wide-awake young man, ready to take an interest
words he does not hesitate to say, in reference to
in anything that has a promise of copy,” and
international arbitration, that the “ elimination of putting his matter into attractive shape for English
war] makes the emasculation of the human species
readers. The very first letter of the volume has a
simply a question of time”; and again, in his ad-
humorous account of a retired grocer who chose to
dress on Lincoln, alluding to the latter's attempts
end his days as a Norman baron, building himself
to avert civil strife, he rejoices that the war “ was
an ancient castle, with moat and keep and dungeon
fought out to its bitter and logical conclusion."
dark, and, with the sexton's aid, providing his es-
The best and most authoritative chapters in the
tablishment with a graveyard skeleton for suspen-
book are those dealing with conditions in the South
sion in chains over the tower-flanked entrance to
and with journalism.
his frowning fortress. Turning a few leaves, we
come to an instructive note on the fertilizing prop-
Denmark, once the sovereign coun erties of rage, which, we are assured, make an
The home-life
try of England, of Norway, and of excellent dressing for siliceous soil. Some of the
of the Danes.
Sweden, as well as of large portions items partake of the grim and ghastly, others ap-
of Germany and Russia (even Paris was once, in the peal to lovers of the frivolous or of the sensational,
ninth century, conquered by the Danes), is now the but many are of literary or historical interest. A
smallest of European kingdoms; but she is by no long extract is given from General Dix's speech
means the least important, — certainly not the least to the American colony on his relinquishing his
interesting. Specialists from almost all countries post as United States minister to France. Taken
make it their business to study Danish institutions, as a whole, the book will be found to have some.
with the result that these institutions are often thing likely to interest all sorts and conditions of
copied elsewhere. Denmark has set the world an readers.
example in the adoption of a perfect cooperative
The long period of religious conflict
Sidelights on the
system in connection with agriculture. In the re-
Court of France.
that began with the Protestant Ref-
clamation of barren lands for the formation of plan-
ormation and closed with the Thirty
tations of vast extent, she has shown other countries Years' War will always be of great interest to all
what things may be done, and how. Her breweries readers of history. Especially does it appeal to that,
are models, her schools and hospitals are admirable. class of students who delight in tracing the influence
She has been conservative of her national customs of human passion on the course of great events.
in a manner quite at variance with the more push- | Among the more recent books dealing with this
ing and rushing nations and with young republics. century is a volume by Lieut.-Colonel Andrew C. P.
The Dane is in no hurry. He does not come of age Haggard, entitled "Sidelights on the Court of
until he is twenty-five, nor attain to the parliament France” (Dutton). This work belongs to the bor-
ary suffrage until five years later. He takes time derland of history and biography; though the au.
to do things thoroughly, and lives to a good old age. thor discusses such eminently historic subjects as the
Denmark therefore offers an extremely interesting League, the fate of Mary Stuart, and the policies
subject for a volume of the "Earopean Neighbours" of Richelieu, his principal theme is the pablic and
series (Putnam), and Miss Jessie Brochner treats it private life of Henry of Navarre. It cannot be said
in her volume on “Danish Life in Town and Coun. that his presentation is such that it adds much to


52
[Jan. 16,
THE DIAL
66
our general knowledge of that sinful period; that upon this and other subjects of national concern
the Bourbon court was not a place where morality into a volume called “ Ethics of Democracy,” fur-
was likely to thrive, is a fact too well known to ther described as a series of optimistic essays on
need the additional emphasis given by a detailed the natural laws of human society," and issued by
account of weakness and wickedness like the one the Moody Publishing Co. Mr. Post is a strong
here presented. As for the author's treatment of and fearless thinker, with a remarkable gift of ex-
Henry IV., it must be said that the unlovely side position, and the radical system of Democratic
of his character is given undue prominence, and too ethics which he outlines is fairly self-consistent.
little is said of the really great things that he did | In many respects it will command the hearty ap-
for France. The author's sources are apparently proval of all honest thinkers, although to our mind
of the memoir type, and French memoirs are noto it is vitiated by its acceptance of the single-tax idea
riously untrustworthy. The book is written in an with its sundry implications. We do not object to
easy, spicy, and somewhat careless style, such as we the single tax as a theory so much as we object to
should expect to find in a work so largely devoted the fashion in which Mr. Post and its other advo-
to scandal and intrigue.
cates override the most elementary considerations
of justice in their propaganda for the institution of
They that rejoice in iniquity rather their pet reform. They have adopted toward the
The Carlyle-Froude than in the trath are advised not to private holding of land the fanatical position of
case closed.
read the latest (and, it is to be hoped, the extreme abolitionists toward the holding of
the final) plea in the unedifying controversy between human beings in slavery, and will not allow that
the Froudites and the Carlylists. “ The Nemesis of
the present owner of real property has any rights
Froude" (Lane), by Sir James Crichton Browne that need be considered in the economic readjust-
and Mr. Alexander Carlyle, is an elaborate and con ment which they aim to bring about. From this
vincing refutation of the flimsy charges contained
position to the advocacy of a lawless termination
in Froude's posthumous pamphlet, “My Relations of such contracts as public franchises and even to
with Carlyle," recently published by members of the repudiation of public debts is an easy step, and
bis family. A rejoinder was hardly necessary, as one that the author does not hesitate to take.
the writer of the pamphlet already stands convicted “Repudiation is a sacred right of the people" are
out of his own mouth, his self-contradictions de his own words. We regret that this perverse polit-
stroying his credibility. It is the old story of forg- ical morality should be found underlying a book
ing new falsehoods or, which amounts to the with which we are in many ways heartily in sym-
same thing, new balf-truths to buttress the tot-
pathy, which is so entirely right in its denunciation
tering structure of the old, only to make more sig- of imperialism, and which is so exceptionally sound
nal the final ruin. Pathetic, in view of what was and clear in its view of such matters as free trade
to follow, are Carlyle's words to Miss Jewsbury, and international balances.
relating to a “mythical” portraiture of Mrs. Carlyle
which she had submitted to his inspection, and which,
In M. Eugene Böhm-Bawerk's lat-
although he expressly commanded its suppression as
est book, “Recent Literature on In-
about Interest.
a distortion of the truth, Froude took pains to pub-
terest (translated by Mr. Wm. A.
lish in full. “No need,” writes the sorrowing hus-
Scott and published by the Macmillan Co.), he has
band, " that an idle-gazing world should know my supplemented his “ Capital and Interest” by giving
lost Darling's History, or mine ; - nor will they a critical summary of the interest theories advanced
ever ; — they may depend upon it! One fit service,
from 1884 to 1889. The author has evidently at-
and one only, they can do to Her or to Me: cease tempted a criticism of the salient points in various
speaking of us through all eternity, as soon as they men's arguments on this subject, rather than a
conveniently can.” Late in the day though it be, lengthy exposition of the arguments themselves.
let us take heed and obey.
Therefore the book presupposes a certain amount of
intimacy with modern writers on interest; and for
- The Public,” a weekly paper pub this reason it appeals primarily, if not exclusively,
Vigorous essays
lisbed in Chicago, bas attracted the to the student of economics. M. Böhm-Bawerk
on vital topios.
attention of thoughtful men during keenly points out the fallacies in the use, the absti-
the past four or five years by its exceptionally nence, the labor, the productivity, and the exploita-
clear and vigorous discussion of public affairs. It tion theories of interest, and shows the weak position
has been particularly effective as a mouthpiece of of the eclectics. His method of attack is to follow
those who are opposed to the bastard imperialism the premises of the various writers to their logical
which has written into our national annals their conclusion, a reductio ad absurdum. Especially
most shameful chapters. No more effective pro skilful are his treatments of Marshall's abstinence
test against this ominous tendency of our public theory and Stolzmann's labor-cost theory. M.
policy has been made than that which has been Böhm-Bawerk, as an advocate of the agio theory,
voiced in “ The Public” from week to week by draws the conclusion that “nowadays it may be
Mr. Louis F. Post, the editor of the periodical. considered as a recognized truth that the final causes
Mr. Post has now collected his scattered papers of the phenomenon of interest are to be found, on
Recent theories


1904.]
53
THE DIAL
the one hand, in certain facts of the technique of Lincoln, and Darwin - and is thus the oldest of Amer-
prodaction, and, on the other, in the postponement
ican “who-whos.” The year which gave birth to the
of enjoyment.”
largest number is 1858, which claims 417 men and
women, of whom President Roosevelt is one. The work
The tourist seeking facts concerning
The trip to
in its present form is more valuable than ever, and we
California.
the points of interest to be visited on could not commend in terms too high the accuracy and
a trip to the Pacific coast will find a the judgment displayed in the work of compilation.
deal of information in Mr. C. A. Higgins's and Mr. Nine new volumes have been added by the Messrs.
Charles A. Keeler's volume “ To California and Appleton to their series of reprints of famous old En-
Back ” (Doubleday, Page & Co.). This book de glish books, most of them noteworthy because of their
scribes the trip through New Mexico and Arizona illustrations, which are carefully reproduced. The
by way of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado. The
volumes are as follows: “ The Second Tour of Dr.
pueblos of the Southwest and the missions of Cali-
Syntax," illustrated in color by Rowlandson; “The
English Dance of Death," in two volumes, also with
fornia naturally receive full notice, and are abun.
Rowlandson's colored plates; “The Life of a Sports-
dantly illustrated. The wonders which irrigation
man” and “The Analysis of the Hunting Field,” both
bas wrought in the deserts of Southern California
with colored illustrations by Henry Alken; Ainsworth's
are brought to the reader's notice, and the less
“ Tower of London” and “ Windsor Castle," with
exploited but no less interesting country of Central drawings by Cruikshank; “ The Fables of Æsop
and Northern California is portrayed in attractive and Others,” with Bewick's engravings; and William
guise. Indeed, few ports on any continent present
Blake's “ Illustrations of the Book of Job" - a thin
the variety of interests which now centre about the
volume of plates only, in miniature photogravure re-
Bay of San Francisco, where the mountains meet
production.
the sea and the Orient jostles the Occident. The
Volumes XII., XIII., and XIV. of “The New
book is abundantly illustrated from new photo-
International Encyclopeedia,” published by Messrs.
Dodd, Mead & Co., have recently come to our table,
graphs, and by sketches from the pens of Miss Louise
M. Keeler and Mr. McCutcheon. The reminiscence
and the end of the work is now brought within three
volumes. Maximilian is the first entry in the volumes
of the railroad “ folder " which clings to the book
now at band, and Rice-Bird is the last. The policy of
does not mar its interest or detract from its trust-
rich illustration is still pursued in these new issues,
worthiness.
and the full-page plates and maps, both plain and
colored, are a source of great satisfaction, tempting us
to turn the pages for the sake of the pictures alone.
BRIEFER MENTION.
This is not said in disparagement of the text, which
Volumes Thirteen and Fourteen of Messrs. J. F.
maintains, and perhaps improves upon, its earlier stan-
dards of readableness and accuracy.
Taylor & Co.'s library edition of the writings of Charles
Kingsley contain the letters and memoirs of his life, The Dramatic Publishing Co. of Chicago send us a
as edited by his widow, with an introduction by Mr. volume of “Modern Monologues " by Miss Marjorie
Maurice Kingsley, his oldest son. We are glad to have
Benton Cooke. The author is a young woman well
this satisfactory uniform edition of all of Kingsley's
known in Chicago as a talented amateur actress, and
works that still find numbers of readers. His ser as the impersonator of the characters figured in this
mons, which fill many more volumes, and which are bright and entertaining volume. The success of the
excellent of their kind, have gone the way of most pieces, as presented by the author herself upon many
sermons, and are not now likely to be reprinted. This semi-public occasions, has provided a very practical test
edition does not contain any of them, nor does it include
of their effectiveness. Still another volume of “Mono-
the historical lectures and miscellaneous essays, which
logues,” the work of Miss May Isabel Fisk, is published
is something of a pity, for they deserve to be remem by Messrs. Harper & Brothers. Many of these com-
bered.
positions have previously appeared in “Harper's Maga-
Messrs. A. N. Marquis & Co. have sent us their third zine," and they certainly afford amusing reading.
issue of “Who's Who in America," revised to the Gentle satire upon the foibles of society and of indi-
present year, and including 14,443 names instead of the viduals is the note of both these charming books.
11,551 and 8602 of the two earlier issues. As hereto The following French texts are from the American
fore this work is under the skilful and competent editor Book Co.: “An Easy First French Reader," by Mr.
ship of Mr. John W. Leonard. Owing to the large L. C. Syms; “ Fifty Fables by La Fontaine,” edited by
number of deaths among those included in the previous Mr. Kenneth McKenzie; Mérimée's “Colomba,” edited
editions (1108 in all), it is possible to state that more by Mr. Hiram Parker Williamson; and Chateaubriand's
than half of the names in the present list were not in the “Les Aventures du Dernier Abencerage,” edited by
first edition as published in 1899. The necrology alone Dr. James D. Bruner. From Messrs. Ginn & Co. we
makes a list of nearly thirty closely-printed pages. We have “A French Reader," by Messrs. Fred Davis
have now a somewhat larger representation than for Aldrich and Irving Lysander Foster; and George
merly of the financial and commercial callings, which Sand's “La Mare au Diable,” edited by Dr. Leigh R.
gives a better balance to the work. Club memberships Gregor. The American Book Co. also send us two
are now included in the information furnished. The important Spanish texts: “A Practical Course in Span-
educational, marriage, and age statistics compiled by ish,” by Messrs. H. M. Monsanto and Louis A. Lan-
the editor are of great interest. One man (who is not guellier, revised by Professor Freeman M. Josselyn, Jr.;
named, and whom we have not hunted down) was born and the “Doña Perfecta” of Señor B. Perez Galdós,
in 1809 – the annus mirabilis of Tennyson, Gladstone, edited by Professor Edwin Seelye Lewis.


54
[Jan. 16,
THE DIAL
NOTES.
Mr. George Cary Eggleston has just finished a new
story, which will be published early in the year by
Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co.
Som en ringe. Bare in Chinitesimal Calculusby Dr. I the
Daniel A. Murray, is a college text-book published by
Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co.
“ Public Relief and Private Charity in England,” by
Dr. Charles A. Ellwood, is a sociological study in
pamphlet form issued by the University of Missouri.
The Scott-Thaw Co. publish a stately edition of
Stevenson’s “ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," provided with
a series of illustrations that add greatly to the interest
of the story.
Two new volumes in Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co.'s
magnificent Harriman Alaska series, which is the author-
itative work on our Northern possessions, will be pub-
lished this month.
“ Lessons in the Study of Habits," by Mr. Walter
L. Sheldon, is a volume of “ethics for the young," to
be used in homes and schools, published by the W. M.
Welch Co., Chicago.
The Iowa Park and Forestry Association publish in
& stout pamphlet, with photographic illustrations, the
proceedings of their second annual meeting, held in
Des Moines a year ago.
A school text of selections from Gower's “ Confessio
Amantis,” edited by Mr. G. C. Macaulay, our foremost
authority upon the poet, is published by Mr. Henry
Frowde at the Oxford Clarendon Press.
It is announced that Mr. Samuel M. Crothers, author
of “The Gentle Reader,” is preparing the volume on
Lowell for the “ American Men of Letters " series,
published by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
A handsome edition of “The High History of the
Holy Grail,” in the translation of Dr. Sebastian Evans,
with decorative drawings by Miss Jessie M. King, is a
recent publication of Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co.
A volume of more than usual interest to lovers of
our native literature is that promised by Mr. Leon H.
Vincent on “American Literary Masters,” wbich Messrs.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. are to publish this spring.
“ The Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato," in Jowett's
translation, with a preface by the present Master of
Balliol, make a very attractive little book as published
by Mr. Henry Frowde at the Oxford Clarendon Press.
Mr. W. P. P. Longfellow's “Cyclopedia of Works of
Architecture in Italy, Greece, and the Levant,” has just
been sent us in a new edition, not evidently differing
from the original, by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons.
“The Controversy between the Puritans and the
Stage,” by Dr. Elbert N. S. Thompson, is a recent issue
of the “Yale Studies in English.” The work is a
doctoral thesis, and makes a substantial volume of 275
pages.
Mr. John Lane publishes a reissue of White's
“Selborne," as edited several years ago by the late
Grant Allen. In its present form, the work stands as
the first volume of a new “ Crown Library” of reprints
of popular books.
"Money, Banking, and Finance," by Dr. Albert S.
Bolles, is a text-book for high schools having commer-
cial courses. It is published by the American Book
Co., in uniform style with the “ Political Economy” of
Professor Laughlin.
“ An Unpublished Essay of Edwards on the Trinity,"
with some remarks on the teachings of the great theo-
logian, is the contribution of Dr. George P. Fisher to
the Edwards bicentenary. The book is published by
the Messrs. Scribner.
One of the most important works on Economics that
Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. have ever undertaken is
“ An Introduction to Economics,” by Professor Henry
R. Seager, of Columbia, which they expect to issue be-
fore the end of this month.
Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. send us a fourth
edition of the « Handbook of Commercial Geography"
by Mr. George G. Chisholm, first published nearly
fifteen years ago.
The work now makes a volume of
over six hundred closely-printed pages.
“A Primer of Old Testament History," by the
Rev. O. R. Barnicott, and « The Religions of India
Brabmanism and Buddhism,” by the Rev. Allan Menzies,
are two new volumes in the “ Temple" series of Bible
handbooks, published by the J. B. Lippincott Co.
“ Bridge” is coming to have a considerable literature
of its own. The latest books are «The Laws and Prin-
ciples of Bridge,” by “Badsworth,” published by the
Messrs. Putnam; and “Sixty Bridge Hands," by Mr.
Charles Stuart Street, published by Messrs. Dodd,
Mead & Co.
“ The Colonel's Opera Cloak” was one of the most
popular novels published in the “ No Name " series of
a quarter-century ago. It was afterwards revealed that
Miss Christine C. Brush was the author. A new illus-
trated edition of this book is now issued by Messrs.
Little, Brown, & Co.
Mr. Leonard Eckstein Opdycke's translation of
Castiglione's “ Book of the Courtier,” published in a
sumptuous limited edition a year or more ago, now
reappears in a garb relatively more modest, yet still
stately and worthy of the dignity of the text. The
Messrs. Scribner are the publishers.
“ The Founder of Christendom," an essay by Pro-
fessor Goldwin Smith, is published in a small volume
by the American Unitarian Association. Primarily an
address prepared for a Toronto audience, the discussion
is at once so reasonable and so weighty that it was richly
deserving of its present permanent form.
With its current number, the quarterly “Book of
Book-Plates” makes a change of title to “ Books and
Book-Plates," with a corresponding enlargement of
scope and contents.
The A. Wessels Co. are the Amer-
ican publishers of this little periodical, which is both
sensible in matter and attractive in form.
Dr. Gordon Jennings Laing has edited a volume of
“ Masterpieces of Latin Literature,” which is publisbed
by Messrs. Hougbton, Mifflin & Co. The selections
given illustrate seventeen authors, from Terence to
Apuleius, and the translators are much more numerous,
Catullus alone being represented by ten different bands.
Each author is given a biographical sketch of two or
three pages.
“ New England History in Ballads” is a volume of
poems by Dr. Edward Everett Hale, his children, and
some other people. These “other people" include
several of our most famous poets, the aim of Dr. Hale
having been to take the best existing poems in his field,
and to piece them out with new ones made for the
purpose, so as to cover everything of importance in
New England history. Messrs. Little, Brown, & Co.
publish this interesting collection.


1904.]
55
THE DIAL
66
comes
Mr. Bliss Carman has just issued his Christmas poem An essay on “Optimism," by Miss Helen Keller, is
entitled “The Word at St. Kavin’s," privately printed made into a very pretty little book by Messrs. T. Y.
at the Monadnock Press in New Hampshire, with an Crowell & Co. This is Miss Keller's first piece of
especially designed frontispiece and title-page by Mr. original writing (with the exception of the remarkable
John M. Cleland. The edition is limited to 250 copies, autobiography published last year), and its theme is
to be obtained only through the Scott-Thaw Co. of not the least surprising of its characteristics. If Miss
New York.
Keller can be an optimist, there is small excuse for the
One of the interesting biographies promised for 1904 rest of us who profess to be anything else.
is the Life of John A. Andrew, the war-governor of “Tennyson's Suppressed Poems, Now for the First
Massachusetts, to be brought out by Messrs. Houghton, Time Collected," is the title of a volume published by
Mifflin & Co. The work is based upon both public and Messrs. Harper & Brothers. Mr. J. C. Thomson is the
private records, the author, Mr. Henry G. Pearson, editor, and he seems to have done his work thoroughly,
having had access not only to the abundant documents but it may be doubted whether it was worth doing.
and letters in the State House, but also to private and Many of the pieces here brought together have long
family memorials.
been included in the American editions of Tennyson,
Marriage in Epigram," compiled by Mr. Frederick although the editor assures us that they are not found in
W. Morton, is a recent publication of Messrs. A. C. his « Collected Works” as issued by his own publishers.
McClurg & Co. It is described as a collection of There is to be a new issue of “Cassell's National
“stings, flings, facts, and fancies from the thought of Library,” in enlarged form and attractive cloth cover
ages,” which seems to be both accurate and pleasantly with excellent type and paper. “Silas Marner"
alliterative. We miss from the index the name of first, to be followed at weekly intervals by “ A Senti.
Schopenhauer, who might surely have been drawn upon mental Journey,” « Richard II.,” Evelyn's Diary, selec-
to spice, if not exactly to enrich, this collection. tions from Browning and Tennyson, Horace Walpole's
This spring Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. are to Letters, Hazlitt's and Emerson's Essays, “Sartor Re-
have volumes of fiction from the following authors : sartus,” and Thackeray's “ Four Georges." Professor
Lafcadio Hearn, Baroness von Hutten, Hildegarde Henry Morley's introductions were a valuable feature
Hawthorne, Andy Adams, Charles Egbert Craddock, of the old issue, and many “eminent hands” will per-
Rose E. Young, Frederick O. Bartlett, and Margaret form a like duty for the new volumes.
D. Jackson. They will also publish new books by Rollo An undertaking of great interest to every student of
Ogden, George B. McClellan, Henry D. Sedgwick, Western history has just been announced by The Arthur
Washington Gladden, N. S. Shaler, W. Starling Bur H. Clark Co. of Cleveland. This is a series of “ Early
gess, and Olive Thorne Miller.
Western Travels," 1748-1846, comprising annotated
« The United States in Our Own Time," by Chan reprints of some of the best and rarest contemporary
cellor E. Benjamin Andrews, is the title given to a new volumes of travel, descriptive of the aborigines and
edition of “The History of the Last Quarter Century," soeial and economic conditions in the middle and far
to which, however, several new chapters have been added, west, during the period of early American settlement.
making the record cover something like thirty-five years Exhaustive notes and introductions will be supplied by
of our annals. “ From Reconstruction to Expansion” Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, editor of the “ Jesuit Re-
is the sub-title, which serves fairly well as a delimitation lations" and the foremost authority on Western history,
of the ground covered. Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons who is also to supply an elaborate analytical index,
are, as before, the publishers of the work.
under one alphabet, to the complete series. This latter
Among the important announcements of spring pub is an especially valuable feature, as almost all of the
lications from Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. are rare originals are without indexes. There are to be
the following : “A Bachelor in Arcady," an idyllic thirty-one volumes in all, illustrated with maps, fac-
romance by Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe; “The Life of Dean similes, etc. The edition is limited to 750 complete
Farrar," being the authorized biography of this noted sets, signed and numbered; but in addition thereto, a
theologian and writer, by his son Mr. Reginald Farrar; limited number of the volumes will be sold separately.
“Ruskin Relics,” a series of important and interesting In connection with the limited folio reprint of Florio's
Ruskiniana by that author's friend and official bio Montaigne, now in course of publication by Messrs.
grapher, Mr. W. G. Collingwood; and “ Minute Mar Houghton, Mifflin & Co., it is interesting to note that
vels of Nature," by Mr. John J. Ward, an illustrated Mr. George B. Ives, its editor, has found of great as-
work dealing for the first time in a popular way with sistance the Montaigne collection recently acquired by
the marvels of minute life which are revealed only by the Harvard library. This collection, by the way, was
the microscope.
the property of the late Professor Ferdinand Bôcher,
The Macmillan Co. announce that they will publish and was purchased for the library through the gener-
this month the first number of a new periodical entitled osity of Mr. James H. Hyde. It is not yet catalogued,
“The Artist Engraver," a quarterly magazine of orig- but Mr. Ives was granted special permission to inspect
inal work. The first number will contain an etching by it, and it proved to be of exceptional service in pre-
Professor A. Legros, an engraving on copper by William paring the bibliography of the essays which is to ap-
Strang, a woodcut by Mr. C. H. Shannon, a lithograph pear in the third and final volume of the set. The
by Mr. Joseph Pennell, and an etching by Mr. D. Y. author states that he now has absolutely accurate de-
Cameron. The Macmillan Co. have also become the scriptions of almost all of the important editions, and
American publishers of “The Burlington Magazine,"
is confident that his list will include some mention of
which has become famous during its two and a half very nearly every French edition. So it is safe to
years of life for its beautiful reproductions of all sorts assume that the bibliography will prove by no means
of rare objects of art, the real appreciation of which is the least valuable feature of this notable and imposing
confined chiefly to the connoisseur.
edition.


56
[Jan. 16,
THE DIAL
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
[The following list, containing 75 titles, includes books
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
BIOGRAPHY.
Napoleon the First: A Biography. By August Fournier ;
trans. by Margaret Bacon Corwin and Arthur Dart Bis-
sell; edited by Edward Gaylord Bourne. 12mo, pp. 836.
Henry Holt & Co. $2. net.
Records and Reminiscences. Selected from “My Remin-
iscences " and "Old Diaries." By Lord Ronald Suther-
land Gower. Illus. in photogravure, etc., large 8vo, gilt
top, unout, pp. 624. Charles Scribner's Sons. $4.50 net.
HISTORY.
The Plot of the Placards at Rennes, 1802 (Le Complot
des Libelles). By Gilbert Augustin-Thierry; trans. by
Arthur G. Chater. 12mo, uncut, pp. 310. Charles Sorib-
ner's Sons. $1.75 net.
Arnold's Expedition to Quebec. By John Codman.
Second special edition, with added matter and illustra-
tions; edited by William Abbatt. Illus., 4to, gilt top,
uncut, pp. 371. Published for William Abbatt by The
Macmillan Co.
Hanover and Prussia, 1795–1803 : A Study in Neutrality.
By Guy Stanton Ford, B.L. Large 8vo, uncut, pp. 316.
Columbia University Studies." Macmillan Co. Paper,
$2. net.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Forerunners of Dante: An Account of Some of the More
Important Visions of the Unseen World, from the Earliest
Times. By Marcus Dods, M.A. 12mo, unout, pp. 275.
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net.
Percy Bysshe Shelley: An Appreciation. By Thomas
R. Slicer. With an illustrated Bibliography. Large 8vo,
uncut, pp. 82. New York: Privately Printed. $5. not.
BOOKS OF VERSE.
The Hundred Love Songs of Kamal Ad-Din, of Isfahan.
Now first trans. from the Persian by Louis H. Gray, and
done in English verse by Ethel Watts Mumford. 12mo,
uncut, pp. 46. Charles Scribner's Sons. Paper, $2. net.
Omar and Fitzgerald, and Other Poems. By John G.
Jury. With portrait, 8vo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 104. San
Francisco : Whitaker & Ray Co. $1.25 net.
In a Poppy Garden. By Charles Francis Saunders. Illus.,
12mo, unout, pp. 45. R. G. Badger. $1.25.
The Quest, and Other Poems. By Edward Salisbury Field.
12mo, uncut, pp. 58. Boston: R. G. Badger.
Pot-Pourri: Spice and Rose Leaves. By Miranda Powers
Swenson. 12mo, uncut, pp. 43. Boston: The Gorham
Press. $1.25.
At the Rise of the Curtain: Dramatic Preludes. By
Francis Howard Williams. 12mo, uncut, pp. 148. Boston:
R. G. Badger.
Relishes of Rhyme. By_James Lincoln. 12mo, uncut,
pp. 52. Boston: R. G. Badger. $1.25.
From the Eastern Sea. By Yone Noguchi. With por-
trait, 12mo, pp. 67. Tokyo: Fuzanbo & Co. Paper.
A Spray of Cosmo. By Augusta Cooper Bristol. 12mo,
uncut, pp. 62. R. G. Badger. $1.25.
Poems. By Ben Field. 12mo, uncut, pp. 87. R. G. Bad-
ger. $1.50.
Footprints on the Sands of Time. By Mary Shaw Baker.
Illus., 12mo, uucut, pp. 114. R. G. Badger. $1.
FICTION.
Sons of Vengeance: A Tale of the Cumberland High-
landers. By Joseph S. Malone. Illus., 12mo, pp. 299.
Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.50.
The Duke Decides. By Headon Hill. Illus., 12mo, uncut,
pp. 331. A. Wessels Co. $1.50.
Letters from a Son to his Self-Made Father. By Charles
Eustace Merriman. Illus., 12mo, gilt top, pp. 289. Boston:
New Hampshire Publishing Corporation. $1.50.
Tamarack Farm: The Story of Rube Wolcott and his
Gettysburg Girl. By George Scott. With frontispiece,
12mo, uncut, pp. 236. New York: The Grafton Press.
$1.25.
The Secret Name. By Jeannette M. Dougherty. Illus.,
12mo, pp. 240. Jennings & Pye. $1.25.
RELIGION.
Historical Evidence of the New Testament: An Induc-
tive Study in Christian Evidences. By Rev. S. L. Bow-
man, A.M. Large 8vo, pp. 732. Jennings & Pye. $4.
The Genius of Methodism: A Sociological Interpretation.
By William Pitt MacVey. 12mo, pp. 326. Jennings &
Pye. $1.
Sunshine and Love. Compiled by Katharine G. Spear.
18mo, gilt top, pp. 374. Jennings & Pye. Limp leather,
$1. net.
A Young Man's Questions. By Robert E. Speer. 16mo,
uncut, pp. 223. Fleming H. Revell Co. 80 cts. net.
NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE.
The Letters of Horace Walpole, Fourth Earl of Orford.
Chronologically arranged and edited, with notes and in-
dices, by Mrs. Paget Toynbee. Vols. I. to IV., illus. in
photogravure, 12mo, gilt tops, uncut. Oxford University
Press.
The Pilgrim's Progress. By John Bunyan; with drawings
on wood by George Cruikshank. Large 8vo, uncut, pp. 308.
Oxford University Press. $7. net.
Critical and Historical Essays. By Lord Macaulay; ed-
ited by F. C. Montague, M.A. In 3 vols., 12mo, gilt tops,
uncut. “Library of Standard Literature." G. P. Put-
nam's Sons.
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. By J. McNeill
Whistler. 8vo, uncut, pp. 340. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
$3.75 net.
The Odes of Anacreon. Trans. by Thomas Moore; with
designs by Girodet de Roussy. 12mo, gilt top, uncut,
pp. 166. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50 net.
Mermaid Series. New vols.: William Wycherley, edited by
W.C. Ward ; Thomas Shadwell, edited by George Saints-
bary. Each with photogravure portrait, 16mo, gilt top.
Charles Scribner's Sons. Per vol., $1 net.
Shelley's Adonais. Edited by William Michael Rossetti.
New edition, revised with the assistance of A. O. Prickard,
M.A. 12mo, pp. 162. Oxford University Press. $1.25 net.
Poems by John Keats, “Oxford Miniature" edition. With
portrait, 32mo, gilt top, pp. 574. Oxford University Press.
$1. net.
Faust: A Dramatic Mystery. By Wolfgang von Goethe;
trans. by John Anster, LL.D. With photogravure frontis-
piece, 18mo, gilt top, pp. 250. Charles Scribner's Sons.
Limp leather, $1. net.
The Temple Bible. New vols.; Tobit and the Babylonian
Apocryphal Writings, edited by A. H. Sayce, D.D.; Wis-
dom and the Jewish Apocryphal Writings, edited by W. B.
Stevenson, M.A. Each with photogravure frontispiece,
24mo, gilt top. J. B. Lippincott Co. Per vol., leather,
60 cts. net.
Singoalla: A Romance. Trans. from the Swedish of Viktor
Rydberg by Alex. Josephsson. Illus., 12mo, uncut, pp. 210.
New York: The Grafton Press. $1.25.
NATURE.
How to Make a Flower Garden: A Manual of Practical
Information and Suggestions. Illus., 4to, pp. 370. Double-
day, Page & Co. $1.60 net.
SCIENCE.
Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of
Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality
of Worlds. By Alfred R. Wallace, LL.D. Large 8vo,
gilt top, uncut, pp. 326. McClure, Phillips & Co. $3. net.
Gems and Gem Minerals. By Oliver Cummings Farring-
ton, Ph.D. Illus, in colors, etc., 4to, pp. 229. Chicago:
A. W. Mumford. $3.
Morals: A Treatise on the Psycho-Sociological Basis of
Ethics. By Prof. G. L. Duprat; trans. by W. J. Green-
street, M.A. 12mo, pp. 382. *Contemporary Science
Series." Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.
POLITICS.
The Russian Advance. By Albert J. Beveridge. With
maps, 8vo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 486. Harper & Brothers.
$2.50 net.


a.
THE DIAL
A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
PAOR
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of
NET PRICES AND LIBRARIES.
each month. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 a year in advance, postage
prepaid in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; in other countries
When the leading American publishers united,
comprised in the Poslal Union, 50 cents a year for extra postage must
be added. Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the
about two years ago, in the adoption of their
current number. REMITTANCES should be by draft, or by express or plan for a rehabilitation of the book-selling
postal order, payable to THE DIAL. SPECIAL RATES TO CLUBS and
business by establishing a uniform system of
for subscriptions with other publications will be sent on application;
and SAMPLE COPY on receipt of 10 cents. ADVERTISING RATES furnished discounts, coupled with a refusal to sell to deal-
on application. All communications should be addressed to
ers who offered books for less than the prices
THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
fixed by the publishers, the effort was regarded
favorably by the greater part of the thoughtful
No. 423. FEBRUARY 1, 1904. Vol. XXXVI. public, although it was not viewed altogether
without misgivings. It was generally realized
CONTENTS.
that the bookseller was in a bad way, and that
the book-store of the old-fashioned type, well-
NET PRICES AND LIBRARIES .
71 stocked and intelligently conducted, was too
THE LIBRARIAN AS CRITIC. Lina Brown Reed 73
civilizing an influence to be given up with a
light heart, and it was felt that the combination
COMMUNICATIONS
75 attempted, although clearly “in restraint of
Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer. Sara Andrew trade in the legal sense, was deserving of ap-
Shafer.
proval in the larger interests of culture. As
Dr. Parkin and the Rhodes Scholarships. Law far as the misgivings with which the plan was
rence J. Burpee.
received were legal, there was nothing to do
FROM ENSIGN TO MAJOR-GENERAL. Percy F.
but to put it into operation and to wait the
Bicknell.
77 action of the courts, concerning which point
we may say, in passing, that the decisions
A COMPOSITE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY.
thus far rendered leave the matter still doubt-
F.H. Hodder
79
ful, although with perhaps more of encour-
MODERN LIBRARY MANAGEMENT AND agement to the publishers than they could
METHODS. Aksel G. S. Josephson
82 fairly have anticipated.
The other misgivings, to which we gave ex-
THE CHARM OF COOKERY BOOKS. Waldo R.
pression when the subject first came up for
Browne
84
debate, were based upon an apprehension that
AN ITALIAN LADY OF THE RENAISSANCE. the publishing interests would not do their part
Mary Augusta Scott .
86 in good faith. As we then pointed out, the
publishers were bound to do two things if they
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
90
would clear their skirts of the charge of seek-
With Stevenson in the Adirondacks and elsewhere.
ing their own selfish ends under a hypocritical
- A trio of little dramas. — Reminiscences of an
army nurse. -Sensible articles about book-binding.
pretense of concern for the sufferings of the
- Some famous mysteries and controversies. — A
booksellers. One of these things was to publish
history of classical scholarship. — A dubious work
all net books at prices which should be at least
on Japanese art. A new field of Napoleonic study. twenty per cent. below the scale previously in
- More letters of Bismarck. - A Southern soldier, use; the other was to raise voluntarily, and as
educator, and theologian. - Short history of Greek a matter of course, the customary royalty to
sculpture. -- The philosophy of roadmending:
authors from ten to twelve and one-half per
cent. If these things were not done, it would
BRIEFER MENTION
94
become fairly evident that self-seeking rather
NOTES
95 than altruism was the underlying motive in the
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS
coöperative plan, and the fine professions with
96
which it was heralded would soon be discounted
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
97 | by the public as uniformly as the price-lists by
.


72
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
the publishers, and to far more radical effect. them at a higher price than is justified. Tak-
Now we have been observing these matters ing into account the large discount that the
rather closely for about two years, and we bave importing publisher receives, even the addition
not yet heard of that general increase of of the duty and the cost of transportation can-
authors' royalties which simple justice demands, not excuse the listing of such books (as so fre-
nor have we been convinced that prices under quently is done) at the rate of thirty-five cents
the net system are a full fifth lower than they to the shilling. This is at least twenty-five per
would have been under the old conditions. cent too much, and every large library can
This latter question is, we admit, confusing, make a substantial saving on such books by
and a good many publishers seem to bave made sending to the English publishers for them.
an honest attempt to carry out their implied Among the instances quoted by the committee
compact with the public. But the experience are the new Chambers's “ Cyclopædia of En-
in this matter of the librarians, who have made glish Literature" and the Garnett and Gosse
a more systematic study of the subject than any “Illustrated History of English Literature.”
other class of people, is not reassuring. They Here the net prices to libraries are respectively,
were promised in advance by figures (which $13.50 as against $7.88 for the former work,
proverbially cannot lie) that the net system of and $22.60 as against $15.00 for the latter.
prices, taken in connection with the discount of A proportional saving may be made in many
ten per cent. to libraries, would mean for them other cases, and this consideration clearly out-
an average increase of eight per cent in their weighs the disadvantage of a month's delay in
invoices of current publications. This they getting the books.
were willing to allow as their contribution to a As far as this remedy goes, it is one to which
philanthropic movement, and the plan received libraries will do well to resort; unfortunately
their endorsement subject to this understand it is not applicable to the ordinary new Ameri-
ing. But subsequent experience seems to have can book. Here the bulletin suggests not buy-
made of the promised eight per cent. a barren ing the book at all, but getting instead more
ideality, and we have from them reports show- copies of standard old books, buying sets of
ing advances of fifteen, twenty, and twenty.five periodicals, rebinding the old books, and look-
per cent. instead of the lower amount they were ing out for copies of recent publications at
ready to concede.
auction sales and elsewhere. This is too heroic
The dispute came to something like a dead a treatment of the difficulty to find much
lock at the Niagara Falls conference of the favor with a public crazed by the desire to read
American Library Association last year, when the newest books right away, but it is in the
the question was warmly debated by represen main sensible advice and should be followed as
tatives of both the publishing and the library far as public sentiment will allow.
interests, the latter demanding a larger dis It seems to us that the publishers have acted
count, and the former declaring that it could unwisely in taking so determined a stand
not possibly be granted. Under these circum-against the wishes of the libraries. They
stances, the only recourse left the librarians need all the friends they can get in their effort
was to cast about for some means of reducing to restore the bookselling business to its earlier
their book budgets under the existing condi. | dignity and security, and the libraries are on
tions, and to this end a Committee on Book the whole the best friends they can have. A
Prices was constituted, and directed to advise deep-seated antagonism has now been created
librarians from time to time“ in regard to any which it will not be easy to soften. We be-
feasible measures for avoiding the hardships of lieve that underlying the whole controversy
the net price system.” That committee has there may be still found among our publishers
now issued the first of a series of bulletins on the notion that libraries tend to diminish the
the subject of economy in book-purchasing, and sale of books. Against this narrow view we
others will follow as new suggestions are made have always protested, and will continue to
that seem worth considering.
protest. In the long run, we believe that every
The leading point made in this bulletin is to public library creates more private purchasers
the general effect that a good many books may that it destroys, and that the permanent inter-
be imported from England at a lower price ests of the publishing business have much
than that at which they may be bought from more to gain than to lose from the multiplica-
American booksellers. It is notorious that our tion of libraries of all sorts. To take but one
publishers who import English editions list consideration, too often lost sight of, how valu-


1904.]
73
THE DIAL
able an asset to the whole business of serious critic in print leaves off. He must supplement the
publishing must be found in the mere existence work of the critic by seeing to it that the "right
of so large a number of libraries that the de-
book
goes
to the right man.
” This well-worn phrase
mand from them alone is sufficient to take up
means that, in default of any other guidance on be-
half of the uncertain inquirer, it is the privilege of
a respectable edition of any work of real val.
ue, sufficient to insure against loss, in any apply to the need of the moment.
the librarian to suggest the book which will best
As he is so ob-
event, and frequently sufficient to provide a
viously bulwarked by great stores of learning - at
substantial profit. It is publishing of the least in the eye of the applicant, - he is able to
spectacular and sensational sort that has rea present what he has to offer, even though it may
son to fear the influence of the libraries, not consist of but a single reference, gained at the cost
the legitimate and conservative publishing of much research, without falling into the error of
which alone has claims upon our sympathy.
didacticism, the especial “tutorial” failing which
made Stevenson's father willing to snub the entire
race of schoolmasters.
The critic who commits his judgment to writing,
pronouncing upon the skill and capacity of the
THE LIBRARIAN AS CRITIC.
author, and in giving a final opinion concerning
the especial distinction of the volume under review,
The distinguishing feature of the library move comes to the conclusion of his task so far as the
ment at present is its wonderful expansion. In ad-work in hand is concerned. The librarian is very
dition to the usual sources of income, the gifts to grateful to him, reading everything he has to say
libraries in the United States during the last two with pleasure and profit, and subsequently confirm-
years have amounted, in round numbers, to $30,- ing, rejecting, or modifying somewhat the recorded
000,000. A vast deal of energy is expended in opinion as it is tested by abundant application to
controlling and organizing this movement in order varying needs, continued, perhaps, for years after
that its benefits may cover the widest possible area. the critic has placed the final period to his pages.
So broad is the interest in libraries, and so mucb But certain kinds of expert criticism he is occa-
a matter of course is their existence in farured sionally obliged to do away with altogether. The
communities, that it is time, perhaps, co put a scholar who presents the results of his own re-
stronger emphasis upon their more curictly educa searches in a history, the best of the popular kind,
tional work.
intended to make its appeal to the foremost intelli-
It is beginning to be evident that many libraries gence of a class of busy readers who can not pos-
whose history falls within the recent period of sibly command time for the more exhaustive works,
library development, having experienced their first may find the whole intent of the work overlooked,
enthusiams, are now coming properly to a sober rec its drift and purpose ignored, and its general use.
ognition of the fact that a great popular educational fulness set aside, for a discussion of certain technical
movement, in order to amount to anything, must defects which blind the critic to the general merit
grip close to scholarship; to the extent at least of of the work.
appreciating its aims, endeavoring to share its spirit, Take the case, also, of the historical novel. The
and striving to use its methods, as far as possible. librarian in his position as a public official need not
The highest type of public library in a large city fash himself over the conflicting views of the lit-
is probably one which comes in contact with readers erary merits of the historical novel as an art form.
of all stages of development, from the grade schools He well knows that the best of them delight thou-
to the university, in addition to the ungraded public sands of readers, making their appeal equally to the
of all degrees of intelligence.
confirmed reader of history and to the neophyte in
It is the librarian's critical faculty, chiefly, which historical knowledge. The former reads with the
is called into requisition on the part of those who double satisfaction of interest in the story and of
need it, for the promotion of this better use of books the exercise of his critical faculties upon the histor-
which is to result in a larger body of readers of ical representation; the latter finds in it a stimulus
sound tastes less widely removed from the plane of to an interest in history which hitherto he may
scholarly habits. This function of criticism, broadly have lacked. Our recent American literature con-
speaking, is exercised through the library by dis tains many excellent productions of this kind which
crimination in the selection of books, by skilful cat were enjoyed as stories and which were often fol-
aloguing, and by the personal work of the library lowed by deeper reading.
staff in encouraging a proper student habit. This “The Crisis,” for instance, created a new in-
being the animating spirit of all good librarians, it terest in the entire period of the Civil War. It was
may not be out of place to examine a little in detail fortunate to have at hand such an admirable, com-
some of the means by which it is sought to carry out pact history of American politics as Professor
these ideas.
Macy's “ Political Parties in the United States,
The librarian's critical work begins where the 1846–1861" and Mr, Morse's "Life of Lincoln,"


74
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
with which many eager readers supplemented the subject comes very near being a critical history of
novel. In even so comparatively slight a work as that subject. In our own country this feature of
Archdeacon Brady's “The Southerners” there is library work was not much attended to, previous to
one chapter detailing a dinner table conversation twenty-five years ago. At the present day much is
which is of considerable value in setting forth the done of a high order of merit and of an extreme
variety of opinion at the South upon the political degree of usefulness. A few libraries in widely
situation just before the war. Of Mr. Page's scattered portions of the country have already made
“Red Rock” it is hardly too strong a statement a beginning in the compilation of bibliographies of
to say that it absolutely opened the eyes of many the local history of their respective sections. In all
readers at the North to conditions at the South work of this nature the Library of Congress is tak-
during reconstruction days. In “ Richard Carvel” ing the lead through its Department of Bibliography,
we have in the colonial lawyer, Henry Swain, a both by way of issuing useful publications on its
character which finely illustrates the arrival of a own account, and by serving as a bureau of inform-
distinctly new American type, one created by the ation in regard to the progress of bibliographical un-
freer opportunity to the individual which the chang- dertakings throughout the states. As examples of
ing social conditions were already bringing about. the kind of reading lists” coming from the Library
Miss Johnston's “Audrey," pure romance though of Congress the following may be mentioned: Trusts,
it is, is remarkable for the variety of its pictures, Reciprocity, Interoceanic Canals, Federal Control of
the lights and shadows, heights and depths, breadths Commercial Corporations, Negro Question, Indus-
and colorings of Virginia colonial society; all of it trial Arbitration. As to the outlook upon the field
quite as true to fact as the beguilement of the story of bibliography, it is the intention of the Department
would persuade us into imagining. These examples to keep students informed from time to time through
are taken at random from recent fiction, because it the columns of the “Library Journal.”
is in the current historical novel that the special Perhaps it is too much to claim for the influence
opportunity of the librarian lies.
The great mas-
of the library that its work in bibliography has af-
ters are beyond question. Scott, Hugo, Kingsley, fected the publishers ; but, at all events, it is true
Auerbach, Shorthouse, for instance, have their fixed that coincident with this accomplishment inside the
place and value in the interpretation of history, library, almost all publications of worth have now
awaiting their discovery by each new generation of attached to them the bibliographies of their re-
readers.
spective subjects. It goes without saying that this is
The primary grade of the personal work of the frequently the most valuable portion of an encyclo-
library consists in much downright suggested in pædia article. Indeed, it is now so much the fashion
struction to the youthful reader upon the proper use
to furnish “ lists of authorities” or “ bibliographies"
of books; the correct way of handling and of opening with each new publication, that unfortunately it
a book, an observation of the title-page, the advan involves the appearance of some with but slender
tages of referring to a table of contents instead of claim to consideration. A book without an index,
clumsily turning the leaves; some comprehension of too, has its usefulness so hampered that few in these
the index as a useful tool, and the desirability of days of little leisure make their appearance without
noting an authority once consulted in order to avoid that indispensable aid to quick and sure reference.
subsequent efforts to recover it by means of vague A little note in each issue of the “Library Journal
allusions to its color and size. It is surprising what calls attention to current publications lacking this
can be found in the ordinary dictionary if one has feature.
never thought of it before. Observe the encyclopæ The library is now so well established as pur-
dias there are so many of them and they are of veyor to the public that it ought to be able to gather
such different kinds. Then there are the gazetteers, up a pronounced concensus of the demand for va-
the
maps with all sorts of information, the “alma rious branches of reading. It is not a point, to
nacs," the "year-books,” the "chronologies,” the be sure, upon which statistics can be had, but the
“digests.” An unaccustomed reader soon becomes library must often, it would seem, be the means of
self-reliant by an intelligent use of all these helps. interpreting this demand to the publisher. In spite
A great advance has been made when it is possible of the
appearance of
many
brilliant books of travel,
to distinguish between the magazine article written especially of those relating to travel in the orient,
with authority and that which is the work of the good books of description are still needed, particu-
industrious compiler; or, when a compilation merely larly those which deal with the beaten track of the
is wanted, to know which ones are well done. tourist in Europe and the East. There has been an
The education of the reader makes further prog- improvement within the last few years, but the com-
ress in his knowledge of the use of catalogues and ing in of cheap processes of illustration has made it
bibliographies. A catalogue may be regarded as an easy to dispense with the instruction of the narra-
exposition of the contents of a collection of books; tive. Many of the descriptive books of fifty or
a bibliography, as a descriptive list of books bearing seventy-five years ago are fuller in treatment, more
upon a special subject. Full cataloguing furnishes accurate, and altogether more satisfactory as sources
the foundation stones from which bibliographies are of information than some of the more recent ones
constructed. A good annotated bibliography of a which miss the art of being direct and simple in
11


1904.]
75
THE DIAL
statement. Good books covering the field in our
own country are very scarce.
COMMUNICATIONS.
Some excellent commercial geographies have
come to us of late. More can be used. There is
ELIZABETH WORMELEY LATIMER.
still room for popular histories of commerce, his-
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
tories of various industries, milling, mining, manu To the list of remarkable old men whose work made
facturing; short definite treatises on the economic bright the century just behind us may now be added the
relations of botany, ornithology, and entomology; name of a remarkable old woman, who has just closed
popular histories of transportation, especially of the a life unique in literature, noble in its endeavor and its
railway systems of our own country. Librarians fulfilment, and yet who was but a name to thousands of
probably have no classified lists of these wants, but
persons who were deeply her debtor for pleasure and
frequently in the course of their labors are they
for instruction. Of her interesting life I am sure the
readers of THE DIAL will be glad to have this account.
reminded of the number of useful books yet to be
Mary Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer was born in
written.
London on the 26th of July, 1822. She was the six-
The library's most pronounced success in the way teenth in line of direct descent from Sir John de
of serious reading is perhaps in its response to the Wormele, of the Manor of Hatfield, 1312, - and the
demand for books of sociology in general, and in sixth, from Ralph Wormeley of Rosegill, in Virginia,
particular for those relating to the labor question, who was one of the founders of William and Mary Col-
civics, and municipal affairs. Books like Dr. Glad lege. Her father, a later Ralph Wormeley, was born in
den's “Social Facts and Forces,” published a few
Virginia in 1785, but was taken to England in his boy-
years ago, and the more recent Brooks's “Social hood, bred as an Englishman, entered His Majesty's
Unrest” and Bolen's “Getting a Living” have
navy, and served so long and in so distinguished a
manner, as to reach the rank of Rear Admiral before
helped to clarify the opinions of countless readers.
his retirement. After many daring deeds on many seas,
Countless more have awakened to an interest in
and in many old sea-fights, he returned to America
American history.
long enough to woo and win Miss Caroline Preble, the
It would be interesting to find out, if it could be daughter of an old East Indian merchant of Boston,
discovered, whether it is the imperfect discipline of whose brother, Commodore Edward Preble, was one
a defective education, or the reaction from an un-
of the heroes of our early navy.
fortunate religious training, or whatever the cause,
A child so born could hardly help having an outlook
that is leading so many people to read such “queer"
on life out of the ordinary. It was London to-day,
things in religion and philosophy. An interesting
Boston or Newport to-morrow, then Virginia, then En-
gland again, in the rather unsettled life of the parents
experiment was recently tried at one of the library
who ere long had four merry little children to look
schools whereby it was sought to construct a ladder
after; and in the family migrations, and at her father's
which should be the means for the lovers of crude
house, she saw a thousand sights, and heard a thousand
fiction to climb into higher regions of enjoyment, stories, which formed the broad and solid foundation on
beginning with such established favorites as Mary J. which rested her quick appreciation of different points
Holmes or Augusta Evans Wilson and reaching of view: the wide outlook upon public affairs, and the
by degrees a permanent liking for the good things intense interest in everything which pertained to hu-
of Mrs. Oliphant, Trollope, Charles Reade, and
manity, which stood her in such good stead in the years
which were to come and made her one of the most
sometimes, eventually, even for George Eliot. A
similar progression from the amorphous writings of
delightful of companions. Nothing could be more full
of drollery than were her tales of her life as parlor
some unclassifiable ones let them be nameless
boarder in a little school kept in Ipswich sacred to the
here — to Professors Hoffman, Münsterberg, or
memory of Mr. Pickwick! Mrs. Cockle, the mistress of
William James, for instance, ought not to be en the school, was the widow of the inventor of some fa-
tirely impossible. Professor Hoffman, in his preface mous pills, and was herself greatly interested in antiq-
to "Psychology applied to Common Life," has the uities and relics of the most unusual sort. She went out
following interesting statement: “Not many gener-
a great deal in the very Cranford-like society of Ips-
ations ago the all-absorbing theme was physics, and
wich, taking the little girl with her for safekeeping,
little attention was paid to other studies. Later
little imagining how the bright eyes of the child who
biology became the dominant science and gave di-
sat beside her in her sedan chair were noting the
rection to the current of thought. Now psychology missibility of having a lump of sugar in their tea, lest
costumes and manners of the ladies discussing the per-
has come to the front and holds undisputed sway.'
they thereby participate in the crime of human slavery !
This opinion is one in which the librarian, from his
Mrs. Latimer well remembered attending the funeral
observation of the public, can heartily concur. services of William IV. and the apprehension that filled
In noting the progress of the intelligent reader all England lest the young girl who was to be his suc-
there is no opportunity to dwell upon the finer re cessor be found unequal to the great task before her.
lationship of the library to lovers of pure literature. With her mother, she had a place at a window close to
After all, that kind “cometh not so much with ob-
the great door of Westminster Abbey, through which
servation.” The intelligent reader does not always
the girlish Victoria went to her coronation. From the
hour in which she saw that little royal figure, until the
develop into the “gentle reader,” but when he
day wben she replaced the pink bow in her point-lace
does the librarian has reached his ultimate reward.
cap by a black one in token of her sorrow for the death
LINA BROWN REED. of the aged Queen, her love and loyalty never wavered,


76
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
and she followed every step of that wonderful reign ceaselessly. She translated, she collected, she arranged,
with a passion which made her one of its most appre she wrote with an industry which was prodigious. En-
ciative interpreters.
gland, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Turkey, India, with
In the London of the days when Mr. Stevenson, Mr. a supplemental volume, “ The Last Years of the Nine-
Everett, and Mr. Bancroft represented our country at teenth Century,”— it is a noble catalogue, that of those
St. James, the Wormeleys were constantly seeing all charming books; and yet, alas !
that was best in English society. Admiral Wormeley's
“The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower
position and his personal charm made for his family a
Unfinished must remain" -
most enviable acquaintance, which the quiet elegance and the volume on Germany, on which she was at work
of his wife did much to enhance. One of the Virginia when a sudden fall, and the death of the husband to
cousins, John Randolph of Roanoke, was a frequent vis whom she had been devoted for nearly fifty years,
itor at this time. In 1839, after the charming fashion stayed forever the busy hand, will never be completed.
of the old days, the family made a leisurely journey Uniform with these books last named, Mrs. Latimer
through France. They were in Paris when the remains
published “My Scrap-book of the French Revolution,”
of Napoleon were brought thither from St. Helena, and
à storebouse of material otherwise unobtainable, and a
Elizabeth witnessed the splendor of that second funeral.
most readable history of Judea ; and she produced a
She made her debut at the balls of Louis Phillippe, of mass of translations from the French, among them, “The
whose uncourtly court she had a score of interesting Love Letters of Victor Hugo” and “The Unknown"
stories. In Paris, too, the Wormeleys were intimate
by Camille Flammarion. Her last published work,
in the family of a tall young man who had brought his which appeared last Fall, was finished after her eighty-
two little girls thither to be reared by his mother, their first
year
had closed, and was a work which has made
own being hopelessly insane. He was just printing a every student of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte her
novel the success of which seemed to be extremely debtor —“Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena," a con-
doubtful Vanity Fair”!
In 1842 Elizabeth came over to America to visit the Mrs. Latimer spoke rapidly, and with the most charm-
family of William H. Prescott, the historian, meeting
ing English accent. She was an admirable story teller
all who were worth while knowing in the Boston of that and an admirable listener as well. She had a hearty
splendid day. She, and the bevy of young girls of whom
appreciation of good literature, liking new books, but
the brilliant Julia Ward (Howe) was the leader, danced
going back faithfully to the old writers. Her extreme
and laughed as girls should do, but they read and
short-sightedness had shut her away from the world of
studied also, and the atmosphere of the home in which
pictures, and she used to say sadly that she had never
Mr. Prescott was doing his historical work had a great
been able to see the natural world about her. She
influence on her after-life. She later went back to En-
died in Baltimore on the 4th of January.
gland, where she constantly met many delightful per.
SARA ANDREW SHAFER.
sonages, and here she printed the first novel she cared
Baltimore, Md., January 20, 1904.
to acknowledge, “Amabel.” In 1851 her only brother,
James Preble Wormeley, a man of most brilliant prom-
ise, died, and two years later her father set sail on far
DR. PARKIN AND THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS.
vaster seas than any he had hitherto sailed. The family
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
had returned to New England by that time, and the
Admiral, as well as the son who had preceded him, and
In your interesting and undoubtedly just article en-
titled A Perverted Trust," in the issue of THE DIAL
the wife who followed twenty years later, sleep in the
old Newport burying ground.
for January 16, you make one slight misstatement.
Dr. Parkin is in one place said to be “president of a
In 1856 Miss Wormeley married Mr.Randolph Brandt
Canadian college," and again, “ himself a college presi-
Latimer, a civil engineer connected with the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad. Mrs. Latimer's life for twenty years
dent,” and the implication clearly is that this fact
influenced him in recommending the granting of the
after this event was bound up in that of her husband,
her children, and her home, broken by an occasional
Rhodes scholarships to college graduates, rather than
visit to her mother, in Newport, or by the duties of
to graduates of preparatory schools. As a matter of
façt Dr. Parkin is, or at any rate was until a short time
caring for the sick, the wounded, and the imprisoned
ago (I think he resigned his position to take charge of
soldiers of the Civil War. In 1876, however, she
entered literature as a serious profession. Her fre-
the Rhodes scholarships), principal of Upper Canada
quent contributions of stories, poems, and essays made
College. Though the name is somewhat misleading,
her style so well known to the readers of the best maga-
Upper Canada College is a preparatory school, pat-
zines that it was not singular that some good guessers
terned after the great public schools of England. It
is to all intents and purposes the preparatory school for
traced to her hand the authorship of three of the clever-
Toronto University, as the school at Port Hope is for
est novels of the clever “ No Name Series which
Trinity University, Lennoxville school for Bishop's
delighted the readers of twenty years ago. These were
“ The Princess Amélie,” “My Wife and My Wife's
College, and the school at Windsor, N. S., for King's
Sister,” and “
“Salvage."
College. Consequently Dr. Parkin made his recom-
mendation (whether it was just or unjust) as principal
Her life-work was crowned by the brilliant series of
historical works in which she reviewed the affairs of
of a preparatory school, not as president of a college,
and one is forced to the conclusion that, in deciding
Europe during the Nineteenth Century. It was a vast
work for any woman to have undertaken; it was mar-
against the best interests of the class of educational
institutions with which he was himself identified, he
vellous that one past the three-score and ten of the
Psalmist's limit should have even contemplated such a
must at least have acted in good faith and without
prejudice.
task. With sight always feeble, and becoming more
LAWRENCE J. BURPEE.
impaired each year, she read ceaselessly, she worked Ottawa, Canada, January 19, 1904.


1904.]
77
THE DIAL
own men.
general in 1885, commander-in-chief of the
The New Books.
forces in Ireland, 1890, and commander-in-
chief of the British army (succeeding the Duke
of Cambridge) in 1895. Finally, as it will be
FROM ENSIGN TO MAJOR-GENERAL.*
remembered, he retired from this last office in
Given the necessary facility as a writer and 1900, being succeeded by Lord Roberts.
a glowing enthusiasm for one's profession or Like all men of true courage, Lord Wolseley
calling, what autobiography could fail to in. is finely sensitive in temperament, even to such
terest ? Surely not that of a born soldier and a degree that he declares the sight of raw meat
leader of men such as Lord Wolseley's “Story has always nauseated him. The essence of
of a Soldier's Life” shows him to be. Even genuine fortitude has not escaped him in his
the most peace-loving of Quakers could hardly love for the clash of arms. Of certain effemi-
open the book without feeling a desire to read nate officers of the famous Light Brigade he
on. The narrative is brisk, varied, rich in writes that they had “ fought well and had
anecdote, and not untouched with humor - to nobly led their men straight; but yet they
say nothing of the inevitable horrors (or glo- lacked the manliness to bear for any length of
ries) of war that furnish the main theme. time the hardships and discomforts their men
Born in 1833, Garnet Wolseley was too experienced daily."
experienced daily." Continuing, he indicates
young to hold high command in the Crimean that the strenuous life is not necessarily that
War; but he showed himself a worthy son of led by the soldier.
old Ireland (how many famous British generals “ He must be a craven indeed, who, being well
are Irish !) in the capacity of lieutenant. Then mounted, would not charge home at the head of his
It is not thus the noblest form of courage
followed two years of service in the suppression
is made manifest, but in the daily endurance of cold
of the Indian mutiny of 1857; a few months
and want.”
in the China war of 1860; service in Canada,
where he assisted in repelling the abortive this question of courage in battle, and will at
The following extract will throw light on
Fenian invasion and headed the expedition gent the same time show that, like so many other
to suppress the insurrection at Fort Garry in
military leaders, the author is somewhat of a
the Red River territory, and finally, so far as
fatalist, a “man of destiny."
this book is concerned, he planned and carried
“ I have often been asked by foolish people if I never
out the Asbantee campaign that humbled King felt nervous when in danger. I don't think that many
Koffee and left the English masters of the men when in action have time to be nervous, or at least
Gold Coast. Two months' leave of absence to analyze what is the real condition of their feelings
from his Canadian post in 1862 enabled him
on the point. But I often thought to myself before the
bullets began to whistle near one, whether I should be
to visit Lee's headquarters and to get an inside
killed or not that day. I can honestly say the one dread
view of the Confederate situation, as may be I had — and it ate into my soul — was that if killed I
seen by reading his anonymous article entitled should die without having made the name for myself
“ A Month's Visit to the Confederate Head-
which I always hoped a kind and merciful God might
permit me to win. All through my life — sinner though
quarters,” in Blackwood's Magazine for Janu-
I have been — I trusted implicitly in God's providence,
ary, 1863. In breaking off just as he reaches I believed He watched over me and intended me for
" the last of life, for which the first was made,” some important work. My numerous hair-breadth
Lord Wolseley has withheld the most valuable escapes in action confirmed me all the more in what
of his reminiscences; but these, he leads us
perhaps others may deem my presumptuous belief.”
to hope, may follow in a later work. A brief | Before leaving this subject, it is worth while
outline of his life since 1874 will serve to hint noting one situation which, though the author
at the riches he still holds in reserve for his makes but modest mention of it, must have
readers. He was appointed inspector-general
been a severe test of courage. The transport
of auxiliary forces in 1874; governor of Cyprus,
which took him and his company to the Orient
1878; governor of Natal, 1879; commander in 1857 struck a reef in the Straits of Banca.
in-chief of the British forces in Egypt, 1882 ; Captain Wolseley's men were occupying a por-
was raised to the peerage as reward for ser tion of the lower deck well forward, and there
vices in that country ; conducted the Gordon he was obliged to draw them up and wait for
relief expedition, 1884–5; was made adjutant- the word of command that should permit him
to lead them up a narrow ladder and through
THE STORY OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE. By Field-Marshal
Viscount Wolseley. In two volumes. Illustrated. New
a small batchway, and embark them in the
York: Charles Scribner's Song.
ship’s boats. Darkness, only made visible by
99
.


78
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
1)
the glimmer from the hatchway, a rapidly in preparing for war in time of peace. “When,”
creasing perpendicularity of the deck under he asks in despair, “ will civilian Secretaries
foot, and a momentary prospect of the vessels of State for War cease from troubling in war
lipping off the rock that held her and plunging affairs ?” The American civil war, as viewed
to the bottom, combined to make the situation by him, “ contains many lessons for all non-
a trying one. To be drowned like rats' in a military nations, ourselves for example, whose
cage was the inglorious fate that threatened. Army affairs are ruled in an absolute fashion by
Yet no one bolted, discipline was preserved, a political civilian War Minister.” In the light
and at last an order from above ended the ago of history not yet ancient, there is significance
nizing suspense. The young captain's control in his resentment against the cunning politician
of his unseasoned company in this instance is who, when anything goes wrong in the manage-
significant of much, and prepares us for his ment of a campaign, “ tries to turn the wrath
subsequent rapid promotion.
of a deceived people upon the military author-
The story of the relief of Lucknow has ities, and those who are exclusively to blame
often been told, but none the less will Lord are too often allowed to sneak off unhurt in the
Wolseley's account of it, especially of his own turmoil of execration they have raised against
share therein, be found of the highest interest. the soldiers who, though in office, are never in
One circumstance is likely to excite comment. power.” The last of these frequent reflections
Lord Roberts, who also participated in this upon the havoc wrought by politicians in army
hazardous expedition, has duly recorded in matters finds its utterance, in a veiled form, in
his recent book, “ Forty-One Years in India," the closing words of the book.
Brevet-Major Wolseley's gallant assault and « Should my narrative interest the general reader,
capture of the mess-house that formed so strat it will be a pleasure to continue it to the date when I
egic a point on the outskirts of Lucknow. He gladly bid good-bye to the War Office and ceased to
be the nominal Commander-in-Chief of her Majesty's
has also related how, after the young officer
Land Forces."
had passed on to pierce an adjacent brick wall
Another and more amiable personal feeling
and communications with the beleaguered
open
forces, he himself, after two unsuccessful at-
is repeatedly voiced in his allusions to this
tempts and evidently with much personal dan.
country. He declares our army to be, so far
ger, raised the flag over the captured position.
at any rate as its membership is concerned, the
Now our author makes no mention whatever finest in the world, and West Point the best of
of this fellow-officer, although he does refer military schools in any country. In another
to the flag incident in the following rather re-
burst of eulogy he says, “Of this at least I am
markable manner :
certain, that no outsider can have a deeper, &
more sincere admiration than I have for their
“Some one in after years asserted that I claimed the
honour of having hoisted a Union Jack upon this Mess institutions, their people, their great soldiers
House when we took it. My answer was, that it was
and sailors, as well as for their writers and men
taken by my company, immediately supported by Cap- of science.” Again, in praise of patriotism,
tain Irby's company, also of the 90th Light Infantry, he indulges in the following panegyric of our
but I did not know who the hero was that had hoisted
a flag upon it: all I knew was that it was not I who
country: “And may I not assert with equal
had done so, and that no flag was hoisted upon the Mess
confidence that it is because that sentiment
House whilst I was in it, and as to what took place after so deeply influences the hearts of the United
my company had gone through it to take the Motee States people that they have become the fore-
Mahul, I could say nothing."
most nation in the world, far greater than
Is there here some lurking jealousy of his Washington and his able colleagues could ever
successor in office? The author declares in a have hoped for or even dreamt of.” Another
prefatory note that naught has been set down appeal to our national pride is in his expecta-
in malice; but we do not even have to read tion that we shall one day save the world from
between the lines to catch the personal note on “the yellow peril "'; for, as he thinks, China
many pages. The reader is left in no doubt only wants her Napoleon or Peter the Great to
of Lord Wolseley's profound contempt for all enable her to do great things.
enable her to do great things. “I have long
civilian war secretaries, Lord Cardwell ex selected them," he writes, referring to the
cepted, of the withering scorn he entertains Chinese, “ as the combatants on one side at
for university-bred staff officers of no military the great battle of Armageddon, the people of
experience, and of his poor opinion of a gov the United States of America being their op-
ernment that refuses to see the necessity of ponents. The latter nation is fast becoming


1904 ]
79
THE DIAL
the greatest power of the world.” Is all this
Is all this Lord Roberts's popular account of his life in
from the heart, or has the author a thrifty India, and touches at one point on what that
eye on his American reading and book-buying has given in graphic detail. Whether like that
public? How explain such ready relinquish it will pass through fifteen impressions, besides
ment of all claims to old England's unapproach one for the blind, in little over a year, remains
able preëminence among the world-powers ? to be seen. It deserves to be widely read.
The pen portraits of Lee and Jackson as
PERCY F. BICKNELL.
seen by our author in camp and field are among
the best passages in the book. Of Lee he writes
in terms of the most ardent admiration.
“ He was the ablest general, and to me seemed the
A COMPOSITE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY.*
greatest man I ever conversed with; and yet I have had
Perhaps no more disappointing book was
the privilege of meeting Von Moltke and Prince Bis-
marck, and at least upon one occasion had a very long
issued from the press last year than the volume
and intensely interesting conversation with the latter. | in the “Cambridge Modern History” devoted
General Lee was one of the few men who ever seriously to the United States. The great but some-
impressed and awed me with their natural, their inbe-
what elusive reputation of Lord Acton, who
rent greatness. Forty years have come and gone since
our meeting, yet the majesty of his manly bearing, the planned the series, the prestige of the Univer-
genial winning grace, the sweetness of his smile and sity whose name it bears, and the favorable
the impressive dignity of his old-fashioned style of ad impression produced by the volume on the
dress, come back to me amongst the most cherished of Renaissance, combined to create an expectation
my recollections. His greatness made me humble, and
I never felt my own individual insignificance more keenly
that the volume on the United States would
than I did in his presence.
As he listened to you
prove a valuable contribution to American hig-
attentively, he seemed to look into your heart and to tory. There is no other nation whose history
search your brain. He spoke of the future with con-
presents so great a variety of interests within
fidence, though one could clearly see be was of no very
so short a period of time, and whose progress
sanguine temperament. He deplored the bitterness
introduced into the struggle, and also the treatment of
from insignificant beginnings to great achieve-
the Southern folk who fell into hostile hands. But ment has been so rapid. There is great need
there was no rancour in his tone when he referred to that some single volume should present in
the Northern Government. Not even when he described
how they had designedly destroyed his home at Arling derlying forces of this wonderful development.
how they had designedly destroyed his home at Arling- strong color and with a broad stroke the un-
herited from General Washington. He had merely
Someway it was expected that the Cambridge
'gone with his State'— Virginia — the pervading prin- | History would furnish this picture, but it
ciple that had influenced most of the soldiers I spoke might have been foreseen that the production
with during my visit to the South.”
of a dozen writers, chosen in large part at long
In sharp contrast with this portrait of the born
range upon the basis of their general reputa-
aristocrat is that of the sturdy man of the people, tion, and working independently of each other
Stonewall Jackson.
and without unity of plan, would not be satis-
“There was nothing of these refined characteristics
factory. This at least the event has proved.
in Stonewall Jackson, a man with huge hands and feet.
The work of the editors seems to have been
But he possessed an assured self-confidence, the outcome
of an absolute trust in God, that inspired his soldiers
confined to the division of the subject matter
with an unquestioning belief in him as their leader. into chapters and their assignment to various
They did not ask him where he was going: they were writers. The whole period was divided into
content to follow him.”
twenty-one chapters, to which were added two
Both of the portraits thus outlined are filled in
of general review, making a total of twenty-
with some elaboration by Lord Wolseley, who
three. This is very nearly the division orig-
well likens Lee to the high-born cavalier,
inally made by Lord Acton. Criticism of the
while Jackson was more after the pattern of work begins with this division. Its most strik.
Cromwell's Ironsides.
ing characteristic is the extraordinary amount
The final campaign recorded is that con-
of space devoted to military history. Seven
ducted by the author against the Ashantees of
chapters are filled with the purely military
the Gold Coast, in 1873–74. Its immense
events of the French War, the Revolution, the
difficulties, to say nothing of the deadly cli War of 1812, and the Rebellion, making
mate, make the narrative a thrilling one. It
nearly a third of the whole volume. These
deserves a more extended reference, and in fact
* THE CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY. Planned by the
the book as a whole is worthy of more detailed
late Lord Acton. Edited by A. W. Ward and others. Volume
notice.. It falls easily into the same class as VII., The United States. New York: The Macmillan Co.,


80
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
wars were great turning points in American by persistent ill treatment,” but does not suf-
history. What is needed is an explanation ficiently explain the causes that did bring
of the conditions that caused them, a brief out about separation. There is no adequate ac-
line of their grand strategy, and a full state count of the sacrifice of colonial to British
ment of their objective and subjective results. interests, of the operation of the colonial sys-
Instead we have a mass of military details, stem, and of the gradual differentiation of col-
and no satisfactory statement of causes and onies and mother country. The chapters are
results. The details of military events have not even accurate in details. Franklin's plan
no bearing upon the study of underlying causes, of union was not approved by the Albany Con-
and could not be sufficiently minute to serve gress, but referred to the assemblies with the
the purpose of the student of military history certainty that it would be rejected ; the re-
or of military science. They are therefore use lation of the North Carolina Regulators to
less, and give the book an undesirable “ drum the Revolution is misunderstood ; James War-
and trumpet” cast.
ren is confused with Joseph Warren; the pro-
The twenty-three chapters of the volume are visions of the transportation act and the cir-
divided among thirteen writers, of whom it is cumstances of André's capture are misstated ;
stated that but five were chosen by Lord Acton. Jay, whose influence was so important, is not
Of the thirteen, four are English and nine are mentioned in connection with the negotiation
American. Of the American writers, all but of
peace,
and Laurens appears as Henry
one are connected with colleges or universities, Somers.
one as president and the remainder as profes The assignment of an historical sketch of
sors. Of the English writers only one appears the theory of the Revolution and the forma-
to be engaged in teaching. As there is no tion of the Constitution to Mr. Bigelow is not
uniform mode of treatment, there is no escape very different from the employment of an his-
from the tedious process of reviewing the work torian to try a case in court. In the treatment
of each contributor seriatim. There are four of the first topic Mr. Bigelow subjects a num-
principal contributors. The colonial period ber of contemporary pamphlets upon both
is for the most part covered by Mr. John A. sides to careful legal analysis, the result of
Doyle, the Declaration of Independence and which is an interesting essay, that especially
the formation of the Constitution by Professor develops the extent to which the idea of nat-
Melville Bigelow, the period from 1783 to ural right was embodied in the common law
1850 by Professor McMaster, and the Civil but fails to meet the requirement of a history
War by the late John G. Nicolay. Ten other of revolutionary opinion. The essay conveys
chapters, either supplementary or summary,
the impression that the colonial argument was
are furnished by the nine other writers en fixed and stable, whereas it shifted as the
gaged upon the volume.
struggle advanced and passed through at least
Few men are better acquainted with the his four distinct phases. Even less satisfactory is.
tory of the English colonies in America than Mr. the chapter on the Constitution. Mr. Bigelow
Doyle, but he lacks the powers of distinguishing begins with a sketch of the formation of the
between the vital and the accidental and of
gen state constitutions, apparently with the pur-
eralization requisite for condensed statement. pose of pointing out the connection between
His chapters are a mass of details with which them and the Federal Constitution, and then
he seems himself impatient, but which he fails to omits to show the relation. His treatment
show were the small beginnings of great things. of the latter consists in tracing each one of
There is no attempt to portray the forces back Randolph's resolutions through the debates in
of the settlement of the different colonies or the convention to its final form in the completed
the forces operating within and characterizing Constitution. This labor is performed with
them. As a single illustration, instead of show- painstaking care, and the result is a useful
ing how Antinomianism, by tending to subvert piece of work, but it is the last thing needed
the Puritan theocracy, provoked persecution in this particular place. Instead of it there
and contributed to the New England disper should be a careful account of the movement
sion, he dismisses it with the statement that that brought about the convention and a re-
“ it can only be understood after a careful statement of the compromises between the con-
study of Calvinistic theology.” Of the Revo.
Of the Revo tending forces within the convention. The chap-
lution he says “no one can speak of the col. ter closes with but a single paragraph by way
onists as loyal subjects goaded into rebellion of comment, and that an erroneous one. It is


1904.]
81
THE DIAL
Mr. Bigelow's conclusion that Alexander Ham- rapid review. In the chapter by Miss Mary
ilton was the master spirit of the convention. Bateson, Lecturer in Newpham College, upon
This is a tradition, resulting from a confusion the French in America, the material is thor-
of the part that Hamilton played in bring- oughly mastered, admirably organized, and
ing about the convention and in securing the well presented. It is a model of the mode of
ratification of the Constitution with his share treatment which should have been applied to
in the convention itself. Hamilton's ideas were the whole book. The chapter on the French
entirely out of harmony with those of the con War by Mr. A. G. Bradley, an English author
vention, very few of his suggestions met with who lived for some time in the United States
approval, he was embarrassed by the majority and is best known through his “ Fight with
against him in his own delegation, and felt that France for North America,” is an accurate but
his influence was so slight that he did not at not very picturesque account of a very pic-
tend a considerable part of the sessions. turesque contest. Mr. H. W. Wilson, another
Professor McMaster covers the period from English writer, covers the War of 1812 and the
the Revolution to the Compromise of 1850 in naval operations of the Rebellion. The partic-
the well known style of his “ History of the ular purpose of President Woodrow Wilson's
People of the United States.” He tells the chapter on the decade from 1850 to 1860 is to
story chiefly for the purpose of giving “ local explain the point of view of the South, a pur-
color," but does not undertake the statement pose which is well accomplished, although he
of causes and results. Genet appears in his
Genet appears in his finds it necessary to devote half of his space to
pages as Genest, but more important is the an earlier period. It is not correct to say that
omission of the real purpose of his mission. Utah and New Mexico were organized “ with
The statement of the European situation that nothing said about slavery," and President
produced the War of 1812 is not attempted. Wilson seems to have missed the point that
The story of nullification in South Carolina is Kansas and Nebraska were organized under
told, but the momentous consequences of the precisely the same conditions as were Utah and
virtual victory of the nullifiers are passed over New Mexico. Douglas was the most promi.
in silence. The style glides smoothly from nent man in public life during the decade from
point to point without accentuation and conse 1850 to 1860 and received in the latter year a
quently without perspective. Admirable as larger vote for the presidency than any South-
this
may
be for
purposes of entertainment, it ern man. Here is a phenomenon which Presi-
does not make much impression upon the mind dent Wilson does not attempt to explain.
or give much understanding of the subject. Supplementary to the chapters on the Civil
An entire volume written in this vein would War, Professor Schwab furnishes one on the
meet a popular demand, but the method hardly South during the War, which is an acceptable
seems suited to the purposes of this history. summary of his "Financial and Industrial Hig-
The standpoint of Mr. Nicolay's chapters on tory of the Confederate States.” The period
the Civil War is, of course, that of the Lin. since the war is divided between Professor T.C.
coln History. Three of the four are devoted Smith, now of Williams College, and Profes-
to military events, and about a third of them sor John Bassett Moore of Columbia. Pro-
to the mistakes of McClellan. The single fessor Smith covers the ground thoroughly and
chapter on the political phases of the period is systematically to the election of President
much too short to cover the subject. It is Cleveland, and is sound and outspoken in bis
almost entirely devoted to the abolition of slav- judgments. The reconstruction part suffers
ery. The financial history of the struggle is from lack of space, but otherwise could scarcely
briefly reviewed; the period of uncertainty at be improved. Professor Moore reviews the re-
the beginning, the shifting attitude of the cent diplomatic history of the United States,
North as the struggle advanced, the centrali and closes with an account of the peace negotia-
zation of government, which was the most im tions at Paris. He is absolutely noncommittal
portant subjective result of the war, and, what on all vital points, apparently considering that
is especially surprising, all reference to for his former official connection with the Depart-
eign relations, are omitted altogether. While ment of State bars the expression of individual
the proportion of space given to military events opinion. Two summaries, one of economic and
and some of the views expressed may be open
the other of intellectual development, complete
to criticism, the style of the whole is good. the volume. The former, written by Professor
The shorter contributions must be passed in | Emery of Yale, sets forth the extraordinary


82
[Feb. 1,
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agricultural and industrial expansion of recent actual working of libraries in Germany and
years, and the latter, written by Professor other countries. He shows little enthusiasm,
Barrett Wendell of Harvard, presents judic- and has little to say in criticism of present
ious paragraphs on the progress of law, philos- conditions, merely stating the facts in a calm,
ophy, art, science, education, and a somewhat judicious manner. Mr. Brown, on the other
longer sketch of American literature. Professor hand, is nothing if not an enthusiast. He has
Wendell supplements the doubtful theory set his decided views as to how public libraries
forth in his “Literary History of America," should be managed, and when he finds a ten-
that the American of the time of the Revolu- dency which he considers dangerous, he says
tion was a survival of the Elizabethan English so in no uncertain language. He is librarian
man, with the contention “that the country in one of the most progressive municipal libra-
to-day is essentially the same which, in the ries in Britain, and presents the actual working
reign of King George III., declared its inde of that particular class of libraries, with very
pendence of England," a contention that will few references to conditions elsewhere. But
hardly bear examination. The bibliography what references he does give are pointed
for the various chapters covers eighty pages enough, — as when in his preface he says of
and is reasonably full.
American libraries : ;
Taken as a whole it is difficult to see what
“ In the United States a much higher level of attain-
useful
purpose the volume can serve.
It is ment has been reached [than in France], but here again
neither a collection of special studies for the
the paralyzing hand of uniformity has arrested progress
after a certain standard of efficiency has become gen-
student nor a survey of the whole field of
eral. American libraries are conducted on lines wbich
American history useful for purposes of in closely resemble those of ordinary commercial practice,
struction or suited to the needs of the general in which everything is subordinated to the furtherance
reader. There are a few good chapters, but of profits and economy. Their methods are standard-
most of them are condensed from books that ised, and everything is more or less interchangeable."
are better still. A volume on the United States The fact which is most forcibly brought out
might have been omitted altogether. The series in regard to British municipal libraries is the
is a history of modern Europe, and European limitation caused by the working of the library
colonies the world over could have been better acts in regulating the percentage of the rates
treated in connection with the parent state. It which may go to the support of the libraries.
was the chief result of the Revolution that the “ The principal amendment of the Libraries Acts,
United States was left free to develop its own
which authorities of all kinds now agree is essential and
institutions independently of Europe, and its
paramount to everything else, is the abolition or altera-
tion of the rate limitation, which for fifty years has
history is no essential part of that of Europe. fettered the work of public libraries and in every way
As it is, the volume will be placed upon the hindered their proper development. . . If no limita-
shelves as one of a notable series, but will be tion is placed upon the rates which can be levied for
little read.
baths and washbouses, tramways, public health, lighting
F. H. HODDER.
and education, it is surely an anomaly to retain on the
Statute Book a restriction such as the fixing of the
library rate, mainly,one supposes, because it was imposed
about forty-seven years ago."
MODERN LIBRARY MANAGEMENT AND
METHODS.*
The author of this book has long been an
earnest advocate of "safeguarded open access,
It is interesting to compare Mr.J.D. Brown's
that is, of giving the public access, under pro-
new “Manual of Library Economy” with such
a book as Dr. Gräsel's “ Handbuch der Bib-
per supervision, to all or most of the books in
liothekslehre,” which appeared in a new and public libraries, and the last chapter is a full
much enlarged edition more than a year ago.
statement of the arguments in favor of this
The German work, written by one of the plan, chiefly quoted from a pamphlet published
in 1899 under the title “ Account of the Safè.
librarians of the Royal Library in Berlin, is a
scholarly treatise on the science of library ing Libraries. Prepared and circulated by the
guarded Open-Access System in Public Lend-
administration, with particular reference to
librarians in charge of English open-access
German scientific libraries. The author pre public libraries,” and of which Mr. Brown
sents the fundamental principles of library
administration, and exemplifies them from the presumably is the chief author. He says here:
“The main object held in view by the advocates of
MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY. By James Duff Brown. open access is the extension of the usefulness of public
Illustrated. London: Scott, Greenwood & Co.
libraries and books by enhancing their educational value


1904.]
83
THE DIAL
in a practical and satisfactory manner. . . To secure
pletely abandon the museum or storage ideal, and go
the end in viuw, methods of exact classification have boldly for making the workshop or practical utility
been introduced into the safeguarded open-access libra ideal the one most worthy of realization. : . . Public
ries, by means of which it is possible to display to readers library buildings should be erected, not on the principle
in one place the books possessed by the library on any of storing as many books as can possibly be collected
specific.subject.”
in fifty years' time, but of restricting the book accom-
modation to the reasonable limits which careful selection
In this connection, as well as in the chapters
and cautious discarding will fix, and increasing the
especially devoted to that subject, the import space available for readers, and giving them only the
ance of classification of books on the shelves very best literature, imaginative or instructive, that
of public libraries is emphasized.
the world has to offer."
“ Roughly, the plan most in vogue in English public The chapter on book selection is one of the
libraries is to establish from six to twenty main classes
most interesting, and to American readers one
like A Theology, B Sciences, C Biography, D History,
E Fiction, etc., and to number the books in each class
of the most valuable, in the whole book. The
consecutively as received, without regard to their sub-
author has here occasion to take issue with an
jects. . . . A more chaotic and unbusinesslike arrange American library primer which he thinks
ment probably does not exist anywhere, in any depart “may influence young librarians in a disas-
ment of life, than in a numerically arranged English
trous fashion,” as when its author recommends
public library on the plan just described. It is a mere
wilderness of books dumped down on the shelves, with-
buying largely of the cheap books issued in
out regard to topic relationships, or even an elementary
“series" or "libraries," which, as Mr. Brown
idea of order or consistency.'
points out, " are too often commercial ventures
Besides an earnest plea for the general prin- got up to sell by people who have nothing par-
ciple of classification, three systems are briefly
ticular to say."
examined, namely the “Decimal" by Mr.
The author sounds a note of warning in re-
Melvil Dewey, the “Expansive" by the late
gard to the particular attention that has lately
Mr. C. A. Cutter, and the “ Adjustable" by
been given to children's libraries.
Mr. Brown. Somewhat more space is given
“With all respect for the admirable work in con-
nection with children's libraries and the cultivation of
to cataloguing; various rules and methods are
intimate relationships with the public schools, both in the
described, and the mechanical methods of dis United States and Britain, there is a very grave danger
playing catalogues are fully treated. On this of this particular outlet for library enthusiasm becom-
latter point the author comes nearer to making
ing a damaging influence on the interests of the general
work of public libraries. Already there are libraries in
a comparative study of methods in various
the United States and in England where everything is
countries than in any other part of his book.
subordinated to the special cult of the child, and where
The question of "live" and "dead" books, the claims of adult readers are being brushed aside in
which has agitated American librarians for the the pursuit of what is largely a sentimental phantasy.
last couple of years, is very forcibly treated
There are strong and reasonable doubts as to the
from the standpoint of a “workshop " library
wisdom of treating juveniles like a separate class of
human beings, and making all kinds of arrangements
which provides for the systematic and con for their convenience, very often to the inconvenience of
tinuous revision of the stock.” The subject adults.”
is treated both in the chapter on buildings and In this connection it should, however, be re-
in that on book selection.
membered that in many neighborhoods chil-
“The museum idea of a public library has been eul dren are the only persons who can or care to
tivated so long, that it is difficult to advance a plea for
avail themselves of the services of public libra-
the more practical workshop idea without raising a storm
of opposition from those conservators of literature who
ries, and also that something must be done out-
imagine that their little parochial libraries rival the
side the schools to interest children in reading
British Museum or Bibliothèque Nationale on a reduced for reading's sake and to instruct them in the
scale. Yet, it is this practical workshop side of the use of books as tools.
When the writer says,
question which we desire to advance in opposition to the
"to many observers, it must appear as if the
museum, or haphazard collecting, method, which has for
school educational authorities in America and
years prevailed. . . . No doubt the difficulty of selec-
tion is the main reason why public libraries are allowed
the United Kingdom bad failed lamentably in
to grow up in a haphazard way, because it is a work their duty of providing elementary education, to
which demands not only persevering industry, but an warrant such interference on the part of libra-
encyclopædic knowledge of literature and the contents
of books. Nevertheless, we regard this difficulty of
rians," he has perhaps touched the real root of
selection, and the limitation of the field of selection, as
the matter.
powerful reasons why municipal libraries should com The foregoing might be enough to give
This kind of “classification" is not entirely unknown in
an idea of the general character of the book
American libraries.
and the purpose of its author. Besides the


84
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
chapters here briefly noticed, those on heat-ing's “ Initials and Pseudonyms " should be so
ing, lighting, ventilation, cleaning; on printed marked, but not his “ Anonyms," is not easy
catalogues ; on reading room methods and sub to understand ; nor why the first edition of
sidiary departments, deserve particular atten Cutter's “Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue
tion. Altogether, it is an admirable work, and should be more desirable than the third. That
one that deserves to be carefully read by Amer- Mrs. Dixson's “Subject-Index to Universal
ican librarians and library trustees. Though Prose Fiction” is starred can only mean that
especially dealing with English conditions, the author is not familiar with it. By Bolton's
the book is full of suggestions of value to libra “ Catalogue of Technical Publications 1665–
rians in any country, particularly in the United 1882. Washington, 1887” is of course meant
States.
his “Catalogue of Scientific and Technical
Each chapter is followed by a short list of Periodicals,” of which the first edition, cover-
references, chiefly to articles in library period- ing the years 1665–1882, was issued in 1885,
icals. That these references are not as numer and the second, carrying the list down to 1895,
ous as those in Dr. Gräsel’s “ Bibliothekslebre" appeared in 1897. Why Mr. Fletcher's “ Co-
is an advantage to the student. There are operative Index to Periodicals” for 1886 should
some rather curious omissions, however, and be especially desirable and the previous annual
some inaccuracies, - which latter might be for volumes not even included in the list is hard
given the author of "Practical Bibliography” to understand, - particularly as they are all
(see “ The Library,” 1903, p. 144 ff.). Presi- superseded by the first supplement to Poole's
dent Eliot's address before the American Li. Index. The omission of Mr. Fletcher's “A.L.A.
brary Association in 1902 on “The Division Index to General Literature,” of which the
of a Library into Books in Use, and Books out first edition came out in 1893 and the second
of Use," seems to be unknown to Mr. Brown, in 1901, and which is an indispensable tool for
though the subject is one in which he is par any library, is presumably unintentional. That
ticularly interested. The list under the chapter Langlois's “ Manuel de Bibliographie Histor-
on “ The Librarian” should contain reference ique,” Paris, 1901, is the second edition of the
to Gräsel's “ Bibliothekslehre,” which contains first part (all that so far has been published),
a special appendix of great interest on “ The is not indicated. At last it seems somewhat
Library
Profession,”
,” besides the chapter on curious to find, in such an up to date ” book
“ The Qualifications of a Librarian.” Mr. as Mr. Brown's, Petzboldt's “Katechisums der
J. L. Whitney's report on, or rather against, Bibliothekenlebre,” 1856, marked as “par-
the advisability of printing a new catalogue ticularly desirable.” This book has now chiefly
of the books in the Boston Public Library an historical interest, and is for all practical
(A. L. A. conference 1900) should be read
purposes superseded by Dr. Gräsei's often
by all who are interested in the question of mentioned “ Handbuch der Bibliothekslehre,
printed catalogues, but it is not mentioned in
whose previous edition, “Grundzüge der Bib-
the short list of three (3) references on this liothekslehre,” was a recast (“ Neubearbeit-
subject. Mr. Archibald L. Clarke's interesting ung") of Petzholdt's book, as still is told on
“Essays on Indexing,” now running through the title-page of the 1902 edition.
“The Library World," should also have been
AKSEL G. S. JOSEPHSON.
mentioned, as well as Mr. Henry B. Wheatley's
article “ The British Museum Revised Rules
for Cataloguing” (“The Library,” 1900).
THE CHARM OF COOKERY BOOKS.*
The list of cataloguing rules on p. 277 is rather
inadequate. Even the revised British Museum Thoreau, referring to the addition of a pat-
rules are omitted. Granted that this book is ent stove to the furniture of his Walden hut,
principally for English librarians, the omission said that henceforth cooking would be for him
of such important codes as Dr. Dziatzko’s and not a poetic but a chemic process. Most of us,
that for the Prussian libraries is very singular. if the truth were told, would admit that we had
If the book-titles given on p. 65–71 as “ The never thought of cookery in any other than the
Librarian's Library” had been arranged by latter light. And as for cookery-books, knowing
subjects instead of alphabetically, it would in our darkness only the oilcloth-covered vade
have been more useful. Some of the books in mecum of the kitchen, we have naturally re-
this list are marked by a star to indicate their
*MY COOKERY BOOKs. By Elizabeth Robins Pennell..
being “particularly desirable.” Why Cush. Illustrated. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.


1904.]
85
THE DIAL
garded their omission from Lamb's catalogue quaint and refreshing as that of Pepys or
of biblia a-biblia merely in the nature of an Montaigne.
oversight, or more likely an intentional exclu “The cookery books are full of this brocaded lan-
sion of the obvious.
guage, full of extravagant conceits, full of artificial
To reveal the poetic charm that once at-
ornament; a lover writing to his mistress, you would say,
rather than a cook or a housewife giving practical
tached to cookery, to prove that the cookery
directions. After the modern recipe, blunt to the point
book may be the most delightful of literature, of brutality; after the • Take so much of this, add so
and no doubt also to gratify the proper pride much of that, and boil, roast, fry,' as the dull case may
of a collector in an unrivalled collection, has
be, each fresh extravagance, each fresh affectation, is.
been the threefold aim of Mrs. Pennellin
as enchanting as the crook of Lely's ladies or the Silvio
of Herrick's verse. I should not want to try the recipes,
writing her account of “My Cookery Books."
so appalling often is the combination of savories and
She scatters our careless illusions on the sub sweets, so colossal the proportions. But they were
ject at the outset.
written by artists who had as pretty a talent for turning
“ The cookery book has every good quality that a
a phrase as for inventing a new dish. Rose leaves and
book can have. In the first place, it makes a legiti-
saffron, musk and amber-greece,' orange flower and
mate appeal to the collector, and M. Vicaire and Mr.
angelica, are scattered through them, until it seems as.
Hazlitt show what the bibliographer can do with it.
if the feast had been spread only for Phillis or Anthea.
Man, the cooking animal, has had from the beginning
And no water can be poured into their pots that is not.
a cooking literature. What are parts of the Old Tes-
•fair,' few blossoms chosen as ingredients that are not
tament, of the Vedas, but cookery books? You cannot
*pleasing.' Cakes are pretty conceits,' and are gar-
dip into Athenæus without realizing what an inspiration
nished according to art.' If cider leaves its dregs,
food and drink always were to the Greek poet. As for
these are naughty,' and a sweet is recommended be-
the Romans, from Virgil to Horace, from Petronius to
cause it comforteth the Stomach and Heart.' The
Lucian, praise of good eating and drinking was forever
names of the dishes are a joy: the tanzies of violets or
their theme, both in prose and in verse. Early French
cowalips, and the orangado phraises; the syllabubs and
and English bistorical manuscripts and records are full
the frumenties, -all-tempting Frumenty'; the wiggs
of cookery; and almost as soon as there was a printing-
and pasties; the eggs in moonshine; the conserves of
press cookery books began to be printed, and they have
red roses; the possets without end, almost as lyrical as
kept on being printed ever since. It would be strange
the poet's, made
if, among them, there were not a few that provided the
With cream of lilies, not of kine,
excitement of the hunt and the triumph of conquest."
And maiden's blush for spiced wine.'
And the drinks: metheglin, do we not know to the
Mrs. Pennell is not of those who collect for the
day the date of Pepys' first • brave cup' of it?— meath,
mere sake of collecting. She reads her cookery hydromel, bypocras, - a word that carries one to the
books, and, moreover, considers that they make Guildball buttery, a certain Lord Mayor's day, where
the very best sort of reading, an opinion
Pepys is gayly tippling; hypocras being to the best of
which readers of her own book will be quite
my present judgment only a mixed compound drink, and
not any wine,' which he had forsworn by solemn vow.
ready to share. Indeed, so persuasive is her • If I am mistaken, God forgive me! but I hope and
charm, that at the end one finds himself bitten do think I am not.''
with a like enthusiasm, and feels tempted forth Coming to the eighteenth century, we reach
with to begin haunting the book-shops in search the choicest gem of the collection, and indeed
of such delightful treasures as are here de the most noted volume in all culinary bibli-
scribed.
ography, - a first edition in "pot folio” of
It is in her shelf of seventeenth-century Hannah Glasse's “Art of Cookery." Mrs.
English books, ranging from Gervase Mark Pennell bas particular reason to rejoice in her
ham's “ English Housewife" to Giles Rose's copy, for it reposed at one time in the library
“Perfect School of Instructions for the Officers of George Augustus Sala. It is not a little
of the Mouth,” that Mrs. Pennell finds great- distressing to find that the phrase by which
est pleasure. Here are such noted names in good old Hannah Glasse is now chiefly remem-
gastronomical annals as Robert May and Will bered, the famous “ First catch your hare,” is
Rabisha; here also we find the inimitable here set down as apocryphal. But in the ac-
“ Closet” of Sir Kenelm Digby, who cultivated tual identity and mundane existence of the
this tenth muse of cookery no less assiduously lady herself, whom some critics (presumably
than his politics or his theology. May and
May and dyspeptic) have chosen to regard in the light
Rabisha were types of the professional cook, of a culinary Mrs. Harris, firm belief is ex-
the expert in culinary science. But Sir Kenelm, pressed by our author.
pressed by our author. The cookery-book of
the amateur, is more truly representative of his Hannah Glasse, as she herself modestly dis-
century. He is the connoisseur in epicurism, claims, is “not wrote in the high polite stile”
writing from the heart rather than the head, 80 typical of her day, but the taste of its deli.
and clothing his instructions in language as cious quality afforded in these pages makes us
-


86
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
wish that some publisher would honor it (and We should like, were it possible, to devote
himself) with a fitting reprint.
as much space to the form of Mrs. Pennell's
With May and Rabisha came, as we have volume as we have to its matter, so excellent
said, the professional element in English cook an example is it of distinguished bookmaking.
ery affairs. Soon thereafter began the inva- Produced by the Riverside Press in an edition
sion of the French chefs, whose " kickshaws" limited to 330 copies, it well sustains the repu-
and “ messes at first excited the contempt of tation of that concern for results in artistic
patriotic Britishers, but before long found per printing hardly equalled by any other Amer-
manent places on the national bill of fare. ican press. It is quarto in size, printed on
Between the increasing strength of these two un bleached Arnold handmade paper, from a
influences, the amateur is effectually silenced plain modern face of type, the page being
by the middle of the eighteenth century, or altogether devoid of ornamentation. The bind-
soon after Hannah Glasse's day. Henceforth ing is a combination of marbled paper sides
there are no more little confidences between and linen back, with paper title-label. A num-
cook and consumer, no more flattering compro ber of illustrations, consisting of old portraits,
mises to the individual taste, no more little title-pages, colophons, etc., in facsimile, add a
allegories and dainty mysteries. Now it is pleasing antiquarian air.
pleasing antiquarian air. These are printed
the master-cook, or chef, bolstered up with a on paper of antique appearance, and mounted
pedigree of service in various kitchens of the on blank pages throughout the book. So suc-
nobility, who from the fulness of his expert cessful is the process of reproduction and
knowledge loftily directs us to do thus and printing, that these illustrations have every
so, exactly that and no more. Though the appearance of the originals, and even an expert
charm of manner, the refreshing naïveté, is might, at first glance, think that the volume
not always lacking in these latter eighteenth- had been extra-illustrated directly from Mrs.
century books, as a rule the tone is too pon Pennell's collection.
WALDO R. BROWNE.
tifical to be edifying. Often, too, disdain of
the amateur's flowery periods leads to a de-
pressing bluntness.
« Stick your pig just above the breast-bone,' says
Mrs. Elizabeth Raffald, without any preamble; 'run
AN ITALIAN LADY OF THE RENAISSANCE.*
your knife to the heart; when it is dead, put it in cold
Without doubt Isabella d'Este was the most
water.' Whoever, after that, would eat of her pig has
more courage than I."
distinguished woman of the Renaissance. She
With the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
was well born and well educated, she filled a
conspicuous position with conspicuous ability,
tury, Mrs. Pennell stops short in her account.
For here the book on cookery seems to change She was twenty years old at the time of the
she was beautiful, and she had good health.
its character completely, becoming for the most
part the dull practical affair that all of us are
French invasion, in 1494; she died in 1589,
familiar with, the prosaic “ kitchen Baedeker,"
her long life thus stretching through the mo-
lacking always in grace and not seldom in
mentous years of the decline and fall of Italy.
Into the dramatic struggle between pope, em-
Though she devotes an interesting chapter d’Este was born, the eldest daughter of Ercole,
peror, France, and the Italian states, Isabella
to the foreign books in her collection, it is evi.
second Duke of Ferrara, and head of the oldest
dent that here Mrs. Pennell loves rather by family in Italy, save that of Savoy; At the
allowance than with personal love, — to use
Walt Whitman's distinction. Following this
age of sixteen, Isabella was married to Fran-
chapter is the Bibliography, occupying more
cesco Gonzaga, fourth Marquis of Mantua.
Through her father, her mother, and her hus-
than a third of the entire volume. The author
band, she was related to most of the actors in
has not attempted to rival M. Vicaire, with his
2500 entries. She has done no more than
the great national tragedy. Her mother was
Eleonora of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand,
prepare a descriptive list of the books that she
and even this within certain
King of Naples, and the young King Ferdi-
stated limits. The work is done extremely
nand, who lost Naples to Charles VIII. of
well, and this part of the book, aside from its * ISABELLA D'ESTE, MARCHIONESS OF MANTUA, 1474–1539.
value for reference purposes, is not less inter-
A Study of the Renaissance. By Julia Cartwright (Mrs.
Ady). Illustrated. London: John Murray, New York:
esting than the rest.
E. P. Dutton & Co.
sense.
herself owns,
-


1904.)
87
THE DIAL
France, was her cousin. Her younger sister, When Clement VII. was elected to the Holy
Beatrice d'Este, married Lodovico Sforza, See, in 1525, Isabella, who had been a widow
called Il Moro, that Duke of Milan who in- for six years, went to Rome to be on the spot.
vited the French into Italy, and thereby lost There she took the Colonna palace and there
his duchy and died miserably in the dungeons she remained for two years, never so completely
of Loches. Elizabetta Gonzaga, her sister-in. absorbed in collecting works of art as to lose
law and most intimate friend, was the wife of sight of the cardinalate. Pope Clement hesi.
Guidobaldo Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, tated, intrigued, and put her off, and Isabella
whose state was twice treacherously seized, once went on buying medals and antiques. Guic-
by Cæsar Borgia, and again by Lorenzo dei ciardini quotes the French ambassador, Du
Medici. Elizabetta Gonzaga was celebrated Bellay, to the effect that when the imperial
alike for her virtues and her misfortunes, and allies were actually under the walls of Rome the
is the Duchess of Urbino whose praises are so terrified Pope summoned Renzo da Ceri and
devotedly sounded by Count Baldessare Cas ordered him to collect at once one thousand men
tiglione, in Il Cortegiano. Another kinsman to defend the city. But it was impossible to
was the Connétable de Bourbon, son of raise as many ducats.
raise as many ducats. In his extremity Pope
Isabella's sister-in-law, Chiara Gonzaga and Clement thought of the lady in the Colonna
Gilbert de Montpensier. The marriage of palace. He appointed five new cardinals, each
Lucrezia Borgia to Isabella's brother, Duke of whom paid forty thousand ducats, about half
Alfonso d'Este, made a connection with the a million dollars, into the papal treasury. On
papal court of Alexander VI., and led later to Sunday, May 5, 1527, Cardinal Pizzino carried
a second French alliance, when Lucrezia's son, a red hat to the Marchesa of Mantua in the
Duke Ercole II., married Renée, daughter of Palazzo Colonna. The sack of Rome began at
Louis XII. and sister to Queen Claude. By dawn on Monday, May 6. The one obstacle
these various marriages the little court of that Isabella d'Este could not overcome until
Mantua became personally related to the courts the stress of the eleventh hour was the fact that
of Ferrara, Naples, Milan, Urbino, Rome, her nephew, the Connétable de Bourbon, was
and France. The marriages reveal the state leading the imperial army, and her second son,
craft of the time. Isabella d'Este was no Ferrante, was captain of a Spanish troop in it.
match-maker, but she was the clever woman This string to her bow now saved her. The
of her family, much cleverer than her hus- palace of the Marchesa of Mantua and the
band, who was a blunt soldier, a better gen Cancellaria, occupied by Cardinal Colonna,
eral than diplomatist, and often absent in the were the only two houses in Rome that escaped
field. Ou these occasions he left bis wife to spoliation. For a week Isabella was practically
govern the marquisate, and her success in a prisoner, but at the end of that time her son
maintaining the integrity of a small and com Ferrante, with a strong Spanish guard, escorted
paratively poor state through more than forty her out of Rome.
her out of Rome. She carried with her many
years of incessant war and intrigue, in which art treasures collected during the two years,
almost everybody else went down, sometimes and the red hat, which she had the pleasure
more than once, explains Cardinal Bembo’s herself of placing on her son's head. Ercole
eulogy of her, “the wisest and most for. Gonzaga was in his twenty-second year when
tunate of women.” An extant letter from his mother made him a cardinal; he was forty
Isabella d'Este to her son, the first Duke of when he presided over the Council of Trent.
Mantua, shows that in general she considered It is, however, in her relations to the art and
the papal alliance safest for Mantua. But at literature of the Renaissance that Isabella
this time, 1521, she had already permitted d'Este is most interesting. She was an intel-
the young Federico to make a long visit at ligent and, for her means, munificent patron of
the French court, and later she entertained art, and employed agents in all the large cities
the Emperor, Charles V., magnificently in of Italy to keep her informed as to what was
Mantua.
going on in the world of art and archæology.
The most dramatic bit of politics in which The sculptor, Christoforo Romano, was her
Isabella d'Este was engaged, characteristic at confidential adviser for many years. Christo-
once of her and of her time, is the story of the foro's friend, the Knight Templar Fra Sabbà
red hat. She determined that her third son, da Castiglione, exiled to the island of Rhodes,
Ercole, should be a cardinal, and had in vain wrote to her that in the garden of the Grand
asked for his elevation from Pope after Pope. Master there were many excellent sculptures


88
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
lying despised and uncared for, exposed to tua, in a red gowne,” came to light in England
wind and rain, which made him feel as if the only last year, too late to be printed in Mrs.
bones of his father lay unburied.” The Mar-| Ady's book.
.chesa of Mantua collected her art treasures in
There was something Greek in Isabella
her Studio of the Grotta in the castello, a suite d'Este's type of mind, art-loving and full of
of rooms whose walls were hung with pictures intellectual curiosity, ever desirous to learn
by Mantegna, Costa, Perugino, Bellini, and some new thing, desiderosa di cosa nova, as
Correggio. A series of these pictures, now in she said of herself. She carried on a large
the Galerie des Sept Mètres of the Louvre, correspondence and had a curious faculty for
were called “triumphs” and were produced by getting early news of things. Messer Pandolfo
successive orders of Isabella d'Este in carrying Pico della Mirandola wrote to her Easter Eve,
out a general scheme. Having a definite idea 1520, of the death of Raphael on Good Friday
of the triumph” she wished depicted, Isabella night:
communicated it to the humanist poet, Paride “ Here we talk of nothing but the death of this great
da Ceresara, who returned to her an elaborate man, who has ended his first life at the age of thirty-
fantasia of the subject. This fantasia she sent
three. His second life, that immortal farne which knows
to the painter, together with threads showing neither time nor death, will endure eternally, both by
the exact dimensions of the proposed picture,
reason of his works and by the labors of scholars who
will write his praises, and who will find in him a never
and information as to the place it was to oc failing theme."
cupy, the light, neighboring pictures or objects
Within five weeks after the Niña dropped
in the Studio, and the like. Braghirolli counted
anchor in the little harbor of Palos, the news
fifty-three letters written by Isabella d'Este to
reached Mantua that “a man named Colum-
the artist and her agents before Perugino's bus has lately discovered an island for the
-“ Triumph of Chastity was finally hung on
King of Spain, on which are men of our height
her walls. The only great painter out of whom
but of copper-colored skin, with noses like
Isabella got no work was Leonardo da Vinci.
apes.'
The fantasia in this case was simple enough,
a youthful Christ of about twelve years,” but
One of the most interesting of Isabella
Leonardo could not be brought to tie his genius Francesco Chiericati, who gave her a great deal
d'Este's correspondents was the papal nuncio,
to a lady's ribbons, and the picture was never
painted. This fact may not be without signifi. visited in the course of various diplomatic mis-
of information about the lands and peoples he
cance as to the red chalk drawing in the
Louvre, reputed to be of Isabella d'Este by sions. Chiericati introduced to her his servant,
Leonardo. Mrs. Ady accepts the repute and
the chevalier Antonio Pigafetta, of Vicenza,
furnishes a copy of the drawing for the front who, “ for to see the marvels of the ocean,
ispiece of the first volume of her work. Signor accompanied Magellan in the first circumnavi-
Luzio, director of the Royal Archives of Man gation of the globe. Pigafetta went to see
tua, in an article in the Emporium on Isabella's
Isabella at her request and took with him his
portraits, declines to accept the drawing as her journal kept during those three years
likeness, and indeed a comparison of the front-
“Of moving accidents by flood and field,”
ispiece with the medal portrait of Christoforo which Chiericati had described to her as “a
Romano, figured at page 170, would seem to
divine thing.”
sustain Signor Luzio's judgment. Apart from A letter from Chiericati to Isabella dated
the doubtful drawing in the Louvre, it is a Middelburg, Zealand, 28th August, 1517, con-
question whether any woman of the Renais- tains an entertaining account of his trip to
sance sat more often to artists than Isabella Ireland, during the summer of that year, to
d'Este. At different ages, her portrait was see the celebrated Purgatory of St. Patrick in
painted by Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, Lough Derg. The papal legate prudently de-
by Andrea Mantegua, the Mantuan court clined to enter the purgatorial cave of the
painter, by Gianfrancesco Maineri, by Lorenzo saint, but waited outside for his companions
Costa, by Francia, and by Titian twice, an for ten weary days, during which time, he says,
original and a copy of Francia. In the seven. he ate up the greater part of the food of the
teenth century Rubens copied both of Titian's pilgrims, who were fasting within on bread
portraits. It is a pity that Titian's original and water. The comfortable nuncio did not,
portrait, described in the inventory of the bowever, escape purgatory after all, for on the
pictures of Charles I. as a “Duchess of Man return journey, he records of Down: “In this


1904.)
89
THE DIAL
sance.
place I could not walk about the streets with life," and begging the vicar-general of the
out being pursued by people, who came running Dominicans “to hold him dear, and to honor
out of their houses to kiss my clothes, when him as his infinite virtues deserved.”
they heard I was the Pope's nuncio, so I was Isabella d'Este was a woman of the Repais.
forced to stay in. Such is the annoyance which
Unlike Vittoria Colonna and Mar-
arises from over-much religion! But the good guerite of Valois, she was not affected by the
bishop [an Italian) treated me very kindly, new doctrines of the Reformation. In Ariosto's
and gave me some excellent fishing.”
phrase, her religion was “that of other people.”
Isabella d'Este's library of the Grotta was Her fate as a wife was not different from that
quite as unique as her paintings, sculptures, of women of her time generally, but her own
and objets d'art. For fifty years she collected family relations were simple and domestic.
books, not only rare manuscripts and illumi. Although she led an active life, full of many
nated books, but French and Spanish romances, interests, she was the mother of eight children
the Aldine classics, Latin translations from the of whom she reared six. An anecdote related
Greek, and contemporary Italian literature. in the Ferrarese Archives illustrates Isabella
Poets, novelists, and humanists alike sent their d'Este's personal attitude towards contempo-
works to the great lady who read everything. rary manners. At the marriage of her brother,
Trissino described her in his Ritratti, and sent Alfonso d'Este, to Lucrezia Borgia, she refused
her a canzone, to “ My Lady Isabella playing to allow any of her ladies to be present at the
on the Lute,” which celebrates her charms at representation of Plautus's comedy, Casina,
the age of forty-seven. Bernardo Tasso pre which she described as “immoral beyond
sented her his book of poems, Il Libro degli words.”
Amori, with a pretty letter. Once during an This play, by the way, Mrs. Ady calls Cas-
illness, her brother, Cardinal d'Este, dispatched saria, confusing Plautus with Ariosto. It is
Ariosto to her, who beguiled the weariness of unfortunate that with her undoubted gift for
convalescence by reading to her the Orlando popularization Mrs. Ady has not known better
Furioso. Later the poet sent her a copy of her limitations. More discreetly she might
the third edition of his poem, containing the have written an entertaining account of Isa-
famous lines in her praise, beginning
bella d'Este in one volume. Instead, she prints
“ D'opere illustre e di bei studi amica
an imposing array of authorities which have
By way of thanks Isabella invited Ariosto to the flimsiest relation to her text, or none at
Mantua to meet the Emperor Charles V.
all, and her publisher has had to pay an in-
The novelist, Bandello, lived for two or demnity to the two Italian scholars most griev.
three years in the Dominican monastery in ously exploited.
ously exploited. Mrs. Ady has agreed not to
Mantua, and many of the ladies and gentlemen sanction an Italian translation of her book. If
of Isabella d'Este's court figure in his pages.
it comes out again in English, it is to be hoped
There is the Marquis Francesco, fond of rough that it will be carefully revised. The readable
jests ; his brother Giovanni, “as honest and English style leaves something to be desired in
sensible a man as ever lived”; Paride da Cer taste as well as grammar. Raphael as "the
esara, “a man after the heart of Terence, qui Urbinate,” St. Peter as “the Prince of the
nihil humani a se alienum putat”; Aldo Man. Apostles,” and Lucrezia Borgia “washing her
uzio, the printer ; Pomponazzi, the skeptical | head” run on all fours as English, and it is
Bolognese professor ; Alessandro Baesso, Isa not English to the manner born.
bella's seneschal, “old in years, but singularly Proper names throughout Mrs. Ady's work
merry in disposition"; and Madama herself, are most uncertain. “ Girolamo da Casio
coming into the company announced by the (I. 320) appears as “Girolamo di Casio
barking of her pet dogs, and perhaps starting (II. 311) and “Girolamo Casio” (I. 388).
a discussion on the distinction between wit and “ Brogna” (I. 72) is “Brognina” (II. 81),
humor. Oddly enough, Bandello dedicates to
but she is indexed as two persons (II. 396).
the serene and correct Marchesa of Mantua his It only adds to the mystery shrouding the fate
tragical story of the loves and crimes of the of Michael Angelo's Sleeping Cupid to refer
Countess of Celant, “ The Insatiate Countess to it (I. 272) as Michel Angelo's sleeping
of John Marston. The dedication is of a piece Cupids. And why should Mrs. Ady quote
with the letter Isabella d'Este wrote for Ban. Shakespeare from the “Quarterly Review"?
dello, vouching for his “religious and modest
MARY AUGUSTA SCOTT.


90
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
;
play is cast in large dramatic form, but as far as
BRIEFS ON NEW Books.
reality is concerned, is hardly more than a myth.
With Stevenson in
In August, 1887, with his mother, Mr. Swinburne's vast and elaborate apology for
the Adirondacks wife, and stepson, Robert Louis and explanation of her character seems to us poor
and elsewhere.
Stevenson started for America and drama and poor art. A thoroughly bad woman,
the Adirondacks in quest of health. After a rig. who is admitted to be bad, may be a great dramatic
orous but bracing winter at Saranac, the party pro- figure, vide Cleopatra and Becky Sharp; bat a bad
ceeded to California and set sail in the yacht Casco woman who poses, or is posed, as rather better than
for the Marquesas Islands. Having cruised about, an angel, is simply detestable. Mr. Williams does
with longer and shorter pauses at different points not apologize for Mary, and he has at least given
in the South Seas, they recrossed the line and found the essentials of her character and situation in terse,
themselves in Honolulu at the end of January, 1889. | bright form. The other two pieces we think are
Mrs. Margaret Isabella (Balfour) Stevenson, the much better. “Nemesis " is a story of Milan, of the
proud and devoted mother of her famous son, left fifteenth century. It relates the revenge planned by
a pleasant record of these wanderings in letters Alfeo, a court jester, against Sforza, the great mer-
home, now collected and published under the title, cenary captain of the day, for the seduction of his
“From Saranac to the Marquesas and Beyond " wife. It is told in terse lines full of wit and fire,
(imported by the Scribners). The experiences and is worked up to a thoroughly dramatic crisis.
chronicled are as varied as the degrees of tempera In fact, the acting capabilities of the piece seem to
ture experienced in passing from a winter in the us remarkably good. We are not sure that psy-
Adirondacks to a summer in the tropics. To be- chologically Mr. Williams has quite made out his
guile the tedium of the cruise, the party used to case; for the emotion of gratitude, which at the last
“decline and fall,” after the manner of Silas Wegg. moment overpowers Alfeo's hatred and makes him
and Mr. Boffin. With the dusky denizens of the take
upon himself the death he had planned for his
southern seas they struck up friendly relations ; enemy, seems to 08 a trifle overstrained. “Marie del
and it is this disposition to enter into the spirit of Carmen” is the most human and beautiful of Mr.
all that was new and interesting and wholesome Williams's trio of curtain-raisers. It tells the story
that made their outing so enjoyable to themselves, of a Spanish woman who hides and saves her hus-
and Mrs. Stevenson's account of it so entertaining band from the search of a detachment of French
to the reader. The editor, Miss Marie Clothilde soldiers. The situation is this: Her husband is
Balfour, has supplied footnotes, an index, and fifty hidden in the house, and she is given half an hour
fine-print pages of illustrative matter drawn from to disclose bis hiding-place on the penalty of the loss
a considerable range of sources, notably from of her baby. Meanwhile a sentry is placed over
Herman Melville, whose vivid pictures of south-sea her, and her business is to use her time in moving
life are regarded by Miss Balfour as more trust the soldier to permit her husband's escape. There
worthy than they are commonly considered. For is a vague resemblance in the situation to that
some reason she repeatedly refers to his “Omoo" scene in Dumas where Lady Winter seduces the
“Omua.” Two unfamiliar portraits of the boy | Puritan officer Fenton from his duty. But Mr.
Stevenson and three of his mother are among the Williams's heroine works only with the noblest and
illustrations. An Introduction by Mrs. Stevenson's most exalted means of persuasion, and it is a tribute
brother, Dr. George W. Balfour, contains some to her purity and devotedness that we feel the
items of interest concerning the Balfour family sentinel hero is justified, in the end, in yielding to
and the old manse where they lived.
human emotion, and, by the most direct dereliction
of duty, aiding the escape.
Possibly no other of our American
A trio of
poet-dramatists has Mr. Francis
A Massachusetts woman of mature
Howard Williams's acquaintance
Reminiscences of
years, left a widow just prior to the
with the technique of the stage. As a result, the
outbreak of the Civil War, found re-
three little dramas in his new volume, “ At the Rise lief for her sorrow in the vocation of nurse in the
of the Curtain” (Badger), seem ready-made for the hospitals of the Union Army on the Atlantic coast.
use of the theatre. The speeches in them are short, The advent of the Franco-Prussian war, in 1870,
there is a continual movement, and theatrical effects spurred her again to the same occupation; and,
abound. The pieces are tragic in theme, though the going to Germany, she succeeded, after some diffi.
last one ends happily. The longest, " Holyrood," culty, in securing employment in the Prussian
is a new study of Mary Stuart, a projection of the field and post hospitals in France. Out of this
scenes incident to the murder of Riccio.
We are
duplicated experience came numerous letters to
inclined to think that nothing the Queen of Scots friends in Massachusetts, from this nurse, Mrs.
did in her lifetime was so deplorable as the apolo- Mary Phinney von Olnhausen, and a fragmentary
getic histories and plays she has been the occasion “Diary" or "Autobiography," written by her at the
of since her death. Scott's picture of her was time. These have been preserved by her friends,
frankly romantic, and, slurring over the darker and since her death have been edited by loving
passages of her history, is full of charm. Schiller's hands, and made the basis of a newly-published
as
Mulle dramas.
an army nurse.


1904.]
91
THE DIAL
volume entitled “ Adventures of an Army Nurse schools of a somewhat crepuscular character, found
in Two Wars” (Little, Brown, & Co.) The hos in the byways aside from the great historic high-
pital services of this lady during the Civil War way along which the craft has developed and de-
were so efficient as to win her hearty commendation clined. There is also a review of “ Les Relieurs
while that war was still going on, and their illus- Français
Français" by M. Thoinan, and some notes on pat-
tration in these reminiscences will revive the war. tern-making. All in all the information contained
time recollections of many readers. These papers is neither massive nor overwhelming, but the bouk
have not been so over-edited as to rob them of the has a distinct and grateful quality, being written
flavor and feeling of the strenuous time in which with that interest which comes when long years of
they were written, and their genuineness and acquaintance with a subject has developed a recog-
contemporaneousness are unmistakable. Mrs. von nition of essentials. The papers on “Some En-
Olnhausen was a keen observer and an interesting glish and Scotch Bindings,” “ Roger Payne,” and
parrator. Her description of the deficiencies and “ Early Stamped Bindings” have the most interest,
bardships of a “convalescent camp” of the Civil partly from a sort of quiet aloofness of the matter
War is faithful and vivid, as the writer of this and partly because Miss Prideaux's style of descrip-
notice can testify from his own recollection of a tion, which is somewhat quiet and aloof also, seems
similar institution of the same period. The harsh to fit the subject. It is very pleasant to find a
treatment which military necessity often imposed specialist who can write about her subject with a
upon wounded and sick soldiers, the unnecessarily modified rapture that maintains true values. Miss
rough conduct of some army surgeons, the genial Prideaux does this, and if the historic light she
manners of
many
others, and the embarrassments turns on has not the full power of noon, it is how-
surrounding a woman nurse in camp and hospital, ever a very pleasant dawn or twilight which, after
are all sharply portrayed. Contrast is inevitably all, is much better for some localities. Some of the
suggested between the best work of the medical things of which Miss Prideaux writes are interest-
profession in those days and surgical achievements ing to happen on, to understand, and to know about,
in more recent years. But it is notable that this and none the less 80 because achieved through the
experienced and capable nurse testified, at the time medium of a cool, sane style that dominates adjec-
of the Franco-Prussian war, to the inferior work of tives and uses emphasis with all the discretion of a
the surgeons in that conflict, as contrasted with musical direction. “Ma non troppo” says the
score,
the accomplishments of American surgery nearly a and Miss Prideaux somehow manages the " non
decade earlier. What she relates of the malingering troppo"- always excepting in the title. Her notes
of some of the rank and file, the quest of inefficient on pattern-making and design leave one calm in the
officers for “soft places,” and the eagerness of same manner as the historical essays. They are
both active and inactive holders of position, in both not epoch-making nor revelations, but then there is
staff and line, to divert to their own use supplies and no particular reason why one should expect them
dainties intended for the sick, seems a prophetic
to be.
As the unimpassioned utterance of Miss
suggestion of the greed and “graft” with which Prideaux's experience one can excuse them quietly
the American public is recently becoming too pain and disagree with all if one will, without the
fully familiar. The eminently unselfish character acceleration of a single heart-beat, but always with
of the work of this brave lady won for her the rare the conviction that the lady has some knowledge
honor of the Iron Cross of Prussia.
of, and sympathy for, her subject. The book is of a
convenient size, is nicely bound, and well illustrated.
If ever a literary censorship is estab-
Sensible articles
lished in this land of the free, it may
about book-binding.
Some famous
The essays contained in Mr. Andrew
well be on account of the exaspera-
mysteries and Lang's latest volume, “ The Valet's
tion of the free with misleading and inexact book-
Tragedy" (Longmans), are described
titles. The careless christening of a book is often by their author as “studies in secret history.” There
times the reason for its only fault, but it is a most are twelve of these studies, but only half of them
trying blemish. Miss S.T. Prideaux has made a vol really belong to the field of history. The initial
ome of eightmagazine articles—pleasant articles and essay is an effort to penetrate a little further into
well-written, but nothing can be slighter than eight the mystery of the Man with the Iron Mask. Mr.
magazine articles unless it be nine, — to which she
- to which she Lang agrees with those who hold that this famous
has given the name “ Bookbinders and their Craft” individual was merely an inoffensive valet who, it
(Scribner). It is an admirable title in itself, broad was feared, might be in possession of secrets wbich
minded, comprehensive, and would do so well on in reality he knew nothing about. While the author's
the back of an encyclopædia that one is afraid, if theory and conclusion in the case seem plausible
Miss Prideaux ever publishes a really exhaustive and are probably correct, they cannot be said to be
volume, she will regret this early prodigality. They fully established. The second essay is devoted to
who are all the Bookbinders and half the title, are the valet's master, in the hope of throwing some
Roger Payne, treated individually; some modern light on the secret of the servant but confessedly
French and some early Italians, treated collectively; without success. Of considerable interest is the
and some minor craftsmen and almost legendary l study of the Amy Robsart mystery, which, how-
controversies.


92
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
con
A dubious work
66
as
ever, is left unsolved. Still, the author does show indicated above, simply a collection of facts, with
that there is no basis for the charge that Queen the veriest minimum of illuminating discussion,
Elizabeth had knowledge of Amy's impending death. oncerning individual “scholars.” Perhaps very
The essays on the false Joan of Arc, the murder of few classical scholars are satisfied with Professor
Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, and the fate of James Saintsbury's campaigns in their territory, but for
de la Cloche (a natural son of Charles II.) are of any really vital knowledge of the subject of the
minor importance. Students of literature will be book before us we should prefer to send the ordi-
interested in the ballad studies, “The Queen's nary intelligent reader rather to the first volume of
Marie” and “The Mystery of Lord Bateman,” in Saintsbury's “ History of Criticism.” We are sorry
which the author displays extended knowledge of to make these strictures, for Dr. Sandys has here-
his subject and great familiarity with his field. In tofore done great and lasting service to the cause
the closing essay the Shakespeare-Bacon contro of classical learning, both Greek and Roman. (Mac-
versy is taken up, and the claims of the Baconians
millan.)
subjected to a most searching analysis which clearly
shows their position to be untenable. As a piece of
It was hardly necessary for Mr. Sad.
literary polemics this is a brilliant effort.
akichi Hartmann to explain in the
The on Japanese art.
remaining studies, dealing with such themes as the
preface to his “Japanese Art”(L.C.
“ voices” of Joan of Arc and certain historic ghosts, Page & Co.) that the book is not intended for ex-
will doubtless interest students of psychology, but perts and connoisseurs, 80 glaringly obvious is the
they can hardly be termed studies in secret history.
author's lack of knowledge of his subject. Mis-
The volume is of the popular type, and is written
takes that the merest tyro should have no difficulty
in Mr. Lang's vigorous though good-natured En-
in avoiding abound on almost every page. In many
glish. While the essays do not contribute much
instances the Japanese proper names are so spelled
toward the solution of the mysteries discussed, the
as to be almost unrecognizable; nor is there uni-
author has accomplished something in the way of
formity in the orthographic errors. For Tokugawa
eliminating certain current errors, and the volume
we read "
• Takugawa,' “ Takigawa,” and even
has its valge.
· Fukugawa.” Instead of Sakya-muni we have
“Sakia "; the great Sessha is made to masquerade
A history
Dr. J. E. Sandys, Public Orator in “Sessbin'; Shokwado is metamorphosed into
of classical the University of Cambridge, bas “Sbioukada”; while as to " Husuyuma Moro," it
scholarship. been at work for some years past would be a clever expert that could discover his
upon the task of tracing the history of classical identity. This list could be extended almost in-
scholarship down through the centuries, from its definitely. More serious is the distorted perspect-
beginnings in the Athenian age to the Revival of ive that exalts the artists of the popular school of
Learning. The volume now issued as a result of the eighteenth century above the giants of the past.
his researches comes only to the year 1350, as the Kuniyoshi may have been “a wild unrestrained
mass of material bas outgrown the limits originally talent, with an imagination that was neither to bend
set. A second volume is to follow, and is well on nor to break," but the world will scarcely agree
its way to completion. We had looked forward to with the author in regarding Utamaro as “the most
this work with a lively hope that the subject would ethereal of painters." And the explanation of that
be treated in a readable manner, and the part of artist's reason for using geishas and courtesans as
classical scholarship in the development of European models is, to say the least, amusing. There is an
civilization clearly and philosophically pointed out. excellent chapter on modern Japanese art, and an
We have read this initial volume through with a intelligent description of the technical methods of
growing sense of disappointment. It is distinctly the Japanese painters. But the good in the book is
not readable, and it makes practically no attempt 80 buried in the mass of misstatements, slipshod
to fix the place of classical scholarship as a force in phrases, and “fine writing," that like Gratiano's
the development of the race. It is simply an enor-
reasons it
may
be compared to “two grains of wheat
mous mass of facts about hundreds of men and a few in a bushel of chaff.” A few of the illustrations are
women who gave more or less attention to the study well-chosen; one is placed upside down; and the
of the language, literature, and art of Greece and plate entitled “lacquer-work” is a reproduction of
Rome during the period in question. Large num a piece of cloisonné enamel. Mr. Hartmann as-
bers of these facts seem completely isolated and serts that “in looking at a statue the optical con-
unimportant, and if Dr. Sandys was aware of any ciousness can not readily be divided.” Possibly
vital relation which they sustain to his subject he this may apply also to looking at enamels!
has denied his readers the benefit of his knowledge.
The volume is divided into six “ books,” treating
It is a remarkable fact that while
respectively of the Athenian Age, the Alexandrian
A new field of
Napoleonic study.
there have been many contributors
Age, the Roman Age of Latin Scholarship, the
to the military and diplomatic his-
Roman Age of Greek Scholarship, the Byzantine tory of the Napoleonic period, very little has been
Age, and the Middle Ages in the West. The attempted on the civics of that period. This defi-
typical chapter in any one of these divisions is as ciency has furnished a field for original study on a


1904 ]
93
THE DIAL
9
wide topic to Mr. Herbert A. L. Fisher, whose first or ironical. The breaking off of negotiations with
results are now presented in a volume entitled Favre in September of 1870 because the French
“Studies in Napoleonic Statesmanship in Ger “still get the gripes 80 severely about Alsace," or
many” (Oxford University Press). The author the remark in a postscript, “Birthday of the King
tells us that "no complete history of the civil side of Bavaria and I without my decorations,” are ex-
of the Napoleonic Empire has yet appeared, and amples in point. The Chancellor's attitude on the
indeed, while so much material still remains unpub- siege of Paris and the bombardment of the forts
lished and unexplored, it is unlikely that the great is very sharply stated. A very interesting, almost
work will be accomplished in this generation.” His pathetic, letter is the one describing the interview
present purpose is therefore to furnish a provisional with Napoleon after Sedan. From another point
account which, while not in any way claiming of view the postscript on January 9, 1871, is inter-
finality of treatment, shall at least be of value in esting: “Read Psalm 27 yesterday in bed and fell
indicating new lines of research. This purpose has asleep comforted with verse 14.” The thought of
been admirably fulfilled, for his treatment of condi trust in God is a dominant note throughout the let-
tions in Germany, both before and during the time ters, though bis confidence that the “ Lord will not
of French control, is first of all notable in the evi. intervene ” in behalf of France is apt to provoke a
dence furnished of the vast unworked sources of smile. The translation here presented was made
information reposing in the archives of various by Ardim Harder and is generally idiomatic and
German states. These Mr. Fisher has investigated satisfactory, though an occasional phrase as “re-
sufficiently to afford him some striking and original mained on the field” hardly gives the thought of
results. Hanover, for example, is shown to have the original. The volume has also an interesting
been burdened with such an antiquated and incom. introduction by Mr. Walter Littlefield. The ab-
petent form of government as to explain in part sence of
any
index is to be regretted.
the readiness with which its citizens submitted to
Napoleonic control. The facts here brought out are
A Southern
In Professor Thomas Cary Johnson's
largely those of constitutional form and govern soldier, educator, “ Life and Letters of Robert Lewis
and theologian.
mental machinery ; but the dryness of such descrip-
Dabney" (Presbyterian Committee
tion is relieved by carefully drawn portraits of the of Publication, Richmond, Va.), we have a full ac-
men responsible for the working of that machinery. count of the long and useful career of an eminent
In other ways, also, Mr: Fisher has succeeded in Southern educator and theologian. The name
relieving the tedium of minute investigation, for he Dabney (d'Aubigné) indicates good Huguenot an-
has great discrimination in the choice of words, and cestry, and the Virginia family appears to have
much power in convincing summation. It is his upheld the honored traditions of its origin. Edu-
purpose, if the work be well received, to follow it cated at the University of Virginia, Dr. Dabney
with volumes on France, Italy, Holland, and Bel was called to the chair of church history and polity
gium. Of that favorable reception there can be do at Union Theological Seminary, Hampden-Sidney,
doubt; for even if, as is inevitable in studies of this Va., and in later life to that of moral and mental
natore, criticisms are made on the accuracy of this philosophy at the University of Texas. He served
or that historical incident, there can be but one in the Confederate army, four months as chaplain,
opinion of the service rendered by Mr. Fisher in and then, after two days devoted to Halleck's
opening a new field for historical investigation. “ Articles of War,” four months as chief of staff to
Stonewall Jackson, whose biography he afterward
Another volume of. Bismarck's cor-
wrote. He was a zealous preacher as well as teacher.
More letters
of Bismarck.
respondence has recently been pub- Uncompromising in bis adherence to the old school
lished by Messrs. D. Appleton &
of Southern Presbyterianism, he opposed all move.
Co., “ Bismarck's Letters to his Wife from the ments for uniting with the Northern section of that
Seat of War, 1870-1871." In the letters published
church, and was equally hostile toward the proposed
some three years ago those of this period were not
Pan-Presbyterian Alliance. Professor Johnson's
included, and it was supposed that they were with.
book is, from cover to cover, a glowing eulogy, and
held because they might arouse animosity in official
cannot fail to please the relatives and friends of the
circles. But this, it seems, was not the case. These
deceased. Frequent extracts from Dr. Dabney's
letters had been preserved by the Chancellor's
writings, both prose and verse, are given, as well as
wife in a locked casket, which was not opened at
two portraits of him and several views of college
the time of her death. A year ago they were
buildings. Of his surviving children the best-known
found, and last May were given to the public. The
is President Charles W. Dabney of the University
collection is thoroughly enjoyable, the quantity
of Tennessee.
(a little over a hundred pages in all) being just
The old Greeks delighted in delin-
Short history of
enough to give the flavor of the larger collection
Greek sculpture.
eating nature in ber most perfect
without the sense of weariness produced by con-
development; and their consummate
templating the stout volumes of the former series. knowledge of the human form, combined with their
The tone is naturally very intimate, often humorous exquisite craftsmanship, have given to the world the


94
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
greatest sculptures in the whole range of art history.
The surviving works of their artists, abundant though
BRIEFER MENTION.
fragmentary, are preserved in the museums of all Vanity Fair," in three volumes, inaugurates the
the principal capitals of Europe, and are familiar to new “ Kensington" Thackeray, published by subscrip-
us through plaster and bronze casts to be found in tion by the Messrs. Scribner. There are to be thirty-
most of our galleries and art schools. A study of two volumes, printed from new plates made by Mr.
these sculptures trains the faculty for observation, De Vinne, and abundantly illustrated, both with the
and cultivates a taste for pleasing forms and a power
original drawings and with additional portraits and
of seeing the ideal in the actual. It is to assist in
views. The volumes will appear at the rate of three
every month. This is evidently to be an edition of
such a study, chiefly among the young, that Miss
Thackeray pure and simple, without impertinent edi-
Helen Edith Legge has provided “ A Short History torial matter, and the execution of the work is such as
of the Ancient Greek Sculptors" (James Pott &
to deserve the highest praise. In their general form
Co.), wherein is traced the development of the the volumes approach closely to the model set by the
sculptor's art from the time of the wooden images publishers in their recent edition of Tourguénieff.
of the gods attributed by tradition to Daedalus, More than forty years ago, the late George Cruik-
Dipenus, and Scyllis, down to the time of Pheidias shank made a series of drawings on wood for the illus-
in the fifth century, B. C., when Greek art reached tration of “ The Pilgrim's Progress." These drawings,
its zenith. The author's account of the sculptors
left in the possession of Mr. Edwin Truman, a friend
is not only illustrated with admirable pictures of
of the artist, have remained unpublished up to the
some of the more notable of their surviviag works,
present time, when they have afforded the Oxford
University Press an excellent pretext for a new edition
but also by comments upon their art, stimulating a
of Bunyan’s allegory. This edition is a sumptuous affair,
study of their scope and meaning. Although evi-
beautifully printed in old-fashioned typography on
dently intended for youthful readers, and avoid handmade paper, and limited to a thousand copies. Of
ing all technical language, the book is valuable for the illustrations themselves little can be said that is
more advanced art students, and might be found
good.
With a few exceptions, they are trivial and
useful as a book of ready reference by all stu carelessly drawn, and by no means represent the genius
dents of Greek art. Professor Percy Gardner,
of the artist. We are not surprised that they should
of Oxford, furnishes a few pages of introduction,
have lain in a portfolio all these years.
which are like most introductions to books of this A pretty pocket edition of Holbein's “Dance of
character
Death," with a prefatory note by Mr. Austin Dobson, is
unnecessary.
published by the Scott-Thaw Co. The designs are
printed direct from the blocks originally engraved by
The eleventh impression of Michael Messrs. Bonner and John Byfield for Douce's edition of
The philosophy Fairless's “The Roadmender" comes
1833,
the best imitations on wood, according to Mr.
of road mending.
from Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co., in
Linton. Thus being reproduced in the same medium as
the originals (though the latter were cut and not en-
an ornate but inartistic binding, and with several
graved), they have an interest not found in the usual
quaint illustrations that emphasize in rather crude
photographic reproductions. The book is printed
fashion the symbolism of the text. The sketches
on Japanese paper, and issued in a limited edition.
set forth the claim of roadmending, literal and
Shakespeare, in three volumes, and Keats, in one, are
figurative, to be the ideal means of earning a liveli now added to the select company of Mr. Henry Frowde's
hood, at least for the “vagrant child of nature.” “Oxford Miniature Poets." We are glad to have them
Their philosophy is contentment with the simple both in this exquisite setting, and the Shakespeare espe-
life, joy in service and in the free gifts of the great cially is a real boon. The tragedies are in one volume,
outdoor world, and sympathetic relations with one's
the comedies in another, the histories, poems, and son-
nets in the third.
fellows, brute and human. There is nothing icono-
Mr. W. J. Craig is responsible for
clastic or recondite about the author's view of life,
the text and for a glossary in each volume. There are
but his breadth of sympathy that enables him to
many “pocket” editions of Shakespeare to be bad, but
for real compactness, convenience, and perfection in
turn quickly and eagerly from one interest to
printing none can compare with this.
another, his steadfast courage and sweetness of
Mr. Lionel Strachey has added another to his trans-
spirit, and his simple, unaffected style of writing, lations from the French, choosing this time the memoirs
account easily for the popularity of the book. Its of Madame Le Brun. His rendering, which is fluent
title is taken from that of the first sketch. The and readable, is less literal than the anonymous version
other two, “Out of the Shadow” and “At the of 1879; but it hardly appears that anything has been
White Gate,” tell how the Roadmender clung to gained by this freedom of treatment. The thirty-five
his philosophy in the face of illness and death;
letters, or chapters, as he calls em, have been
and how, forced to leave the " lonely companion regrouped into eighteen, with excisions to bring the
work into uniformity with the translator's versions of
ship” of the road and its denizens, he found new
the Countess Potocka's memoirs and the “ Memoirs of
interests in a London hospital, and great joy, a
a Contemporary." Three distinguishing features wbich
little later, in coming back, even as a helpless on-
go far toward justifying this new translation are the
looker, to the road with its sunny, flower.girt thirty-two reproductions from Mme. Le Brun's por-
meadows and its White Gate, symbol to him of the traits of eminent persons, the chronological list of her
entrance into another world.
paintings, and the index. (Doubleday, Page & Co.)


1904.]
95
THE DIAL
100
“ The Book Monthly," aptly described as “á pios
NOTES.
tured and picturesque who's who and what's what of
Messrs. Frederick Warne & Co. send us a treatise
bookland," is the latest venture in English literary
journalism. It has no concern with criticism, but is
on 66 · Bridge Tactics,” by Mr. R. F. Foster, the well-
known wbist specialist.
not the less useful and interesting on that account to
all who have to do with books. American readers will
The Messrs. Putnam publish a charmingly-printed do well to make its acquaintance.
edition of “The Odes of Anacreon," in Moore's para-
Mr. Thomas Hardy's historical drama, “The
phrase, with a series of illustrations designed by M.
Girodet de Roussy.
Dynasts,” will be published at once by the Macmillan
Co. Though complete in itself, it is designed ulti-
“ A Little Tragedy at Tien-Tsin, and Other Stories
mately to form one of a trilogy, of which the second
from Elsewhere," by Miss Frances Aymar Mathews,
play or part will cover the zenith of Napoleon's power,
author of “ My Lady Peggy Goes to Town,” will appear
and the third his decline and fall, with the restoration
shortly from the press of Mr. Robert Grier Cooke.
to equilibrium of the old dynasties.
It is understood that Professor N. S. Shaler, of Har-
M. Auguste Fournier's biography of “ Napoleon the
vard University, is completing a new book, upon which
First,” translated by Mrs. Margaret Bacon Corwin and
he has been engaged for some time, entitled “The
Mr. Arthur Dart Bissell, and edited by Professor
Citizen," being a study of the Individual and the
Edward Gaylord Bourne, is a recent publication of
Government.
Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. It is one of the best of the
Mr. Daniel Munro Wilson's interesting volume enti-
single-volume. biographies, and its value is greatly
tled “Where American Independence Began" is issued
enbanced by the exhaustive bibliography which is ap-
by Messrs. HougŁton, Mifflin & Co. in a second edition,
pended.
containing considerable new matter and a number of
Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co. have completed ar-
additional illustrations.
rangements for the publication in England of Mr.
Two new volumes in the “Temple Bible"
comprise
Clement's “ Handbook of Modern Japan,” which has
« Tobit and the Babylonian Apocryphal Writings,” ed-
proved so timely a book in view of events in the Orient.
ited by Professor A. H. Sayce, and “ Wisdom and the
This work is planned to give in the most convenient
Jewish Apocryphal Writings,” edited by Mr. W. B.
form the information most likely to be sought for by
Stevenson. The Messrs. Lippincott are the American
those who wish to know and understand the status and
publishers of this series.
development of Modern Japan.
Messrs. Houghton, Miffin & Co., publish in a single
M. Emile Michel's great work on “Rembrandt: His
volume “The Poetical Works of John Townsend
Life, his Work, and his Time” is reissued in a third
Trowbridge,” thus doing belated justice to one who has
edition, imported by the Messrs. Scribner coincidently
been for half a century past one of the most popular
with the author's visit to this country. It is, as before,
American writers of verse. A fine portrait of the
translated by Miss Florence Simmonds and edited by
venerable author serves as a frontispiece.
Mr. Frederick Wedmore. There are no less than three
“ Months and Moods” is the title of a fifteen-year hundred and twenty-six illustrations satisfactorily re-
(1901-1915) calendar, "versified and diversified” by produced. This work bas been standard for its subject
Mr. Edward Curtis, and published by the Grafton since its original publication six years ago.
Press. The verses are original poems on the seasons,
Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee has compiled “ A Canadian
the work of Mr. Curtis, and the whole calendar is a
Bibliography for the Year 1901,” which is now reprinted
substantially-bound book, which it had to be to promise
from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada,
fifteen years of use.
and published in pamphlet form by Messrs. James
A standard edition of the complete works of Ben
Hope & Son, Ottawa. The work includes contributions
Jonson, comprising probably pine octavo volumes, is to
to periodicals as well as larger works, and is carefully
be published by the Oxford University Press. The
indexed. We note no less than thirty-five entries under
Delegates of the Press have secured the coöperation of the name of Goldwin Smith, which may serve as an in-
Prof. C. H. Herford and of Mr. Percy Simpson, who dication of the thoroughness of Mr. Burpee's work.
have been engaged for ten years or more on a critical
An attempt at an exhaustive bibliography of books
examination of Jonson's text.
and periodical articles on United States history pub-
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. will publish this lished during the year 1902, together with some con-
spring a comprehensive and timely book by Prof. tributions towards bibliography of writings on other
Nicholas Paine Gilman on “ Methods of Industrial parts of the Americas for the same year, prepared by
Peace.” The subjects dealt with are Trade-Unionism, Messrs. Ernest Cushing Richardson and Anson Ely
Employers' Associations, Collective Bargaining, Labor Morse, is announced for early publication by Mr. C.
Disputes, and the various forms of Conciliation and
Martins, Library Bookstore, Princeton, N. J. The
Arbitration practiced in the United States, England, work will contain more than one thousand titles of
Australia, and New Zealand.
books and pamphlets and over five thousand titles of
Some of the earliest announcements in the field of periodical articles. It is planned to issue similar
spring fiction come from Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co., annual volumes regularly in the future.
who have in press for March publication two novels of Messrs. Methuen & Co. have in preparation, under
more than usual interest. One of these, the work of the direction of Mr. Sidney Lee, a new collection of
Mr. Randall Parrish, centres about the dramatic events classical literature on a plan which does not seem to
at Fort Dearborn in 1812 ; the other deals with the bave been already attempted in a systematic way either
picturesque figure of Robert Cavelier de la Salle, and in England or in this country. They propose to issue
is written by Mr. William Dana Orcutt. Both volumes under the title of “ Methuen's Universal Library” at a
will be elaborately illustrated in color.
very low price and at very short regular intervals a.


96
[Feb. 1,
THE DIAL
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS.
February, 1904.
carefully printed series of books of classical repute,
comprising not only accessible works, but also some
rarer volumes of which no cheap editions exist. It is
hoped that the Library may bring in due time all the
best literature of England and other nations within the
reach of every class of readers. Special efforts will be
made to render textual accuracy as notable a charac-
teristic of the new venture as cheapness, completeness,
and typographical clearness. The text of each work,
which will be unabridged, will be prepared from the
best sources by competent scholars, and the works of
many of the great masters of poetry, drama, fiction,
belles lettres, history, and biograpby are now in the
press. In the case of the more eminent authors their
complete works will be supplied in two or more vol-
umes, but any single masterpiece will be produced sep-
arately. General editorial comment will be excluded,
but each volume will open with a brief biographical and
bibliographical pote by Mr. Sidney Lee, who will be the
general editor of this Library.
Alfieri at Asti, Centenary of. T. R. Sullivan. Scribner.
Alps, In the, on a Motor-Bicycle. Joseph Pennell. Century.
Arbitration, International. Wayne MacVeagh. N. American.
Architecture of St. Louis Exposition. World Today.
Athens, University of. Charles F. Thwing. Harper.
Bere, Stepben Bagshot de la, Drawings of. Studio.
Bird Songs in Winter. Henry Oldys. Atlantic.
Borrow, George. H. W. Boynton. Atlantic.
Bric à-Brac Auctions in New York. A. B. Paine. Century.
British Army, Men Who are Remaking. Rev. of Reviews.
Canada and Reciprocity. John Charlton. North American.
Caricature and Public Opinion. I. A. Pyle. World Today.
Carnegie Institution, The. Simon Newcomb. No. American.
Chéret's Drawings in Sanguine. H. Frantz. Studio.
China, Railways of. Arthur J. Brown. Rev. of Reviews.
Cicero in Maine. Martha Baker Dunn. Atlantic.
Commercialism, Is it in Disgrace? J. G. Brooks. Allantic.
Compass, The Mariner's. Simon Newcomb. Harper.
Confederates, Two Great. John S. Wise. Rev. of Reviers.
Congo Free State Conditions. P.S. Reinsch, No. American.
Cotton, High Price of. D. J. Sully. North American.
Cynicism, Arthur Stanwood Pier. Atlantic.
Desert, American, Conquest of. D. A. Willey. World Today.
Education, Trick of. Alice Meynell. Harper.
Elephant Drive in Siam, An. A. H. Burgoyne. Harper.
Emigrant Jews at Home. E. S. Brudno. World's Work.
England, Letters from, 1846-9. Mrs. Bancroft. Scribner.
English and American Cousins. IT. W. Higginson. Atlantic.
Ethical Culture Movement. Eugene Parsons, World Today.
Feeding, Perfect, of the Human Body. World's Work,
Fifty Miles Order, The North American.
Fiji Festival, A. Jobn La Farge. Century.
Gardens in Spain, Some. Helena R. Ely. Scribner,
Holroyd, Sir Charles, Work of. A. L. Baldry. Studio,
Italian Fantasies. Israel Zangwill. Harper.
Italy to Pittsburg, From. Maud Howe. Lippincott.
Keene, Charles, as an Etcher. M. H. Spielmann. Scribner,
Korea as Prize of War. J. S. Fassett. Rev. of Reviews.
Lincoln, Recollections of. Henry Villard. Atlantic.
Lithographs, Recent German Colored. H. W. Singer. Studio.
Living Long, Art of. Roger S. Tracy. Century.
Lumbering by Machinery. K. Smith. World's Work.
Lynching : A Southern View. C. H. Poe. Atlantic.
Mountain, America's Unconquered. F. A. Cook, Harper.
Natural History Misconceptions. John Burroughs. Century.
New Orleans, Three Meetings at. Review of Reviews.
Panama Canal and Mississippi Valley. World's Work.
Pater, Walter. George Moore. Lippincott.
Postal Service Additions, Proposed. E. F. Loud. No. Amer.
Pastellists, French 18th Century. A. Dayot. Studio.
President and Wall Street. S. S. Pratt. World's Work.
Publishing as a Business Career. G. P. Brett. World Today.
Religions Associations and French Government. No. Amer.
Reynolds-Stephens, W., Recent Work by. W.K.West. Studio.
Rockies, The, as Winter Residence. World Today.
Roman Villas. Edith Wharton. Century.
Saint Gaudens, Work of. C. H. Caffin. World's Work.
Salvini. Norman Hapgood. Scribner.
Schools, American, A British View of. World's Work.
Shipbuilding Trust, The. H. W. Lanier. World's Work.
South America and our Responsibility. World's Work.
Stage Manager's Art. Brander Matthews. No. American,
Taft in the Philippines. F. W. Nash. Rev. of Reviews,
Tailoring Animals. H. C. McCook. Harper.
Timotheos and the Persians. J. Irving Mannatt. Atlantic,
"Tonquin,” Cruise of the. C. T. Brady. Harper.
Trust, History of a. Cerdic Saxon. North American,
Wall Street and the Country. C. A. Conant. Atlantic.
Weevil, Mexican Cotton-Boll. L. O. Howard. Rev. of Revs.
Wicker Furniture, Modern Austrian. A.S. Levetus. Studio.
Windmill Irrigation in Kansas. Philip Eastman. Rev. of Revs.
Zanardelli's Services to Italy. G. Biagi. No. American.
A NOTED LIBRARY WORKER.
News has just been received of the death of Dr.
Otto Hartwig, formerly Director of the University
Library of Halle, A. S., and until recently editor of
« Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen." Born in 1830,
Dr. Hartwig studied theology and philology and was
pastor of the German congregation in Messina, Sicily,
from 1860 to 1865. After a short career as teacher
he entered the service of the university library of Mar-
burg in 1867, remaining there until 1874 when he ac-
cepted a position in the university library of Halle.
In 1876 be was promoted to chief librarian at Halle.
Here he met with conditions that taxed to the ut-
most his administrative talent. The library was defi-
cient in many important branches of learning, the
reclassification and recataloguing of the library was an
important desideratum, and a new building urgently
needed. All these problems he attacked with vigor and
The new building was completed and the books
removed to it in 1880, and eight years later the recata-
loguing and reclassification were finished. In 1898 an
affection of the eyes caused him to ask for six months'
leave of absence, and in December of the same year
bis resignation was offered and accepted. Shortly be-
fore he had been appointed a member of the “Kura-
torium” of the university library of Berlin. Since
retiring from active work he has resided in Marburg,
and here he died on December 22, 1903. In 1884 the
first number of “ Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen”
appeared, with Dr. Hartwig and Dr. K. Schulz, libra-
rian of the Imperial supreme court in Leipzig, as edit-
Since 1886 Dr. Hartwig has been the sole
responsible editor, only relinquishing the work with the
December number of last year. As editor of the
“Centralblatt ” Dr. Hartwig exercised a very distinct
influence on library progress in Germany. His con-
tributions on library matters to his own journal and
others were not numerous, but always of importance.
A question in which he took particular interest was that
of inter-library loan of manuscripts, and he contributed
a paper on this subject to the World's Congress of
Librarians in Chicago in 1893. A list of his inde-
pendent publications in other fields shows a wide range
of studies and literary interests. In 1900 his auto-
biography, “Aus dem Leben eines altes deutschen
Bibliothekars. I., Lehr- und Wanderjahre," was issued
for distribution among friends.
A. G. S. J.
care.
ors.
-


i
THE DIAL
A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
PAGE
0
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of
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each month. TERMS or SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 a year in advance, postage
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When Shelley, deserting wife and child,
comprised in the Postal Union, 50 cents a year for extra postage must
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current number. REMITTANCES should be by draft, or by express or back to Harriet inviting her to come and join
postal order, payable to THE DIAL. SPECIAL RATES TO CLUBS and
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for subscriptions with other publications will be sent on application;
and SAMPLE Copy on receipt of 10 cents. ADVERTISING RATES furnished ing is the effrontery of the letter that, with no
on application. All communications should be addressed to
further knowledge of its writer, one would be
THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. tempted to believe him indulging in a hideous
joke, and so not destitute of a certain sugges-
No. 424.
FEBRUARY 16, 1904. Vol. XXXVI. tion of humor, after all. His defect is so
pronounced that it approaches the point where
CONTENTS.
extremes meet and the serious passes over into
the facetioug. How difficult not to imagine
him laughing in his sleeve when he says: “I
THE SAVING GRACE OF HUMOR. Percy F.
write to show that I do not forget you; I write
Bicknell.
107
to urge you to come to Switzerland, where you
SOME IMPRESSIONS OF WHISTLER. Edith will find one firm and constant friend to whom
Kellogg Dunton
110 your interests will be always dear - by whom
your feelings will never wilfully be injured."
RUSSIA AS A MODEL. Wallace Rice
111
Could malice itself have devised anything to
THE LATEST PORTRAIT OF VOLTAIRE. Josiah surpass this? When the artist-poet Blake
Renick Smith
114 | proposed to his young wife the taking to his
bosom of an additional partner - perhaps
TWO FRENCH BOOKS ON THE UNITED
thinking thus to provide her with a pleasant
STATES. Othon Guerlac
116:
companion, and possibly, with his patriarchal
RECENT FICTION. William Morton Payne . . 118
notions, expecting her to emulate the biblical
Mrs. Wharton's Sanctuary. - Miss Glasgow's The
example of Sarah — he disclosed to her indig-
Deliverance.-Miss Manning's Judith of the Plains. nant and astonished gaze a gaping void where
- Miss Converse's Long Will. — Hopkins's The the sense of humor should have been.
Torch. Harland's My Friend Prospero.- Payne's The big and muscular glutton who devours
Mr. Salt. — Spearman's The Daughter of a Mag-
a weak and defenseless brother, and then,
Crane and Barr's The O’Ruddy. – Mr. and
Mrs. Castle's Incomparable Bellairs. - Burgin's
with a sanctimonious folding of the hands
The Shutters of Silence. Pickering's The Key over his distended stomach, attributes the
of Paradise.
satisfying of his appetite to the inscrutable
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS .
workings of manifest destiny, has by over-feed-
122
ing dulled his sense of humor. The tyrant
The fern-lover's own book.! New glimpses of
the Rossettis. — Practical essays on commerce and
fights shy of the satirist. Napoleon was un-
industry. - The woful past of Ireland. — Lord friendly to men of wit and humor. To quote
Ronald Sutherland-Gower in abridgment. — A Thackeray's familiar definition, humor is a
monograph on mezzotints. — American history and
mixture of love and wit. Being of the nature
geography. The problems of domestic service.
of love, it does not bebave itself upseemly. It
The self-told story of a noble life. — The flight of
Charles II. - Dangers of popularizing science.
is kindly affectioned. It is of the nature of
Everyday life in Austria-Hungary.
sweet reasonableness. Its generous
Its generous inclusive-
ness admits the recognition of contrary claims.
BREFER MENTION
126
In fact, the very breath of its life is this per-
NOTES
ception of conflicting truths, of incongruities,
127
of paradoxes. Seeing both sides of a question
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
128
at once, it is a foe to all narrowness, unfair-
nate.
.


108
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
"a
ness, selfishness, arrogance, cruelty. Can one a vacuum. Create a character altogether des-
conceive of a genuine humorist as unkind ? titute of humor and the most sluggish intelli-
“ The perception of the comic," as Emerson gence is stirred in the effort to fill the void.”
has well said, " is a tie of sympathy with other Thus there is something at once pathetic and
men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from humorous in the fond attempt of Charlemagne
those perverse tendencies and gloomy insan to make his mushroom state emulate, in the
ities in which fine intellects sometimes lose arts as well as in polity, the mature empire
themselves. A rogue alive to the ludicrous that had been the growth of a thousand years.
is still convertible. If that sense is lost, his No wonder his ill-cemented structure fell to
fellow-men can do little for him.”
pieces of its own weight before it reached the
A sense of humor, then, saves a man from hands of his grandohildren. His second Rome
the enemy in his own bosom. It warns him (Aix-la-Chapelle), with its extemporized forum
not to take himself too seriously. A large and its senate of half-civilized Franks, and
part of Wordsworth's output of verse would with its pretentious but uncouth buildings that
have remained unpublished, unwritten, not so rudely aped the architecture of Ravenna, may
much as conceived, had humor been one of the well excite a smile of pity. The very words
poet's gifts. Milton's controversial pamphlets of his biographer and inseparable companion
show attempts at humor that make the judi. seem to invite disaster. « The second Rome
cious grieve. A true sense of the humorous lifts herself,” he proudly declares, “ in new,
would have spared his admirers this pain. unwonted bloom, with massive buildings whose
His fun reminds one of Plutarch's description lofty domes touch the stars. The godly Charles
of a piece of fooling laboriously evolved from stands far from his palace, selecting the vari-
the brain of Hegesias of Magnesia, ous sites, and fixes in their order the high
ponderous joke, dull enough to have put out walls of the future Rome.” A further touch
the fire." Excessive enthusiasm and mis of that humor that is so closely akin to pathos
applied zeal are wholesomely curbed by a is felt by the observer as he watches the monk-
quick perception of the ludicrous. To draw ish Eginhard apply himself to the study of
upon Emerson once more, we encounter in one Vitruvius. The buildings that came of this
of bis essays a physician who, in reply to study would have struck the architect of Au-
an anxious inquiry concerning a patient, ex gustus with amaze.
claimed with professional joy sparkling in his
It has been usual to class women among the
eyes: “Oh, I saw him this morning; it is the unfortunates born without sense of humor.
most correct apoplexy I have ever seen : face Exceptions will readily come to mind. The
and hands livid, breathing stertorious, all the creator of Mrs. Poyser and Tommy Trounsom
symptoms perfect!” A case so beautifully
A case so beautifully and Wiry Ben was certainly not blind to the
in harmony with the books was too much for humorous aspects of human nature.
But the
the medical man's humanity. The venerable peculiarly feminine, das ewig Weibliche, we do
Dr. Samuel Hopkins of Newport once elicited not associate with a keen appreciation of the
a charmingly simple reply from a parishioner, incongruous. The ardent suitor who is as-
whose matter-offact habit of mind must have sured by the object of his passion that, though
betrayed him into countless similar blunders. she can never be his wife, she will always be
The thoughtful pastor had offered to bring a sister to him, distinctly feels in the offered
some of his recent sermons and read them to substitute the presence of a certain something
this member of his flock, who had for several quite different from that admirable blend of
Sundays been kept from church by illness. love and wit whereof humor is composed. The
“ Do so," was the cordial rejoinder, “ for I fascinating coquette, to whom man's attentions
have had no sleep since this attack began." are more than meat and drink, and whose sig.
Many a failure, the result of attempting the nals of distress when he withholds his devotion
absurdly impossible, would bave been prevented hardly ever fail to bring him to his knees,
had zeal been tempered with humor. Unfor shows a defective grasp of the situation in its
tunate enterprises of this nature, unaccom logical implications. Hence the pained sur-
panied with any sense of humor in the actors, prise and the injured innocence affected by
often excite this feeling most irresistibly in the her the moment she is honored with the treat-
spectators. For, to quote a pregnant utterance ment accorded to a reasonable being and is
from “ The Gentle Reader," " the atmospheric expected to harmonize inward purpose with
currents of merriment move irresistibly toward outward seeming. This not unamiable weak-


1904.]
109
THE DIAL
ness, the sure index of a conspicuous lack of insanity is pretty good evidence of an unbal-
humor, the older novelists were fond of exhib anced mind. Perhaps there is no better mark
iting in its coarser manifestations, and it will of a plentiful endowment of humor than the
ever remain a useful property to the construc- ability to wear a smiling face when in deepest
tor of love stories. Woman is proverbially earnest. The child, with his sense of humor
cruel to woman.
Nor is her heartlessness still in embryo, cannot do this.
always confined to this traditional severity Not without reason did Cicero liken a jest-
toward the foibles of her own sex. In “The book to a salt-pit. Humor is the salt that keeps
People of the Abyss " we have recently been
we have recently been the temper sweet, the saving element that pre-
told that the sufferings of the London poor, as vents sentiment and religion from degenerating
the destitute wretches exhibit themselves in the into maudlin emotionalism, and an ever-neces-
public parks, excite amusement oftener than sary accompaniment to all unconstrained social
pity in the passing women, especially the young intercourse. As man is the only being at once
women, of the well-to-do classes. Walter Pater, conscious of the miseries of life and able to
in his essay on Lamb, regards humor as an laugh at them, so this peculiarly human quality
amalgam of pity with mirth. Thus viewing is found in anything like perfection only among
its composition, we may safely conclude that the most highly civilized. Savages have it not,
where pitilessness displays itself there will be or only in a form that savors more of cruelty
found no keen perception of the humorous than of kindness. Both the too sentimental and
factors of our existence. Let it be added, how the too practical want it. It would seem to be
ever, for the consolation of the many excellent the arch enemy
of excess in
any
direction. Nil
women who are deficient in this sense - though in extremis is its motto. Its presence indicates
they never will admit the deficiency — that a normal and healthy state of tension between
they are not without good company. The the upbuilding and the down.pulling forces
singleness of purpose characteristic of heroes whose interaction is life. It is a potent aid in
and martyrs is, from its very nature, incom the discharge of physical as well as mental
patible with a lively appreciation of incongrui- functions. Æsculapius is said to bave written
ties. With the sense of humor too insistently comic songs to quicken the circulation in his
acute, the river of life seems somehow to be patients. A London physician prescribed
split into channels so minute that it loses itself “ Peregrine Pickle” for certain complaints.
in the sand; there is no steady current of seri. Sustained by bis unconquerable merriness of
ous thought and purpose. The typical reformer humor, Charles Lamb bravely bore a life-long
is terribly in earnest. Horace Mann planted anxiety.
himself one day, tall and tragic, before Haw A sane enjoyment of the countless paradoxes
thorne, and, fired with anti-tobacco zeal, deliv- and ironies of life is of the essence of the high-
ered himself of his opinion of a brother-in-law est wisdom. Without such enjoyment these
who could so far deviate from the path of numberless incongruities will annoy and de-
rectitude as to smoke. “Do I understand you press. The ardor of hero-worship will be chilled
to say, Mr. Hawthorne, that you actually use when the worshipper discovers how few human
tobacco ?” he inquired severely. “Yes, I smoke lives fail to reveal a seamy
side
upon
closer
a cigar once in a while," was the good-natured 'scrutiny. The world's progress owes much to
reply. “Then, Mr. Hawthorne, it is my duty great men whose characters do not square with
to tell you that I no longer have the same re their deeds. Many a good cause has prevailed
spect for you that I have had.” Therewith the by questionable means. There is no system of
self-appointed censor turned and strode from philosophy but encounters stubborn facts that
the room. It is easy enough to say, with Haw. sadly mar its symmetry. Vice fares sumptu-
thorne's son, that Horace Mann was wholly ously and goes arrayed in purple and fine linen,
destitute of humor. But it is more than prob- while virtue starves and clothes herself in rags.
able that the excellent man himself would have Rewards and punishments appear to be as-
stoutly denied the charge; and perhaps in signed by chance. Next to the sublimity
matters less deeply moving his feelings he was of a blind faith, there is nothing equal to an
not without a perception of the ludicrous. Who abiding sense of the humor of it all to save one
of us is never blind to the comic in things that from pessimism. Without this neither life nor
affect our dearest interests ? Angry denial will that literature which aims to be the faithful
stamp one immediately as sadly defective in transcript of life can be rightly enjoyed.
humor, just as hot resentment at the charge of
PERCY F. BICKNELL.


110
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
acquaintance with Whistler. This is no fault
The Nebo Books.
of Mr. Eddy's. The truth is, the penny-a-
liners have long appreciated Whistler's literary
SOME IMPRESSIONS OF WHISTLER.*
value, recognizing his claim to be master-artist
in words if not in nocturnes; and they have
Mr. Arthur Jerome Eddy's " Recollections
circulated his bon-mots and his eccentricities
and Impressions of Whistler” is the sort of industriously through their columns. The
book for which Whistler's unique personality exceeding sharpness of Whistler's wit, and his
and sparkling wit provided such tempting and
habit of letting his best shafts fly more than
abundant material. Its method is haphazard,
once, contributed to making bis witticisms
its preparation too evidently hasty ; in critical
common property. And so, after last sum-
acumen it is unfortunately lacking. But a
mer's flood of post-mortem paragraphs, even
large body of readers will no doubt prefer it
an intimate of Whistler's — if he had any
to a more formal and studied biography, for
must expect to find himself anticipated along
the reason that it is not burdened with the
anecdotal lines. But if Mr. Eddy's stories are
details of the artist's career nor with fine-spun not for the most part new, they are both well
distinctions about his genius, but merely pre- selected and well told, and it is much to have
sents his very attractive individuality in the
form of countless witty anecdotes and amusing attractive a volume.
so large a body of them preserved in so
odds and ends of comment and reminiscence,
Among the letters which Mr. Eddy quotes,
while its information about his pictures is of a
and which we do not remember seeing else-
useful sort. The book is well printed, suit- where, is one written in Whistler's crispest
ably bound in boards of a shade of Whistler's epistolary style, and illustrating, besides, his
favorite brown, and illustrated with excellent
well-known disinclination to promptness. An
reproductions in photogravure of eleven of the
official connected with an international exhibit
artist's works. The familiar portrait by Rajon sent notes to various artists in Paris, announc-
forms the frontispiece. Thus mechanical beauty ing his intended visit to the city and making
and the very great charm of the subject atone appointments with them at his hotel. Whist-
in large measure for the faults of authorship; ler's hour was fixed at “4.30 precisely.” The
and many admirers of Whistler will wish to
artist answered thus:
add the book to their libraries.
« Dear Sir: – I have received your letter announcing
These should not expect, however, to find
that you will arrive in Paris on the -th. I congratulate
much that is new to them in Mr. Eddy's you. I never have been able, and never shall be able,
memoir. He does, to be sure, explain in the to be anywhere at •4.30 precisely.'
preface that his “reminiscences are mostly
“ Yours most faithfully,
J. McN. Whistler."
personal,” that
many
of the anecdotes were had
from the artist's own lips, and that the views The same aptness in making what one of
concerning his art were formed from watching the Enemies of “The Gentle Art” has styled
him at work day by day, and after many inter-
very unbecoming and improper ” answers, is
views, in which, occasionally at least, he broke
shown in the artist's retort to an excited Cock-
bis habitual reticence to talk of the one thing ney gentleman who rushed into a shop where
in which he took a serious interest. These
Whistler was trying on a hat, and mistaking
statements are unquestionably true (although him for a salesman cried: “I say, this 'at
no details of the personal relationship are
doesn't fit." Eyeing him critically a moment
given), but we could never have guessed it
Whistler said: “ Neither does
your coat."
from what follows. A large number of the
His own immaculate attire was proverbial.
stories are easily recognizable and duly acknowl. So were the dapper silk hat, the yellow gloves,
edged as from current periodicals and news-
the slender walking-stick, the monocle, the
papers. The others might have been picked curled mustache, the be-ribboned white fore-
up in the ateliers of Paris and London, but lock, “famous as the plume of Navarre.”
most of them might also have been obtained Somebody once gave Whistler an American
with less expenditure of effort from a clipping umbrella of the sort that furls very tightly.
bureau. None of them imply intimacy or even
He used it as a cane, and his delight in it
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS OF JAMES A. MCNEILL
knew no bounds. On one occasion, according
WHISTLER. By Arthur Jerome Eddy. Illustrated. Phila-
to Mr. Eddy, Whistler was coming out of his
delphia: J. B, Lippincott Co.
studio with a friend, and as they made their


1904.]
111
THE DIAL
way to a nearby cab-stand, it began to drizzle. reasonably affect our pleasure in the picture.
His friend, who had no umbrella, said: “Hurry But it does add to the charm of the man, and
and put up your umbrella or we 'll get our hats to our enjoyment of a book like Mr. Eddy's,
wet.' Whistler fumbled for a second at the much of whose point and vivacity depends on
umbrella, then burried on. “But I would get the fact that Whistler was to the last an insol-
my umbrella wet,” he said.
uble enigma. EDIT: KELLOGG DUNTON.
So much for the Reminiscences" for it
is unfair to steal more of Mr. Eddy's stories;
and the biographical data, being from casual
RUSSIA AS A MODEL.
sources and intended only as a connecting
thread on which to hang the anecdotes and the Coming at just this time, when war clouds
estimates of the man and his work, need not are thundering over the eastern shores of the
delay us here.
Pacific, - a name seemingly destined to be-
As an art critic Mr. Eddy's attitude is come a complete misnomer, the book result-
surely too much marked by undiscriminating ing from the recent journey of Mr. Albert J.
enthusiasm to merit complete confidence; but Beveridge, junior senator of the United States
as an expositor of such matters as Whistler's from Indiana, has unusual pertinence and will
title to be called a colorist, his attitude toward be read with assiduity by all who desire infor-
portraiture, or his theory of the suitable hang- mation regarding certain phases of an in-
ing of pictures, his work is clear and inter-evitable struggle. It appears that the author
esting — likely to be decidedly illuminating has recently returned from a journey through
to the plain man ” of Whistler's own satire. Russia, Manchuria, and Corea; but his volume
Toward his subject's personality Mr. Eddy is limited to a consideration of Asiatic Russia,
appears somewhat in the character of an apol with a portion of a single chapter referring to
ogist. His sense of humor is not strong. Dis- Japan. Nothing at all is said about Corea. The
liking flippancy however polished, he naturally attitude throughout the book is so markedly
wishes that the Master had been less ardent an pro-Russian that it deserves the stronger term
“ Apostle of Persiflage” in his idle moments, of Slavophile.
less artistic a maker of enemies in his bitter Senator Beveridge is an ardent worshipper
ones. And it is possible that the nocturnes
at the shrine of the ancient ideals.of pagan
and symphonies would have been taken more Rome revived in modern times under the title
seriously, or at least have received quicker rec of imperialism. He is a devotee of might, and
ognition, if the critics had not had the memory right is seldom considered in his work. Being
of the Butterfly's insinuating “reflections enamored of "world power,” he necessarily fell
to wipe out. It is also no doubt true that under the spell of a theocratic autocracy as
Whistler's egotism and affectation have been the best engine for putting into practice these
vastly exaggerated. From a painful sense of wholly un-American conceptions. In bis treat-
duty, then, the biographer should strive to ment of the Russian administration he seems de-
put us into the more receptive attitude of terminately to have put bebind all conceptions
the French, whose prompter appreciation of of popular or free government; and his faith
Whistler’s genius Mr. Eddy refers in part in these conceptions is too small, apparently, to
to their inability to resent his untranslatable permit him to undertake any defense of de-
irony. Still, we find it hard to forgive Mr. mocracy against the frequent adverse criticisms
Eddy's elaborate attempt to explain away the quoted by him as passed upon its shortcomings
paradoxes of “ The Ten O'clock Lecture,” or by Russian officials. Especially does he lay
his doubt about the advisability of reprinting stress on the possibility of rising into imperial
the delicious impertinences of “ The Gentle power from the humbler walks of life, as in the
Art of Making Enemies." We prefer
6 the
case of the Russian minister of finance, Sergius
real Mr. Whistler," — who, instead of laying Witte, ignoring the vastly greater difficulties
his habit of controversy to either his West attending such a feat in Russia as compared
Point training or his long and bitter struggle with this country.
for recognition, frankly confessed to being "a
bundle of nerves and dyspepsia.” The fact Beveridge was accorded every privilege by the
that his personal motives often appear as vague Russian authorities in his journey across Asia.
and inscrutable as the outline of Battersea
*THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE. By Albert J. Boveridge. With
Bridge in the blue and silver nocturne, cannot maps. New York: Harper & Brothers.
As a senator of the United States Mr.


112
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
He evidently expected that obstacles would be “ More than a score of different peoples are now
thrown in his way, especially in Manchuria.
under the colors of the Czar; and, say what we will
But the Russians were wise enough to secure
from our western point of view, they appear to be as
highly contented as the people of the more advanced
his good will at the outset, and thereafter
countries, such as Germany or Italy [has the writer
they must have felt that they could not lose it. forgotten the German socialist, and the emigrating
They would certainly have been right in the Italian peasant ?], and far more satisfied with their
supposition, for nothing could have alienated
conditions than are the English."
an affection given so whole-heartedly. A strik This places contentment among the desirable
ing instance of Mr. Beveridge's tenderness for national qualities, and presents another phase
Russia is shown in his account of the hideous of the constant confusion made throughout the
massacre at Blagovestchensk in 1900. What book between “good” government and free
be admits "may have been only a rumor” led government, generally to the disparagement
the Russians in this town on recently-stolen of the latter. There is a stress laid on the
territory to assume that a Chinese army was
virtues of efficient civil service sadly at vari-
descending upon them, that the Chinese on ance with the practices of our last two na-
their own territory across the river were arm-
tional administrations. And there are some
ing against them, that the Chinese in their own convincing arguments against the high tariffs
settlement were to join with their countrymen of the same period, from the statement “the
across the river, and that by a junction of these Russians are still buying in the best and cheap-
three forces Blagovestchensk would be im- est market, and the best and cheapest market
perilled. Thereupon “the Chinese in the city is our own,” through the account of the acerbi.
itself were driven by the few Cossacks down ties arising between the Russian and American
to the river's edge below the town and forced governments over the sugar duties, to the strong
into the river. Three or four thousand of them probability of the total loss to the United
perished.” It seems to have been after this States of its Russian markets.
wholesale massacre that the Chinese across Commercialism and imperialism go hand in
the river began a futile bombardment of Blag-
hand, and the comments of several persons
ovestchensk with muskets, -"you may now see
whom Mr. Beveridge interviewed, to the effect
the bullet-marks made in the home of the local that we don't know, and we don't care, who
governor. Many houses of Blagovestchensk governs the country,” explain this in part.
still show these signs of actual peril.” Then Still, there must be some Americans who will
came the chief horror. Even Mr. Beveridge
Even Mr. Beveridge object to the implication behind the statement
does not state the total slaughter, estimated at
of the Indiana senator that “When American
not less than fifteen thousand men, women, and
trade held the first place in the Orient, the
children. But his humane conclusions are par American flag was seen in every port. It
ticularly noteworthy.
was a great advertisement then." And there
“Finally reinforcements arrived, the Russians crossed is another fine suggestion for the future in
the river, and literally wiped the Chinese town off the this:
face of the earth. You may visit its site now, but you
“ Another thing which the government might do, and
will see nothing but waving grass and here and there
which would have a beneficial effect upon American
the demolished remains of the crumbling wall of a
trade in China, is to keep in Chinese waters all but one
house. Such, stripped of its many variations, is the story
or two ships of our Pacific squadron. Moreover, the
of the great massacre' of the Chinese by the Russians
heaviest part of our navy should be kept in Asiatic
of Blagovestchensk in 1900 which made the world
waters. It is there that the conflicts of the future will
shudder.' . .
occur, and it is there where our visible power should
“ So much space has been given to this incident be-
be manifest to all beholders.”
cause of the tremendous publicity given to it and the
distortion of all of its features, and because, too, it is a It is a pleasant thought that we are to make
very fair illustration of the manner in which any inci men and money unproductive by heavy taxa-
dent of Russian advance is painted to the American and
tion for a navy, trying to make up the loss of
European world. When we hear of Russian outrages we
must always bear in mind that while it may well be that
a profitable home market consequent upon this
all of their details are entirely true, yet the chances are
by seeking a doubtfully profitable foreign
that the forbidding aspects of each affair are magnified." market, and then, for our pains,
Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
“ Let the gulld fool the toils of war pursue,
This acceptance of the Russian point of view Where bleed the many to enrich the few."
leads Mr. Beveridge to seeming endorsement But objections of this sort are what Mr. Bev.
of ideals not in the least American. He says, eridge refers to when he says that “ England
for example :
and America have been wasting time on


1904 ]
113
THE DIAL
ence.
academic argumentations about unsubstantial Manchuria is far too incomplete to permit any
theories.”
reliance upon the present resources of the
There are some inaccuracies in the book, country, fertile as it is. There appeared, from
due no doubt to baste in preparation. Of Mr. his statement, to be inherent weakness in the
Beveridge's style something may be learned Russian squadrons in the Pacific, making her
from the extracts here given. It abounds control of water transportation from St. Peters-
in repetitions, and is inflated throughout, burg and Odessa to Vladivostok and Port
apparently suffering from the vices which Arthur more than doubtful, while the Black
Herbert Spencer noted as inherent in dicta Sea squadron is tied up in those waters by the
tion. Among numerous similar lapses, Mr. concert of Europe, and possible British hos-
Beveridge speaks of “witnessing cathedrals,” tility makes it inexpedient to use the naval ves-
of " vocalinity,” and of one who “ does not sels now in the Persian Gulf. Nor can it be
look like we are." And the book is without said that the fortifications at Port Arthur and
an index, an unpardonable omission in such a Dalni are in a condition entirely satisfactory
work.
for defence, while Vladivostok is ice.bound
Having thus summed up, in good part, the during no small portion of the year, and the
faults of the book, both in regard to man- transportation from that port to its southern
ner and matter, substance and form, it is sisters is also dependent upon a single line of
to be said, on the other hand, that the very rails.
sympathy shown for Russia has enabled Mr. But if St. Petersburg desired delay, the
Beveridge to present a picture of the empire reverse was true of Tokyo. Japan, maintaining
and of its people unsurpassed in serious lit- her ancient birth-rate while introducing the
erature for accuracy and comprehension. From practice of modern hygiene, is seriously over-
the virtual chancellor of the empire to the most populated now, and the strain upon her re-
ignorant peasant, the Russian is sketched with sources is a permanently growing one. Her
lines now broad, now narrow, until every phase statesmen are seeking an outlet for her throng-
of his none too complex nature has been sub- ing thousands as a necessity of national exist-
mitted to a sort of psychological dissection and
The treaty of Shimonoseki would have
laid bare to the enquiring mind. Not only is the secured southern Manchuria for this purpose,
government of the Czar analyzed and explained, bad pot Russia, aided and abetted by Germany
but its methods in respect of Church and and France, forced from Japan the fruits of her
State as well, its educational aspirations, its victory in 1895. Baffled here, they have turned
interference between employer and employed to Corea, under-populated and more fertile than
to prevent the industrial horrors of western Japan's own soil. But Russia's interference
Europe and America, its firm conviction of its in 1895 secured for the Czar the ports of Dalni
mission as a civilizing and christianizing power and Port Arthur, and the railway connecting
through the world, its aspirations toward a them with Vladivostok through the Manchurian
dominion over other peoples to be acquired by road is an essential to their maintenance in the
a combination of velvet glove and iron fist, face of Japan's efficient naval force. Should
its permanency of policy made possible by its Corea fall into Japanese hands, placing Japan
autocracy, and, coming down to detail, the within less than two hundred miles of this
manner in which these circumstances are put essential line of communication between Rus-
into play in the occupation of Manchuria, and sia's Pacific naval stations, a line representing
the ceaseless, resistless force with which the her ambitions in Peking itself, the whole policy
machinery moves on, slowly and surely enough of the Russian administration in eastern Asia
to suggest the mills of the gods, all character. is made of no avail. And it was clearly to
ized in a word by a youthful and enthusiastic Japan's interest to strike now, or submit for
officer when he said “Russia the Inevitable.”
As regards the immediate future, and the In a word, this is the beginning of a
issue of the war between the armies of the Mi- struggle for life and death on the part of the
kado and the Czar, Senator Beveridge imparts Mikado's people, a struggle having for its
a clear impression of the facts. It was unques grand prize the hegemony of the yellow race.
tionably to the interest of Russia to secure On Russia's part success seems to prophecy
delay. Her single line of railway track will the eventual control of all Asia, Great Britain's
not suffice for the victualling of great military Indian Empire with the rest, by the flat-capped
forces in eastern Asia, and her settlement of administrators of autocracy. The entire civil-
ever.


114
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
а
ized world is profoundly implicated in the re causes of Voltaire’s various fights, conceal.
sult, and the recent embarkation of the United ments, imprisonments, or sudden bursts of fame,
States in the doubtful rôle of 66 world
power and hence as necessary factors in his life; but
of physical rather than moral force has en there are almost no references or quotations,
tangled the American people among others, and the reader must go to Voltaire himself for
exactly as Washington foresaw when he spoke first-hand knowledge of his writings, and to the
the warning in his Farewell Address. And it pages of Faguet, Van Laun, or Brunetière for
may be added, though this is not within the criticism. Of the critical spirit, indeed, there
purview of Senator Beveridge's book, that final is not much in these two handsome volumes.
success in this battle of giants is likely to rest, Mr. Tallentyre's flow of enthusiasm for Vol.
not with the largest battalions or the heaviest taire's unquestioned good qualities is not ma-
artillery, but with the financiers of Europe terially checked by his honest recognition of
and America. If the Jew, having in mind the the baser ones. For these latter, indeed, he
atrocities which excited the wrath of Tolstoy is an apologist wherever possible; and English
and of the world at large, should withhold readers will probably go back to their Morley,
his assistance from Russia in the immediate Carlyle, or even Macaulay, for a more un-
future or place his coffers at the disposal of the biassed view of this wisest, brightest, -trick-
Mikado, or should the newly-made millions of iest of mankind.
America step into the gap in the interests of With these reservations, the narrative is
commercial treaties which past experience has delightful reading. Mr. Tallentyre has evi-
shown are likely to be granted more liberally by dently digested his authorities thoroughly, from
Japan than by Russia, the island empire may the valets Collini and Wagnière down to Victor
place an effective stumbling-block in the path Hugo and Mr. Churton Collins; and he gives
of “ Adam-zad, the bear that looks like a man." us in a picturesque style his results and his own
WALLACE RICE. opinions in about seven hundred pages, undis-
figured by footnotes. This latter feature is
adopted on a principle thus defended by the
author:
THE LATEST PORTRAIT OF VOLTAIRE.*
“If the public cannot trust the ability or the honesty
Words for words, the century and a quarter of the biographer, the sources of his information are
that has elapsed since Voltaire's death has had not inaccessible, and the public with a little extra
its full and free say about the patriarch of
trouble can verify his facts, even though he does not
Ferney; and the hundred volumes of Vol-
assist it by cumbering his text with that annihilation of
all interest, the perpetual footnote. If the subject is
taire” are matched by the bibliography in his not considered worth the extra trouble, the reader may
latest biography, which, curiously enough, con well take the biographer
on faith.
The best
tains just one hundred names, without claiming biographer of Voltaire is Voltaire himself. If any
to be exhaustive. In spite of all the wealth of
writer can lead his reader to throw away the biographies,
even his own, and study Voltaire at first-hand — his
material collected by such writers as Despoires-
letters, the wittiest in the world, and his works, which
terres, and the biographies by Condorcet, Mr. in matchless adroitness can be compared to no other
John Morley, and James Parton, Mr. George production of the human mind — he will have done
Saintsbury could say, twenty years ago, that
much and should be well satisfied.”
no really good life of Voltaire, with complete To many good people the name Voltaire has
examination of his works, existed in any lan been little more than a theological expression,
guage. If no biographer's equipment is com or at most the designation of a claimant for
plete without the ability to make a critical the bad eminence of the eighteenth-century
estimate of his hero's works, whether written antichrist. Of the man François Marie Arouet
or acted, Mr. Saintsbury's remark is probably as an eager, striving, loving, hating member
true; and its truth will not be affected by this of society they have known little and cared to
two-volume book of Mr. Tallentyre's.
know less. This attitude has now been re-
For this is simply the story of Voltaire's life, placed by the literary and historical interest
told chronologically from his birth in 1694 to which the most devout may safely feel in the
his apotheosis and death in 1778. The un most brilliant writer of his
age
and the prophet
broken succession of writings that came from whose teachings, though not his life, helped to
his tireless pen are properly reckoned with as prepare the way for a mighty revolution. The
* THE LIFE OF VOLTAIRE. By S. G. Tallentyre. In two
twentieth-century reader may not approve of
volumes. Illustrated. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Voltaire any more after reading these volumes


1904.]
115
THE DIAL
-
66 re-
than before ; but he will have a clear and even until she deserted him for a younger man.
radiant picture of one of the most interesting In this unedifying French domestic drama of
men that ever lived.
real life, the woman comes off with the least
The glimpses of his precocious childhood credit; and one reverts with a sort of satisfac-
are of course detached; but we see the little tion to Carlyle's description of Voltaire as
“Zo-Zo” learning to " lisp scoffings as other “hagridden."
children lisp prayers,” taught by the recreant
The visit to Frederick the Great is the best-
abbé Châteauneuf to recite deistical poems, known epoch in Voltaire's life. It lasted only
entering at ten the Jesuit school of St. Louis three years, but was crowded with enough
le Grand, where he posed his masters with adventure, intrigue, spite, adoration, and hard
hard questions in history and politics and work to fit out a lifetime. To English readers,
wrote fluent bad verses, taken by his god long ago, Carlyle's essay on Voltaire, with his
father at eleven to see Ninon de l'Enclos, who | Life of Frederick, and Macaulay's great essay,
was “as charming at eighty as she had been made the facts familiar, as they knew them.
at eighteen,” and who was so taken by the Neither of them did justice to Voltaire; and
child that she left him in her will 2000 francs Carlyle was too fond of his hero not to give him
to buy books. Leaving school at seventeen, the benefit of every doubt in all this dubious
young Arouet announced that he desired no business. Mr. Tallentyre seems to see with
profession but literature, — to the disgust of clearer vision, and to hold the balance equit-
bis father, who, as Mr. Saintsbury says, ably between the French man of letters,
fused to consider literature a profession at all.”
6. thievish as a daw and mischievous as a
For a while he dabbled in law, and even in monkey," and the Prussian king who was by
diplomacy; but was more of a scapegrace than fits and starts his pupil, his adorer, and his
a student, and the Regent Philippe d'Orleans jailer. The story of how Voltaire made an
found it desirable to put the brilliant young enemy of old Maupertuis, the president of
fellow in the Bastille, where, without pen or
Frederick's “Berlin Academy," how Mau-
ink, he composed whole cantos of the Hen. pertuis, by the publication of his ridiculous
riade," and, among other things, changed his “Scientific Letters,” exposed himself as fair
The question whether the name “Vol. game, and how Voltaire fairly smothered him
taire” is an anagram of “Arouet 1. j. (le with the delicious satire of “Dr. Akakia,” is
jeune)” or an abbrevation of “ le petit volon told anew, and with great fulness.
taire,” one of his baby names, or a real name “ Akakia means guilelessness; and Akakia is a phy-
existing in his mother's ancestry, is a vexed
sician who takes the remarkable effusions of Maupertuis
though not a vital one. The anagram has
with a serious innocence, very deadly; who asks the
most simple questions in the world; and turns upon the
usually proved too tempting to be rejected; but President's theories the remorseless logic of the gayest
Mr. Tallentyre assures us that the last answer and easiest common-sense. There could have been no
is now generally accepted.
style better than Voltaire's for making Pomposity mad.
Out of Voltaire's eighty-four years, three
One can still see the sublime Perpetual President'
writhing under that pitiless mockery and that infectious
periods are salient as involving special activ- laugh of malicious delight. The wickedest, cleverest, lit-
ities in different environments: his fifteen tle picador in all the world goaded this great, lumbering,
years of association with Mme. du Châtelet, heavy-footed old bull to impotent frenzy. The lithe
tiger, agile as a cat, sprang on his foe, showing all his
chiefly spent at Cirey (1733-1748), the fam.
teeth in his grin, and, grinning still, tore him limb from
ous sojourn with Frederick the Great at Ber-
limb.”
lin and Potsdam (1750–1753), and the last Many of Voltaire's most famous mots are
twenty years at Ferney (1758–1778). Of that duly recorded ; and some of his most startling
queer household at Cirey—the poet spending utterances are explained and defended. The
bis money to complete his mistress's chateau, popular belief that in his celebrated motto
the lady herself (“poor little lean brown
“ Ecrasez l'infâme,” he voiced his hatred of
woman,” in Carlyle's phrase) filled with pas-
Christ is probably too deep-seated to be re-
sions for fine clothes, high play, and the New-
moved by the careful explanations of many
tonian philosophy; and a dim-shadowy com-
wise men, assuredly right as they are. Mr.
plaisant husband who knew how to “range Tallentyre is not the first who has sought to
himself,” — of all this Mr. Tallentyre writes
vindicate the great Deist from this reproach ;
with much vivacity of manner and many illum-
but his words are worth reproducing.
inating details. “The respectable Emilie"
“To Voltaire it (l'infâme), if it meant Christianity
caressed, scolded, and was jealous of her lover at all, meant that which was taught in Rome in the
name.


116
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
eighteenth century, and not by the Sea of Galilee in the readers. Hardly a year passes without the
first. . . . L'infâme was the religion wbich enforced its
publication of a new volume on some topic or
doctrines by the sword, the fire, and the prison; which
massacred on the night of St. Bartholomew; and which,
other dealing with the United States, “La vie
glossing lightly over royal sins, refused its last consola aux Etats-Unis," "La femme aux Etats-Unis,"
tions to dying Jansenists who would not accept the Bull “Les trusts aux Etats-Unis," and what not.
Unigenitus. ::: And above all, l'infâme was that Nobody seems to tire of these “ Etats-Unis."
spirit which was the natural enemy of all learning and
There are two classes of publications on
advancement; which loved darkness and bated light be-
cause its deeds were evil; which found the better knowl-
America. Some are studies of a special sub-
edge of His works, treason to God; and an exercise of ject by a specialist, like Levasseur's book on
the reason and the judgment He had given, an insult to l'Ouvrier Américain," or de Rousier's work
the Giver. ... L'infâme cannot be translated by any on the Trusts. Most of them, however, are the
single word. But if it must be, the best rendering of it
general impressions of a traveller after a more
is, intolerance.”
Voltaire's last days were unquestionably his
or less hasty journey made under varying con-
ditions. The interest of these impressions de-
happiest. As the Lord Bountifal of Ferney pends, of course, on the traveller's intelligence,
and Tournoy, with grateful friends around
faculty of observation, and general aptitude as
him, receiving visits from such dissociated
a writer.
pilgrims as James Boswell of Auchinleck, the
The two recent books which are treated here
young Charles James Fox, and “a solemn
belong, one to the class of special studies, the
youth from Lausanne named Edward Gibbon,”
other to the class of general impressions. Both
and pouring out, as always, letters, epigrams,
are interesting, because written by men who
dramas, he was encouraged to develop the
have seen what they talk about and are inter-
better side of his nature; and his really heroic
ested in their subject. M. Bargy, who has been
efforts in behalf of such victims of injustice
in this country for five years, is a university
and oppression as the Calas family, Sirven,
La Barre, and the ill-fated Lally are the professor who became interested in the reli-
gious side of American life. M. Gohier, who
brightest episodes in his career.
travelled for five months all over the country,
Something of Voltaire's manner seems to
have descended to his biographer, whose long skilled pen, although not always with a very
is a newspaper man, with a keen eye and a
narrative is never tiresome; though the style calm judgment.
is at times colloquial to a degree. The vol-
M. Bargy, having lived in a country which
umes are handsomely printed, contain almost
is mostly Catholic, with a rather limited relig.
no typographical errors, are equipped with a
full index, and are illustrated with several religious activity plays in American society, as
ious life, was surprised to find how great a part
portraits of Voltaire and some of his contem-
well as pleased by the general spirit of true
poraries.
JOSIAH RENICK SMITH. liberalism that seems to prevail. He had
not been much in touch with Protestant ideas
and Protestant life before finding them here.
Two FRENCH BOOKS ON THE UNITED Therefore he ascribes to the American spirit
STAI ES.*
many traits that may be due to Protestant in.
The French books on America written dur. fluence even in non. Protestant churches. All
ing the last hundred years would easily fill a things that struck him as new and good in the
library. The authors of these books have been religious conception and the religious method
no
mean persons, either, from Chateau-
of the United States are to him American. He
briand, La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, † and de
discovered what he calls the American religion,
Tocqueville, down to Paul Bourget, Henri
and characterizes it by two traits : it is a social
de Varigny, Levasseur, and Th. Bentzon. But religion, - i. e., more interested in society than
the plethora seems to have discouraged neither
in the individual; and it is a positive religion,
authors nor publishers,
-i. e., it cares more for what is human in re-
to say nothing of
ligion than for what is supernatural. One of
LA RELIGION DANS LA SOCIÉTÉ AUX ETATS-UNIS. By
the main characteristics of American religion
Henry Bargy. Paris : Armand Colin.
LE PEUPLE DU XXE SIÈCLE. CINQ MOIS aux Etats-
from the Puritans down, if we were to believe
Unis By Urbain Gobier. Paris : Bibliothèque Charpentier. him, is indifference to dogma.
† A remarkable biography of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, M. Bargy lays down these two principles,
aristocrat, philanthropist, statesman, traveller, and a most
interesting figure of the ancient Regime, has just been pub-
and from them deduces his conception and
lished by Ferdinand-Dreyfus (Paris : Plon et Cie.).
description of the various forms of religious
-


1904.]
THE DIAL
activity, Presbyterian or Episcopalian, Con- pamphleteer that he is if he had written a book
gregational or Methodist, Hebrew or Roman of mere praise and flattery. He was pleased
Catholic. In all, he finds the same spirit, with the cleanliness, comfort, and general air
which he traces back to colonial times, and of happiness of the American home. The
which he considers the common heritage of all American woman seemed to him one of the
Americans. To him, religion in America ap most interesting of his discoveries when he
pears as “a mutual aid society"; a church is reached these shores. He found her as pretty
“ a coöperative organization and a club”; a as the Parisienne, though somewhat spoiled ;
pastor is “a business man and sociologist,” and he admired her freedom, her initiative, her
working for the material welfare of his flock taste and elegance. He praises the univer.
as well as for their moral betterment.
sities, and all the institutions of learning and
A French critic, Edmond Scherer, once said education generally, such as the social settle-
that general ideas are always, to a certain extent, ments and the Y. M. C. A. Even the Salva-
false. M. Bargy's book supports this statement. tion Army finds a sympathetic judge in this
His bold and over-hasty generalizations are in man, who in France has been, although a Cath-
teresting, to be sure, but far from convincing. olic by birth, a rabid anti-clerical.
Not all the traits of American character that The early freedom and self-reliance of the
he praises are specifically American; and not American boy struck our author as something
all the praises he bestows are equally deserved. quite povel. He could not imagine the sons
It is needless to say that there is no such close of a French university president selling news-
resemblance between denominations as he de papers in the streets ! He speaks enthusias-
scribes so minutely. As to the indifference to tically of the freedom of the individual in the
dogma, it seems to be a fancy of his imagina- family and in society. He enjoyed the luxury
tion, as far as most sects are concerned. - Never of the Pullman cars, admired the beautiful site
theless, despite the somewhat artificial logic of Yellowstone Park, Yosemite Valley, the Bay
that pervades the book, M. Bargy has covered of San Francisco, and the Grand Cañon of the
the ground in a very instructive and entertain Colorado River. Everywhere he received the
ing way. He has some excellent chapters, full impression of something big, tremendously big.
of information. Most of his statements are He regards the American people as an energetic,
accurate, even when the conclusions he draws intelligent, quick-witted nation, and be lieves
from them are not. Information is always safer that they are the people of the twentieth century.
than theories. The chapter on Channing is But — there is a but. M. Gohier, who is
very good; and so are the chapters in which known in France as one of the most destruc-
he describes some modern churches, like St. tive and violent critics of the existing order of
Bartholomew's, and some modern pastors, like things, did not merely find things to admire.
Babcock and Rainsford. The American reader He observed the power and tyranny of the trusts
will relish this book, full of enthusiasm, in and the labor-unions, between which, he pro-
which the author is bent on seeing only what phesies, the consumer will be crushed. He
is flattering to American pride, and in accord-discovered what he calls the “ military peril,”
ance with his own theories. Perhaps it might the peril that will come some day from the
be better if all the churches here really had all growing strength of the army; the “clerical
the qualities M. Bargy discovers in them. But peril” that will result for American liberty from
in that case they would be somewhat different the increasing influence of a numerous dis-
from what they are.
ciplined and wealthy Roman Catholic Church.
M. Urbain Gobier has also some theories He reproaches President Roosevelt for his
which he airs here and there in his book. But sensational attitude, his strenuous ways, and
in the main his purpose is to describe America his spread-eagleism. While amazed by the
as he saw it a year ago last summer in a quick quantity of work done by the newspapers and
journey of five months, with stops in various the tremendous equipment they use, he crit-
large cities and university centres. He writes icises the waste of money, time, and paper
in an epigrammatic style, and his Parisian involved in “great” journalism.
readers who are accustomed to his ways will As for American customs, M. Gohier fell
take cum grano salis some of his statements of course into the usual errors of foreign obser-
which may puzzle the American reader. vers, and collected sensational items of love
On the whole, M. Gohier was pleased with stories, crimes, and advertisements, from the
America. But he would not be the aggressive popular journals. Yet at the same time he


118
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
observed and noted down many things that the
RECENT FICTION."
average American does not always have his
attention called to. He visited America at the Place aux dames! The most important books of
very time of the scandals of the New York fiction in our present selection are Mrs. Wharton's
police and of the St. Louis and Minneapolis
“Sanctuary” and Miss Glasgow's “The Deliver-
aldermen, and he has a fearful chapter on
ance." Each of these novels is, in its own peculiar
fashion, a masterpiece of conscientious workman-
American political corruption. He saw men
ship, vivid in its portrayal of a half-tragic situation,
of so many origins and races in the large and powerful in its appeal to our human sympa-
cities of the East and West that he wondered thies. Aside from their common quality of suc-
whether this amalgamation of men whose only cessful performance, the two books stand far apart
common ties are, in his words, “the English from one another. “Sanctuary" is no more than a
language, the ice-cream soda, and chewing novelette, hardly more than a short story, while
gum” really form an Anglo-Saxon nation. “ The Deliverance” is a full-grown work of fiction,
The craze for physical excercise seems to spanning many years of suffering and anachieved
him to be pushed too far. “The Americans purpose, and provided with a great multiplicity of
incident and detail. But both are works of art in
judge men by their weight, as they do cattle in
a bighly satisfactory sense.
the stock-yards." He notes at the same time
Mrs. Wharton's art is of subtler and more delicate
that this worship of muscle is accompanied by quality than Miss Glasgow's. She presents us with
an undue development of the patent-medicine a case of conscience, studied in two generations. A
business. He saw buildings, fifteen stories young woman learns, on the eve of her marriage,
high, filled with druggists and physicians; and that the man she loves is endowed with a radical
the papers were full of quack advertisements. weakness of character, that he has sinned, and is
At Coney Island he found a camp of palmists, unwilling to make open confession to the world and
and concludes that “ America is the chosen
face the consequences of his dereliction. At first
land of charlatans and bunco-steerers."
her whole high-strung nature revolts, and she casts
him off. Second thought reverses her decision ; she
Being a strong anti-militarist, he lectures
thinks of the moral weakness which must be the
Americans on their admiration for Napoleon, inheritance of the child of such a man ; she decides
“the greatest bandit in history," who had not that she will be the mother of that child, and devote
even the excuse of being an athlete.
her life to its strengthening against the sort of
The book is thus full of statements and temptation to which the father had succumbed.
judgments that will astonish the reader, and This is the brief prologue to the story. The longer
sometimes make him throw it down with impa- second part opens some score of years later, and the
tience; full also of terse epigrams, and true and
moral problem quickly presents itself. The father
sound observations. Taken all in all, it shows
has long since died, and the son has grown to man-
hood. The father's sin had taken the form of a
a real sympathy for the spirit, the aims,' and
the character of the American nation and Amer-
suppression of evidence the disclosure of which
would have led to scandal and the loss of fortune.
ican civilization.
OTHON GUERLAC.
SANCTUARY. By Edith Wharton. New York: Charles
Soribner's Song.
MRS. PAGET TOYNBEE, in her preface to the first
THE DELIVERANCE. By Ellen Glasgow. New York:
volume of the new Oxford edition of the Letters of
Doubleday, Page & Co.
Horace Walpole, states that 3,061 letters have been
JUDITH OF THE PLAINS. By Marie Manning. New York:
Harper & Brothers.
included, representing 150 correspondents. Of the
LONG WILL. A Romance. By Florence Converse. Boston:
407 letters not included in Cunningham's edition, 111
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
are now printed for the first time. It seems that a
THE TORCH. By Herbert M. Hopkins. Indianapolis:
number of the letters, inter alia, to Hannah More, have The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
been tampered with, and disfigured by the cancelling
MY FRIEND PROSPERO. By Henry Harland. New York:
of passages, the erasure of proper names, and, worse McClure, Phillips & Co.
than all, by the insertion (apparently in the handwrit MR. SALT. By Will Payne. Boston: Houghton, Mifflip
ing of Hannah More herself) of words and phrases & Co.
which Walpole never wrote. In one letter the name THE DAUGHTER OF A MAGNATE. By Frank H. Spearman.
“ Madame Piozzi” has been erased, but is still legible New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
through the erasure. Wright, the editor of the 1840 THE O’RUDDY. A Romance. By Stephen Crane and
edition of the letters, filled the blank with the name Robert Barr. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
of Bruce, the African traveller! in which he is followed INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. By Agnes and Egerton
by Cunningham. Some of the most interesting of the Castle. New York: Frederick A, Stokes Co.
new letters are those addressed by Walpole to his school THE SHUTTERS OF SILENCE. By G. B. Burgin. Now
fellow Charles Lyttelton (afterwards Bishop of Carlyle). York: The Smart Set Publishing Co.
Of the eleven portraits of Walpole included in this THE KEY OF PARADISE. By Sidney Pickering. New
edition, three are now published for the first time. York: The Macmillan Co.


1904.]
119
THE DIAL
the memory
The son's temptation is to win a prize in his profes interest of the story is provided by Christopher
sion by appropriating the work of a dead friend, Blake, the dispossessed inheritor of the plantation,
and passing it off as his own. The winning of the and Maria Fletcher, the granddaughter of the ras-
prize will mean to him both professional advance cal who has come into its ownership by fraud upon
ment and the love of the woman upon whom bis his former employer. The boy grows up to hate
heart is set. The ensuing conflict between his the Fletchers with all the passion of a strong and
warring impulses is revealed to us only by hints primitive nature ; the girl grows up in ignorance
and suggestions ; it never comes to a dramatic issue, alike of the history of her grandfather's fortune
or even to direct discussion. The mother, trembling, and of the feelings that rankle in the breast of the
stands aloof and awaits the outcome upon which seeming peasant who is her neighbor. When they
depends the defeat or victory of a lifetime of con are first thrown together in their early adult years,
secration to a single aim. Words will not avail; each is instinctively attracted to the other, while
the time has come when the man must save himself assuming the mask of hatred or scorn. Not for
if he is to be saved at all. We approach the clos many years is this instinctive feeling to ripen, and
ing scene in breathless suspense; the situation is in the meanwhile Christopher goes on nursing his
poignant to the extreme of endurance, and the relief hate and planning revenge, while Maria contracts a
is correspondingly great when the better nature of loveless marriage and disappears from the scene for
the young man triumphs, and he seeks the sanctu a long time. It is by means of this leisurely devel-
ary of his mother's arms, seeing at last as by a opment that the author achieves her largest effects.
lightning flash all that she has done for him, and We know that the outcome is inevitable, but we
all the larger implications of the struggle from approach it with such deliberation that all the sub-
which he has in the end emerged victorious. “I'm tle psychological processes of the years find room
not worth the fight you've put up for me. But I for analysis and exposition, and the figures of both
want you to know that it's your doing — that if you characters become very completely human. The
had let go an instant I should have gone under book has many minor features and characters de-
and that if I'd gone under I should never have serving of warm praise ; we have not space even for
come up again alive.” These are the last words of their mention, but trust that we have said enough
this deeply moving book, and they linger long in to send our readers to one of the strongest and
most vital productions of recent years.
“ The Deliverance” is the most important book “Judith of the Plains," by Miss Marie Manning,
thus far written by Miss Glasgow. It makes clear is a story that starts out in much the same fashion
the fact that this novelist has come to stay,” and as Mr. Garland's “ Hesper.” A young woman of
that her work may be expected to go on broadening education and refined associations is on her way to
and deepening with the years.
The scene of the the strange world of the far West, and is, like Mr.
story is Virginia, and the period is that covered by Garland's heroine, greatly bewildered by her expe-
the past quarter-century. Tobacco provides its riences. Here, however, the resemblance ends, for
harmony with a sort of basso ostinato very much as the young woman is little more than a lay figure in
hemp performs a similar function in one of the the subsequent unfolding of the plot, and the real
novels of Mr. James Lane Allen. We are con heroine appears in the character of the half-breed
scious of its presence everywhere as the ground woman for whom the book is named. After we have
work of the structure, and made to realize that the stopped thinking about the likeness to “Hesper,"
entire scheme of life portrayed by the novelist rests we begin to discover points of resemblance to “ The
upon that foundation. If this be a borrowing of Virginian," particularly in the reported speech of the
Mr. Allen's idea, it is made quite legitimate by the Wyoming cowboys, which in its humorous aspect
original treatment it receives. More questionable, seems to us nearly as good as Mr. Wister's best. The
however, is the use of Malory at a certain point in humor of this story is, indeed, its saving quality, for
the narrative, for Miss Glasgow takes the very pas it is very badly constructed, and has no plot worth
sage introduced with such striking effect in “ The mentioning. Being a woman's novel, it indulges in
Choir Invisible," and turns it to exactly the same a good deal of rhapsodizing about the desert and
emotional effect. One feature of “The Deliverance mountains an element which a man would have
is ingeniously contrived, but remains absolutely minimized or omitted altogether. The writer cer-
unconvincing. Old Mrs. Blake has been blind since tainly has both style and imagination, and these
the middle of the Civil War, her family has lost its qualities, together with her unfailing humor, make
fortune, and moved from a colonial mansion to an up in part for the lack of a definite plan, and keeps
humble cottage; yet through all these vicissitudes the story going in a fairly effective way.
she has been made to believe that nothing is England in the latter half of the fourteenth
changed, that she still owns her hundreds of slaves, century is the theme of “Long Will," a historical
that the Confederacy has triumphed, and the South romance by Miss Florence Converse. It is the
become a nation. Tbis situation passes the bounds England of Chaucer and Gower, of Langland and
of all possible credulity, and, however tempting it Wyclif, of John Ball and Wat Tyler, of Richard II.
was to the author, should not have been woven as and John of Gaunt. It is the England of rival
it is into the very structure of her fabric. The love claimants for the throne, of incipient questionings


120
[Feb. 16,
THE DIAL
very struc-
of the established faith, of the profound social a member of the faculty incurs his dislike, he says,
unrest resulting from the Black Death and the “Off with his head!” like the Queen in “ Alice,"
Statutes of Laborers. All of these men and matters and off it goes. We have a fairly wide acquaintance
are skilfully interwoven into a tapestry of patient among university presidents, but have never met
literary workmanship having for its central figure with a specimen at all resembling this caricature.
the author of " Piers Plowman,” and for its central Now Mr. Hopkins, in writing the present book, had
theme the searchings of heart which that extraor a very laudable design. It was his aim to protest
dinary poem occasioned among the dumb masses against the autocratic character of the management
of the toilers. Charm is given to the narrative by of many of our universities, and to plead against
the presence of an imagined daughter of Langland the evils which naturally result from too great &
and her courtly lover, attendant upon the youthful concentration of power in the executive. These
prince and king. The girl goes on a pilgrimage evils are manifest in many quarters, and such a
through rural England to preach her father's gospel protest is desirable. But the whole purpose of the
of true democracy and to bear the message of the argument is defeated by the grossly improbable
coming uprising. The story reaches its climax with account given us of this particular executive and
the peasant revolt, when Wat Tyler and his fol his acts. Furthermore, Mr. Hopkins has committed
lowers take possession of London and spread terror something worse than an indiscretion in selecting
in their train. The skill with which all this mate certain happenings in the recent history of a great
rial is used deserves high praise, as does also the Western university, presenting them in a sensa-
effective use made by the author of the text of tional light, and basing upon them the
« Piers Plowman." The book is studded with fit ture of his story. No one can read the book with-
ting excerpts from the poem, applied in such a way out perceiving at once that a particular president
as to make us understand the passion underlying its of a particular university is aimed at, and no one
bald phrases far better than we can understand acquainted with the institution and the man can
it from reading the histories of literature. Miss fail to be shocked at the travesty. Unfortunately,
Converse bas grappled in a fairly successful fashion the book will find many readers who are without
with the chief difficulty of her task — that of con the personal knowledge necessary for a corrective,
triving a mode of speech which shall be really in and such readers will be influenced by an account
keeping with the age she depicts. What she has which is distorted and discolored from beginning
done may best be shown by an example. The words to end. The mischief will be the greater for the
are Long Will’o, spoken in soliloquy.
very fact that the story is strongly conceived, and,
* Pity me, God! I am a weak man! - I did never no although misleading as a whole, embodies many
deeds but them I thought not to do; never, all my life
fragments of undoubted truth. It is in vain to
long! Count my deeds, O God, — they are so few, -and all
plead that the novelist takes his suggestions wher-
of them have I condemned afore in other men. Now, I let
my daughter go forth on a fool's errand, and in a child's plot
may fiņd them; in the present case he has
that must fail; mayhap she will meet worse than death on done more than act upon a mere suggestion : he
the road; but I give her my blessing. Jesu, — Mary, - guard has seized upon a situation already made familiar
this my daughter that I have so weakly put forth upon the
to thousands of readers through the sensational
world! How may a man dare say nay to his child, if she be
a better man than he, - an actyf man, a doer o' deeds? How newspaper press, and has so dealt with it as to
may a man dare forbid any soul to follow Conscience? Good create prejudices of the bitterest sort in the minds
Jesu, I am but a jougleur, a teller o'tales, -I am afeared of readers not conversant with the facts in the case.
o' deeds. I see them on so many sides that I dare move nor There is no doubt that Mr. Henry Harland's
hand nor foot. And if I do, I trip. Best never be doing. –
If a man might be all words, and no deeds !"
late novels have the very quintessence of charm.
This charm results from a dainty style formed upon
The diction of which this is a typical illustration the best French models, a marked delicacy of poetic
will at once be seen to embody not a little of the
sentiment, and an exquisite sense of proportion and
fourteenth century English fashion in its simple
fitness. Yet the charm is absolutely superficial, and
directness, its quaint naïveté, and its hint of the
the depths of character have no existence as far as
unassimilated French element in the language. It
the figures which people his pages are concerned.
is sometimes too stiff, and the illusion is far from
“My Friend Prospero " is the gay and joyous love-
complete at many points, but how admirable it is
story of an English nobleman and an Austrian
in comparison with the conventional phrasing of the
princess, thrown together in an Italian castle and
bastard jargon which serves the average historical
the surrounding landscape. Each remains ignorant
romancer for a medium! Here, at least, is a seri-
of the rank, and even the name of the other, until
ous effort to achieve reality, and not a deliberate
evasion of the whole problem.
the very end, when a fairy godmother reveals both
secrets, and clears the way for a mutual under-
It must have taken a lively imagination to invent standing. A story like this is no more amenable
the character of Babington, the university president to serious criticism than a butterfly or a humming-
who is the central figure in “ The Torch,” by Pro bird, yet we are disposed to suggest two matters
fessor Herbert M. Hopkins. Babington presides that come near to being defects. One of them is
over a Western institution, and is a compound of the introduction for one brief scene of the Ameri-
bully and hypocrite, tuft-hunter and snob When can friend of the hero, who plays no real part in
66
ever he


1904.)
121
THE DIAL
cer-
the story, and serves only to help the hero make Earl of Westport, falls in love with the earl's
conversation when next he meets his heart's desire. daughter, and wins her by sheer audacity in the
The other is a certain over-insistence upon the face of all sorts of obstacles. The depiction of this
money motive, which clouds the bright romantic character and the account of his deeds seem to be
atmosphere of the tale. Such lovers as these have intended as a satire upon this particular type of
nothing to do with such considerations; they are swashbuckling adventure, and the stock situations
not denizens of a material and mercenary world, are outlined in a spirit of extravagant burlesque
and their fortunes are not bound up in the ordinary which is highly amusing. The book is a singularly
concerns of an average prosaic humanity.
racy one, and may be read with unflagging interest.
Mr. Will Payne's new story, “ Mr. Salt," offers When we reviewed “The Bath Comedy," by
u8 another picture of commercialism in a great Mr. and Mrs. Egerton Castle, we remarked that we
city, this time in vignette form, for the work is “would gladly remain in such company for an in-
hardly more than a novelette. The hero - if we definite period.” It is to the same company of
may apply to him that useful term — is a captain Mistress Kitty and her satellites that we are again
of industry, and the heroine one of his stenogra- introduced by “Incomparable Bellairs,” the sequel
phers. Since one of the first acts of the latter is to which the authors have kindly provided for the
commit perjury in a court of justice, in the inter earlier book. Kitty is as capricious and bewitch-
ests of her employer, we must be excused for ing as ever, and her devoted Irish lover (who really
tain inability to follow her career with complete wins her this time) is as audacious and reckless as
sympathy. The romance between the man and the when he made his first desperate siege of her affec-
woman grows apace, and ends in the usual way. tions. Other figures appear, notably that of a gra-
The story is written from full knowledge of the cious Qua