his life long, fought sturdily against the ba ures of our speech. This “prelude,” however, con-
tallions of ignorance and prejudice, and his rewardtains, instead of poetry, the best things that have
is assured in the thankfulness of the thousands whom been said about poetry in the prose of our English
he has helped to think clearly, and to whose lives poets, from Chaucer to Landor. Sidney's “ Apol-
he has supplied an effective ethical impulse. ogie for Poetry” and Shelley’s “ Defence of Poesy,"
are the chief courses in this critical banquet; but
Cicero's life was the very storm the relevés, pastries, and other adjuncts of a well-
A satisfactory
centre of the decline and fall of the appointed repast, are not missing. We have ex-
life of Cicero.
Roman Republic. To treat the one tracts from Spenser, Campion, and Daniel, from
satisfactorily, it is necessary to treat the other fully. Jonson’s “ Discoveries,” from Milton, Dryden, and
Mr. Strachan-Davidson does it charmingly in his Pope, from Gray, Goldsmith, and Burns, from
volume on “Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Re- Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats. And this choice
public" (Putnam). There is not a dry spot in the collection of weighty matters is properly introduced
A "Prelude


1895.]
59
THE DIAL
“ What we
by the editor, whose pleasant opening essay pre-
pares the mind for what is to follow.
find in these contributions,” he says, " is a set of
testimonies not at all scientific, but such as they are,
making a much more delightful and eloquent com-
panion to the poetic anthology than any more for-
mal body of criticism could do.” And we are quite
prepared to endorse the further statement of Mr.
Rhys, that “to those who love these poets most,
who care most for their ideals, this little book ought
to be the one indispensable book of devotion, the
credo of the poetic faith.”
and brief justice is done to historical and literary asso-
ciations. Pronunciation is also indicated as far as pos-
sible. There are 768 double-columned pages, and the
volume is substantially bound in half-leather with green
cloth covers.
« Pelléas and Mélisande,” which is probably the best
of M. Maeterlinck's dramatic works, has been trans-
lated into English by Mr. Erving Winslow, and makes
a pretty book as now published by Messrs. T. Y.
Crowell & Co. The author was terribly handicapped
upon his last appearance in letters by the injudicious
deliverances of the French critic who hailed him as a
new Shakespeare. But we should not let ourselves be
prejudiced against a man by what his friends say of
him, and there can be no doubt that the Belgian dra-
matist has become a sort of literary force. Mr. Wins-
low contributes to his translation an interesting and
temperate critical introduction.
BRIEFER MENTION.
Professor H. Graetz's “ History of the Jews" (Phil-
adelphia: Jewish Publication Society) still pursues its
voluminous course, but we are reminded by the appear-
ance of the fourth volume, which covers the period
from 1270 to 1618, that the end cannot be far distant.
The former of the dates which stand as boundary-posts
to the present volume is that assigned to the rise of the
Kabbala and its cultivation in Spain and elsewhere.
Among the subjects that follow are the successive ex-
pulsions of the Jews from France, Spain, and Portugal,
the persecutions caused by the Black Death, the progress
of Jewish literature during the middle ages,
Reuchlin's
defense of the Jewish literature, the Jews in Sixteenth
Century Turkey and Poland, and the permanent settle-
ment of the Marranos in Holland. The date of this
settlement was 1618, which marks the limit set for the
present volume, but a closing chapter on “The Dutch
Jerusalem and the hirty Years' War” carries on the
annals to the date of the Peace of Westphalia.
Professor James M. Garnett's edition of “ Hayne's
Speech to which Webster Replied” (Maynard) takes
the form of a pamphlet for school use, but it is not often
that a text for this purpose is edited with so much pains.
The editor's part of the work consists of a careful biog-
raphy of Hayne, a special article on “ The Great De-
bate," and a few notes. The text has been collated with
the copy presented by Hayne to Madison, and with the
copy in a volume of speeches preserved by Mrs. Hayne.
It is well to have the Southern side of the argument
studied in our schools, which have too often been con-
tent with an examination of the famous “ Reply.”
It seems that we were a little premature when, in our
last notice of the “ Dictionary of National Biography'
(Macmillan) we stated that the letter M was done with.
But who could have foreseen a whole series of Mylnes,
to say nothing of two Myrddins and a Myvyr? These
names, with a large share of the N's, are found in Vol-
ume XL. of the great work just published. In this vol-
ume the Napiers fill a large place, four of them, includ-
ing Lord Napier of Magdala, getting several pages each.
The longest biography is Mr. Glazebrook's Sir Isaac
Newton; the next longest, Professor Laughton's Nelson.
Thomas Nash, by the editor, and Cardinal Newman, by
Mr. W. S. Lilly, are the articles of greatest literary
interest.
“Chambers's Concise Gazetter of the World” (Lip-
pincott) is a volume of moderate dimensions, based
chiefly upon the geographical articles of “Chambers's
Encyclopædia.” The latest official figures have been
used by the compiler, interesting etymologies are given,
NEW YORK TOPICS.
New York, January 10, 1895.
The first day of this month marked the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the founding of “The Christian Union,”
now “The Outlook.” Dr. Lyman Abbott and Mr.
Hamilton W. Mabie, the editors, are well known in
their respective fields of labor, but it is of Mr. Mabie
that I wish especially to speak. He joined the staff
of “The Outlook" in 1879, and became its associate
editor five years later. There have been few profes-
sional men of letters in this city who have accomplished
more with less fuss than Mr. Mabie during the ensuing
period. Besides his engrossing editorial duties, he has
found time to deliver many lectures and addresses and
to take an active interest in public affairs. But it is as
the author of the five volumes of literary and social
essays just issued in a uniform edition that Mr. Mabie
chiefly demands our attention. In these books are to
be found the crystallization of his life-work, so various
and extensive. We should hardly call him a pupil of
Mitchell and Curtis. Were he not so young, it would
be more truthful to call him their contemporary. When
“ The Christian Union" was established, its editors de-
clared, “We are glad to work with any one who is will-
ing to work with us to make the word better. We do
not ask what church or party he belongs to, nor what
name he bears.” And this quotation, with suitable
changes, would apply to Mr. Mabie's writings. They
seem to me, consciously or unconsciously, to embody a
complete system of literary philosophy, hidden under a
fascinating array of discussions of books and life.
So many people now feel at liberty to speak for Mr.
Howells, that he has been obliged to send letters to the
newspapers denying various sentiments attributed to
him. It is very amusing to find the Boston “Tran-
script” posing as his defender against chance shots”
made at him in his absence by fellow men of letters at
the Stevenson memorial meeting. I am informed that
a number of the vice-presidents, including Mr. Howells,
Mr. Kipling, and others, were not expected to be pres-
ent at the meeting, a geographical impossibility in
many cases, but were asked to lend the weight of their
names as admirers of Stevenson, and that they were
glad to do so. The idea that any of the speakers took
advantage of Mr. Howells's absence to make unfavor-
able references to him is absurd, and the suggestion to
it reminds me of the days when the Boston “ Tran-


60
[Jan. 16,
THE DIAL
His new
script" was known as the Boston “ Teapot.” A tempest Government printing office at Washington, in the series
in a teapot, indeed. In the first place, the speakers of monographs upon the educational history of the
could not have known whether Mr. Howells was pres several states. More than half of the contents are de-
ent or not in an audience of two thousand people. voted to Brown University.
Probably there is some feeling among the Boston illu The limited edition of the little volume containing
minati, because Mr. Howells has come to New York to an account of the Bryant celebration at Knox College,
live, yet nothing would surprise me less than to find in November, having been practically disposed of, a
him established next year in Tokio or Cairo, he not be cheaper edition will be issued, from the same type, but
ing a citizen of any one city.
bound in paper. Copies may be had by addressing Mr.
Mr. James MacArthur, associate-editor with Prof. Ernest Elmo Calkins, Galesburg, Ill.
H. Thurston Peck of the American edition of “The
“Le Modèle” (H. Laurens, 6 Rue de Tournon,
Bookman,” has just returned from London, where he Paris) signalizes the completion of its first year by the
has completed arrangements for the publication of that publication of four studies in aquarelle, in place of the
periodical. The first number will appear early in regular black - and - white plates. This closing num-
February; it will contain an article on Dr. Robertson
ber of the year also contains a title-page and index,
Nicoll by Mr. S. R. Crockett, a new poem by Mr. Aus together with several pages of text descriptive of the
tin Dobson, a rarity in these days, indeed, a London ninety-six plates that constitute the first volume. Art-
letter from Dr. Nicoll, with Robert Louis Stevenson students should find this periodical helpful and sugges-
for its subject, and a letter on Parisian topics from Mr. tive.
R. H. Sherard. Professor Boyesen, for the same num The ninth Quarterly Convocation of the University
ber, will give a survey of German and Scandinavian
of Chicago was held at the Auditorium on the evening
literature for 1894.
of January 2. President Low of Columbia was the
Mr. Noah Brooks will sail for Italy and the Levant orator of the occasion, and spoke sensibly and forcibly
on the 29th of this month, returning in the early spring, of the relation of universities toward political and social
Mr. Gilbert Parker is visiting the city, and will remain problems. President Harper reviewed the work of the
in this country for the rest of the winter.
last quarter, stated that exactly 1,000 students had
novel, just completed, will bear the title, “The Seats been enrolled, and announced the organization of a new
of the Mighty." The fund for a memorial to George
department—that of pedagogy. He also announced
William Curtis is increasing steadily. A special com several gifts to the University, the most important of
mittee of leading citizens of Boston has been formed to
which was one of $175,000, from Mr. John D. Rocke-
raise subscriptions in that city and vicinity. It has feller, to be applied upon the current expenses for the
been suggested that a similar committee might be
year.
formed in Chicago to aid in perpetuating the memory A club of twelve book-lovers calling themselves “The
of the late occupant of the “Easy Chair.”
Duodecimos ” has just done an act of piety to the mem-
ARTHUR STEDMAN.
ory of Benjamin Franklin by reproducing in facsimile
“ Poor Richard's Almanac for 1733," from the only
known copy of the original, in the Pennsylvania His-
torical Society's collection at Philadelphia. The fac-
LITERARY NOTES.
simile is printed on a hand-press made in Philadel-
The text of Dr. Skeats's Chaucer, reprinted in a single phia before 1800, ink-balls being used in the primitive
volume, will appear at once from the press of Messrs. way; the paper is genuine eighteenth-century handmade
Macmillan & Co.
such as Franklin may have used, but with a little of
Over a hundred letters written by Scott to Mr. Craig,
that “wilful waste” of margin which the philosopher
the banker, have been found in the archives of the old
believed made “woful want." An introduction by the
Leith Bank, at Galashiels.
Hon. John Bigelow_in which is reprinted for the first
The fourth volume of Craik's “ English Prose Selec-
time the diverting correspondence between Franklin and
tions” deals with the eighteenth century and will be
his chief competitor in the almanac business, one Titan
ready for publication early in January.
Leeds -- is printed in a modern type cast expressly for
Mr. David Christie Murray is to be the guest of the
the purpose, on a handmade paper bearing the club's
Twentieth Century Club of Chicago on the eighteenth
water-marked devices. The frontispiece is a portrait
of this month. “A Poet's Note-Book" is announced as
of Franklin etched by Thomas Johnson from the Du-
the subject of his address.
plessis pastel in Mr. Bigelow's possession; and inter-
spersed with the text are thirteen other portraits of
We learn with regret that Mrs. Humphry Ward
Franklin, apocryphal and otherwise, with notes thereon,
has decided not to accompany her husband upon his
reproduced in artotype by the Bierstadt process. One
visit to this country. Mr. Ward is expected to arrive
about the close of January.
hundred and forty-four copies only are printed, twelve
on vellum for the members, and one hundred and thirty-
“Little Eyolf,” Dr. Ibsen's new play, reviewed from
two on paper, which have been sold to subscribers. To
the original in the last issue of THE DIAL, has since
insure absolute fidelity, all quotations have been veri-
been published by Messrs. Stone & Kimball in Mr.
fied by comparison with the original issues — complete
William Archer's English translation.
files of which, dating from 1733 to 1758 (Franklin's
It is not easy to believe the statement made by “ The period), have been located, with the exception of the
Athenæum” that Robert Louis Stevenson once offered issue for 1735, which is nowhere to be found. No pains
to write a monograph on Hazlitt for the « English Men or expense has been spared by the club (wbich is not a
of Letters," and that the offer was declined by the ed-
money-making enterprise) to make their first venture a
itor of the series.
success, and the DeVinne Press has produced a book
A “History of Higher Education in Rhode Island," which for typographical excellence and good taste re-
by Dr. W. H. Tolman, has just been issued from the flects credit upon itself and upon “The Duodecimos.".


1895.]
61
THE DIAL
“Præco Latinus” is a Latin monthly paper of eight Imagine the poems of " Lewis Carroll” subjected, one
pages, published by Mr. Arcade Mogyorossy, of Phila after another, to the searching criticism of science !
delphia. The contents include brief editorials, criti Some one ought to unearth this indignant parent, and
cism of schoolbooks, educational notes, and other mat present him with a copy of the nursery classic which
ters. The editor is very scornful upon the subject of has strangely been left out of his education.
existing methods in the teaching of the classics and
The following are extracts from two letters written
the popular text-books, and indulges in many “prave by Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, the one to a friend in San Fran-
ords," indicative of the reforms he hopes to accom cisco, the other to Mr. Sidney Colvin: “Our dear Louis
plish. He occasionally lapses into English, to such
died the night of December 3d in the full tide of work
effect as this : “The purifying waters of reform will
and life. He passed away without pain or conscious-
gradually soak under the financial foundations of the
ness, finding the death he had always prayed for. The
Olympian citadels. . . . Before long you will hear the
doctors said that nothing could have been done for him;
rumble of a land-slide, when inflated idols and methods
he had simply come to the end of his power of living.
will crumble and sink into the surging waves.” We com-
The extraordinary love and kindness we have received
mend “ Præco Latinus as a very amusing little sheet,
from our Samoans has passed all knowledge. If any-
however unsound may be the theories of its editor.
thing could have comforted us, it was the unforgetta-
Professor Morse Stephens, Cornell's new professor of ble devotion that they displayed. There was none of
European history from Oxford, has made some inter the professional horrors that make death so terrible.
esting comparisons between English and American col-
Not a strange hand touched him; his own people dug
lege students. He concludes that the average Ameri his grave on the high mountain ridge, where it was al-
can undergraduate takes a more comprehensive view of
ways his wish to lie."
“My previous letter was in-
history, has a better grasp of its essential facts, and terrupted by the arrival of several of our truest Sam-
surpasses his English cousin of corresponding grade in
oan chiefs with their last presents for Louis, the fine
power of generalization; but the American student is
mats that the body of a great man must be wrapped in.
lamentably deficient in his knowledge of details and All night they sat around his body, in company with
also writes very poor English. Professor Stephens
every one of our people, in stolid silence. It was in
thought the essays written by his undergraduate stu vain that I attempted to get them away.
This is the
dents at Cornell were on the whole better than similar
Samoan way,' they said, and that ended the matter.
essays written by English students at Cambridge, al They kissed his hand one by one as they came in. It
though he sharply criticized the spelling, grammar, and
was a most touching sight. You cannot realize what
generally careless style of the Americans. When, how- giving these mats means. They are the Samoans' for-
ever, he set his American students an examination of tune. It takes a woman a year to make one, and these
twenty questions concerning dates and places, he was people of ours were of the poorest."
overwhelmed by the lack of knowledge of facts dis-
played in the answers. More than half the class failed
to pass the examination, the average percentage being TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS.
about 40, and as a rule the students who wrote the
January, 1895 (Second List).
best essays handed in the poorest examination papers.
Altruistic Impulse, The. T. Gavanescul. Journal of Ethics.
The intelligent public has been not a little amused by
Armor of Old Japan. M. S. Hunter. Century.
the ignorant onslaught recently made by some of the
Bamboo, The. J. Fortuné Nott. Cosmopolitan.
Chicago newspapers upon the improved methods of
Cathedrals of France, The. Barr Ferree. Cosmopolitan.
teaching recently introduced into the public schools of Charity, Old and New. H. C. Vrooman. Arena.
the city, but it was left for a casual contributor to one China, Our Trade with. W. C. Ford. North American.
of those newspapers to cap the climax of absurdity. The
Czar, The Young. Charles Emory Smith. North American.
following is the essential part of his complaint: “In all
Death Duties in England, The New. North American.
the discussion about nature studies, of which I have been
Dogma, The Necessity of. J.E. McTaggart. Jour. of Ethics.
Energy, The Natural Storage of. L. F. Ward. Monist.
a careful reader, I do not believe attention has been
Ethics, The Advancement of. F. E. Abbott. Monist,
called to the injudicious character of a song which 1
Festivals in American Colleges for Women. Century.
found in a little book used by the primary teachers in Fiction, Recent. William Morton Payne. Dial (Jan. 16).
the Chicago schools. Here is a verse of it:
Flying-Machine, The New. Hiram S. Maxim. Century.
How does the little crocodile
Gold, The Future of. North American.
Improve his shining tail,
Humboldt's Aztec Paintings. Ph. J.J. Valentine. Cosmop'n.
And pour the water of the Nile
Japan. Helen H. Gardener. Arena.
On every golden scale.
Japan, Occult. Ernest W. Clement. Dial (Jan. 16).
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
Labor Troubles, The Recent. Carroll Wright. Jour. of Ethics.
Linton, W. J., Recollections of. Dial (Jan. 16).
How neatly spreads his claws,
Longevity and Death. George J. Romanes. Monist.
And welcomes little fishes in
Longfellow's Poetry, The Religion of. W. H. Savage. Arena.
With gently smiling jaws.'
Nagging Women. Cyrus Edson. North American.
“My recollection of the habits of the crocodile is that Novels and Novel Readers. Richard Burton. Dial (Jan. 16).
he doesn't live on fish at all, although he is said to catch Paolo and Francesca. “Ouida.” Cosmopolitan.
birds in the way described. That a little child's atten Pasteur. Jean Martin Charcot. Cosmopolitan.
tion should be called to either fact, however, in a civil-
Political Upheavals, Historic. T. B. Reed. North American.
ized school-room seems incredible. I was very indig-
Politics as a Career. W. D. McCrackan. Arena.
nant when I saw it, as I have two boys in the primary
Ropes's Civil War. C. H. Cooper. Dial (Jan. 16).
Rossetti, Christina Georgina. Dial (Jan. 16).
grade. I determined that I would not have a boy of
Senate, Reformation of the. M. D. Conway. Monist.
mine taught such stuff; and to give it a humorous turn, Theatres, Early London. G. M. Hyde. Dial (Jan. 16).
as the author of these lines seems to have tried to do, is Virtue, The Teleology of. Walter Smith. Journal of Ethics.
simply monstrous.” This is almost too funny for belief. Women, Means of Self-Support for. Harriet Allen. Century.
-


62
[Jan. 16,
THE DIAL
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
[The following list, containing 45 titles, includes books re-
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
1
HISTORY.
Britain's Naval Power: A Short History of the Growth of
the British Navy from Earliest Times to Trafalgar. Illus.,
12mo, uncut, pp. 265. Macmillan & Co. $1.50.
A Student's Manual of English Constitutional History.
By Dudley Julius Medley, M.A. 12mo, pp. 583. Mac-
millan & Co. $3.25.
BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS.
Alexander III. of Russia. By Charles Lowe, M.A., author
of “Prince Bismarck.” With portrait, 12mo, gilt top,
pp. 370. Macmillan & Co. $1.75.
Life and Letters of Dean Church. Edited by his daughter,
Mary C. Church; with preface by the Dean of Christ
Church. 12mo, uncut, pp. 428. Macmillan & Co.
$1.50.
The Modern Temple and Templars: The Life and Work
of Russell H. Conwell. By Robert J. Burdette. Illus.,
12mo, pp. 385. Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.25.
Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Sidney
Lee. Vol. XLI., Nichols - O'Dugan ; 8vo, gilt top, pp.
455. Macmillan & Co. $3.75.
REFERENCE.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Ed-
ited by Dr. James A. H. Murray. Vol. III., Deceit-
Deject; 4to, uncut, pp. 63. Macmillan & Co. 60 cts.
Appletons' Hand-Book of American Winter Resorts;
for Tourists and Invalids. Revised edition ; illus., 12mo,
pp. 168. D. Appleton & Co. 50 cts.
Parliamentary Usage for Women's Clubs and for De-
liberative Bodies Other than Legislative. By Maria
Frances Prichard. 24mo, pp. 60. The Robert Clarke
Co. 30 cts.
Guide to the Italian Pictures at Hampton Court. By Mary
Logan. 12mo, pp. 48. London: A. D. Innes & Co. 10 cts.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES.
Natural Rights: A Criticism of Some Political and Ethical
Conceptions. By David G. Ritchie, M.A., author of
“Darwin and Hegel.” 8vo, uncut, pp. 304. Macmillan
& Co. $2.75.
American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Eco-
nomics. By Amos G. Warner, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 430.
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. $1.75.
Social Growth and Stability: A Consideration of the Fac
tors of Modern Society. By D. Ostrander. 12mo, pp. 191.
S. C. Griggs & Co. $1.
Sir William Petty: A Study in English Economic Litera-
ature. By Wilson Lloyd Bevan, M.A. 8vo, uncut, pp.
102. American Economic Association. 75 cts.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Imagination in Dreams and their Study. By Frederick
Greenwood. 12mo, uncut, pp. 198. Macmillan & Co.
$1.75.
The Annals of a Quiet Valley. By a Country Parson;
edited by John Watson, F.L.S., author of “Sylvan Folk.'
Illus., i2mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 217. Macmillan &
Co. $2.
Outlines of the History of Classical Philology. By Al-
fred Gudeman. Second edition, revised, etc.; 12mo, pp.
77. Ginn & Co. 85 cts.
The second Mrs. Tanqueray: A Play in Four Acts. By
Arthur W. Pinero. 16mo, pp. 174. Boston: Walter H.
Baker & Co. 50 cts.
POETRY.
The Cross of Sorrow: A Tragedy in Five Acts. By Will-
iam Akerman. 8vo, uncut, pp. 102. Macmillan & Co.
$1.50.
The Poems of Henry Abbey. Third edition, enlarged ;
12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 290. Kingston, N. Y.: The
Author. $1.25.
Many Moods. By Warren Holden. 12mo, pp. 108. Press
of J. B. Lippincott Co. 75 cts.
Rhyme and Roundelay. By H. Cochrane. 12mo, pp. 17.
Montreal: W. Drysdale & Co.
The Fable of the Ass: A Satire. By Geo. A. Taylor, 12mo,
pp. 13. San Francisco : C. A. Murdock & Co.
THEOLOGY AND RELIGION.
The Message of Man: A Book of Ethical Scriptures. Gath-
ered from many sources and arranged by Stanton Coit.
12mo, uncut, pp. 323. Macmillan & Co. $1.75.
The Permanent Value of the Book of Genesis as an In-
tegral Part of the Christian Revelation. By C. W. E.
Body, M.A. 12mo, pp. 230. Longmans, Green & Co.
$1.50.
The Books of Samuel: Critical Edition of the Hebrew Text,
Printed in Colors. With notes by K. Budde, D.D. 8vo,
uncut. Johns Hopkins Press. $2.
The Book of Leviticus: Critical Edition of the Hebrew
Text, Printed in Colors. With notes by S. R. Driver,
D.D., and Rev. H. A. White, M.A. 8vo, uncut. Johns
Hopkins Press. 75 cts.
EDUCATION.-BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND
COLLEGE.
Waymarks for Teachers: Showing Aims, Principles, and
Plans of Everyday Teaching, with Illustrative Lessons.
By Sarah L. Arnold. 12mo, pp. 274. Silver, Burdett &
Co. $1.25.
History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. By Will-
iam Howe Tolman, Ph.D. 8vo, pp. 210. Government
Printing Office.
Elements of Physics for Use in Secondary Schools. By S.
P. Meads. 12mo, pp. 288. Silver, Burdett & Co. 72 cts.
Endymion, the Man in the Moon. By John Lyly, M.A.; ed-
ited, with notes, etc., by George P. Baker. 16mo, pp. 109.
Henry Holt & Co. 65 cts.
Ruy Blas. By Victor Hugo ; edited, with introduction, notes,
etc., by Samuel Garner, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 230. Heath's
"Modern Language Series.” 75 cts.
Hernani: A Drama. By Victor Hugo; edited, with notes,
etc., by George McLean Harper, Ph.D. With portrait,
12mo, pp. 126. Henry Holt & Co. 70 cts.
The Educational System of Penmanship. Prepared by
Anna E. Hill. In 7 books ; 12mo. Leach, Shewell & San-
born,
SCIENCE,
The Factors in Organic Evolution: A Syllabus of a Course
of Elementary Lectures. By David Starr Jordon. 12mo,
pp. 149. Ginn & Co. $1.50.
Weismannism Once More. By Herbert Spencer. 12mo, pp.
24. D. Appleton & Co. 10 cts.
FICTION
Little Eyolf. By Henrik Ibsen ; trans. by William Archer.
16mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 164. Stone & Kimball. $1.50.
The Land of the Sun: Vistas Mexicanas. By Christian
Reid, author of "A Comedy of Elopement." Tilus., 12mo,
pp. 355. D. Appleton & Co. $1.75.
Dust and Laurels: A Study in Nineteenth Century Woman-
hood. By Mary L. Pendered. 12mo, pp. 266. D. Ap-
pleton & Co. $1.
The Last Cruise of the Spitfire; or, Luke Foster's Strange
Voyage. By Edward Stratemeyer, author of " Richard
Dare's Venture.” Illus., 12mo, pp. 245. The Merriam
Co. $1.25.
The Panglima Muda: A Romance of Malaya. By Rounse-
velle Wildman. Illus., 12mo, pp. 139. San Francisco :
Overland Monthly Pub'g Co. 75 cts.
NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES.
Longmans' Paper Library: Sweetheart Gwen, by William
Tirebuck; 12mo, pp. 277, 50 cts.
Bonner's Choice Series: The Flower of Gala Water, by Mrs.
Amelia E. Barr; illas., 12mo, pp. 392. 50 cts.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The Book of the Rose. By Rev. A. Foster-Melliar, M.A.
Illus., 12mo, gilt top, pp. 336. Macmillan & Co. $2.75.
The Harvard University Catalogue, 1894-95. 12mo, pp.
623. Published by the University.


1895.]
63
THE DIAL
THE DIAL'S CONTRIBUTORS.
The following list of The DiaL’s contributors is published for the purpose of showing how varied are the intel-
lectual interests represented by the review, and how serious and authoritative its contents. It will be noticed that
the institutions of higher learning have furnished THE DIAL with a large proportion of its contributors, and that our
most important universities, with hardly an exception, are represented in the list. The Dial feels that it has
reason to be proud of a list that includes the chief justice of the United States, presidents or professors of some
thirty colleges and universities, and many of the most distinguished private scholars in the country.
Pres. C. K. Adams, University of Wis. Prof. C. M. Gayley, Univ. of California. Prof. Henry L. Osborn, Hamline Univ.
Prof. H. C. Adams, University of Mich. Prof. J. F. Genung, Amherst College. Eugene Parsons, Chicago.
Prof.H.B. Adams, Johns Hopkins Univ. Frank Gilbert, Chicago.
Prof. G.T. W. Patrick, University of Ia.
*Prof. W. F. Allen, University of Wis. Rev. Simeon Gilbert, Chicago.
William Morton Payne, The Dial.
Prof. E. P. Anderson, Miami University. Richard Watson Gilder, New York City. Dr. S. H. Peabody, late Pres. Univ. of Ill.
Prof. M. B. Anderson, Stanford Univ. Rev.Washington Gladden, Columbus, O. Norman C. Perkins, Detroit, Mich.
Prof. R. B. Anderson, Madison, Wis. Frederick W. Gookin, Chicago.
Prof. W. R. Perkins, University of la.
Dr. Edmund Andrews, President Chicago * Mrs. Genevieve Grant, Chicago. Egbert Phelps, Joliet, Ill.
Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Edward E. Hale, Jr., Univ. of Iowa Hon. J. O. Pierce, Minneapolis, Minn.
*Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, Chicago.
Dr. Fitzedward Hall, Marlesford, Eng. * Dr. W. F. Poole, Librarian Newberry
Elwyn A. Barron, Chicago.
Prof. J. J. Halsey, Lake Forest Univ. Library, Chicago.
Prof. John Bascom, Williams College. Dr. Caskie Harrison, Brooklyn, N. Y. * Rev. H. N. Powers, Piermont, N. Y.
*Lieut. Fletcher S. Bassett, Chicago. Prof. C. H. Haskins, University of Wis. William H. Ray, Hyde Park High
Rev. George Batchelor, Lowell, Mass. Prof. J. T. Hatfield, Northwestern Univ. School, Chicago.
Prof. Katharine Lee Bates, Wellesley Col Prof. George Hempi, University of Mich. Rev. C. A. L. Richards, Providence, R.I.
Prof. Geo. Baur, University of Chicago. Prof. C. R. Henderson, Univ. of Chicago. Prof. C. G. D. Roberts, King's College,
Prof. E. W. Bemis, Univ. of Chicago. Prof. J. B. Henneman, Univ. of Tenn. Windsor, N. S.
Walter Besant, London, England. Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, Chicago. J. B. Roberts, Indianapolis, Ind.
Pres. W. M. Blackburn, University of Rev. Brooke Herford, London, England. John C. Ropes, Boston, Mass.
North Dakota.
James L. High, Chicago.
Prof. E. A. Ross, Stanford University.
Louis J. Block, Chicago.
Prof. Emil G. Hirsch, Univ. of Chicago. James B. Runnion, Kansas City, Mo.
Charles C. Bonney, Pres. World's Con- Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, Univ. of Mich. William M. Salter, Philadelphia, Pa.
gress Auxiliary, Chicago.
Prof. E. S. Holden, Lick Observatory. Prof. M. W. Sampson, University of Ind.
Lewis H. Boutell, Evanston, Ill. Charles S. Holt, Lake Forest, III. Prof. Felix E. Schelling, Univ. of Penn.
Prof. H. H. Boyesen, Columbia College. Prof. Williston S. Hough, Univ. of Minn. * Thorkild A. Schovelin, New York City.
Francis F. Browne, Editor The Dial. Mrs. Sara A. Hubbard, Chicago.
Clinton Scollard, Clinton, N. Y.
Dr. William M. Bryant, St. Louis, Mo. Prof.W. H. Hudson, Stanford University Prof. F. W. Scott, University of Mich.
John Burroughs, West Park, N. Y. Capt. E. L. Huggins, U.S. A., N. Y City. M. L. Scudder, Jr., Chicago.
Mary E. Burt, Chicago.
Henry A. Huntington, Rome, Italy. Prof. F. C. Sharp, University of Wis.
Richard Burton, Hartford, Conn. Dr. James Nevins Hyde, Chicago. Albert Shaw, Ed. Review of Reviews.
George W. Cable, Northhampton, Mass. Edward S. Isham, Chicago.
Prof. F.W.Shepardson, Univ. of Chicago
F. I. Carpenter, Chicago.
Prof. H. C. G. von Jagemann, Harvard Prof. L. A. Sherman, Univ. of Nebraska.
Prof. H. S. Carhart, University of Mich.
University.
D. L. Shorey, Chicago.
Mrs. Mary H. Catherwood, Hoopston, Ill. * Hon. John A. Jameson, Chicago. Prof. Paul Shorey, University of Chicago.
Prof. T.C. Chamberlin, Univ. of Chicago Rev. Kristopher Janson, Minnesota. Prof. W. E. Simonds, Knox College.
*Pres. A. L. Chapin, Beloit College. Prof. Joseph Jastrow, University of Wis. William Henry Smith, Lake Forest, Ill.
*James F. Claflin, Chicago High School. Prof. J. W. Jenks, Cornell University. Prof. D. E. Spencer, University of Mich.
John Vance Cheney, Chicago.
W. L. B. Jenney, Chicago.
Prof. H. M. Stanley, Lake Forest Univ.
Ernest W. Clement, Yokohama, Japan. Edward Gilpin Johnson, Milwaukee, Wis. Prof. Frederick Starr, Univ. of Chicago.
Dr. Titus Munson Coan, New York City. Rossiter Johnson, New York City. Merritt Starr, Chicago.
Rev. Robert Collyer, New York City. Prof.W.H. Johnson, Denison University Frank P. Stearns, Boston, Mass.
Dr. R. W. Conant, Chicago.
Pres. David S. Jordan, Stanford Univ. Arthur Stedman, N. Y. City.
Prof. Albert S. Cook, Yale University. Prof. H. P. Judson, Univ. of Chicago. Richard Henry Stoddard, N. Y. City.
Hon. Thomas M. Cooley, Univ. of Mich. Prof. F. W. Kelsey, University of Mich. Mrs. Margaret F. Sullivan, Chicago.
Prof. C. H. Cooper, Carleton College. Prof. C. W. Kent, Charlottesville, Va. * Rev. David Swing, Chicago.
Prof. Hiram Corson, Cornell University. Capt. Charles King, U.S.A., Milwaukee. Slason Thompson, Chicago.
Dr. Elliott Coues, Smithsonian Institu'n. * Joseph Kirkland, Chicago.
Edith M. Thomas, Staten Island, N. Y.
Rev. Joseph H. Crooker, Helena, Mont. Walter C. Larned, Chicago.
H. W. Thurston, Chicago High School.
Prof. E. L. Curtis, Yale University. Bryan Lathrop, Chicago.
Prof. E. B. Titchener, Cornell University
Mrs. Anna Farwell De Koven, N. Y. City. Rev. William M. Lawrence, Chicago. Prof. A. H. Tolman, Univ. of Chicago.
Prof. D. K. Dodge, University of Illinois. Prof. W.C. Lawton, Columbia College. Henry L. Tolman, Chicago.
Col. Theo. A. Dodge, U.S.A., Boston. Henry D. Lloyd, Chicago.
William P. Trent, Sewanee, Tenn.
Prof. M. L. D'Ooge, University of Mich. Dr. H. M. Lyman, Chicago.
Prof. F. J. Turner, University of Wis.
Prof. J. G. Dow, Univ. of South Dakota. James MacAlister, Pres. Drexel Inst. * Prof. Herbert Tuttle, Cornell Univ.
Prof. Louis Dyer, Oxford, England. Franklin MacVeagh, Chicago.
Edward Tyler, Ithaca, N. Y.
Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, Brooklyn, N. Y. Alexander C. McClurg, Chicago. George P. Upton, Chicago.
Prof. O. L. Elliott, Stanford University. Prof. A. C. McLaughlin, Univ. of Mich. Rev. David Utter, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dr. S. R. Elliott, Staten Island, N. Y. Mrs. Anna B. McMahan, Chicago. Prof.J.C.Van Dyke, New Brunsw'k,N.J.
Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wis. Prof. F. A. March, Lafayette College. Horatio L. Wait, Chicago.
Prof. O. F. Emerson, Cornell University. E. G. Mason, Pres. Chicago Hist. Society. Elizabeth A. Wallace, Univ. of Chicago.
Edgar Fawcett, New York City. Miss Kate B. Martin, Chicago.
Charles Dudley Warner, Hartford, Conn.
H. W. Fay, Westborough, Mass. Prof. Brander Matthews, Columbia Col. Stanley Waterloo, Chicago.
Walter T. Field, Chicago.
Miss Marian Mead, Chicago.
W. Irving Way, Chicago.
William Dudley Foulke, Richmond, Ind. Prof. A. C. Miller, Univ. of Chicago. * William H. Wells, Chicago.
Prof. D. B. Frankenburger, Univ. of Wis Miss Harriet Monroe, Chicago.
Prof. Barrett Wendell, Harvard Univ.
Prof. N. C. Fredericksen, late of the Uni- Miss Lucy Monroe, Chicago.
Pres. D. H.Wheeler, Alleghany College.
versity of Copenhagen.
Mrs. A. W. Moore, Madison, Wis. * Prof. N. M. Wheeler, Appleton Univ.
Miss Alice French (Octave Thanet), Da- Prof. A. G. Newcomer, Stanford Univ. Dr. Samuel Willard, Chicago High Sch.
venport, Ia.
Rev. Arthur Howard Noll, New Orleans. R. O. Williams, New Haven, Conn.
Chas. W. French, Chicago High School. James S. Norton, Chicago.
Gen. Robt. Williams, U.S.A., Washington
W.M. R. French, Art Institute, Chicago * Mrs. Minerva B. Norton, Evanston, Ill. Prof. Woodrow Wilson, Princeton Univ.
Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice Rev. Robert Nourse, La Crosse, Wis. * Dr. Alex. Winchell, University of Mich.
of the United States.
*Rev. George C. Noyes, Evanston Ill. Prof. Arthur B. Woodford, N. Y. City.
Henry B. Fuller, Chicago.
Prof. J. E. Olson, University of Wis. Mrs. Celia P. Wooley, Chicago.
William Elliott Furness, Chicago. James L. Onderdonk, Chicago.
Prof. Geo. Frederick Wright, Oberlin, O.
Deceased.


64
[Jan. 16, 1895.
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THE DIAL
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THE DIAL
A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
No. 207.
FEBRUARY 1, 1895. Vol. XVIII.
.
.
.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE USE AND ABUSE OF DIALECT
67
TRIBUTES TO MISS ROSSETTI
69
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN FICTION.
Lavinia H. Egan
70
COMMUNICATIONS
71
Lafayette and Mirabeau. D. L. Shorey.
A Murderous Translator. Herman S. Piatt.
“Nonsense Verses" in the Schoolroom. Dinah
Sturgis.
THE GARDEN WHERE NO WINTER IS (Poem).
Louis J. Block .
72
FROUDE'S ERASMUS. C. A. L. Richards .
73
THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. Alice Morse
Earle
75
THE TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA. John s.
Nollen.
78
MODERN THEORIES OF ELECTRIC ACTION.
Henry S. Carhart .
79
THE PHILOSOPHICAL RENASCENCE IN AMER-
ICA. John Dewey
80
Deussen's The Elements of Metaphysics. – Müller's
Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy.-Hill's Genetic
Philosophy.-Hegel's Philosophy of Mind.-Nichol's
Our Notions of Number and Space. - Ribot's The
Diseases of the Will. – Van Norden's The Psychic
Factor.— Ormond's Basal Concepts in Philosophy.-
Carus's A Primer of Philosophy.
RECENT AMERICAN POETRY. William Morton
Payne.
82
Aldrich's Unguarded Gates.- Thayer's Poems New
and Old.- Miss Thomas's In Sunshine Land.- Mrs.
Hazard's Narragansett Ballads. — Carman and
Hovey's Songs from Vagabondia.– Thompson's Lin-
coln's Grave.- Cawein's Intimations of the Beauti-
ful.- Rogers's The Wind in the Clearing.- Morris's
Madonna.- Williams's The Flute Player.- Cooke's
A Patch of Pansies. — Peterson's Penrhyn's Pil-
grimage.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
86
History of the U. S. Navy.- Selections from two
English poets.- Old English ballads.— The story of
Venice. -Critical studies of five authors.— Nineteen
American authors.- A philanthropist's life and let-
ters.— The paragraph in English composition. A
pungent collection of essays.- Dante Society's an-
nual report.-Child-life in art.-More memories from
Dean Hole.
BRIEFER MENTION
90
NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman
91
LITERARY NOTES.
92
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS
93
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
93
THE USE AND ABUSE OF DIALECT.
There are indications—not very marked as
yet, but still indications -- that the day of the
dialect versifier and story-teller is waning. The
literary epidemic for which he is responsible
has raged with unabated virulence in this coun-
try for the past ten years or more. It has had
almost complete possession of the bric-a-brac
popular magazine. Its contagion has even ex-
tended to those periodicals which we too fondly
fancied to stand for the dignities, as opposed
to the freaks, of literature. At the other ex-
treme, it has been disseminated and vulgarized
by the newspaper and the popular reciter. A
few of the men and women whom we count as
real forces in American letters have been num-
bered among its victims. But all epidemics
exhaust themselves in time, and we are encour-
aged to believe that this one is nearly spent.
A tabulation of the contents of our popular
magazines would now, we think, show a smaller
proportion of pages unreadable for their bad
spelling than would have been disclosed by a
similar investigation made two years ago. The
journalist, having for a time done his best to
spread the fashion of dialect, is now aiming at
it the shafts of his dull yet not ineffective sat-
ire. Many a literary worker is beginning to
suspect that to misspell as many words as pos-
sible is not exactly the noblest of ambitions.
Best of all, the whole fabric of realism — that
is, of the crude photographic realism so noisily
trumpeted by its defenders—is crumbling away,
to make room in due time, we trust, for the
true realism of the masters; and with this
fabric there falls whatever theoretical defence
of the dialect poem or novel may heretofore
have seemed plausible.
We by no means anticipate the complete dis-
appearance of the dialect element from our im-
aginative literature, nor would such a reaction
be desirable. But we do expect the time to
come when dialect shall
occupy
its
proper place
in composition, and be treated as a means rather
than as an end. There is an important dis-
tinction between the story written for the sake
of dialect and the use of dialect for the sake
of the story; the latter practice is as excusable
or even praiseworthy as the former is repre-
.
•
.
.
1
1


68
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
6
hensible. The question is one between a writer Lowell, but “ Josh Billings,” is their model
and his own conscience. Let the story-teller and Great Example.
ask himself this question : Is it my purpose to
No discussion of the abuse of dialect that
produce a faithful yet idealized transcript of should omit the educational view would be ade-
life, with its joys and its sorrows, with its ten- quate. The corrupting influence that may
der human relationships and its grim struggle hardly be escaped by adult readers is tenfold
for the mastery of adverse conditions, the use of more serious in its effect upon the growing
dialect being one of the elements necessary to mind. The prevalence of dialect in the papers
the representation of essential truth ; or am I and magazines that provide young people with
merely taking advantage of a current fashion most of their reading puts a new and formid-
that tends to degrade the literary art, and, able difficulty in the way of teachers and par-
making of a grotesque orthography the raison ents. Even the books put into our schools as
d'être of my work, adding just enough of de models for the guidance of the young — the
scription and fancy and pathos to give my work school “readers " themselves - often contain
the verisimilitude needed for it to pass muster examples of perverted diction that cannot fail
at all? Most writers have sufficient conscience to exert an evil influence upon the impression-
to answer this question truthfully, if squarely able years of childhood. Upon this aspect of
put; if they shirk the answer for themselves, our subject, we cannot do better than quote
they may be sure that the public, sooner or later, some pointed observations from a paper by
will find it for them. And the ultimate verdict Professor Willis Boughton, of Ohio University.
of the only public worth writing for will never Mr. Boughton says:
be favorable to the workman who fails to recog-
“For the past decade some of our most popular
nize the imperative obligation of this higher periodicals have been furnishing their readers with a
weekly or monthly diet of dialect stories. A handful of
sort of conscientiousness.
editors have declared that the people want such litera-
When used with discrimination and artistic ture, and it is produced. Instead of romances in cul-
restraint, dialect is, of course, an admissible tivated language, we are introduced to most ordinary
element in both poetry and fiction. English
characters who use most ordinary folklore. The
Christmas story, Mr. Howells asserts, is written in the
literature would be far the poorer without the Yankee dialect and its Western modifications. Even
treasures of Scotch dialect preserved in the our verse is corrupted. Notice a stanza reproduced from
poems of Burns and the novels of the author a leading magazine :
of "
Waverley.” Likewise, we could ill spare
"I'm been a visitin' 'bout a week
To my little cousin's at Nameless Creek,
the work of the Provençal poets from the lit An' I'm got the hives an' a new straw hat
erature of France, of Goldoni's Venetian com-
An' I'm come back home where my beau lives at.'
edies from that of Italy, or of Reuter's Platt-
What literature! If the magazine, one of the greatest
deutsch tales from that of Germany. In all
educational factors in our country, will tolerate such
these cases, the work simply could not have quote it, the Cincinnati teacher may be pardoned for the
language ; if you and I read it, and smile at it, and
been done at all without the employment of use of language that shocked Dr. Rice. To preserve
dialect; yet no one would venture to assert the speech of a vanishing people, dialect literature may
that the exploitation of a dialect was the prime
be justified ; but to propagate such language is vicious.
motive that led to the composition of “Tam
At school, the teacher may dwell at length upon the
linguistic beauties of the Village Blacksmith'; but on
O'Shanter” or “ The Antiquary,” of “ Miréio” Friday afternoon some urchin declaims :
or “ Il Carnovale di Venezia or “Ut Mine
The Gobble-uns' 'ill git you
Stromtid.” These are all instances of a richly
Ef you don't watch out,'
endowed artistic nature finding expression in
and soon all the children in the district are repeating
his words. Why the offspring of even polite society are
the medium most natural for his
purpose.
Even
prone to use bad English need be no longer a matter of
in our own country, a similar plea may be made wonder."
for the language of Hosea Biglow, or of Mr. “ To propagate such language is vicious." The
Cable's creoles, or of Miss Murfree's Tennes words are none too strong, and we thank Mr.
see mountaineers. But the swarm of common Boughton for them, hoping that the protest he
place and uninspired scribblers of dialect that raises will be echoed by educators everywhere.
have descended upon our periodical press dur These are some of the abuses of dialect;
ing the past decade need not hope to find a safe what, then, are its uses ? To what fruitful end
refuge in the shadow of such really significant may we divert the effort now worse than wasted
names as have been cited; their pretensions by the dialect-mongers of our periodical liter-
are too utterly without warrant and their pro- ature? By substituting a scientific for an ar-
ductions too entirely without justification. Not tistic purpose, by making a serious study of


1895.]
69
THE DIAL
dialect instead of playing with it. The facts
TRIBUTES TO MISS ROSSETTI.
of dialect speech, as distinguished from the in-
ventions of the newspaper humorist, are of
Christina Rossetti died on the 29th of December
great importance to the history of language. - not, as the press despatches announced, on the
No more important linguistic work remains to
31st. The funeral service was held at Christ
be done in this country than that of recording
Church on January 2, and the body was interred
the thousands of local variations of our speech
at the Highgate Cemetery. Among the mourners
from what may be called standard English.
were Mr. W. M. Rossetti, his four children (Olivia,
To fix these colloquialisms in time and place,
Mary, Helen, and Arthur), and Mr. Theodore
Watts. The service included “ The Porter watches
to trace them to their origins, to construct at the gate” and “ Lord, grant us grace to mount
speech-maps embodying the salient facts of
by steps of grace,” two of the poet's most familiar
popular usage wherever it has distinctive fea- hymns.
tures—these are scientific aims of the worthiest. The English literary press is strikingly unani-
Work of this sort is being energetically carried mous in appreciation of Christina Rossetti's great
on by a constantly-increasing number of ob-
gifts, and in expression of its sense of the loss to
English literature in her death.
servers in this country; but the ranks still call
The Literary
World” writes as follows :
for additions, and new-comers will be heartily
welcomed. As a coördinating agency for such
“Looking to the quality of her poetry, Miss Rossetti
attained to the level, at least, of Mrs. Browning, which
scattered contributions to knowledge, the Am. means that she has been excelled by no English woman
erican Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is, poet. The most exquisite sense of music in the choice
in a quiet way, establishing important scien-
and collocation of words, and an etherealised imagina-
tific conclusions. The lay observer is hardly
tion soaring from the sphere of the earthly to that of
the spiritual, are the characteristics of her poems."
competent to make the finer distinctions in
pronunciation that come within the scope of
This passage is from “ The Academy”:
the trained phonetician, but he can be ex-
“ In perfection of form and melody of words, her
lyrics are comparable to those of Shelley : they set them-
tremely useful in the collection of vocabularies. selves to mental music as they are being read. No
The Society asks him to do two things for each poet of the time, not Tennyson or Swinburne — though
peculiar word or idiom that comes to his no-
their range may be far wider — excels her in the mere
tice “ first, to fix the fact that it occurs in
matter of technique. None bas such a pure note, such
a bird-like sweetness."
dialect usage in a sense differing from standard
English, and, secondly, to fix the local limits
“The Athenæum," after grouping Christina Ros-
setti with Walter Pater as the two greatest English
of this usage.” All such variations from the
writers of those who have died during the year, says
normal “represent just the class of facts on
of her that she
which the scientific study of language rests. “Was not merely the greatest poet among English-
Many of them are survivals from older periods women of our day, she was a writer who can be classed
of the language; many new words are formed with all but the very greatest poets of the century.
Her art was of that admirable kind which conceals the
or adopted to meet a real need arising from
process of art; never was verse so careful to seem care-
new conditions, and so ultimately gain a place
less ; and she was not less remarkable for the passionate
in standard English ; and many variations in intensity of her emotion-generally religious emotion-
pronunciation illustrate phonetic changes which than for the intense simplicity of its expression.”
are constantly going on in language develop And “ The Saturday Review” begins its long and
ment. The philologist needs to know, from sympathetic editorial article with the following:
a more reliable source than the ordinary novel By the death of Christina Rossetti, literature, and
ist furnishes, the exact locality where each word not English literature alone, loses the one great modern
or phrase is used (implying, also, a knowledge poetess. There is another English poetess, indeed, who
bas gained a wider fame; but the fame of Mrs. Brown-
of where it is not used); just
it means to
ing, like that of her contemporary, and, one might al-
those who use it, and what local variations
most say, companion, George Sand, was of too immedi-
there are, if any, in its form and meaning ; just ate and temporary a kind to last. The very feminine,
when each new word came in or old one went
very emotional, work of Mrs. Browning, which was
out of use.” If, perchance, our little sermon
really, in the last or first result, only literature of the
L. E. L. order carried to its furthest limits, roused a
on the use and abuse of dialect should turn
sort of womanly enthusiasm, in precisely the same way
even one misguided realist from a grinder-out as the equally feminine, equally emotional, work of
of dialect " copy” for the newspapers into an
George Sand. In the same way, only in a lesser de-
exact observer of local usage for the scientific
gree, all the women who have written charming verse-
and how many there have been in quite recent times !
purposes of the Society, it will not have been
have won, and deservedly, a certain reputation as
preached in vain.
poetesses among poetesses. In Miss Rossetti we have


70
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
66
was
a poet among poets, and in Miss Rossetti alone. Con-
gro's pathos and humor all over the land. This was
tent to be merely a woman, wise in limiting herself
before Mrs. Stowe furnished the spark that kindled
within somewhat narrow bounds, she possessed, in union
into flame the smouldering fires of liberty ; but
with a profoundly emotional nature, a power of ar-
when “Uncle Tom's Cabin ” helped to give the
tistic self-restraint which no other woman who has writ-
ten in verse has ever shown.”
negro a country, it gave him at the same time a
local habitation and a name " in the literature of
Even more interesting than the above critical es-
that country. But all was not yet done. It was
timates, is the personal sketch contributed by Mr.
not the suffering side of the slavery question that
Theodore Watts to “ The Athenæum.” Speaking showed the negro in his richest artistic values, not
of Miss Rossetti's physical sufferings and the forti-
tales of the wretchedness and misery of his condi-
tude with which she met them, Mr. Watts says:
tion that pictured him in his greatest beauty. They
“ Throughout all her life she was the most notable held him fast-bound within the realm of philan-
example that our time has produced of the masterful
thropy, and the artist found there no high lights.
power of man's spiritual nature when at its highest to
It needed the softening touch of a calmer hand to
conquer in its warfare with earthly conditions, as her
brother Gabriel's life was the most notable example of
show him in his true colors; and this it remained
the struggle of the spiritual nature with the bodily when for another generation to furnish. Mr. Thomas
the two are equally equipped. It is the conviction of Nelson Page has collected the distilled sweetness of
one whose high privilege it was to know her in many a all that is loveliest in the negro character, and held
passage of sorrow and trial that of all the poets who it for all time in a chalice of pure gold. He has
have lived and died within our time, Christina Rossetti given to us and to the future the old-fashioned
must have had the noblest soul.”
darkey pure and simple, with his humor, his pathos,
Of another aspect of her character, we read : his self-sacrificing humility, his cultured politeness,
“Her intimacy with Nature-of a different kind alto his noble loyalty; and like unto him is Mr. Joel
gether from that of Wordsworth and Tennyson
Chandler Harris's “ Uncle Remus," whose name
of the kind that I have described on a previous occa has become a household word throughout the length
sion as Sufeyistic : she loved the beauty of this world, and breadth of the land. These two, more than
but not entirely for itself; she loved it on account of its
any other writers, have struck the key-note of the
symbols of another world beyond. And yet she was no
slave to the ascetic side of Christianity. No doubt
negro's artistic value, and have given him as a vital
there was mixed with her spiritualism, or perhaps un-
element to literature. They know him and they
derlying it, a rich sensuousness that under other circum love him, and their pictures are not overdrawn or
stances of life would have made itself manifest, and also idealized. Messrs. Page and Harris have had a host
a rare potentiality of deep passion. It is this, deed, of coadjutors, each one lending a hand to give the
which makes the study of her great and noble nature so negro a permanent place in the literature of our
absorbing."
time, and all combining to perpetuate the memory
Mr. Watts singles out “ Amor Mundi” as being per-
of the sweetest and best of the race.
haps Miss Rossetti's masterpiece.
But what of the future? The next decade at
“ Here we get a lesson of human life expressed, not
farthest must show us the last of the old-fashioned
didactically, but in a concrete form of unsurpassable darkey of “ befo' de war,” and it is he—the pitiful
strength, harmony, and concision. Indeed, it may be remnant of him that we have grown to love and
said of her work generally that her strength as an art revere in fiction. We love him all the more because
ist is seen not so much in mastery over the rhythm, or we know his end is fast approaching; and when he
even over the verbal texture of poetry, as in the skill
is gone, who will take his place? The generation
with which she expresses an allegorical intent by subtle
that is to come after him, and
suggestion instead of direct preachment."
old in our midst
grow
as he grew old, is not worthy to unloose his shoe
latchets, and surely can never fill the place in our
hearts that he holds.
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO
Freedom brought the negro his God-given birth-
IN FICTION.
right, but at the same time it robbed him of his
For nearly fifty years the negro has occupied a
greatest beauty, since it lost for him a background
whereon to show the noblest elements of his char-
place of more or less prominence in American song
and story, and his future position therein cannot but
acter. So long as he lives, the negro must possess,
be a matter of interesting conjecture. It was Stephen
in a certain degree, artistic merit: his light-hearted
Foster's plantation melodies, more than anything
Bohemian nature will keep this for him as surely
as the sun shines, for it is the sun that brings it
else, perhaps, that first showed the negro in his true
about; but he has lost his finest motif. The black
artistic character; and that whole coterie of songs,
“ Uncle Ned,” “O Susanna,” “Old Folks at Home,
“dude” with cane and eyeglass furnishes richer
material to the caricaturist and the evolutionist than
“ Nelly Was a Lady,” etc., forms still the most
unique and vital addition this country has contrib-
to the artist, and the story-teller of the future will
have no easy task to keep the negro up to his pres-
uted to the psalmody of the world. Though not
ent valuation for readers of fiction.
the work of a Southern poet, they bore the stamp
LAVINIA H. EGAN.
of genuineness upon their face, and carried the ne-
Shreveport, Louisiana.
9


1895.]
71
THE DIAL
p. 74.)
ference. Let the appeal, then, go to unbiased readers.
COMMUNICATIONS.
The reminder that Mirabeau did not enter public life
for the first time in 1789 is unimportant. In his youth
LAFAYETTE AND MIRABEAU.
he served a few months in the army. Just before the
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Revolution, Calonne gave him an obscure employment
In reply to Professor von Holst's communication in at Berlin, below any grade of rank in the diplomatic
your last issue, taking exceptions to certain passages in
body. (Loménie, Vol. III., p. 648.)
my review of his “ Lectures on the History of the French The author could not well avoid stating damaging
Revolution,” I wish to say that my article was not in facts in relation to the character of Mirabeau. The
tended to be a complete review of the Lowell Lectures. question at issue is, whether the vices and venalities of
I preferred, as I prefer in this rejoinder, to consider Mirabeau explain his failure to win that confidence of
mainly the characters of Lafayette and Mirabeau, which, colleagues which is necessary to a public man. I did
in the Lectures, were contrasted, with what seemed un not, and cannot now, go fully into the matter. Readers
due exaltation of the one and undue depreciation of the will examine for themselves Professor von Holst's ex-
other; of the one, who, says Professor von Sybel, “lost planation in which he attempts to reduce the charge of
forever the digoity which good morals and honesty give”; venality to what is warranted by the facts. Briefly
and of the other, “of proved disinterestedness, of con stated, they are: That, for generations, public opinion
stant care for the public good, respect for others, au considered it a matter of course that anybody who had
thority of conscience, loyalty, good faith, of motives a chance to get money from the king should improve it;
beautiful and pure,” whom Taine presents as a type of that Mirabeau was paid for work done and services ren-
the cultivated and intelligent liberals of 1789 who did dered (Vol. II., p. 170); that the “salary" he received
not submit to Napoleon. (“ Régime Moderne,” Vol. I., was an incident, and not an end (p. 174); that if the
accusers of Mirabeau cannot convict him in regard to
Professor von Holst's charge relating to the conduct “ two questions” what were his promises, and how
of Lafayette on the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, is they were kept,—it is evident that though his relations
supported on the authority of the light and frivolous to the court were surely not altogether free from blame,
Camille Desmoulins. The unsubstantiated opinion of his own opinion of them must in the main be correct
Sainte-Beuve, fairest of critics, that this charge against (p. 179). And to help the reader to reach these start-
Lafayette has been abandoned or disproved, the author ling conclusions the author states his own opinion, al-
thinks is not sufficient. I hope there will be nothing ready quoted from Vol. II., pp. 180–81. That opinion
“surprising” to Professor von Holst in the opinions of is further sustained by the supposition that it never en-
the eminent historians whom I now cite in support of tered into the heads of Count Mercy and Count La
Sainte-Beuve's opinion. Professor William Smyth says: Marck that taking money from Louis XVI. could throw
“As Lafayette was one of the first movers of the Revo the slightest reflection upon Mirabeau (Vol. II., p. 170).
lution, no proper justice is ever done to his character In the correspondence between Mirabeau and La Marck
by those who were unfriendly to the Revolution; it must often quoted by Professor von Holst, confidential letters
therefore be maintained that it is quite clear, from the from La Marck to Mercy show the real opinion of La
concurring accounts of all writers, that he made every
Marck in relation to Mirabeau (Vol. II., pp. 282, 283,
possible exertion to prevent this fatal measure, this 354). On the 6th of December, 1790, Count La Marck
march upon Versailles, and that with an afflicted and writes to Count Mercy: “The queen will be more and
foreboding heart he accompanied the populace and the more the object of my entire attention, and I shall seize
soldiers to take the chance of moderating and directing, with care all occasions to be useful to her. It is prin-
as well as he could, a dreadful mass of men whom he cipally in that respect that I continue my relations with
could no longer control or bring to reason.” Count Mont Mirabeau. What a man he is ! Always upon the point
losier, a distinguished conservative leader in the Assem of flying into a passion, or losing heart; by turns impru-
bly, says in his Memoirs: “In the midst of these dis dent from excess of confidence, or cooled by mistrust,
orders I was a witness of the grief of Lafayette," etc.
he is difficult to direct in things which require perse-
(pp. 30–33). Taine (Révolution, Vol. I., pp. 133–136); verence and patience. I will fulfil my task to the end,
Michelet (Vol. I., pp. 376–378); Mignet (Vol. I., pp. Count, although I discover more and more all its diffi-
130-138); and Henri Martin (Vol. I., p. 94), give full culties.” (Vol. II., p. 286.) His task was to watch
narrations of the facts concerning the 5th and 6th of Mirabeau and to hold him faithful to the court. Again
October, confirming the opinion of Sainte-Beuve. Fi he writes to Count Mercy: “ Permit me to tell you
nally I quote on this subject the closing sentences of an briefly my present position. I cannot dissimilate that
exhaustive note of Thiers (Vol. I., pp. 375–378): “No
it becomes more and more difficult. On one side I have
one, moreover, dared to deny, in the first moments, a to watch every moment the impetuous character of Mir-
devotion which was universally recognized. Later, abeau, and to bring him back when he escapes from me,
party spirit, perceiving the danger of according virtues or when he escapes from himself. Very passionate, very
to a constitutionalist, denied the services of Lafayette; strong for a sudden attack or at a given moment, he is
and then commenced that long calumny of which he has often incapable of remaining five days in the same meas-
not ceased to be the object.” Poor Camille !
ure and direction.” (Vol. II., p. 530). The real truth
I have not consciously misstated the conclusions of seems to be that nobody could fully trust Mirabeau,
the author upon subjects referred to. When he declares, who had “ lost forever the dignity which good morals
with italics, that Mirabeau was a party by himself, and and honesty give."
knew beforehand that it would be so, and was determined Evidence of the venality of Mirabeau was found in
that it should be so, he thinks, nevertheless, that he has the secret vault of Louis XVI., November 20, 1792.
somewhere stated overlooked facts which explain the Then the judgment of France upon the conduct of Mira-
meaning of what he had previously said, and that un beau in his ions to the court was first expressed.
biased readers will see the palpable fallacies of my in By unanimous vote of the Constitutional Convention, all


72
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
honors previously bestowed in perpetuation of his mem-
ory were withdrawn, on the ground that no man can be
esteemed great without virtue. D. L. SHOREY.
Chicago, January 20, 1895.
A MURDEROUS TRANSLATOR.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
It was an honor which the culture of America duly
appreciated, when, in 1893, one of the most famous of
contemporary French writers came to our shores and
visited us in our native haunts. It is a privilege to read
a description of ourselves as seen by unprejudiced, but
not unfriendly, eyes. M. Bourget is a decided advance
over “ Max O’Rell” as an accurate and penetrating ob-
server—or, at least, as a describer of what is observed.
Eminently psychological and analytical, he does not,
like the latter, deliberately sacrifice truth for effect, and
whether we think his descriptions just or not, we are
bound to admit that they are sincere.
But whether we think M. Bourget just to us, or not,
no one, I believe, wishes to see injustice done to him.
And if ever a writer suffered at the hands of his trans-
lator, it is M. Bourget at the hands of the newspaper
syndicate that is giving his “Outre-Mer” to the Amer-
ican public through the medium of the newspaper press.
Traduttore, traditore, say the Italians. But the trans-
lator of “Outre-Mer" is more than a traitor - he is a
murderer. No comparison with the original, nor even
a knowledge of French, is necessary to discover the ex-
ecrableness of his work. The style, as it comes to us
in the newspaper, is awkward, dull, and tiresome,—and
these are faults of which M. Bourget is never guilty.
A comparison with the original, which is now running
in “Le Figaro,” discloses blunders which ought to put
to shame any college freshman. Scarcely a dozen con-
secutive lines can be selected in which mistranslations
(some of them the most puerile), unwarranted liberties
with the text, and monstrous atrocities committed upon
the English language, do not occur. In its best parts it
is scarcely more than a verbatim transliteration, in which
the graceful and forceful French idiom, transferred
bodily to the English, becomes utterly emasculated and
meaningless.
A few illustrations, selected at random, will abund-
antly show what wrong is being done to a great French
writer and critic. In speaking of the American young
lady, he says: “Je crois plus sage de reconnaître que la
coquetterie n'est pas plus que le reste, chez l'Américaine,
une affaire d'entraînement.” This is how the inspired
translator got it: “I think it safer to recognize that in
coquetry, no more than in the rest, the American girls
allow themselves to be carried away." Every paragraph
is teeming with such meaningless drivel as this, and
the unthinking reader goes away with the impression
that it is M. Bourget who writes it. An average fresh-
man, with one semester's training in French, ought to
know that faire une expérience means “to make an ex-
periment," not “ to undertake an experience"; that a
complet omnibus is not a “complete omnibus ”; and that
when Bourget says: “Ce que l'Amérique me donnera
je l'ignore,” he does not mean that he "ignores” what
America has in store for him.
The fact is that this translation as a whole is heavy,
lumbering, and unreadable. And it is especially to be
deplored, as this charming writer has only too rarely
been brought within the reach of the non-French-read-
ing American public.
HERMAN S. PIATT.
University of Illinois, Jan. 18, 1895.
“NONSENSE VERSES" IN THE SCHOOLROOM.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
May I be permitted to place myself in the publicity
of your columns on the side of the Chicago parent whose
views in your issue of January 16 you class as the “cli.
max of absurdity”?
It is of course greatly to be regretted that a Chica-
goan or anybody else of man or woman's estate should
remain in ignorance of the delicious nonsense that
“Lewis Carroll” has written; but are not many of his
whimsicalities for “grown up” folks rather than for
children's powers of understanding and appreciation ?
Their inimitable foolery is calculated, at least in some
instances, to give sensitive children an erroneous im-
pression of several facts in natural history, and a burt-
ful idea of the principles that make for ethics, long be-
fore the little folks are old enough to sift out and enjoy
the fun of the verses. This in itself should be a good
argument for keeping the nonsense out of school-books,
and permitting each parent for himself to judge what
he shall set before and what keep from his little ones.
The fact that many men and women of exquisite sym-
pathies were “ brought up” on “Mother Goose" does
not prove anything in favor of the more bloodthirsty or
more untruthful of those jingles. Loving and wise
counter-influences made the crooked teachings straight,
or supplanted them altogether. The people whose in-
fant feelings were not cruelly lacerated by the “ Babes
in the Wood” tale, for instance, are to be congratulated,
not held up as examples in favor of treating other little
folks to the same harrowing yarn. It is a good deal like
breaking a butterfly upon a wheel to argue against the
dear old nursery twaddle, and the new nursery twaddle
of the inimitable “Carroll” order; and nobody wishes
to argue against it for anybody old enough to under-
stand its fun and pay no attention to its distortions.
But much of it is pernicious for babies in the kinder-
garten and primary stages. Infant impressions, those
of very young childhood, are among the most lasting we
ever receive; is it not, then, not only the better part of
discretion but the whole of valor, and, what is more to
the point, the whole of tender-hearted parenthood, to
see to it that, however attenuated the truth may be that is
taught children, it shall still be truth, or ideality on truth
lines ?
DINAH STURGIS.
120 East 34th St., New York, Jan. 22, 1895.
THE GARDEN WHERE NO WINTER IS.
"Se Dio ti lasci, lettor, prender frutto
Di tua lezione."
- DANTE.
Behold the portal; open wide it stands,
And the long reaches shine and still allure
To seek their nobler depths, serene, secure,
And watch the waters kiss the yellow sands
That gentle winds stir with their sweet commands;
These stately growths from age to age endure,
These splendid blooms glow in the sunlight pure,
These wondrous works of human hearts and hands.
Over the charmed space no storm may rest,
The glooiny hours avoid the magic bound;
Homer dwells here, Virgil, and all the blest
Whose perfumed color lights Time's mighty round;
Pluck the fruit freely, reader, and partake,
God wills it,- for the enchanted Soul's fair sake!
LOUIS J. BLOCK.


1895.]
73
THE DIAL
The New Books.
friendly public in Mr. Froude's treatment of
Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle. A biographer may give
nothing but the truth, yet present that truth
FROU'DE'S ERASMUS.*
distorted by disproportion. Mrs. Carlyle seems
Whether a new life of Erasmus was espe-
to be always fighting “ bugs” and guarding her
cially needed or not; whether Mr. Drummond's highly-strung husband against crowing cocks
pleasant volumes of a few years since did not suf and cackling hens; but probably these were
ficiently cover the ground for the present gen-
smaller facts in her life than they appear in the
eration ; whether Mr. Froude has given us any
biography. And Mr. Carlyle's later years were
fresh light on a somewhat difficult and evasive
doubtless saddened by a recognition of how
personality,—these are questions which might imperfectly he had valued the wife whom he
be discussed at length without perhaps reach-
had lost; yet he had perhaps been less neg-
ing a very definite conclusion. Severe critics lectful than he is pictured for us, and less re-
might complain that when an Oxford Profes morseful than his reiterated wail of penitence
sor, occupying the chair just vacated by a mi would lead us to suppose. Probably they lived
nute and exact scholar like Freeman, chooses to like other married couples of genius, with fre-
turn over old and familiar materials and handle quent jars, yet substantial harmony; and a wise
a well-known and interesting character, we
biographer had been careful not to heighten
may fairly expect some novelty of exposition,
the coloring of two such masters of vigorous
some side-lights from contemporary history, expression as Thomas and Jane Carlyle. Dis-
and the unearthing of a new fact or two. It proportion becomes distortion.
looks rather as if Mr. Froude, recognizing that
And so with Erasmus. It is not a pleasant
his strength lay in other directions, had frankly trait in the great scholar that is revealed to us
chosen to disappoint all such expectations, and in his imperative demands and somewhat shame-
content himself with an easier task, the exer-
less entreaties for money. You see the excuses
cise once more of his marvellous power of vivid for him. You see that scholars who give them-
presentation, and be satisfied, not with col selves up to unremunerative labor must some-
lecting new matter, but simply with setting be-
how live, and live at the expense of somebody;
fore us the old in a striking arrangement, and
that their choice is between the "patron and the
telling a familiar story as only such accom jail,” and that the ugly necessity sometimes is
plished tellers of stories can. It is not light forced upon them of pushing their claims rather
from any new quarter that he offers us, it is cļamorously, of displaying too evidently the
only stronger and more effective light, with emptiness of their purses and the insistent crav-
vivid dramatic contrasts and perhaps a little ings of their stomachs and backs. And it is
over-emphasis of shadows. This is Mr. Froude's all well enough to give us a letter or two to
weakness as a historian : over-emphasis of light show this not altogether delightful side of the
and shade. His pictures are brilliant, not with
social conditions of the time in which Erasmus
diffused daylight, but with the whites and
lived, and the readiness of Erasmus to submit
blacks of a sketch in charcoal touched with
to them. But a letter or two would suffice. Mr.
chalk, with the dazzle and gloom of electric
Froude certainly errs in over-pressing the pain-
light and shadow on the stage. His method,
ful fact of the beggary of mediæval scholarship.
however, is vivid, and the immediate effect is
He makes Erasmus so modern, by the vivid.
striking. He compels attention. He makes ness of his presentation, that he appears as
Erasmus live again, as modern and intelligible
shameless as if he were a sturdy tramp or beg-
as Principal Tulloch of St. Andrews or Profes ging letter-writer of our very different day. The
sor Jowett of Balliol. There may have been more
effect of such reiteration is as if you should
penetrative and interpretative lives of Eras- paint a portrait deep red whose subject blushed
mus written, but there will hardly be one more easily and frequently; or should describe a cli-
readable. This is Erasmus as the ordinary
mate by recording a succession of thunder-
reader will know him for many a year to come.
storms. They doubtless occurred, and were
It is impossible not to notice, in this attract- perhaps characteristic; but there was a good
ive volume, that tendency to bear on hard upon deal of pleasant weather unmentioned besides.
special defects of his hero which so vexed a Certainly Mr. Froude is a delightful trans-
lator. The letters of Erasmus in his version
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ERASMUS. By J. A. Froude,
Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford. New York :
are like original letters of a master of pithy
Charles Scribner's Sons.
English. They are indeed cleverer in Mr.
;


74
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
Froude’s rendering than in the original, for the mere man of letters. He was a power and au-
frank compression and condensation which he thority at the time when the great overturn
has given them. The epigrams are clearer-cut of Christendom took place. He was preëm-
for the omission of redundancies, and they come inently the scholar and writer of his age, when
closer together. Mr. Froude's treatment is scholarship and literature were just emerging
something better than justice: it is enrichment from the pedantry of the schoolmen. He lived
and benefaction.
in the day of Leo and of Luther. He saw his
Nothing could have more perfectly the air time with most penetrative insight. He under-
of well-bred ease and happy familiarity than stood men as few of his contemporaries under-
Mr. Froude's lectures. He has gained by not stood them, as scholars rarely understand them.
taking his task too seriously. Where Free | He detected the flaws in Luther's method, and
man had worried you with conscientious, pains- the shames in the old order into which he and
taking, and scrupulous repetition, Mr. Froude Luther alike had been born. There was no
touches lightly here and there, and glides on corruption of the Church which he had not
with a graceful rapidity. He is not a pro- scourged with a whip of small cords. He was
fessor over a class of plodding students, seventeen years older than Luther. Why did
rather he is an artist conducting a party of he not take the lead and do the work of Luther
friends through a great gallery, and now by a more wisely and not less thoroughly? As we
word and now by a nod or a gesture calling see the divisions and distractions which have
their attention to a masterpiece or casually in- followed upon the Reformation, we are disposed
dicating a failure. We feel in good company sometimes to ask angrily and impatiently,
all the while-company not too much in earn Might not Erasmus have made Luther unnec-
est, not taking life too seriously, but highly cul essary? Might he not have led a reform in the
tured and disposed to lavish its pleasantness Church which should not have precipitated a
generously.
Was it with a foreboding that schism? Were it not good to-day if Christen-
the walk through the historic gallery was for dom had never been rent as by an earthquake;
the last time?
if a process of gradual enlightenment and piece-
So much for Mr. Froude's part in the vol meal reform had been begun with Erasmus at
ume. What now of the greater part furnished its head ?
by Erasmus ? Certainly there are few more Men have the defects of their qualities, our
brilliant letters in literature than those which French friends say. The judicial temperament
supply the ample material for this life. Eras is not what you want in an advocate. The
mus had the eye of an eagle, and the talon of president of a peace association is not the
an eagle also. His pen was like an etching- precise stuff for a commander-in-chief. Ever
needle ; his humor and wit the biting acid that since the days of the Reformation, men have
made the swift sketch permanent upon the complained of Erasmus for not being Luther.
plate. He saw things as they were, and what As well complain of an electric light, with its
he saw became alive upon the page. Those fine fibre all a-tingle and a-quiver within its film
were not the days of hasty correspondence, of of glass, for not being a roaring fire on the
notes tossed off in a moment and mailed with hearth. Erasmus had his office; Luther his.
the ink hardly dry, to escape the waste-basket Erasmus was a search-light, flinging its pierc-
but one day more. A letter then was as well ing ray into all the dark corners of Christen-
worth elaboration as a sonnet or triolet now. dom and pitilessly revealing every sin and
But if
you
have sense, wit, humor, and knowl shame. Come down, O electrician, from your
edge of the world, you can elaborate verse or secret tower, and build us a blaze that shall
prose into a playful perfection that is delicate consume these foulnesses which soar above us
art, but seems careless nature and unconscious and make the air noisome for honest men to
ease. It is good to have these picturesque and breathe. I cannot come down, is the answer.
lively letters of Erasmus once more brought to My business is to give light and direct its rays
the surface to illuminate the ever-interesting where they are needed. I am busy devising
and not yet exhausted scene of the Renaissance methods for shedding clearer and fuller light.
and the Reformation. As a man of letters, And I have grown to feel that with light
Erasmus must ever hold a foremost place with enough on the lives and the things they will
Lucian and Clarendon and Voltaire and Lamb shrivel of themselves. Anybody will fetch you
and Thackeray, for rare painting of character. a firebrand and set the foul heaps in a blaze.
But it is impossible to treat Erasmus as a And I must see to it also that the hasty fires


1895.]
75
THE DIAL
do not consume these endless precious things that it was for others to cart away the rubbish
which my search-light reveals to me under and and clear up the room, — that was Erasmus.
behind the rubbish heaps.
Intelligence without character may at times be
After all, if Luther gave the world his doc- invaluable because unprejudiced and judicial,
trine of justification, if he brought St. Paul but it imperfectly serves its age. It stands back
once more to the front and gave us the free in the shadow, or lies out in the offing, when
dom of faith, the fearlessness of Christ, Eras the struggle and the storm begin. It would
mus restored to the world the New Testament; like to hate and love more intensely, but these
gave access not to Paul only, but to John and things are beyond its power. But it has been
Jesus; he gave us an example of the unbiassed worth while also only to have seen and said the
spirit that sees the soul of good in things which truth.
C. A. L. RICHARDS.
are evil; he gave us the suggestion of critical
research; he was that rare broad churchman
who can tolerate high churchmen and value
low churchmen, while impatient of the corrup-
THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA.*
tion and superstitions of the one and the reck-
lessness and cant of the other. Conservative A noble book on a noble subject is Mr. John
in action, he was radical in thought. Because
Muir's “ Mountains of California." A certain
dreading revolution, he was earnest for reform. purity and nobility of expression is found
He loved the unity of Christendom too well to
therein ; a distinct fitness of style, as if the
lightly cut himself loose from the ancient words were evoked and ranged in dignified
Church of his Fathers. The iconoclastic zeal order by the influence of the grandeur of the
of Luther was foreign to his taste, his temper,
mountains and the beauty and wildness of the
and his conscience. In many particulars I sus-
mountain denizens portrayed. No one in whose
pect what Luther called “ dirt” Erasmus called
veins runs a drop of patriotic blood could read
4 color.” He was too clear-sighted to suppose
this story of the mountains without burning
that the Church could be tumbled about the with pride at the pictures of the natural beau-
ears of Christendom without doleful damage to
ties of our native land. And the book has
truth and soberness, to love and purity. He
elements to attract the attention of the lovers
would use a broom and scrubbing brush where
of each and every form of natural beauty and
Luther would use a torch or a battle-axe. Cut
interest. The subjects of the chapters partly
it down, why cumbereth it the ground ? said
display the varied aspects shown of mountain
Luther. Let it alone this year also, said Eras- life: The Sierra Nevada ; The Glaciers ; The
mus : those were the words of Jesus, it must Snow; A New View of the High Sierra; The
be confessed.
Passes; The Glacier Lakes; The Glacier
And yet the world is profoundly Luther's
Meadows; The Forests ; The Douglas Squir-
debtor, and beside his heroic form that of Eras-
rel; A Wind Storm in the Forests; The River
mus seems but pinched and small. The reformer Floods; Sierra Thunderstorms; The Water-
of Rotterdam was clear light without heat, keen
Ouzel; The Wild Sheep; In the Sierra Foot
intelligence without moral intensity. Never Hills ; The Bee Pastures. But the titles alone
man saw more clearly, but he lacked not man. give no hint of the varied wealth of informa-
hood, he was brave as a lion ; a more timid tion conveyed. Take the simplest chapter-
spirit had chosen his side and stepped behind heading—“The Snow”—of the shortest chap-
the earthworks of one party or the other ; Eras ter. Many of us think we know much of snow;
mus stayed out in the open and took blows on some of us, that we know all about snow; a few,
either hand, but he lacked wrath and fierce in that we know of mountain snow; but to all of
dignation. His humor qualified and tempered
us the chapter gives new knowledge. It opens
and half put out his fire. He discerned the
with a description of the early mountain snows
evil and was not angry, but petulant and half-
and the preparation of the wild mountaineers,
amused with the wicked every day. He was
deer, birds, bears, marmots, and wood rats, for
a good scorner, not a good hater. He was the the winter. Then we learn, in beautiful crisp
scout not the warrior, the detective not the ex words, of the wonderful action of snow in the
ecutioner. To see the evil and expose the evil,
forests. Then comes the surprising and strik-
and delight himself a little in the clearness of ing account of the winter burial of the rivers
his vision and the keenness of his dissection,
*THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. By John Muir. Illus-
and then to feel that his work was done, and trated. New York: The Century Co.


76
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
cave, an
and small lakes, of the snow bridges and the And consider how every particle of this wondrous cloth
tunnels. Then is given a word-picture of the
of snow is flashing out jets of light.”
rare and beautiful Snow-banners, part of which The main causes of the beauty of this dis-
I quote:
play of snow banners were, first, the favorable
“ The most magnificent storm phenomenon I ever direction of the wind no south wind ever
saw, surpassing in showy grandeur the most imposing flaunts a perfect snow banner; second, the
effects of clouds, floods, or avalanches, was the peaks of great abundance at that time of unconfined
the High Sierra, back of the Yosemite Valley, decorated
with snow-banners. Many of the starry snow flowers,
snow dust; third, the peculiar conformation of
out of which these banners are made, fall before they
the slopes of the peaks. In general, the south
are ripe, while most of those that do attain perfect de sides are convex, while the north sides are con-
velopment as six-rayed crystals glint and chafe against
the wind ascending those concave
one another in their fall through the frosty air and are
curves converges toward the summit, carrying
broken into fragments. This dry fragmentary snow is
still further prepared for the formation of banners by
the snow up with it, from whence it floats out
the action of the wind. For, instead of finding rest at
in horizontal banners. The difference in form
once, like the snow which falls into the tranquil depths between the north and south slopes was pro-
of the forests, it is rolled over and over, beaten against duced by the difference in glaciation to which
rock ridges, and swirled in pits and hollows like boulders,
they were subjected. The north sides were
pebbles, and sand in the potholes of a river, until finally
the delicate angles are worn off and the whole mass
hollowed by residual shadow-glaciers that never
reduced to dust. And whenever storm winds find this existed on southern sun-beaten slopes. Thus
prepared snow dust on exposed slopes where there is do shadows determine the forms of these lofty
free upward sweep to leeward, it is tossed back into the
mountains, and also of the snow banners which
sky and borne onward from peak to peak in the form
of banners. . . . After being driven into the sky again
the wild winds hang on them.
and again it is at length locked fast in bossy drifts, or There is no doubt that the average reader
in the womb of glaciers, some of it to remain silent and for pleasure, or even for information, unless of
rigid for centuries before it is finally melted and sent
scientific bent, looks somewhat askance at a
surging down the mountain sides to the sea.
chapter on glaciers ; but no one will skip Mr.
Yet the occurrence of well-formed banners is rare.
I have seen but one display that seemed perfect. This
Muir's fascinating chapters on glaciers, glacier
was in 1873 when the summits were swept with a wild lakes, and glacier meadows. Previous to 1871
Norther. . . . When making my way from the valley the California glaciers were unknown. That
to an overlooking ledge the peaks of the Merced group
year Mr. Muir discovered the Black Mountain
came in sight over the South Dome, each waving a re-
Glacier of the Sierra, and since then many
splendent banner against the blue sky as regular in form
and as firm in texture as if woven of fine silk. In four
others. The charming glacier lakes are many
hours I gained the top of a ridge above the valley, 8000 in number-over fifteen hundred. There are
feet high, and there in bold relief like a clear painting traces of many more that now are vanished
appeared the imposing scene. Innumerable peaks, black
and sharp, rose grandly into the dark blue sky, their
with the glaciers that gave them birth. The
bases set in solid white, their sides streaked and splashed largest is Lake Tahoe, twenty-two miles long
with snow, like ocean rocks with foam; and from every by ten miles wide. The story of their birth and
summit, all free and unconfused, was streaming a beau- growth reads like a prose poem. They contain
tiful silky, silvery banner from half a mile to a mile in
no fish, but plenty of frogs and larvæ of in-
length; slender at the point of attachment, then widen-
ing gradually as it extended from the peak, till it was
sects and beetles. Humming wings glance
a thousand to fifteen hundred feet in breadth; each
over them, robins and grosbeaks feed on the
peak with its own refulgent banner, waving with a
berries of their borders, ouzels sing love-songs
clearly visible motion in the sunglow, and not a single over them ; beautiful fringes of flowers nod
cloud in the sky to mar their simple grandeur.
over these little byworlds of lives for the na-
“In the foreground of your picture rises a majestic
turalist.
forest of Silver Fir blooming in eternal freshness, the
A special beauty, which Mr. Muir
foliage yellow-green, and the snow beneath the trees notes, of the glacier meadows, is the smooth,
strewn with their beautiful plumes, plucked by the silky lawn of their surface, enamelled with
wind. ... Mark how grandly the banners wave as the flowers, never ragged or unkempt, but per-
wind is deflected against their sides; how trimly each is
attached to the very summit of its peak, like a streamer fectly kept and adjusted.
fectly kept and adjusted. He says it produces
at a masthead; how smooth and silky they are in texture,
in the beholder such a deep summer joy that
and how finely their fading fringes are penciled on the the mind is fertilized and stimulated by the
azure sky. See how dense and opaque they are at the sight, just like a sun-fed plant.
point of attachment, and how filmy and translucent
Mr. Muir gives one chapter to the Douglas
toward the end, so that the peaks back of them are seen
dimly, as though looking through ground glass.
We are thus made acquainted with
serve how the banners belonging to the loftiest summits
him :
stream free across intervening notches and passes. “ He threads the tasseled branches of the pines, stir-
Ob- squirrel.


1895.]
77
THE DIAL
ring their needles like a rustling breeze; now shooting as hairy as bears, and as crooked as summit pines, the
across openings in arrowy lines, now launching in curves, strange creatures were sufficiently erect to belong to our
glinting deftly from side to side in sudden zigzags, and own species. They proved to be nothing more than
swirling in giddy loops and spirals round the knotty Mono Indians dressed in the skin of sage rabbits. They
trunks; getting into what seems to be the most impos were mostly ugly, and some of them altogether hideous.
sible situations without sense of danger; now on his The dirt on their faces was fairly stratified, and seemed
haunches, now on his head; yet punctuating his most so ancient and so undisturbed it might almost possess a
irrepressible outbursts of energy with little dots and geological significance. The older faces were, more-
dashes of perfect repose. He is, without exception, the over, strangely blurred and divided into sections by fur-
wildest animal I ever saw—a fiery, sputtering little bolt rows that looked like the cleavage - joints of rocks,
of life, luxuriating in quick oxygen and the woods' best suggesting exposure on the mountains in a cast-away
juices. One can hardly think of such a creature being
condition for ages.”
dependent, like the rest of us, on climate and food.
The picture of the old miners in their exag-
But after all, it requires no long acquaintance to learn
he is human, for he works for a living. His busiest gerated dotage, and the collections which they
time is in the Indian Summer. Then he gathers burs had gathered like wood-rats, shows deep human
and bazel-nuts like a plodding farmer, working con interest and pathos.
tinuously every day for hours; saying not a word; cut-
I do not like to end the reviewing of this
ting off the ripe cones at the top of his speed, as if
employed by the job, and examining every branch in
book, any more than I like to close its pages,
regular order, as if careful that not one should escape over which I linger, longing to quote the fine
him; then, descending, he stores them away beneath thoughts, the fair and symmetrical sentences I
logs and stumps, in anticipation of the pinching hunger-
ever find ; to give the noble expression of the
days of winter. He seems himself a kind of coniferous
ld in that
fruit, — both fruit and flower. The resin essences of sublimity and power of the winds,
the pine pervade every pore of his body, and eating his fairly passionate chapter, “A Wind Storm in
flesh is like chewing pine gum.”
the Forest”; to tell the revealed meaning of the
The water-ouzel, most fascinating singer and gestures of the trees; to recount the wonder-
interesting actor, also has a chapter full of ful, almost incredible, story of the beautiful,
interest and beautiful description.
brave wild sheep, the analytical study and his-
Perhaps the most marked characteristic of tory of the giant sequoias, the picture of the
the book is the intense love shown by the au-
hanging gardens with larkspurs eight feet high,
thor for all forms and aspects of nature. The
and that final revel in sweetness, the chapter on
trees are his brothers; he knows their forms, bee pastures, those flowery wildernesses whose
their voices, the different sounds of their rust gladsome praise in melodious phrase makes a
ling leaves, he reads their soul; the birds and picture sweeter than that of honied Hybla,
beasts are his friends,—how he delineates their rosier than that of heathery Hymettus.
features! the flowers are his sweethearts; he
ALICE MORSE EARLE.
can never cease telling their endearing traits.
Of the mountains he speaks his love with no
uncertain voice :
“ To the timid traveler fresh from the sedimentary THE TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA.*
levels of the lowlands, they seem terribly forbidding;
but though hard to travel, none are safer. For they
Gustav Freytag's “ Technik des Dramas”
lead to regions that lie far above the ordinary haunts of has long been a standard work in Germany,
the devil, of the pestilence that walks in the darkness. and the announcement that an English transla-
Accidents in the mountains are less common than in the
lowlands, and these mountain mansions are decent, de-
tion was about to appear was doubtless received
lightful, even divine places to die in, compared with the
with pleasure by all who are acquainted with
doleful chambers of civilization. Fear not to try the the excellence of the original. The book is, in
mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from fact, one of the few works that are no sooner
deadly apathy, set you free, call forth every faculty into
made accessible than they become indispensable.
vigorous enthusiastic action."
Freytag is eminently qualified to speak with
The book is wholly self-forgetful, -- in that
authority on the subject here treated. With
respect a keen contrast to the self-conscious
a thorough knowledge of the ancient drama,
nature-studies of Thoreau.
It is almost man as well as of the dramatic literature of the
forgetful,- though occasional bits of descrip-
principal modern languages, he combines the
tion appear, like this humorous account of the
practical training of the successful playwright
furred Mono Indians :
and a perfect acquaintance with the require-
• Suddenly, as I was gazing eagerly about me, a drove
ments of the stage. As a result, the tone of
of gray hairy beings came in sight, lumbering toward
me with a kind of boneless, wallowing motion like bears. * FREYTAG'S TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA. Translated by
Suppressing my fears, I soon discovered that, although Elias J. MacEwan. Chicago : S. C. Griggs & Co.
66


78
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
the book he has produced is admirably prac- action, the division into five acts, with the in-
tical and objective. The author has avoided fluences that produced this division, and its
all subjective theorizing. He offers no treatise technical justification. The larger part of this
on æsthetics, no original ideas on the philosophy chapter, however, is devoted to a thorough
of art. Feeling, as he says, that such treatises analysis of the origin and structure of the
usually leave the young author in the lurch Greek drama, as exemplified in the works of
just where his real difficulties begin, he has Sophokles, followed by a similar study of the
here given, for the guidance of his successors, Germanic drama, with illustrations from Shake-
the results of his own experience, the lessons speare. The third chapter continues the sub-
taught by long years of authorship, with the ject of structure, with a discussion of the scene,
usual alternation of failure and success. as the practical unit of action, determined by
The book is primarily addressed to young the technical demands of the stage, and demand-
authors with dramatic aspirations, intended to ing of the author a skilful arrangement of mo-
point out to them the best path to the temple tifs within the limits of each such unit.
of fame, and to warn them against the many In the exhaustive discussion of the charac-
pitfalls along the way. But it appeals also to ters of the drama, Freytag points out their de-
another and far wider circle of readers. The pendence on national characteristics and on the
discussion of the rules of dramatic composition personality of the author, as well as on the ac-
is so sane and judicious, the analyses of dra- tion in which they are involved. The various
matic masterpieces, both ancient and modern, sources of the action are fully treated, and the
are so skilful, the criticism is so straightfor- attitude of the dramatist toward his subject-
ward, that the book cannot fail to be interesting matter is defined ; a number of practical rules
and valuable to any student of the drama. In a follow, on the unity of the characters, their
book written for a German public, it is natural comparative importance and mutual relations,
that a large part of the illustrations should be the perspicuity of the action, and miscellaneous
chosen from the works of Lessing, Goethe, and topics of importance to the playwright. Two
Schiller. And yet Shakespeare, who has been brief chapters follow, dealing with externals ;
so thoroughly naturalized in Germany that he the fifth is devoted to a discussion of dramatic
is almost looked upon as a German classic, re- style and of the relative merits of prose and of
ceives perhaps more attention than any other various metrical forms as the vehicle of dra.
author; and a considerable place is given also
matic expression ; the sixth, entitled “ The Au-
to the Greek drama, especially to Sophokles. thor and his Work,"contains a number of prac-
The body of the “ Technique” is divided tical hints of value to the dramatic writer in
into four chapters, dealing respectively with his workshop, and not without interest even to
Dramatic Action, the Structure of the Drama, the general reader.
the Structure of the Scenes, and the Characters. In view of the excellence and importance
In the opening chapter the author discusses first of Freytag's work, it is unfortunate that the
the development of the “ dramatic idea” from English translation should fall so far short, as
the raw material offered by history, litera it does, of offering a satisfactory reproduction.
ture, or contemporary event. To the question, Translation is no easy task at best, and the
“What is dramatic ?” the answer is, " Neither translator is pretty sure to find himself beset by
an act per se, nor an emotion per se, but only many difficulties, whether he adopt the literal
passion that leads to action, and events as they or the idiomatic method. And yet it is possi-
influence the human soul.” The discussion of ble, by either method, to reproduce with toler-
the difference between a " dramatic person able accuracy at least the ideas of the original.
and the flesh-and-blood reality is interesting, The present translation, however, seems to com-
and may be recommended especially to the at bine all the disadvantages of both methods,
tention of the “ Veritist.” After an excellent without exhibiting any of their redeeming
exposition of the law of Unity, the author dis merits. The style of the translation, as En-
cusses in turn the necessity of probability and glish, is execrable ; and at the same time hardly
importance in the action, dramatic movement
a page is free from more or less atrocious mis-
and climax, and the nature of the tragic. translations, so that often the sense of the origi.
In the second chapter the author considers, nal is garbled beyond recognition. Let the
in its various aspects, the structure of the drama reader judge for himself from a few typical ex-
as a whole ; thus, he discusses “ action” and amples:
“ reaction,” the rise, climax, and fall of the “Alas, poetics has come down to us incomplete” (p.5).


1895.]
79
THE DIAL
“ Next after the struggles of the leading characters,
MODERN THEORIES OF ELECTRIC ACTION.*
the judgment of contemporaries, as a rule, or at least
that of the immediately following time, prizes the sig A full account of the experimental investi-
nificance of a piece" (p. 27).
gations which made the late Professor Hertz
“ This internal consistency is produced by represent-
ing an event which follows another, as an effect of which
the best known among the younger German
that other is the evident cause. Let that which occa- physicists is given in his interesting volume en-
sions, be the logical cause of occurrences, and the new
titled, “Electric Waves," which well merits the
scenes and events will be conceived as probable, and
probable, and English translation recently published. When
generally understood results of previous actions. Or
let that which is to produce an effect, be a generally
the papers of Hertz first appeared they created
comprehensible peculiarity of a character already made
a profound sensation among the most advanced
known” (p. 29).
physicists. No work in physics in many years
“For when young Protestantism had laid the se has attracted the attention of scientific men to
verest struggles in men's consciences, and when the such a degree. His apparatus was so simple,
thoughts and the most passionate moods of the excited
his methods so easily followed, and the results
soul had been already more carefully and critically ob-
served by individuals, the mode of conception natural
so striking, that all recognized the appearance
to the middle ages, had not, for that reason, yet disap-
of a star of the first magnitude.
peared ” (p. 59).
Though the modern theory of electricity, as
Such nonsense as this (and similar passages
originated by Faraday, had been expanded and
could be quoted ad infinitum) is hardly calcu-
reduced to a mathematical system by the la-
lated to inspire the reader with admiration for
mented Maxwell, yet twenty-five years had
the author's mental or literary equipment. But elapsed before Hertz, by his famous experi-
in each of these cases, what Freytag really says
ments “On the Propagation of Electric Action
is perfectly sane, and correctly expressed as
with Finite Velocity Through Space,” con-
well.
vinced the scientific world of the superiority of
Often the mistranslations of shorter passages
Maxwell's theory over the older views. All of
are so grotesque that they become comical.
his researches are of recent date ; the first was
Thus, we have the amusing statement that made in 1886, and the others followed in quick
Shakespeare created the drama of the earlier
succession. The interest excited caused a great
Teutons,” where the original merely says that
number of applications to be made for the
he was the first great dramatist of the Ger papers in which the researches were published.
manic race; the reference to “ laws of crea-
Since it was impossible to comply with all these
tion," instead of laws of dramatic composition ;
requests, Hertz decided to have them reprinted
the reference to the “ deepening of mind and without change, but to add as an introduction
spirit produced through the sixteenth century, a summary of his work, giving the history of
not only among the Germans, but also among
his experiments, and stating his final theoreti-
the Romans," where the original of course re-
cal views on the subject. He moreover added
fers to the Germanic and Romance nations. supplementary notes, because some of the opin-
Enough has been said to show that the trans ions expressed in the account of his earlier in-
lation is inadequate and often misleading, and vestigations had changed. These notes contain,
that the reader will need to be constantly on
in addition, an account of results arrived at by
his guard in using it. Even in this form, the
other investigators who undertook similar ex-
book will be useful, for it supplies a need for periments later.
which there seems to be no other provision in
The series of papers in the present volume
the English language; but it is deplorable in-
consists of fourteen numbers, of which the third
deed that its usefulness should be seriously im- is an extract from a paper by von Bezold, who
paired by the worse than indifferent quality of
as early as 1870 observed electric waves and
the translation. The publishers have done their
their interference. His results are practically
part admirably; they have produced a hand the same as those arrived at by Hertz in his
some volume, with irreproachable typography,
earlier investigations. The first part of the
and few misprints. John S. NOLLEN.
book contains a description of Hertz's exciter,
by which very rapid electric oscillations or
waves are produced ; and of his receiver, or
The Seventeenth Congress of the Association Lit-
* ELECTRIC WAVES. Being Researches on the Propagation
téraire et Artistique Internationale will meet next Sep-
of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space. By
tember at Dresden under the special patronage of the Dr. Heinrich Hertz. Authorized English translation by D.
King of Saxony, who is said to have contributed a con E. Jones, B.Sc., with a preface by Lord Kelvin, New York:
siderable sum to defray the expenses of the Congress. Macmillan & Co.


80
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
THE PHILOSOPHIC RENASCENCE IN
AMERICA.*
Hertz pro-
secondary coil, by means of which he investi-
gated their action. He follows these waves
along conductors, studies the interference of
direct and reflected waves, determines their ve-
locity of propagation, etc.
Perhaps the most interesting number of the
series is the eleventh, originally published in
1888, “ On Electric Radiation.”
duces rays of electricity, and proves that they
are propagated in straight lines ; he polarizes
these rays, reflects them by appropriate mir-
rors, shows that they can be refracted, deter-
mines the index of refraction for the refracting
medium,- in short, performs all the experi-
ments with which we are familiar in the study
of light. Hence electric waves belong to the
same category of ether vibrations as light and
heat waves; or, as he himself says, “ we might
designate the rays of electric force as rays of
light of very great wave length.” The volume
closes with two papers containing a mathemati-
cal treatment of the phenomena. The English
title of Electric Waves” was suggested by
Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson). He also
wrote the preface to the English edition, giving
a short outline of the development of modern
theories of electric action.
It is interesting at this time to note that
Hertz began his studies, which led to such re-
markable results, on account of a problem pro-
posed to him some fourteen years since by Pro-
fessor von Helmholtz, who has so recently died.
The writer well remembers Hertz about that
time as the second assistant in von Helmholtz's
laboratory. Hertz's work has recalled atten-
tion to the remarkable researches of our own
Joseph Henry, which, as Lord Kelvin has truly
said, “ came more nearly to an experimental
demonstration of electro-magnetic waves than
anything that had been done previously.”
We now have, as a result of Hertz's work,
one ether for heat, light, electricity, and mag-
netism; and this volume, containing Hertz's
electrical papers, will be a permanent record
of the splendid consummation now realized.
HENRY S. CARHART.
The nine books lying before me are an interest-
ing sign of the times. Drifting together from va-
rious quarters, and finally tied up in one packet and
calling for notice in one review, they present at
once an extraordinary diversity and an extraordin-
ary unity. The diversity is in the various methods
of approach to philosophy which they represent in
contemporary thought; the unity is in a certain un-
derlying trend and aim which, disguised by differ-
ences in terminology and of school attachment, is
none the less real and assured even though some
of the authors represented might horroresce at the
thought of kinship with some of the others. It ac-
cordingly seems better worth while for the nonce to
take this casual collection of books as an index of
the present direction of thought, than to subject
each severally to an exhaustive analysis.
At the outset the collection is characteristic in
this: it has within it five books by American writers,
including one by a thinker of German birth, but
now at home in America and conducting two of its
most thoughtful periodicals; it has within it two
translations from the German, and one from the
French, and one book by a German acclimated in
England rather than in the United States. It does
not take a very long look backward to realize the
significance of the possibility of any such collection.
It marks at once the extent to which English and
American thought is breaking loose from its long-
time local prepossessions and insulation, and is en-
deavoring to assimilate the thought of continental
Europe; and it marks also the vigor of the philo-
sophic renascence -for such we may fairly term it
--in the United States. Add to this that one of the
books (Professor Müller's) deals expressly with an
old philosophy of India, while another (Dr. Deus-
sen's) is pretty well saturated with the same Ve-
dantic lore, though attempting to adjust it (via
* THE ELEMENTS OF METAPHYSICS. Being a Guide for
Lectures and Private Use. By Dr. Paul Deussen ; trans. by
C. M, Duff. New York: Macmillan & Co.
THREE LECTURES ON THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, Deliv-
ered at the Royal Institution in March, 1894. By F. Max
Müller, K.M. New York : Longmans, Green, & Co.
GENETIC PHILOSOPHY. By David J. Hill. New York:
Macmillan & Co.
HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF MIND. Trans. from the Ency-
clopædia of the Philosophical Sciences, with Five Introduc-
tory Essays, by William Wallace, M.A. New York: Mac-
millan & Co.
OUR NOTIONS OF NUMBER AND SPACE. By Herbert Nichols,
Ph.D., and William E. Parsons, A.B. Boston : Ginn & Co.
THE DISEASES OF THE WILL. By Th. Ribot ; trans. by
Merwin-Marie Snell. Chicago : Open Court Publishing Co.
The Psychic Factor. An Outline of Psychology. By
Charles Van Norden, D.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
BASAL CONCEPTS IN PHILOSOPHY. An Inquiry into Being,
Non-Being, and Becoming. By Alexander T. Ormond, Ph.D.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.
A PRIMER OF PHILOSOPHY, By Paul Carus, Ph.D. Chi-
cago : Open Court Publishing Co.
That “ The Saturday Review," while changing its
editor, has not changed its soul, is borne upon us by such
things as this late bit of criticism: “ Let us by all means,
if we can do it sensibly, discuss the relative merits of
Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell, both
excellent writers of humorous verse, who deserve a
place somewhere between Calverley and Mr. Austin
Dobson; but, in the name of common-sense, let us not
do it as if we were discussing the relative merits of
Keats and of Coleridge."


1895.]
81
THE DIAL
numerous.
is Mr. Van Norden's title, “ The Psychie Factor,”
Schopenbauer) more closely to modern thought, and tions, which ingeniously conceal the problem while
we see that the existing ferment of thought is cos appearing to simplify it, are
And
mopolitan.
through it all is the gospel of the Vedanta, with
An equal variety meets us if we attempt to class- Schopenhauer as its prophet and expounder. Those
ify the books from the standpoint of their subject who already know their Spinoza and Kant and
matter. The collection is not fairly representative Schopenhauer will hardly get much out of the book ;
on the ethical side, but apart from that it contains
those who want a philosophy not for philosophic
four books which deal expressly with constructive
but for æsthetic and emotional purposes may easily
philosophical work, three with psychological in-
turn from, say, theosophy to Dr. Deussen's con-
quiry, while Professor Müller and Dr. Deussen
structions of the universe. Speaking of the Indian
again stand for that craving for something beyond philosophy brings me to Professor Müller's book,
either the rationally philosophical or the experi- which, like all his recent work, is pedantically pop-
mentally demonstrable which is so marked a
ular in style, written largely, if not ad captandum,
feature of the present; for though we may conven-
at least ad audiendum, and yet manages to convey
tionally ignore the matter, yet occultism and Orien in a wonderfully easy way a large amount of useful
talism in one form or another are most emphasized
information to him who can separate that informa-
traits of the existing popular consciousness.
tion from its graceful entwinings with Mr. Müller's
own opinions and feelings about a great variety of
Of the translations, not much need be said. The
subjects.
Ribot has so long been familiar to students of psy-
chology that it is only necessary to welcome its
appearance in English, and express thanks to the covers an attempt to state the more elementary facts
translator for his satisfactory work; indeed, all of
of psychology with especial reference to many of
the translations issuing from the “Open Court”
the more recent biological investigations, and with
press reach a satisfactory standard of workmanship.
some emphasis on the phenomena of dreams, hyp-
Mr. Wallace has been known for years by his trans-
notism, etc. Mr. Van Norden is a long way from
lation of Hegel's “ Logic," and his attempt with the
being a systematic thinker, but he has a keen eye
“ Philosophie des Geistes” is equally successful,
for salient facts, and a power of lucid expression.
while it will introduce Hegel to many in a new as-
His book may serve as a popular summary
of
many
pect as among other things a psychologist, and,
of the points of chief interest in current psychology.
according to his lights and the state of knowledge
Mr. Nichols gives the method and results of the
when he wrote, a physiological psychologist. Mr. application of experimental psychology to the prob-
Wallace's introductory essays are suggestive, in-
lems of number and space. The work is really a
genious, and literary; they represent that phase of laboratory monograph, and will appeal to the spe-
the Oxford philosophical tradition which delights in
cialist. It is symptomatic of the courage and energy
philosophy for its culture value to use the current
of the modern psychologist, that he completely ig-
cant phrase), and sits very easily to its severer and
nores the attempt of the metaphysician to shut off
more scientific sides, the tradition which found its
a little inclosure of concepts, like number and space,
culmination in Jowett's introductions to the Platonic
warning all experimental methods to keep off. Mr.
dialogues. Mr. Wallace is more serious and thor.
Nichols's treatise on “ Notions of Number and
ough-going in his methods than Jowett was; but
Space" shows that experimental methods may be
there is the same occasional complete inconsequence, applied with some hope of fruit to the “ metaphys-
the same occasional sacrifice of ideas to the needs of
ical" categories, but strikes me as suggestive rather
clever statement, and the same undercurrent of feel-
than as conclusive. The book in form has a way
ing that it is hardly worthy of an English gentleman — irritating to me - of stating on one side a high
and scholar to be too anxious about definiteness and
general and vague conclusion, and then one hundred
precision in thought. Mr. Wallace has probably and nine very specific conclusions, but with none of
carried the art of translating Hegel as far as it can
the media axiomata which are most helpful to other
be carried upon present methods. It is quite pos-
workers.
sible that a translator may sometime arise who will There are left for consideration three attempts
give up the attempt to find technical terminology to to deal constructively with philosophy. Mr. Ormond,
correspond to Hegel's philosophical dialect, and set in his " Basal Concepts in Philosophy," attempts the
about doing in English what Hegel himself did in deepest flight. He takes up seriously and earnestly
German (as Aristotle had done before him in Greek) the problem of the relation of God to the finite
-hunting up pregnant words of idiomatic speech, world, and hopes to add something to its solution
and squeezing the philosophic meaning out of them. by a reconstruction of the triad of Hegelian cate-
As for Dr. Deussen's work, what shall we say? gories of Being, Non-Being, and Becoming, through
The translation is well done; but was the original a conception of Non-Being as that which the Abso-
worth translating? The form is largely a quasi lute Being or Spirit continually wars against and
geometrical method ; definitions abound, which, like suppresses, but which never, as it does in Hegel-
all philosophic definitions that precede, instead of | ianism, becomes a moment of Being. It is obvi-
summing up discussion, beg the question ; disjunc- l ously out of the question to discuss Mr. Ormond's


82
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
argument in a brief review, but I cannot refrain modern science with certain metaphysical concepts,
from pointing out two things. One is that, to many, resulting, as he says, in a reconciliation of philo-
Mr. Ormond's entire problem will seem self-made, sophies of the types of Mill's empiricism and Kant's
factitious. This problem is, how an absolute can apriorism. This spirit of synthesis and media-
give rise to a finite, the perfect to an imperfect. tion is prominent throughout the book, which is
There will be many who will want to know whence thoroughly worth reading and study. It is doubt-
Mr. Ormond gets his definition of an absolute, and ful, however, if it will fulfil the pious wish of the
his standard of perfection; who will inquire, what author and set the stranded ship of philosophy
is the ground of the assumption that the absolute afloat again; indeed, were the ship of philosophy
is absolute apart from what he terms the “finite,” stranded, I doubt the ability of the united efforts of
and how Mr. Ormond is so certain of the nature of the whole race to get it afloat. It is wiser to think
perfection as to assume, without discussion, that of the ship of philosophy as always afloat, but al-
“perfection" can get along without having as fac ways needing, not, indeed, the impetus of any in-
tors of itself those things which Mr. Ormond labels dividual thinker, but the added sense of direction
imperfection. There are some who prefer a world which the individual can give by some further, how-
with night as well as day, of pain as well as pleas ever slight, interpretation of the world about.
ure, of temptation as well as of a goodness which
John DEWEY.
to them would seem tedious without the struggle of
conquest. This may
be
very poor taste on their
part, but it represents a standpoint which is not
so much rejected as ignored by Mr. Ormond. My
RECENT AMERICAN POETRY.*
other remark is that to many Mr. Ormond's solu-
There comes to the life of most poets a period
tion of the problem of evil will appear in unstable
equilibrium between what he would term, I suppose, longer finds free and almost spontaneous expression
when poetic inspiration flags, when the thought no
a pantheistic optimism or monism, and the old-fash-
in rhythmical numbers, but needs rather to be
ioned orthodox dualism of personal God and per- jogged by a striking incident or the flow of emo-
sonal Devil. The mind can formally follow the
idea of an Absolute Being which in thinking itself plation. Under such stimulus, the old poetic energy
tion about some theme forcibly brought into contem-
has to exclude all taint of Non-Being, and so keeps revives, and even produces a fair counterfeit of the
up at once the thought of Non-Being, and the war-
fare to exclude it. But the mind will have a feeling is forced, the notes are few,” and we must accept
fluent expression of earlier days. But “the sound
that a genuine Absolute would not have to spend
the finer artistic sense that comes with years, and
time in contending with what, after all, is but its
own shadow. I do not wish to seem to deal flip-ized, as the only possible compensations for the les-
the poetic self-consciousness more completely real-
pantly with a serious effort to think out a funda-
sened volume and momentum of the stream of in-
mental problem, but one can hardly escape the
spiration. Some such reflections as these must come
conclusion that Mr. Ormond's Absolute is engaged
to readers of the new volume of verse which bears
in setting up a man of straw, and then-never quite the name of Mr. Aldrich upon its title-page ; al-
knocking the straw man down, because in that case
it would lose this negative exercise of exclusion
though the lesson is not so apparent in the case of
through which it maintains its own positive identity.
one who has been more or less consciously an artist
Mr. Ormond does not appear to realize how essen-
* UNGUARDED GATES, and Other Poems. By Thomas Bai-
tially one his position is with that of Fichte.
ley Aldrich. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
POEMS NEW AND OLD. By William Roscoe Thayer. Bos-
Mr. Hill's "Genetic Philosophy" deals amiably ton: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
and readably with a large number of questions of IN SUNSHINE LAND. By Edith M. Thomas. Boston:
genesis and evolution, bringing to bear upon prob- Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
lems of the origin of life, feeling, consciousness, art,
NARRAGANSETT BALLADS, with Songs and Lyrics. By
Caroline Hazard. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
morality, etc., a considerable range of reading, and
SONGS FROM VAGABONDIA. By Bliss Carman and Rich-
an easy style. Unfortunately, the book is marred
ard Hovey. Boston: Copeland & Day.
by a certain pretentiousness, manifest even in its LINCOLN'S GRAVE. By Maurice Thompson. Chicago :
title. The work is in no sense itself a philosophy of
Stone & Kimball.
genesis, or genetic in the sense of using a thorough-
INTIMATIONS OF THE BEAUTIFUL, and Poems. By Madi-
son Cawein. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
going evolutionary method. It simply discusses
THE WIND IN THE CLEARING, and Other Poems. By Rob-
lucidly and with considerable discrimination certain
ert Cameron Rogers. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
specific genetic questions. The claim is even more MADONNA, and Other Poems. Written by Harrison S.
emphatic and offensive in the introduction, where Morris. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co.
the book is offered as affording a way out of exist-
THE FLUTE PLAYER, and Other Poems. By Francis How-
ard Williams. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
ing philosophic confusion.
A PATCH OF PANSIES. By J. Edmund V. Cooke. New
Mr. Carus in his “Primer of Philosophy" has put York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
before us in a thoughtful, yet easily grasped form, PENRHYN'S PILGRIMAGE. By Arthur Peterson, U. S. N.
an attempt to combine the data and methods of New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.


1895.]
83
THE DIAL
throughout his career as it might be in another’s. ered into a volume of “ Poems New and Old ” the
The fine heroics upon our national “Unguarded best of the earlier pieces, and a much larger num-
Gates” offer a striking illustration of the power ber of later ones, among the latter being several
possessed by a noble theme to quicken into renewed upon Oriental themes. When we reviewed the vol-
flame the failing embers of the poetic fire.
ume of ten years ago [June, 1885] we gave credit
“O Liberty, white Goddess ! is it well
to the earnest purpose of the writer, but were com-
To leave the gates unguarded? On thy breast pelled to comment somewhat severely upon the tech-
Fold Sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fate, nical shortcomings of his verse. In spite of a per-
Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel
Stay those who to thy sacred portals come
ceptible advance in his technique, Mr. Thayer's
To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care
verse is still deficient in the true rhythmical quality,
Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn
and is still weighted with prosaic turns and phrases.
And trampled in the dust. For so of old
In fact, the very things that we have marked as
The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome,
among the best in the new volume turn out to have
And where the temples of the Cæsars stood
The lean wolf unmolested made her lair."
been already published in the older one. Mr. Thayer
The considerable proportion of personal and occa-
is at his best in such a poem as the sea-shore “Rev-
erie,” from which we now quote:
sional poems in the present collection helps to illus-
"Sweet is it over shelving sands to stroll
trate our introductory thesis. And here again, the
When the victorious tide begins to lose,
inspiration being given, we have verses that Mr.
And watch the stubborn-yielding billows roll,
Aldrich has never surpassed, personal tributes of Or look upon the mid-sea's scudding hues, -
the most heartfelt gratitude conveyed in the most
Sweet is it then to loiter and to muse."
polished verse. In a previous review we quoted To the mental vision of such a loiterer scenes like
from a volume by Mr. Aldrich his tribute to Ten-
these appear :
nyson. Let us upon this occasion quote another,
“Here rise the saucy, unobsequious waves
written before the Laureate's death, and appropri-
To wet the sandals of the Danish King ;
ately linking his name with that of the greatest
Here spectral pirates crawl from nameless graves
among his contemporaries.
And count again their booty, quarreling ;
“When from the tense chords of that mighty lyre
And here Pizarro draws the fatal ring.
The Master's hand, relaxing, falls away,
“Columbus kneels exultant, and unfurls
And those rich strings are silent for all time,
The cognizance of Christ and Ferdinand;
Then shall Love pine, and Passion lack her fire,
Here weeping mothers and bewilder'd girls
And Faith seem voiceless. Man to man shall say,
Cry out 'God speed ye !' to the Mayflower band,
'Dead is the last of England's Lords of Rhyme.'
Long after sails are hidden from the land.
"Yet-stay! there's one, a later laureled brow,
“And Bonaparte here reconstructs his doom,
With purple blood of poets in his veins ;
Reversing Waterloo, or peers afar
Him has the Muse claimed ; him might Marlowe own;
Till Breton cliffs along the horizon loom
Greek Sappho's son !- men's praises seek him now.
In bitter-sweet mirage; this sodden spar
Happy the realm where one such voice remains !
Bore Nelson's duty-sign at Trafalgar."
His the dropt wreath and the unenvied throne.
"The wreath the world gives, not the mimic wreath
Such verse as this, fed by culture and the historical
That chance might make the gift of king or queen.
consciousness, is always acceptable, although not
O finder of undreamed-of harmonies !
poetry in any high sense.
Since Shelley's lips were hushed by cruel death,
What lyric voice so sweet as this has been
“ In Sunshine Land” is a collection of verses
Borne to us on the winds from over seas?”
ostensibly for children, but they have a serious
The poems inscribed to Lowell, Holmes, and Grant poetic value, and must be classed with such books
should also be mentioned as among the best of the
as Miss Rossetti's “ Sing-Song," Marston's "Garden
volume. In one of his sonnets Mr. Aldrich says :
Secrets,” and Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of
“I must have known
Verses,” all three of which works they at times sug-
Life otherwhere in epochs long since fled ;
gest. Miss Thomas has exhibited in this volume a
For in my veins some Orient blood is red,
surprising daintiness of touch and delicacy of feel-
And through my thought are lotus blossoms blown,"
ing; a surprising insight, also, into the workings of
and the statement is illustrated by two of those the child mind. Nothing could be lovelier in its
Eastern apologues which have been so noteworthy way than “Sylvia and the Birds," with which the
a feature of his preceding volumes. And then there volume opens. But no extract could do justice to
are sonnets and lyrics and delicate cameo-like quat- this glorified prattle. We will rather take the close
rains in the new volume, and we may well give of “ The Ancient History of the Flowers":
thanks that a poet is left among us who can do all “The red Lobelia lit a fire, and flung
or any of these things as artistically as they are The embers all around a shady dell;
done here.
The Daisy had a gypsy's crafty tongue,
And youthful fortunes glibly would she tell!
Ten years ago, writing over the signature of
“The Asters were a shower of stars that fell
“ Paul Hermes,” Mr. William Roscoe Thayer pub-
Amid the dimness of an autumn night,
lished a volume of verse entitled “ The Confessions
Witch-hazel woke, and cheerily cried, 'All's well!'
of Hermes, and Other Poems." He has now gath And met with smiles the dull November light.”


84
(Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
of this poem.
“ The Young Geologist," more nearly in the sober
"They too receive each one his Day;
philosophic vein of the author than most of these
But their wise heart knows many things
Beyond the sating of Desire,
pieces, may also be quoted :
Above the dignity of Kings."
"Comes one with searching look
To read the great Stone Book ;
This poem, at least, we do not hesitate to ascribe
With youthful brows perplexed,
to the lyrist of Grand Pré, however we may doubt
He scans the rugged text.
the authorship of many among the others. And,
"The knuckled rock he taps,
in general, the contents of this volume offer a group-
And ancient thunders lapse,
ing that a sensitive ear can hardly miss. There are
With deep imagined thud,
poems which are rollicking, and
On beaches of the flood.
which are
poems
not. And the poems which are not are those which
“Old summers bud and bloom,
are the most pleasing and the most artistic.
And sink into a tomb:
He sees them bloom again
“May one who fought in honor for the South
Upon the hearths of men.
Uncovered stand and sing by Lincoln's grave ?"
“ Life went with striding pace,
asks Mr. Maurice Thompson, at the opening of his
He hunts upon its trace:
Phi Beta Kappa poem, read at Harvard a year
A track – a rib-
a tooth
What birds and beasts uncouth !
ago. The apologetic question, we should say, needs
no answer other than the poem itself, which is dig-
"Youth bends with baffled look,
Above the great Stone Book ;
nified, worthy of the subject and occasion, and soars
The title-page is dim,
to a higher flight than any of which we had thought
The Finis not for him."
the writer capable. One stanza of the thirty-six
Possibly a very young geologist may not see all these must suffice to illustrate both the form and the spirit
things, but the poem is very lovely for all that.
Miss Hazard's “ Narragansett Ballads" versify a
"His was the tireless strength of native truth,
number of incidents of colonial times, including the
The might of rugged, untaught earnestness;
Deep-freezing poverty made brave his youth,
Great Swamp Fight of 1675, and jog along in some
And toned his manhood with its winter stress
such fashion as this:
Up to the tempér of heroic worth,
• Connecticut had sent her men
And wrought him to a crystal clear and pure,
With Major Robert Treat ;
To mark how Nature in her highest mood
Each Colony in its degree
Scorns at our pride of birth,
Sent in its quota meet."
And ever plants the life that must endure
In the strong soil of wintry solitude."
The verse is not exactly inspired, and we can hardly
say more for the “Songs and Lyrics” of the second
Mr. Cawein has now published five volumes of
half of the volume, although there are at the close
poems, yet the promise of the first volume is but
some rather pretty pieces upon Californian themes.
imperfectly fulfilled by the last. Some measure of
restraint has been imposed upon his native exuber-
The “Songs from Vagabondia,” which Mr. Bliss
ance, but still more is needed; some approach has
Carman and Mr. Richard Hovey have put forth to-
been made to definiteness of thought, but the inane
gether, are of very unequal quality; Interspersed yet remains too largely his element. Nor do we find
among verses as irregular and reckless as the
vaga-
the improvement in finish that so much practice
bond life they celebrate, we find here and there so
ought surely to have brought about. In the long
noble a poem as “The Mendicant,” or the stanzas
title
poem, for example, we come upon so unpardon-
called “Contemporaries." We quote from the
able a solecism as this:
former :
“O foolish ones, put by your care!
· Idea, O God of Plato! one
Where wants are many, joys are few;
With beauty, justice, truth, and love :
And at the wilding springs of peace,
Who, type by type, the world begun
From an ideal world above!"
God keeps an open house for you.
“But that some Fortunatus' gift
He might as well have written
Is lying there within his hand,
" Who, type by type, creation done
More costly than a pot of pearls
Shape from the ideal world above."
His dulness does not understand.
Vague yearnings and nebulous imaginings form the
* And so his creature heart
filled ;
stuff of too many of these pieces. Now and then,
His shrunken self goes starved away.
Let him wear brand-new garments still,
however, we come upon a pure and simple strain, as
Who has a thread bare soul, I say.
in these verses from “ The Argonauts":
“But there be others, happier few,
* Behold! he sails no earthly barque,
The vagabondish sons of God,
And on no earthly sea ;
Who know the by-ways and the flowers,
Adown the years he sails the dark
And care not how the world may plod.
Deeps of futurity.
“They idle down the traffic lands,
“Ideals are the ships of Greece
And loiter through the woods with spring, -
His purpose steers afar;
To them the glory of the earth
The skies, his seas; the Golden Fleece
Is but to hear a bluebird sing.
He seeks, the farthest star."
66


1895.]
85
THE DIAL
Of course it is not fair to criticise a lyrical Pegasus the two poets of whom we first think as the high
for preferring cloudland to earth, but it may be sug- | priests of the cult of nature. We reproduce as a
gested that Pirene was, after all, an earthly spring, typical example the sonnet styled “A Touch of
and that from its waters the fabled steed took re Frost."
newed strength for flight.
“But yesterday the leaves, the tepid rills,
The muddy furrows, wore a summer haze;
A new-comer in the ranks, Mr. Robert Cameron
The cattle rested from the yellow rays,
Rogers, has taken poetic inspiration from much the
Bough-cool and careless of the piping bills.
same sort of themes as Mr. Cawein—from the mys No breath, no omen of the far-off ills
teries of nature and the beauties of classic legend
Shuddered the air. To-day the hardened ways
Lie drifted with the dead of summer days;
-but has made of it a more human use. Indeed,
The year lies sheaved upon the autumn hills.
our prosaic comment upon the importance of keep-
“There in the sunburnt stacks the beauty sleeps
ing touch with earth might be richly illustrated by
Of beam and shower, dawn, and silver dew,
“ The Wind in the Clearing,” Mr. Rogers's title Whisper of woody dusk, and upward deeps
poem ; or, better still, replaced by these verses
Of moonlight when the air is crystal blue.
called " Theory," having for their text the Virgil-
The bending farmer gathers into heaps
A harvest with the summer woven through.”
ian “Sunt gemina somni porta."
Most of Mr. Morris's pieces are in lyrical form, or
“She was so beautiful I could but follow;
Her words seemed truth itself, I could not doubt,
the allied form of the sonnet; the most noteworthy
And so she led me out beyond the hollow
exceptions are “ Love's Revenge," a long Italian
Half-hearted living of the world about.
romance in six-line stanza, and “ Amymone,” a
"Steep though the upward path, without misgiving
blank-verse idyl which might be printed among
I followed as she led, and more and more
Landor's " Hellenics” without being detected as an
She grew to seem the guide to that true living
interpolation by more than one reader out of ten.
That I had set my life to looking for.
" Footsore I grew and faint, through never nearing
Every poet nowadays has to write a « sonnet-
The goal, yet hopeful ever of the prize,-
sequence," and so Mr. Francis Howard Williams has
When suddenly, athwart my path appearing,
accepted the inevitable. His sequence consists of
I saw a distant gleaming barrier rise ; -
a sonnet for every hour of the twenty-four, begin-
“A sheer white wall, pierced by a single gateway, ning with one o'clock in the morning, an hour when
Guarding twin doors of ivory finely cut,
most people are oblivious of sonnets and all other
Twin doors that as I neared them opened straightway,
vanities. Mr. Williams's work deserves considerable
And passed my leader through and swiftly shut.
praise for its finish and wholesome sentiment. We
“But when I came and stood beside them knocking,
quote the last of the series, the rhyme of the mid-
And strove to move the strong-joined silent beams,
Forth came a voice in sadness half, half mocking,
night hour:
'Thou fool, go back, this is the gate of dreams."
“Oh! tender benison of darkness, cast
Upon the throbbing bosom of the earth,-
Mr. Rogers has written some spirited lyrics, some
Dropt as a mantle over all the mirth
good classical idyls, some tender memorial pieces, And madness of the day,- thou ever hast
and a few fine sonnets. From one of the latter-
A sweet compassion for us, and at last
A poppied peace. I gaze upon the girth
called“ I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills”—we
Of heaven, heavy with the rare new birth
reproduce the sestet:
Of beauty crescent through the spaces vast,
"Sweet is the valley music, - sweet the hum
“The while the unruffled forehead of the night
Of bees, - but on beyond the upland mist
Lifts royally its diadem of stars ;
Which sets false barriers to feeble wills,
Then, as a sleeper fares adown his way
Are triumph tones, sonorous chords, that come,
'Mid dreamy meadows, lying still and white,
As from the touch of some strong organist
I thread the moonlit lane, pass through the bars,
Hidden amid the transepts of the hills."
And close the record of an idle day.”
Mr. Harrison S. Morris also is a new-comer among
Mr. Williams is not only a sonneteer, but a writer
our American poets, and not often do we witness so
of lyrics, odes, and dramatic pieces, as well. His
successful a début. “ Madonna and Other Poems” “ Ave America” is a patriotic outburst which echoes
comprises over a hundred pieces, nearly every one
the passion of Lowell, and is not unworthy of its
of which bears the marks of careful workmanship,
model or its theme. There are some pretty pieces
and no small number of which strike a note of ex in lighter vein at the close of the collection, includ-
ceptional delicacy and purity. The predominant ing a certain "Ballad to a Bookman ” which readers
trait of the collection is a feeling for nature at once
of The DIAL will probably remember. On the
so sympathetic and so just as to recall the masters. whole, Mr. Williams seems to have won his spurs,
It is true that Mr. Morris employs the conventional
and the ranks of our minor poets must open to ad-
imagery, but the lightness of touch and the dainti mit this new singer of very creditable song
ness of his work make acceptable this new use of Mr. Cooke's “ Patch of Pansies" is a collection
the old material. Imbued with the romantic spirit, of verse, mostly trifling, that has been contributed
and having a distinctive dash of sensuousness (in to newspapers and other periodicals. It calls for
the good Miltonic signification), these poems derive no particular comment, but a brief example may be
rather from Keats than from Wordsworth—to name given:


86
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
66
97
"Unwept, unhonored, and unsung'
time regarded that event, which later writers have
Were not the worst of Fortune's bringing ;
Dread, rather, thine own eyes and tongue
tried to explain away: “We have retired from the
Unweeping and unsinging.
combat with the stripes yet bleeding on our backs.
Unweeping for thy brother, bound
To say that it [the national maritime reputa-
But struggling in the sombre Night,
tion] has not hitherto suffered in the estimation of
Unsinging from thy vantage-ground
all Europe, and, what is worse, of America herself,
The happy tidings of the Light."
is to belie common sense and universal experience.
This is a clear-cut thought, well expressed, but it is Scarcely is there an American ship of war
hardly poetry. A curious feature of Mr. Cooke's
which has not to boast a victory over the British
volume is that one dedication does not suffice; the flag; scarcely one British ship in thirty or forty that
pieces are grouped, and for each group a distinct has beaten an American. With the bravest sea-
patron is invoked.
men and the most powerful navy in the world, we
“Penrhyn's Pilgrimage" is a series of versified retire from the contest when the balance of defeat
impressions of travel in the East — Japan, China, is so heavy against us.” This was written, be it
and Egypt. A couple of the stanzas to “ Mount added, before the news had reached England of
Fuji” will illustrate the form of the narrative and the capture of the “Cyane ” and the “Levant" by
something better than the average of its inspiration. the “Constitution,” the disabling of the “Endy-
“O matchless mount, the centuries die
mion” by the “ President,” or the brilliant victory
And, moldering, form the forgotten past;
of the “Hornet" over the “Penguin.” The story
But still thy wooded base stands fast,
Still thy white dome salutes the sky!
of our navy is a brilliant chapter in American his-
tory; and Mr. Maclay, writing con amore and with
At night I see thy snowy stair
Ascending through the circling storm;
a good knowledge of his theme, has told it acceptably.
At morn behold thy graceful form
The lover of literature will be satis-
Spring, like a flower, into the air."
Selections from
fied to have upon his shelves nothing
Whatever the ambition of our verse-addicted trav two English poets.
less than the complete works of the
eller, he should have refrained from seeking to bend
Lord Tennyson's metrical bow.
great poets, and we deprecate the practice of mak-
ing "selections” from such men as Shelley and
WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE.
Tennyson, as much as we applaud the enterprise
that has given us the entire poetic product of these
men, as well as of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold,
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
and others (to say nothing of the “Globe" Shake-
speare, the new Chaucer, and the new Dante) in
The second volume of Mr. Edgar single compact and carefully-edited volumes. But
History of the
U.S. Navy.
Stanton Maclay's “History of the when it comes to poets not of the first rank, “selec-
United States Navy” (Appleton) | tions” are as helpful as they are in the other case
falls no whit behind its fellow in interest and harmful. In fact, the really competent student and
graphic quality, though the incidents seem at times critic of poetry can hardly find a more praiseworthy
a little crowded. Over-compression, however, is a task than that of carefully gleaning from the total
fault on the right side. Mr. Maclay is distinctly product of some estimable but unmistakably minor
the narrator—not the historical generalizer or the poet the best parts of his work. The lease of life
critic of naval evolutions and armaments, like of such a poet is really renewed by this process; it
Captain Mahan. He tells a mainly unglossed story gives him, as a rule, his one chance of impressing
of the achievements of the American navy; and the generation that succeeds his own. Two books
when he warms to his work—as in the accounts of of the sort described are now before us : Professor
the romantic sea-duels of 1812, where individual George E. Woodberry’s volume of "Selections from
pluck and real seamanship counted, and before the Poems of Aubrey De Vere" (Macmillan), and
the gallant frigates of the Decaturs and Barneys | Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton's similar selection
gave way to the ignominious tanks and “tea-ket from the poems of Arthur O'Shaughnessy (Stone
tles” of modern marine he tells it in a style not & Kimball). Each of the books has a portrait and
unworthy of Cooper and Smollett. The volume an introductory essay. The essay on Mr. De Vere
opens with the events of the latter half of the war is one of those pieces of serious critical workman-
of 1812, thence passes on to the “Minor Wars and ship that Mr. Woodberry so well knows how to pro-
Expeditions” from 1815 to 1861 (including the war duce. The characteristics of the poet are seized
with Algiers, Perry's Japan Expedition, etc.), and upon with unerring discernment. Mr. De Vere's
closes with a detailed account of the naval opera poems are memorable for their “praise of the life
tions of the Civil War. The text is liberally illus of the lowly, in the old Christian sense,” for their
trated with wood-cuts, full-page and vignette, and “praise of devotion, that loyal surrender to a man
there are plenty of maps and charts. The follow or a cause, which is one of the ideal passions of
ing extract from the London “Times” of Decem Love," and for their unfailing purity and faith.
ber 30, 1814, touching the issue of the war of 1812, “In all this poetry, however its phases may be
is interesting as showing how Englishmen of the l successively turned to the eye, or itself be inwardly


1895.]
87
THE DIAL
career.
sources
searched, there is one light and one breath the demands of what a ballad-book should be, this is the
light of the Spirit and the breath thereof." These best edition for practical purposes. The text is open
are noble ideals, and Mr. De Vere has steadfastly to criticism, especially of the subjective kind; but it
lived up to them throughout his long and active is in the main sound, adhering to the traditions as
The store house of Irish legend has been preserved by Professor Child. Occasional emenda-
put by him to such poetic uses as few if any
others tions are made — but always from another text in
have achieved, and poems upon these national Child; in the case of some ballads the text is com-
themes necessarily make up the greater part of those posite; none of the letters peculiar to mediæval
included in Mr. Woodberry's selection. Yet it seems MSS. have been retained. In the full introduction,
to us that the poet has done his best work in the originally a series of five lectures delivered at Johns
briefer forms of the lyric and the sonnet, and these Hopkins University, Professor Gummere etches with
also are well represented. We Americans owe Mr. a caustic
pen
the
progress
of ballad criticism from
De Vere a peculiar debt of gratitude for his sym Herder down. For his own part he insists upon
the
pathy with our national cause during the years
of distinction between popular (“communal ") poetry
civil dissension, a sympathy that found expression and the poetry of the schools, which may
attain
pop-
in many ways, and not least in the noble sonnets ularity, be for the people, but is not in any sense
“On the Centenary of American Liberty" and poetry of the people. Full and minute references
“ The American Struggle.” Mrs. Moulton, whose to a host of critics, scholars, and philologians, make
intimate associations with the group of writers to this introduction, supplemented by the appendixes,
which O'Shaughnessy belonged peculiarly qualified a veritable introduction to the study of ballad liter-
her for the task of editing a volume of his poems, ature. The notes and glossary are less full, leaving
has done her work admirably. The best things much desirable information to be obtained from
have been chosen from the poet's four volumes, and
notably Professor Child's monumental
the sketch of O'Shaughnessy's life is tastefully and collection — to which, after all, only the few have
tactfully written. His was an uncompleted exist access. The printing of the ballad title, rather than
ence, and his last (posthumous) volume seemed to the title of the book, at the top of the page, would
be “the tentative work of a poet in a transition
have made reference easier and occasional brows-
state." “He had taken to himself a larger harp, ing more satisfactory; it is a more serious mistake
but he had not yet completely strung it." Had he
that there are in the notes no references to pages,
lived, the editor goes on to say, “he would have nor any indication of the order in which the ballads
learned how to clothe his passion for humanity with are printed. But the real excellences of the work
the same tender grace with which in earlier days he are of a rarer kind and are great.
sang the love of woman.” As it is, no lover of
poetry can afford to remain entirely unacquainted
The forty-second volume of Putnam's
The Story
with his work, and Mrs. Moulton's volume will help
Story of the Nations " series is
of Venice.
to keep green
his
given to Venice, and is written by
memory.
Mrs. Alethea Wiel. As the author modestly con-
The interest in folk-song and folk fesses in her preface, the complete and definitive
Old English
lore is not only spreading but deep account of Venetian history, whether in Italian or
Ballads.
ening; it surely does not deserve to English, has yet to be produced. Meanwhile this
be stigmatized as a fad. Neither the romantic en work will serve presumably an honest purpose, as
thusiasts, the Percys and Scotts of a century ago, nor faithfully tracing the fortunes of that Republic,
the scientific investigators, the Childs and Grundt- from her mysterious origin to the noble spectacle
vigs of our own time, have been mere antiquaries of her supremacy, and thence her moral degrada-
and collectors; the human interest of what they tion and final cession to Austria in 1798. A post-
found, collated, and elucidated, is too great, and script of eight pages attempts to sketch the last cen-
has been from the first too generally acknowledged. tury of her existence. The volume is furnished with
The interest in ballads to-day is simply the genuine a list of the Doges, a generous index, and numerous
thing we may always expect,
soft-toned prints of photographs and paintings. One
“When that which drew from out the boundless deep
misses here the style of a Symonds or an Oliphant;
Turns again home."
nay, he half suspects, after reading several chapters,
But the “merry art is dead,” the merry art of bal that the authoress is an inveterate Freemanite, and
lad-making. So we, robbed of the merry pastime thanks God she has “no style,” which is tenfold
of "lything and listening,” must content ourselves the affront to opalescent, silver-tongued Venice it
with a ballad-book; and we may well content our could be to Sicily, perhaps. It is very easy to mis-
selves with such an one as Professor Gummere's take the materials of history for history itself, espe-
“Old English Ballads” (Ginn), which gives us in cially when one has access to the Venetian archives,
three hundred pages the text of fifty odd ballads, so full of the most detailed narrative—“ a hundred
and in nearly two hundred more an introduction, piping voices "; yet accuracy of investigation is a
notes, a glossary, and appendixes on the ballads of strongly redeeming virtue when there have been so
Europe, on metre, style, and form, and on minstrels, many picturesque dabs into the story, never sacri-
and the authorship of ballads. Meeting the various | ficing it for the sake of truth. “An author,” said
66


88
(Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
Nineteen
American
Authors.
Critical studies
Lowell, “should consider how largely the art of side world to-day than that which follows religion
writing consists in knowing what to leave in the as a profession.” We fear that there is only too
ink-stand.” Many of Mrs. Wiel's sentences are much truth in this suggestion.
Mr. Kernahan's
weighed down with a surplusage of nouns or adjec- tribute to Mrs. Moulton is finely appreciative, and
tives at the cost of their effectiveness. At the very hardly claims too much for a singer of whom we
beginning of the first chapter, for instance, we are have great reason to be proud. If three or four of
informed that “it may be well to consider for a mo the women among us who are, or have been, poets
ment the manner in which the dwellings and habi are likely to live, Mrs. Moulton is surely one of the
tations which formed the town took shape and be number.
ing, and also what measures were adopted to secure
“ American Writers of To-Day"(Sil-
the ground whereon these homes and houses were
ver, Burdett & Co.), by Mr. Henry
about to be established.” This rhetorical trick of
C. Vedder, is a series of nineteen
using in pairs words of nearly the same meaning brief essays upon as many American authors, all of
amounts to a mannerism with the writer, or it were whom but Mr. Parkman are still living. Nearly
endurable, like the occasional sight of Siamese twins. all of our best known men and women of letters
But " entirety and completeness, "'"exaction and de are included. Since each of these essays is limited
mand," "advantage and gain,” “marks and indi to about a score of pages, one must not look for
cations," "slaughter and carnage,” “attic or gar any very exhaustive treatment; nor has the author
ret,” “haughty and overbearing”-in Mr. Bagehot's aimed at such. His critical remarks are interspersed
words relative to Demosthenes' use of pebbles, we with a few biographical details, although anything
cannot dwell on it; it is too much. The style of the like a real biographical sketch is not attempted. As
historian of Venice need not be over-ornate, but for the author's criticism, it is mostly of the obvious
it should be picturesque and accurate.
current sort, and hardly rises above the common-
Five critical studies of impressionist place. A generous impulse to set each subject in
the best light is everywhere observable. A few
of five authors. type, having for their respective sub-
minor points seem to call for comment.
The open-
jects Heine, Rossetti, Marston, Rob-
ing statement that “ America has as yet produced
ertson of Brighton, and Mrs. Louise Chandler Moul-
no poet who was poet and nothing else" is, of
ton, are grouped by Mr. Coulson Kernahan into a
pretty volun:e called "Sorrow and Song” (Lippin- England would nearly disappear upon scrutiny.
course, strictly true; but the implied contrast with
cott). This title is not happily chosen, for two
The parenthetical observation upon Tennyson's
reasons: it was preëmpted twenty years ago for a
“ Timbuctoo ” is too disparaging. The “ Library
similar purpose by Mr. Henry Curwen, and it is not
of American Literature” is in eleven volumes, not
applicable to all of the contents of the volume, since
ten. Mr. Howells's “One Villain " is not named
Robertson was not a singer, and since Mrs. Moul-
ton's life has not been, as far as we know, typically trash, while praising, for example, “ A Yankee at
Bradley Hubbard. To call “ Huckleberry Finn"
rrowful, however pervasive may be the minor
the Court of King Arthur," is to upset criticism
strain of her song. The style of these essays is
altogether. To say “We have æsthetes in plenty,
somewhat pretentious, but is often marked by a
like Wilde and Pater," is something like saying
grave beauty, and they contain much penetrating
“We have poets in plenty, like Tupper and Tenny-
criticism inspired by a close sympathy with their
son.” Finally, the remark that “ American society
subjects. A passage from the Rossetti paper has a
is not quite guiltless of Becky Sharps ” tempts us to
well-deserved fling at the moralists who insist that
ask why in the name of Heaven somebody does not
art shall always be didactic: “ The folk who can
discover one of them and thereby become the Great
call nothing good unless it carry, dog-like, at its
American Novelist.
tail a tin can of noisy and rattling morality, and the
critics who -- forgetting that the very over-weight-
It is a rich and inspiring life that is
ing of individuality, genius, as we call it, which A philanthropist's
portrayed in the “ Life and Letters
life and letters.
gives a man such power on one side and in one
of Charles Loring Brace" (Scribner),
direction, necessitates, by natural and inevitable which has been given us by his daughter. Mr.
law, a corresponding under-balance on the other Brace is known to the world as the father of one
cannot award their grudging meed of praise for of the greatest of modern philanthropic movements,
honest work done, without complaining that some and for forty years its moving force. The Chil-
thing else has been left undone, are a thankless set.” dren's Aid Society has acted directly upon five hun-
The sentiment of this passage, by the way, is much dred thousand boys and girls; while the indirect
better than the form. The study of Robertson gives benefits to society, in draining off from New York
due praise to that rare and noble character, and a vast number who would have developed into crim-
emphasizes the absolute sincerity that was his inals, and in working out a scheme of beneficence
strength. It is the frequent lack of such sincerity that has been widely copied on both sides of the
in the profession which he adorned that makes the sea, cannot be estimated. The spirit, methods, and
writer question “whether there is any educated class principles of this great charity are clearly brought
whose testimony carries less weight with the out out in this book, making it of special value to the
sorro


1895.]
89
THE DIAL
.
student of philanthropy. But its chief interest lies icism”; “Some Masks and Faces of Literature”;
in the personality of the remarkable man who was and “ A Rhapsody on Music.” “Essays” is hardly
himself more than his achievements. His clear in the best descriptive term for the papers — Mr.
sight into the needs of the wretched classes, and Harte's hand being neither light nor his temper
into the principles of true charity, is shown by the easy. Your true essayist is mostly a bit of a posem,
fact that the preliminary circular of the society, a minter of nice phrases, something of a literary
though far in advance of the thinking of the time, Turveydrop, in fact, who is much more concerned
contained in the germ the whole vast and varied about his “deportment" than his matter. Style,
work which the society has since undertaken. This or neatness of style, is scarcely Mr. Harte's strong
insight was united with a sober and critical judg point. There are too many long sentences, too
ment that made Mr. Brace a safe leader, and won many parentheses, and one notes here and there ex-
for him the full confidence of the influential men pressions a shade too robust for the occasion, or for
of his city, and later of England and America. any occasion. What Mr. Harte lacks in urbanity
Enthusiasm for humanity, high spiritual and moral he makes up in earnestness, his book being full of
ideals, ardent patriotism, keen intellectual curiosity, honest hammer-strokes of the plain truth that
great power in winning and keeping friends, and “ shames the devil”—and a good many besides. A
the success of his philanthropic work, all combined notable paper is the one called “Some Masks and
to make him a benefactor of his country and one of Faces of Literature.” Here the author draws a
the foremost men of his time. The charm of this most stinging indictment of sensational and mer-
biography is due largely to the good taste and the cenary journalism that is doubly effective in that
sense of proportion of the author.
he is himself a journalist speaking “out of the bit-
terness of a full knowledge.” The most tragical
The first doctor's dissertation that
The paragraph
thing, Mr. Harte thinks, “ about this horrible busi-
in English has come to us from the English De ness of news-
vs-mongering, as we see it in this country,
composition.
partment of the University of Chi in its most degraded and impudent form, is not so
cago testifies to the solidity and scientific thorough much that it panders to the lowest elements of so-
ness of the graduate work done in that institution. ciety, but that its huge vortex swallows up and de-
It is a monograph on “The History of the English bases and strangles so many fine, generous, noble
Paragraph," by Mr. Edwin Herbert Lewis, a work
natures, who might perhaps have made the world
of two hundred pages and of infinite industry. Mr. better for their having been in it. • The dyer's
Lewis has read a considerable portion of English hand is subdued to what it works in.' The volume
literature for the express purpose of determining justifies the growing literary vogue of its author.
the characteristics of the paragraph, from the ninth
to the nineteenth century, from Alfred to Holmes.
The thirteenth annual report of the
He has counted the words and sentences in many
Dante Society's
Dante Society, just published (Ginn),
annual report.
thousands of paragraphs, and tabulated the results,
gives the customary list of accessions
leading to the somewhat barren conclusion that the to the Dante collection in the Harvard College
length of the paragraph has not decreased with the library, and Mr. Paget Toynbee's index of proper
sentence-length. He also discusses the mechanical names in the prose works and canzoniere of Dante.
signs and rhetorical theories of the paragraph,
This index is an abridgment of that just prepared
and some of the latest investigations into the struc-
by Mr. Toynbee for Dr. Moore's edition of the whole
ture of English prose. In short, no labor seems to
text of Dante, and it is something more, for it gives
have been spared in bringing together or calcu not only references but catch-words and phrases as
lating all the facts of any conceivable interest bear-
well. The secretary, Mr. A. R. Marsh, announces
ing upon the subject of this monograph. But we the subjects for the Dante prize of one hundred
must confess, while paying admiring tribute to the dollars, to be competed for this year. He also ap-
industry and scientific spirit of a study like this, that peals to Dantophilists everywhere to associate them-
it is not exactly our ideal of the work to be aimed selves with the work of the Society, and thus make
at by a great school of literary study. And the possible the publication of some important projected
author's results and tabulations are probably of less
works. The annual fee is only five dollars, and
value to him than the intimate acquaintance with certainly there ought to be found in this country
our literature that must have been acquired during many more students of Dante than the sixty now
the prosecution of the investigation.
reported as members. The society has nearly pre-
pared the materials for a concordance to the lesser
A very pungent collection of essays Italian works, similar in plan to Dr. Fay's con-
pungent
collection
is Mr. Walter Blackburn Harte's cordance to the “Commedia.” A concordance to
of essays. “Meditations in Motley" (The Arena the Latin works is also projected. Other sugges-
Co.). The author has an ample stock of convictions tions are: “The systematic publication, with En-
(sometimes a little crotchetty, perhaps) and he states glish translations, of the vision - literature of the
them with refreshing point and candor. Mr. Harte's Middle Ages ; the publication of extracts from the
titles are: “On Certain Satisfactions of Prejudice”; works of the Schoolmen and of the Chroniclers;
“Jacobitism in Boston ”; “ About Critics and Crit and a revision of Blanc's Vocabolario Dantesco.'"


90
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
in Art.
from Dean Hole.
An extremely pretty and well-con better than is usual with herbarian specimens. A num-
Child-life
ceived little volume, that unfortu-
ber of sonnets and other verses have been written for
nately came too late for inclusion in the collection by Miss Ina D. Coolbrith and Miss Grace
our Holiday notices, is Miss Estelle M. Hurll's Hibbard, so that we may really call it a book, after all,
“Child-Life in Art” (Knight). It has as its picto-
and a very pretty book at that.
rial feature twenty-five full-page plates (one or two
Mr. Joseph Knight is both compiler and publisher of
of which are slightly marred in the printing) after
an anthology that no user of tobacco, if he have literary
tastes at all, will want to do without. It is called “ Pipe
some twenty artists, ranging from Raphael to Mr.
and Pouch," and its contents are so happily selected as
J. G. Brown — which is certainly a pretty far cry. to justify its further title of “The Smoker's Own Book
Among the best plates are “The Sistine Madonna,” of Poetry.” All the good things, anonymous or acknowl-
Reynolds's “ The Strawberry Girl,” Van Dyck's edged, are here preserved for us,-Mr. Aldrich's “ La-
“Mary Stuart and William III.,” Gainsborough’s takia” and Lowell's numerous poems on the subject,
“Rustic Children,” a “ Child's Head ” by Bou Lamb's “ Farewell” and Calverley's “Ode.” The vol-
guereau, Greuze's “ La Cruche Cassée,” and “The ume is very prettily printed and bound.
Meeting" by Marie Bashkirtseff. Velasquez, Bel Mrs. Oliphant's two-volume work on “The Victorian
lini, Murillo, Lippo Lippi, and others, are also rep-
Age of English Literature” (Lovell, Coryell & Co.)
resented. The text is intelligently and pleasantly appears in a new edition, with a series of not very judi-
written, the author showing some knowledge of and
ciously selected portraits. It is of course in no sense
much feeling for her theme.
We venture to say
a critical or an authoritative treatment of the subject, nor
is it likely to be taken for such. A careful examina-
that this daintily-bound and well-printed little work,
tion would doubtless reveal an appalling number of in-
though late in appearing, did not fail to find favor
accuracies, and the most casual reader will come upon
as a Christmas book; and it is by no means one of judgments so inept as to call forth a smile. But, if we
the ephemeral sort.
do not take the book too seriously, it will be found read-
able, and even helpful as a means of passing under
The Dean of Rochester, being called
More memories
rapid survey the various groups of Victorian writers.
upon at the same time for more
Professor Henry Craik's “Life of Jonathan Swift”
“Memories ” and for a series of pub-
was published nearly twelve years ago in a single large
lic lectures in the United States, concluded that he volume, and became at once the standard authority upon
might kill two birds with a single stone, and so pre its subject. It now reappears in much more convenient
pared a series of reminiscential chapters to be spoken shape, forming two volumes of the charming “Eversley
and printed at the same time. For some weeks past edition (Macmillau), and adorned with two portraits.
he has been charming audiences in our large cities The text is practically the same as before, the author
with his presence, while those unable to hear him having seen no reason to alter his opinions on the life
may still read what he has to say in the newly pub of Swift, or his conception of the character and work of
lished “More Memories” (Macmillan), being
the great satirist.
thoughts about England spoken in America.” Dean
Bound up with the twelfth General Catalogue of
Hole is as richly anecdotal in this volume as in its
Columbia College” (New York) there is a facsimile
predecessor of two years since, and the pages have
reproduction of the first. It was a single broadside
sheet of modest dimensions, printed in 1774, and giv-
the same unpretentious and genial charm. They
ing the names of all graduates for the sixteen years that
are upon all sorts of subjects : bores, preachers, the institution had then been in existence. The cata-
roses, the drama, Sunday observance, working-men, logue now published is a volume of 620 pages, and is
and English sports. These are but a few of the devoted solely to giving the names, dates, and ad-
many themes touched upon.
dresses (for those still living) of all the persons that
have ever been connected with Columbia College, either
as officers or students. “Great oaks from little acorns
BRIEFER MENTION.
grow" is a homely proverb that does not often have a
better illustration than this stout volume. The com-
Professor Herbert Weir Smyth’s monumental work pilation has been made by Professor J. H. Van Am-
on “ The Sounds and Inflections of the Greek Dialects" ringe and Mr. John B. Pine. Its most distinctive fea-
(Macmillan), published by the Oxford Clarendon Press, ture as contrasted with earlier issues is a “Locality
takes up the task set aside by Ahrens half a century Index,” which groups the living graduates by states and
ago, and now does for the Ionic dialect even more than cities, and ought to promote the establishment of many
was done for the Doric and Aiolic dialects by the earlier new alumni organizations.
scholar. We understand that the present volume, itself Two new parts of the “ New English Dictionary”
the fruit of many years' labor, is but the first instal (Macmillan) begin, respectively, the letters D and F.
ment of a work destined eventually to embrace the other (E has already been published entire.) D, which with
Greek dialects also, and to supplement Ahrens in his È, will form the third volume of the great work, is
own field by means of the added results of nineteenth edited by Dr. Murray; while F, beginning volume four,
century investigation..
has been undertaken by Mr. Henry Bradley, who was
“A Collection of Wild Flowers of California" is pub responsible for E also. F, G, and I will be brought
lished (if we may use the word in this connection) by within the fourth volume. The two letters now started
the Popular Bookstore of San Francisco. Miss E. Č. will be continued in quarterly sections, without interrup-
Alexander bas pressed and mounted the flowers, which tion. The parts now issued run from D to Deceit, and
include eight species, and which have kept their color from F to Fang, respectively.


1895.]
91
THE DIAL
were prepared for • The Literary History of the Amer-
NEW YORK TOPICS.
ican Revolution,'" Professor Tyler continues, “but as
New York, January 26, 1895. the chief activity of the two writers thus dealt with
The continuation of the American Copyright League belongs to the period immediately after the Revolu-
as a permanent organization for the maintenance and tion, I have deemed it best to exclude them from
improvement of the law enacted in 1891 has been abund that work.” It is thus clear that the literature of the
antly justified by recent events. It was thought by
Republic will not be taken up by this author. His his-
some members that with the passage of the bill estab tories of Colonial and Revolutionary literature are not
lishing international copyright the League's usefulness likely to be superseded, and, with Professor Richard-
was at an end. The League has remained quiescent for
son's “ History of American Literature,” form a com-
four years, and has discouraged many well-meant move plete and satisfactory survey of our literary past. Mr.
ments to improve the law, in order that the latter might George Haven Putnam, whose firm publishes all of these
be thoroughly tested and that the principle of interna works, and who has himself turned author, has been
tional copyright might be firmly established in the minds lecturing the past week at Bowdoin College on the his-
of the people. The so-called Hicks bill, by which it tory of publishing during the Middle Ages. Among
was proposed to remove copyright protection from en-
the announcements of Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons for
gravings and etchings unless made in this country, re the present year are new editions of “Mr. Midshipman
quired immediate attention, however; and the power of
Easy,” by Marryat, illustrated by representative Am-
the League and its affiliated societies has been shown erican artists ; “ At Odds,” by Baroness Tautphæus ;
by the promptness with which the bill has been de and “Richelieu ” and “ Agincourt,” by G. P. R. James,
feated by the active efforts of the League, under the
in their “ Famous Novel Series."
able leadership of Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson, its Mr. Rossiter Johnson, the veteran editor and author,
secretary. By the same token, the new Covert bill, to is busily engaged upon the current volume of Apple-
prevent excessive damages in cases where newspapers tons' “ Annual Cyclopædia,” which has been rightly
have infringed the copyright law, has very properly re called “a history of the world for one year.” A more
ceived the support of the League, and will no doubt be than usually large number of distinguished people
passed. Instead of a separate fine for each issue of a passed away in 1894, and special effort has been made
journal containing the pirated matter, the penalty is to secure capable biographers. The biography of Rob-
limited to double the market value of the copyright in ert Louis Stevenson will be written by Mr. Edward L.
fringed upon.
Burlingame, editor of " Scribner's Magazine,” a close
In deference to the wishes of the League, the Amer personal friend of the dead romancer. Mr. Johnson
ican Authors' Guild has postponed the recommendation has also been occupied for some time in seeing through
of certain changes in the copyright law until a more the press his “Camp-fire and Battle-field, an Illustrated
propitious season. The Guild will perform a real ser History of the Great Civil War,” which will be pub-
vice to all who earn their living by writing, if it is suc lished next week by Messrs. Bryan, Taylor & Co., of
cessful in its efforts to have authors' manuscripts rated this city. The work will contain special contributions
as printed matter by the postmaster-general. "Mr. Bis by eminent participants on both sides, with more than
sell has practically promised that this shall be done. a thousand illustrations, many of them from photo-
The first of the “ Atlantic Monthly " series of articles graphs belonging to the War Department, now engraved
on “ New Figures in Literature and Art” is from the for the first time. The advance sale of this work, by
pen of Mr. Royal Cortissoz, art-critic of the New York subscription, has been unexpectedly large.
“ Tribune,” and has for its subject the work of Daniel The fourth volume of Professor John Bach McMas-
Chester French. Mr. Cortissoz has also prepared for ter's “ History of the People of the United States” will
the March « Harper's” a paper which is a plea for“ An soon be issued by the Messrs. Appleton. It takes up
American Academy at Rome,” in which he will ques the story of the second war for independence, and the
tion the final authority of France in art, and will advo succeeding period. The volume has much to do with
cate the training of painters of all schools amid Italian the economic history of our country at that time, and
traditions. Mr. Cortissoz is without question the most deals with the business depression and hard times which
promising of our younger writers on art, having devoted were the causes of the enormous exodus of seaboard
himself almost exclusively to its study. His latest pa-
residents to the Valley of the Mississippi. An interest-
per is probably the outcome of a pilgrimage made last ing chapter is devoted to early American magazines
summer through the principal art-centres of Europe, and periodicals.
one of several that he has made. His criticisms of the Still another author has passed through the English
decorations and art exhibits of the Columbian Exposi Bankruptcy Court under discreditable circumstances,
tion are remembered here as among the most thorough and, judging by recent experiences, it would not be sur-
and incisive which appeared.
prising were he to come here and deliver literary lec-
The preface of Professor Moses Coit Tyler's “ Three tures, which seems to be the last resort in such cases.
Men of Letters” would seein to indicate that with the
The advent of a French writer of salacious stories was
completion of his “Literary History of the American loudly heralded not long since; but a stinging editorial
Revolution,” soon to be sent to the press, bis labors as by Mr. Arthur Brisbane, in one of our daily newspapers,
an historian of American literature will be at an end. calling upon all good people to shun him and his lec-
The present volume contains monographs upon Bishop
tures, has had the effect of keeping him away, for it is
Berkeley, Timothy Dwight, and Joel Barlow. The now announced that “M. — is not coming, and never
first of these, the author says, “was an incidental pro intended to come, to New York."
duct of the researches I made some years ago when Of quite another sort is the witty, whole-souled French-
working upon my · History of American Literature man, “Max O’Rell,” now lecturing through the West.
During the Colonial Time, but could not properly be I have just heard that “Mark Twain's " article on
included in that work.” “ The last two monographs “Wbat Paul Bourget Thinks of Us,” in the January


92
(Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
9
66
“ North American Review," will be answered by “ Max Chaucer and published with his genuine works in old
O’Rell” in the March number. So I suppose there will editions. The volume will be complete in itself, with
be great fun, and the fur will fly. The Messrs. Harper an introduction, notes, and glossary; and will be uni-
have made a mystery of the new historical romance, form with the Library Edition of Chaucer's Complete
“ Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc,” which will begin Works.
in the April number of their magazine. Judging by the Mr. David Christie Murray's talk at the Twentieth
title alone, the story should be by “Mark Twain," and Century Club, on the evening of January 18, was re-
I give the guess for what it is worth. A propos of " Max ceived with much interest by the members of the Club.
O’Rell,” the Cassell Publishing Co. has purchased the Taking for his subject “ The Poet's Note-Book,” Mr.
American rights of his last book, “ John Bull & Co.," Murray discoursed for about an hour and a half upon
and the firm now publishes all of this author's works the essentials of poetic diction, with such tribute of en-
in this country. I understand that the American Pub thusiasm to Burns and other Scotsmen as their fellow-
lishing Company, of Hartford, will hereafter publish all countrymen may always be counted upon to pay.
of “ Mark Twain's " works, and that these books will The most serious literary loss of the month came on
be sold by subscription hereafter, as was formerly the the eleventh, with the death of Dr. Thomas Gordon
case.
Hake, in his eighty-sixth year. He was one of the men
A good deal of curiosity has been excited by a pointed of 1809, was educated at Christ's Hospital, studied
reference in one of Whittier's letters, given in the re medicine, travelled a good deal on the Continent, and
cently published “Life and Letters,” to “ the best and finally settled down to practice in East Anglia. He
ablest literary paper in the country.” The apprehensive was the intimate friend of Borrow and Rossetti, and
or incredulous editor of the Letters, Mr. Pickard, ap published several volumes of poems - Valdarno,
pears to have felt called upon to suppress the name of “ Madeline," “ New Symbols,” « Parables and Plays,"
the journal thus strongly characterized by Mr. Whit · Legends of To-morrow,' “Maiden Ecstasy," and
tier, although his opinion on such a subject could hardly “ The New Day." His “ Memoirs of Eighty Years”
fail to be a matter of legitimate literary interest. How appeared in 1892, and a Civil List pension was granted
ever, chance has thrown the original letter in my way, him in 1893.
and the missing words may now be supplied: “THE Professor William Rufus Perkins, who died at Erie,
DIAL.” But I give the letter entire, having carefully Pa., on the 27th of January, was a man of rare char-
copied it from Mr. Whittier's familiar handwriting: acter and abilities, whose higher qualities were perhaps
Hampton Falls, N. H., Aug. 19, '92. too little appreciated by the most of those who knew
My dear Friend: I don't believe that half of the nice things him. For some years before his death, he held the
the papers are saying of thy little book reach thee. Here is chair of History at the State University of Iowa, hav-
a clipping from the Chicago “Dial,” the best and ablest lit-
ing gone there from Cornell University, where he was
erary paper in the country. With loving remembrance, from
an assistant professor. He was the author of some val-
thy friend,
John G. WHITTIER.
uable historical papers, including an almost unique mon-
Thus it is seen that “the truth will out," in spite of ograph on the Iowa Trappists, based upon an exhaust-
hyper-cautious editors like Mr. Pickard.
ive study of that singular and interesting community.
ARTHUR STEDMAN.
He was also a reviewer of historical works for The
DIAL and other journals. But Professor Perkins's best
work was as a poet. A shy and reticent man, it was known
to but few of his friends that poetry was to him much
more than the diversion of an idle hour — that to it he
LITERARY NOTES.
gave his best powers and sought to express in it his real
The Rev. H. Shaen Solly is writing a life of his late self. His poem of “ Eleusis” has already been char-
father-in-law, Professor Henry Morley,
acterized in THE DIAL as one of the most remarkable
Moritz Carriere, author of “ Die Kunst,” and other
and meritorious of the longer poems that have appeared
in America in many years.
works of philosophy and æsthetics, died at Munich a
The volume containing it
few days ago
(“ Eleusis, and Lesser Poems") was issued in 1892; it
is not known that he is the author of any other books of
Professor Augustus Chapman Merriam of Columbia
verse. Professor Perkins was about forty-five years of
College died at Athens on the 19th of January, at the
age, and unmarried.
age of fifty-one. He had been a member of the Co-
lumbia faculty for more than a quarter of a century,
Messrs. Ward, Lock, & Bowden, New York, are the
and was, at the time of his death, away on leave of ab-
agents in this country for “ The Windsor Magazine," a
sence for a year.
new English monthly of the popular sort. It is more like
“The Strand Magazine” than any other of its competitors,
The New York “Critic” for January 10 is made
and sells at twenty cents a copy.-We note with grat-
peculiarly interesting by its account of the Stevenson
ification the re-appearance of “The Southern Magazine,"
memorial meeting, as well as by other matter relating
whose untimely demise was chronicled a few weeks ago.
to the dead novelist. It also contains a noteworthy ar It begins again with the January issue, under a new
ticle upon the second Congress of American Philolo-
management.–Of great importance also is the resump-
gists, held at Philadelphia during the holidays.
tion of that very valuable weekly, “Science," under the
With the appearance of the sixth and final volume of auspices of an editorial committee comprising the most
Dr. Skeat's Library Edition of Chaucer, the publishers, distinguished specialists in the country. The paper has
Messrs. Macmillan & Co., announce that a Supplement gone back to the typographical features of the earlier
ary Volume is in course of preparation by Professor volumes, and once more presents an exceedingly attract-
Skeat, to be issued during the present year, containing ive appearance.—A most creditable addition to the sci-
the “ Testament of Love"
(in prose), and the chief entific periodicals issued by the University of Chicago
poems which bave at various times been attributed to is “ The Astrophysical Journal,” which succeeds the old


1895.]
93
THE DIAL
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
[The following list, containing 81 titles, includes books re-
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
“ Astronomy and Astro-Physics," and which is now ed-
ited by Professors George E. Hale and James E. Keeler,
with the collaboration of a large number of American
and European physicists and astronomers.— From Los
Angeles, Cal., comes “ The Land of Sunshine," an illus-
trated monthly whose bright and winning appearance
does not belie its name. Its literary quality too is good.
Under the editorial guidance of Mr. Charles F. Lum-
mis, an experienced and favorably known literary worker,
with the assistance of Mr. Charles D. Willard and
other ready contributors, the periodical should not make
its appeal in vain either to Californians or to more
Eastern readers. The first number of the American
edition of “ The Bookman,” already noted in these col-
umns, is expected to appear in February.- We may
close this note upon the new periodicals of the year by
mention of “The Metaphysical Magazine," a monthly
devoted to Occultism.
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS.
February, 1895 (First List).
Bad Taste, The Pleasures of. Annie S. Winston. Lippincott.
California, The Mountains of, Alice Morse Earle. Dial.
Civil Service Reform at Present. Theo. Roosevelt. Atlantic.
College Preparation, Uniform Standards in. Educational Rev.
Colorado's Experiment with Populism. J. F. Vaile. Forum.
Corpus Christi in Seville. Caroline E. White. Lippincott.
Dialect, The Use and Abuse of. Dial.
Diamond-Back Terrapin, The. D. B. Fitzgerald. Lippincott.
Drama, Technique of the. J.S. Nollen. Dial.
East, Alfred, R. I. Walter Armstrong. Magazine of Art.
Electric Action, Modern Theories of. H. S. Carhart. Dial.
Emin Pasha, The Death of. R. Dorsey Mohun. Century.
Farmer, The Fate of the. F. P. Powers. Lippincott.
Forestry Question, The. E. A. Bowers and others. Century.
French Fighters in Africa. Poultney Bigelow. Harper.
Froude, James Anthony. Augustine Birrell. Scribner.
Froude's Erasmus. C. A. L. Richards. Dial.
Gambling. John Bigelow. Harper.
German Socialism, Program of. Wilhelm Liebknecht. Forum.
Giants and Giantism. Charles L. Dana. Scribner.
Glasgow, Art in. Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Harper.
Goff's Etchings. Frederick Wedmore. Magazine of Art.
Gold, Why Exported ? Alfred S. Heidelbach. Forum.
Government Banking. Wm. C. Cornwell. Forum.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Mrs. James T. Fields. Century.
Kindergartens and the Elementary School. Educat'l Rev.
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. A. K. McClure. McClure.
Lincoln, Chase, and Grant. Noah Brooks. Century.
Lingo in Literature. William C. Elam. Lippincott.
Mob, A Study of the. Boris Sidis. Atlantic.
Music in America. Antonín Dvorák. Harper.
Napoleon, The Wax Cast of the Face of. McClure.
Negro in Fiction, The Future of the. Dial.
Nervous System, Education of the. H.H.Donaldson. Ed. Rev.
New York Colonial Privateers. T. A. Janvier. Harper.
New York, People in. Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. Century.
Perugia. Mrs. Frank W. W. Topham. Magazine of Art.
Philosophic Renascence in America. John Dewey. Dial.
Physical Training in Public Schools. M. V.O'Shea. Atlantic.
Poetry, Recent American. William Morton Payne. Dial.
Railroads, Government Control of. C. D. Wright. Forum,
Russia as a Civilizing Force in Asia. Atlantic.
Secondary Education, Values in. W. B. Jacobs. Educat'l Rev.
Social Discontent. Henry Holt. Forum.
Speech-Reading. Mrs. Alexander G. Bell. Atlantic.
Stevenson in the South Sea. Wm. Churchill. McClure.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. S. R. Crockett. McClure.
Thaxter, Celia. Annie Fields. Atlantic.
Vedder, Elihu, Recent Work of. W. C. Brownell. Scribner.
Weapons, New, of the U. S. Army. V. L. Mason. Century.
Whigs, Passing of the. Noah Brooks. Scribner.
HISTORY.
History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. By
Ferdinand Gregorovius ; trans. from the 4th German edi-
tion, by Annie Hamilton. In 2 vols., 12mo, uncut. Mac-
millan & Co. $3.75.
Henry the Navigator and the Age of Discovery in Europe.
By C. Raymond Beazley, M. A. Illus., 12mo, pp. 336.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50.
The International Beginnings of the Congo Free State.
By Jesse Siddall Reeves, Ph.D. 8vo, uncut, pp. 106.
Johns Hopkins University Studies. 50 cts.
BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS.
The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution
with Some Account of the Attitude of France Toward
the War of Independence. By Charlemagne Tower, Jr.,
LL. D. In 2 vols., illus., 8vo, gilt tops, uncut. J. B. Lip-
pincott Co. Boxed, $8.
The Life and Adventures of George Augustus Sala.
Written by Himself. In 2 vols., with portrait, 8vo, gilt
tops. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $5.
Odd Bits of History: Being Short Chapters Intended to
Fill Some Blanks. By Henry W. Wolff. 8vo, uncut, pp.
267. Longmans, Green, & Co. $2.75.
A Strange Career: Life and Adventures of John Gladwyn
Jebb. By his widow; with introduction by H. Rider
Haggard. With portrait, 12mo, pp. 349. Roberts Bros.
$1.25.
Herbart and the Herbartians. By Charles De Garmo,
Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 268. Scribner's “Great Educators." $1.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Greek Studies: A Series of Essays. By Walter Pater; pre-
pared for the press by Charles L. Shadwell. 12mo, un-
cut, pp. 319. Macmillan & Co. $1.75.
The Growth of the Idylls of the King. By Richard Jones,
Ph. D. 12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 161. J. B. Lippincott
Co. $1.50.
Spenser's Faerie Queene (Book I., Cantos V.-VIII.)
Edited by Thomas J. Wise. Part II.; illus. by Walter
Crane. 4to, uncut, pp. 76. Macmillan & Co. $3.
The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited by
the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt. D. Vol. VI., Introduc-
tion, Glossary, and Indexes ; 8vo, uncut, pp. 445. Mac-
millan & Co. $4.
Poets on Poets. Edited by Mrs. Richard Strachey. 16mo,
gilt top, uncut, pp. 324. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $2.
Rhetoric: Its Theory and Practice. By Austin Phelps,
D.D., and Henry Allyn Frink, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 317.
Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.25.
Vistas. By William Sharp. 16mo, gilt top, pp. 182. Stone
& Kimball's "Green Tree Library." $1.25.
Shakuntala; or, The Recovered Ring: A Hindoo Drama by
Kalidasa. Trans. from the Sanskrit by A. Hjalmar Ed-
gren, Ph.D. 16mo, gilt top, pp. 198. Henry Holt & Co.
$1.50.
Ben Jonson. Vol. II., with portrait, uncut, pp. 442. Scrib-
ner's" Best Plays of the Old Dramatists." $1.25.
The Plays of Maurice Maeterlinck. Translated by Rich-
ard Hovey. 16mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 369. Stone &
Kimball's "Green Tree Library." $1.25.
Ideals and Institutions: Their Parallel Development. By
John Ernest Merrill, B.A. 8vo, uncut, pp. 175. Hart-
ford, Conn.: Seminary Press. $1.
The Temple Shakespeare-new vols.: King John, and A
Winter's Tale. Each with preface, glossary, etc., by
Israel Gollancz, M.A. 18mo, gilt tops, uncut. Macmil-
lan & Co. Each, 45 cts.
POETRY.
Ballads and Songs. By John Davidson. 16mo, uncut, pp.
131. Copeland & Day. $1.50.
Poems. By John B. Tabb. 18mo, uncut, pp. 172. Cope-
land & Day. $1.
Poems of William Haines Lytle. Edited, with Memoir,
by William H. Venable. With portrait, 12mo, gilt top,
uncut, pp. 146. Robt. Clarke Co. $1.25.


94
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
In Sheltered Ways. By D. J. Donahoe, author of "Idyls
of Israel." 18mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 72. Buffalo: C. W.
Moulton. $1.
FICTION.
The Ralstons. By F. Marion Crawford, author of “Kath-
erine Lauderdale." In 2 vols., 12mo. Macmillan & Co.
Boxed, $2.
The Melancholy of Stephen Allard: A Private Diary.
Edited by Garnet Smith. 12mo, uncut, pp. 305. Mao-
millan & Co. $1.75.
Vernon's Aunt: Being the Oriental Experiences of Miss
Lavinia Moffat. By Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sara Jeanette
Duncan). Illus., 12mo, pp. 162. D. Appleton & Co. $1.25.
The Literary Shop and Other Tales. By James L. Ford,
author of “Hypnotic Tales.”' 12mo, uncut, pp. 298. New
York: Geo. H. Richmond & Co. $1.25.
Slum Stories of London. By Henry W. Nevinson. With
frontispiece, 18mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 238. Henry Holt
& Co. 75 cts.
Shylock's Daughter. By Margaret Holmes Bates. Illus.,
12mo, pp. 146. Chicago: C. H. Kerr & Co. 75 cts.
NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES.
Neely's Library of Choice Literature: A Daughter of
Judas, by Richard Henry Savage ; 12mo, pp. 304.-Cam-
paigns of Curiosity, by Elizabeth L. Banks ; illus., 12mo,
pp. 208. Each, 50 cts.
Lippincott's Select Novels : In Market Overt, by James
Payn; 12mo, pp. 302, 50 cts.
Rand, McNally's Globe Library: Martin Hewitt, Investi-
gator, by Arthur Morrison ; 12mo, pp. 264, 25 cts.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.
Venezia. By Henry Perl ; adapted from the German by Mrs.
Arthur Bell (N. D'Anvers); with introduction by H. D.
Traill, D.C.L. With 210 illustrations from original draw-
ings ; 4to, gilt edges, pp. 248. Chas. Scribner's Sons.
$12.50.
Corea; or, Cho-sen, the Land of the Morning Calm. By A.
Henry Savage-Landor, author of " Alone with the Hairy
Ainee.” Illus., large 8vo, pp. 304, uncut. Macmillan &
Co. $4,50.
St. Andrews and Elsewhere : Glimpses of Some Gone and
of Things Left. By the author of “Twenty-five Years of
St. Andrews." 8vo, uncut, pp. 384. Longmans, Green,
& Co. $4.
The Book of the Fair. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Parts
17, 18, and 19 ; illus., 4to. The Bancroft Co. Each, $1.
On the shores of an Inland Sea. By James Teackle Den-
nis. Illus., 12mo, pp. 79. Press of J. B. Lippincott Co.
75 cts.
Eight Days Out. By M. A. Illus., 12mo, pp. 157. Chicago :
C. H. Kerr & Co. $1.
ART AND MUSIC.
Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on
the History of Art. By Adolf Furtwängler; edited by
Eugénie Sellers. With 19 photogravure plates and 200
text illustrations ; 4to, uncat, pp. 487. Chas. Scribner's
Sons. $15.
Rhythm and Harmony in Poetry and Music, together with
an essay on Music as a Representive Art. By George
Lansing Raymond, L.H.D., author of “ Art in Theory."
8vo, pp. 344. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES.
Socialism. By Robert Flint. 8vo, uncut, pp. 512. J. B.
Lippincott Co. $3.25.
Municipal Government in Great Britain. By Albert
Shaw. 8vo, gilt top, pp. 385. The Century Co. $2.
Law in a Free State. By Wordsworth Donisthorpe, author
of "Individualism a System of Politics." 12mo, pp. 312,
uncut. Macmillan & Co. $2.
The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce, author
of " The Holy Roman Empire." In 2 vols., 3d edition,
revised and enlarged ; 12mo, gilt tops. Macmillan &
Co. $4.
American Charities : A Study in Philanthropy and Eco-
nomics. By Amos G. Warner, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 430.
T. Y. Crowell & Co. $1.75.
English Industrial History. By W. Cunningham, D.D.,
and Ellen A. McArthur. 12mo, pp. 274. Macmillan &
Co. $1.50.
The Wealth of Labor. By Frank Loomis Palmer. 12mo,
pp. 219. Baker & Taylor Co. $1.
PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS.
Logic. By Dr. Christopher Sigwart. Second edition, re-
vised and enlarged, translated by Helen Dendy. 2 vols.,
large 8vo, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $5.50.
Philosophy of Mind: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Psy-
chology. By George Trumbull Ladd. 8vo, pp. 414.
Chas. Scribner's Sons. $3.
The Elements of Ethics. By James H. Hyslop, Ph.D., au-
thor of "The Elements of Logic." 12mo, pp. 470. Chas.
Scribner's Sons. $2.50.
Institutional Ethics. By Marietta Kies, Ph.D. 12mo, pp.
270. Allyn & Bacon. $1.25.
THEOLOGY AND RELIGION.
The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the
Era of Mbiji. By William Elliot Griffis, D. D., author of
“The Mikado's Empire." 12mo, pp. 457. Chas. Surib-
ner's Sons. $2.
Life Here and Hereafter. By Malcolm MacColl, M. A.
12mo, pp. 405, uncut. Longmans, Green, & Co. $2.25.
Three Sermons, together with Selections and Letters. By
David Swing. With portrait, 12mo, pp. 79. Chicago:
Privately Printed. 75 cts.
If Jesus Came to Boston, By Edward E. Hale. 12mo,
pp. 45. Boston: J. Stillman Smith & Co. 25 cts.
SCIENCE AND NATURE.
Popular Scientific Lectures. By Ernst Mach ; trans. by
Thomas J. McCormack. 12mo, gilt top, pp. 313. Open
Court Pub'g Co. $1.
The Origin of Language, and The Logos Theory. By
Ludwig Noiré. 12mo, pp: 57. Open Court Co.'s “Re-
ligion of Science Library. 15 cts.
REFERENCE.
A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities in Mythology, Re-
ligion, Literature, and Art. From the German of Dr.
Oskar Seyffert; revised and edited by Henry Nettleship,
M. A., and J. E. Sandys, Litt. D. Ilus., large 8vo, pp.
716. Macmillan & Co. $3.
Columbian Lunar Annual for the Third Year of the Fifth
American Century. 8vo, pp. 128. Boston: The Poet-
Lore Co. 25 cts.
EDUCATION.-BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND
COLLEGE.
The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School Sys-
tem : A Historical Sketch. By George H. Martin, A.M.
12mo, pp. 284. Appletons' “ International Education
Series." $1.50.
Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism. By
Silvanus P. Thompson, D.Sc. New edition, revised;
illus., 12mo, pp. 628. Macmillan & Co. $1.40.
College Requirements in English: Entrance Examina-
tions. By Rev. Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. Second
series. 12mo, pp. 102. Ginn & Co. $1.20.
Orations and Arguments by English and American States-
men. Edited, with notes, by Cornelius Beach Bradley.
12mo, pp. 379. Allyn & Bacon, $1.
A Scientific German Reader. By George Theodore Dip-
pold, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 322. Ginn & Co. $1.
Lessons in the New Geography, for Student and Teacher.
By Spenser Trotter, M.D. Illus., 12mo, pp. 182. D. C.
Heath & Co. $1.
Les Historiens Français du XIXe siècle. With notes by
C. Fontaine, B.L. 12mo, pp. 384. W.R. Jenkins. $1.25.
El Final de Norma. Por Pedro A. de Alarcon ; with En-
glish notes by R. D. de la Cortina, M.A. 12mo, pp. 297.
W. R. Jenkins's “Novelas Escogidas.” 75 cts.
La Conversation des Enfants. Par Chas. P. DuCroquet,
author of College Preparatory French Grammar."
12mo, pp. 152. W.R. Jenkins. 75 cts.
Le Petit Chose: Histoire d'un Enfant. Par Alphonse Dau-
det; with English notes by Prof. C. Fontaine, B.L. 12mo,
pp. 314. Jenkins's “Romans Choisis."
60 cts.
L'Espurgatoire Seint Patriz of Marie de France. With
introduction, etc., by Thomas A. Jenkins. 12mo, pp. 151.
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“It is, indeed, a little idyl of rare charm and delicacy."- Bulletin
(Philadelphia).
IN BIRD LAND.
A Book for Bird Lovers. By LEANDER S. KEYSER.
16mo, 269 pages, $1.25.
“Mr. Keyser is a keen observer and a sympathetic reporter, and his
book will be as fresh as cut flowers in the library."-Independent (New
York).
For sale by booksellers generally, or will be sent, postpaid, on
receipt of price, by the publishers,
A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.


100
[Feb. 16, 1895.
THE DIAL
MACMILLAN AND CO.'S NEW BOOKS.
NEW WORK BY PROFESSOR BALDWIN, OF PRINCETON.
Mental Development in the Child and the Race.
Methods and Processes. By JAMES MARK BALDWIN, Ph.D., Stuart Professor of Experimental Psychology,
Princeton College. 8vo, cloth, $3.50.
Dr. Paulsen's German Universities.
Reissue of Economic Text-Books.
Character and Historical Development of the
Economic Classics.
Universities of Germany.
Edited by W.J. ASHLEY, M.A., Professor of Economic His-
By Professor F. PAULSEN. Translated by EDWARD DELAVAN
tory in Harvard University. 12nio, limp cloth, each 75 cts.
PERRY, Professor of Sanskrit in Columbia College. With
ADAM SMITH. Select Chapters and Passages from "The Wealth
of Nations."
an Introduction by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Professor
of Philosophy in Columbia College. 12mo, $2.00.
DAVID RICARDO. The first six chapters of “The Principles of
Political Economy," etc.
T. R. MALTHUS. Parallel Chapters from the First and Second Edi-
On Weather Forecasts, etc.
tions of " An Essay on the Principles of Population."
Meteorology. Weather and Methods of
Forecasting.
Cambridge Historical Series - New Issue.
Descriptions of Meteorological Instruments, and River Flood Outlines of English Industrial History.
Predictions in the United States. By THOMAS RUSSELL, By W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
United States Engineer Office, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. bridge, and ELLEN A. MCARTHUR, Lecturer at Girton Col-
8vo, cloth, with Maps, $4.00.
lege. 12mo, cloth, $1.50,
A TIMELY AND PRACTICAL BOOK ON THE CURRENCY.
HONEST MONEY.
By ARTHUR I. FONDA. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.
A work dealing in a rational and common-sense way with the requirements of an honest money, criticising the merits and
defects of various proposals for its betterment, with an outline of a new monetary system that seems to meet the requirements
and correct existing faults.
A New Amiel, or Maurice de Guérin.
Second Edition of F. Marion Crawford's New Novel.
The Melancholy of Stephen Allard.
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A Private Diary. Edited by GARNET SMITH. Crown 8vo, A Sequel to “Katharine Lauderdale. By F. MARION CRAW-
cloth, $1.75.
FORD, author of "Saracinesca, ,"?" Don Orsino," etc. 2 vols.,
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*** The Ralstons' fascinates and enchains
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... a charming and ab-
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New Volume of Macmillan's Dickens.
New Work by the late Walter Pater, M.A.
Little Dorrit.
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THIRD EDITION: MR. BRYCE'S GREAT WORK ON THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH.
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MACMILLAN & CO., PUBLISHERS, No. 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.


THE DIAL
A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Wiscussion, and Information.
PAGE
.
.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of
each month. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 a year in advance, postage
READING AND EDUCATION.
prepaid in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; in other countries
comprised in the Postal Union, 50 cents a year for extra postage must In these days of multiplied universities and
be added. Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the
current number. REMITTANCES should be by check, or by express or
degrees, when a young man or woman of
postal order, payable to THE DIAL. SPECIAL RATES TO CLUBS and earnest purpose is rarely so handicapped by
for subscriptions with other publications will be sent on application ;
and SAMPLE COPY on receipt of 10 cents. ADVERTISING RATEs furnished
adverse environment as to be quite unable to
on application. All communications should be addressed to
get the higher education in the academic sense
THE DIAL, 315 Wabash Ave., Chicago.
of that term, it is possible that we attach too
much importance to the culture that is based
No. 208. FEBRUARY 16, 1895. Vol. XVIII.
purely upon scholastic titles. Historical ex-
amples without end prove to us that culture
CONTENTS.
of the finest type has been attainable out-
side the walls of any institution of learning,
READING AND EDUCATION
101 and there is no reason to doubt that the pro-
cess which has produced self-educated men in
COMMUNICATIONS
103
the past is equally available and effective at the
College Standing in Iowa. J. H. T. Main.
A Poet too little Known. Mary J. Reid.
present time. Indeed, it may be urged that
“Herr” Björnson. Albert E. Egge.
the man intellectually self-made, if his achieve-
Dialect in the United States. Alexander L. Bon ment show him to be really educated, has an
durant.
An English Dialect Dictionary. Benj. Ide Wheeler.
advantage over the man who has found the
ways of learning smoothed for him, the rough
THE CONFESSIONS OF A JOURNALIST. E.G.J. 106 places levelled, and the natural impediments to
LITERATURE AS A UNIVERSITY STUDY. Ed-
progress cleared away by other hands than his
ward E. Hale, Jr..
109
own. It is he who best knows the value of
what has been so hardly acquired ; his attain-
AN UNSUCCESSFUL HISTORY. A. C. McLaughlin 111
ment has a substance and a solidity that the
SOME RECENT BOOKS ON EDUCATION. B. A. most brilliant of university careers may fail to
Hinsdale .
113 give. After all, the test of culture, outside of
Alice Zimmern's Methods of Education in the United
narrow academic circles, is not based upon
such
States.- Mary Page's Graded Schools in the United
external things as degrees and fellowships, but
States.-Amy Bramwell's The Training of Teachers
in the United States.-Sara Burstall's The Education upon capacity, upon evidence of the finer issues
of Girls in the United States.-Davidson's The Edu of thought and feeling, and the power to quicken
cation the Greek People.-Martin's The Evo ion other spirits to those issues.
of the Massachusetts Public School System.-Howe's
Perhaps the most important of educational
Systematic Science Teaching.
institutions is that which everyone may have
SKEAT'S GREAT EDITION OF CHAUCER. at his door, or even within arm's reach—a well
Ewald Flügel
116 filled set of book-shelves. Having this, we have,
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
120 however socially isolated, the “ means of get-
Translation of a popular life of Napoleon.-Biography ting to know, on all matters which most con-
of the Empress Eugénie.- France and the European
cern us, the best which has been thought and
revolution.- Historical gossip of modern England. --
said in the world.” One is almost ashamed to
New handbooks of English literature.-Introduction
to English literature.- A popular life of Lincoln.-
make so hackneyed a phrase do duty once more,
Commemorative addresses by Mr. Godwin.- More but Matthew Arnold seized the root of the mat-
pictures of colonial life.
ter, and if the thing needs to be repeated at all,
BRIEFER MENTION .
123
it can hardly be done otherwise than in his
words. Reading is a very serious affair, one
NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman
124
of the most serious that there are, yet how few
LITERARY NOTES.
125 realize both in thought and act its educational
possibilities. A man's library, assuming it to be
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS
for use and not for display, is a better index
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
126 to his character than the most detailed of ex-
.
126
•
.
.
.


102
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
ternal biographies. Show us the man at work uries," or Mr. Morley's on “ The Study of Lit-
in his library, and we view him in his essence, erature," or Mr. Harrison's on “ The Choice of
not in his seeming. There is no greater edu- Books
Books ”— not for their commendation of par-
cational problem than that of persuading men ticular lines of reading, or to blindly acquiesce
and women everywhere — not merely the few in their individual dicta, but for their lofty
favored by training and predisposition - to standpoint, their liberal outlook, and their tonic
surround themselves with books of the right effect.
sort, and to make the right use of them. Our The foundations of the reading habit are, of
popular educational movements, our Chautau course, laid in childhood; and the responsi-
qua circles and University Extension courses, bility for these foundations is one of the great-
are all working in this direction, although est that the professional educator has to bear.
rather aimlessly and with much misdirection The child should be as carefully guided in the
of energy; what we need is more persistent choice of his reading as the adult should be
and systematic endeavor — effort duly elastic free to determine what is best for his own
and individual in adaptation while still system spiritual needs. How precious are the years
atic—on the part of all who are occupied with from six to sixteen, with their eager receptivity
the diverse phases of the educational movement. and their retentive grasp, seems to be but im-
Every teacher, every librarian, every popular perfectly understood by the directors of our
lecturer, every writer for magazine or newspa schools. It is hardly less than criminal to pro-
per, can do something for the common cause by vide children of such an age with the namby-
way of influence; every private individual, in pamby artificial reading that is now manufac-
his own circle of acquaintances, can at least do tured for their use. A child's reading should
something by way of example.
be confined to the very best literature that he
The average adult, whose intellectual en is capable of understanding — and it is aston-
vironment seems to be a matter of choice, is ishing what he will understand if given a
really subjected to influences that are not easy chance. Nor should he be kept upon short ra-
to resist. The modern newspaper, with its bad tions for the purpose of drill in vocal expression.
writing and its vulgar ideals, the popular mag- Fresh matter is always better than old for dis-
azine, with its ephemeral or sensational pro- cipline, and the most vitalizing pages lose their
gramme, the cheap book, even cheaper in its power for good if too frequently conned. The
contents than in its mechanical execution childish desire for new worlds to conquer is
these are the temptations that beset his every very strong, and is sure to find vent in the
spare hour, and deprive him of communion with wrong direction if not freely indulged in the
the great spirits who stand ready to tell him right one.
" the best which has been thought and said in The high school and college period of edu-
the world.” “Will you go and gossip with cation is essentially that in which the student
your housemaid or your stable-boy, when you is trained to shift for himself. It is the period
may
talk with
queens and kings; or flatter when restrictions
upon reading must be relaxed,
yourself that it is with any worthy conscious and freedom of choice watchfully encouraged.
ness of your own claims to respect that you Somewhere within this period of intellectual
jostle with the hungry and common crowd adolescence there comes a transitional stage
for entrée here, and audience there, while all which tests all the training of the previous
the while this eternal court is open to you, year. The duty of those who are responsible
with its society, wide as the world, multi- for the student during this critical period is
tudinous as its days,— the chosen and the rather to stimulate than to direct his reading ;
mighty of every place and time?” None of to encourage him in looking beyond the horizon
us can altogether escape the distracting influ- of his text-books, to make it easy
and pleasant
ence of the commonplace writing that on every for him to read in helpful lines ; to throw all
hand insinuates itself into our acquaintance; sorts of unobtrusive obstacles in his path, if he
yet if we content ourselves with such work, if exhibits any tendency toward intellectual dissi-
we do not resolutely reject its impudent preten-pation. The school or college library is, next
sion of sufficiency, we miss the most effective to the wise instructor, an essential factor in
means for the realization of our better selves. this problem, and the studies of history and
Every reader ought now and then to fortify literature, of the ancient and modern languages,
himself against temptation by reading some are those upon which reliance must mainly be
such essay as Mr. Ruskin's on“ Kings' Treas- placed in this task of making of formal educa-


1895.]
103
THE DIAL
tion a real preparation for life. We have of institutions not meeting the terms of the definition.
late years witnessed a remarkable expansion in consequently it was resolved that after 1893 no college
the scientific departments of school and col-
should be eligible to membership “which should not
require for admission to the freshman class three full
lege, and a greatly increased expenditure for
years of work above the grammar grade, and four addi-
their adjuncts of laboratory and museum. The tional years of collegiate work for the baccalaureate
expansion was needed, and no educator can degree.” A committee was appointed in 1892, to col-
intelligently begrudge it. But the group of lect statistics on the following points : The number
and variety of degrees conferred; the requirements for
studies which find in the library both museum
the baccalaureate degrees; and, finally, data indicating
and laboratory — the studies which we right- the equipment of Iowa Colleges for doing the work
fully call humanities and for which we thereby required.
claim the place of first importance and of clos-
The first report of this committee was made in 1893,
est relationship to our deepest spiritual needs
and revealed a rather surprising state of affairs. Many
institutions were doing preparatory work in the fresh-
— may fairly demand as much attention and
man year; the line of demarcation was in some cases
as large an expenditure as the sciences of nature. not clearly drawn between the academy, which is usu-
It is not too much to ask that every dollar set ally found in connection with the Western college, and
apart for scientific apparatus shall be matched
the collegiate department proper; some were requiring
by another dollar set apart for literary appa-
their teachers to do both college and academy work;
and some had less than six teachers to do the entire
ratus.' The student of history or of literature work of the institution. The committee assumed in
ought to have the use of his own set of books, their consideration of the case that the term “college
just as the student of chemistry has the use of had something like a definite value, and that it should
his own set of reägents. When the humanities
not be applied to all institutions indiscriminately, with-
out protest.
To determine what the standard should
come again into their own, this necessity will be
be, was a part of the work of the committee. This is
recognized as fully as the necessity of labora- interesting, as it is perhaps the first attempt made in
tory teaching in chemistry is now recognized. this country, under similar circumstances, to determine
Given the right guidance in childhood, and
what the term “college” should mean. The following
the right influences during adolescence, the
are the tests applied: First, satisfactory and complete
conditions of admission to freshman standing; second,
reading habit may be counted upon to remain
correct organization of courses with sufficient force of
a genuine educational influence through life. instruction to create a college atmosphere; third, fac-
The importance of such guidance and such in ulty of instruction, consisting of at least eight chairs,
fluences can hardly be over-estimated. But for
as follows: (1) Psychology and Ethics (including in-
those who have missed them, for those who in
struction in Philosophy and Logic), (2) Ancient Lan-
guages, (3) Mathematics and Astronomy, (4) English
the future will miss them, there is still the con Language and Literature, (5) Physics and Chemistry,
soling truth that serious aims coupled with (6) Modern Language, (7) History and Political Sci-
earnest endeavor can nearly always find the ence, (8) The Biological Sciences.
path to a very complete culture. “The best
Judged by these criteria, there were three institutions
in the State entitled to college standing. It was deemed
which has been thought and said in the world,"
undesirable, however, to exclude from the list some
like the sunlight, shines freely for all, and to it colleges doing work of a highly creditable character.
the veriest mole may, if he will, grope his way. Consequently there was recommended a “provisional
Reading maketh a full man,” and more than
minimum" of six chairs. In this provisional minimum,
that no scheme of formal education, however
(4) and (7) of the foregoing list were classed together
as “ English and History,” and in like manner (5) and
extensive, may accomplish.
(8) were united under the term “ Natural Sciences.”
In this way the total number of colleges was increased
to eight. The report was read, but action was post-
poned for one year in order that corrections and additions
COMMUNICATIONS.
might be made.
At a recent meeting of the College Department of
COLLEGE STANDING IN IOWA.
the State Teachers' Association (December 27) the
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
report was taken up for final action. During the year
The college teachers of Iowa have been engaged in every effort had been made to settle disputed points,
a discussion, since 1891, regarding “College Standing," and opportunity given to every institution to put itself
which discussion, it seems to me, from the nature of in accord with the criteria proposed. Two institutions
some of the points involved has more than a local inter did this without trouble, making the total number ten.
est. The State has within its borders an unusually large It was recommended that this number should be grouped
number of “colleges” and “universities,” even for a together as “Class A,” while those failing in the tests
Western State,- perhaps two score or more. At its should be included in “Class B.” The technical schools
session in 1891, the College Department of the State (which had not been considered at all by the committee)
Teachers' Association determined to do what no other and the smaller colleges opposed the motion to adopt
State bad attempted — namely, to define practically the the report, with so much success that another postpone-
term “ College," and to exclude from membership those ment for one year was secured. This postponement


104
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
— a new
seems to be chiefly in the interest of the technical schools, autumn. A first edition of Eleusis' was issued in 1890
since coupled with the motion to postpone was the rec without the · Lesser Poems,' and was published anony-
ommendation to “reconsider the basis of classification." mously in accordance with the advice of several prom-
It is not likely that a vote on the report will ever be inent men; but in 1892 it was published by Messrs.
taken. The arbitrary settlement of a disputed point of McClurg & Co. in its present form."
this sort would be sure to meet with disfavor. The Professor Perkins had planned a second volume of
discussion, however, that has already been aroused has poems, and upon my asking him to make the pieces less
been of great value to the interests of higher education threnodic in tone than those first published, he re-
in the State. The stronger institutions have become sponded, “No, I shall never publish anything quite so
somewhat more conscious of their deficiencies, while the threnodic again—if I can help it.” In March last, un-
weaker ones are making more earnest efforts than ever der the gathering shadows of ill health, he wrote me:
to reach a higher level.
J. H. T. MAIN.
“ As to the future volume, nothing can be said at pres-
Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa, Feb. 5, 1895.
ent." His favorite poets were Schiller and Goethe,
although Thackeray's and Shakespeare's works were
often found in his hands. He disliked athletic exercise
A POET TOO LITTLE KNOWN.
and detested walking, but enjoyed sea-voyages intensely.
( To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Books and rare old china attracted him, but he had no
Your notice of the death of Professor William Rufus particular passion as a collector. Until his health failed,
Perkins, author of « Eleusis” and other remarkable he was by no means of so melancholy a temperament
poems, inspires me to add a word of tribute to a poet too as his poems might seem to indicate. His poetical range
little known, and likely to receive a wider appreciation, was limited; but what he achieved was full of promise
as often happens, after death. « Eleusis" is a not un for his future, and “ Eleusis,” “ Bellerophon,” and “Had-
worthy sequel to Tennyson's “ In Memoriam," the mod rian's Lament Over Antinous"
are poems which the
ern philosophical companion of the « Rubaiyát” of Omar world ought not to let die.
MARY J. REID.
Khayyam. One may find in it many quatrains equal
to the following terse description of that subtle enchant-
St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 4, 1895,
ment which Rome still weaves about the souls of scholar-
pilgrims:
“HERR” BJÖRNSON.
“I lay upon the Palatine
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
When evening lit her changeless dome,
In THE DIAL and elsewhere I frequently see the
And felt the mighty hand of Rome
names of Björnson and other Norwegian authors with the
Enfold and clasp itself in mine."
title “ Herr” prefixed. This practice, which is common
“Bellerophon” is another remarkable poem-
in America, is doubtless supposed to be in imitation of
interpretation of the old Greek myth, not surpassed by
what is customary in the old country. As a rule, how-
any of Miss Edith M. Thomas's classical studies, such
ever, the title “ Herr” (nearly always written “ Hr.")
as “Lityerses and the Reapers” and “ Atys.” Here is
is not used in Norway before the names of distinguished
a little description which has the same effect upon the
Björnson, Ibsen, Lie, Kielland, and the rest, are
mind as Mr. Elihu Vedder's lonely landscapes:
called so, or by their full names, Björnstjerne Björnson,
“Behind me lies the broad Aleian plain,-
Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, etc., but hardly ever Hr.
The loneliest plain that faces to the sky,-
Björnson, etc., except of course when addressed or
Across which, groping with increasing pain,
spoken of in their hearing. Why should we in speak-
I course forever,- for I cannot die.
O heartless plain, and earless to my cry!
ing of Norwegian authors adopt a form of title almost
A thousand thousand are the paths I wear
unknown in their native country ?
ALBERT E. EGGE.
On thy broad back; and Night, who does defy
The University of Iowa, Feb. 9, 1895.
For most the spear of sorrow and of care,
For me may bring no rest, but doubles despair.”
[The titles by which gentlemen usually refer to
Professor Perkins once wrote me: “I made up my one another are not given by THE DIAL to living
mind when a boy that if I ever published anything in writers “in imitation ” of any actual or suppositi-
poetry, I would wait until I had made it perfect artistic tious practice in “the old country,” but because of
ally," and that saying is the keynote to his whole poet- what we believe to be the requirements of good lit-
ical work.
erary manners. Among the many vulgarities fos-
A few brief details of the poet's life, sent by him at
tered by our newspapers none is, in our opinion,
my request, and intended for use in another periodical,
may be quoted here:
more detestable than the habit of constantly refer-
“I was born in the year 1847, in Erie, Pennsylvania. ring to people as Smith and Jones and Robinson,
I graduated in 1868 at Western Reserve College, Ohio,
without the simple courtesy of a prefix. If the
and was tutor in my Alma Mater for three years after
Scandinavian or other European practice derogates
graduation; then devoted myself to the reading of his from this not very exacting standard, we must re-
tory and law. In 1879 I was called to Cornell Uni gret the fact without yielding the point. — EDR.
versity as Assistant Professor; after six years at Cornell DIAL.]
I went to Europe, where I remained a year, attending
the Universities of Berlin and Bonn, and travelling.
DIALECT IN THE UNITED STATES.
Upon my return I was called to this chair [History,
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
State University of Iowa]. In the spring of 1888, I The study of dialects in America, carrying with it an
was elected a delegate to the 8th Centenary of Bologna enumeration of the many interesting survivals in folk-
University in Italy. Going again to Europe, I attended speech, is still in its infancy, though much excellent work
this superb fête, and afterwards travelled in England has already been done through the medium of the Dia-
and France, returning to the University of Iowa in the lect Society, and by Professors Kittredge and Sheldon of
men.
up


1895.]
105
THE DIAL
Harvard, Charles Forster Smith of the University of word, but its use is widespread in the South, and it has
Wisconsin, Wyman of the University of Alabama (who a position by tolerance in the vocabulary of some read-
has recently given the correct derivation of bayou), Dr. ing people.
ALEXANDER L. BONDURANT.
H. A. Shands of Texas, Dr. William Rice Sims of the
State University of Mississippi, Feb. 5, 1895.
State University of Mississippi, and others.
The negro dialect, as spoken on the plantations in the
AN ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY.
South, is rich in survivals; and that a number of these
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
are still found in England, is shown by some examples
taken from « Lorna Doone”. a well of English unde-
Lexicography on the grand scale is the order of the
filed. Note the following: axe for ask; spunky-meaning day.. Another thesaurus, this time in the form of an
spirited or brave,— used also by whites in the South;
English Dialect Dictionary, is shortly to begin publica-
liefer as comparative of lief, meaning rather; gwain for
tion. The materials which have been gradually collect-
going; peart, meaning well (as “ How is your old
ing since the formation of the English Dialect Society
'oman ?" “She's right peart"); clomb, preterite of
in 1873 have now reached such dimensions, and made
climb (the negroes use more generally another form,
such reasonable approach toward completeness, that the
clum). These words and expressions are all in common
work of preparing for publication the million and more
slips now on band has actually been commenced, under
use among the negroes, and must have come to them
from old England. They were jotted down while read-
the editorial supervision of Dr. Joseph Wright, the
ing rapidly; a careful study of the book named would
Honorary Secretary of the society, assisted by Professor
doubtless reveal many more.
W. W. Skeat. In response to Dr. Wright's call for
volunteers to coöperate in the work of completing the
A friend, born in New Hampshire, tells me that his
collections, some six hundred persons are now engaged
grandmother always spoke of a village of a hundred
in different parts of Great Britain in the organized work
housen, holding to the old form of the plural (compare
oxen, hosen, etc.). In “Lorna Doone '
of excerpting from books and reducing dialectal glos-
is used as
eyen
saries to the form of slips. It is the purpose of the
the plural of eye.
editor to include in the dictionary all dialectal words or
Though the causative meaning of drench is recog dialectal uses of words to be found within the entire do-
nized in the “Century" and " International” dictionaries,
main of the English speech of the eighteenth and nine-
and still occurs in England (witness, “ Dosed him with
teenth centuries,- i. e., all words or uses of words not
torture as you drench a horse "_Browning's “ Ring and
recognized in the standard English of this period. The
Book,” II., 75), upon the testimony of several careful
dictionary will give in every case its authority, and, if
students of language it is no longer used in this sense
possible, will cite, after the manner of Murray's En-
in New England. In the South the verb is used very
glish Dictionary, one or more passages illustrating the
generally in the causative sense; a horse is drenched for
word and its use. Careful attention will also be paid
colic-i. e., his head is held up and he is caused forcibly
to defining the habitat of the word; and so far as pos-
to drink.
sible its history or etymology will also be determined.
The use of right (meaning very) and mighty, as ad As it has been decided to include American English
verbs, is general throughout the South, and the words
within the scope of the work, it becomes of great im-
are constantly in the mouths of those “ to the manner
portance to the editors to secure immediate coöperation
born.” The use of “mighty," characterized as colloquial on this side of the Atlantic in the collection of material.
in the great dictionaries, is met with in the North and
As yet, the only reliance is the very uncertain and con-
West as well.
fused material of our various dictionaries of “ Ameri-
In folk-speech we meet with the variants, to get shut, canisms," and the excellent though rather hap-hazard
shet, or shed of,— all meaning to get rid of, to relieve word-lists which have appeared in the different num-
one's self of. An Ohio man tells me that he is only fa bers of the “ Dialect Notes” published since 1890 by
miliar with “ to get shut of "; and so says one from the American Dialect Society. It is evident how im-
Connecticut. A North Carolinian has heard both shed
portant this new undertaking must prove for the study
and shut; while a South Carolinian whom I questioned
of American English; it is, indeed, only through this
was familiar only with shet. (See also Octave Thanet,
clearing-house of a universal English dialect dictionary
“ Peterson's Magazine," January, 1893). I have heard
that we can hope to reach a test for the genuineness of
all three forms. Thomas Hardy, in “ A Pair of Blue
“ Americanisms.” All who may have material to con-
Eyes,” uses still another form, “to get shot of.” A
tribute, or who may be willing to undertake assign-
shop-boy in “ Neal's Sketches” says: “I want to get ment of books for reading, are requested to correspond
shut of you because I am going to shet the door." These
with the editor,-address, Professor Joseph Wright, 6
two examples would indicate that this expression, too, Norham-road, Oxford, England; or with Professor Eu-
came across the seas. The primitive idea seems to be gene H. Babbitt, Columbia College, New York City,
riddance by means of shutting one out, for the forms
who will coöperate with the editor in securing and ar-
shet and shot are used regularly by the negroes and are ranging the American material. It is expected that a
of common occurrence in the folk-speech of a large prospectus of the work, accompanied by specimen pages,
portion of this country, as “Shet that door.”
" The
will shortly be issued, and subscriptions will be solic-
door is shot.” The form shed, it seems, is probably a ited. The work will be furnished to subscribers at the
variation from shet; whereas if the other forms were rate of two numbers a year, with an annual subscription
not three to one we might conclude that the original fee of £1. For non-subscribers the price of each num-
idea was that of riddance by taking off, as a garment. ber will be 15s. Concerning the length of time likely
A well-known Southern writer has a man of educa-
to be absorbed in publication, and the consequent extent
tion—a priest, in fact-use unthoughtedly for thought of the work, the editors give no assurance; this, we are
lessly; and though in this case the writer nodded, she
to presume, the material will dictate.
was unconsciously revealing her knowledge of folk-
BENJ. IDE WHEELER.
speech. The great dictionaries are innocent of this
Cornell University, Feb. 3, 1895.
-


106
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
and Friederichs d'Or, but minus his valuables
The New Books.
and plus sundry unpleasant tokens of their de-
tention by Herr Israel Hirsch, Herr Salomon
THE CONFESSIONS OF A JOURNALIST.* Fuchs, Herr Benjamin Isaacstein, and other av-
Tradition has it that when Dr. Johnson heard
uncular friends of the Gentile in need. When,
that James Boswell intended writing his life,
in 1884, with his literary and journalistic hon-
he promptly proposed to prevent it by taking
ors thick upon him, he re-visits America and
Boswell's. It does not seem to have occurred
is presented in state to General Benjamin F.
to the Doctor, in the alarm and furry of the mo-
Butler, he is received by that hero, not with
ment, that, without resorting to manslaughter,
distinguished courtesy,” but with the stag-
he could forestall the impending Life and ren-
gering avowal, “ If you had been in New Or-
der it comparatively stingless by writing one
leans in 1864 I should most certainly have
himself. This milder preventive against unde-
hanged you ; yes, sir!”—and, adds Mr. Sala,
sirable biographers has latterly grown much in
thoughtfully, “I thoroughly believe the Gen-
favor. Every man his own Boswell, may fairly
eral would have been as good as his word."
be called the biographical order of the day; and
Not to multiply examples, we shall only add
the rule is not altogether a bad one. Every man
that Mr. Sala, after heaping on himself such
is at least theoretically sure to deduct noth-
actionable epithets as “ slovenly, careless, ne'er-
do-weel,”
ing from the tale of his own virtues; and as
- dissolute young loafer,”
6 outra-
experience shows that the list of his failings
geous Mohock,” etc., caps the climax of self-
may safely be left to his friends (to say noth-
immolation by pronouncing his own novel, “ The
ing of the press), the public is tolerably sure
Baddington Peerage,” “almost the worst one
in the end of a complete picture with the due
ever perpetrated." In this instance, at least,
chiaroscuro effect. Now and then there emerges
he does not grossly exaggerate.
from the rank and file of autobiographers one
Mr. Sala was born in 1828, at London, where
candid enough to relieve his friends of their his mother, widowed shortly after his birth, was
melancholy office; and such a one, emphatic-
a teacher of singing, and, later, an actress.
ally, is Mr. George Augustus Sala. We have Madam Sala had a distinguished clientèle, and
read Mr. Sala's “Life and Adventures" with played at the leading theatres; but, with five
the liveliest interest. Here at last is an auto young children on her hands, she had no little
biographer who is not only frank, but who even trouble bringing the proverbial ends together.
appears at times, in the exuberance of his Twice a year, to eke out her income, she gave
candor, to bear himself a grudge. It may be special concerts, one at London and the other
meanly urged that Mr. Sala, as an Old Jour at Brighton. For one of these occasions she
nalistic Hand, is unable from long habit to ab-
had the temerity to engage, at great expense,
stain from "racy” personalities and revelations,
not only Mme. Malibran, but Paganini — the
even at his own expense; and that his frankness poor lady cherishing the hope that in the end
as to the follies and escapades of his youth rings o
one or perhaps both artistes would generously
more of an unrepentant Master Shallow than waive their pecuniary claims. The concert was
of a broken and a contrite heart. But the
a brilliant success; and then came the ordeal
great fact of frankness remains; and with it of paying the bills. The lesser performers, as
goes hand-in-hand the twin autobiographical
usual, smilingly refused to accept a shilling for
virtue of modesty,—for Mr. Sala, so far from
their services. Not so the great Malibran.
being with monotonous regularity the hero of Says our author:
his own Adventures,"not seldom emerges con-
“ The renowned singer smiled, chucked me under the
spicuously at the smaller end of the horn."
chin, patted me on the head, told me to be a good boy,
and very calmly took the thirty-one pounds ten shill-
When, for instance, he engages
in row in
ings which with trembling hands my mother placed upon
a disreputable quarter of London, it is he, and the table.”
not the enemy, who “takes the floor" and is
Thus depleted in purse and hopes, Madam Sala
carried away for repairs. When he sets out
(as he does twice) for Aix-la-Chapelle or Hom-
sought out Paganini. Of this celebrity, our
burg with the cheerful intention of “breaking
the bank,” he returns, not laden with thalers
“I can see him now—a lean, wan, gaunt man in black,
with bushy hair—something like Henri Rochefort, and
* THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF G. A. SALA. Written more like Henry Irving. He looked at me long and earn-
by Himself. Two volumes, with Portrait. New York: estly; and somehow, although he was about as weird a
Charles Scribner's Sons.
looking creature as could well be imagined, I did not feel
a
author says:
6


1895.]
107
THE DIAL
un-
afraid of him. In a few broken words my mother ex- decidedly not one lying along the shores of a
plained her mission, and put down the fifty guineas on the Pactolus. Dire at times were Mr. Sala's fiscal
table. When I say that he washed his hands in the gold-
straits, and manifold his shifts to relieve them.
that he scrabbled at it, as David of old did at the gate
-- and grasped it and built it into little heaps, panting
We find him at one stage reduced to the hu-
the while, I am not in any way exaggerating. He bun- miliating point of smoking, and even dining,
dled it up at last in a blue cotton pocket-handkerchief vicariously-of walking behind smokers of fra-
with white spots and darted from the room. And we-
grant Havanas to catch an occasional whiff,
my poor mother convulsively clasping my hand — went
out on the landing and were about descending the stairs
and of staring in at club-windows, where stout
when the mighty violinist bolted again from the bed- gentlemen of stall-fed and port-winey aspect
room door. Take that, little boy,' he said, “take that,' plied their knives and forks and glowered at
and he thrust a piece of paper, rolled up into a ball, into the dinnerless outsider. At one of these sea-
my hand. It was a bank-note for fifty pounds ! ”
sons of gloom he tried to cobble his fortunes by
Mr. Sala is not a university man, or even a pushing those of “ The Shaking Quaker's Her-
public-school man. With a large fund of gen bal Pill,” designing and engraving the hand-
eral knowledge, he has (like a greater man be.bills, etc., and even taking several boxes of
fore him) little Latin and less Greek—judged Shaking Quakers ” himself to reassure a tim-
by Porsonian standards; nor has his lack of
orous public.
scholastic finish escaped the jibes of brother Mr. Sala's formal entry into journalism was
writers of double his learning and half his abil-
not auspicious. About 1850 he became editor
ity. His formal schooling was meagre, com and co-proprietor of “ Chat,” a half-penny
prising a season at Paris and a twelvemonth at weekly, in the theoretical “profits” of which
“ Bolton House,” Turnham Green,—the latter he was kindly allowed to participate. But there
a“Pestalozzian” establishment where the mak-
were, in practice, no profits; and, the chief
ing of sapphics and alcaics was coupled with owner of “Chat” judiciously absconding, Mr.
instruction in carpentry, joinery, gardening, Sala and his associates found themselves “
and other practical branches, to the no small der the unpleasant necessity of fighting for the
scandal of academic Dr. Blimbers. Among Mr. small change in the till.”
Sala's Paris school-fellows was the younger Mr. Sala's lane, like all others, had its turn-
Dumas, then a shapely youth of sixteen, withing. The decisive turn came with the close of
“very light blue-grey eyes, and an abundance the Crimean War, when he was commissioned
of very light auburn hair, which curled in a
by Dickens to go to Russia in order to write a
frizzled mass.”
Of Dumas, one story is pre series of descriptive articles for “Household
served :
Words.” His forte .soon became apparent.
“ Among the articles the use of which was for some From that date on, Mr. Sala's autobiography
absurd reason or other forbidden to us pensionnaires, lapses largely into a perhaps unavoidably jum-
was an opera-glass; and young Alexandre Dumas, who
bled record of his adventures in one country
was once at the back of the pit, and who was naturally
short-sighted, coolly produced such a forbidden object,
or another as a press correspondent—the reader
and began to scan Frederick the Great and his
page
be of it being whisked about geographically in a
hind the foot-lights. The mutinous act was at once way suggesting that at times the writer must
perceived and resented by the Prefect of Studies. "A
have been, like the Irishman's bird, “in two
bas le lorgnon, M. Dumas ! à bas le lorgnon !'he ex-
claimed in wrathful tones.
Unprophetical prefect! places at once.
places at once.” From 1856 downwards, wher-
Little could the pedant, unendowed with foresight,
ever matters of an exciting nature were stir-
know that the lad who had violated the school regula- ring—wars or rumors of wars, coronations, po-
tions by using a lorgnon was destined to be the author litical murders, revolutions, exhibitions, and the
of · Le Demi-Monde' and · La Dame aux Camélias.'”
like journalistically exploitable doings — there
At fifteen, Mr. Sala found himself under the was Mr. Sala in the thick of it with his pencil
necessity of “ facing the world,” with little or and notebook. He was in America in '63-4
nothing in the way of capital or marketable and again in ’84 ; with Garibaldi in the Tyrol
knowledge to forward the enterprise. After a in '65; at Paris in ’67 and in '70; in Turkey in
short term with a miniature-painter, he tried in '67; in Russia again in ’76; in Spain in ’75;
turn law-copying, scene-painting, translating, in Australia in ’84; and so on. He saw Victor
illustrating Penny Dreadfuls ("there must be Emmanuel's triumphal entry into Venice, and,
more blood, Mr. Sala—much more blood !”– later, into Rome; he saw the obsequies of the
was the great editorial requirement of this murdered Tsar Alexander II., and the coro-
branch), engraving, scribbling, and what not, nation of his successor; he passed through the
leading a rather “ loaferish ” life the while, and siege of Paris, and an after-dinner speech by


108
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
Mr. Chauncey Depew- and we regret to add of that morning's issue of the Times,' going right down
here that, like most Englishmen, he declines to
one column and apparently up it again; then taking
indorse Mr. Depew's post-prandial wit. Says
column after column in succession; then harking back
as though he had omitted some choice paragraph; and
Mr. Sala, with that singular insensibility to
then resuming the sequence of his lecture, ever and
the fine point of our national humor, so often anon tapping that ovoid frontal bone of his, as though
noted by Mr. Howells, Professor Matthews, and to evoke memories of the past, with a little silver pen-
others :
cil case. I noticed his somewhat shabby-genteel attire;
and in particular I observed that the hand which held the
“Mr. Chauncey Depew made a great point in his
copy of the • Times' never ceased to shake. Mr. La-
speech by saying that I was going to Australia by way
bouchere, in his most courteous manner and his blandest
of Portland, in the State of Maine: a city which I never
'tone said, “ Allow me to introduce you to a gentleman
had the pleasure of visiting; but he repeated the asser-
of whom you must have heard a great deal, Mr.
tion over and over again, and every time he reiterated
I replied, • There is not the slightest necessity for nam-
it the company laughed uproariously:-a circumstance
ing him. I know him well enough. That's Mr. Pigott.'
which strengthened a long-existing conviction in my Mr. Labouchere continued: The fact is that Mr.
mind that in after-dinner speaking and stage-gagging'
Pigott has come here quite unsolicited, to make a full
you have only to continually repeat something - What's
confession. I told him that I would listen to nothing
o'clock?' or • That's the idea !' or How do you feel
save in the presence of a witness, and remembering
now?' or • Still I am not happy!'--to excite the hilarity
that you lived close by, I thought you would not mind
of your hearers."
coming here and listening to what Mr. Pigott has to
From Mr. Sala's anecdotes of Garibaldi we confess, which will be taken down, word by word, from
select a characteristic one, touching the final
his dictation in writing.”
disposal of that hero's General's uniform,- a The veracious Pigott, ostensibly studying the
gorgeous affair, much despised by its owner, “ Times,” had clearly been trying to screw his
which contrasted queerly enough with the his- faltering courage up to the sticking-point of his
toric red woollen shirt of campaigning days. now famous confession. At length he rose, and
The General wore the uniform but twice, on stood beside Mr. Labouchere's desk. He did
great state occasions, and that under protest. not change color, says Mr. Sala; he did not
“When he returned to his island home at Caprera, it blench; but, at first in a half-musing tone, then
is a comical fact that he presented his General's much-
louder and more fluently, he told his shameful
gold-laced panoply to his cowherd, who gravely drove
cattle about the fields of Caprera in this gorgeous mar-
story, coolly confessing that he alone had
tial array. Exposure to wind and rain and a scorching forged the letters alleged to have been writ-
summer sun very soon reduced the stately garb to a ten by Mr. Parnell, and minutely describing
lamentable state of seediness ; and the cowherd, who the way in which he had done it. Says Mr.
preferred freedom of action to being tightly buttoned
Sala :
up, always wore the coat open, so as to display a coarse
canvas shirt, with a red woollen sash round the waist. “No pressure was put upon him; no leading ques-
It was the delight of Garibaldi and his friends, when
tions were asked him; and he went on quietly and con-
they met the cowherd, gravely to salute him in military
tinuously to the end of a story which I should have
fashion, and hail him as mio Generale.'”
thought amazing had I not had occasion to hear many
more tales even more astounding. He was not voluble,
We shall end our poachings on Mr. Sala's but he was collected, clear, and coherent; nor, although
well-stocked, if somewhat ill-ordered, preserves he repeatedly confessed to forgery, fraud, deception,
with the story of his encounter with a late no-
and misrepresentation, did he seem overcome with any-
torious character who, by an oversight prob-
thing approaching active shame.”
ably, missed inclusion in Mr. Seccombe's recent Commenting on the Pigott confession, Mr. Sala
book on “Eminent Scoundrels.” In February, concludes :
1889, Mr. Sala received a note written in hot “Whether the man with the bald head and the eye-
haste by Mr. Henry Labouchere, which ran thus: glass in the library at Grosvenor Gardens was telling
“Can you leave everything, and come here
the truth or uttering another batch of infernal lies, it is
not for me to determine."
at once? Most important business.— H. L.”
In a quarter of an hour he was seated in Mr. La Mr. Sala's book amply fulfils its author's
bouchere's library. The member for Northamp-
intent to "give the general public a definite
ton was not alone.
idea of the character and the career of a work-
“ Ensconced in a roomy fauteuil a few paces from
ing journalist in the second, third, and fourth
Mr. Labouchere's desk there was a somewhat burly in decades of the Victorian era.”
E. G. J.
dividual of middle stature and of more than middle age.
He looked fully sixty; but his elderly aspect was en-
hanced by his baldness, which revealed a large amount MATTHEW ARNOLD's letters, which are still far from
of oval os frontis fringed by grey locks. He had an being ready for publication, are said to be very intime,
eye-glass screwed into one eye, and was using this op and to cover the period between the years 1848 and
tical aid most assiduously, for he was poring over a copy
1888.
99


1895.)
109
THE DIAL
— а
book of extreme value to all interested in the
LITERATURE AS A UNIVERSITY STUDY.*
subject. It has the great merit of conveying
When I was a student in Germany, I went successfully just what it attempts to convey. I
one morning to my lecture; and Professor do not think anyone could mistake it. A stu-
Sievers, instead of beginning at once, in the dent of Professor Corson's who reads it feels at
rather abrupt professorial manner, on the sub once a revival of the old fire that was kindled
ject of the day, spoke for some minutes on the when he first went into that stuffy lecture-room
character and the work of Professor Zarncke
in White Hall. On others, the effect will per-
of Leipzig, who had just died. Professor Siev- haps hardly be so striking ; but still the book
ers had himself been one of Zarncke's students, will
say
what it is meant to say.
and he wished to make his own students un-
The purport of the book will be best given
derstand and feel what the work of his master by some extracts; it would lose by the attempt
had been to German philology. Later in the to paraphrase. It is very easy to misrepresent
morning I went to hear a certain privat-docent, by means of extracts, but I hope the following
and he too began his lecture with feeling words
will give an idea of the direction in which Pro-
on the character and scholarship of Zarncke, fessor Corson's power has been felt by his
with whom he too had studied, many years after students.
Professor Sievers. I was much struck by this “ Literature is not a mere knowledge subject, as the
tribute to the power of the teacher; it had word knowledge is usually understood, namely, that with
something in it more impressive than the Ju which the discursive, formulating intellect has to do. But
biläum or the Festschrift. A science that has
it is a knowledge subject (only that and nothing more) if
that higher form of knowledge be meant, which is quite
such professors is fortunate ; it is thus that its
outside of the domain of the intellect - knowledge
best traditions are kept up, that its real life is which is a matter of spiritual consciousness and which
continued.
the intellect cannot translate into a judgment. It is
We have to-day very, very few teachers of nevertheless, at the same time, the most distinct and
vital kind of knowledge” (p. 25).
English literature who have exercised any such
influence over their students as Zarncke exer-
“ The human spirit is a complexly organized, individ-
ualized divine force, which in most men is cabined, crib-
cised for many years over some of the best bed, confined; and in consequence, more or less qui-
scholars of Germany. But of these few there escent; only in a very few does it attain to an abnormal
can be no doubt that Professor Corson is one. quickening — such a quickening as leads to a more or
I do not know who—among
the
less direct perception of truth, which is a characteristic of
teach-
younger
genius. But there have always been men, in all times and
ers of English—have ever studied with him ; places and in all conditions of life, whose spiritual sen-
but they know themselves, which is the im sitiveness has been exceptional — men who have served
portant matter, and their students reap the as beacons to their fellows. It is the spiritual sensitive-
ness of the few which has moved the mass of mankind
benefit of it. Among all the teachers in Amer-
forward. . . The intellect plays a secondary part” (p. 39).
ica, I suppose Professor Corson is one of the
“ Being is teaching, the highest, the only quickening
few who are really men of genius. With all
mode of teaching; the only mode which secures that un-
his eccentricities and mistakes (I speak with conscious following of a superior spirit by an inferior
too much earnestness to have regard to conven-
spirit--of a kindled soul by an unkindled soul. " Surely,
tionality), Professor Corson has a keenness of says Walt Whitman,
'Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her
insight into the living meaning of things that
I shall follow,
I can compare only with the power of Mr. As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps any-
Ruskin, or possibly of Professor Dowden,
where around the globe.'
among those now living who have given thought
And so, to get at the being of a great author, to come
and study to the interpretation of literature.
into relationship with his absolute personality, is the
highest result of the study of his works” (p. 57).
It is only of recent years that this power « The condition under which our souls silently shape
has come to expression in books. And these themselves to whatever is, spiritually speaking, most
books, remarkable contributions to criticism shapely, outside of ourselves, is that we attain to what
as they are, do not adequately convey Profes-
Wordsworth calls « a wise passiveness. It is a thing to be
sor Corson's influence. It is therefore an ex-
attained to, and a very difficult thing to be attained to,
especially in these days of stress and strain in temporal
cellent thing that he has now endeavored to
matters. A wise passiveness. The epithet .wise' means
condense the spirit of his teaching into an wise in heart; and a wise passiveness I understand to
essay called “ The Aims of Literary Study." be quite synonymous with the Christian idea of humility
It will readily be inferred that I consider the
-that is, not a self-depreciation, but, rather, a spontan-
eous and even unconscious fealty, an unswerving loyalty,
* THE AIMS OF LITERARY STUDY. By Hiram Corson, to what is spiritually above us” (p. 10).
LL.D. New York: Macmillan & Co.
“ How is the best response to the essential life of a


110
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
poem to be secured by the teacher from the student? tion and training he desires; and it is also gen-
answer, by the fullest interpretative vocal rendering eral, as when we consider the strengthening
of it. And by fullest’ I mean that the vocal render-
and formative effect of university study as a
ing must exhibit not only the definite intellectual artic-
ulation or framework of a poem, through emphasis,
whole. In these two directions tends almost all
grouping, etc., but must, through intonation, varied qual university study. It educates a man in partic-
ity of voice, and other means, exhibit that which is in ular branches of knowledge, and it gives him
definite to the intellect. The latter is the main object of also the discipline of scientific thinking. Those
vocal rendering. A product of the insulated intellect
does not need a vocal rendering” (p. 99).
things which cannot be brought under one or
another head do not, as a rule, have any place
It is impossible to give the full purport of a
in university curricula. Many excellent edu-
book in half a dozen extracts, yet these quota- cational forces have no place in university curri-
tions will, I hope, give an approximate notion
cula. Conduct, surroundings, art, religion,
of what Professor Corson would have the teach-
have no formal representation there except as
ing of English literature. He would have it dealt with by science. Cardinal Newman, in
a force which should form and strengthen the speaking of a certain theory or philosophy, once
spiritual nature of the student. With his in-
said : “ Where it prevails, it is as unreasonable
tellect, in and for itself, it would have nothing to demand for religion a chair in a university,
to do. Spiritual and intellectual, — we know
as to demand one for fine feeling, sense of hon-
well enough what the words mean, though it is
our, patriotism, gratitude, maternal affection,
hard to define the precise difference. Now any-
or good companionship, proposals which would
one can see the value of such suggestions; the
be simply unmeaning.” The university, in
difficulty comes in carrying them out. I believe
other words, is commonly regarded as the train-
there will be many a zealous and practical ing-school for the intellect. An