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THE DIAL
TE
A Semi-Monthly Journal of
Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information
VOLUME LVII.
JULY 1 TO DECEMBER 16, 1914
CHICAGO
THE HENRY O. SHEPARD CO.
1914


.
6
U,s'
1914


INDEX TO VOLUME LVII.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
o
.
.
.
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES
ARCHITECTURE, CLASSIC, IN ENGLAND
ART, OUR HOSTILITY TO
BALZAC AND FLAUBERT
BENNETT, MR. ARNOLD, CRUISING WITH
BLAKELOCK
BOOKS OF THE COMING SEASON, 1914
BRAZILIAN JOURNEY, A
BUTLER, SAMUEL, NEW REPRINTS OF
CALIFORNIA
CANADA, MOUNTAINEERING IN
CHAUCER AND THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE
CHRISTIANITY ON TRIAL
CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS, A GALLERY OF
CONTINENT, DARK, IN THE HEART OF THE
CRITICISM, GROCER-SHOP
CRITICISM, THE CRITICS OF
DEMOCRACY, A CRITIC OF
DICKINSON, MR. G. LOWES, ON EAST AND WEST
DOWDEN, EDWARD, MIND AND ART OF
DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN
EGYPT AND THE SUDAN, BRITISH ADMINISTRATION IN
ELLIS, MR. HAVELOCK, OBSERVES
ENEMY, OUR NATURAL
ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES
ENTENTE CORDIALE, THE IRONY OF THE
EUGENICS, THE APOSTLE OF
FICTION, RECENT
.
.
48
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
PAGE
Frederic Austin Ogg
296
Sidney Fiske Kimball
202
491
Grant Showerman
502
Edith Kellogg Dunton
504
Edward E. Hale
382
183
T. D. A. Cockerell
449
Thomas Percival Beyer
105
Charles Atwood Kofoid
496
Lawrence J. Burpee .
141
Thomas Percival Beyer
76
T. D. A. Cockerell
78
David Y. Thomas .
51
Percy F. Bicknell .
12
5
Herbert Ellsworth Cory.
371
Grant Showerman
389
F. B. R. Hellems
500
Percy F. Bicknell .
Herbert Ellsworth Cory
197
Frederic Austin Ogg .
252
F. B. R. Hellems
386
T. D. A. Cockerell
293
Homer E. Woodbridge
50
Percy F. Bicknell .
100
T. D. A. Cockerell
249
Lucian Cary. 18, 53, 106, 203,
255, 299, 340, 455
Frederic Austin Ogg.
76
Amelia von Ende
283
Charles Leonard Moore .
441
Frederic Austin Ogg .
138
239
439
456, 505
John M. Coulter
102
Carl Becker .
384
Charles Leonard Moore
67
Wallace Rice
337
William Kilborne Stewart .
333
George Bernard Donlin .
250
281
E. H. Lacon Watson
43
Charles Leonard Moore .
185
Charles Leonard Moore .
241
37
W. P. Reeves
139
Percy F. Bicknell .
247
W. W. Comfort
29
Horace M. Kallen
50
Charles Leonard Moore .
325
Arthur C. L. Brown .
77
Charles Leonard Moore
91
Thomas Percival Beyer .
14
.
.
.
FRENCH GOVERNMENT, THE PRESIDENT OF FRANCE ON
FRENCH POETRY, NEW TENDENCIES IN
GERMAN CULTURE
GERMAN EMPIRE, THE
GREENWICH VILLAGE
HOLIDAY Book MUSTER, THE
HOLIDAY PUBLICATIONS, 1914
HORTICULTURE, AN AMERICAN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF
HUGO, VICTOR, AND JULIETTE DROUET
ICONOCLASM, INCENSE AND
IMMIGRANTS, PAST AND PRESENT
KANT, A HUMANIZED
KEY, Miss ELLEN, SOCIALISM OF
LINDSAY, MR. VACHEL
LITERARY ENDEAVOR, BY-PRODUCTS OF
LITERATURE, ASIATIC AND GREEK SPIRIT IN
LITERATURE IN WAR AND PEACE
LIVE WIRE, A
LOLLARDY AND THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND
MAGAZINE, THE STORY OF A, AND ITS FOUNDER
MATRIARCHATE, THE CASE FOR THE
MENTAL EQUIPMENT, MAN'S ORIGINAL
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, SOME AMERICAN PICTURES IN THE
MIDDLE-IRISH ROMANCE, A
MISRULE, LORDS OF
MODERNIST, AN ENGLISH
.
.
.
.
.
56941


iv.
INDEX
Archibald Henderson
George Bernard Donlin
Louis I. Bredvold .
.
Percy F. Bicknell .
Laurence M. Larson .
W. H. Johnson
George Bernard Donlin
Charles Leonard Moore .
Alice C. Henderson
T. D. A. Cockerell
T. D. A. Cockerell
Samuel A. Tannenbaum
George Bernard Donlin.
Percy F. Bicknell
.
.
.
“ MODERNITY," THE QUINTESSENCE OF
NIETZSCHE AND DR. BRANDES
NOVEL, ESSAYS ON THE
NOVELS, SERIALS VERSUS
PARIS, BEHIND THE SCENES IN
PARNELL, CHARLES STEWART, New MEMOIRS OF
“PATHFINDER, THE”
PHILADELPHIA, LIFE IN
PICTURES AND WORDS
POETRY, RECENT
PUER, — PATER HOMINIS
SCIENTIFIC MAN, THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
SHAKESPEARE PLAY-LISTS, THE SUSPECTED
SHAW, MR., NEW PREFACE OF
TELEGRAPH, THE INVENTOR OF THE
THEATRE MANQUE, LE .
THEATRICAL TRIUMVIRATE, A FAMOUS
TOLSTOI, AN INTIMATE VIEW OF
VILLAINS, HEROIC
WALPOLE'S “ DEAR BOTH
WAR, THE GREAT
WAR, THE RELEVANCE OF
WHITMAN, WALT, AN ENGLISH STUDY OF
YALE, GRADUATES OF
YOUNGER GENERATION, THE .
.
PAGE
201
297
332
125
195
498
452
453
127
253
335
136
16
74
447
369
291
387
103
450
379
135
17
339
323
•
.
•
Percy F. Bicknell
Olin Dantzler Wannamaker
Homer E. Woodbridge
Garland Greever
Edward B. Krehbiel
Edward B. Krehbiel
Louis I. Bredvold .
Norman Foerster
0
209,
.
.
ANNOUNCEMENTS OF FALL BOOKS — 1914 .
SEASON'S BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG -1914
CASUAL COMMENT
NOTES ON NEW NOVELS
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
BRIEFER MENTION
NOTES
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS
LIST OF New BOOKS
•
263
465
7, 39, 69, 93, 129, 187, 243, 286, 327, 374, 443, 493
342, 390
20, 55, 79, 108, 142, 205, 257, 301, 343, 391
26, 58, 82, 113, 146, 207, 261, 306, 394
26, 58, 83, 113, 146, 208, 262, 306, 347, 395, 469, 512
27, 83, 147, 262, 348, 470
28, 59, 114, 148, 227, 268, 307, 348, 396, 470, 512
0
.
.
CASUAL COMMENT
66
“ America
American Literary Taste, European Appreciation of.
Autograph-hunters, An Author Pestered by.
Baconian Absurdity, The Latest....
Battlefield, The Poet on the..
Belgians, The, of Cæsar's Commentaries ".
Best-sellers of the Moment....
Book, The Desired Why It Is Not Forthcoming.
Book for the Present Hour, A.
Book-advertisement, A Novel.
Book-collector, The Undismayed.
Book-hunger in the Iron Range of Minnesota.
Books, Balm in.....
Books, Desecrators of..
Books ad Libitum..
Books with Which to Become Saturated.
Bookseller, A, of the Old School.
Borrow, George, Mementoes of.
Boy Nature Two Thousand Years Ago...
Business Man, The Literary Needs of a.
Carpenter, Mr. Edward, Optimism of..
Censorship, An Alleviation to the Rigors of.
College Customs, Primitive...
Comedy, High - Why We Have No.
Conspiracies of Silence....
Convictions, The Cowardice of Their.
PAGE
444
330
70
71
187
131
331
41
189
446
444
445
192
8
328
495
376
130
96
331
327
331
95
94
374
96
PAGE
Critic, Literary, The Limited Audience of the..
288
Culture and Conquest...
245
Ducal Correspondence, Humors of a..
131
Edition, Limited, The Most.
443
Educational Side Shows...
191
Emperor, The Learned Pastimes of an.
286
English, Sinewy, An Inexhaustible Source of.
130
Epic, A Proposed, in Four Books..
376
Fiction, Forbidden, The Fascination of.
133
Fiction, Immortal Characters in..
41
Fiction and Fact....
188
Fiction-taster, The Office of..
245
French Press, The Influence of the..
192
Frenchwomen Who Write for a Livelihood.
94
Genius, The Modesty of....
42
German Culture, The One Englishman Appreciative of.. 377
“Great Illusion, The,” The Author of..
190
Greek in the Original, Those Who Read.
8
Hawthorne's Exclusion from Boston's Hall of Fame. 70
History in the Making ..
243
Homeric Noddings.
286
Imagery, The Sacrifice of a Neat Bit of.
95
Immigrant, How to Win the...
42
Inferiority, The Arrogance of.
494
“James," The Genesis of.
8
Journal of Opinion, A".
446
66


INDEX
V.
331
493
PAGE
Journalistic Ideals
39
Juvenile Readers, The Prejudices of.
445
Law and Literature....
93
Learning, Aids to the Advancement of, a Century Ago.. 7
Lecture, The Decay of the.
244
Legend Masquerading as History.
69
Leipzig, The Big Book Fair at.
71
Leipzig Exposition, Impressions of the.
329
Librarian, A Thwarted but Undismayed.
Librarians, Would-be, Deterrents to..
446
Library, A, to Suit the Temper of the Times.
95
Library, Branch, Another Business Man's.
43
Library, Public, Summer Work of the...
132
Library, The, As a Promoter of Social Reform.
131
Library, The Interest of the, in the Coming Generation.. 331
Library Activity, A Check to.
330
Library Editor, The....
246
Library Extension, An Aid to..
376
Library Science as a Reformatory Agent.
189
Library Spirit Unquelled by Earthquake and Fire. 189
Library-user, Profitable Investment of the.
289
Library-users, Easily Discouraged..
131
Linguistic Peculiarities, Little..
493
Literary Life, The, and the Active Life.
192
Literary “Sensation," A Forthcoming..
72
Literature, The, of Little Nations..
328
Literature and Art, Disguised Friends of.
329
Literature as Viewed by Its Makers..
41
Loti, M. Pierre -- His Impressions of the War.
444
Manuscripts, Precious, A Holocaust of..
287
“ Mark Twain ” Character, A Famous.
288
Martial Muse, The..
129
Mexico's First Book.
72
“Movies," The Muse of the.
375
Nietzsche, In Defence of..
330
Orthographic Puzzle, An.
445
Parliamentary Poetics
190
Pensions for Authors, Public, The Question of.
43
People, The - What They Are Reading...
246
PAGE
Physician, The Literary Diversions of a..
42
Picaresque, The Charm of the..
243
Poem's Centennial, A.
132
Poet, A Misinterpreted.
Poet, A Royal....
244
Poetry, The Sustaining Power of.
40
Poetry and Prosperity...
328
Post Card, Picture, Educational Use of the.
289
Professorial Liability to Imposition..
245
Pronunciation, Puzzles in.
375
Protest, An Eloquent..
329
Publishing House, The World's Greatest.
71
Reader, The Adhesive...
375
Reader's Intelligence, Insults to the.
443
Readers, Duck-back
287
Readers, Juvenile, Prejudices of.
445
Rizal, José, Translated Writings of.
129
Ro, The Progress of..
246
Sapphic Fragments, The Poetic Worth of the Recently
Discovered
9
Shakespeare on the French Stage.
7
Shakespeare-Bacon Question, A Biblical Settlement of
the
191
Spelling, Simplified, Latest Recruits of.
70
Spelling-reform, Peace through.
494
Statistics, Amusement in...,
493
Tagalogs, Culture among the..
288
Tourgueniéfr-Tolstoi Breach, The Truth about the..
40
Treitschke's Casuistry
374
Typography, The Art of.
191
Unreason, A Protest against.
129
War, A Modification of Sherthan's Definition of..
287
War's Effect on Literary Production...
190
Warfare, Psychology of, A Proposed Book on the..
494
Watts-Dunton, Theodore, The Friendships of..
7
Waverly Novels, The Ancient Dispute as to the Author-
ship of the.
133
Women -- Why They Do Not Buy More Books..
132
Word, Printed, In Awe of the.
9
AUTHORS AND TITLES OF BOOKS REVIEWED
as
... 394
Adams, Franklin P. By and Large...
464
Adams, Frederick Upham. The Conquest of the Tropics. 58
Adams, Samuel Hopkins. The Clarion.
299
Ambler, C. H. Thomas Ritchie.....
79
“Angell, Norman.” Arms and Industry.
135
Antrim, Saida Brumback and Ernest Irving. The
County Library
24
Arden, Joan. A Childhood.
25
Arkwright, William. The Trend.
54
Arnold, Winifred. Little Merry Christmas.
509
Atherton, Gertrude. California..
498
Atherton, Gertrude. Perch of the Devil.
204
Austin, Mary, and Palmer, Sutton. California.
496
Bacon, Edwin M. Rambles around Old Boston.
506
Bacon, Josephine Daskam. To-day's Daughter..
256
Bailey, L. H. The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture,
Vol. I., enlarged edition.....
102
Ballagh, J. C. Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Vol. II... 207
Barclay, Thomas. Thirty Years..
100
Baring, Maurice. Round the World in Any Number of
Days
506
Barrett, Michael. Rambles in Catholic Lands.
507
Bashford, H. H. Vagabonds in Périgord..
302
Beach, Rex. The Auction Block...
342
Beasley, T. D. A Tramp through the Bret Harte Country.. 457
Belloc, Hilaire. The Book of the Bayeux Tapestry.
507
Bennett, Arnold. From the Log of the Velsa.
504
Bennett, Arnold. The Author's Craft..
344
Benson, Arthur Christopher. Where No Fear Was. 57
Beresford, J. D. The House in Demetrius Road..
300
Bernhardi, Friedrich von. Germany and the Next War. 380
Bernhardi, Friedrich von. How Germany Makes War.. 380
Best, Harry. The Deaf..
24
Biggers, Earl Derr. Love Insurance.
342
Black, Hugh. The Open Door.
510
Blackall, C. R. The Son of Timeus.
511
Blunt, Reginald. In Cheyne Walk and Thereabout.... 23
Bonstelle, Jessie, and de Forest, Marian. Little Women
Letters from the House of Alcott...
306
Bosher, Kate Langley. How It Happened.
509
Bottome, Phyllis. Broken Music.
54
Boyer, Clarence Valentine. The Villain Hero in
Elizabethan Tragedy
103
Bradford, Gamaliel. Confederate Portraits..
51
Brady, Cyrus T. The Little Angel of Canyon Creek. 342
Brandes, Georg. Friedrich Nietzsche....
297
Brooks, Van Wyck. John Addington Symonds..
109
Brown, William D. H. Good Health and Long Life.
Brown, William Garrott. The New Politics..
58
Browne, Francis Fisher. Golden Poems, revised edition 460
Budge, E. A. W. The Literature of the Egyptians.... 301
Budge, E. A. W. A History of the Egyptian People. ... 301
Bullard, Arthur. Panama, revised and enlarged edition. 457
Bullard, F. Lauriston. Famous War Correspondents.... 305
Bülow, Bernhard von. Imperial Germany.
138
Bumpus, T. Francis. A Guide to Gothic Architecture... 394
Burgess, Gelett. Burgess Unabridged...
463
Burpee, Lawrence J. Among the Canadian Alps.
456
Butler, Samuel. The Fair Haven..
105
Butler, Samuel. The Humor of Homer, and Other Essays 105
Carpenter, W. Boyd. The Spiritual Message of Dante... 26
Carroll, D. H. Fifty-eight Paintings by Homer Martin.. 56
Carruthers, Douglas. Unknown Mongolia..
142
“ Case of Belgium in the Present War, The".
379
Castle, Mr. and Mrs. Egerton. Our Sentimental Garden. 510
Cellier, François, and Bridgeman, Cunningham. Gilbert
and Sullivan, and Their Operas....
291
Chamberlain, Houston Stewart. Immanuel Kant.. 333
Chisholm, A. S. M. Recreations of a Physician... 258
Clark, Barrett H. The Continental Drama of To-day... 392
Clark, Francis E. The Charm of Scandinavia..
458
Clark, George L. A History of Connecticut.
261
Collins, Varnum Lansing. Princeton.
259
“Comprehensive Standard Dictionary
82
Cook, Edward. Why Britain Is at War.
379
Cooke, Marjorie Benton. Bambi....
256
Cooper, Elizabeth. The Women of Egypt..
304
Couperus, Louis, Small Souls ....
300


vi.
INDEX
99
PAGE
Cox, E. G. The Medieval Popular Ballad.
303
Cram, Ralph Adams. The Ministry of Art.
112
Cramb, J. A. Germany and England..
293
Crawford, M. Leola. Seven Weeks in the Orient.
507
Crawford, Mary Caroline. Social Life in New England. 461
Crothers, Samuel McChord. Meditations on Votes for
Women
510
Cullum, Ridgwell. The Way of the Strong.
342
Curle, Richard. Joseph Conrad.
393
Cutting, Mary Stewart. The Blossoming Rod.
510
Daingerfield, Elliott. Ralph Albert Blakelock.
382
Dalrymple, Leona. In the Heart of the Christmas Pines,
new edition
509
Dalrymple, Leona. Uncle Noah's Christmas Inspiration,
new edition
509
Dalrymple, Leona. Uncle Noah's Christmas Party. 509
Davis, John F. California Romantic and Resourceful... 497
Dawson, Coningsby. The Raft..
255
Deland, Margaret. The Hands of Esau.
462
Dellenbaugh, Frederick S. Frémont and '49..
452
Dickens's Christmas Carol, illus. by Arthur I. Keller. 509
Dickinson, G. Lowes. Appearances..
500
Dickinson, Helen A. German Masters of Art.
459
Douglas, Alfred. Oscar Wilde and Myself.
206
Dowden, Edward. Fragments from Old Letters.
48
Dowden, Edward, Letters of, and His Correspondents.. 48
“ Drama League Series of Plays”.
82
Drummond, William. Poetical Works, edited by L. E.
Kastner
197
Duncan, Sara Jeannette. His Royal Happiness.
391
Edginton, H. M. Oh! James !.
107
Edwards, George Wharton. The Forest of Arden.
458
Ellis, Havelock. Impressions and Comments...
386
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Journals, Vol. X..
108
Esmein, A. A History of Continental Criminal Pro-
cedure
146
Eucken, Rudolph, Can We Still Be Christians ?.
78
“Everyman's Library
113
Faguet, Emile. Balzac.
502
Faguet, Emile. Flaubert..
502
Faguet, Emile. The Dread of Responsibility..
389
Fansler, Dean Spruill. Chaucer and the Roman de la
Rose
76
Ferber, Edna. Personality Plus..
342
Finot, Jean. The Science of Happiness.
111
Fitch, George. Sizing up Uncle Sam..
464
Fitzgerald, Percy. The Book Fancier.
463
Flexner, Bernard, and Baldwin, Roger N. Juvenile Courts
and Probation
336
Flitch, J. E. Crawford. An Idler in Spain.
394
Foley, James W. Tales of the Trail..
511
Forman, Justus Miles. The Blind Spot.
390
France, Anatole. The Revolt of the Angels..
455
Frost, Robert. North of Boston...
254
Gairdner, James. Lollardy and the Reformation in
England
139
Gale, Zona. Neighborhood Stories.
462
Gallatin, A. E., The Portraits and Caricatures of James
McNeill Whistler..
80
Gallatin, A. E. Whistler's Pastels..
80
Galsworthy, John. Memories..
511
Galsworthy, John. The Mob.
55
Gardiner, A. C. Pillars of Society.
306
Garofalo, Raffaele. Criminology..
56
"German Army from Within, The"
379
Ghosal, Mrs. An Unfinished Song..
204
Gimbaud, Louis. Love Letters of Juliette Drouet to
Victor Hugo
384
Glasgow, Maude. Life and Law.
395
Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, illus. by Edmund
J. Sullivan..
459
Gomme, Sir Laurence. London.
460
Goodnow, Ruby Ross, and Adams, Payne. The Honest
House
458
Graham, Stephen. With Poor Immigrants to America.. 304
Graham, W. A. Siam, second edition.
146
Graham-Smith, G. S. Flies in Relation to Disease.
144
Grahame, Kenneth. The Golden Age, illus. by R. J. E.
Moony
509
“Graves, Armgaard Karl.' The Secrets of the German
War Office
380
Hall, Eliza Calvert. A Book of Hand-woven Cover-
lets, cheaper edition..
508
Hammond, John Martin. Colonial Mansions of Maryland
and Delaware
459
PAGE
Hamsun, Knut. Shallow Soil.
20
Harris, Frank. Great Days..
19
Harte, Bret. Stories and Poems and Other Uncollected
Writings
142
Hartley, C. Gasquoine. The Age of the Mother-power... 295
Hauptmann, Gerhart. The Sunken Bell, trans. by Charles
Henry Mettzer
82
Hawthorne, Julian. The Subterranean Brotherhood. 346
Henderson, C. Hanford. What Is It to Be Educated ?... 257
Herges heimer, Joseph. The Lay Anthony.
204
Herrick, Robert. Clark's Field..
19
Hewlett, William. Telling the Truth.
107
Hill, Frederick Trevor. Washington the Man of Action. 461
Hinton, James. The Mystery of Pain, new edition... 261
Hope, Laurence. India's Love Lyrics, illus. by Byam
Shaw
508
Hopkins, Tighe. The Romance of Fraud.
81
Hornaday, William T. The New American Natural His-
tory, Fireside edition.
395
“ House of Deceit, The
341
Howe, M. A. DeWolfe. The Boston Symphony Orchestra 507
Hudson, William Henry. The Man Napoleon..
461
Hutcheon, William. Whigs and Whiggism.
25
Hutchinson, A. S. M. The Clean Heart..
257
Hutten, Bettina von. Maria.
53
Hutton, Edward. England of My Heart: Spring.
457
Hutton, W. H. Shakespeare's Country..
207
Ireland, Alleyne. Joseph Pulitzer..
110
Ives, George. A History of Penal Methods.
394
Jackson, Charles Tenney. The Fountain of Youth. 506
Jacobs, W. W. Night Watches.
391
James, G. W. Indian Blankets and Their Makers. 459
James, Henry. Notes on Novelists....
332
James, Herman G. Applied City Government.
261
Jastrow, Morris, Jr. Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions 112
Jenks, Jeremiah W., and Lauck, W. Jett. The Immigra-
tion Problem, revised and enlarged edition.
22
Johnson, Stanley C. History of Emigration..
260
Jordan, David Starr and Harvey E. War's Aftermath... 394
Joyce, Thomas A. Mexican Archæology...
303
Judson, Katharine B. Myths and Legends of the Mis-
sissippi Valley
464
Kennedy, J. M. How the War Began.
379
Keppel Frederick. Columbia
301
Key, Ellen. The Younger Generation.
250
Kirtlan, Ernest J. B. Beowulf..
460
Koester, Frank. Modern City Planning...
345
Kolb, Ellsworth L. Through the Grand Canyon.
456
Lagerlöf, Selma. The Legend of the Sacred Image.. 509
Lang, Andrew. Oxford, new edition..
461
Law, Ernest. More about Shakespeare Forgeries
16
Leonard, R. M. Oxford Garlands...
464
Lessing, Bruno. With the Best Intention..
390
Lewis, G. Griffin. The Mystery of the Oriental Rug. 508
“Loeb Classical Library
.82, 306
London, Jack. The Mutiny of the Elsinore.
342
Loti, Pierre. Egypt, new edition...
208
Low, Sidney. Egypt in Transition.
252
Lucas, E. V. A Wanderer in Venice.
506
Lucas, E. V. Lucas' Annual.
345
Lucas, J. Our Villa in Italy.
260
Lützow, Franz. The Hussite Wars.
261
Lytton, Constance. Prisons and Prisoners.
143
Mabie, Louise Kennedy. The Lights Are Bright.
107
Macaulay's History of England, illustrated edition. 113
MacFarlane, Peter Clark. Those Who Have Come Back. 346
MacGill, Patrick. Songs of the Dead End.
254
Mackenzie, W. R. The English Morality from the Point
of View of Allegory..
111
Mangold, George B. Problems of Child Welfare.
335
Markham, Edwin, Lindsey, Benjamin B., and Creel,
George, Children in Bondage
337
Martins, J. P. O. The Golden Age of Prince Henry.. 205
Maspero, Gaston. Manual of Egyptian Archæology, sixth
edition
Matson, Esther. A Book of Inscriptions.
463
Mavor, James. Economic History of Russia. ,
341
Maycock, Willoughby. With Mr. Chamberlain in the
United States
205
McClure, S. S. My Autobiography.
247
McEvoy, Charles. Private Affairs.
390
Mcllwaine, H. R. Journal of the House of Burgesses of
Virginia
209
Mecklenburg, Duke of, From the Congo to the Niger
and the Nile..
12
23


INDEX
vii.
PAGE
Melville, Lewis. The Berry Papers...
450
Merrick, Leonard. When Love Flies Out o' the Window. 107
Meynell, Alice. Essays...
261
Mitford, E. Bruce. Japan's Inheritance.
143
Moore, T. Sturge. The Sea Is Kind..
253
Moqué, Alice Lee, Delightful Dalmatia.
458
Morgan, Barbara Spofford. The Backward Child.
25
Morse, Edward Lind. Samuel F. B. Morse.
447
Munro, William Bennett. Selections from the Federalist. 261
Münsterberg, Hugo. The War and America..
343
Neeser, Robert W. Our Many-sided Navy.
145
Nettleton, George Henry. English Drama of the Restora-
tion and 18th Century..
50
Neuman, A. R. Dr. Barnardo as I Knew Him.
395
Nicholls, William Jasper. Wild Mustard..
391
Nicholson, Meredith. The Poet...
462
Noble, Margaret E., and Coomaraswamy, Ananda K.
Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists..
81
Norris, Kathleen. Saturday's Child.
256
Northend, Mary H. Historic Homes of New England.. 461
Ogg, Frederic Austin. Daniel Webster.
23
O'Keeffe, J. G. The Frenzy of Suibhne.
Olcott, Charles S. The Lure of the Camera.
457
Onions, Oliver. Gray Youth..
20
" Ooze Leather Christmas Series"
462
Oppenheim, James. Songs for the New Age..
255
O'Shea, Katharine. Charles Stewart Parnell.
498
Oxen ham, John. Maid of the Mist...
390
Pahlow, Gertrude. The Gilded Chrysalis.
391
Palmer, Howard. Mountaineering and Exploration in
the Selkirks
141
Park, J. Edgar. The Rejuvenation of Father Christmas. 510
Parnell, John Howard. Charles Stewart Parnell... 498
" Pastor's Wife, The".
456
Pearson, Karl. The Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis
Galton, Vol. I...
249
Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Joseph. Our Philadelphia. 453
Pennell, Mrs. Joseph. Hans Breitmann's Ballads. 508
Perry-Ascough, H. G. C., and Otter-Barry, R. B. With
the Russians in Mongolia..
142
Peterson, Margaret. Blind Eyes..
342
Petre, F. Loraine. Napoleon at Bay.
111
Phillpotts, Eden. Faith Tresilion....
54
Pickard-Cambridge, A. W. Demosthenes.
305
Pinchot, Gifford. The Training of a Forester.
206
Poincaré, Raymond. How France Is Governed..
76
Porterfield, Allen. Outline of German Romanticism. 394
Prince, Morton. The Unconscious.
20
Quint, Wilder Dwight. The Story of Dartmouth.. 460
Rawnsley, W. F. Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire 506
Read, Opie. The New Mr. Howerson.
204
Reed, John. Insurgent Mexico.....
303
Rice, William Gorham. Carillons of Belgium and Hol-
land
508
Richardson, A. E. Monumental Classic Architecture. 202
Richardson, Russell. Europe from a Motor Car.
259
Ridger, A. Loton. A Wanderer's Trail.
56
Rihbany, Abraham Mitrie. A Far Journey
302
Roberts, Helen C. A Free Hand..
19
Roberts, Myrtle Glenn. The Foot of the Rainbow...... 463
Roosevelt, Theodore. Through the Brazilian Wilderness. 449
Ross, Edward Alsworth. The Old World in the New.... 337
Sabin, Edwin L. Kit Carson Days..
343
Saint, Lawrence B. A Knight of the Cross.
511
Salzmann, L. F. Henry II...
258
Sampson, Alden. Studies in Milton.
108
Samuel, Horace B.
Modernities.....
201
Sanchez, Nellie Van de Grift. Spanish and Indian Place
Names
497
Saunders, C. F. With Flowers and Trees in California. . 496
Saylor, H. H. Country Houses by Aymar Embury, II... 508
Schauffler, Robert Haven. The Joyful Heart.
510
Scott, Leroy. No. 13 Washington Square..
107
Seawell, Molly Elliot. Betty's Virginia Christmas. 462
Sedgwick, Anne Douglas. The Encounter..
340
“Selection of Latin Verse
146
Sélincourt, Basil de. Walt Whitman.
17
Shackleton, Robert, Mr. and Mrs. The Charm of the
Antique
459
Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, illus. by
Arthur Rackham, cheaper edition...
460
Shakesppeare's Midsummer Night's Dream,, illus. by W.
Heath Robinson
509
PAGE
“ Sharman Lyon." Bamboo..
464
Sharp, Dallas Lore. Where Rolls the Oregon..
82
Shaw, Bernard. Misalliance, The Dark Lady of the Son-
nets, and Fanny's First Play.
74
Shorter, Dora Sigerson. Madge Linsey.
254
Sidgwick, Ethel. A Lady of Leisure...
257
Sinclair, May. The Return of the Prodigal.
20
Sinclair, Upton, Sylvia....
382
Sladen, Douglas. The Real “ Truth about Germany 379
Slattery, Margaret. He Took It upon Himself..
514
Slingerland, M. V., and Crosby, C. R. Manual of Fruit
Insects
347
Sloane, William Milligan. Party Government in the
United States of America...
296
Slosson, Edwin E. Major Prophets of To-day.
391
Smith, F. Hopkinson. In Dickens's London.
457
Somerville, H. B. Ashes of Vengeance.
391
Spence-Jones, Dean. The Secrets of a Great Cathedral.. 508
Stacpoole, Henry D. The Poems of François Villon..... 460
Stephens, Kate. The Greek Spirit...
393
Steveni, W. Barnes. The Russian Army from Within... 379
Steveni, W. Barnes. Things Seen in Sweden....
507
Stewart, Elinore Pruitt." Letters of a Woman Home-
steader
21
Stokes, Anson Phelps. Memorials of Eminent Yale Men. 339
Street, Julian, and Morgan, Wallace. Abroad at Home. . 505
Stuck, Hudson. Ten Thousand Miles in a Dog Sled. 144
Sturgeon, Mary C. Women of the Classics.
464
Sutherland, Howard. The Promise of Life..
510
Suttner, Bertha von. When Thoughts Will Soar.
203
Tatlock, John S. P., and MacKaye, Percy. Modern
Readers' Chaucer, cheaper edition...
509
Taylor, James M. Before Vassar Opened..
55
Temperley, Gladys. Henry VII...
258
Thomas, George C., Jr. The Practical Book of Outdoor
Rose Growing
511
Thompson, Robert Ellis. The History of the Dwelling
House and Its Future.
261
Thompson, Vance. The Ego Book..
510
Thoreau's Walking, Riverside Press edition.
509
Thoreau's Works, edited by Clifton Johnson.
460
Thorndike, Edward L. The Original Nature of Man.. 50
Tingfang, Wu. America through the Spectacles of an
Oriental Diplomat
26
Titterton, W. R. Me as a Model.
511
Tolstoy, Count Ilyá. Reminiscences of Tolstoy.
387
Trevena, John, Granite..
204
Van Dyke, Henry. The Lost Boy..
462
Van Dyke, John C. New Guides to Old Masters.
26
Van Vorst, Marie. Big Tremaine..
391
Vassili, Paul. France from behind the Veil.
195
Venable, Edward C. Pierre Vinton..
299
Venn, John. Early Collegiate Life.
21
Vinci, Leonardo da. Anatomical Papers.
208
Wagner's Rienzi, trans. by Oliver Huckel.
464
Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, trans. by Oliver Huckel 464
Walcott, Arthur S. Java and Her Neighbours...
81
Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh. Outlines of Victorian
Literature
261
Wallace, Dillon. The Gaunt Gray Wolf.
391
Waller, Mary E. Through the Gates of the Netherlands. 458
Walpole, Hugh. The Duchess of Wrexe...
54
Walsh, William S. Heroes and Heroines of Fiction. 394
Ward, James. Color Decoration in Architecture..
112
Ward, Lester F. Glimpses of the Cosmos, Vols. I-III.... 136
Watts, Mary S. The Rise of Jennie Cushing.
341
Webster, Nesta H. The Sheep Track..
107
Wellington, R. G. The Political and Sectional Influence
of the Public Lands.
207
Wells, H. G. The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman.
455
Whitaker, Herman. West Winds..
462
Whiting, Lillian. The Lure of London.
458
“ Why We Are at War",
379
Wightman, Richard. Soul-Spur
463
“ William J. Locke Calendar, The
464
Williams, Henry S. Adding Years to Your Life.
346
Williams, John H. Yosemite and Its High Sierra. 507
Wolzogen, Ernst von. Florian Mayr....
54
Woodberry, George E. North Africa and the Desert... 57
Woodhead, H. G. W., and Bell, H. T. M. The China
Year Book, 1914..
146
Wylie, James Hamilton. The Reign of Henry V.
145
Yeats, W. B. Stories of Red Hanrahan...
110


viii.
INDEX
MISCELLANEOUS
“ Blast
PAGE
“Art and Archæology
59
Autograph-hunters, In Defence of. John Thomas Lee.... 133
Beresford, Mr. J. D., Trilogy of. Francis Buzzell..
11
" Bibelot, The," Conclusion of..
307
27
Books, The Banished. L. D. T.
134
Brandes, Professor, and American Culture. J. Christian
Bay
72
Children What They Should Know. Walter Taylor
Field
11
“ Conspiracy of Silence," The. Alen Wilson Porterfield. 495
“ Cornhill Booklet, The
307
Courlander, Alphonse, Death of..
469
“Criticism, Grocer-shop." Laura Tobey.
47
Criticism, Grocer-shop, and Real Criticism. J. E. Spin-
garn
96
Criticism, Impressionistic. Parke Farley...
73
Denominational Colleges, The Carnegie Foundation and.
W. H. Johnson....
99
Emerson's Journals. Charles M. Street.
289
“ Everyman Encyclopædia,” The, Article on Chicago.
J. Seymour Currey..
9
Flügel, Ewald, Death of.
469
PAGE
Fontaine, Lamar, and “All Quiet along the Potomac.”
Hyder E. Rollins..
45
Fontaine, Mr. Lamar. Calvin S. Brown.
290
French Poets, The Young. Edward J. O'Brien.
378
“ Heart of Heart." W. M. T......
47
Lemaître, Jules, Death of..
147
Lincoln, Unpublished Letters and Speeches of. Daniel K.
Dodge and Clarence W. Alvord.
11
Lincoln Public Library, History of..
262
* Lippincott's Magazine,” Sale of..
347
Literature and War. Helen Minturn Seymour
377
Mahan, Alfred Thayer, Death of.
512
Mexican People, The Character of the. E. L. C. Morse... 10
Mexico's First Book. Henry Lewis Bullen.
133
New Republic, The
208
Poet's Plaint, A. P. F. B..
133
Potomac, All Quiet along the." Charles E. Benton.. 73
Potomac, All Quiet along the.” Hyder E. Rollins.. 290
Reconstruction, The Truth about. B. G. Brawley.
73
Russell Sage Foundation Library Bulletin..
262
Suttner, Baroness Bertha von, Death of...
27
* Tempest,” The Use of. William H. Bowers.
47
Wagner, The Women of. John L. Hervey..
192
Wordsworth, Bettering. Titus Munson Coan.
446


THE DIAL
A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
PAGE
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 18t and
GROCER-SHOP CRITICISM.
18th of each month. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, $2. a year in
advance, postage prepaid in the United States and Mexico;
Foreign and Canadian postage 50 cents per year extra.
RE The metaphor is a homely one, and lends
MITTANCES should be by check, or by express or postal order,
itself readily to satirical comment, but Mr.
payable to THE DIAL. Unless otherwise ordered, subscrip-
tions will begin with the current number. When no direct
Bliss Perry deliberately adopts it for the de-
request to discontinue at expiration of subscription is re-
ceived, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is scription of the art of literary criticism, and
desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application.
Published by THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY,
what he says in its defence may be read in
638 So. Sherman St., Chicago.
his essay on “Literary Criticism in American
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post
Periodicals,” which occupies the place of
Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
honor in the July “Yale Review." “It
Vol. LVII. JULY 1, 1914. No. 673. surely ought to be possible," he says, to re-
duce the varieties of criticism “to the terms
CONTENTS.
of a single process, to conceive of criticism
GROCER-SHOP CRITICISM
5 as the performance of a single act.
I ven-
CASUAL COMMENT
7
ture to call it, as it has often, no doubt, been
The friendships of Theodore Watts-Dunton.
- Shakespeare on the French stage.-Aids
called before, the act of weighing." It is
to the advancement of learning a century difficult to get away from this metaphor,
ago.— Desecrators of books.— The genesis which the author elaborates by describing the
of “James.”— Those who read their Greek in
the original. The poetic worth of the re way in which a grocer weighs out a pound
cently discovered Sapphic fragments.- In of butter, and the chorus of excited protests
awe of the printed word.
against the very idea of there being such
COMMUNICATIONS
9
The “Everyman Encyclopædia » Article in things in criticism as standard weights, stand-
Chicago. J. Seymour Currey.
ard scales, and competent literary grocers,
The Character of the Mexican People. E. L. cannot eradicate from our consciousness the
C. Morse.
“ What Children Should Know." Walter
deep-lying feeling that it is the business of
Taylor Field.
criticism to estimate literature, to pass judg-
Unpublished Letters and Speeches of Lin-
ment upon it, to register the facts about it
coln. Daniel K. Dodge and Clarence W.
Alvord.
in some sort of objective fashion. That THE
Mr. J. D. Beresford's Trilogy. . Francis DIAL has upheld this view for upwards of
Buzzell.
thirty years is well known to our readers.
IN THE HEART OF THE DARK CONTI-
NENT. Percy F. Bicknell .
Such foolish vaporings as were indulged in
12
AN ENGLISH MODERNIST. Thomas Percival a few years ago by Mr. Joel Spingarn met
Beyer
14
THE SUSPECTED' SHAKESPEARE PLAY:
with our vehement denial. When that icono-
clastic gentleman asserted that “we have
LISTS. Samuel A. Tannenbaum
16
AN ENGLISH STUDY OF WALT WHITMAN. done with all the old rules and methods,
Louis I. Bredvold
17 we replied, as Mr. Perry now replies, that
RECENT FICTION. Lucian Cary
18 "we have done nothing of the sort." We still
Herrick's Clark's Field.— Harris's Great
Days.— Miss Roberts's A Free Hand.-
practice and believe in the grocer's procedure,
Onions's Gray Youth.— Miss Sinclair's The although fully aware that "there is some
Return of the Prodigal.— Hamsun's Shallow variation in the grocers' weights and in the
Soil.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS .
mechanism of their scales; that there are
20
In darkest consciousness.- Early life in an
garrulous grocers who talk when they should
English college.- The joys of homesteading. be weighing, philosophical grocers who have
Problems of immigration.- Chelsea celeb-
theories of their business, self-opinionated
rities major and minor.-- A manual of
Egyptian archaeology.-A great New Eng grocers who declare that they can tell a pound
land statesman.- The social position of the of butter by the eye or by the ‘heft' as accu-
deaf.- The pioneer county library.-A study
of the backward child.- Disraeli on Whigs
rately as if they weighed it.'
and Whiggism.- Memories of a childhood.
When it comes to the question of whether
BRIEFER MENTION
26
the literary “weighing” in our periodicals is
VOTES
26
TOPICS IN JULY PERIODICALS
27
honestly or skilfully done, it is hard to arrive
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
28 at an answer which is not darkly pessimistic.


6
(July 1
THE DIAL
There is an appalling amount of it - mostly Emerson made the entry in his Journal, one
the chatter of irresponsible young persons Edgar Allan Poe was subjecting current lit-
who are without the balance of fixed convic erature to a criticism so informed and so
tions, and without the background of that penetrating that it has survived alongside of
wide acquaintance with literature which is his immortal creative work in poetry and fic-
essential to any critic whose words are worth tion. And Emerson himself, who, we are
heeding. The trouble with most of this writ- reminded, “lived long enough to see the first
ing is that the compensation offered for it | volumes of the Chicago Dial,” was writing
is miserably inadequate for the reward of book reviews that we may still read with
any kind of good work, while the public which profit, and that are preserved by virtue of
it addresses has no real interest in literature. their fine intelligence quite as much as by
As Mr. Perry says: “The real difficulty is virtue of their Emersonian authorship. Since
that these untrained and underpaid journal-1836, we have had in Lowell and Stedman
ists are producing copy, as best they can, for two really great critics, and many others that
a public which is genuinely interested in are more than respectable. On the whole, it
stock-market criticism, in base-ball criticism, does not seem to us that American literature
in political, social, and economic criticism, is noticeably poorer in criticism of the finer
and, in a few cities, in musical and dramatic sort than it is in any of the other categories
criticism, but which is not very eagerly inter- which the convenient term of belles-lettres
ested in the criticism of books." But when, includes.
it may be asked, was it ever otherwise with
It certainly is an unfair method of argu-
the treatment of literature in the periodicalment to contrast, as Mr. Perry does, the im-
press? Granted that the volume of chatter
mense volume of our book production with our
about books and about the personalities of slender output of serious criticism: “If you
the authors has become enormously swollen, turn to the newspapers for information about
are not the proportions of wheat and chaff, the twelve or thirteen thousand books pub-
of bread and sack, about what they always lished in this country every year, you find,
were ? Of the critical writing of any past it is true, a heroically compiled mass of book
age, we cherish the small fraction that has
notices — many of them composed, in their
enduring value, because based upon knowl-
essential features, by the advertising clerks
edge and insight, while the great mass of
of the publishers who are trying to sell the
ephemeral stuff has been winnowed away, and
books. But do most of these books deserve
is now clean forgotten.
any other treatment? Is not this condition
Mr. Perry's thesis about the inadequacy of
a fair illustration of the principle of suum
American criticism is based upon two texts
cuique applied to literature? Does not the
one from Emerson, the other from Mr. Henry occasional worthy book find, amid all this
James. In 1836, Emerson wrote in his Jour-
welter of "literary” scribbling, the worthy
nal: “The literary man in this country has
judge and the considered verdict? If the
no critic.” In 1905, Mr. James delivered a
lecture in this country in which he said:
reader “has great difficulty in discovering
what new books are worth buying and read-
“I do not propose for a moment to invite you ing,” is he not in the case of the man who
to blink the fact that our huge Anglo-Saxon array
suffers from uncontrolled disease for lack of
of producers and readers — and especially our
vast cis-Atlantic multitude - presents production expert medical counsel, or of the man who is
uncontrolled, production untouched by criticism, financially wronged for lack of the best legal
unguided, unlighted, uninstructed, unashamed, on advice? Among the practitioners of literary
a scale that is really a new thing in the world. It criticism — taking the term in its most com-
is the complete reversal of any proportion, be-
tween the elements, that was ever seen before. It prehensive sense — there are “quacks” or
is the biggest flock straying without shepherds, “shysters” in numbers quite as great as are
making its music without a sight of the classic to be found in the professions respectively
crook, be-ribboned or other, without a sound of suggested for comparison. But we do not,
the sheep-dog's bark — wholesome note, once in a for all that, declare the professions of medi-
way, that has ever found room for pasture."
cine and law to be pretentious failures, and
Both of these quoted sayings are weighty, there is no reason why we should discredit the
but is the case really as serious as they would whole profession of criticism because of the
seem to indicate? At the very time when I follies and ineptitudes committed in its name.


1914)
7
THE DIAL
.
Mr. Perry is so obsessed with the flagrant count on the eccentric artist for warm and
immorality of the methods of advertising fre unbroken friendship, year in and year out,
quently employed by publishers that he finds through rain or shine, good fortune or ill;
the trail of the serpent—the disguised read-
but the closest and most enduring of Watts-
ing notice and the puff unashamed — in the
Dunton's friendships were with Rossetti,
columns that pretend to contain only disin- Morris, and Swinburne, and the greatness of
terested expressions of critical judgment. Un shown by the author of “Aylwin" in the mat-
these names, together with the indifference
doubtedly these columns are, in the case of
ter of collecting and making more easily ac-
many newspapers, thus prostituted to the cessible the products of his pen, may partly
service of the counting-room, and no con account for the comparative obscurity in
demnation of the practice can be too severe. which his own name and work have been
But the readers of a newspaper or magazine allowed to remain.
cannot long be deceived by this rank impos-
ture, and soon learn to distinguish the honest
SHAKESPEARE ON THE FRENCH STAGE re-
from the dishonest publication. And no array ceives in some respects a more adequate and
of instances of this sort of confidence game faithful presentation than in his own coun-
can shake the solid fact that we produce in try or America. The Parisians are having
our country a large body of critical writing just now what they call a Shakespeare sea-
exhibiting both knowledge and discernment, son, two theatres offering Shakespeare plays
the work of men of entire probity, not to be simultaneously - "Macbeth” at the Comédie
influenced by either sordid or personal con-
Française, for the first time in the history of
siderations to stray into the ways of intellec-
that famous playhouse, and “Twelfth Night”
tual dishonesty. There may not be enough
(“La Nuit des Rois”) at one of the theatres
on the rive gauche — and the versions there
of it fully to leaven the whole lump, but there
offered to the public are said to be much less
is enough of it to refute the man who, echoing cut and trimmed and adapted than are the
Emerson, still asserts that "the literary man stage versions commonly presented to an
in this country has no critic."
English-speaking audience. For instance, in
the Richepin translation of "Macbeth," the
one used on this occasion, the usually omitted
CASUAL COMMENT.
second scene of act four, in which Lady Mac-
duff's little boy prattles prettily with his
THE FRIENDSHIPS OF THEODORE WATTS-
mother and is put to death by one of the
DUNTON, whose death (June 7) goes far murderers, is retained by the actors; and, in
toward severing our vital connection with the general, there seems to be much less fear of
great Victorians among whom he so naturally wearying the audience by giving Shakespeare
took his place, must have meant more to him unabridged, untransposed, and untelescoped,
than can be told in words, and must have con-
than with us. Perhaps the French theatre
tributed immeasurably to his growth and to
trains time their departure with more regard
the development of his art as poet, novelist, it that the Parisian audience is much less
to the convenience of their passengers; or is
and critic. Beginning his young manhood as
suburban in character than our own play-
a solicitor in his father's office at St. Ives, in
Huntingdonshire, and going afterward' to going public, and can afford to take its Shake-
London with his brother to gain a larger ex-
speare uncurtailed! It is reported in regard
perience in his hereditary profession, he was
to the French performance of “Twelfth
inevitably led by his literary and artistic Night” that there is much less liberty taken
tastes and his love of nature to abandon the
with the comic parts, much less “business''
law for the more seductive delights of lit- interpolated, than when the play is given in
erature. Rambles in East Anglia and par-
the poet's own tongue. Must it be inferred
ticipation in the careless, nomadic life of the
that Shakespeare enjoys greater prophetic
honors abroad than at home?
gypsies, helped to determine the bent of his
genius and brought him into close friendship
with Borrow and Groome, with whom he is AIDS TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING A
ranked as one of the best interpreters of CENTURY AGO included (on the principle that
Romany customs and character. Other friends the end justifies the means) legalized lotteries
with whom he was intimate as a congenial for the benefit of Harvard College. With the
companion were Tennyson and Browning; Widener Library approaching completion as
Whistler he saw almost daily for ten years, the latest addition to Harvard's imposing
but one may question whether anybody could I array of costly modern structures, it is inter-


8
(July 1
THE DIAL
esting to glance back at the history of old the necessary scrutiny to returned books; and
Holworthy Hall, which owes its existence to borrowers are equally negligent about con-
a successful lottery conducted in the year cerning themselves with what they commonly
1806 under the authority of the General regard as none of their business. We have
Court of Massachusetts, as the legislature of heard of a library that adopted the practice
that State was and still is officially styled. of inserting in all books of its own binding or
That there was some belief, or some attempt rebinding a few blank leaves bearing a printed
to believe, that this method of raising funds request that they be used, rather than the
for educational purposes was wholly right and body of the book, for purposes of annotation,
proper, is evident from the following adver-illustration, or other voluntary contribution
tisement of the 1795 lottery, quoted by Mr. on the gifted reader's part; but how far the
Benjamin Baker in a recent contribution to device served its purpose we cannot say.
the Boston “Transcript,” — "So great is the
demand for tickets in the 2d Class of Har-
vard College Lottery, that it has become
THE GENESIS OF “JAMES,” a new novel that
doubtful whether there will be any to dispose is enjoying no little popularity among English
of, for several days previous to the 9th of readers at present, contains features of inter-
April next, on which day the Lottery is posi-
est to readers of whatever nationality. Its
tively to commence drawing. The spirit author, pseudonymously known as “W. Dane
which animated the first settlers of this coun-
Bank, 's is said to be on the sunny side of
try to promote useful knowledge, has, if pos- forty — or thirty-eight, to be exact - and to
sible, increased with the present generations; have started in life as an employee in a hat
and this is the evidence, That there is scarcely factory near Manchester; later he tried his
a single one in the community, either male hand at school-teaching, and finally took the
or female, who is not more or less interested road to London and became a free-lance in
in the College Lottery.' This gem of uncon literature. “James” was written at odd
scious humor is followed by an equally amus-
hours, and pictures with a realism that be-
ing bit of verse:
tokens personal experience of that whereof it
“The lisping babe cries, Papa, care for me, treats the fortunes of a young man who, like
Pray buy a TICKET- and in time you'll see the author, has worked in a hat factory and
The pleasing benefit thy son will find,
aspired to greater things. But of course there
In Learning faithfully to serve mankind."
can be nothing of an autobiographical charac-
ter in the account of James's rather ignoble
striving for worldly success, and in his ultimate
DESECRATORS OF BOOKS, or, in especial, those triumph with his incomparable hair-restorer,
who with more or less emphatic markings and Superbo."
“Superbo.” The kind of realism we have
underlinings undertake to instruct all subse-
here seems to indicate that the author may be
quent readers in the merits of certain chosen
an admirer and more or less unconscious imi-
passages, are scathingly denounced by the
tator of Mr. Arnold Bennett. But as to this
Portland “Oregonian," which thus classifies
the offenders: "The people who commit this ing a fuller acquaintance with “W. Dane
we can pronounce more certainly after gain-
offense fall into three classes: those who use
Bank.' The report that “James" suffered
ordinary pencils, those who use indelible pen- four rebuffs before achieving publicity sounds
cils, and those who use ink. The first are interesting and inclines one to suspect that
worthy of the rock-pile, the second of the
the book may be something of a masterpiece,
penitentiary, the third of the gallows. This though the number of rejections is not quite
is a nuisance from which the public library large enough to turn the suspicion into a
has always suffered and probably always will certainty.
suffer in a world where human nature and
pencils coexist. Nearly all libraries attempt
to spot the offenders by asking borrowers to THOSE WHO READ THEIR GREEK IN THE
report any defacement or mutilation that they ORIGINAL are commonly supposed, and not
may discover, and by directing attendants to without reason, to be somewhat above the
examine all books upon their return, thus average reader in intellect and scholarship.
making the latest borrower, unless he himself Whether knowledge of Greek is a cause or a
points out the evidence of misuse upon bring- consequence of this superiority, or whether it
ing back a book that has been misused, pre may not, to some extent, be both, would be
sumptively guilty of any markings or other hard to prove. At any rate, one is interested
disfigurements that the book may be found to in what Dean West, of Princeton, has to say
contain. But attendants have not the time, on the supposed influence of Greek studies in
or will not take the time, as a rule, to give securing for the student a high rank in gen-
..


1914)
9
THE DIAL
eral scholarship. At Princeton Greek is re text and translation of the manual of Aris-
quired for the bachelor-of-arts degree, but not tarchus of Samos on 'The Sizes and Distances
for that of bachelor of letters or bachelor of of the Sun and Moon,' prepared with great
science. In the course of an article in the historical labor by Sir Thomas Heath, a for-
New York “Times," he writes: “The bach mer fellow of English Cambridge, and pub-
elors of arts have maintained a clear lead lished in 1913 at the Oxford Press, is really
over the others in all the humanistic subjects, more important than the complete works of
such as philosophy, history, politics, eco Sappho, if they could be found; but Sir
nomics, archæology, Latin, English, and mod Thomas could not make the world think so.''
ern languages. They have at least fairly tied
and sometimes have led the others in mathe-
matics, physics, and geology, and have not IN AWE OF THE PRINTED WORD, the old-time
done so well in chemistry and biology, though bibliophile was likely, especially if he chanced
in the advanced courses in chemistry they to be a custodian of books, to cherish as little
take the lead at the end. The bachelors of short of sacred every volume that once found
science come second, and in a few instances lodgment on his shelves. In contrast to this
surpass the bachelors of arts. The bachelors we have what Mr. John Cotton Dana in the
of letters, as a rule, come third. Moreover, current issue of “Special Libraries" calls
the bachelors of arts lead the others every “the new library creed,” concerning which he
year in the small percentage of 'dropped' writes: "Select the best books, list them
students. These are cold, hard facts. It is elaborately, save them forever - was the sum
the bachelors of arts alone who have a general of the librarians' creed of yesterday. To-
and widely sustained lead in scholarship in morrow it must be, select a few of the best
Princeton during the six years in question books and keep them, as before, but also,
(1907-1912). It is not a question of leaving select from the vast flood of print the things
out Latin - for all the others have Latin, and your constituency will find helpful, make
in practically the same amount. It is clearly them available with a minimum of expense,
and solely the Greek question.” Inconclusive and discard them as soon as their usefulness
though any reasoning must be from such in- is past.' But such is still the librarian's awe
sufficient premises as the foregoing, yet so far for the printed word, or for that portion of
as they go these statements are significant it in his keeping, that the discarding process
and may help in some small measure toward a is as yet slow and timidly tentative; and the
settlement of the Greek question."
thought of adding printed matter of con-
fessedly ephemeral value and for only tem-
porary retention is naturally abhorrent to
THE POETIC WORTH OF THE RECENTLY DIS the conservative librarian. Mr. Dana admits
COVERED SAPPHIC FRAGMENTS, in which the that “the new library creed” has thus far
educated world was bound to take a lively been adopted by very few practising libra-
interest, is not rated very high by Mr. rians. Its universal adoption, however, unless
Frank B. Sanborn in a recent “Boston Lit by some miracle the present flood of print be-
erary Letter” to the Springfield “Republi- comes greatly diminished in volume, is in-
As Mr. Sanborn is almost alone among
evitable in the near future.
our men of letters in his practice of reading
regularly, with ease and scholarly apprecia-
tion, the classics that most of us dropped when
COMMUNICATIONS.
we left college, weight attaches to the opinion
he thus expresses : “I fear that these small THE “EVERYMAN ENCYCLOPÆDIA"
fragments of the Æolic Greek of the all-
ARTICLE ON CHICAGO.
admired Sappho may diminish rather than
(To the Editor of the THE DIAL.)
augment her poetic fame. So much of them Included in that excellent series of publications
is conjectural, and her diction is so hard to known as “ Everyman's Library" is a set of
emend, that the quaintness of them will strike twelve volumes entitled “ The Everyman Encyclo-
the modern ear more than their strictly poetic pædia.” It is disappointing to find in the article
quality." Probably a certain predetermina Chicago" a number of errors, a few of which
tion to discover excellence in any slightest I feel obliged to call attention to. The article in
fragment of Sappho that may be unearthed general seems to have been compiled from accounts
influences most critics in her favor, but Mr.
and descriptions made twenty or more years ago,
such as might be found in out-of-date gazetteers
Sanborn perhaps shows a disposition to err
and cyclopædias.
in the other direction when he dismisses
In that part of the article enumerating some of
Sappho in these words: "For the instruction
the important buildings of the city there is a very
of after ages in astronomy, the new Greek inadequate account given of the representative
can.',
on


10
(July 1
THE DIAL
ever.
con-
structures as they exist to-day. Several of those available to the writer of the article when it was
included in the list given have within recent years published last year.
been far surpassed in every respect by finer and In regard to the government of Chicago the
greater structures, but none of those built within article says that the mayor is elected for a term of
the last two decades receives any mention what two years, when the fact is the mayor's term is for
One, at least, has been removed entirely. four years and has been so since 1907. The popu-
In the list is mentioned the “ Board of Trade, a lation of the city is said to be nearly 3,000,000,”
granite building, with a tower 300 feet in height," whereas by the last government census. it was
and though the building remains, the tower spoken 2,185,283, which hardly justifies the expression
of was removed a number of years ago.
quoted. A little farther on, the population is
The twin structure, the City Hall and Court formally given as 2,815,000, which it is readily
House, is said to have cost $4,000,000, and “close seen is a transposition of the figures shown in
to it is the statue of Columbus." Both the build-
the census,
an unpardonable error in proof-
ing and statue were removed five years ago and a reading.
new structure on the same site was completed in In the historical portion it is stated that Fort
1911, costing $10,000,000. Among the great Dearborn was built in 1804, an error that at one
libraries no mention is made of the John Crerar time was a very prevalent one, but in later years
Library, certainly belonging in the front rank of it has been shown conclusively that the true date
institutions of that character both as to endow of this event was 1803. However, the “Encyclo-
ment and number of volumes in its collection. pædia Britannica” makes the same mistake,
The total area of the parks of Chicago is given
which is mentioned to show that writers of ency-
at 2,000 acres, whereas there are more than 4,400 clopædias are very often careless when it comes
acres included in the total area. No mention is to facts about Western history. In the bibliog-
made of the newer parks which have been created raphy the author of a certain valuable history of
within the last twenty years, such as Marquette, Chicago is given as “A. J. Andreas," a mistake for
McKinley, and Sherman Parks. : “Lake Front | A. T. Andreas.
Park appears in the list given, though that name It would have been a very easy matter to have
was changed to Grant Park many years ago. Mid avoided most or all of the errors above mentioned,
way Plaisance is said to have been the site of the as a few books of reference giving correct infor-
World's Columbian Exposition in 1893; and while mation on all these points were easily obtainable.
this is true in part, the fact is that Jackson Park It shows how easy it is to avoid one's responsi-
was the site of far the most important of the bilities in such matters by sitting down with some
Exposition structures.
old cyclopædia article and rewriting or
Among the institutions mentioned "Armour In-densing it without any attempt to revise or bring
stitute"
appears but not Lewis Institute, and the information down to date. Taking liberties
“Hall House” is erroneously printed for Hull with articles of this kind is a common fault with
House. The Field Museum of Natural History is writers of cyclopædias and works of similar char-
mentioned under its old name, long since dis acter, especially those on subjects pertaining to the
carded. The water supply, it is said, is “extremely newer regions of the West. Writers and editors
good,” which is quite true, but the writer adds of such works exercise much more caution when
that it is “ owing to the construction of a tunnel
the older cities and localities of the country are
four miles into Lake Michigan." As a matter of under treatment, for it is well known that negligent
fact there are nine tunnels in existence, one of and loose writing in regard to them will meet with
which, it is true, extends four miles into the lake, much more prompt criticism than our busy people
though none of the others exceed two miles in take the trouble to notice. Such an article as this
length. It is said that the “canal” (referring to about Chicago, with as many errors contained in it
the Drainage Canal) cost $33,000,000, though the as are found there, would raise a storm of protest
cost to the taxpayers was about $75,000,000, and from the large body of readers found in almost
the end is not yet.
any of our older cities and communities; but it is
Treating of the manufacturing carried on here taken for granted that the easy way will answer
the writer of the article says that “numbers of for our more modern city, where, it is perhaps
harvesting machines are made," which certainly correctly surmised, the few readers who do peruse
seems an odd mode of expression, considering that
the articles cannot find time in the mad rush of
one company alone turns out some 800,000 ma everyday life to pause a moment and demand cor-
chines of that kind annually in Chicago. In that
rections in the interest of accuracy.
part of the article referring to the grain trade it
J. SEYMOUR CURREY.
is said that the total reaches to “ about 3,000,000 Evanston (Ill.) Historical Society, June 23, 1914.
bushels of corn, oats, and barley per annum.
Whether the “total” refers to receipts or ship-
ments, or both together, is not stated, but in any THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN PEOPLE.
case the figures are grotesquely incorrect. The
total grain receipts at Chicago for the year 1912
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
were 322,000,000 bushels, and the shipments 244, It is a common saying that one must go away
000,000, the difference being the quantity con from home to learn about himself, and it is equally
sumed or remaining in storage at the end of the true that a person who has lived in Mexico must
year. There are later figures than those quoted consult North American writers in order to learn
here, as I am using only such information as was Mexican ideas and aspirations. Poor things, the


1914)
11
THE DIAL
Mexicans, don't know what they want; they are become educated. Doubtless the school is often at
inarticulate; we know, and we inform the world! fault, but it cannot do everything. It can teach
In spite of all this, may I – having lived in the lore of books, which it too often does by a
Mexico, keeping house, circulating among all cramming process, but after all the child will gain
classes and especially among peons — may I sug in the home, if at all, that broader knowledge of
gest that your reviewer, in discussing certain books affairs and that outlook on life which constitutes
bearing on Mexico, fell into the very common error culture as distinct from book-learning. Now, how
of reading into the Mexican people aspirations much are the average parents of to-day doing at
and ideas totally foreign to that very amiable and home to open the way for this culture? What is
immature race?
the usual conversation at the family dinner table?
The population of Mexico consists of some four- College-bred parents, who can talk intelligently
teen millions. Of these some two million are and interestingly on literature or science or topics
whites, chiefly Spanish, and the remainder, some of current interest, and who do so at their clubs,
twelve million, consists of Indian stock; Aztec, spend the dinner hour at home in discussing the
Toltec, Maya, Zapotec, etc. A psychological burning question of when the calciminer shall tint
anthropologist (or whatever the proper title may the parlor ceiling, or how the Joneses happened to
be) would probably call them morons — physically get that outlandish green auto, or perhaps they eat
adults, mentally children. In that respect they are in preoccupied silence and let the children chatter
much like our negroes before the war.
about anything or nothing. Is it any wonder that
Now, it is a matter of history that many of our children in such homes are not vitally interested
good people half a century ago assumed that the in the subjects that are given to them at school, or
negro had high and lofty aspirations for constitu- that they fail somehow to acquire an all-round
tional government and political freedom. In due education?
time things shaped themselves so that the negro You have referred to the ignorance of the mod-
had an opportunity to demonstrate to the world ern child regarding the literature of the Bible. I
just exactly what his “aspirations” were, just had occasion a few months ago to place two Bible
what concrete form these longings for freedom, stories in the hands of a class of third-grade pupils
etc., took. As we look back now at the shameless in one of the large public schools, as a test. Only
tale of graft, boodle, corruption, blindness to three children out of a membership of fifty-two
public duty, and wholesale inefficiency, we wonder had heard the story of Moses. A majority had
how the experiment ever came to be tried.
heard in Sunday-school about Joseph, but many
The reason is simple: we persisted in reading were very bazy concerning him. Has the reading
into negro character aspirations and ideals totally of the Scriptures at home been entirely abandoned
foreign to it - utterly incomprehensible to them. in these latter days, and is the change of attitude
And at the present day, undeterred and unen toward them responsible for the condition just
lightened by the patent teachings of history, a noted ?
WALTER TAYLOR FIELD.
large part of the American people still persists
in the error of assuming aspirations and ideals
Chicago, June 20, 1914.
among a people unable to read and write of which
they have not the slightest inkling.
UNPUBLISHED LETTERS AND SPEECHES OF
American and other foreign observers unite in
LINCOLN.
limiting the aspirations of the average peon of
Mexico to such simple things as a sufficiency of
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
frejoles, tortillas and pan dulce to eat; a suit of The undersigned have been appointed by the
cotton clothes and the inevitable frazada to wear,
Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library
an adobe shanty with a few sticks of furniture editors of a collection of uncollected and unprinted
to live in; an occasional bullfight or shady comedy letters, speeches, etc., of Abraham Lincoln. We
to witness; and vague unlimited aspirations for should greatly appreciate any information concern-
mescal, gambling, cockfighting, robbery, and mur ing such material that may be furnished us by
der when drunk. He not only has no aspiration
for representative government, just and impartial
DANIEL K. DODGE,
judiciary, civil service reform, and community
CLARENCE W. ALVORD.
altruism, but the very terms are meaningless to University of Illinois, Urbana, June 22, 1914.
him. The
peon
is four-fifths of the Mexican
people.
E. L. C. MORSE.
MR. J. D. BERESFORD'S TRILOGY.
Chicago, June 20, 1914.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
“ WHAT CHILDREN SHOULD KNOW."
I should like to devise means of persuading Mr.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
J. D. Beresford to complete the trilogy which he
The editorial on "What Children Should Know,"
began so wonderfully well in “ The Early History
of Jacob Stahl ” and continued only less won-
in the last issue of THE DIAL, offers food for re-
flection. You are right, I think, in placing upon
derfully in "A Candidate for Truth.” Would not
the parents much of the blame for the ignorance
a petition signed by admirers of these novels have
of the coming generation. We depend upon the
an effect? I should be happy to assist in the circu-
lation of such a petition.
school to supply our children with culture, and we
FRANCIS BUZZELL.
blame the school if the child does not respond and Lake Bluff, Ill., June 26, 1914.
your readers.


12
(July 1
THE DIAL
ness.
The New Books.
style. Everyone sings the praises of King Albert
of Belgium, who has not only generously renounced
his very considerable private revenues from the
IN THE HEART OF THE DARK CONTINENT. *
Congo, but has himself contributed large sums of
money towards the introduction of modern appli-
Of late years the wilds of Africa have had ances, and towards combatting the sleeping sick-
no lack of visits from eminent explorers,
hunters, geographers, ethnologists, anthropolo-
“ It will be time enough to discuss the promised
gists, zoologists, botanists, and other seekers
Congo reforms together with their influence on
after things new and strange and interesting
international trade, which is so closely bound up
in them, when they have become an accomplished
in the little-known interior of the Dark Con-
fact — and this is still a long way off.
tinent. The fruits of one of the most notable
“Now, at any rate, contrary to the assertions of
of these expeditions are offered, so far as they
biased newspapers, the natives enjoy considerate
can be offered in a book, in the two handsome treatment, not only here, but in many other parts
volumes describing the operations of the Ger of the West Coast, a treatment regarded with grave
man exploring party headed by the Duke of anxiety by such as really understand negro psy-
Mecklenburg in 1910-1911, being the second chology. The manner in which justice is admin-
African expedition conducted by this intrepid
istered in some of the chief West African towns,
explorer. But although his name appears on
in many cases positively favouring the negroes to
the title-page as sole author, not more than
an incredible degree, seriously resembles an unac-
one-seventh of the book is from his pen, the
countable panic. Such obvious anxiety not to
offend so-called 'influential' individuals must in
remaining six-sevenths being the work of five
the long run have injurious results. For natives
other members of the party, who were engaged are quick to recognize timidity, and to take advan-
in subsidiary expeditions aside from the main
tage of it. I could mention several examples bear-
route.
ing out this statement only too well. Every
"From the Congo to the Niger and the traveller should consider it his duty to call attention
Nile” designates in a general way the pur-
to the need of just but stern government."
pose and character of this central African
The writer regards the economic develop-
exploring enterprise, in which its leader con ment of the Congo as "seriously endangered
fined his activities chiefly to the regions of the by the new regulations regarding the treat-
Middle-Congo, Ubangi, Lake Tchad, and the
ment of the natives." It is reported, though
Binue (or Benue) and Niger rivers, while his
we need not necessarily be alarmed by the
aids pushed their several ways eastward to statement, that the profits from rubber-pro-
the White Nile and up to its confluence with
duction have of late materially diminished.
the Blue Nile, through the German Congo and
As the government no longer uses force in
South Cameroons, and to the islands of Fer collecting the rubber by native industry, the
nando Po and Annobon. The purpose of all large collecting stations have become useless.
these trips was, of course, to obtain geograph Plantations now offer the sole means of obtain-
ical, ethnological, anthropological, zoological, ing rubber, but even here there are serious
botanical, and other useful information, and
obstacles in the regulations forbidding the
to collect specimens of animal and plant life
employment of unwilling native laborers, so
in other words, to enlarge the bounds of that the early abandonment of these planta-
human knowledge as to this little-travelled
tions seems unavoidable. Better that, how-
section of the globe, in which a considerable
ever, than the perpetuation of a barbarous
extent of recently-acquired German territory
system of peonage or negro slavery.
beckoned alluringly to German explorers and
In contrast to that “just but stern govern-
scientists.
ment” advocated by the traveller familiar
· Evidences of improved conditions in the
with German methods of administration, na-
Belgian Congo were noted by the explorers,
tive African systems of government and of
though not all the changes observed by them judicial procedure are certainly feeble and in-
were fully approved. We read, for example
effectual. In the Mandja country “the chiefs
in the opening chapter:
have absolutely no authority over their sub-
“In Boma we noticed several alterations and
improvements. The sleeping sickness, which still jects, the government being highly demo-
cratic. A chief cannot punish any of his
ravages a great part of the interior of Africa, has
necessitated the extension of the splendid hospital, subjects, and has no means of enforcing obe-
and the large palace of the Governor is soon to be
dience." In the detection of crime, trials by
replaced by a new building in the modern European fire or poison are customary. A suspected
thief is made to hold his hand in the fire, and
* FROM THE CONGO TO THE NIGER AND THE NILE. if it burns him he is declared guilty; or he
Account of the
African Expedition of
By Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg. may be forced to drink poison, and if he dies
With 514 illustrations from photographs and
drawings, and a map. Philadelphia: The John Winston Co. of it his guilt is proved, but if he survives he
An
German
Central
In
1910-1911.
two volumes.


1914)
13
THE DIAL
is innocent. Among the Niellims there is a venerable old man named Bogpingi, he says
bee-hive test that serves the same purpose as that the patriarch related with great pride the
the ordeal by fire or poison. The accused is history of his origin, which is as follows:
compelled to thrust his hand into a bee-hive,
“His great-grandfather, Rumbi, had once upon
and if the bees resent the intrusion in their
a time lost his way in the great Congo forest, and
usual manner the suspected one is pronounced had lived by himself until he made friends with
guilty, a contrary result causing a correspond a herd of chimpanzees. He made his home with
ing verdict. But the court is commonly won this herd, and eventually married a chimpanzee
over by unfair means by the plaintiff; that
young lady.
By this union he had several children,
is, the bees are irritated beforehand, and hence amongst them Bansira, who was afterwards Bog-
an acquittal is all but unknown.
pingi's grandfather. Bansira was finally adopted
German criticism of rules and regulations by the Pambias, and his family has remained with
in districts controlled by the French is not
this tribe ever since; his son was the chief Gimma,
the father of my informant Bogpingi. The old
unnaturally to be found in the book.. For gentleman was very proud of having had a chim-
example, in the Duke of Mecklenburg's ac-
panzee for his great-grandmother, and his face
count of his explorations about Lake Tchad certainly confirmed his account of his ancestry,
we read:
bearing an unmistakable resemblance to my two
“ The daily loading of the animals was indeed a tame chimpanzees. Several times in this country
sore trial of our patience. Each ox carries his
I came across families claiming a direct descent
driver and a load suspended on each side, which
from anthropoid apes, which they regarded as a
must be very carefully balanced to prevent the special honour, and by no means as a disgrace!"
heavier load from dragging down the lighter. This One further notable passage must be given,
was an almost daily occurrence, so that we became this time from Dr. Arnold Schultze's travels
quite accustomed to hear the crash of falling pack in the German Congo and South Cameroons,
ing-cases, although this did not exactly improve
as related by him in the second volume. Near
their contents. The preparations for starting the village of Lau, between Yukaduma and
always occupied at least an hour and a half,
whereas well-drilled carriers get ready to march in Assobam, he was visited by a chieftain who
less than half an hour. The animals soon tired and gave interesting information concerning the
fell on the bad roads, which resembled nothing so
widely-scattered secret society called “Labi."
much as a frozen and newly ploughed field. The
“ The most astonishing thing connected with this
overhanging branches, too, pulled down the loads, society is its secret language, understood by all
and thus necessitated halts of varying duration members, and constituting a bond of union between
which were very tiresome. However, French 'hu-
natives belonging to the most diverse and often
manity' forbids the employment of native carriers hostile tribes. A Labi member may not kill his
in all districts where they can be replaced by antagonist in battle after the latter has proclaimed
animals. Perhaps the happy day will yet dawn his membership by means of a few code words.
in Europe when all manual labour will be for- Duku, a soldier who accompanied me, belonged to
bidden for humanitarian reasons !"
this society, and confirmed the statements of the
Sharper point is given to this ironical com Lau chief, adding that its members are found
ment on French "humanity” by the thought among the Yangheres, Bokaris, Bipalos, and Kakas,
less cruelty of the native drivers toward their
as well as among the Makas and Yebekolles."
beasts of burden. But in general we sympa-
No lack of unusual and often exceedingly
thize with the negroes in their decided pref- interesting information is to be found in these
erence for following their own pursuits rather generous volumes. The colored illustrations
than being coerced into the wearisome office and uncolored drawings furnished by the
of carrier.
artist of the expedition, Herr Ernst M. Heims,
Among the more interesting discoveries are excellent; and his pen contributes a nota-
of these explorers may be noted the stone ble section, “From Lake Tchad to the Niger."
hatchets and hammers found in Bagirmi and
Pictures from photographs abound through-
regarded as “traces of a far-distant age,” out the work, and a good map is inserted at
and also the “eatable earth" of the same re-
the end. The translation, commendable espe-
gion -- a natural product looked upon by the cially for its successful avoidance of the tone
natives as a great delicacy when made into a of a translation, is from an unnamed hand
kind of pudding sauce. Here, evidently, is
or hands. Some evidences of haste in the
the paradise of which our own clay-eaters preparation and proof-reading and printing
dream. Further eastward, in Bahr-el-Ghazal,
of the book are discoverable, as is commonly
there was encountered what might almost be to be expected in a work issued simultaneously
regarded as the long-looked-for missing link; in several languages; but the substantial
in fact, several links made their appearance,
worth of this contribution to our knowledge
as described by Captain von Wiese und Kais of equatorial Africa is not thereby impaired.
erswaldau. Recording his meeting with a
PERCY F. BICKNELL.


14
(July 1
THE DIAL
AN ENGLISHI MODERNIST. *
sistent Catholic book can scarcely be scientific
in a modern sense. That is, the deductive
“ Modernism” is a word which only re Aristotelian interpretations made by Thomas
cently has been found frequenting good society Aquinas in the thirteenth century have never
with a specific, not to say a technical, mean been brought into harmony with the empir-
ing. It would be a moderately good definition | ical methods of the twentieth century (and
to say that Mr. G. K. Chesterton is a Modern- therein lies the problem of the Modernist).
ist; but still only moderately good, for so Science is always heretical and protestant,
many Modernists are not what Mr. Chesterton whatever the bias of the scientist may be.
is. It may be better, then, to quote Professor Therefore when a scientific person and a non-
Santayana, from his breezy “Winds of Doc- Catholic to boot reads in Mr. Ward's Preface
trine”: “Modernism is the infiltration into that “the crude theory of 'private judgment'
minds that begin by being Catholic and wish finds few advocates" and that “heresies are
to remain so of two contemporary influences : of course a danger to the Church,” the audac-
one the rationalistic study of the Bible and ity of this cool conservatism is more startling
of church history, the other modern philos- to him than the last outburst of the highest
ophy, especially in its mystical and idealistic German criticism can be to the innocent lit-
forms.” A little further on he says in his eralist. But it will also be extremely salutary
brilliant and slightly unfair way: “The mod for that same non-Catholic to get the view-
ernist, then, starts with the orthodox but point of Modernism, not from a priest, but
untenable persuasion that Catholicism com-
from a Catholic philosopher and man of the
prehends all that is good; he adds the world.
heterodox though amiable sentiment that any The chapter on “Union among Christians”
well-meaning ambition of the mind, any illu turns a frank face to the great schism in the
mination, any science, must be good, and Christian Church. Why are not Catholics as
therefore compatible with Catholicism." ready as Protestants to coöperate against the
On reading the first half of Mr. Wilfrid common foes of atheism and free thought?
Ward's “Men and Matters'' one might not
Mr. Ward's answer is so important as to de-
feel the application of the foregoing remarks, serve full quotation :
for though the papers on George Wyndham “ What then is the true import and rationale
and John Stuart Mill and "Mr. Chesterton of the exclusiveness of Catholics? of their slow-
among the Prophets" all reveal the Catholic ness to amalgamate with other Christians? Why,
point of view, that view is truly Catholic, if they wish to coöperate with others against the
undisturbed by any hint of schism, modernist
common enemy are they not more ready than they
or medievalist; while the two delightful actually are to put out of sight points of differ-
papers on Disraeli might have been written
ence, to join in common worship, to send their
children to schools in which the essence of Chris-
by a Jew.
tianity is taught, though not the distinctively
It is in the second half of the volume that
Catholic doctrines? Why do they seem so slow to
the Modernism of Mr. Ward develops. Begin- recognize that in the great battle for Christian
ning auspiciously with an essay on Cardinal faith, forms of the creed are minor matters com-
Vaughan, the unity is broken briefly by pared with its essence? The reply may be put in
“Tennyson at Freshwater.” Then the burden various ways. The one which I think best appeals
is renewed, and grows in volume and dis to the modern mind is the view which is illustrated
tinctness to the end. The titles alone are elo-
in Cardinal Newman's Essay on Development, by
quent: “Cardinal Newman's Sensitiveness," his comparison of the Catholic Church to an
Union among Christians," "The Conserva-
organism. An organism has many parts perform-
tive Genius of the Church,” “St. Thomas ing various functions which cannot be regarded as
Aquinas and the Mediæval Thought," "Car-
equally important elements in its life-work. Yet
dinal Newman on
its power to do its life-work effectively depends
Constructive Religious
on the whole being kept alive and vigorous. And
Thought,” “Reduced Christianity," and
and for this object functions not directly connected
“Papers Read before the Synthetic Society.”' with its most important work are indispensable.
Although there is a formidable ecclesiastical Cicero's digestive functions are certainly a very
sound to these titles, and indeed not a little minor matter in our thought of Cicero as a world-
ecclesiastical material under them, yet the power. Yet they may have played an all-important
writer's sound historical knowledge and mel-part in the general well-being without which he
low personality, joined with his completely would not have left us the writings by which his
flexible and dignified handling, give them all greatness was established. The Catholic Church
no doubt claims to be the one indefectible guardian
an interest even to the general reader.
of the Christian revelation. Her exclusiveness is
The groundwork of assumptions in a con-
largely based on this claim. But it has also much
of its raison d'être in reasons which are the condi-
* MEN AND MATTERS.
tions of efficiency for any organism. Her creed
By Wilfrid Ward.
New York:
Longmans, Green & Co.


1914]
15
THE DIAL
tions."
and ritual and organization form a complete and Aristotle's metaphysical works, condemned by
living whole. Once you begin to tamper with it the Council of Paris in 1210 A. D. to be burnt,
and to suggest that only those parts of her creed
were “sifted” by Albertus Magnus and trans-
should be insisted on which she shares with other
formed by St. Thomas, until in 1254 they
Christians, you threaten the validity of the living
organism and the individuality on which its power
were in the official required list for the Bach-
elor of Arts degree. This lesson from Aquinas,
largely depends."
Mr. Ward would have the modern Church
This would be fine were it not for a defect | learn. He says the temper of mind of the
in the analogy of Cicero's “digestive func- twelfth and thirteenth centuries was much
Modern history takes very important like this of the twentieth. The material of the
account of Cicero's digestion. We are dog- intellectual questioning was different; but the
matically certain that life depends to an exces method, the precocious curiosity, was the same.
sive degree “upon the liver," that the deepest Therefore in dealing to-day with secular learn-
tragedies (such as Hamlet's) have all a phy- ing the Christian theologians "have every-
siological basis. So it is not quite modern to thing to learn from St. Thomas.”
assume that the liver is only obscurely in our It appears later in this essay that what St.
minds. Furthermore, is there not a sugges Thomas did was to join the philosophy of
tion of casuistry in the comparison of ritual Plato to the method of Aristotle, and Mr.
with such an important part of Cicero? Cic Ward's immense though natural mistake is
ero's baldness or the cut of his toga really that Christian theologians have still only
had no effect, according to the best informa-
Plato and Aristotle to reckon with. Mr. Ward
tion available, on his influence as a world knows something of later philosophies, of
power.
Pragmatism for instance, but he brushes this
Another passage to the same point seems last aside as out of court. Such a magisterial
much more convincing. Speaking of one of manner with this potent element in our Zeit-
the distinctively Catholic ideals, the monastic geist argues only fear of the opposition or
life, as a point at issue for Protestants, espe distrust of his own forces, or both. The
cially for Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Ward writes: “Summa Theologica,” however keen and
“Probably far more will be done to check infi effective a weapon in the thirteenth century,
delity by the zeal and esprit de corps of even one needs more than a simple readjustment; it
among the hundreds of Catholic religious orders must have a new handle and some new blades.
than by all that the religion in common between
The essays that are without ecclesiastical
Mr. Kingsley and the Pope would be likely to
tang are delightful. That on Disraeli flashes
effect not because the points in common between
them are not the most important ones, but because
light upon so many facets of this sparkling
in the monastic vocation you have the inspiration
person that the confluence takes on unity and
and the faith that can move mountains, while Mr.
historic truth. The treatment of John Stuart
Kingsley and the Pope are not likely to combine
Mill is as fine a piece of critical writing upon
so as to create any parallel esprit de corps or self-
a difficult and not over-engaging subject as
denying zeal in their followers. Zeal is needed can be found in contemporary literature. It
as well as truth, heat as well as light. Nothing is worthy of the early reviewers, of the hand
is more important than belief in God. Yet a mis of a Macaulay or the heart of a Carlyle.
cellaneous collection of theists would probably be
“Tennyson at Freshwater,” though a
comparatively lukewarm and ineffective apostles.”
charming piece of literary chat, curiously
Herein lies the only effective justification of misses the mark of its author. Mr. Ward as
denominations. Speaking in terms of formal a boy had known and worshipped Tennyson,
logic, as you inerease the extension of a term and in recounting some homely incidents
or thing you decrease the intention, until concerning the god of his idolatry” he dan-
finally the meaning grows so thin that it is gerously assumes that his readers will inter-
nothing but skin and bone with not a drop of
pret them as sympathetically as he himself
blood to give it force.
does. For instance, Jowett's remark, “Ten-
The gist of Modernism is contained in the nyson experienced a great deal of pain from
two papers, “The Conservative Genius of the the attacks of his enemies; I never remember
Church” and “St. Thomas Aquinas and Me his receiving the least pleasure from the
diæval Thought.” The conservative principle commendation of his friends," quoted approv-
of the Church has resulted in the continuous ingly, may not be considered altogether con-
double phenomenon of Resistance and Assimi clusive as to Tennyson's imperviousness to
lation. “The palmary instance of this as- flattery, but rather bears witness to a gluttony
similative activity - because the change was that no surfeit could satisfy. And Mr. Ward's
greatest — was the complete adaptation of the concluding anecdote has such a doubtful twist
ology to Aristotelian philosophy and to dia as to leave one almost suspicious of his alle-
lectical treatment by St. Thomas Aquinas." | giance:


16
(July 1
THE DIAL
“He was perfectly conscious of all that he memorandum, not in Malone's handwriting,
added to the effect of a poem by reading it himself, which agrees with the suspected play-list in
and I remember on one occasion his reading to Sir almost every detail, even as to the peculiari-
Richard Jebb and myself 'Come into the garden, ties of spelling. If the play-list was founded
Maud,' working up the passion of the concluding
on the Malone memorandum it must have been
stanzas with extraordinary power, each line in a
higher key than the one before it, and then his
made after 1812, the year of Malone's death.
voice falling suddenly with the last words:
Recently it occurred to Mr. Ernest Law to
· Would start and tremble under her feet,
examine the condemned papers, and he came
And blossom in purple and red.'
to the conclusion that the adverse judgment
He added, as the tears stood in his eyes and his
of his predecessors had been too hastily
voice trembled with emotion, 'No one knows what reached and that the questioned accounts were
Maud is till they have heard me read it.' And it genuine. Professor Wallace, Sir George War-
was perfectly true.”
ner, and others, examined the papers at Mr.
THOMAS PERCIVAL BEYER. Law's request and confirmed his conclusions;
whereupon he published the results of his
investigation in 1911 in a very readable and
THE SUSPECTED SHAKESPEARE interesting booklet entitled, “Some Supposed
PLAY-LISTS.*
Shakespeare Forgeries." As might have been
In 1842 Peter Cunningham, clerk in the anticipated, the little book and its facsimiles
audit office, Somerset House, announced that attracted the attention of students of Eliza-
he had discovered the original manuscript ac-
bethan literature the world over, and its con-
counts of the expenses incurred by the Master clusions met with general acceptance. There
of the Revels, Edmund Tylney, for the dra was one writer, however, who was not con-
matic entertainment of King James. The vinced, and who, in the pages of “The Athe-
“find” consisted of three folio sheets folded næum, attacked the questioned documents
into six leaves, twelve pages, which were held with great vigor and much learning, even if
together by a thread. In this pamphlet three not with that scientific accuracy that such
pages are devoted to an enumeration of plays an inquiry demands.
an inquiry demands. The little book now
presented before the king at Whitehall in before us, “More about Shakespeare ‘Forg-
the winter of 1604-5 and 1611-12, among eries,' " embodies Mr. Law's reply to his
which are included some of Shakespeare's anonymous critic; and it must be admitted
plays, with the dates of their production and that he scores neatly, fairly, and convincingly
the name of “the poet wch mayd the plaies –
with regard to most of the points made
Shaxberd." These lists are of the utmost im- against the Accounts. And yet the present
portance to Shakespeare scholars, for they reviewer is not convinced. The historic and
throw light on the hotly debated questions of literary evidence of the genuineness of the
the date of composition of some of the poet's 1604-5 and 1611-12 lists is not such as not to
greatest works, such as “The Tempest,
leave room for doubt. A question of this
“Othello,” “A Winter's Tale," and "Meas- | kind can be settled in only one way,— by a
ure for Measure." Twenty-six years after properly conducted scientific investigation of
Cunningham's startling discovery, the forgot- the MS. by a professional handwriting ex-
ten pamphlet was offered for sale to the Brit- pert along the lines so well described and
ish Museum by a book dealer. Sir F. Madden depicted by Mr. A. S. Osborn in his unsur-
investigated the matter and, finding that the passable volume, “Questioned Documents."
papers were public property, retained them Notwithstanding the many manuscripts Pro-
in the name of the government. After a fessor Wallace has read, he is in no sense a
cursory examination, the pages which mention handwriting expert, certainly no more than
Shaxberd's plays were unhesitatingly de- J. 0. Halliwell was. That Sir George Warner
clared to be “a gross forgery." Mr. Bond, “scrutinized” the questioned documents and
Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts, Mr. Hardy, pronounced in their favor, notwithstanding
of the Rolls Court, and all Shakespearean “a somewhat suspicious air about them,
editors and scholars, so regarded them. Speak- proves absolutely nothing. The report of
ing of pages 3 and 4 of the 1604-5 list, Mr. Professor Dobbie, the Principal of the gov-
Halliwell declared that the character of the ernment laboratories, stands in a different
ink alone warranted the suspicion that the category; but unfortunately Mr. Law does
forgery was perpetrated after 1812. One of not print the report, contenting himself with
the reasons for this statement was the fact quoting Professor Dobbie as saying that the
that in 1880 he had discovered among the general appearance of the ink is uniform
Malone MSS. in the Bodleian Library a throughout the book, that none of it had faded
more in one part than in another, and that
* MORE ABOUT SHAKESPEARE “ FORGERIES.” By Ernest
Law, B.A. New York: The Macmillan Co.
microscopically and chemically the ink shows
1111


1914)
17
THE DIAL
identical characteristics throughout the pam- and to the memory of Cunningham, the biog-
phlet. But this by no means puts the ques-rapher of Inigo Jones and Nell Gwynn, Mr.
tion out of court. All who have seen the Law should have provided us with such fac-
original MS., even Mr. Law, have said that simile enlargements (X 30) of parts of the
there are suspicious features about the ques- suspected MSS., with the full report of Pro-
tioned pages, such as the general appearance fessor Dobbie, with natural size facsimiles of
of the writing, the tint of the ink, the pres- parts of the unsuspected MSS., of the writings
ence of the names of the dramatists in the of persons who might have had a hand in
margin, the character of the ink, the punctua- writing these documents (Tylney, Swanston,
tion, the spelling, etc.
Cunningham, etc.), for it is not impossible
Mr. Law should not have rested with the that we may some day be able to identify the
examination of the ink, for there is nothing maker of a few pen-strokes from certain
more certain in modern bibliotics than that microscopic characteristics as definite as an in-
it is not always possible positively to deter- dividual's finger prints. A facsimile of the
mine whether the ink of a suspected portion Malone “scrap” would also be of value.
of a writing is of the same kind as the ink of A trifling matter to which we must call
the unsuspected part or whether the two writ- attention, because of the proneness of so many
ings were made with the same ink. And when, writers to make incorrect statements con-
in the case of old documents, these questions cerning Shakespeare, is Mr. Law's assertion
are answered it is important to know whether (p. 17) that the substantive plural plays does
the suspected forger could have obtained or not occur anywhere in Shakespeare's works.
made ink of that kind, i. e., whether the for- Julius Cæsar, speaking of Cassius, says: “He
mula of the suspected ink was known to him. loves no Playes," and Rosalind says: “good
It is extremely doubtful whether it is possible playes prove the better by the helpe of good
to differentiate the age of the ink in a ques. Epilogues." SAMUEL A. TANNENBAUM.
tioned manuscript that is not less than sev-
enty years old from a genuine writing three
hundred years old, especially if the chemical
AN ENGLISH STUDY OF WALT WHITMAN.*
composition of the two inks was practically
identical.
Ever since its first appearance, the poetry
The present inquiry is one of the most diffi of Walt Whitman has been received as a chal-
cult that a handwriting expert can be called lenge to traditional culture, sounding the note
upon to decide. We have to deal with the of defiance and revolution. But his disciples
question of a simulated holograph purporting have hailed him also as the discoverer of a
to have been written between 1604 and 1612. new world and a new life which is to replace
The suspected forger did not attempt to copy, entirely the old. Most readers, perhaps, find-
trace, or imitate any particular individual's ing in his poetry a genuine and valuable expe-
handwriting. We have, therefore, no standard rience, have been bewildered by these extreme
for comparison, and all that is left us to do claims, unable to accept them or reject them
is to study the questioned documents for such wholly. They have found in their very real
tell-tale evidences as a forger, unless gifted experience some implications which seemed
with superhuman cleverness, is sure to leave obviously absurd. Such puzzled readers need
in his work. Such evidence can be found
a work which gives more illumination and less
only in photographic enlargements of the heated rhapsody than the essays on Whitman
document by direct and by transmitted light. which we have become accustomed to. It is
Such photographs disclose things unobserva- from this critical point of view that the En-
ble by the keenest eye, such as patching, glish writer, Mr. Basil de Sélincourt, has writ-
over-writing, differences in the ink tints, dif ten his stimulating study. His purpose has
ferences in the pens used, erasures by chemi been to analyze Whitman's poetry, to state
cal or mechanical means, underlying pencil its principles positively; and thus make possi-
lines, breaks in the continuity of writing (as ble not only a relation of Whitman with the
if the writer were drawing instead of writ- past, but an intelligent estimate of his signifi-
ing), retouching, writing over the folds in cance for the future.
the paper (showing whether the writing was Mr. de Sélincourt has devoted about half his
done before or after the paper was folded, book to the difficult problem of Whitman's
very important in this case), whether tears in
art. Here the important feature is the aban-
the paper were made before or after the writ donment of metre and the reliance on rhythm
ing, differences in line, quality, etc. For these alone. Since the first appearance of “Leaves
purposes the reduced facsimiles published by of Grass" we have of course learned more
Mr. Law are absolutely valueless. To have
Critical Study. By Basil de
rendered a really important service to letters
Sélincourt. With portrait. New York: Mitchell Kennerley.
# WALT
WHITMAN.
A


18
(July 1
THE DIAL
thoroughly that rhythm is the more impor-cult for a young nation to contemplate with
tant, and even that great poetry can be writ- | religious seriousness its crudities. "Growth
ten without metre. Nevertheless, since metre is not a delectable word to those whose task
helps to make the intended cadence clear to it is to be growing. There is even a flavour
the reader, Mr. de Sélincourt thinks Whitman, of tactlessness in the use of it under such
in abandoning it, made a great sacrifice of circumstances.” It is not then so strange that
For unless rhythm “is | Whitman should have found his most appre-
communicated with exactitude, the words are ciative audience over-seas. “Writing for the
liable to lose their poetic quality and to be- mechanic, the pioneer, the rough, he forgot
come lifeless.'
that the rough does not understand or care
In the larger matters of construction of line for roughness, craving perpetually to be
and poem, the author is more sympathetic.smooth. His primary appeal is to those whose
The basis of construction, it is clear, is the ear he would not have thought or cared to
line, each line being complete in itself and gain, to authors and teachers, to the cultured
containing in germ the personality of the poet. classes in this old feudal world, to those who
By parallelism, by various devices of repeti are sophisticated and tired of sophistication,
tion, line is bound to line to make up a poem. to those who are chafing against limitations
The unity of the whole is not at first apparent, they must abide by.'
and is indeed achieved only by atmosphere, by What his countrymen can profit by, how-
the personality of the poet, and not by the ever, is the courage and insight which could
stricter imaginative or logical continuity. find a place in poetry even for the crude and
This summary of Mr. de Sélincourt's chap- the rough. Whitman believed firmly, and in
ters, though bald, is perhaps sufficient to his remarkable and too much neglected prose
justify the statement that in so far as Whit- writings expressed the idea with great co-
man is great, “it is not his daring unconven gency and power, that democracy must be
tionalities that make him so, though these in based on religious character. In the future.
themselves are such as to argue greatness of the human race must learn that its aspira-
a kind. He is great because, having chosen tions to intellectual and artistic culture were
his method, he takes the consequences of his at least partial, if not worse, and have too
choice with consummate pliability and respon- often stood in the way of the deeper and more
siveness.”
sacred principle of growth. For Whitman,
However, even after deriving from the book as Mr. de Sélincourt says, “is the poet of the
itself these principles by which to judge it, principle of life, of the pilgrimage and prog-
the reader finds that Whitman's work is very ress of the soul, of perpetual growth and
uneven in merit. Mr. de Sélincourt explains amelioration, of the joy of spiritual growth.”
that the poet's power “varied immensely at
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD.
different periods of his life; and being a poor
critic of his own writings, he finally arranged
them without regard for their poetic value,
RECENT FICTION.*
considering merely in what order the thought
of each would be most effective in its contri The novelist's business is to communicate.
bution to the thought of all.” But the stu The novelist who takes himself seriously is
dent of Whitman has to realize, as profoundly always quite as much concerned about the
as Whitman did himself, that the poetic value
persons to whom he wishes to speak as he is
of his work is secondary to its thought. His about the thing he wishes to say. His work
perfect lines, indeed, could not alone repre- is conditioned by their capacity for apprecia-
sent him; Whitman without his jargon, his tion almost as rigidly as it is by his own
bad taste, his absurdities, strange as it may powers of creation. If he finds that even the
seem, would lose much of his peculiar power. more clear-seeing and imaginative of his con-
The grotesque and ugly does have some temporaries are incapable of assigning to sex
strange function in culture, perhaps a lib-
its proper importance in life he may feel com-
erating one; but its presence in Whitman's pelled either to over-emphasize that impor-
poetry is explained by that wholesale tolerance
and undiscriminating sympathy which he con-
By Robert Herrick. Boston: Houghton
sidered a part of the spirit of democracy.
Kennerley.
Whitman ruled out of life the selective prin-
By Helen C. Roberts.
ciples of reason and taste.
GRAY YOUTH. By Oliver Onions. New York: George H.
The real crux in Whitman criticism is this
THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL.
conception of spiritual democracy. If we ac-
By May Sinclair.
cept that, we accept everything, --crudeness
introduction by Carl Christian Hyllested.
as well as beauty and grace. But it is diffi-
Charles Scribner's Sons.
CLARK'S FIELD.
Mifflin Co.
GREAT DAYS. By Frank Harris.
New York: Mitchell
A FREE HAND.
Dutton & Co.
New York: E. P.
Doran Co.
New
York: The Macmillan Co.
SHALLOW SOIL. By Knut Hamsun.
Translated with an
New York:


1914)
19
THE DIAL
tance or to ignore it altogether. If he finds “Great Days" as
as an experiment in social
that all they ask of a heroine is that she be psychology. He wondered what the public,
beautiful he may compliantly endow his hero or at least the reviewing part of it, would say
ine with all the graces he can think of or he to an adventure story which was written on
may obstinately insist on giving her a squint. the model G. A. Henty used a hundred times
But whichever the direction of his reaction to but which recorded the hero's experience of
those he writes for he does inevitably react, to
love — a minimum- in the same forthright
the result that he adjusts his presentation of fashion as his experience of war. Mr. Harris
his view of life to what he imagines to be their was unable to divest himself of his outfit of
view of life.
general ideas or of his satirical view of the
Mr. Robert Herrick is conscious of the de- English upper middle-classes when he came
mand for heroes and heroines: that is one actually to the writing of such a yarn even
reason why there are none in his novels. Mr. though he made the period that of Napoleon's
Herrick never completely forgets that his rise, but otherwise he has carried out his plan.
obligations to his public include that of edu It is too early to know the result. But doubt-
cating it; and everybody knows that educa less it is foreshadowed in the comment of an
tion is partly a process of giving plain bread avowedly “radical” literary monthly. This
and butter to children who would much prefer comment is to the effect that “Great Days”
cake. But this point aside, Mr. Herrick can-
is the big rough brother of Three Weeks, '"
not give us Great Persons because, perhaps, which is a sufficiently astounding misstate-
he does not believe in them. "He is interested
ment of the facts to gratify the perverse Mr.
in types rather than in individuals; which Harris. The rest of us will hardly be so
is only another way of saying that he is inter- pleased. For if we are still unable in this
ested in the way our society modifies an country to see that the difference between
ordinary person rather than in the way an
Mrs. Elinor Glyn and Mr. Frank Harris is a
extraordinary person modifies our society. basic difference, we have a longer way to
The formula of “Clark's Field” is precisely travel toward intelligent appreciation than is
that of One Woman's Life." The difference pleasant to contemplate.
is that Adelle Clark is a pale, dull, kindly It is difficult to say in what respect Miss
creature while Milly Ridge is a pretty, quick, Helen C. Roberts has modified her conception
ambitious one. Adelle moves among people of of “A Free Hand” in order to present it to
wealth in spite of herself, because she inherits her prospective audience.
her prospective audience. She has made an
five million dollars. Milly achieves a similar earnest, careful, and competent study of a
place in the world largely by her own effort. man whom the casual American would un-
Oddly enough the story of Adelle is the more hesitatingly pronounce a “dub” but who is
pleasing of the two; the vein of it is lighter to a degree made interesting by the desire
or the tone is more genial, it would be hard to for which Miss Roberts has provided a name
say which
It is a soundly written analysis in her title, as well as by his genuineness.
of the case Mr. Herrick has chosen and if it Ridley Courage is a dentist, diffident and
only once reaches any height of emotion it awkward, who marries a young actress, Alison
contains many entertaining and illuminating Grant, at a time when she is ill and discour-
passages. The chapter devoted to Mr. Ashly aged. She does not love him; does not, in-
Crane's attempt to win Adelle by the bold deed, pretend to love him. And when, some
bandit method of love-making is perhaps the years later, she finds herself strong again she
best of these. It should serve excellently for leaves her husband and their small daughter
reading aloud in those households where the in order to go back to the stage. The author's
hạbit of reading aloud still persists. But an sympathy is chiefly with the husband. He
Adelle can never arouse the enthusiasm of is of finer, if less triumphant, stuff than his
readers of fiction. Her significance is thrust wife; and being the more complex of the two
upon her; she is not important of and by he is naturally the more interesting to his
herself; she is important merely as an exam creator. But the reader will be quite as much
ple of our social product. It is more than interested in the woman and will wish for
possible, as I have suggested, that Mr. Her more about her, which illustrates the inherent
rick does not believe in persons who are difficulty of presenting the sort of person who
anything more than that. If so it is his mis cannot justify himself outwardly as well as
fortune and ours. For nothing less than a inwardly. Nevertheless, Miss Roberts's novel
heroine could serve to bring out Mr. Herrick's is an excellent one. The publication of one
best powers.
as good by an unknown American writer
Mr. Frank Harris is so interested in the would be an event. Our young novelists are
conventional demands of English-speaking not given to expecting so much of their read-
audiences that he has, I imagine, written ers as Miss Roberts does.


20
[July 1
THE DIAL
Mr. Oliver Onions demands attention as Americans he failed to meet has equalled.
the author of the trilogy of which “The Story There is real feeling behind it and there is
of Louie" was the final volume. His “Gray in it the art to make that feeling effective.
Youth,” which is made up of the two novels Mr. Hamsun saw twenty years ago or more
he has written since (and which have recently in Christiania a group of young Bohemians
been published in England under the titles poets, journalists, and artists — whose
“The Two Kisses” and “A Crooked Mile'') power was altogether out of proportion to
is a “clever” book. The first part is a satire their merit. His “Shallow Soil” is an attack
on the contemporary young woman who thinks on them, but it is not a propaganda novel in
herself and her chosen friends an enormous the bad sense. It is the story of the loves of
improvement on the generation which bore four or five young people told with quiet
them, who reads Mr. Frazer's “The Golden power. Such a novel compels me again to
Bough” and admires "the clear-sighted Wein- ask why it is that they seem to do these things
iger”?; the second part is a satire on the so much better abroad, not only in France,
wealthy social meddler - in this case the where the tradition of prose fiction is so well
young woman herself married, a mother, and established, and in Russia, but in little coun-
possessed of enough money to be dangerous. tries like Denmark and Norway. Do Euro-
Mr. Onions could have made it much keener peans write for a more intelligently apprecia-
than it is; at least it is to be hoped that he tive audience, or do they write for an audience
could. None of it cuts very deep and a good much the same as ours, but with more respect?
deal of it appeals to familiar and established
LUCIAN CARY.
prejudice. In a word it is too obvious. Mr.
Onions has set up a target on his own private
range and that is a pity when there are so
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
many shining marks to shoot at.
Miss May Sinclair, whose very literary
Dr. Morton Prince has formu-
in darkest
talent continues to occupy itself chiefly with
consciousness.
lated in his book on "The Un-
literary figures for the benefit of literary
conscious” (Macmillan) the
readers, wrote a preface for the English edi principles of interpretation of wayward ex-
tion of the stories she offers in “The Return pressions of personality. The volume is
of the Prodigal” in which she asked that they offered as an introduction to certain central
be given the same consideration as so many problems in abnormal psychology. It is pri-
novels. Only one of the stories, “The Cos- marily a book for students, and is presented
mopolitan, ” which is as long as a brief novel, in the form of lectures. Viewed from the sur-
deserves especial attention. It is about a
face appearance, and with attention confined
woman who sacrificed herself first to her
to the bizarre features of shifting and divid-
father — surely the deadliest bore in the ing and handicapped personalities, the vaga-
year's fiction
- and later to a cause. The ries of conflicting selves inhabiting the same
story which furnishes the title for the volume tenement of clay seem fanciful and myste-
is the least happy of the lot. The action is
The action is rious,- veritable Jekylls and Hydes of lab-
well enough but the details are without veri- oratory and clinic. It seems incredible that
similitude. Miss Sinclair's conception of the the normal issue of a decently consistent self
inside of a man who made himself a million should not be the fate of all; and the suspi-
aire in the Chicago pork-packing industry is cion arises in some cases that the dividing
possible; her conception of the outside of him
chasms are not so deep or so real as the sub-
is absurd. But there is fun — usually cruel jects relate. Phenomena of this kind cannot
fun — in some of the literary stories, like be studied in detachment; as such they may
"The Wrackham Papers," which Miss Sin appear to be freakish, but freak is a concep-
clair understands so well how to do. There tion unrecognized by any self-respecting
is even, in “Appearances," enough sentiment science. Dr. Prince organizes this domain
to appease the appetite of the American mag with a more minute analysis of relations than
azine editor — for whom, no doubt, it was put has yet been attempted. His distinctions are
there.
drawn with rare acuteness; and the resulting
Mr. Knut Hamsun, who tried on two occa system of interpretation has enduring value;
sions to make his way in America and found
rica and found however subject to modification, it stands
nothing better than a place as a street-car a notable step in the development of the sub-
conductor in Chicago, has now his revenge. ject. Dr. Prince proceeds upon the principle
His “Shallow Soil,'' translated into English that the abnormal phenomena are closely re-
for the first time this year, is a novel that lated to the normal,— the clue to the one is
few of the Americans he met will ever hear the clue to the other. Slight "faults” and
of, but it is also one that hardly one of the lapses in normal life both follow and reveal


1914)
21
THE DIAL
the course of more serious fissures of per- helps for poor scholars have been allowed to
sonality as they appear in the distorted world suffer neglect or loss of personal tradition at
of the abnormal. One of the fundamental the hands of their academic heirs. Vividly,
concepts is that of conservation; the author's and with a fine spirit of appreciation, this
theory of conservation makes it plain that living master calls the roll of the early stu-
consciousness holds the key to but a portion dents, fellows, and patrons of the college, and
of the storehouse. The unconscious vaults are brings back from oblivion many a brief tale
essential to the mental economy; their mode of devotion to academic institution. The
of contributing their supplies is peculiar, and accounts of pre-Reformation days, from the
requires elaborate devices to secure their founding in 1348 until the monks were ban-
record. Reserving the term subconscious for ished, bring very close to us the actual life
the most general aspect of phenomena out of the young men who with icy fingers con-
side the ordinary field of conscious awareness sulted the huge folios chained to the read-
and control, the author makes the uncon- ing desk, as they sought to amass material
scious the subterranean flow of memories and for their learned disputations. We see the
registrations that affect without emerging to students at “commons”
at "commons” listening drearily
the surface appearance. They are written in enough to the voice of the clerk appointed to
the primitive operations, the original primary read aloud some religious treatise during
reactions of the nervous system. It is when meal time.
meal time. The close relationship between
these contributions, together with the sub-monastic life and college life is pictured all
consciously held material nearer to the focus along, and especially in the chapter “Monks
of assimilation, become organized and attempt in College," where Dr. Venn accounts for the
a somewhat independent existence that the
presence of so many young men from the
term coconscious is brought forward; it desig- monasteries. They were selected by prior or
nates a more or less firmly organized group abbot because of some special promise, and
of responsiveness detached from the central
were sent to the university to gain that
personality and collateral with it. That the knowledge of Divinity or of Canon or Civil
source of these irregularities of the mind's Law which would enable them to transact
coalescence is an emotional one is abundantly business with prelates or with high secular
clear; hysteria is the name of the congenial authorities, when the monastery needed
culture-bed in which they grow. The mode trained and shrewd judgment. Some of these
of their growth is complex indeed, and the young monks were elevated to posts of great
layman is soon lost in the intricacies and distinction in later life. A more cheerful note
entanglements of cross purposes and internal in scholastic life is to be observed when, in
strife, to be solved only by the combined dip- 1580, drastic rules about “fote-ball” were
lomatic skill and strategy of the clinician. To drawn up, and any student caught playing
those to whom these problems form a serious this game with students of other colleges was
study, Dr. Prince's volume may be recom in danger of being "openly corrected with
mended as indispensable.
the rod in the common schools by some of the
University officers." In the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries the amenities of life oc-
Under the title, “Early Colle- cupied more time, as may be seen in the let-
Early life
in an English
giate Life” (Cambridge: W. ters written by young gentlemen who show
college.
Heffer & Sons), Dr. John Venn much concern regarding their apparel. “I
has prepared a volume of addresses, letters, have sent you mine hatcase that you may
and miscellaneous papers relating to Gonville send up my new hat: I have very much need
and Caius College, Cambridge,— popularly
The last chapter is a most interesting
known as “Keys.' As an undergraduate of account of the routine of college life sixty
the college, and now its president, Dr. Venn
years ago.
With its brief bits of biography,
has a special sentiment for all the details its glimpses into a hidden past, its reconstruc-
which he has collected from old records, oldtion of ancient life, the volume gives a very
bursars' books, and kindred sources. Grouped sympathetic introduction to a great founda-
as these studies are to form a continuous, tion.
though informal, history of educators in one
of the units of a great university, they are
The enterprise, energy, and suc-
absorbing reading, especially to those at all
The joys of
homesteading.
cess of a young widow who, with
familiar with collegiate life in England. The
her two-year-old daughter, went
first paper, “The Memory of Our Benefac-out to the Far West, filed a homesteader's
tors, gives a very appealing account of claim, and by her achievements added so
various early donors whose gifts of books, many feathers to her cap that, as she ex-
windows, plate, braziers, or of pecuniary | pressed it, she felt as if she were wearing a
on it.


22
[July 1
THE DIAL
feather duster on her head, are related in whom are recognized as experts in the fields
racy, idiomatic, unstudied style by the hero of economics and social legislation, were as-
ine herself in a series of letters to a friend, sociated with Senator Dillingham's Immigra-
written in the midst of the new experiences tion Commission throughout the four years
.and with manifest guiltlessness of ulterior of its researches, and in their book they in-
designs on the writer's part toward the read-corporated the most authentic and significant
ing public. These “Letters of a Woman information contained in the forty-two mas-
Homesteader” (Houghton) are signed at sive volumes of material which the Commis-
first, "Elinore Rupert," but before a year sion published. They wrote, not as advocates,
is out the confession is made that within six but as recorders and interpreters of facts. In
weeks of the homesteader's arrival at Burnt the present edition the subject matter is
Fork, Wyoming, the scene of the narrative, brought up to date, with the aid of the census
she had allowed herself to be wooed and won of 1910 and of the most recent reports of the
by the worthy and, we will add, discerning Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.
Scot whose homestead adjoined the one that Many chapters, including that on Recent Im-
was ere long to be hers, and who had engaged migrants in Agriculture, have been rewritten,
her services as housekeeper; and after this and new tables, charts, and texts of legisla-
interesting confession she signs herself by her tive measures — notably the literacy-test sec-
new name, which appears on the title-page as tion of the Dillingham-Burnett Bill vetoed
“Elinore Pruitt Stewart,' Pruit being, as by President Taft in February, 1913, and the
she explains in one of her letters, her patro California Alien Land Ownership Act of May,
nymic. One suspects that the canny Scots 1913 - have been added. In their first edi-
man's quick surrender to her charms was tion the authors declared for a more effec-
partly effected by her display of a remarka tive restriction of immigration and suggested
ble range and variety of useful accomplish as the most desirable mode the imposition of
ments. She delighted him by her ability to an educational test. In the new edition they
run the mowing machine and to milk the cows take occasion to lay added stress upon these
no less than by her efficiency as cook and recommendations. They say that a policy of
laundress and dairy maid; for she had early permanent or absolute exclusion is not im-
been left an orphan in the Indian Territory, perative. But they maintain that if the
and had learned farming as well as house influx of immigrant wage-earners shall be
keeping. Small wonder, then, that though allowed to continue at its present rate there
she had never had a day's schooling, she was is “no ground for expecting any noteworthy
equal to the task of learning to write, and that improvement in the near future in the work-
finally she wrote such letters that “The At- | ing and living conditions of the employees of
lantic Monthly” was glad to publish them our mines and factories." Admitting that
when by some kind providence they were the adoption of a policy of restriction might
brought to the editor's attention; and those be attended by a temporary check in the
letters, now collected in a book, give promise rapidity of the remarkable industrial expan-
of attaining no inconsiderable fame in the sion of the last few years, they remind the
literary world. They are, indeed, an example reader, in a convincing manner, that the true
of that variety of the unexpected which make measure of the economic welfare of the citi-
it worth while to be an editor. Mrs. Stewart's zens of an industrial and commercial nation
enthusiasm for homesteading is infectious, as does not consist in the number of tons of coal
are also the high spirits and jollity of her produced or the tons of pig iron, steel rails,
admirable letters. Her neighbors are made to or yards of print cloth manufactured. The
live and breathe before our eyes as she hits present situation is declared to be developing
off their various peculiarities and amiabili social and political dangers which demand
ties; to their faults and foibles, if they have immediate action. Coming from the average
any, she makes no allusion. It is a hearty and writer upon the immigration problem, an
wholesome book. Six good drawings accom-
assertion of this nature might well be dis-
pany the reading matter.
counted. Coming from students of the well-
known sanity and judiciousness of Messrs.
Jenks and Lauck, the declaration merits the
There has been issued recently reflection of every serious-minded citizen.
Problems of
a third edition, revised and en-
immigration.
With respect to the immigration of Oriental
larged, of “The Immigration peoples, it is maintained that the country's
Problem” (Funk & Wagnalls Co.), by Dr. present policy is entirely justifiable, although
Jeremiah W. Jenks and Mr. W. Jett Lauck. it is pointed out that the form of selection
In its original form the book possessed distinct might well be modified "so as not to wound
qualities of superiority. Its authors, both of the national susceptibilities of any people.”


1914)
23
THE DIAL
Mr. Reginald Blunt has made plementary chapter." She has also incor-
Chelsea
celebrities himself an authority on Chelsea, porated the most important discoveries which
major and minor. its history and traditions, its
have taken place since that time. Among these
greater and lesser celebrities. His latest work may be mentioned the structure of the pyra-
on his favorite theme bears the title, “In mid complex, with its four parts: valley
Cheyne Walk and Thereabout” (Lippincott), temple, ascending causeway, mortuary temple
and presents to view some of the less familiar on the plateau, and pyramid proper behind all,
characters and old-time haunts of that his as revealed in the excavations at Abusir and
toric portion of the Thames riverside. Thus Gizeh. Further work at Der el-Bahri on the
we have chapters on Mary Astell, Don Saltero western edge of ancient Thebes has shown that
and his coffee-house, Dr. Bartholomew Do- Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple, like
meniceti and his baths, James Neilds the that which in earlier days stood at the east
philanthropist, and his eccentric son, John side of the royal pyramid (to which Hatshep-
Camden Neilds, and others, with an account of sut's cliff tomb excavated in the desolate val-
the Chelsea Porcelain Factory, and another of ley behind is in this age analogous), was
the Physic Garden of the Worshipful Society connected by a causeway with a gateway tem-
of Apothecaries. Necessarily the great Sir ple down in the river valley. The terraced
Hans Sloane and the Carlyles and Whistler form of Hatshepsut's cliff temple, which she
and others of high renown play some part in had received credit for originating, has also
Mr. Blunt's narrative; and the famous man been found to be modelled on an Eleventh Dy-
sion bought by Sloane in 1736 (and recently nasty temple* lying immediately south of it
made the subject of an interesting volume by and built before 2000 B. C., over five hundred
Mr. Randall Davies — “The Greatest House years earlier.
years earlier. The short table of the prin-
at Chelsea") has its history briefly outlined in cipal epochs of Egyptian history” included
one of the chapters. Light is thrown on the for the first time is a convenient addition.
character and accomplishments of Sloane by The “Manual," however, does not in the text
extracts from the little-known “Narrative of always distinguish different stages of devel-
Some of the Occurrences in the Life of Ed-opment, as, for example, in the description
mund Howard of the Parish of Chelsea.”
of “moving statues” (p. 127). The intrusion
Howard was in the famous naturalist's em-
of priestcraft into politics there indicated did
ployment as servant, and seems to have been
not reach its height until the end of the New
à shrewdly observant person. But the best Kingdom.” The history of the pyramid form
of the book is reserved till the last, when the continues to be suggested, but not sharply
author reproduces four unpublished letters brought out. A few well-chosen half-tone
from Mrs. Carlyle to her maid Jessie (now plates supplement the cuts (many of them
Mrs. Broadfoot of Thornhill) and adds details badly worn), which the publishers have re-
furnished him by Mrs. Broadfoot herself tained from earlier editions. M. Maspero's
all illustrating the amiability of maid Jessie's "Manual of Egyptian Archæology” in its re-
master and mistress, and correcting certain vised and improved form, though neither abso-
widely prevalent misconceptions. Mr. Blunt's lutely accurate nor thoroughly systematic, is
father, it appears, was rector of Chelsea at by its compactness and readability well suited
the time of Mrs. Carlyle's sudden death, and
to the prominent place which this work has so
thus the author is enabled to correct Froude's
long held.
characteristically inaccurate account of that
period in the life of the Carlyles. Note-
Few Americans have been made
A great
worthy illustrations from scarce old photo-
the subject of more books and
graphs and engravings contribute to the
essays, sketches and speeches,
interest of the book.
than New Hampshire's most illustrious son,
Daniel Webster. To the dozen or more exist-
The field of Egyptian archæing biographies of this great statesman, jurist,
A manual of
Egyptian ology has just been resurveyed and orator, a by no means negligible addition
archæology. in a sixth English edition of Sir
is now made in Professor Frederic Austin
Gaston Maspero's “Manual” (Putnam), ed- Ogg's “Daniel Webster”. (Jacobs), in the
ited by Mrs. C. H. W. Johns. As M. Mas-
series of “American Crisis Biographies.
pero's other activities kept him fully occupied,
As the author says in his preface, “the sub-
the new editor, who is the sister of the able ject is old, and yet ever fresh. The shelves
English Egyptologist F. Ll. Griffith, must be
of our libraries groan under the masses of
credited with whatever changes appear. Mrs.
books relating to it. Yet neglected or largely
Johns has transferred to their proper places unused materials are still being brought to
in the author's scheme the data which in the * For the very latest news of this temple see the January
(1914) Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
fifth edition (1902) were lumped in a “sup York, which excavated there last year.
New England
statesman.


24
[July 1
THE DIAL
light; and so intricately do the life and work the position of the deaf among their fellow
of the man enter into the very texture of beings ought not to be considered so anoma-
the nation's history that they are very nearly lous as to require extended discussion. But
as incapable of full and final interpretation in this first and less important section of the
as is that history itself.” The recent pub- book it is interesting to note that the pro-
lication of Professor Van Tyne's "Letters of portion of deaf and dumb to the whole
Daniel Webster," and of the eighteen-volume population of the country has considerably
“National Edition" of his “Writings and decreased in the last thirty years, according
Speeches,” has made readily available the to census figures, though this proportion is
most important of the original sources to almost exactly the same as in 1830, the first
which a biographer of Webster naturally year cited in the table. Our deaf and dumb
turns; and these sources have been studiously now number about forty-four thousand, or
consulted by Professor Ogg. Inevitably and about four hundred and seventy-six to the
rightly, it is the public activities rather than million inhabitants. It is also noteworthy
the private life and character of the man that that heredity has been found to play a less
receive chief attention in this “American important part in deafness than is commonly
Crisis” biography. For the more intimately supposed. "If both parents are congenitally
human side of his nature we already have Mr. deaf, with deafness prevalent in their fami-
Fisher's “True Daniel Webster's and the lies, there is danger of deafness in the off-
earlier “Private Life" by Lanman. Though spring; but “adventitious” deafness seems
modestly calling his book a “sketch,” Dr. Ogg not likely to be transmitted. In the section
has filled four hundred closely printed pages of the book devoted to the history of the edu-
with his careful study of his subject; and cation of the deaf and dumb, and to an ac-
that, too, without over-weighting the volume count of what is now done for their training
with extracts from Webster's writings and by the nation and the separate states, there
speeches. What references and quotations do is evidence of the greatest care and thorough-
occur seem aptly illustrative and to the point. ness, the references to authoritative sources
Some disapproval, no doubt, will be his por of information being innumerable.
As a
tion for not condemning more unsparingly the study of his subject so far as our country
act that inspired Whittier's “Ichabod" and is concerned, Mr. Best's treatise is the full-
made Horace Mann call Webster “a fallen est yet published; and what is more, its tone
star.” That, however, is a dead issue to the throughout -- its refusal to consider the deaf
present generation. A useful chronological as objects of charity -- is sane and wholesome,
survey of Webster's life precedes the main and promotive of self-respect and self-help
narrative, and a four-page bibliography fold in the handicapped but not disabled sufferers
lows it, after which comes the index. "No life from the lack of one of the five senses.
of Webster the statesman could, in the same
compass, well prove more satisfactory.
On the first day of the present
The pioneer
century there was dedicated at
Until less than a century ago
library.
The social
Van Wert, Ohio, the first county
position of
deaf mutes were regarded much library, in the fullest sense of the term, almost
the deaf.
as the insane, or at least the a decade before the now famous California
feeble-minded, are now regarded, and the pos- system of county libraries came into being,
sibility of their being educated to fill positions and well in advance of similar movements in
of usefulness and honor on the same footing other States. The Van Wert institution owed
as their less unfortunate fellow citizens had its origin to the munificence and foresight of
dawned upon the minds of but few. Their John Sanford Brumback, banker, financier,
present position in an enlightened country and, in earlier years, successful merchant, of
like our own, with especial consideration of that city. From the pen of his daughter, Mrs.
the educational problem they present and the Saida Brumback Antrim, who has from the
provision made for their schooling in this beginning served as secretary of the library
country, is treated with evident thoughtful- board, and from that of her husband, Ernest
ness, and after a careful study of the whole Irving Antrim, Ph.D., there now appears a
subject, by Mr. Harry Best in a volume of handsome volume, “The County Library,
the Crowell Library of Economics entitled narrating the history of the Van Wert library
“The Deaf: Their Position in Society and the and describing its county-wide activities, and
Provision for Their Education in the United also presenting a careful summary of the
States.” Of the two headings under which county library movement in the United States.
the theme is treated, as indicated in the sub-The life of Mr. Brumback is briefly reviewed
title, it is to the second that by far the greater in the opening chapter, and, in addition to
space is allotted -- and rightly enough, for
and rightly enough, for Mrs. Antrim's preface, a commendatory in-
county


1914]
25
THE DIAL
Disraeli on
backward child.
troduction is furnished by Dr. P. P. Claxton, the book may be recommended as adapted to
national Commissioner of Education. A map, many of the situations that actually confront
forty-two illustrations from photographs, a the correction of backwardness with which the
full and accurate index, and various statis- teacher must deal. Measured by the stand-
tical tables, complete the book's ample equip- ards of recent contributions, the volume de-
ment. Especially worthy of note are the care serves a prominent place in the teacher's
with which the every-day working of the library.
Brumback Library in all its departments and
branches is made clear to the reader; the
In his compilation entitled
indubitability of the proof that this is chrono Whigs and “Whigs and Whiggism” (Mac-
Whiggism.
logically the first free public library actively
millan), Mr. William Hutcheon
operating throughout an entire county; and has put together such of Disraeli's political
the diligent research shown in the concluding writings as deal particularly with what Dis-
section, on the county library movement as
raeli regarded as Whig ideas and to which
a whole. The county library is gaining rap- he developed an early aversion. The volume
idly in favor and importance, and the end is
is composed chiefly of contributions to the
by no means yet in sight. This book will aid “Times,” the “Morning Post," and the
and hasten the development of the movement, “Press," and some of these are reprinted now
and is sure to prove a useful manual as well for the first time. The general reader will not
as an interesting account of what has been be intensely interested in Disraeli’s vindictive
done and is being done in county library work
attacks on his aristocratic enemies; but to the
in a representative district of our middle student of English history the volume will
West. (The Pioneer Press, Van Wert, Ohio.) prove very useful, as it will enable him to
understand how the Jewish radical came to
A commendable contribution to
be identified with the Tory party and even
A study of the
an important practical topic
became the recognized chief to whom the con-
is Barbara Spofford Morgan's servative classes entrusted the defence of the
“The Backward Child” (Putnam). Despite “land” and the church.” It will also help
serious limitations of plan and execution, it
us to measure the distance that journalism
presents the virtue of an original attempt to
has travelled along the road toward decency
see into and through the problem, and to
in political discussion: language such as Dis-
bring to bear upon it the available principles raeli used in his tirade in the Morning Post”
of psychology supported by sound common
in 1835 (“Peers and People'') would no
sense. The varieties of tests to be used in longer be tolerated even in the most partisan
securing a diagnosis of the type and range
of party organs. The editor has contributed
of defect which ordinary yet difficult school
a brief introductory chapter in which he
children present are set forth in simple lan-
traces Disraeli's career as a contributor to
guage, and in a form that facilitates appli- the political discussions of the day, and ac-
cation. The art of treatment and relief is counts for his alliance with Lord Lyndhurst
likewise considered. The book is certain to be and other Tory leaders. The volume also con-
helpful to the large number of teachers who tains several interesting illustrations, includ-
have to deal with all sorts and conditions of ing three facsimile letters.
children; particularly to those with limited
opportunities to determine the nature of the
There is nothing remarkable
deviations thus presented to the normal stand-
about the random memories
ards to which educational measures are ad-
which Miss Joan Arden weaves
justed. Yet both the psychology and the together in her account of “A Childhood”
pedagogy of the volume are casual; and many (Macmillan). Scattered impressions that
of the analyses are given with an assurance stand out with a weird vividness possessed by
that finds slight support in sound principle; nothing grown-up,— magical in their sug-
nor are the available findings of psychology gestive incompleteness, mysterious because
adequately utilized. For all this there is half-understood, often terrifying, often un-
good excuse in the newness of the subject and consciously cruel,- of such things, in retro-
the lack of accredited procedures. It is a spect, is every childhood made. But it is
pity that study showing a rather unusual another matter to record these memories with-
power to approach a subject without the hack out brushing off the bloom that makes them
neyed and irrelevant preconceptions that alive and lovely and wonderful. Perhaps only
makes so much of pedagogy futile, should not a shy, self-conscious little girl could grow up
have been raised to a still greater value by a to do it: a child whose world is largely in
deeper insight into the rationale of the proc- her imagination, and whose experiences are
esses to be practically applied. None the less more poignant because so seldom shared,
Memories of
a childhood.


26
[July 1
THE DIAL
cans.
Such a child was the author of this book; with
NOTES.
her, childhood was more than ordinarily a
hidden life; and more than ordinarily un-
Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer's “ Collected Poems":
dimmed and vital are her memories of it. A
will be published shortly.
preface by Mr. Gilbert Murray pays tribute to
Mr. Richard Pryce's new novel, “ David,” will
the sustained interest that Miss Arden has
be published in the autumn by Messrs. Houghton
Mifflin Co.
managed to create without any narrative con-
tinuity. And that is the essence of child-
Miss Ethel Sidgwick's new novel, "A Lady of
hood's tale: that it shall seem a random Leisure," will be published in September by
Messrs. Small, Maynard & Co.
proem to something sadder and sterner and
Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Williamson have written a
greater, though giving no hint what the
new novel, “A Soldier of the Legion,” which will be
greater things may be.
published by Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co.
Mr. James Elroy Flecker, the young Cambridge
poet, is the author of “ The King of Alsander,"
BRIEFER MENTION.
which is announced in London.
The Rt. Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter, Canon of “ Children of the Earth," the play which was
Westminster, delivered the Belden lectures at Har awarded the $10,000 prize in Mr. Winthrop Ames's
vard University in 1913; his subject was “ The competition, is Miss Alice Brown's first long play,
Spiritual Message of Dante.” The lectures have The scandal which resulted in the death of the
now been gathered into a volume issued by the
editor of “Le Figaro" has already served to make
Harvard University Press. Their purport is a book, “ The Caillaux Drama," by Mr. John N.
modestly explained by the author: They are
Raphael.
simply thoughts on religious experience as ex-
A holiday edition of Mrs. Gene Stratton-Porter's
emplified in Dante's poem.”
T'here is food for reflection in the genial pages
Freckles ” will be published in the autumn by
of "America through the Spectacles of an Oriental
Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co., with illustrations
Diplomat
(Stokes). Hon. Wu Tingfang, for- by Thomas Fogarty.
mer minister from China to the United States, has
The translation of “ The Death of a Nobody,"
travelled much and resided in various lands, and by Desmond MacCarthy and Sydney Waterloo
what he sees in America cannot but interest Ameri-
from the French of M. Jules Romains, has at-
His opinions of us are in the main very
tracted favorable attention in England and may
agreeable to our self-satisfaction, but he does not shortly be expected in America.
scruple to tell us frankly, though always with Mr. Earl Derr Biggers, whose “ Seven Keys to
Chinese tact and courtesy, of certain of our fail. Baldpate” served Mr. George Cohan so well in
ings and follies. Some of his suggestions for the theatre last season, has written a new novel
improvement for instance that the title of our called “Love Insurance," which Messrs. Bobbs-
chief executive should be changed from president Merrill will publish shortly.
to emperor may have been made in the spirit of An English publisher has again tried the experi-
humor, with possibly a sting concealed; but others ment of bringing a book of fiction in the Conti-
are wholly serious and demand consideration. nental vesture of yellow paper. The volume chosen
The art-loving tourist is sure to welcome Profes is “ The Adventuress," a collection of short stories
sor John C. Van Dyke's “New Guides to Old by Mr. George Willoughby.
Masters" (Scribner), a series of individual guide-
Mr. Ralph Nevill is writing the biography of
books of critical appreciation to the important Lady Dorothy Nevill, that “ shrewd, cynical, tol-
art-galleries of Europe. Of the twelve volumes
erant, and wholly delightful fine lady." Lady
comprising the series two have already been
Dorothy knew Cobden, Disraeli, Gladstone, and
issued,- one dealing with the National Gallery Labouchere as well as Lord Morley and wrote five
and the Wallace Collection in London, and one de-
volumes of reminiscences.
scribing the treasures of the Louvre in Paris. Only
the best pictures of the old masters are considered;
Mr. Edward D. Page is the author of " Trade
Morals:
and the art of the canvas is dwelt upon rather than
Their Origin, Growth and Province,"
its origin, name, pedigree, or commercial value.
which the Yale University Press has in prepara-
No space is given to mediocre or ruined examples
tion. He has been engaged for nearly forty years
by even celebrated painters, the text dealing en-
in the dry goods commission business and was a
tirely with merits that now exist and may be seen
member of the Hughes Commission on Speculation
in 1909.
by any intelligent observer. Instead of repeating
oft-told tales of things past and belonging to a
Miss Helen Marot, executive secretary of the
vanished age, the discussion of each picture is cori-
Woman's Trade Union League, is the author of
fined to decorative form, color, handling, method, “American Labor Unions: Aims and Methods, by
manner, style,— things seen and vital to-day and a Member," which Messrs. Holt will publish late
forever. A general Introduction, and a bibliog- in August. The book contains chapters on “The
raphy of the best books for further study, both
Industrial Workers of the World,” “ Organization
applicable to the whole series, form special fea of Women,” and “ Violence.”
tures of importance in the first volume. The flexi Lord Redesdale has made a translation of Mr.
ble covers and pocket size are conveniences.
Houston Stewart Chamberlain's book, " Immanuel


1914 )
27
THE DIAL
.
Kant: A Study and a Comparison with Goethe,
Leonardo da Vinci, Bruno, Plato, and Descartes.”
Mr. Chamberlain, who writes in German in spite of
his name, will be remembered as the author of
“ The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century.”
The Ingersoll lecture for this year, “ Metem-
psychosis,” which was delivered by Mr. George
Foot Moore, will be published at once by the Har-
vard University Press. This Press has in project
a series to be called “ Harvard Studies in Romance
Languages.” It is to be edited by Professors Shel-
don, Grandgent, Ford, and Potter. The first
volume will be a critical edition of the poetry of
Giacomo da Lentino, a thirteenth century Sicilian
poet, by Ernest Felix Langley, Professor of Ro-
mance Languages at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
Mr. Wyndham Lewis's new illustrated quarterly,
“ Blast,” will evidently excite disgust in some quar-
ters, amusement in others, and enthusiasm in still
others. The announcement of the first number
describes it as The Manifesto of the Vorticists.
The English Parallel Movement to Cubism and Ex-
pressionism. Imagism in Poetry. Deathblow to
Impressionism and Futurism and All the Refuse of
Naif Science," etc., etc. Among the contributors
are Jacob Epstein, Ezra Pound, Rebecca West,
Laurence Atkinson, Gaudier-Brzeska, and Ford
Madox Hueffer.
Baroness Bertha von Suttner died June 21 at
Vienna, aged 71. She was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1905, largely on account of her
novel “Die Waffen nieder” and her work as
editor of the magazine of the same name pub-
lished by the international peace bureau at Berne.
Baroness von Suttner was the daughter of Field
Marshall Count Franz von Kinsky and when a
girl was betrothed to Prince Adolph Wittgenstein,
but he was killed in battle. She gave instructions
before her death that her body was to be cremated
without religious ceremony, speeches, or flowers.
Baroness von Suttner spent part of the year 1912
lecturing in the United States on behalf of interna-
tional peace. Her recent novel, " When Thoughts
Will Soar," was published in this country last
week.
•
Cochran, William F. Ray S. Baker
American
Coeducation. Zona Gale
Atlantic
Colorado Strike, The. E. M. Ammons
No. Amer.
Communions of Christendom. F. W. Puller Constructive
Concord, A Pilgrim in. H. A. Beers
Yale
Convalescent, Diversions of a. Henry C. Lodge'. . Scribner
Cooking, Community. Lewis C. Mumford
Forum
Criticism, Literary, in American Periodicals. Bliss
Perry
Yale
Development, 'Facts' oi. E. G. Conklin
Pop. Sc.
Dickens, Charles. Henry F. Dickens
Harper
Doctor, The Social. W. P. Capes
Forum
Dunlap, William. Theodore S. Woolsey
Yale
Emigrants, Russian, to America. Stephen Graham Harper
Enthusiasm. Robert Haven Schauffler
Atlantic
Equality, Struggle for. Charles F. Emerick
Pop. Sc.
Erasmians, A Plea for. C. H. A. Wager
Atlantic
Eucken, Rudolph. Albert L. Whittaker
Forum
Farm Landlord-Tenant Problem, The American.
P. R. Kellar
Forum
Farmer, The Unfinancial. John Parr
Everybody's
Farming, Two-story. J. Russell Smith
Century
Fear, Disease of. Burton J. Hendrick
McClure
Feminism, Masculine Opposition to. Alice D.
Miller
Scribner
Feminism, Philosophy of. George B. Foster
Forum
Florida, A Houseboat Trip to. Carlyle Ellis Everybody's
Foes, Defence from Our. Fraser Harris
Pop. Sc.
Fra Jacopone da Todi. Edmund G. Gardner • Constructive
Franklin, Benjamin, New View of. R. T.
McKenzie
Century
Gentlewoman, Passing of the. Herman
Scheffauer
No. Amer.
Greek Genius, The. John Jay Chapman
Atlantic
Greek Literature, Recovery of Lost. H. de F. Smith
Yale
Heyse, Paul, Conversations with. W. L. Phelps
Yale
Holidays, American. Harrison Rhodes
Harper
Holland. Arnold Bennett
Century
Home Rule –And After. F. P. Jones
No. Amer.
Hooker, Joseph. Gamaliel Bradford
Atlantic
Industrial South, Leaders for the. W. A.
Dyer
Italians in America. 'Edward A. Ross
World's Work
Century
Jerusalem, Hygienic Conditions in. Adolf
Deissmann
Constructive
Law, Universality of. W. D. Parkinson
Atlantic
Law Makers and Lawyers. John C. Dana
Pop. Sc.
Liberty, Mediæval and Modern. A. F. Pollard
Yale
Living, High Cost of. Henry P. Fairchild
Forum
“Lizard," The Lighthouse. William H. Rideing Scribner
Lyricism, Catholic. R. Vallery-Radot
Constructive
Marine Policy, America's. A. C. Laut
Century
Medicine, Preventive, Education and. C. R. Green Forum
Mellen, Charles S. Garet Garrett
Everybody's
Mexican Problem, The Real. R. G. Usher
No. Amer.
Mexican Trouble, The. Richard H. Davis
Scribner
Microbe, Man and the. C. E. A. Winslow
Pop. Sc.
Middle Class, The. E. S.
Atlantic
Middle Class, The. Seymour Deming
Atlantic
Missions and Settlements in England. C. P. S.
Clarke
Constructive
Monore Doctrine, Latin America and the. Hiram
Bingham
Yale
Motor Boat, New Type of.' Albert Hickman American
National Problem, A Perennial. Champ Clark No. Amer.
Noyes, Alfred. Brian Hooker
Century
Noyes, Alfred, Poetry of. Philip L. Given No. Amer.
Pacific, New Opportunities in the. Lincoln
Hutchinson
Yale
Prices, High, and High Living.' F. s. 'Dickson Yale
Priesthood, The Christian. Richard Roberts Constructive
Profit Sharing for Savings. Janet R. Rankin World's Work
Religion, Change and. H. S. Holland
Constructive
Religion, Danger of Tolerance in. B. I. Bell
Atlantic
Retail Clerks, A College for. G. M. Hyde World's Work
River, The Unknown. Theodore Roosevelt
Scribner
Roosevelt, Theodore. George Harvey
No. Amer.
Scholarship, Unity in. Francis Brown
Constructive
Shonts, Theodore P. Edward M. Woolley
McClure
Social Problem, Churches and the. Philip
Snowden
Constructive
Society Worker, The. Bolton Hall
Forum
Solar Variability. C. G. Abbot
Harper
Suffrage, Equal. C. William Beebe
Atlantic
Theatre, Dramatizing the. Huntly Carter
Forum
Tolstoy, Reminiscences of. Ilyá Tolstoy
Century
Trade in Other Lands. L. R. Freeman
World's Work
Trenton's Simple Government. Arno Dosch World's Work
Ulster, The Covenant in. J. D. Kenny
Forum
Vera Cruz. Frederick Palmer
Everybody's
Vermont, Education in. J. M. Hubbard
Atlantic
Villa. George Marvin
World's Work
Villa, “ Pancho," at First Hand. J. R.
Taylor
World's Work
Waste in Education. Franklin W. Johnson Pop. Sc.
Wells, H. G., World of. Van Wyck Brooks
Forum
Wesley and Catholicism. Augustin Leger Constructive
Whaling Industry, The American. J. A. Harris Pop. Sc.
Yosemite Valley, The. Harold French
Pop. Sc.
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS.
July, 1914.
Altitude, High, Effects of. Yandell Henderson
Yale
American, The Changed. D. F. Kellogg
No. Amer.
Anglicanism and Reunion. J. G. Simpson Constructive
Anti-Jewish Prejudice in America. Bernard
Drachman
Forum
Appalachians, Remaking 'the. 'w. i. Hall
World's Work
Art, The Good of. Henry W. Lanier
World's Work
Art Exhibitions, Recent. James Huneker
Scribner
Avignon. Richard Le Gallienne
Harper
Azores, From the, to Spain. Albert B. Paine Century
Blind, Miss Holt's Work for the. Irma Kraft
Century
Bulwer-Lytton, Reminiscences of. Gabrielle de R.
Waddell
Century
Caribbean, Salt-harvesters of the. C. W. Furlong Harper
Caribbean Tropics, In the. Julius Muller
Century
Christ, Confession of. Henry C. King
Constructive
Christian Conference, Programme of. W. H.
Frere
Constructive
Christian Science. "Randolph H. McKim
No. Amer.
Christian Science Healing. J. W. Hegeman No. Amer.
Church and the World, A Layman's View of the.
Eugene Stock
Constructive
Coast Defences, American. 'cieveland Moffett
McClure


28
[July 1
THE DIAL
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
The Ideal Motor Tour in France. By Walter Hale.
Illustrated, 12mo, 301 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.50 net.
Where Rolls the Oregon. By Dallas Lore Sharp.
Illustrated, 12mo, 251 pages. Houghton Mifflin
Co. $1.25 net.
Two in the wilderness. By Stanley Washburn.
12mo, 320 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.25 net.
[The following list, containing 64 titles, includes books
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES.
Kings and Queens of England. Edited by Robert S.
Rait, M.A., and William Page, F.S.A. First vol-
umes: Life of Henry II., by L. F. Salzmann;
Life of Henry VII., by W. M. Gladys Temperley,
with Introduction by James T. Shotwell. Each
illustrated, 8vo. Houghton Mifflin Co. Per vol-
ume, $2.50 net.
John Addington Symonds: _A Biographical Study.
By Van Wyck Brooks. With portrait, 12mo, 234
pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.50 net.
France from Behind the Veil: Fifty Years of Social
and Political Life. By Count Paul Vassili. Illus-
trated, large 8vo, 396 pages. Funk & Wag-
nalls Co. $3.75 net.
HISTORY.
Germany. By A. W. Holland. Illustrated, 8vo,
312 pages.
Macmillan Co. $2. net.
The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913. By Jacob Gould
Schurman. 12mo, 140 pages. Princeton Univer-
sity Press. $1. net.
La Guerre de Sept Ans: Histoire Diplomatique et
Militaire. By Richard Waddington. 8yo, 147
pages. Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie. Paper.
DRAMA AND VERSE.
The Sister of the Wind, and Other Poems. By
Grace Fallow Norton. 12mo, 189 pages. Hough-
ton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net.
Savva and The Life of Man: Two Plays. By Leonid
Andreyev; translated from the Russian, with
Introduction, by Thomas Seltzer. 12mo, 236
pages. “Modern Drama Series." Mitchell Ken-
nerly. $1. net.
The Christian Year, Lyra Innocentium, and Other
Poems. By John Keble. With portrait, 12mo,
571 pages. Oxford University Press.
Love of One's Neighbor, By Leonid Andreyev;
translated from the Russian by Thomas Seltzer.
12mo, 40
pages. Albert and Charles Boni.
40 cts. net.
Syrinx: Pastels of Hellas. By Mitchell S. Buck.
12mo, 58 pages. Claire Marie. $1.25 net.
Des Imagistes: An Anthology. 12mo, 63 pages.
Albert and Charles Boni. $1. net.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS. SOCIOLOGY, POLITICS, AND
ECONOMICS.
Work and Wealth: A Human Valuation. By J. A.
Hobson. 8vo, 367 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. net.
Forces Mining and Undermining China. By Row-
land R. Gibson. With photogravure frontispiece,
8vo, 302 pages. Century Co. $2. net.
Eugenics: Twelve University Lectures. By Mor-
ton A. Aldrich and Others; with Foreword by
Lewellys F. Barker. 8vo, 348 pages. Dodd,
Mead & Co. $2. net.
A History of Diplomacy in the International De-
velopment of Europe. By David Jayne Hill,
LL.D. Volume III.; with maps, large 8vo, 706
pages. Longmans, Green & Co. $6. net.
Toynbee Hall and the_English Settlement Move-
ment. By Werner Picht; translated from the
German by Lilian A. Cowell. Revised edition;
12mo, 248 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.35 net.
ART AND ARCHITECTURE.
A Short History of Italian Painting. By Alice Van
Vechten Brown and William Rankin. Illus-
trated, 8vo, 414 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
$2.25 net.
Ancient and Medieval Art: A Short History. By
Margaret H. Bulley. Illustrated in color, etc.,
12mo, 328 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.75 net.
The Gods of India: A Brief Description of Their
History, Character, and Worship. " By E. Osborn
Martin. Illustrated, 8vo, 330 pages. E. P. Dut-
ton & Co. $1.50 net.
Aesthetic Dancing. By Emil Rath. Illustrated,
large 8vo, 136 pages. A. S. Barnes Co.
Roma: Ancient, Subterranean, and Modern Rome
in Word and Picture. By Albert Kuhn, D.D.
Illustrated, 4to. Benziger Brothers. Paper.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY.
Spiritual Reformers in the Sixteenth and Seven-
teenth Centuries. By Rufus M. Jones, D.Litt.
Large 8vo, 362 pages. Macmillan Co. $3. net.
A Constructive Basis for Theology By James Ten
Broeke, Ph.D. Large 8vo, 400 pages. Macmil-
lan Co. $3. net.
The Culture of Ancient Israel. By Carl Heinrich
Cornill. Illustrated, 12mo, 167 pages. Open
Court Publishing Co. $1. net.
The Mystery of Pain, By James Hinton. 12mo,
108 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1. net.
Restatement and Reunion. By Burnett Hillman
Streeter. 12mo, 194 pages. Macmillan Co.
The Unknown God, and Other Orthodox Essays. By
Jacob Piatt Dunn. 12mo, 178 pages. Indianap-
olis: Sentinel Printing Co. $1. net.
EDUCATION.
Princeton, By Varnum Lansing Collins. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 416 pages. “American College and
University Series." Oxford University Press.
$1.50 net.
What Is It to Be Educated? By C. Hanford Hen-
derson, 12mo, 462 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
$1.50 net.
Dramatic Games and Dances for Little Children.
By Caroline Crawford, with Music by Elizabeth
Rose Fogg and Illustrations by Katherine Kel-
logg. 4to, 77 pages. A. S. Barnes Co.
History of the United States. By Matthew Page
Andrews, M.A. Illustrated, 12mo, 378 pages.
J. B. Lippincott Co.
Tom Brown's Sehool Days. By Thomas Hughes;
edited by A. B. De Mille, A.M. 16mo, 422 pages.
Scott, Foresman & Co. 35 cts. net.
BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
Cyclopedia of American Government. Edited by
Andrew C. McLaughlin, LL.D., and Albert Bush-
nell Hart, LL.D. Volume I. Large 8vo, 732
pages. D. Appleton & Co.
The South African Year-Book, 1914. By W. H.
Hosking. 12mo, 702 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
$3.50 net.
The China Year Book, 1914. Edited by H. G. W.
Woodhead and H. T. Montague Bell. With map,
12mo, 781 pages.
E. P. Dutton & Co.
FICTION
Clark's Field. By Robert Herrick. 12mo, 478 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.40 net.
When Thoughts Will Soar: A Romance of the
Immediate Future. By Baroness Bertha von
Suttner; translated from the German by Nathan
Haskell Dole. 12mo, 449
pages. Houghton
Miffin Co. $1.50 net.
Gray Youth: The Story of a Very Modern Court-
ship and a Very Modern Marriage. By Oliver
Onions. 12mo, 624 pages. George H. Doran Co.
$1.50 net.
No. 13 Washington Square. By Leroy Scott. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 281 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
$1.35 net.
The Return of the Prodigal. By May Sinclair.
12mo, 362 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.35 net.
The League of the Leopard. By Harold Bindloss.
With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 328 pages.
F. A. Stokes Co. $1.30 net.
The Duchess of Wrexe, Her Decline and Death:
A Romantic Commentary. By Hugh Walpole.
12mo, 503 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.40 net.
Nothing Else Matters. By William Samuel John-
son. 12mo, 306 pages. Mitchell Kennerley.
$1.25 net.
When Love Flies Out of the Window. By Leonard
Merrick. 12mo, 300 pages. Mitchell Kennerley.
$1.20 net.
Gay Morning. By J. E. Buckrose. 12mo, 319 pages.
George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
Cuddy Yarborough's Daughter. By Una L. Silber-
rad. 12mo, 315 pages. George H. Doran Co.
$1.25 net.
The Autobiography of a Happy Woman. 12mo, 373
pages.
Moffat, Yard & Co. $1.50 net.
Bobby. By J. J. Bell. 12mo, 160 pages. George H.
Doran Co. $1. net.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.
The Happy Irish. By Harold Begbie. Illustrated,
12mo, 330 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.


THE DIAL
A Semi-fillonthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
PAGE
.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 18t and
16th of each month. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, $8. a year in
A LIVE WIRE.
advanoe, postage prepaid in the United States and Mexico;
Foreign and Canadian postage 50 cents per year extra. RE The recent visit to Chicago of a company of
MITTANCES should be by check, or by express or postal order,
payable to THE DIAL. Unless otherwise ordered, subscrip-
New York city officials, headed by Mayor
tions will begin with the current number. When no direct
Mitchell, for the purpose of inspecting the
request to discontinue at expiration of subscription is re-
ceived, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is school systems of this vicinity, was an event
desired ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application.
Published by THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY,
whose significance needs to be emphasized.
632 So. Sherman St., Chicago.
We have often asserted that the mayor of a
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post
large American city has no greater responsi-
Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 8, 1879.
bility than that which is associated with the
Vol. LVII. JULY 16, 1914.
No. 674.
management of its public schools, and that
the most important function he exercises is
CONTENTS.
that of appointing the school trustees. How
A LIVE WIRE
37 that responsibility has been evaded, and how
CASUAL COMMENT
39 that function has been subordinated to polit-
Journalistic ideals. The truth about the ical interests by the mayors of Chicago as far
Tourgueniéff-Tolstoi breach.—The sustaining
power of poetry.- Literature as viewed by back as memory reaches provides material for
its makers.- Why the desired book is not a melancholy chapter in our civic annals. It
forthcoming.-Immortal characters in fiction. would be difficult to imagine a mayor of Chi-
-How to win the immigrant. The modesty
of genius.— The literary diversions of a
cago taking the matter of public education as
physician.— The question of public pensions seriously as the New York executive seems to
for authors.-Another business men's branch
have taken it, although our present executive
library.
head, in one of his earlier terms, once went
BY-PRODUCTS OF LITERARY ENDEAVOR.
(Special London Correspondence.) E. H.
so far as to appoint a really competent com-
Lacon Watson
43 mission to investigate the subject. It is true
COMMUNICATIONS
45
that the findings of that commission were
Lamar Fontaine and “All Quiet along the almost completely ignored, but the fact of its
Potomac.” Hyder E. Rollins.
"Grocer-shop Criticism.” Laura Tobey.
creation was encouraging. It remains, never-
“ Heart of Heart.” W. M. T.
theless, about the only thing ever done by a
The Use of “ Tempest.” William H. Bowers. mayor of Chicago to indicate a sense that the
EDWARD DOWDEN'S MIND AND ART. duties of the executive office in relation to the
Percy F. Bicknell
48
schools extend to something beyond rewarding
ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE 17TH AND 18TH
CENTURIES. Homer E. Woodbridge. .
political supporters, seeing that nationalities
50
MAN'S ORIGINAL MENTAL EQUIPMENT.
and religions and topographical areas are rep-
Horace M. Kallen
50 resented in school affairs, and determining the
A GALLERY OF CONFEDERATE POR-
award of fat contracts to the deserving.
TRAITS. David Y. Thomas
51 It is not, however, our present purpose to
RECENT FICTION. Lucian Cary
53 enlarge upon the history of school manage-
Baroness von Hutten's Maria.- Miss Bot-
ment in Chicago, but rather to suggest a
tome's Broken Music.— Baron von Wolzogen's
Florian Mayr.- Phillpotts's Faith Tresilion.
point of view which is material to the judg-
-Arkwright's The Trend.— Walpole's The ment to be passed upon the recent outburst
Duchess of Wrexe.
of educational activity on the part of the New
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
55
York authorities. Our approval of the in-
Love of mankind versus love of country.-A
history of mankind.- Four years of adven-
vestigation is considerably lessened when we
ture in many lands.-An Italian student of remember that Mayor Mitchell is the one re-
criminology – The art of Homer Martin.-
sponsible for the continuance in office of
The color and atmosphere of North Africa.
- Comment and query on the function of
Mr. Thomas W. Churchill as President of the
fear.
New York Board of Education. During his
BRIEFER MENTION
58 | previous term, Mr. Churchill's activities had
NOTES
58 proved so mischievous and so demoralizing to
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
59 the interests of the New York schools that
.


38
[July 16
THE DIAL
protests against his reappointment came from regret exceedingly that I cannot comply with this
practically all educators who observed the sit- request. I do not find, either in the law or in the
uation at close range and were competent to
by-laws of the Board of Education, that any
authority has been conferred on the City Superin-
pass upon it. These protests were so pro-
tendent of Schools to “direct’ his colleagues as to
nounced and so weighty that only a politician their attendance on outside meetings. Even if such
could have ignored them, but Mr. Mitchell authority had been conferred on the City Superin-
flouted the consensus of intelligent profes- tendent, it would be inconsistent with my ideas of
sional opinion upon the subject by extending and gentlemen, to direct my colleagues to pay
the courtesy that ought to prevail among ladies
the term of Mr. Churchill's authority. Many
no attention to an invitation from any reputable
illustrations of his unfitness for the office body of citizens to participate in a conference. I
might be adduced, but numbers could not conceive it to be the duty of all teachers to set to
make the argument more convincing than the
the youth of our city an example of appropriate
single instance we are about to give.
courtesy in the ordinary intercourse of life. Such
courtesy is due to all men and women of whatever
It is well known that for many years the estate. It certainly should not be lacking toward
superintendency of the New York city schools the Public Education Association, composed, as it
has been in the very competent hands of is, of men and women who have taken a deep
Dr. William H. Maxwell, one of the most
interest in our public schools, and who have done
so much to aid every worthy effort for their
highly respected of American educators. Some-
advancement and to defeat every attempt at their
time last fall, the Public Education Associa- injury.
tion of New York, a voluntary organization “But there is a still stronger reason why the
of men and women working in the interest of City Superintendent should not direct' officers
the schools, invited Dr. Maxwell to attend a immediately under his direction' not to attend
conference on the educational budget for the
conferences. When a man becomes an officer in
year. President Churchill, learning of this rights of an American citizen. Free speech is one
the public education service, he loses none of the
invitation, wrapped himself in the robes of
of those rights. I have too keen a sense of the
his little brief authority, and wrote to the limitations of my official authority, and too pro-
veteran educator and New York Superinten- found a regard for the institutions of my country,
dent of fifteen years' standing a letter con-
to attempt to interfere with the right of free
speech, even at the request of the President of the
taining the following amazing sentence:
Board of Education."
“You are therefore requested not to attend
this conference, and to direct the superinten-
We are not surprised that the magazine "Edu-
dents or other officers immediately under your cation,” quoting this letter, calls it “one of
direction that no attention should be paid to
the greatest educational documents of the
the request to appear at such conference year,” and adds that “its influence will be
unless the Board of Education, or its Presi- widespread and permanent."
dent, grants permission." Dr. Maxwell's
This correspondence illustrates in a striking
reply to this ukase was dignified but uncom-
fashion defect which is found in most of
promising. We quote the significant passages.
our municipal school systems. The rights and
“In reply I beg leave to say that I have received
duties of a superintendent should be so de-
and have accepted an invitation to be present at fined and protected by law as to make this
this conference. In this case I feel justified in sort of petty tyranny impossible, and to keep
reaching a decision not in accord with your views.
the activities of boards of education within
I have ever regarded it as part, indeed a large
part, of my duty as a public officer, to give infor- proper bounds. Unfortunately, they are not,
mation regarding the schools and their work to
in most of our states, thus safeguarded, and,
any citizen or any body of citizens who asked for in consequence, we find nearly everywhere
it, to defend publicly their work, their administra- that fussy and self-important school trustees,
tion, and my own actions against unjust attack, whose legitimate business it is to manage the
and to profit by just criticism and opportune sug; finances of the system and decide broad prin-
gestion. It is in pursuance of this policy that I
have in the past attended public meetings to con-
ciples of educational policy, are interfering
sider educational questions, that I have accepted and dictating in strictly professional matters
the invitation of the Public Education Association with which they have no rightful concern.
for September 22, and that I purpose to continue For the educational side of the system, it is
to attend such meetings.
their business to employ experts, and then
“ You request further that I direct the super- leave them a free hand. Any confusion be-
intendents or other officers immediately under your
(my) direction that no attention should be paid to
tween the functions of trusteeship and admin-
the request to appear at such conference.' I l istration is bound to be harmful, and ought


1914)
39
THE DIAL
to be made impossible. The ideal school board a prescriptive right to be shoved along at the
is one whose powers are strictly limited, in normal rate if through dulness or laziness he
whose membership there is no representation does not make the normal progress. Later,
of special groups or interests, and whose num the author pays his respects to science, which
bers are not too large to permit of all being in the schools has been enacted into a list of
seated around a small table and carrying on sesquipedalian words and sentences as intel-
their discussions in a conversational tone. It ligible to the mind of an ordinary parent as
is the indulgence in oratory that plays the the chatter of the jabberwock.” Finally, in-
mischief in board meetings, and makes real voking the memories of 1776, the author in-
deliberation impossible. President Eliot has dulges in a diatribe against what he calls the
been urging this ideal upon us for many years, "monarchial regiment" [sic] in education,
and it is time that we should heed his sane although it is hard to find out what he means
and sober counsel.
by it. The trail of the demagogue is over
Returning to Mr. Churchill, it is obvious every paragraph of this address, which no
that any further exhibition of his unfitness intelligent person can read without disgust,
to hold the position he occupies must be of mingled with sorrow that its author should
the nature of an anti-climax, but there are one
hold by the grace of politics the post of high-
or two other matters of which we are impelled est authority in the school system of New
to say a word. It was only the other day that York.
he distinguished himself by a violent on-
The “Journal of Education,” which prints
slaught upon that worthiest of educational the address, calls Mr. Churchill “a live wire.
philanthropies, the Carnegie Foundation, The metaphor is well chosen, because a live
upon the ground, forsooth, that Mr. Carnegie wire may be a very dangerous thing. Un-
does not choose to extend his benefaction to
fortunately, this particular wire is at loose
institutions that flout the very idea of a uni- ends, and is a menace to those who get within
versity by establishing sectarian tests for their
its reach. A live wire that is properly and
teaching. The narrow-minded and reaction safely circuited supplies the effective driving
ary temper of this outburst is almost in-
force that a school system needs, but the cur-
credible, and is anything but becoming to an
rent should be promptly shut off from such
educational official in high position. Recently,
a live wire as the President of the New York
Board of Education.
also, Mr. Churchill delivered himself, at a pub-
lic school reunion in New York, of an address
from which we are constrained to make a few
extracts. He began by telling the pathetic
CASUAL COMMENT.
story of a boy who got into a high school in JOURNALISTIC IDEALS commonly mean low
a slightly irregular way, and who could not and utilitarian or commercial ideals, and
be kept there, under the rules, until special among the popular metropolitan journals
action was taken in his case. But whence
that are usually regarded as not disinclined
these tears? The action was taken, and surely
to sacrifice higher aims to less exalted motives
has long been numbered the newspaper di-
a system of high schools must have rules reg-
rected so brilliantly and for so many years
ulating conditions of entrance.
Next, he by the commanding genius whose name is
assails what he calls the "high school stand-
associated with our leading school for the
ard,” indulging in declamation about the training of journalists. Interesting, and not
schools being "for the people," and inveigh- devoid of unintentional humor, are the fol-
ing against “the traditions of ancient aris- lowing extracts from an eloquent monologue
tocracy." This, of course, is the sheerest uttered by Mr. Joseph Pulitzer a short time
claptrap, and means, if it means anything, before his death, and reproduced by one of
that children of a certain age must be passed his secretaries in the book elsewhere reviewed
through the high school, without regard to
in these pages. After asserting that “accu-
their acquirements, and in defiance of the
racy is to a newspaper what virtue is to
a woman,
” and that his daily instructions
fact that they are not yet qualified to be pro-
to his staff insist first and foremost upon accu-
moted from the lower grades. “Schools for
racy, Mr. Pulitzer continues: “I do not say
the people” is a phrase meaning that suitable that The World is the only paper which takes
instruction is freely offered to every child; extraordinary pains to be accurate; on the
it emphatically does not mean that a child has contrary, I think that almost every paper in


40
[July 16
THE DIAL
ܕܕ
America tries to be accurate. I will go fur- | has cause to envy me. But five years later
ther than that. There is not a paper of
any
there came what Tolstoi's son calls “a com-
importance published in French, German or plete breach” between the two friends, though
English, whether it is printed in Europe or its completeness was not such as to prevent
in America, which I have not studied for weeks exchange of courtesies and even an extension
or months, and some of them I have read of hospitality on at least three occasions on
steadily for a quarter of a century; and I the part of the "crank, as his friend re-
tell you this, Mr. Ireland, after years of expe- garded him, who had secluded himself at
rience, after having comparisons made by Yásnaya Polyána. The case is well sum-
the hundred, from time to time, of different marized by Count Ilyá thus: “It seems to
versions of the same event, that the press me that Tourgueniéff, as an artist, saw nothing
of America as a whole has a higher standard in my father beyond his great literary talent,
of accuracy than the European press as a and was unwilling to allow him the right to
whole.” The speaker's deliberate opinion is be anything besides an artist and a writer.
that “there are
no newspapers in America Any other line of activity on my father's
which are so habitually, so criminally stuffed part offended Tourgueniéff, as it were, and he
with fake news as the worst of the European was angry with my father because he did not
papers.
And further : “As a matter of follow his advice. He was much older than
fact, the criticisms you hear about the Amer my father, he did not hesitate to rank his own
ican press are founded on a dislike for our talent lower than my father's, and demanded
headlines and for the prominence we give only one thing of him, that he should devote
to crime, to corruption in office, and to sen all the energies of his life to his literary
sational topics generally; the charge of inac- work.' But of course Tolstoi insisted on
curacy is just thrown in to make it look being something more than a literary artist,
worse. I do not believe that one person in and so these two, each of whom protested that
a thousand who attacks the American press he had never had a serious disagreement with
for being inaccurate has ever taken the trou any one else, and each of whom earnestly de-
ble to investigate the facts." Even the charge sired the other's friendship, were utterly un-
of sensationalism, most shameful of literary able to “hit it off” together.
crimes, is made to rest on a very frail founda-
tion, if not altogether refuted. Is all this to
THE SUSTAINING POWER OF POETRY, in mo-
be taken as highly encouraging and gratify- ments of physical weakness and mental de-
ing, or simply as one more illustration of the pression, has been attested more than once.
old maxim, quot homines, tot sententiæ, and in an eloquent passage of his writings Rob-
of the equally ancient truth that men easily ertson of Brighton describes the refreshment
believe what they wish to believe ?
and reinvigoration that he derived from
Shakespeare in times of weariness, and con-
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TOURGUENIEFF-TOL trasts this healthful stimulus with the baleful
STOI BREACH is told by Tolstoi's son, Count effects of those grosser medicaments resorted
Ilya Tolstoi, in the current instalment of to by the slaves of alcohol or opium. Matthew
his reminiscences of his father, in the “Cen Arnold's well-known sonnet, “To a Friend,”
tury Magazine.' It is made clear that, con beginning, “Who prop, thou ask'st, in these
trary to the prevalent notion, there was no bad days, my mind ?" gives high praise to
literary rivalry or literary jealousy between Homer, “clearest-souled of men,” but higher
the two men; but there was perpetual discord still to Sophocles, “who saw life steadily and
between their temperaments. “Your whole
saw it whole."
During his recent recovery
being stretches out hands toward the future, from a severe illness Senator Lodge had re-
writes the older to the younger man in 1856; course to the poets of Greece and of England
“mine is built up in the past. For me to fol to build up again the weakened fabric of his
low you is impossible. For you to follow me inner life. He describes in “Diversions of a
is equally out of the question. You are too Convalescent,” published in this month's
far removed from me, and besides, you stand “Scribner's Magazine," the solace and satis-
too firmly on your own legs to become any faction he found in recalling certain familiar
one's disciple. I can assure you that I never poems and parts of poems, and tells how his
attributed any malice to you, never suspected thoughts, “ranging at will through the wide
you of any literary envy. I have often spaces of memory, turned naturally and
thought, if you will excuse the expression, chiefly to Milton and Shakespeare, above all
that you were wanting in common sense, but to the latter. Passages from Paradise Lost,'
never in goodness. You are too penetrating from 'Lycidas,' 'L'Allegro,' 'Il Penseroso,
not to know that if either of us has cause the ‘Samson Agonistes,' and the ‘Comus,' and
to envy the other, it is certainly not you that lines from the sonnets, came unbidden in the
ܙܕ


1914)
41
THE DIAL
silences of such a time. They were only frag- is something almost.Carlylean, in his outcries
ments, but there was an endless pleasure in against the difficulties: of his literary'• task,
trying to recite them, to see how far the con though the entire removal of those difficulties
valescent could go, and there was something would probably have left him as, wretched. as ..
infinitely soothing and satisfying in their was Carlyle as soon as he had finished:oper
noble beauty and in the mere perfection of book and while he was waiting for the impulse
the words and rhythm,... He reiterates to begin another. The author, no less than
that "it was to Shakespeare, best known and the obscurest of his readers, looks before and
best beloved, that the convalescent's mind after and pines for what is not, and for what .
turned most constantly. His words recurred by no possibility ever can be.
unceasingly as the thoughts, effortless and un-
fettered, flitted here and there. Passages WHY THE DESIRED BOOK IS NOT FORTH-
from the plays, entire sonnets, repeated them-
COMING is a question that has puzzled and
selves to the convalescent, some over and over also irritated more public-library users than
again, always with a sense of peace and deep could easily be counted. With that tendency
content.” One is reminded of Carlyle, in the which we all show to base our generalizations
loneliness and feebleness of his last years,
on one or two striking instances, the disap-
solacing himself with reading again the whole pointed applicant for a recent popular novel
of Shakespeare.
exclaims: "That's just the way; I never
can get anything I want here," and he (or
LITERATURE AS VIEWED BY ITS MAKERS has more often she) flings out of the library and
unquestionably its seamy side, comparable slams the door in wrathful disgust — or would
with that of the drama as contemplated from slam it if it were not for its anti-slam attach-
the stage and behind the scenes. When we
ment which cruelly denies one that solace.
give ourselves up to the sublimities of the With a scrupulosity not found in every library
“Divine Comedy” we seldom think of its report, the John Crerar librarian explains,
author as the man who, in more than a fig. in his current annual record of things done
urative sense, had descended into Hell (for and things left undone, “the causes of fail-
it was in that character that the people were ures to supply books called for," as follows:
wont to regard him as they craned their necks “At bindery, 663; otherwise unavailable
to get a peep at him on the street), and when temporarily, mostly burned or stolen and not
we refresh ourselves with the delightful yet replaced, 49; in use by another reader,
humor and pathos of “The Vicar of Wake- 1,073; withdrawn from general circulation,
field” we forget the four weary years its 39; not found on shelves, 548; errors of
author waited, in poverty and discouragement, library assistants or records, 140; total,
for its publication. Goldsmith's ready pen2,512. The total is 1.58 per cent of the total
and his dexterity as a compiler gave him but call slips presented. Excluding the first four
little satisfaction. “While you are nibbling causes as unavoidable, the avoidable failures
about elegant phrases, I am obliged to write
were 0.43 per cent." This total of less than
half a volume, ” he complained to his friend one-fiftieth of all the books called for is cred-
Cradock. In the letters of Edward Dowden itably small. The corresponding figures in a
now given to the world in two selective col- public library circulating fiction and other
lections occur not a few expressions of dis- light literature would be considerably larger,
taste for the less pleasing part of his daily probably too large to admit of publication
duties as a writer of books and as a lecturer with any great pride on the librarian's part.
on literature. For example, one of his let- | Among the minor problems daily confronting
ters closes thus: “I must end, and turn to the public librarian, there is none more hope-
- may I say an infernal kind of work, writ- less of solution than the problem of meeting
ing examination papers - which will occupy promptly every demand for a popular book
me for several toilsome days. You at least without overloading the library with extra
have not to torture English literature into copies that must speedily become so much use-
horrid little questions." And an earlier one less lumber.
has this passage:
“My miscellaneous read-
ing for my E. literature book sinks down into IMMORTAL CHARACTERS IN FICTION are not
a Serbonian bog. You can fully appreciate created by every novelist. Indeed, to the
the difficulty of getting at facts from Bede, older novel-readers among us it sometimes
or rather from 'Beowulf' and Cædmon' on seems as if no characters were now being
wards, where much is uncertain and much created to compare in popularity and lon-
obscure.” Still again, referring to the same gevity with the famous creations of Dickens
task, he moans: “The English literature has and Scott and Thackeray. At the Boston
nearly crushed me out of existence.”' There Authors' Club it was asserted the other day


42.
[July 16
THE DIAL
that.I
.ro modern.romancer.bad yet arisen whose sonal progress and self-betterment, and in its
characters: could be compared with those of friendly rooms are an American environment
these older novelists in respect to what may and the atmosphere of our spoken English.”
.. be called their lingering or haunting quality. Among evidences that library work with those
Surely; if apý recent writers have given to in whom Mr. Carr is interested is not thrown
the world'áhy Saini Wellers or Dominie Samp- away may be cited the Boston Public Library's
sons or Becky Sharps, the world is not yet testimony that “children of foreign-born par-
keenly conscious of the gift. And yet, among ents read a better class of books than their
the younger novel-readers there are doubtless American brothers and sisters.” The Immi-
not a few who are far more familiar with the grant Education Society, of New York, pub-
characters of Mr. Kipling's and Mr. Locke's lishes Mr. Carr's useful manual, which is
and Mr. Arnold Bennett's books than with likely to meet with an increasing demand, if
those of any writer so nearly mediæval as certain signs in the library field are not mis-
must to them appear the great trio named | leading.
above. Nevertheless, these other and later
children of the romancer's imagination show THE MODESTY OF GENIUS is one of its most
little disposition to join the company of uni- pleasing traits when it is present, which it
versally-known fictitious characters, although not always is. In our mental pictures of
exception might be made in favor of several Dickens the quality of modest simplicity and
that will occur to the reader. Mr. Dooley, utter absence of conceit or self-consciousness
though not exactly a personage out of a novel, is, perhaps, not the most prominent feature,
has a fame that is more than national, as also thanks to the stories that have come down to
have those juvenile favorites, Tom Sawyer us of his jaunty appearance as a young man,
and Huckleberry Finn; and it may be that and of preference for neckties of not the
Rebecca will not fade from memory with quietest hue and for other articles of personal
the passing of the buttercups. But no one can adornment rather characteristic of the dandy.
tell beforehand what names will get into the That we may have unwittingly done the great
“Who's Who in Fiction" of half a century novelist a wrong seems to be indicated by a
hence.
noteworthy passage from the pen of his son,
Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, K. C., who con-
How to WIN THE IMMIGRANT, how to help tributes • A Chat About Charles Dickens” to
him to feel at home in the new land, and how to
this month's “Harper's Magazine.” He
open the way to his becoming a useful and
writes: “Now if I were asked what it was
loyal citizen, are questions that have deeply that had struck me most about my father I
interested Mr. John Foster Carr, as is already think I should unhesitatingly say that it was
known from his widely circulated “Guide to
the United States for the Italian Immigrant,
his extraordinary modesty. His nature was
a manual translated, mutatis mutandis, into conceit surprising. When it is remembered
of the simplest ; his absence of affectation or
many tongues for the benefit of immigrants how, at the age of twenty-four, he jumped to
A later work from the the very top of his profession and remained
same hand, entitled “Immigrant and Li-
brary,” is primarily for the librarian who blamed him if he had shown some slight symp-
there to the end, no man could well have
wishes to increase the usefulness of his library toms of having had his head turned. I can
among the alien population of his neighbor-
emphatically assert, from my knowledge of
hood. This little book, too, has reference
especially to the Italian immigrant, and its him, that there was a total absence of any.
thing of the kind." It may be objected that
preliminary pages of general suggestion and
the members of a man's family are too near
advice are followed by classified lists of Italian
him to see him in the right perspective, and
books likely to meet the needs and desires of
the objection is not without weight; but let
working-class Italians. As the writer well
us not forget the emphatic words of Carlyle
says, “we sometimes forget that no natural-
upon hearing of Dickens's death, — "the good,
ized citizen can ever be a good American
unless he has first been a good Italian or Ger. Dickens; every inch of him an honest man."
the gentle, high-gifted, ever-friendly, noble
man or Greek unless he has the reverent
instinct of loyalty to the land of his birth.
If he is to be a good American, we must give THE LITERARY DIVERSIONS OF A PHYSICIAN
him some sufficient reason for respecting and sometimes succeed in securing a place in his
loving our land. And how better than affections not second to that held by the
through the library can this country of ours things of his profession. It is safe to say
be made alluring, accepted in love! Alluring that Sir Thomas Browne, Dr. John Brown,
certainly is the library's invitation to per- Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Dr. S. Weir


1914)
43
THE DIAL
"No."
Mitchell all took more satisfaction, in secret "And have you never read a poem of Tenny-
if not openly, in their success and fame as
son's?'
Milnes sent him "Locksley
authors than in their reputation as prac-Hall” and “Ulysses” to peruse at his leisure,
titioners of medicine. What we accomplish
What we accomplish and the great statesman may or may not have
with the left hand and at odd moments seems done so; but, as all the world knows, Tenny-
to bear more unmistakably the stamp of son was so fortunate as to get his pension.
innate capacity or genius than that which with Knowles's turn came later. Apparently it
sedulous training and strenuous effort we would have been all one to Peel whether the
achieve in our regular working hours and by pension was asked for in the name of the
the conscientious application of our best ener greatest poet in the land or for the obscurest
gies. Dr. Christopher Johnston, who died in rhymester of Grub Street.
Baltimore at the end of last month, was the
son of a physician and was himself educated
ANOTHER BUSINESS MEN'S BRANCH LIBRARY,
to be a physician, and for eight years prac-
after the pattern of the highly successful
ticed medicine in the city of his birth; but pioneer institution of this kind at Newark,
Oriental studies encroached increasingly on
N. J., is about to be established in Boston's
his time and attention, until finally he became City Hall, in the room formerly used by the
known to the world as one of the most emi now extinct board of aldermen. The library
nent Orientalists in this country and as a
already has a good collection of such reference
writer in his chosen department of learning, books, maps, atlases, and other works, as are
holding at the same time a professorship in needed for the equipment of the proposed
this department at Johns Hopkins University. branch, and as it is not at present intended
He wrote “Epistolary Literature of the As-
to provide books for circulation there will be
syrians and Babylonians," which appeared in little expense involved in the installation of
1896, and edited ten years later a work on
the new service. Dr. Edward M. Hartwell,
“Ancient Empires of the East.” Articles on secretary of the statistics department, is
Assyriology and Egyptology also came from
named as head of the City Hall Branch — the
his pen, and he gave assistance to Professor
name of this latest addition to the Boston
Paul Haupt in a new translation of the Bible Public Library system. New York has a
issued some years ago in Germany. Dr.
similar branch of its public library in its City
Johnston was born in Baltimore, Dec. 8, 1856, Hall, and it is safe to say that the business
received his college education at the Univer men's branch, as an essential part of the
sity of Virginia, his medical training at the American public library, has come to stay and
University of Maryland, studied and after to grow.
ward taught Semitics at Johns Hopkins, and
BY-PRODUCTS OF LITERARY
rose to the dignity of a full professorship (in
ENDEAVOR.
Oriental history and archæology) in that uni-
versity six years ago.
(Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.)
There are so many, in these days of Compulsory
Education, who can write, after a fashion, that it
THE QUESTION OF PUBLIC PENSIONS FOR is not surprising to find the poor author adven-
AUTHORS, a question that some are trying to turing upon paths unknown to his more stolid
agitate in this country, has more than one forefathers. The dignity of letters is only for the
aspect and is not the simplest problem imag- writer with a competence; the others have to
inable. Generally speaking, what interest in
scramble for what they can get, like schoolboys
or acquaintance with literature can be claimed
in a muddy field. And even your successful
for our legislators or other government offi-
author, arrived at a pitch where he enjoys a more
than comfortable income from his work, too often
cials who would be called upon to grant the
throws his dignity to the winds, scrambling with
proposed pensions ? In Tennyson's day in the rest for more,- which, from the point of view
England, as the London “Chronicle” has of his less fortunate brother in art, cannot be
recently pointed out, there was no end of held other than reprehensible. But what is a
difficulty in getting suitable pensions for de popular writer to do when editors pursue him
serving men of letters. When the question of with flattering proposals? It takes a mind of
granting the author of "The Lady of Shalott" uncommon loftiness to refuse handsome offers of
a pension of two hundred pounds was under
cash for work that is easy and affords an agree-
consideration, there was a rival in the field
able change. And so we find novelists of renown,
both men and women, writing in the public press,
in the person of Sheridan Knowles. Peel
no doubt for highly exorbitant fees, on subjects
confessed his complete ignorance of both with which they are often very imperfectly
claimants. "What!” exclaimed Monckton acquainted.
Milnes, “have you never seen the name of In fact, the less they know about their topic, it
Sheridan Knowles on a playbill ?”
would seem, the more anxiously does the modern
"No."


44
(July 16
THE DIAL
editor crave their assistance. It has lately become golfers began to get tired of reading similar advice,
the fashion with the more widely circulated of our worded with a slight difference. And the point
London morning papers to select the most incon- of view was always the same,, the intensely
gruous persons to act as reporters on their serious outlook of the man to whom golf was a
Sports” page. Football, of course, is just now means of livelihood as well as a game. And so
the popular craze, among a certain section of the with cricket, and football, and the rest. It occurred
public. We possess a whole class who follow the to the powers who rule such things that perhaps
career of their favorites in the various leagues, or the professional writer and preacher might infuse
in the Cup Ties, with more than a feverish interest. a little more spirit into the affair. And so they
Football, with these, is a religion: they are turned to the professional writer, the professional
steeped in the terminology of the game: their speaker, the artist in words and phrases, for a
reading, conversation, and thoughts appear all to change.
be concentrated upon this one absorbing topic. Our great lights in fiction took up the work
And I suppose that the kindly editor of the readily enough. But I do not know that they
London " Daily Mail” imagined that this intelli made a great success of the business. Several
gent section of his readers hungered for variety. novelists have tried their hands at football
Perhaps he reasoned that, being human, they must matches; a bishop or two, I believe, have written,
surely be getting tired of the uninspired stuff that their impressions of other games in which the
was served up to them week after week by the Church had, up to that time, taken but a languid
common reporters. Or perhaps again he is a interest. But any freshness that they might have
subtle humorist, delighting in the incongruous for brought to their task was nipped by a natural fear
its own sake. At any rate, for the last few of displaying their ignorance. Indeed, in most
months he has adopted the practice of employing cases, the journal that employed them thought it
as football reporter the Ignorant Celebrity. Some necessary to provide a journalistic nurse to coach
times he entraps a lady novelist; sometimes a them in their duties. Under the eye of this mentor
pillar of the Church. The one essential appears the poor fellows were afraid to let their fancy
to be that the writer should know as little as have free play. The apologetic note was too much
possible of the game he has to describe. Whether in evidence in their work; and their reports read
the football enthusiast enjoys the curious sus very much like those of a new hand who had yet
tenance that is dished up to him above these to learn the alphabet of his trade. Certainly the
honored names I have no means of telling. I bishops contrived to introduce a few words of
should conjecture that he takes his favorite pas moral reflection; the lady novelists attempted a
time too seriously to relish the change; probably few generalities; the humorists did their best to
he prefers the common man who knows his busi insert an occasional joke. But I doubt if the
ness to the more florid balderdash of the accom experiment will be repeated when we come to
plished word-spinner. On the other hand, the another football season.
editor of this popular journal is assuredly a man The press of this country, very properly, does
who knows his public. He is aware that they like all it can to brighten its pages. Some years ago,
big names. And it is possible that his readers we had the reputation of possessing the most solid
experience a pleasant sense of superiority when daily press in the world. The solidity implied
they discover that, after all, they know more about weight; and our morning papers secured their
the intricacies of the Association code than Miss dignity at the cost of hard reading. Twenty years
Marie Corelli or the Right Reverend the Bishop ago, or even less, the man who assimilated his
of Zanzibar.
“ Times” in the morning felt as if he had already
This pursuit of the Big Name is nothing new done a good day's work. As the general pace of
in British journalism: this latest development is life increased, it was felt that this daily labor
merely a new phase of a practice that came into imposed too great a task upon the nation; even
vogue toward the end of the last century. And the “ Times (most conservative of organs) had
there is something to be said for it. The opinion to modify its form and cast overboard some of its
of the expert is very well, but now and again it is ancient lumber. It was about that time that the
not amiss to have also the opinion of one who has personal “causerie " began to take the place of
earned his reputation in other fields. Thus we get the reasoned criticism. The art of writing in the
a certain freshness of outlook; and freshness is press became the art of chatting pleasantly about
an eminently desirable quality in a daily paper. personal predilections. Lightness and freshness of
A short time ago editors were all for securing the outlook were the two qualities most in demand.
services of well-known players to write of the Young men were captured fresh from the uni-
games in which they excelled. Professional crick-versities, or even earlier, and set to record their
eters used to write of the matches in which they impressions of the latest performances in Litera-
took part; commonly, it may be admitted, they ture, Painting, Music, and the Drama. And at
made a very dull job of it. So, too, almost all first, no doubt, they did infuse a certain amount
our leading golfers perpetrated books of advice of freshness into their task. But a very little
on their so popular pastime. Some of these dis- experience of the critic's arm chair is sufficient to
played a literary facility that confounded those give the tyro all the airs of the expert; and in a
critics who held that a certain torpidity of intellect very few weeks the young men were discovered
was essential to the making of a first-class golfer. to have picked up most of the outworn tags of
But there was, necessarily, a degree of sameness their predecessors. But the manner, at any rate,
about their work: even the most enthusiastic of was different; and the manner has persisted. The


1914)
45
THE DIAL
are
rumors
reviewer of to-day, with the critic of music and Max Pemberton, has struck out a new line for
the drama, still commonly adopts the personal himself by turning out those curious medleys, so
standpoint, which is a legacy from those earlier popular here of late, which we call Revues. And
times. He does not go back to first principles. his industry has contributed not a little to the
He has, in short, no standard by which to judge brightness of these strange productions. There
but that of his own sympathies.
of other novelists following his
It is something for the young writer that he has example. The more the barriers are broken down
no longer to mould his thoughts into the arbitrary in this and other directions the better. I do not
form employed by the journalist of former days. know that the profession of novelist can be said
He has a freer hand, both as to matter and manner. to be decaying, but it is certainly somewhat incon-
The old “ leading article” of our youth had a veniently over-crowded in these days.
framework of cast iron: it was a bed of Pro-
E. H. LACON WATSON.
crustes into which the writer had somehow to
mould his thoughts, sometimes cutting them short
London, July 1, 1914.
but more often expanding them to the last degree
of tenuity. Those three paragraphs, each about
half a column in length, had to be filled; and the
COMMUNICATIONS.
unhappy journalist, in self defence, fell insensibly
into the habit of using the longest periphrases, a LAMAR FONTAINE AND "ALL QUIET ALONG
dozen words where two would serve. You could
THE POTOMAC.”
tell the accomplished leader-writer at a glance
when he adventured into other fields of literary
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
endeavor: there was apt to be something didactic The bare statement in a recent book, “ Writers
and long-winded even in his conversation. He and Writings of Texas,” that Lamar Fontaine was
gained a fatal facility in the use of words; he the author of the poem, “All Quiet along the
became a machine for transforming every con Potomac,” calls to mind one of the most pic-
ceivable subject into articles in three paragraphs. turesque figures in American literature and a lit-
I am glad to think that the leading article, in its erary controversy that was bitterly waged by the
old form, is practically dead. It could not be said press during the seventies and eighties.
to be good practice for the intending Man of Fontaine was born, October 10, 1829, in Laberde
Letters.
Prairie, Washington County, Texas. In 1840 his
I confess myself a believer in the notion of a family moved to Austin, then the capital of the
writer trying as many fields as possible. It is a Republic, where his father served first as private
commonplace that the best masters of prose have secretary to President Lamar (for whom Fontaine
in general been able to write fluent if not inspired was named), and later as pastor of the Episcopal
verse. And journalism has given many of our
church. The remainder of Fontaine's life reads
greatest names to literature, from the times of like pure fiction, and is rivalled in interest only
Dickens and Thackeray to the present day. The by the adventurous life of Captain John Smith.
practice of daily writing may or may not be Shortly after his arrival at Austin he was cap-
useful; sometimes, no doubt, it makes for pro tured by the Comanche Indians, who kept him a
lixity. But the journalist has to touch life at prisoner for four years. Escaping by a clever
many points: he must have at the least a bowing subterfuge, he returned on foot to Austin, a dis-
acquaintance with all the activities of the moment; tance of seven hundred and fifty miles. After six
and this should have its use when he comes to the years in the U. S. Navy, under the instruction of
writing of novels. So that Mrs. Elinor Glyn and Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, he went to
her sisters, who have recently paid occasional visits Russia, where he entered the Russian army. Dur-
to the football field in the way of business, may ing the siege of Sebastopol, by his expert marks-
possibly find inspiration for future works in the manship, he attracted the attention of the Czar,
unaccustomed spectacle. In the meantime, their who bestowed on him the Iron Cross of Peter the
names have been advertised among a section of Great. From Russia Fontaine journeyed to South
the public to whom, in all probability, their works America, and was there working as a civil engineer
had up to that time been but indifferently known. when the Civil War broke out. He sailed imme-
And so, too, with the stage. The masters of diately' for the South and enlisted in the Confed-
modern fiction adventure more and more into this erate army, acting for two years as a scout for
province, and with increasing success. Mr. Arnold Stonewall Jackson and later as a courier for Pem-
Bennett is the most popular playwright of the berton and Johnston. At the siege of Vicksburg
moment; Mr. G. K. Chesterton may be said to Fontaine distinguished himself by penetrating the
have won his spurs at the same innocent pursuit; Union lines on crutches and entering the city with
Mr. Temple Thurston is another recruit whó important dispatches and 40,000 gun caps. Alto-
appears to be making his way toward the legiti-gether he took part in twenty-seven battles and
mate drama by way of the music-hall sketch. Of fifty-seven skirmishes, and was wounded sixty-
Sir James Barrie, and the other lights who have seven times! After the war and until his death in
already illuminated the British stage, there is no Augusta, Georgia, he supported himself by teach-
need to speak now. But he, too, has been coquet-ing and surveying.
ting with the music-halls. And while some of our The poem which is responsible for Fontaine's
older dramatists have been occupying themselves literary prominence appeared anonymously in
in the designing of pageants, one novelist, Mr. / “Harper's Weekly” for November 30, 1861, under


46
[July 16
THE DIAL
6 The
the title, “ The Picket.” His claim to its author and threw on some pine knots, and roused Moore
ship was not long uncontested. Mrs. Ethel Beers, to take my place. He rose slowly and gathered
the only other contestant who gained much con his
gun and stepped to the fire, stretching himself,
sideration, died on the very day (October 10, 1879) as a sleepy soldier will, and gaped and yawned;
on which her only volume of poetry, “All Quiet and while his arms were extended, and his hand
along the Potomac, and Other Poems," appeared. | grasped the barrel of his gun, there was a flash
This volume did much to strengthen her claim. across the river and the whiz of a bullet, and he
She has been favored, too, by most authorities. sank to the earth, with a hole just above his eye
Thus Appleton's "Cyclopædia of American Biog on the left side. . . . Not a word, not a groan
raphy” remarks: “Her most noted poem is ‘Al escaped him. I removed his remains from near
Quiet along the Potomac,' suggested by an oft the fire where he had fallen. As I did so my eyes
repeated dispatch during the first year of the fell on the telegraphic columns of a newspaper,
Civil War. Its authorship was warmly disputed; and it was headed All Quiet along the Potomac
but, as is usual in such cases, only one of the To-night.' And, oh, how truthful it was.
claimants had written other verses of equal merit. When morning dawned the words of that news-
That was Mrs. Beers, and there is now no further paper were burned in my brain — they rang in
doubt as to the genuineness of her title.” The my ears, and were painted on every scene that met
poem had appeared under her name without com my view. . . . And while I stood and gazed at his
ment in W. C. Bryant's “ Library of Poetry and marble face and glazed eyes . . . I felt what few
Song” in 1871. Even Southern reference books mortals ever feel in this shadowy vale. I penned
have usually made cautious statements.
the outlines of the poem then and there, but not
South in the Building of the Nation," to quote an as they now appear, for the first were biting and
instance, remarks: Fontaine claimed the author sarcastic. I read the crude copy to Mr. W. W.
ship of
• All Quiet along the Potomac,' but Williams, and to Graham and Deprist. And Mr.
his claims seem not to be firmly established Williams suggested that if I would only make it
while C. W. Raines's “ Bibliography of Texas” pathetic, instead of sarcastic, it would be better.
(p. 84) declares: “Mr. F., one of the claimants I did so, and on the 9th of August I had it com-
to the authorship of this celebrated poem, was a plete, as the poem now stands, and I read it to my
man of but little literary ability ... and a school messmates . . . and gave them copies of the orig-
teacher of scant qualifications. He has many cer inal, and they recopied and sent them home, and
tificates of respectable men to sustain his claim, soon the whole regiment, brigade, division, and
but the internal evidence is lacking."
army were in possession of it.”
As early as 1869, however, when the controversy Mrs. Beers claims to have written the poem on
between Mrs. Beers and Fontaine was just begin a "cool September morning, after reading the
ning, the poem was published under Fontaine's stereotyped announcement, 'All Quiet,' etc., to
name in The Southern Poems of the War" which was added in small type, 'A Picket Shot.'
(collected and arranged by Miss Emily V. Mason, But it is obvious that Fontaine's 'account of why
of Virginia) and in “ The Southern Amaranth he wrote the poem is the more plausible and could
(by Miss Sallie A. Brock), with notes alluding better explain its deep emotion. In regard to
to the controversy and sustaining Fontaine's claim. Mrs. Beers, he wrote in the letter mentioned above:
In this year, also, James Wood Davidson compiled “Does it seem possible to a reading public that a
his “Living Writers of the South," in which he woman unacquainted and unused to the scenes and
credited the poem to Fontaine, justifying his act incidents of war should be able to portray so good
by publishing letters from Fontaine and various and so true a picture, and she a thousand miles
other Confederate officers. This evidence is from the spot? or how a Northern woman could
strengthened by several other letters in Sam H. write a poem so truly Southern, when the most
Dixon's “ Poets and Poetry of Texas" (1885), a intense and bitter animosity existed between the
quaint old book, long out of circulation. The most two sections, and a cruel, bloody war was raging
interesting of these is a letter from Fontaine, dated at the time? It passes all comprehension. And if
June 24, 1885.
she could do such a thing, she would be the most
Fontaine begins by telling of his friendship with remarkable woman on the face of the earth."
a Mr. Moore, a member of his own company, with Fontaine, it should be remembered, wrote other
whom, 6 because we were of the same tempera poems: his war songs are excellent, notably
ment, and exceedingly fond of poetry," he usually Oenone," " Only a Soldier,” and “Dying Pris-
contrived to stay, even while on picket duty. On oner at Camp Chase.” For these he deserves some
August 2, 1861, he goes on to say, he and Moore attention, even if his claim to “All Quiet along
were hailed by a Federal picket, who invited them the Potomac" be not recognized. Regardless of
to come half way to exchange papers. Fontaine who wrote the poem, it is interesting to read J. W.
swam across to the island, put on one of the Davidson's dictum that it will be remembered “as
overcoats of the guard, and ate a hearty meal, and long as hostile hosts send sorrow over civilized
made arrangements with the entire post that we country — as long as bloody death in distant lands
would not fire at one another while on guard.” | breaks loving hearts at home"; and Dixon's state-
He then returned to the Confederate lines.
ment: “This poem stands among the finest lyrics
had to stand on post six hours at a time," he con of the English language. It made the name of its
tinues. That night I took my stand at six and author familiar to the world. Its popularity does
Moore retired to rest. . . . As soon as I found not grow less as time passes. . It will be appreci-
that midnight had arrived I stepped to the fire ated as long as the memory of battle's fierce con-
66 We


1914 ]
47
THE DIAL
.
men.
flict is retained by man; as long, perhaps, as the not want to come into contact with the personality of
cradle owns its infant and the lonely picket walks the critic, since they have obviously never been intro-
duced to him.
upon the face of the earth !"
HYDER E. ROLLINS.
“ The ideal critic, on the other hand – - as opposed
to the so-exemplary reviewer – is a person who can
University of Texas, Austin, July 8, 1914. so handle words that from the fir three phrases any
intelligent person - any foreigner, that is to say, and
any one of three inhabitants of these islands
any
“ GROCER-SHOP CRITICISM."
intelligent person will know at once the sort of chap
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
he is dealing with. Letters of introduction will there.
fore be unnecessary, and the intelligent reader will
I am one of those who would like to make
know pretty well what sort of book the fellow is
“excited protests against the very idea of there writing about because he will know the sort of fellow
being such things in criticism as standard weights, the fellow is.
standard scales, and competent literary grocers,' Does not Mr. Hueffer succeed in demonstrating that
but Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer offers me à chance
the difference between the non-impressionist writer
to do something better. He explains, in the cur-
and the impressionist writer is the difference
rent issue of “Poetry and Drama," the difference
between a carpenter and a Sheraton or a Chip-
between non-impressionist writing — which is what
pendale?
you defend in your article on " Grocer-Shop Criti-
cism” — and impressionist writing:
Seriously, I recognize the necessity of the criti-
cism which makes it a business to list, describe, and
“ The difference between the description of a grass
place books: or, as THE DIAL puts it, “ to
by the agricultural correspondent of the Times news-
estimate literature, to pass judgment upon it, to
paper and the description of the same grass by Mr.
W. H. Hudson is just the difference the measure register the facts about it in some sort of objective
of the difference between the egos of the two gentle-
fashion." But that sort of criticism interests me
The difference between the description of any as a reader very little. It is useful - to those who
given book by a sound English reviewer and the have a use for it. The other sort (the sort that
description of the same book by some foreigner | Mr. George Moore has written in his autobiog-
attempting Impressionist criticism is again merely a
raphy, that M. Anatole France puts into his novels,
matter of the difference in the ego.
even that which Mr. Hueffer has put into his
Mind, I am not saying that the non-Impressionist
“ Memories and Impressions ") is interesting – to
productions may not have their values — their very
those who have an interest for it. LAURA TOBEY.
great values. The Impressionist gives you his own
views, expecting you to draw deductions, since pre New York City, July 10, 1914.
sumably you know the sort of chap he is. The agri-
cultural correspondent of the Times, on the other
hand — and a jolly good writer he is — attempts to
“ HEART OF HEART."
give you, not so much his own impressions of a new
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
grass as the factual observations of himself and of as
many as possible other sound authorities. He will
In connection with your remarks about “Tempta-
tell you how many blades of the new grass will grow tions to Misquotation" (June 16), under which
upon an acre, what height they will attain, what will you refer to Hamlet's “heart of heart," it is per-
be a reasonable tonnage to expect when green, when haps worth recalling that Wordsworth uses heart
sun-dried in the form of hay or as ensilage. He will
of hearts" in the last stanza of his ode, “ Intima-
tell you the fattening value of the new fodder in its
tions of Immortality.”
various forms and the nitrogenous value of the manure
dropped by the so-fattened beasts. He will provide “And 0, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills and
you, in short, with reading that is quite interesting
Groves,
to the layman, since all facts are interesting to men Forebode not any severing of our loves !
of good will; and the agriculturist he will provide Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might.”
with information of real value. Mr. Hudson, on the
May not some instances of supposed "misquo-
other hand, will give you nothing but the pleasure of
coming in contact with his temperament, and I doubt
tation " be really a borrowing from Wordsworth?
whether, if you read with the greatest care his descrip-
W. M. T.
tion of false sea-buckthorn (hippophae rhamnoides)
Sackville, N. B., July 3, 1914.
you would very willingly recognize that greenish-gray
plant, with the spines and the berries like reddish
THE USE OF “ TEMPEST."
amber, if you came across it.
“ Or again
so at least I was informed by an
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
editor the other day - the business of a sound English I have just read the article in your issue for
reviewer is to make the readers of the paper under May 16 on dialectic English. The word tempest
stand exactly what sort of book it is that the reviewer
is writing about. . . What the sound English re-
recalls the surprise I felt at the beginning of three
viewer, therefore, has to do is to identify himself with
years' residence on Cape Cod to hear the word
the point of view of as large a number of readers of
used commonly as an exact synonym for thunder-
the journal for which he may be reviewing, as he can
storm.
easily do, and then to give them as many facts about Persnickety I have been accustomed to use in
the book under consideration as his allotted space will
the sense attached to perjinkety, that is, over-fas-
hold. To do this he must sacrifice his personality and tidious. I do not know how the word was acquired
the greater part of his readability. But he will prob-
or how common its use is.
ably very much help his editor, since the great majority
of readers do not want to read anything that any
WILLIAM H. BOWERS.
reasonable person would want to read: and they do Brookings, South Dakota, July 3, 1914.


48
(July 16
THE DIAL
The New Books.
acquired a lot of wholly useless knowledge and can't
get rid of it.' The creative faculty was what he
valued; and his instinct for recognising it, which
enabled him to contribute to literature so large a
EDWARD DOWDEN'S MIND AND ART. *
body of most helpful criticism, was derived fronı
A pleasing self-delineation of the Irish critic the poet in himself.”
and poet whose first book, “ Shakespeare, his Continuing his comment, the writer speaks
Mind and Art,” made him widely known as a of the artistic detachment, the objectivity, the
gifted writer and a discerning interpreter of lack of the personal element and of expres-
other men's writings, is to be found in the two
sions of personal preference in Dowden's work
collections of letters issued under the super as a literary critic; and he likens his method
vision of his widow and one of his daughters. to that of Sainte-Beuve in French criticism,
"Letters of Edward Dowden and His Corre-
ascribing to him the highest credit for his
spondents "' is prefaced with a brief editorial
interpretation of Shakespeare. Then, in a
note signed by Mrs. Dowden and Miss Hilda passage that excellently characterizes the cor-
M. Dowden, and with a longer critical and respondence here under review, he adds :
appreciative introduction by Mr. W. K. Magee
“ It is this missing personal element in his writ-
("John Eglinton”). "Fragments from Old
ings which the present collection of letters comes to
Letters. E. D. to E. D. W. 1869-1892 ” is
supply; and the mere fact that so many of his cor-
edited by Mrs. Dowden alone, the "E. D. W."
respondents, from his earliest years, preserved his
referred to on the title page, or, in full, the letters, is already a sort of credential of their inter-
Elizabeth Dickinson West who became Dow est and value. The writing of letters was at all
den's second wife in 1895, and who is a daugh times with him one of his principal relaxations. He
ter of the late Dean of St. Patrick's. The two
seemed always ready for it, and wherever he hap-
volumes appeared almost simultaneously, and
pened to be in the Examination Hall of Trinity
together constitute one work, the tone of all
College, or lying out on the grass, or in the midst of
his family -- he would pull out his fountain-pen,
the letters being predominantly though by no
and in that beautiful handwriting welcomed by his
means exclusively literary and critical, often
correspondents all over the world, would give the
rich in book-learning, and always kindly and, piece of advice solicited, find what he could say in
as one instinctively feels, agreeably charac praise of some MS., supply a fact in literary his-
teristic of the writer. This, of course, applies tory, or gossip about himself, his literary, profes-
to the letters from Dowden, which make up sorial, political activities, with the same blending of
all one volume and the greater part of the
irony and sympathy with which he looked on at life
other.
and the world. It was almost his chosen mode of
There is something rather touching and
intercourse with his friends, as he admits playfully
to the friend to whom he wrote his best letters:
wholly ingratiating in Dowden's lifelong de-
'It is satisfactory to be at writing distance. It is
sire to give the best expression of himself in only now and then I am friendly to you in bodily
poetry of his own rather than, as he was presence. However, you are aware that under my
destined to do, in appraising and interpreting talk of the weather there is something more real.
the poetry of others. In his college days at But on paper I can even talk of “two new points
Dublin University he won, among other
in Hamlet's soul ” (much better than the weather).'
honors, the vice-chancellor's prize for both The personality which presents itself in these letters
English verse and prose, and the little book
is that almost of a saint of culture: a saint, how-
of poems he published at the age of thirty-one
ever, not lost to humanity, nor whom celestial diet
has spoiled for human nature's daily food; for they
was so far successful as to go into a second
are a record of a life passed with the great person-
edition. But if he did not win immortal fame
alities of literature."
as a poet, it was the poet in him that helped
to make him one of the soundest and most
The preface here quoted from is a little con-
stimulating of critics and one of the most
fusing and self-contradictory in professing to
enjoyable of essayists. As Mr. Magee says of
find in Dowden's critical work, which in a
him in the preface already referred to,-
general way includes all his prose work, “an
“ The poet in Dowden was the secret of his per-
entire elimination of his own personality,
sonal distinction; it was the secret also of that
and in asserting at the end that “his con-
strange humility of his, for he hardly valued him-
tribution to Irish literature was perhaps the
self at all on the possession of those faculties for greatest he could have made, a personality.”
which the world in his case found most use: his It was in keeping with this very impersonality
aptitude for mere book-learning, for instance, of of his that he could humorously call himself
which he says in his letters, Somebow I have "a half-breed Irishman” and one endowed
* LETTERS OF EDWARD DOWDEN AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS.
“with none of the instincts of Irish nation-
Illustrated. New York : E. P. Dutton & Co.
ality.” He refused to join in the Irish literary
OLD LETTERS. E. D. to E. D. W.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
movement that vainly sought his support in
FRAGMENTS FROM
1869-1892. Illustrated.


1914]
49
THE
DIAL
the early nineties; his interest was in a larger “I do n't know what my lecture on the 'Humour
literary movement, and it is this very breadth of Shakespeare' will turn out, except that I have
of literary sympathy that has given him so
no intention of being funny. I conjecture before-
wide an influence in the world of letters.
hand that not only a man's laughter is significant,
And now for a few illustrative extracts from
but the history of his laughter, and I think if I
the correspondence itself. Here is one that
arrange Shakespeare's plays in chronological order,
and ask what Shakespeare laughed at from 26 to 46,
combines the intimate and personal with the something ought to be discoverable. The wit of the
literary and critical in a delightful manner.
early comedies is something very remote from the
It is from a letter written in the country to sublime and pathetic grotesque of Lear's fool. ...
Mr. Magee; the date, August 12, 1895.
As to Shakespeare's humour, I think there is a tem-
“If you are, as I suppose, gone away for your porary and a permanent element (permanent at
holiday, I hope you have better weather than ours. least as long as we have the sense of humour) in it.
It has resulted for me in a stupefying dose of read I have — rarely --- laughed aloud when reading
ing. I am just now finishing a long poem by Shakespeare, but not so much at anything exactly
Mr. Milton called “Paradise Lost,' which I am sure humorous as at something else, probably sympathy
you have heard of, perhaps read. Mark Pattison with Shakespeare's delight in inventing anything so
deplores Milton's prostitution in pamphlet writing much after his own heart. I think in heaven we
I confess I sometimes turn from the addresses of shall have something corresponding to humour, the
the Almighty to his Son, and vice versa, with some
relative will still remain, and perhaps the highest
satisfaction to the rages and arguments on divorce heroisms we can now conceive will appear then like
and king-killing and prelate-harrying; and I like the efforts of a baby to think or speak or move, and
to see how the poet behaved in the stress of the as we smile with a half pleased, half tender, and
realities of his day."
wholly loving feeling at the upward tendings of a
Writing in term time from Dublin to Ed baby, so we shall have a tender, half-amused joy in
mund Gosse, Dowden gives a glimpse of him-
the striving after right of souls in their childhood,
self in the class-room. He is at his epistolary
and we shall afford the same recreation to the
Greater Spirits who are above ourselves."
best in such light and humorous passages as
this:
The poetic gift of his correspondent quick-
“Last Friday I went into my class-room with a ened the interest Dowden evidently felt in her
delightful new lecture copied out of a certain new from the first. He gives her useful advice
volume by E. G., which lecture I purposed to about writing and publishing, and from time
deliver with a critical air and an impressive aspect to time commends her work in prose and verse.
of original investigation, as the lecturer's own.
Referring to her literary manner, he says, in
Imagine my disgust when I saw • Seventeenth Cen-
a passage that no one who plies a pen will
tury Studies’ already in the hands of one of my
fail to enjoy:
students. I made a vain attempt to turn him out of
my class-room for breach of discipline. Then I “As to what I said of style I mean not that you
humbled myself and said, 'I will now read some have applied the manipulative dexterities of a
extracts from a charming essay on Herrick, by craftsman to your sentences but that you see an:)
Mr. Gosse, which I am proud to see is already feel what ought to be done, and do it; and one gets
known to members of my class.' The young offender the pleasure from such writing that one gets from
felt touched by this, and did not mention the fact the swift work of an artist who tells a truth with
that I read nearly the whole essay."
The manipulative dexterities I ain
Dowden's long friendship with the woman
far from despising."
whom, three years after the death of his first This mention of “the manipulative dexteri-
wife, he married, and by whom the last years ties” recalls what a reviewer in “The Spec-
of his life were cheered, is commemorated in tator" said of Dowden's style upon the ap-
the smaller of the two volumes here under
pearance of his “Transcripts and Studies.”
notice. The letters begin in the spring of In a criticism of the book the writer was of
1869, and end in the autumn of 1892. The opinion that “occasionally Mr. Dowden allows
marriage, after which the two “were never a the wealth of decorative language of which he
day apart until April 3, 1913," took place in is a master to get the better of him and serve
December of 1895. To judge from the letters as a substitute for thought; but this is not
and parts of letters published, it was chiefly often, and for the most part his criticism is as
what may be called a literary and intellectual thoughtful as it is happily expressed."
friendship that finally took on a warmer glow Happily expressed thoughts abound in
and ended in matrimony; and it is because these collections of letters; and though all
the letters are devoted so largely to the parts are not equally interesting to all read-
writer's studies and literary diversions that ers, no reader who feels moved to open the
they are of sufficient general interest to be volumes should fail to find much matter suited
made public. Here is a part of one written to his tastes, and none that is utterly devoid
in 1874, when the writer was nearing the end of savor. Portraits, views, and facsimiles are
of his thirty-first year.
included.
PEROY F. BICKNELL.
every touch.


50
(July 16
THE DIAL
ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE 17TH AND 18TH and their history. In the same way the de-
CENTURIES.*
velopment of dramatic technique is almost
With all the attention which colleges have ignored, except in so far as it is connected
given in the past few years to dramatic
with the controversy about the rules. We
studies, it is strange that no serious history get only a hint of the decisive influence of
of the English drama of the last two cen.
new stage conditions on technique. So simple
turies should have appeared. Dr. Ward's
a matter as the introduction of the curtain,
standard work carries the story only to the
for instance, had an important effect upon
death of Queen Anne; Professor Schelling naïveté in this whole matter may be sug-
The author's
confines himself to the Elizabethan period. naïveté in this whole matter may be sug-
Professor Nettleton's "English Drama of the gested by a single sentence. "Like Gold-
Restoration and Eighteenth Century” is in smith,
smith," he says, "Sheridan prefers 'expec-
tended to supply this lack in part; and a
tation' to 'surprise' as a dramatic motive."
sequel which will deal with the nineteenth
Yes: and he might have added, like Sopho-
century is promised.
cles, like Shakespeare, and like every other
The present study is dedicated to Dr. Ward, dramatist who knew his business.
and has had the benefit of his advice and sug-
Aside from these capital omissions, the
gestions. For the sake of completeness and chief weakness of the book is an occasional
continuity, Professor Nettleton has wisely woodenness or vagueness of style. Certain
included the Restoration, and has given a mechanical tricks, such as the constant quali-
résumé of the scattering dramatic activities fication of a sentence by its successor begin-
of the Puritan period. The volume ends with ning with “yet,” become distinctly annoying.
a discussion of Sheridan. Considering the As to vagueness, just what does this mean?
difficulties of the task and the rather narrow
“The Law against Lovers (1662) blends with
limits of space, the book is in many respects
the darker tones of Measure for Measure the
excellent. It is based on a thorough study of lively accents of Benedick and Beatrice." Or
the plays; it is logically planned and well what degree of indebtedness is implied in the
proportioned; in statement of fact it is remark that “The Parson's Wedding” “drew
cautious and so far as it has been tested accu-
from Calderon”! But these are minor de-
rate. Its literary judgments, if a trifle con fects. Some day, it is to be hoped, Professor
ventional, are generally sound. The history is Nettleton may enlarge his book and give ade-
carefully integrated, every writer being con quate treatment to the parts of the subject
sidered with reference to his predecessors and which he has slighted; meanwhile we must be
his followers. Thus, for instance, we are
grateful to him for a good working text, in-
made to see how the origin of sentimental
valuable to students of the period.
comedy may be traced to the sentimentalized
HOMER E. WOODBRIDGE.
tragedy of Otway and Southerne; or more
specifically, how Goldsmith and Sheridan
took hints for their great comedies from MAN'S ORIGINAL MENTAL EQUIPMENT.
Wycherley, Farquhar, Steele, and Foote.
There is a good, though rather scanty, work “The Original Nature of Man" is the first
ing bibliography, and a fairly satisfactory volume of a trilogy by Mr. Edward L. Thorn-
index.
dike, professor of educational psychology at
The chief faults are sins of omission. Pro Columbia. It “describes man's original men-
fessor Nettleton pays astonishingly little at tal equipment - the inherited foundations of
tention to stage conditions and dramatic intellect, morals, and skill.” Of its mates,
technique. The differences between the Eliza- "The Psychology of Learning," which is the
bethan theatre and that of the Restoration second, has still to be written; while the third,
are stated only briefly; the evolution of the on “Individual Differences and their Causes,”
Restoration stage into the modern stage is was printed as long ago as 1903, under the
entirely ignored. The word “stage” does title, “Educational Psychology.
not appear in the index; the word “theatre” pose of this trilogy is to offer ‘a systematic
appears only with reference to Drury Lane.
account of present knowledge of the dynamics
In the chapters on the Garrick era especially of human nature and behavior,” not, how-
we feel the need of some account of the rival ever, for the sake of knowledge, but for the
theatres and companies; and indeed the value sake of the improvement of mankind. Mr.
of the whole book woul'i be greatly increased Thorndike appears as a sort of American
by a brief chronological view of the theatres Socrates, applying the methods of the
* ENGLISH DRAMA OF THY RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH
* THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN. By Edward L. Thorn-
By: George Henry Nettleton.
Educational Psychology."
York: The Macmillan Co.
The pur-
CENTURY (1642-1780).
New
60
dike.
College, Columbia University.
New York: Teachers


1914)
51
THE DIAL
“sciences of psychology, in obedience to the “ The original tendencies of man have not been
maxim “Know thyself." His conclusion is no right, are not right, and probably never will be
less Socratic and triumphantly common-
right. By them alone few of the best wants in
place. There is a higher and a lower in
human life would have been felt, and fewer still
satisfied. Nor would the crude, conflicting perilous
human nature. For happiness and civiliza-
wants which original nature so largely represents
tion it is necessary that the lower shall be
and serves, have had much more fulfilment. Orig-
controlled by the higher. The instrument of
inal nature has achieved what goodness the world
control is education. Plato said the same knows as a state achieves order, by killing, con-
thing, not less eloquently, if more gracefully fining and reforming some of its elements. It
and convincingly, in the “Republic" and progresses, not by laissez faire, but by changing
elsewhere. But he was n't so sure as Mr. the environment in which it operates and by renew-
Thorndike that the thing could be done: the edly changing itself in each generation. Man is
American parts company with the Greek in now as civilized, rational, and humane as he is
his optimism. Mr. Thorndike's tone, indeed,
because man in the past has changed things into
makes his book completely national. If
shapes more satisfying, and changed parts of his
psy-
own nature into traits more satisfying, to man as
chology can be American, his is American
a whole. Man is thus eternally altering himself to
psychology.
suit himself. His nature is not right in his own
Notwithstanding, he says in his easy, breezy, eyes. Only one thing in it, indeed is unreservedly
sometimes staccato manner, many striking and good, the power to make it better. This power,
important things, which are not the less worth the power of leaning or modification in favor of
repeating because they are the immemorial the satisfying, the capacity represented by the law
wisdom of the fathers gaberdined in the slang of effect, is the essential principle of reason or
of a latter-day science. Instead of a tripartite right in the world.”
morally qualified soul, original nature is now Familiar doctrine, age-old wisdom! But
conceived as a multiform congeries of func- Mr. Thorndike does a great service to state it
tions — “a name for the nature of the com anew, and so freshly, as an offering to just
bined germ-cells from which man springs” those folk among whom pedantry is most
“ what is common to all men minus all adapta- prevalent and vision most needed, the Lapu-
tions to tools, houses, clothes, furniture, words, tan professors who are making a mess of the
beliefs, religions, law, science, the arts, and to youth of the land with their “science" of
whatever in other men's behavior is due to adapta- education” and “pedagogy.' Written
tions to it. . . . Consider the intellectual and moral ostensibly for these, the book must by virtue
equipment of the monkeys. Add to it certain im-
of its robustious optimism no less than its
portant social instincts, notably those connected
with the more refined facial expressions and the sanity and fluency perforce appeal to all cul-
tivated readers.
approval-disapproval series. Increase in intensity
and breadth the satisfyingness of mental life for
HORACE M. KALLEN.
its own sake, widen the repertory of movements to
include human facial expressions, finger and thumb
play and articulate babble, enrich the fund of
A GALLERY OF CONFEDERATE
indifferent possibilities of secondary connections
PORTRAITS. *
and give them the tendency to piecemeal action in
very fine detail. The result will be substantially One of the curious things in recent histor-
the original nature of man."
ical writing is the amount of time and energy
This "original nature" Mr. Thorndike ren that Mr. Gamaliel Bradford, a northern man,
ders concrete and specific by means of a de has given to Confederate history. But there
scriptive inventory of instincts and capacities. is nothing strange in the fact that any man,
Their origin is original nature." Its im- living anywhere, should think General Lee
provement depends on the elimination of the worthy of study; and perhaps it was his pro-
worse, not on their reformation. Containing found study of this man which led Mr. Brad-
within itself a principle of change, "the cir ford to draw the portraits of the lesser lights
cumstances of the life led by modern man by which Lee was surrounded. Eight men are
metamorphose almost every original tendency considered in Mr. Bradford's new volume
into habits which are much unlike it even of “Confederate Portraits,” beginning with
directly contrary to it." This is education
This is education Joseph E. Johnston and ending with Raphael
"fostering the good elements of original Semmes.
nature and encouraging their fertility, and These papers, which first appeared as mag-
debarring the worse elements from reproduc- azine articles, are not mere sketches, nor are
tion or eliminating them outright." The in-
The in- | they condensed biographies. They are exactly
struments of this education are satisfaction what the title of the book suggests,- pen pic-
and discomfort. These are infallible. Left
CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS. By Gamaliel Bradford. Boston:
to itself, original nature would run amuck.
Houghton Mifflin Co.


52
[July 16
THE DIAL
kas
ܕܙ
tures, character sketches. When a man is able self with saying that “it is utterly unjust to
to draw a living picture out of material gath- deny that his patriotism was genuine or that
ered largely from the Rebellion records it is he gave his very best sincerely,” the reviewer
evidence of more than ordinary ability at por-
would be forced to take issue with him. But
traiture; and the knowledge that such was the author saves himself, at least in part,
the source of much of Mr. Bradford's mate by qualifying clauses,— "in his way,'
rial should incline us the more readily to deeply as he could feel,” etc. Danton, the
accept the portraits as genuine. Verisimili- Frenchman, when urged to flee for safety, re-
tude is stamped upon every sketch, regardless plied that he did not carry his country on the
of the copious citations of sources. They are soles of his feet. It seems that Benjamin did
all sympathetic, yet pitiless.
carry his country thus. Lee, Davis, Stephens,
In nearly all the men dealt with here the and thousands of others whose courage and
elements were mixed. Johnston was straight- devotion Benjamin spoke of with admiration
forward, absolutely honest and upright, cour might submit, but he would never be taken
ageous beyond question, yet simple and alive. They might remain to bind up the
demonstrative, even to the point of kissing wounds of the broken-hearted and build again
his male friends. He loved his men and was on the ruins of their country, but not so Ben-
loved by them. His great failing was that jamin, who fled to England and forgot all
while he could see all the mistakes of Davis, about the South. Had a man of foreign birth
Lee, Jackson, and the rest, he could see none been the only one who thought more of him-
of his own. Stuart figures here as a man of self than of his country, the story would not
laughter. Light-hearted and gay and rollick be so bad. But Pryor, Wise, and others for-
ing, he was yet a very Puritan in morals, sook the country they had helped to plunge
devoted to duty and capable in the perform- into woe and went to dwell in the North.
ance thereof.
Withal he was, says Sedg Not so the gentle, large-hearted Stephens
wick, “the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled and the fiery Toombs,- two men very unlike,
in America.
yet both extremely devoted. Toombs did in-
Longstreet was no less able and brave than deed flee when everyone was seeking personal
Johnston; but he was hard-headed, even safety; but he never forgot his country, and
stolid, seeking to impose his own personality he returned to do her good service. In both
upon everybody else. With supreme trust in men we find a curious mixture of aristocracy
himself, he trusted no one else.
No more
and democracy. When the fight against the
striking contrast is presented by Mr. Bradford railroads and other powerful corporations had
than when he says that Longstreet was always barely begun, Toombs was in the forefront of
able to give a good reason for not arriving in the fight and foresaw “starving millions of
time, but Jackson, when at his best, arrived in our posterity” robbed and given over to the
time in spite of good reasons. Blamed by keeping of these corporations. “The right to
many for the failure at Gettysburg, Long control these railroads belongs to the State, to
street was determined not to bear the blame the people,” said he, “and as long as I rep-
himself. Perhaps the cleverest bit of shifting resent the people, I will not relinquish it, so
in this matter Mr. Bradford has failed to men help me God.'; At the same time he favored
tion. Years afterwards, when Lee was dead, giving over the people to the keeping of
Longstreet said that Lee was to blame, – that judges not subject to popular election or any
Lee himself had said so and that Lee was too sort of control. But the greatest contradic-
honorable a man to tell an untruth. After tions are found in Stephens. Frail of body,
the war Longstreet became a Republican,- practically all heart and intellect, he was
that is, to the Southerner, a scalawag. For easily touched by suffering and ever ready
this the South never quite forgave him; but to relieve it,- so much so as to win a slave's
he never wavered, and always manifested simple eulogy: "He is kind to folks that
charity for those who had none for him. nobody else will be kind to. Mars Alex is
Beauregard's name betrays the Gallic blood. kinder to dogs than most folks is to folks.”
His head fairly boiled with ideas, some of After this one is shocked to think that he
them really good. Had they been followed, would have made human slavery, wherein the
the Confederacy would have won,- so thought many toil for the few, the cornerstone of the
Beauregard. Unfortunately this idea became
new government he was seeking to establish.
an obsession with him; it was a malady that He was a man of intellect, yet that intellect
attacked some others also. But the man had stopped just short of the profound. It is easy
fine traits; no one who had not could have so enough now for the mediocre mind, reading
won and kept the devotion of his soldiers. backward, to see that slavery was already
Benjamin's patriotism has been a matter of doomed in 1860. Some mediocre minds saw
dispute. If Mr. Bradford had contented him it then. That a man of Stephens's goodness


1914)
53
THE DIAL
of heart and strength of intellect could not see than browned) by the sun, but one must be
it is one of the anomalies of the nineteenth a very independent person indeed to be in
century.
danger of spending too much of one's time in
If Mr. Bradford's book should enjoy a wide a hammock. The custom of our society does
reading in the South, it will serve a useful not permit of it. Yet “hammock fiction" is
purpose there, as clothing with flesh and not designed for independent, custom-smash-
blood names which the mass of the people now ing persons. No. Hammocks and fiction have
know little about other than that they stand no relation to each other. Either fiction is so
for half deified heroes whom it is more pious interesting that one reads it anywhere and
to worship than to suspect. The Northern anyhow, even when people come to call, or
man, also, may read of these Americans with it is too dull to keep one from going to sleep
profit. The last paragraph of the book is a in a hammock. But this brings me back to
bit of sermonizing well worth quoting:
the belief that “light” fiction is more in-
“ Meade and Lee, Hancock and Longstreet, teresting than “heavy” fiction, to the Tired
Reynolds and Pickett, even more, the common
Giant theory of the novel, of which Mr.
soldiers, North and South both, were all Ameri- Wells speaks, and its brother, the Tired
cans, all ours, ours to praise, ours to be proud of, Business Man theory of the stage, of which
ours to learn from. The inheritance of their everybody speaks, or, until recently, did ever-
courage, their sacrifice, their loyalty to high ideals lastingly speak. As if Mr. Martin Andersen
is one of which no country can ever hear too
Nexö’s “Pelle the Conqueror,” which is
much. And if the tradition of these great souls
brings with it glory, it brings duty with it also.
heavy fiction about a boy in Denmark, were
We are not called upon to go out and fight in
less interesting than Mrs. Kate Douglas Wig-
arms as they did, but there is plenty of fighting which is light fiction about a girl in America!
plenty of fighting gins's. "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,
left. The danger to a republic from open war is
great. The danger from self-indulgence, from The division of fiction into light and heavy
pampered living, from the spirit of letting others is utterly misleading. It would be much more
do things, is even greater. I am ready to believe to the point to divide it into sweet and salt.
that at a sudden call to duty our automobiling, That is sweet which is capable of being ap-
dancing, money-getting youth would respond as preciated by girls with their hair down their
did those of '61, drop their play, and go out to
backs or the boys who count on being fresh-
defend a Cemetery Hill. But I wish we could
make them remember that even in common, hum- fathers and mothers. Since a tooth for sweets
men next October; and, too often, by their
drum, daily life every man has his Gettysburg is hardly more a trait of adolescence than of
sooner or later. Let him fight it and win it, so
that his little republic - for of such is made the maturity. That is salt which, while it often
great Republic - shall be forever triumphant and mightily offends those who like the sweet,
free."
is capable of interesting immensely those of
DAVID Y. THOMAS.
a robust fibre. Art has something to do with
it, of course; sometimes it plays hob with
my so-simple classification, bringing the robust
reader to the sweet kind of thing, and vice
RECENT FICTION.*
versa. But mostly art is on the side of the
salt just as readers are mostly born to read
This is, I am told, the season of “hammock
either the sweet or the salt; and no power of
fiction."
I should have said of dull fiction.
For it is a curious notion that the least inter example and no amount of training can change
them. All hammock fiction is sweet: the
esting fiction should be the sort best able to
problems of conduct presented are never real;
compete with the temptation to lie in a ham-
mock. And for that matter the temptation
the moral values are never sharply defined;
which summer offers nowadays — among the
and the ending is happy. But I would not
say that all sweet fiction is intellectually dis-
novel-reading classes -- is not the hammock reputable. The six novels below are chiefly
but its opposite. One is in danger of playing sweet, and yet, for one reason and another,
too many rounds of golf, or of staying too long they are to be considered.
in the water, or of being blistered (rather
The Baroness von Hutten will be remem-
* MARIA. By Bettina von Hutten. New York: D. Apple bered as the writer whose “Pam" and "Pam
BROKEN MUSIC. By Phyllis Bottome. Boston: Houghton Decides” so excited the young person of eight
By Ernst von Wolzogen. Translated by or ten years ago. Pam was the sort of girl
who, when a caller asked for Mrs. So-and-So,
By William Arkwright. New York: John calmly replied: “I'm sure you mean my
mother. She's Miss So-and-So," as, indeed,
By
Phillpotts.. New York:
she was. The heroine of the present novel is
By Hugh Walpole. New York:
George H. Doran Co.
not as wicked as Pam's mother. Maria fell
ton & Co.
New York:
Mifflin Co.
FLORIAN MAYR.
Edward Breck and Charles Harvey Genung.
B. W. Huebsch.
THE TREND.
Lane Co.
FAITH TRESILION.
Eden
The Macmillan Co.
THE DUCHESS OF WREXE.


54
[July 16
THE DIAL
desperately in love with a person of high de to understand. His sufferings like his devo-
gree who was already married. There were tion are of course patent ... but, after all,
extenuating circumstances. For one thing was he one of us?” This trick — for it is
the man's wife did not love him; she had hardly less — is not an engaging one. The
married him, as he had her, for reasons of
reader will feel like assuring Mr. Arkwright
state or politics or whatever the reasons are that it is his business to understand his chief
that control the matrimonial adventures of character and to make us understand. Other-
kings and queens. Maria was a singer, and wise, why write! But Mr. Arkwright's novel
alone in the world. Her only complaint of holds up better than his William Soulsby. If
life was that her singing, though wonderful, we doubt the existence of a street waif with
lacked the specific and marvellous "some a voice like a horn from heaven, who creates
thing” which singing ought to have. Any the rôle in a new opera and dies as he sings
one who has read novels about women with the last note, we cannot doubt the Tasmanian
the capacity to sing understands at once, wife of the rather pedantic old family friend
which saves the Baroness von Hutten a deal from Australia. And Bob, who discovers
of trouble. In the end, though only at the William, is decidedly pleasant. There is
very end, Maria turns back from the railway almost as much salt as sugar here, but the
train by which she has planned to join her writing is too formal for contemporary taste.
lover. The sorrow of giving him up does the Most readers will find it stilted and some will
trick; henceforth her voice is divine. This be utterly put out to find a lecture on style,
is, perhaps, an unfair summary of a novel several pages of it, toward the end.
that is undeniably amusing. But is it not Mr. Eden Phillpotts's new novel is not of
sweet?
Dartmoor but of Devon, and not of the
Miss Phyllis Bottome (if it is Miss) starts present but of a hundred years ago, when
off almost in the salty vein. The curé, being smuggling was almost as lively a trade as
at the house of a Miss Prenderghast, thought privateering. The girl whose name serves as
to himself: “English ladies can have no a title, Faith Tresilion, is a fine, brave crea-
temptations: That is why they are protes ture who effects a desperate rescue in a small
tants." But this sort of thing proves to be boat while under fire. She was not at all,
only a pocket. Jean, the musician, is in love as the sentimental innkeeper, Mr. Sidebottom,
with Gabrielle and Margot is in love with explains, “what one expects from an unmar-
Jean. The result is that Jean, discovering ried girl.” Perhaps Faith owed a good deal
that Gabrielle is an adventuress with a past, to her mother, who was bedridden, but who
is broken-hearted enough to produce music
said of herself: "owing to my character and
even if it is broken music — and Margot sings the brains in my head and my great power of
her heart out to the delight of her compa- language I count for twice as much as a lot
triots. There is ease here, and cleverness, but of other every-day females that have the use
only in the use of a formula already well of their legs." Mr. Phillpotts is an honest
worked.
craftsman, if not an inspired one, whose novels
The hero of the Baron von Wolzogen's are neither salt nor sweet.
musical novel, “Florian Mayr," is a genuine Mr. Hugh Walpole has now for some time
artist and a favorite pupil of Liszt. It is been groomed for a place alongside Mr. Wells,
said, by persons who ought to know (as well or at least Mr. Bennett. But “The Duchess
as by Mr. James Huneker), that the portrait of Wrexe" will hardly put him there, even
of Liszt is the best one extant. But whether if it has interested Mr. Henry James to write
or not the drawing is accurate to the life, about it. Mr. Walpole's skill, and his serious
the figure is a striking one. It is astounding conception of his task, which are what rec-
to find this German novelist working in so ommend him to Mr. James, are beyond ques-
much feeling with so little sentimentalism; tion. But a novel which offers to study a
so much respect for the artist with so keen society must stand rather firmly where con-
a humor. Those writers who make a religion duct is concerned and that whether it is as
of baiting the bourgeoisie are usually unequal satirical as Herr Arthur Schnitzler or as pon-
to the task of justifying the artist. But tifical as Mr. Winston Churchill. Mr. Wal-
von Wolzogen is never shrill; he is sturdy; pole's duchess is too interesting a figure to
he is, in the slang of the day, “human." omit; the powerful ones of the Victorian
The hero of "The Trend” is hardly human. manner and tradition have still an interest
Mr. Arkwright confesses as much in a fore for us even though we think we have ceased
word. He says of his characters: “I think to respect them. But Mr. Walpole's Rachel,
that all of them will be fairly intelligible to who occupies as much of his interest as, and
a thoughtful reader - except perhaps Wil more of his space than, the duchess, needs
liam Soulsby, and him I do not myself pretend more explaining than he has given her. It


1914 )
55
THE DIAL
is possible that a young woman of parts, “To the Memory of Stephen More, 'Faithful
having married a stupid man and fallen in to His Ideal.'" Equally ironical is the sug-
love with a man whose dreams are as “pagan" gestion which prevails in the whole play, that
as her own, would learn to love her husband. the mob-spirit dominates each individual,
But it is difficult to understand why Mr. thinking separately, fully as much as it does
Walpole regards the whole affair with so much the gay, unthinking revellers. It is a vivid
complacency. He has not seen this thing presentation of what happens, and what has
sharply, either morally or psychologically. happened since history began, when men (like
He has slurred its values. He has been sweet the element which gives the play its name), as
when he might have been salt.
one of the characters says, “just feel some-
LUCIAN CARY. thing big and religious, and go it blind.”
versus
love of country.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
“Before Vassar Opened"
A history
(Houghton Mifflin) is an author-
of Vassar.
Love of mankind Closely connected with the main
itative volume by Doctor James
theme of Mr. Galsworthy's latest M. Taylor, who has only recently retired from
play, “The Mob” (Scribner), is the presidency of Vassar College, after a long
the world-old question, whose interest ever term of service. This contribution to the his-
endures, What is a man who holds a faith tory of the higher education of women in
with all his heart to do? The protagonist, America will appeal to all college women and,
Stephen More, Under Secretary of State and also, to that large circle of readers who are
member of Parliament, is opposed to the war thoughtfully considering educational prob-
upon which his country is entering. Firm in lems. The opening chapters sketch very rap-
his convictions that little nations have a right idly the history of the higher institutions
to live, that the annexation, which with vic-
open to women in the South and in the North
tory becomes inevitable, is depriving the during the years before Vassar was founded.
enemy - a wild, lawless race- of a freedom
- of a freedom Without undue emphasis upon the hardships,
that they cherish above all things, and that Dr. Taylor pictures vividly enough the pov-
"as we are tender of our own land, so we
erty in things material, and the wealth in
should be of the lands of others," he raises aspiration and ideals characteristic of those
his voice in the House, in the name of Justice early days when, as at Oberlin Collegiate
and Civilization. With clear vision he places Institute, "most of the ladies paid for their
a message “from the great heart of man- (weekly) board by their labor, 75 cents for
kind” over and above the well-worn slogan, vegetable diet only, 871/2 cents with animal
“my country, right or wrong. War has food once a day." Stirring, indeed, are these
broken out even while he speaks, and every records of the ways in which American women
where his lone opposition is declared as folly, struggled for the privileges of a liberal edu-
a bit of “moon-summer madness." All rise cation. The rest of the book is devoted to
against him: his father-in-law, who has done the history of Vassar. Matthew Vassar, En-
service in the War Department until his hairs glish by birth, was a brewer in Poughkeepsie
are gray; his three brothers-in-law who are
who amassed a fortune of $800,000. Shrewd,
on the field; his political associates who taunt practical, self-educated, deeply religious, he
him that little nations are his hobby and desired that his wealth should serve some
warn him that by his act he foregoes his high purpose, and through his niece, Lydia
chance to sit in the Cabinet; his friends who Booth, head of a seminary in Poughkeepsie,
get entangled in their feelings and the con- and through Doctor Milo P. Jewett, a man
ventions and yet, representing general senti- of education and of wide experience, who
ment, obey the strongest common instinct in purchased Miss Booth's school, Matthew Vas-
the world, love of country; his dark-eyed sar was led to found a college for women.
little Olive who begs her father to be on their There are many minor details given regard-
side; Katherine, who deserts him because she | ing the preliminary stages, and some very
feels too unheroic to remain his wife after she unimportant aspects of the many conferences
has implored him to come down to her level ; are unnecessarily accentuated, but on the
and, finally, the hooting mob that hounds him whole, the account of the foundation is ab-
to his death. Throughout it all he remained sorbing reading. Of keenest interest are the
firm. Greater to him than the divine right of passages that set forth the policy and the
country was the divine right of mankind. academic ideals of Dr. Jewett, the first presi-
With the consummate irony of which Mr.dent, and of Dr. Raymond, his successor. The
Galsworthy is a master comes the "after-narrative pauses with the death of Matthew
math” at the very end: A statue is erected Vassar in 1868, when the college was well-


56
[July 16
THE DIAL
adventure in
9
established and already recognized as a potent stigator of thought and his authority fortifies
influence in the educational life of America. the most essential conclusions of American
All those who know how high a standard of reformers. He dismisses the juristic tradition
scholarship has been maintained by Vassar that punishment is a measured evil corre-
will welcome an introduction to the days when sponding to the degree of guilt (which may
those standards were being discussed and be fixed in advance), and substitutes the defi-
defined.
nition that it ought to be a means calculated
to effect the cessation of the criminal's harm-
With a burning desire to see the fulness to society. The true notion of crime
Four years of
world, and also with plenty of is not legal but sociological, and many offences
many lands.
British pluck and tenacity, Mr. are contraventions of useful rules of conduct
A. Loton Ridger, at the age of twenty-one, without revealing a character dangerous to
took passage on
a tramp steamer for San the common welfare. By real or "natural"
Francisco by way of the Straits of Magellan crime the author means those acts which no
(not "round the Horn,' as he at first says),
as he at first says), civilized society can refuse to recognize as
and for the next six years, with little inter criminal and repress by means of punish-
ruption, he was extending his knowledge of ment.” The persons who commit “natural"
geography in both hemispheres, until at last crimes are classified as murderers, violent
he became well qualified for membership in criminals, criminals deficient in probity, and
the Royal Geographical Society and now ap- lascivious criminals; and for each group the
pends the initials, F. R. G. S., to his name on author proposes a suitable method of elimina-
the title-page of his book, "A Wanderer's tion or repression. Among the debatable pro-
Trail” (Holt). Both Americas, from Alaska posals of the book are: capital punishment of
to Patagonia, eastern and southern Asia, and
all who are convicted of murder; deportation
various parts of Africa were visited by him; of certain offenders; and the abolition of the
and his study of native manners and customs jury system and of all pardons and amnesties.
was the more thorough from the necessity he
The author has more faith in the prognosis
was under of working his way at every step.
of criminal psychology and less faith in re-
Playing a minor part in a Seattle theatre, formatory education than we have in Amer-
working in a lumber camp and elsewhere in ica, and he has no confidence whatever in
the great Northwest, teaching English in a juries representing the people. On this point
Tokio school, mining in the Rand, engaging he seems to think of justice as a royal gift.
in journalism in China - thus and in a hun “That a people is not capable of administer-
dred other ways he contrived to keep himself ing justice is no reason for depriving it of
from destitution and to provide the where justice. Whether deserving it or not, it should
withal for such travelling expenses as were
have justice imposed upon it ... What is
not defrayed by working his way on ship- needed to overcome its barbarous customs is
board in any subordinate position he could
not a jury, but judges who do not represent
secure. Admirable are the adaptability and
this people.” This language would make most
tact and resourcefulness displayed by this
Americans cling more strongly to the institu-
Englishman, who wisely determined at the
tion of the jury, with all its glaring faults.
outset not to wear the stamp of his nationality
On the whole the work here noticed is one of
as the most obvious item of his outward
the most instructive and stimulating contribu-
appearance. He does not hesitate to ridicule
tions to the study of crime and punishment,
and censure those ultra-British qualities that quite indispensable to the student of the
might, in another, have made shipwreck of
subject.
such an undertaking as he had in hand; and
in commenting on certain educational defects
The "Fifty-eight Paintings by
of the average Englishman's he goes so far as Homer Martin.
Homer Martin” described by
to say, “We egregious English know more
Dana H. Carroll (F. F. Sher-
about football than the intricacies of our
man) is a necessary complement to Mr.
language."
Mather's recent monograph on the painter.
Like the books on Inness published in the same
Once more the American In-
An Italian
form and by the same publisher, these two
student of stitute of Criminal Law and books differ in plan and scope. Mr. Mather
criminology.
Criminology has made a wise gives a study of the painter's life and art,
selection of a classic book for its series of illustrated by a few of his most characteristic
translations. “Criminology" (Little, Brown), pictures. Mr. Carroll on the other hand gives
which Mr. R. W. Millar has translated, is us independent descriptions of a great num-
by Baron Raffaele Garofalo. This distin ber of the artist's paintings, not including
guished jurist of Italy has long been an in those in the other volume. He offers, there-
The art of


1914)
THE DIAL
57
void of terrors of countless kinds, but soberly
fore, a great opportunity to the student, for which I entered this world — the new world
only a few of Homer Martin's pictures are of France, the old world of the desert. It
to be seen in the great galleries, a few are was almost an accident of travel that I had
accessible in clubs, while by far the greater come here, refuging myself from the life I
number are in private collections. So the had known, and seeking a place to forget and
volume gives something which cannot other to repose, away from men. I had no thought
wise be attained without great difficulty if of even temporary residence or exploration;
at all. Where a book offers so much of value but each day my interest deepened, my curi-
it is not ungracious to find minor fault. We osity was enlivened, my sympathies warmed,
do not gain from the editor any comprehensive and slowly I was aware that the land held
idea of the paintings of which he writes. He me in its spell - a land of fantastic scenery,
has chosen to present them in an order of of a mysterious people, of a barbaric history
which we do not grasp the significance, neither and mise en scène, a land of the primitive.
chronological so as to give an idea of the I coursed it from end to end." Toward the
artist's development, nor according to sub- close of the volume the spirit of the African
ject. Of course in such a collection the pic- desert is thus presented: “In that nomad
tures themselves offer us much, however world, where everything is passing away,
ordered and arranged. The lover of painting there is nothing fixed but the will of Allah.
will want to appreciate the work of the It is not strange to find fatality the last word
painter for himself, and doubtless many will of Islam. In the desert world the will of
be helped by Mr. Carroll's descriptions. nature appears with extreme nakedness; the
Homer Martin was so distinguished an artist fortune of man is brief, scant, and unstable;
and so little really known save to a few that the struggle is against infinite odds, a meagre
we rejoice at this opportunity to know him subsistence is gained, if at all; and the blow
better. No one else has felt the romance of of adversity is sudden and decisive. Patience
American landscape just as he did. He was everywhere is the virtue of the poor, resigna-
not less impressed by its grandeur than was tion the best philosophy of the unfortunate,
Cole and he rendered it not less truly than and defeat, as well as victory, and perhaps
Durand. But the grandeur that he saw was more often, brings peace.
These are great
truer than that of Cole, and his truth was on words of Islam, and nowhere have they sunk
a larger scale than the fidelity of Durand.deeper into life than in the desert-soul.” The
Others had much the same gifts, or greater book is, obviously, one to ponder rather than
than those early masters, Church for instance to gallop through, to read in certain moods,
or Bierstadt. But no other painter has seen to drop, and to begin again, as impulse
nature as did Homer Martin, or if he did, he prompts; and its wisdom of the Orient offers
did not so render her.
an excellent corrective to the harsh practical-
ity of our restless Occidentalism.
The African impressions of a
With his wonted insight and his
The color and
atmosphere of poet and dreamer and seer of
sure grasp on many of the vital
North Africa.
visions are recorded with wealth
function of fear. truths of this pleasing anxious
of imagery and graces of rhetoric in Profes-being of ours, Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson
sor George E. Woodberry’s “North Africa and gives us a score of helpful and suggestive and
the Desert” (Scribner). Its sub-title, “Scenes eminently readable chapters on the nature
and Moods," well indicates the book's char- and uses of fear. “Where No Fear Was”
acter, which is not unlike that of Mr. Robert (Putnam) does not, as its title might lead
Hichens's word-paintings of Mediterranean one to infer, picture a state of existence de-
lands, a kind of artistry that, of course, owes
far more of its charm and magic to the par- faces the actuality of things and seeks to
ticular way in which things are seen than to derive as much help and useful teaching as
the things themselves — if indeed there be are to be had from the multiform manifesta-
any such entity as "things in themselves." tions of this omnipresent though often merci.
The successive chapters treat of experiences fully latent emotion of our common human
and observations and reflections in Tunis, nature. As is his excellent custom, the writer
Tlemcen, Figuig, Tougourt, Djerba, and draws largely on his
draws largely on his own experience for the
Tripoli; of
scenes and visions” in the Sa- | illustration and elaboration of his theme. The
hara Desert; and of meditations indulged in, now happily obsolescent but not yet obsolete
over pipe and coffee, "on the mat,'' in a small fear of eternal punishment he takes early
oasis village of the Zibans. In his opening opportunity to dismiss as "simply inconsis-
pages the author thus takes the reader into tent with any belief in the goodness of God.”
his confidence: “Tunis is the gateway by Cheerful but not blindly optimistic is the
Comment and
query on the


58
[July 16
THE DIAL
chapter on the uses of fear. "Fear is the
NOTES.
shadow of the imaginative, the resourceful,
the inventive temperament, but it multiplies Mr. T. Philip Terry, compiler of guides to
resource and invention a hundredfold.” Dis Mexico and Japan, is at work on a guide to China.
coursing on that form of anxiety which comes Mr. Maurice Hewlett has contracted to spend
from taking oneself too seriously, Mr. Ben two months lecturing in the United States next
son interweaves one of those anecdotes from winter.
real life that help to give meaning and A new Sherlock Holmes novel, “ The Valley of
warmth and vitality to his pages. “I was Fear," will be brought out shortly by Messrs.
sitting the other day," he tells us, “at a func. Doran.
tion next a man of some eminence, and I was Mrs. Gertrude Atherton's new novel, “Perch of
really amazed at the way in which he dis the Devil,” will be published August 28 by Messrs.
coursed of himself and his habits, his diet,
Stokes.
his hours of work, and the blank indifference Mr. Ian Hay's new story, "A Knight on Wheels,"
with which he received similar confidences. will be issued in September by Messrs. Houghton
He merely waited till the speaker had fin-
Mifflin.
ished, and then resumed his own story." No
Mr. Wilfrid Wilson Gibson's new volume of
small part of the value and charm of the book poems will be published in the autumn by Messrs.
lies in the writer's full and frank revealment
Macmillan.
of himself. It is the atmosphere of real life
Dr. Siegmund Freud's new book, " The Psycho-
and not the musty air of the study that per- Pathology of Everyday Life,” will be published at
vades the volume. But this is no new feature
once by Messrs. Macmillan.
of Mr. Benson's writing, nor can any new
Mr. A. C. Benson's new volume of essays, en-
word of commendation be easily found with
titled “Orchard Pavilion,” is announced for the
which to call attention to his book.
autumn by Messrs. Putnam.
Mr. Harold Bell Wright's new novel, “ The Eyes
of the World,” is announced for publication on
August 8 by the Book Supply Co.
BRIEFER MENTION.
Novels by Miss Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Eleanor
Scattered articles from the pen of the late Hallowell Abbott, and Mrs. Alice Hegan Rice are
William Garrott Brown have been gathered into announced for autumn publication by the Cen-
a volume entitled “ The New Politics and Other | tury Co.
Papers ” (Houghton). All of the articles had S. Weir Mitchell arranged shortly before his
appeared in periodicals during the past eight or death for a definitive edition of his poems. The
ten years, and dealt with political and economic volume will be published in the autumn by the
questions that were then before the public. It Century Co.
must not be supposed, however, that the pub Mr. Roi Cooper Megrue's play, “Under Cover,"
lishers have erred in seeking to give them perma which ran from Christmas to the Fourth of July
nance. Though occasioned by immediate situations, in Boston, has been novelized for publication by
they are of more than transient interest. The
Messrs. Little, Brown & Co.
subjects treated are: “ The New Politics," “ Pro-
It is announced that Miss Alice Brown is the
phetic Voices about America," “ The White Peril:
The Immediate Danger of the Negro," “ The South
6. Martin Redfield” whose novel, “ My Love and
and the Saloon," " President Taft's 'Opportunity," | 1;" attracted favorable attention when it was pub-
and “Greetings to the Presidents” (Presidents
lished a year or two ago by Messrs. Macmillan.
Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson).
The autobiography of Mr. Abraham Mitrie Rih-
bany, pastor of the Church of the Disciples,
The reader is led to wonder, as he turns the
Boston, will be published under the title of "A
pages
of The Conquest of the Tropics,” whether
Far Journey," in the autumn by Messrs. Houghton
Mr. Frederick Upham Adams was moved to write
Mifflin.
the book as an advertisement for the stock of the
United Fruit Company or to induce tourists to
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has resigned his
try the steamers of its “ Great White Fleet,” or
place as contributing editor to the “ Outlook” in
as a defence of the company against the charge order to devote the greater part of his time to
that it is a trust. The publishers (Doubleday) politics. He expects to continue writing for the
frankly state that this is the first of a series to
magazine on occasion.
be published concerning “big business” enter An edition of the late Stanley Houghton's
prises in this country. They have done their part works will include, in addition to “ Hindle Wakes"
excellently. The product is finely printed, illus and the other plays which have been produced and
trated, and bound, making an attractive volume. printed, two long plays and one short play which
Unfortunately the title is misleading. Aside from
are new and a number of critical articles con-
one chapter devoted to sanitation there is relatively
tributed to the “ Manchester Guardian.”
little concerning the real conquest of the tropics, The book which François Cellier, conductor of
but a great deal about the origin and methods of the Savoy operas, began as a record of Gilbert
the fruit company.
and Sullivan's works, and of their production by


1914)
59
THE DIAL
Mr. and Mrs. D'Oyly Carte, has been completed only to a wider public, but also to their scientific
by Mr. Cunningham Bridgman, and will be pub- colleagues, in a form more attractive and accessible
lished in the autumn by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. than is possible through articles in the scientific
“ His Official Fiancée" is the title of a new
journals, which are often scattered. The size of
vel by Bertha Ruch, in private life Mrs. Oliver
the books will be 100 to, 150
pages,
duodecimo.
Onions, which will be published shortly. Mrs. It is announced that the “Century Magazine" will
Onions was a student of the Lambeth School of hereafter be published by the Century Magazine
Art who discovered a talent for writing magazine Company, of which Mr. Robert H. McBride, of
serials. She has gradually begun to do more seri the publishing house of McBride, Nast & Co., will
ous work.
he president. Mr. Robert Sterling Yard, who has
Former associates of Harry Peyton Steger, who
been for the last year the editor of the “ Century
died a year and a half ago, are collecting his letters Magazine,” will continue in that place and will be
for publication. Many of these letters are said to secretary of the new company,
Mr. Carl T.
exhibit the qualities which made him so much liked Keller of Boston, an officer of the New England
among authors and publishers. Persons having Telephone and Telegraph Company, is vice-presi-
letters from Steger are requested to send copies of dent, and Mr. Robert H. Montgomery of New
them to Mr. John_A. Lomax, Secretary of the York City is treasurer. The “ Century Magazine "
University, Austin, Texas.
will continue to be edited from its present offices
Sir George 0. Trevelyan's “ George the Third
and there will be, as in the past, close cooperation
and Charles Fox," the second and final volume of
with the publishing business conducted by the
which will be published in the autumn by Messrs. Century Co. The new company is, however, dis-
Longmans, brings to a close the series of six tinct from the Century Co. and McBride, Nast
volumes of which the first four are entitled “ The
& Co.
History of the American Revolution.” Sir George “Art and Archæology” is the title of a new non-
has been engaged on the work since he left the technical illustrated magazine published by the
House of Commons seventeen years ago.
Archæological Institute of America, the first num-
Miss Selma Lagerlöf, who won the Nobel prize ber of which bears the date of July, 1914. During
for literature in 1909, is the first woman to be the present year four numbers will be issued, but
elected to the Swedish Academy. Miss Lagerlöf, commencing with 1915 the magazine will appear
who was the daughter of an army officer, was a monthly. Its fifty pages are devoted to articles
school teacher. She made her early reputation by a
covering a considerable range, and to notes and
book for children, " The Wonderful Adventures of brief book reviews.
brief book reviews. The articles include “ Mas-
Nils.” A novel, “Jerusalem,” is now being trans- terpieces of Aboriginal American Art—I., Stucco
lated into English for publication by Messrs.Work,” in which Mr. W. H. Holmes, of the
Doubleday Page.
United States National Museum, describes one of
An annual magazine edited by Mr. E. V. Lucas
the decorative features of some of the great pre-
is announced in London by Messrs. Methuen.
historic structures of Yucatan and other parts of
Among the contributors will be Austin Dobson, Mexico;. “The Visitation at Pistoia by Luca della
Arnold Bennett, Hugh Walpole, John Galsworthy, Robbia," by Professor Allan Marquand, of Prince-
and F. Anstey. A quantity of new material
ton; "Ancient Babylonian Antiquaries," by Pro-
relating to Robert Browning which has been se-
fessor Albert T. Clay, of Yale; “Excavations at
cured for the first issue includes a letter from Vrokastro, Crete, in 1912," by Miss Edith H. Hall,
John Ruskin discussing the poetic achievement of of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. A
“Men and Women" and a number of letters from
brief illustrated description of the Lincoln Memo-
Robert Louis Stevenson.
rial now being erected at Washington forms the
Five new volumes will appear immediately in
first of a proposed series on “ Modern Master-
the Home University Library series. They are:
pieces of Classical_Architecture.” The general
“ Chaucer and His Times," by Miss Grace E.
editor is Professor David Moore Robinson, of the
Hadow; “ The Wars Between England and
Johns Hopkins University.
America (1763-1815),” by Professor Theodore C.
Smith;
“ William Morris: His Work and In-
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
fluence," by Mr. A. Clutton Brock; “ The Growth
of Europe,” by Professor Granville Cole; and
[The following list, containing 79 titles, includes books
Sex," by Professor J. Arthur Thomson and Pro-
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
fessor Patrick Geddes.
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY.
“ The Weather and Climate of Chicago," by Great Families Series. First volumes: The Caven-
Professor Henry J. Cox and Mr. John A. Arming-
dish.Family, by Francis Bickley; The Cecil
Family, by G. Ravenscroft Dennis; The La Tré-
ton, will be published this week by the University moille Family, by Winifred Stephens;
of Chicago Press. The first two titles of the Uni-
Seymour Family, by A. Audrey Locke.
illustrated, 8vo. Houghton Mifflin Co. Per vol-
versity of Chicago Science Series are announced ume, $2.50 net.
Nantucket:
for autumn publication. These are “ The Origin
A History. By R. A. Douglas-Lith-
gow, M.D.
Illustrated, 8vo, 389 pages.
of the Earth," by Professor Thomas C. Chamber Putnam's Sons. $2.50 net.
lin, and “ Isolation and Measurement of the Elec-
Memoirs and Correspondence.
Edited by George W. E. Russell. With portrait,
tron," by Professor Robert A. Millikan. This 8vo, 407 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50 net.
series proposes to make it possible for eminent sci Lord Chatham and the Whig Opposition. By D. A.
Winstanley, M.A. Illustrated, 8vo, 460 pages.
entific investigators to explain their researches not G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.25 net.
The
Each
G. P.
Malcolm
Maccoll:


60
[July 16
THE DIAL
-
The Municipalities of the Roman Empire.
James S. Reid, Litt.D. 8vo, 548 pages.
By.
G.
Putnam's Sons. $3.75 net.
Ancient India: From the Earliest Times to the
First Century, A. D. By E. J. Rapson, M.A.
Illustrated, 12mo, 199 pages. G. P. Putnam's
Sons.
75 cts. net.
Pennsylvania, The Keystone: A Short History. By
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker. Illustrated,
12mo, 316 pages. Philadelphia: Christopher
Sower Co.
GENERAL LITERATURE.
Letters of Edward Dowden and His Correspondents.
With photogravure portraits, 8vo, 415 pages.
E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net.
Fragments from Old Letters, E. D. to E. D. W.,
1869-1892. With photogravure portraits, 8vo,
206 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2. net.
Collected Literary Essays: Classical and Modern.
By A. W. Verrall, Litt.D.; edited, with Memoir,
by M. A. Bayfield, M.A., and J. D. Duff, M.A.
With photogravure portrait, 8vo,
292 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.50 net.
Clio Enthroned: A Study of Prose-forms in Thu-
cydides. By Walter R. M. Lamb, M.A. 8vo, 319
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3. net.
Outlines of Victorian Literature. By Hugh Walker,
LL.D., and Mrs. Hugh Walker. 8vo, 224 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Browning and Italian Art and Artists. By Pearl
Hogrefe, A.M. 8vo, 78 pages. Lawrence: Uni.
versity of Kansas. 'Paper, 50 cts. net.
The Land of the Blue Poppy: Travels of a Natural-
ist in Eastern Tibet. By F. Kingdon Ward.
Illustrated, large 8vo, 283 pages. G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. $4. net.
Mexico: The Land of Unrest. By Henry Baerlein.
Second and cheaper edition; illustrated, large
8vo, 459 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co. $2. net.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS.-SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS,
AND POLITICS.
The Development of Modern Turkey as Measured
by Its Press. By Ahmed Emin, Ph.D. 8vo, 140
pages. Longmans, Green & Co. Paper, $1. net.
The Currency Problem in China. By Wen Pin Wei,
Ph.D. 8vo, 156 pages. Longmans, Green & Co.
Paper, $1.25 net.
The System of Taxation in China in the Tsing
Dynasty, 1644-1911. By Shao-Kwan Chen, Ph.D.
8vo, 117 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. Paper,
$1. net.
Commentary on the Science of Organization and
Business Development. By Robert J. Frank,
LL.B. Fourth edition; 8vo, 324 pages. Chicago:
Laird & Lee, Inc. $2.75 net.
The British Revolution. By R. A. P. Hill, M.D.
12mo, 116 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 50 cts. net.
The People's Law. By William Jennings Bryan.
12mo, 64 pages. Funk & Wagnalls Co. 30 cts. net.
NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE.
The Poetical Works of George Crabbe. Edited by
A. J. Carlyle and R. M. Carlyle. With portrait,
12mo, 600 pages. Oxford University Press.
The Dream of Gerontius, and Other Poems. By
John Henry Newman. With portrait, 12mo, 278
pages. Oxford University Press.
The Song of Roland. Translated into English verse
by Arthur S. Way, D.Litt. 8vo, 143 pages. G. P.
Putnam's Sons.
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. By R. D.
Blackmore. With portrait, 16mo, 656 pages.
Oxford University Press.
Vives: On Education, A Translation of the “ De
Tradendis Disciplinis" of Juan Luis Vives, with
Introduction, by Foster Watson, D.Litt. With
portrait, 8vo, 328 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
$1.50 net.
Everyman's Library. New volumes: The Oxford
Reformers, by Frederic Seebohm; The Life of
Benjamin Disraeli, by J. A. Froude; Pioneer
Work for Women, by Elizabeth Blackwell; An
Apology for His Life, by Colley Cibber. Each
12mo. E. P. Dutton & Co. Per volume, 35 cts. net.
SCIENCE AND NATURE.
Trout Fly-Fishing in America. By Charles Zibeon
Southard. Illustrated in color, etc., 4to, 288
pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $7.50 net.
The Philosophy of Biology. By James Johnstone,
D.Sc. 8vo, 391 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
$2.75 net.
The Bacteriological Examination of Food and
Water. By William G. Savage, M.D. Illustrated,
8yo, 174 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.25 net.
Seaside Scenes and Thoughts: Some Extracts from
a Diary. By Walter Wilder. With portrait,
12mo, 129 pages. Boston: George H. Ellis Co.
PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY.
Perception, Physics, and Reality. By C. D. Broad,
M.A. 8vo, 388 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
$3. net.
Elementary Logic. By Alfred Sidgwick. 8vo, 250
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 90 cts. net.
Know Your Own Mind: A Little Book of Practical
Psychology. By W. Glover. 16mo, 204 pages.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. 60 cts. net.
VERSE.
Idylls of Greece. By Howard V. Sutherland. In 3
volumes, 12mo. Desmond FitzGerald, Inc.
Contemplations: Poems. By William de la Caumont-
Force. 16mo, 47 pages. London: Constable & Co.,
Ltd. Paper.
Songs from the Smoke. By Madeleine Sweeny Mil-
ler; with Introduction by Simon N. Patten, LL.D.
Illustrated, 12mo, 62 pages. Methodist Book
Concern. 75 cts. net.
Poems. By Blanche Goodman Eisendrath. 16mo,
78 pages.
New York: Bloch Publishing Co.
Life Harmonies. By Benjamin Fisher. 12mo, 87
pages. Canton: Franklin Co.
FICTION.
Faith Tresilion. By Eden Phillpotts. 12mo, 409
pages. Macmillan Co. $1.35 net.
The Victim: A Romance of the Real Jefferson Davis.
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THE DIAL
A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and
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desired ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application.
Published by THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY,
632 So. Sherman St., Chicago.
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post
Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Vol. LVII.
AUGUST 1, 1914.
No. 675.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INCENSE AND ICONOCLASM. Charles Leon-
ard Moore.
67
69
CASUAL COMMENT .
Legend masquerading as history.-An author
pestered by autograph-hunters.—Hawthorne's
exclusion from Boston's hall of fame.- Sim-
plified spelling's latest recruits.-- The big
book fair at Leipzig.– The world's greatest
publishing house. — The latest Baconian ab-
surdity.- A forthcoming literary
tion.”-
." — Mexico's first book.
sensa-
72
COMMUNICATIONS
Professor Brandes and American Culture.
J. Christian Bay.
"All Quiet along the Potomac." Charles E.
Benton.
The Truth about Reconstruction. B. G.
Brawley.
Impressionistic Criticism. Parke Farley.
MR. SHAW'S NEW PREFACE. George Bernard
Donlin
INCENSE AND ICONOCLASM.
Should criticism burn tapers and swing
censers before the masters of literature, or
should it take an axe and smash these idols
of the past? The modern spirit, the demo-
cratic spirit, is impatient of superiorities. It
is inconvenient for it to have to worship dead
people when it wants to worship its living
self. It would like to see an Act of Oblitera-
tion passed so that everything which hap-
pened before it came upon the scene should
be cast away.
It feels confidently able to
produce out of its own resources all that any
reasonable creature needs in the way of lit-
erary or artistic work. In some of the South
Sea Islands, when a man has reached a cer-
tain age he is buried in the ground up to his
neck and left to his own devices. A good
many modern writers, artists, and musicians
would like to apply this method to their
predecessors.
There is a certain hardship in each age's
struggle to attain expression against the over-
whelming mass of expression already in exis-
tence. In no other field of human effort does
the practitioner have to contend with ghosts.
A living general does not have to array his
battalions against Cæsar or Hannibal or
Napoleon. A living athlete does not go up
against Herakles or Milo. But a book or pic-
ture or musical composition has to fight not
only against its natural rivals of the present,
but against all that has been preserved from
the past.
But what is the past ?
A book that was
published or a picture that was painted yes-
terday, belongs just as much to the past as
art works of a thousand years ago.
The
human spirit is as fluid as air, but it is
just as permanent. An idyll of Theocritus,
“Aucassin and Nicolette,” ballad of Tenny-
son,- what earthly difference is there be-
tween these except a trifle more or less of art
and perfection. We ought all to be idol wor-
shippers, because we all want our own memo-
ries preserved. The man who smashes an
idol does so in the hope of having his own
statue set up in its place. But what guaran-
tees have we that if we cut off the heads of
our present rulers, the next generation will
74
76
CHAUCER AND THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE.
Thomas Percival Beyer
THE PRESIDENT OF FRANCE ON FRENCH
GOVERNMENT. Frederic Austin Ogg
A MIDDLE-IRISH ROMANCE. Arthur C. L.
Brown
.
78
a
79
CHRISTIANITY ON TRIAL, T. D. A, Cock-
erell.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
A Virginia editor of ante-bellum days.-
Timid praise of James Whistler.- Indian
lore for western readers.—A book of prisons
and prisoners.— The attractions of Java and
its adjacent islands.- A naturalist in the
wild Northwest.
BRIEFER MENTION
82
NOTES
83
.
TOPICS IN AUGUST PERIODICALS
83


68
(August 1
THE DIAL
not dig up our bones and cast them into the But what is this common standard? Well,
common pit?
there are hierarchies of art qualities and hier-
We believe grocers classify four grades of archies of art forms. Taste runs in cycles:
eggs - eggs, fresh eggs, strictly fresh eggs, the same essential needs of human nature
and new-laid eggs. There is ever more variety crop up at intervals and require to be ex-
of critical intelligence and taste among human pressed. Each age gives its authors and
beings, ranging from the crude instincts of artists a list of the things it wants done. What
the natural man, through various grades of one age considers of prime importance may
educated opinion, up to the inspired appre-
rank low in the opinion of the next; but
ciator.
But as everyone has the inalienable taking the whole roll of time, it is not diffi-
right to judge for himself,— as he can say cult to see what are the prime and what are
that he prefers Martin Tupper or Walt Whit-
the secondary qualities of art.
man to Shakespeare, or considers Jane Austen In literature it is first of all necessary that
a greater novelist than Scott,-- there is bound a writer should have something to say and
to be an immense amount of idol-smashing that he should know how to say it. The two
going on all the time. The statues of the true things usually go together. Though the great
inheritors of the purple line cannot be kept thinkers may be rare, and the great colorists
on their pedestals without a vast amount of in words almost to be counted on one's fin-
critical effort.
gers, anyone who has an emotion or an idea
And revolutions we must have. Every age can usually find language which will be at
tries to set its stamp upon its artists. It is least adequate. Execution, however, counts
only on condition that they paint its portrait
for so much in literature that a writer of very
that it allows their images to be set up in the inferior intellectual powers who has the in-
Hall of Fame. The portrait painters of a
stinct for the ordering of perfect words may
shallow, selfish, and material age will thus outrank a greater man.
be sadly in the way when the inspired delin Creativeness is the next requisite for a
eators of a spiritual and heroic age come great literary artist. Do writers create! We
along. And the reverse is true. Even the
Even the believe so: at least they produce something
most magnificent outbursts of the art spirit which did not exist in the world before. The
tend in time to become tame and conventional, photographic reproduction of reality is prac-
and a recurrence to a fresher, if shallower, tically impossible, for the dullest and prosiest
style is necessary.
writer who merely desires to report what he
But in the end the classics emerge. How, sees has to report it as he sees it, which is
it is hard to say, for they usually have to differently from anybody else, and quite other
contend with barbarian popularities, they are than the actual thing. On the other hand, a
usually eclipsed in their time by quite sec writer's attempt to juggle with his materials,
ondary figures. Shakespeare was eclipsed by to use nature and life as masks, to create by
Jonson, by Fletcher, by Daniel. Goethe was the way of allegory and symbolism, results
eclipsed by Klinger, by Kotzebue, by Schiller, in a secondary kind of art.
in a secondary kind of art. When an artist
by Jean Paul. But the best are finally trium- has to stand before his picture with a wand
phant, and the others range themselves in and explain that his men and women are not
order under them. Then we think iconoclasm men and women but embodiments of moral
is out of place. Criticism, yes! To show how qualities, that his tree shadows are emblems
these aristocrats of the intellect and soul dif. of evil and his cloud lights symbols of good,
fer from one another, to point out in what such a work may be interesting and an excel-
qualities they are supreme, to show how the lent puzzle-exercise for the intellect, but it is
secondary figures approach or draw away
certainly not as good art as a picture which
from them, --- all this is gratitude's propi- is intelligible at the first glance. It is the
tiatory offering, it is incense of the most same with books.
When allegorical or sym-
refined kind. But to attempt to deal out de-
bolical literature succeeds it is because read-
struction to them is like the Ecrasez l'infame! ers pay no attention to its recondite meanings,
of the French sans culottes. They, though but take it as a straightforward narrative of
rising in all the ages, have been tried by a events.
common standard, and they are bound to Power and Beauty divide literature be-
keep their places.
tween them. To say that the latter rules alone


1914)
69
THE DIAL
seems to us as monstrous as to say that there and croaks; but it is hardly worth while to
is only one sex in the world. The materials cultivate those disadvantages. The very idea
of terror, horror, the grotesque, the ugly, the of verse is measure and ordered repetition.
ludicrous, out of which probably two-thirds If you want to dispense with these things,
of literature is built, have no glimpse of why not write prose?
beauty in them; they have immense power, A new writer has to-day what a new writer
and they thrill our minds as much as beauty always had, nature and humanity for his
can, though in another way. We feel a shock materials, words and tones for his tools. And
as keenly as we do an attraction.
he has his individual way of looking at or
To come back to the question of incense and using these things. He may be wise or not
iconoclasm,- have not all these art qualities to disregard the models of the past; but he
we have enumerated been exercised since the may be very sure that he will not give the
beginning of literature? Has anything new world anything new, except the touch of his
been added in modern or comparatively mod- personality, or his special skill with language.
ern times ?
It is doubtful. There is a cer Mr. Comyns Carr tells a delicious story in
tain glamor of image and expression, which his recent book, which seems to bear on this
seems to belong to Northern races, which matter. Lord Randolph Churchill meeting
comes out in the Icelandic sagas, the Irish Henry Irving at dinner told him that he had
epics, the Welsh bards, and the Mabinogion, been to see him act Hamlet, but that he had
and whose fullest development is in Shake- been called away before the conclusion of
speare, Coleridge, and Keats. But there is
But there is the play, and would Irving be good enough
something so like it in Sappho and Catullus, to tell him how it ended. The latter concealed
Theocritus and Virgil, that it is hardly worth his surprise and gave a sketch of the last
while to make the distinction. Probably no acts. “Good," said Lord Randolph, “I will
French or Italian critic would admit that come and see the whole piece." A few nights
there is a distinction. Literature has passed later he met the actor again, and said that
through all possible phases of thought and he had not only seen him but had bought the
expression again and again.
book and read “Hamlet” and several other
As with art qualities, so with art forms. plays by the same author.
They were fixed almost at the start. There know,” he said, “I found them extremely in-
were the epic, the drama, the lyric. There teresting.” Lord Randolph was a strong per-
were the secondary forms, the idyll, the phil-sonality, but he did not come to much, and
osophic poem, the prose narrative, the dia- perhaps part of the secret of this was his
logue, the essay, the epistle. Have we really disposition to trust to his own resources. Our
invented anything new? Shakespeare min-
new novelists, poets, artists, and musicians
gled tragedy and comedy, but so did some
who want to see the dead past bury its dead
of the ancients. Herakles in the “Alcestis”
are in a like case. They do not realize that a
is a comic figure, and some of Aristophanes's real work of art is about the most living thing
in the world.
plays rise to the region of romance if not of
CHARLES LEONARD MOORE.
tragedy. Job's comforters are decidedly
comic, though perhaps unintentionally so.
We have, we think, invented the novel. But
CASUAL COMMENT.
there are Greek novels, and the telling of in-
LEGEND MASQUERADING AS HISTORY is too
terminable stories probably began with the familiar to excite surprise, and too tenacious
Cave man.
Scheherazade dates a good way of its hold on the credulity of the unscholarly
back. We hear a good deal now about vers to admit of much hope that it will ever be
libre. Well, the Greeks had their dithyrambic made to relax that hold. For instance, the
verse, which was free enough. In English we popular conception of Juggernaut (corrup-
had Skelton's ragged rhyme, the so-called
tion of the Sanskrit Jagannatha, Lord of the
Pindaric odes, Milton's and Matthew Arnold's
World, the name under which Vishnu, the
Preserver, is worshipped at Puri in Orissa)
irregular blank verse, the long irregular lines
is so far from correct as to ascribe to that god
of Blake's Prophetic Books, the rhythmical the qualities of Siva, the Destroyer, rather
prose of Macpherson's Ossian. Much of this
than those properly belonging to him; and
is good enough, but none of it is the best.
even a competent writer like John Forster
A man may be a good actor although he limps could allow himself to say, in his life of
"And do you


70
[August 1
THE DIAL
Dickens: “Poor Johnny Tetterby staggering difficulty in perusing my answer, and place it
under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut | unread in your collection. The next time
that crushed out all his enjoyments. Long it shall occur to you to trouble an author as
ago Sir W. W. Hunter, in his “Gazetteer of you have troubled me, find out - I do not say
India,” made it plain that this Juggernaut what he has written — far less do I suggest
legend has no historical basis, unless it be the that you should read it - but find out how
fact that in any religious ceremony attended he is in the habit of spelling his unpretentious
by dense throngs of people a life or two may name and give him upon that point the flat-
be sacrificed in the press, or a fanatical devo-tery of imitation." One is naturally curious
tee may even sacrifice his own life. Another to know whether the letter was ever sent, or
legend that dies hard is that of the supposed whether, like so many letters that calm second
witch-burning at Salem. The recent destruc thought consigns to the waste-basket, its mere
tive fire that wiped out so many ancient land writing served the purpose of safety-valve
marks in the old Massachusetts town elicited and rendered its actual sending as unneces-
from the Baltimore “Star” the following: sary as it would have been, on the whole,
“On mere suspicion of being witches women unwise.
were burnt alive. We should not be sorry
that the old landmarks are gone.
" The witch-
HAWTHORNE'S EXCLUSION FROM BOSTON'S
craft delusion was bad enough, and Salem has
HALL OF FAME, a palace of immortality that
reason to be ashamed of its participation in
the excesses that attended that delusion; but selected by a competent committee of Bos-
is to be the abode of one hundred celebrities
all New England was swept by the incredible tonians, is Boston's loss, as all will agree, not
superstition, to which even the learned and
Hawthorne's. The rule requiring that the
pious Cotton Mather gave his adherence, and
selected famous one should have done his best
Salem was not singular in its punishment of
work within the city limits, or, if not there,
suspected persons.
Nineteen of these were
within five miles of Beacon Hill, may of course
hanged as witches on Gallows Hill, and one,
be made to exclude the author of " The Scar-
Giles Cory, was pressed to death for refusing let Letter," which was written in Salem. But
to plead; but no burning at the stake took
there are not a few readers of Hawthorne who
place either at Salem or elsewhere in New
prefer “The Blithedale Romance” to any.
England. Nevertheless popular tradition will
always have it that witch-burning is what thing else produced by its author; and this
admirable work was conceived and written in
Salem is chiefly to be remembered for in
the rough (in note-book jottings) at Brook
history.
Farm, now within the city's bounds, although
the finished novel took shape at West New-
AN AUTHOR PESTERED BY AUTOGRAPH-HUNT ton, where Hawthorne lived for several months
ERS has the choice of various ways of more in 1852. Why, let us ask, should so much
or less gracefully eluding their importunities. stress be laid on the mere act of writing, when
Few such importunates succeed in eliciting the conceiving and the mental elaboration
from their victims so rare an epistolary gem of a literary masterpiece are the important
as that recently made public by Mr. Lloyd things? And who knows how much of Haw-
Osborne, who on July 27 placed on sale at thorne's most fruitful imaginative activity
Sotheby's a number of letters and manuscript may not have been in Boston, which was one
fragments in the handwriting of his step-
of his many places of brief residence, at the
father. The choice bit here referred to is the time of his holding a position in the Boston
first draft of a letter to a certain petitioner customhouse, and about which he has written
for Stevenson's autograph who had committed
so much, in his “American Notebooks" and
the blunder of misspelling (substituting ph elsewhere? It surely should not require any
for v) the name of him whose kindness was dangerous strain on Boston's New England
being thus presumed upon. The reply, perhaps conscience to claim our first master of prose
needlessly tart, but eminently characteristic,
fiction as her own spiritual citizen, as he was
was in part as follows: “The few lines with
once her bodily resident.
which you have found time to honor me con-
tain certain indications of your character on
which I take a pleasure in dwelling. They SIMPLIFIED SPELLING'S LATEST RECRUITS, it
show you so illiterate that I cannot judge appears from the “Bulletin,” from which it
your admiration flattering; they show you is always a pleasure to quote, are the gay and
so careless of giving trouble to me that I am giddy devotees of the turkey trot, the tango,
myself careless how much offence I may con the kitchen sink, and the other curious capers
vey to you; and they are so ill-penned that of that class. Just how it came about that
I am tempted to hope you will discover a the dancers were found to be giving aid and


1914)
71
THE DIAL
>>
comfort to the spelling-reformers, is thus admirable and creditable part of this great
explained: “The keepers of restaurants and exhibition is the American section, as many of
saloons hav introduced for the entertainment' our compatriots will discover for themselves
of their 'patrons' the delites of song and before the season closes.
dance, in order to stimulate orders for meat
and drink. Some advertize 'thé dansant,'
which is supposed to mean 'dancing tea,'
THE WORLD'S GREATEST PUBLISHING HOUSE,
whatever that may be. But the printers often
as the “Book Bulletin” of the Chicago Public
print the frase 'the dansant,' and the easy
Library informs its readers, is the govern-
patrons' accordingly pronounce it, we sup-
ment printing establishment at Washington,
pose, “the dan-sant (den-sænt), as if paral- “the finest and best-equipped in the world,
lel to the can-can' or 'the one-step.' This and no nation approaches this country in the
givs, of course, a clear notion of what a 'dan effort to enlighten its people through the me-
sant' is. The occult ‘dansant' has reacted
dium of printers' ink. Nearly six million
upon the spelling of dance, which now reap-
dollars has been appropriated this year to
pears sometimes as "danse' - a good result maintain the government printing office. At
from a queer source.
Of course "danse,' enormous additional cost for expert service,
as well as “daunse, daunce,” and “dance,' the government secures the material for its
has good authority in our early literature, as
publications on all sorts of subjects. Some
the writer of the foregoing points out; and
of the publications are in the form of portly
the form thus inadvertently restored by the books, some are bulletins, some are circulars,
disciples of Terpsichore has, for the spelling and an important section comprises maps.
reformer, this advantage, that its past tense And, furthermore, some of the publications
and past participle may be phonetically writ-
are windy political harangues, printed in the
ten danst, and these new forms open
“Congressional Record" as if actually deliv-
the way for “pranse,” “pranst,” and so on.
ered before our national legislators (though
Worse things might happen than a general never actually inflicted on any audience), and
agreement upon one form for the variable and sent out at public expense in thousands of
often interchangeable endings -nce, -nse; but copies, to remain unread by as many unap-
to admit this is by no means to take the preciative constituents of the senders. No
“advanst” position of the Simplified Spelling private publishing house could endure for a
Board.
week the enormous waste that gives so little
concern to those who year after year pay for
THE BIG BOOK FAIR AT LEIPZIG, or, in official the maintenance of this biggest printing and
language, the Internationale Ausstellung für publishing plant in the world.
Buchgewerbe und Graphik,” has opened most
auspiciously. In its first six weeks, and before THE LATEST BACONIAN ABSURDITY takes the
the vacation season had well begun, the turn- form of a bulky volume by a certain Mr. Har-
stiles recorded the visits of more than a man, an Englishman, who sets himself the
million interested sight-seers, who have had stupendous task of proving that the Lord
displayed before them all the marvellous proc-Chancellor wrote, in addition to his own and
esses known to the arts of printing and illus- Shakespeare's works and sundry other books
tration. Divided into eighty sections, the of his time, Spenser's “Faerie Queene" and
vast exhibition presents everything conceiva- “Shepherd's Calendar,'' Samuel Daniel's
ble in connection with the impressing of visible letter from Octavia to Mark Antony, and a
or (for the blind) tangible marks on plain number of other things that have hitherto
surfaces, from the stamping of oilcloth to the escaped the Baconian drag-net and been
printing and illustration of the édition de allowed to mask themselves under spurious
luxe and the manufacture of books in raised authorship. Mr. Harman's six hundred pages
type. The busy book-producing Saxon city, are little likely to become household words
noted for its annual book-market, is just the on this side of the Atlantic, or indeed on either
place for holding such an exposition as the side, and most readers of this brief notice will
present. Printing in the land of its birth probably content themselves with such second-
(with apologies to China) is symbolized and hand information about the book as is here
glorified by the heroic statue of Gutenberg offered. The title of the work is “Edmund
unveiled a few weeks ago in the centre of the Spenser and the Impersonations of Francis
splendid fair that may be said to owe its Bacon.” Why would it not be shorter and
existence to the inventive genius of Mainz who, simpler, instead of proving the Baconian
almost five centuries ago, began those opera- authorship of so many Elizabethan books, one
tions with movable wooden types that have at a time, to establish the non-Baconian origin
led to such astonishing results. Not the least of such few as may fairly be allowed to other


72
(August 1
THE DIAL
writers, and then lump all the rest of the lit Professor Brandes, writing in the “Politiken,"
erature of the period under Lord Bacon's finds that America possesses the material basis for
name?
highly developed mental culture, but no more. He
compares contemporary America with Europe of
the dark ages, and finds that they agree appre-
A FORTHCOMING LITERARY SENSATION is
ciably. The accumulation of vast personal wealth
foreshadowed by the London correspondent of in great commercial centers, and the visible use of
the Boston “Transcript,” who says he has this wealth for the purpose of mental culture
received confidential information about an through great universities and museums, this is,
important book soon to be issued and to as it was in early Europe, the beginning of a period
contain a most dramatic disclosure of the of culture in America. Thereupon the genius ap-
liveliest interest in political circles. “It is pears, organizing a cultural development,- that
permissible to add,” he continues, “that the
human genius commonly called the great man, who
book in question is a 'Life of Cardinal Man-
needs and utilizes all the outward things, money,
ning,' and that it will contain correspondence the university milieu, laboratories and institutional
between a retired parliamentary leader and apparatus generally.
In advancing this view Professor Brandes fulfils
an Irishman who was much in the public eye
over twenty years ago.
In this correspon-
the prophecy of Disraeli, who warned us of the
time when comfort should be mistaken for culture.
dence is one outstanding fact, and in that fact It is a view common enough in Europe, but
lies the 'sensation.'” It is a cruel position to scarcely worthy of Professor Brandes. He might
be in— restrained by a sense of honor from be expected to recollect Disraeli's warning well
revealing a choice secret that will very likely enough to rise above the common European cultural
leak out before long through some less con egotism, according to which you swim on the crest
scientious channel. Would one, we wonder, of a cultural wave if you insure for yourself a
be getting “warm” if one were to guess that
liberal income and the greatest possible amount of
the Irishman “much in the public eye over
modern improvement in material comfort. In
America this view of life generally is discredited.
twenty years ago" is Charles Stewart Parnell?
As for the universities, only a short time ago Presi-
dent Jordan called attention to their danger of
MEXICO'S FIRST BOOK, which is believed to being over-equipped with material comforts. Pre-
have been also America's first book, was
viously, amidst a modest equipment, the student
and the investigator were obliged to devise their
printed on a primitive press sent over in 1535
own minor apparatus; to struggle with difficulties
in the charge of Juan Pablos by Jules Crom-
and to overcome them; to work ahead without
berger, who had opened a printing house in awaiting an endowment. Nowadays you press a
Seville and was led to hope that a similar button for this, issue an order for that, draw on
establishment in the transatlantic Spanish pos- this fund or obtain support from that; but all
sessions would prove a profitable business ven these outward facilities do not, in themselves, stim-
ture. Thus it came about that in the year ulate independent activity in research, and the
1536 there appeared in Mexico City a Spanish
material endowments do not result in a propor-
book of a religious character, bearing the title
tionate mental and scientific activity.
(we give it in translation), “A Spiritual Lad-
Rags certainly are not, per se, a comfort, yet
der for Reaching Heaven." Times have
there is no causal relation between accumulated
commercial wealth and human culture. Moreover,
changed in Mexico since then!
cultural development in the past almost invariably
involved an explosion of some superstition touch-
COMMUNICATIONS.
ing the importance of some material power. Real
progress in human culture is not assisted by being
PROFESSOR BRANDES AND AMERICAN an object of institutional protection: it acts inde-
CULTURE.
pendently until it has conquered.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Professor Brandes is greatly mistaken in antici-
After a journey of three weeks, Professor pating for America any cultural progress save
Brandes is making known his impressions of
that which is based upon idea and will-power.
America. They are crystallized in this bright
Human culture as a standard of measurement for
jewel: “ the country of the shaved barbarians." social conditions; human culture as a climax in the
It is true that even after having been personally activity of numerous, mutually incongruous forces
feasted out of reason, every superlative being influencing national and individual life; human
called into action to reflect his greatness, Professor culture as the spontaneous utterance of genius in
Brandes could not justly be expected to heap com man: will these problems be solved in America ex-
pliments upon the country he saw in brief, kaleido actly in the same way as in Europe? For the pres-
scopic reflex. Nevertheless, " the land of the shaved ent, it seems that America excels in the estimation
barbarians” will impress many of us who are of those particular life activities whose improve-
obliged to remain behind and to sustain the Ameri ment is judged socially advantageous. In America
can form of life, with the feeling that some human culture means an improvement of the com-
apparently decent person spits in our face. mon basis of life, and not a condition of egotistic


1914)
73
THE DIAL
66
cism."
comfort acquired by a few and humbly supported Mississippi, where the Negroes reached the highest
by the multitude.
political power, they at no time had more than
Professor Brandes might be expected to com thirty-four out of the 140 members of the Legis-
prehend this without calling into service more lature; but that they took part in those govern-
circumspection than was afforded by his bird's-eye ments which put the Southern states in harmony
view of this country. We are quite accustomed to with the nation and that they helped to plan and
criticism using severo ac atroci stylo," but an organize the present Southern common school sys-
epithet in the style of a sensational newspaper tem. In view of such facts as these, current and
headline is hardly worthy of one who cannot have popular exaggerations would at least seem to be
forgotten Holberg's epigram, ut studeam, studeo. in need of modification.
B. G. BRAWLEY.
J. CHRISTIAN BAY.
Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga., July 17, 1914.
Chicago, July 23, 1914.
IMPRESSIONISTIC CRITICISM.
“ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC.”
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
I agree with your correspondent, Mrs. Laura
In THE DIAL of July 16 Mr. Hyder E. Rollins
Tobey, on the lack of value of "grocer-shop criti-
says that in W. C. Bryant's “Library of Poetry
The trouble with such criticism is that it
and Song" (1871), “All Quiet along the Potomac”
presupposes a standard of absolutes — of literary
is credited to Mrs. Ethel Beers.
weights and measures - which does n't exist. Peo-
Referring to Mr. Bryant's volume, I find the poem
ple have not yet succeeded in reducing life to any
credited there to Mrs. Howland, on page 381, under
commensurate values of quarts or ounces, and it
the title, “The Picket-Guard.” In the index of
is futile to expect in the critic a higher sensibility
authors the name of Mrs. Beers does not appear.
of perception than in the creative artist — who is
in the first place molded by life before he attempts
CHARLES E. BENTON. to turn life into a mold — and that mold not neces-
Rochester, N. Y., July 21, 1914.
sarily standardized in relation to the perception of
antecedent artists. Then, in spite of the agreed-
THE TRUTH ABOUT RECONSTRUCTION.
upon grocer-weight standard of measure, there is
always the liability of human fallibility in the
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
grocer. : . . However noble in intention, there is no
In the issue of THE DIAL for July 1 there ap such thing as an honest grocer – in literary criti-
pears a letter on “ The Character of the Mexican cism. That is to say, there is no such thing as an
People” from Mr. E. L. C. Morse of Chicago. In objective critic.
the course of his remarks Mr. Morse, desiring to The only honest course, therefore, for literary
draw an analogy, goes somewhat out of his way
criticism is that of frank impressionism - ad-
to sneer at the American Negro. Two millions of mitting, as it does, the likelihood of human error
the inhabitants of Mexico, he informs us, are white
people, chiefly of Spanish origin. The remaining striving simply to record an honest impression,
in judging a work of human intelligence, and
twelve millions are of mixed Indian ancestry: “A
no more and no less. Speaking from experience, I
psychological anthropologist would probably call
them morons — physically adults, mentally chil-
can say that the work of impressionistic critics is
the only sort of criticism from which I have gained
dren. In that respect they are much like our
negroes before the war." Further on we read:
any real sense of values in regard to a new book
“Many of our good people half a century ago
of fiction, or a new play, or a new poem. Even
assumed that the negro had high and lofty aspira-
when I have temperamentally so consistently dis-
tions for constitutional government and political agreed with a particular reviewer as to buy always
freedom.” Then follows once more the charge of
the books he disparaged, and to shun, for the most
the Negro's incompetency as shown in the days of part, those he recommended, I have yet admitted
Reconstruction, with all the old story of graft, by this very process the worth of his impres-
lack of political insight, etc., etc.
sionistic judgment.
Is it not about time that a stop should be put to From the so-called grocer-shop criticism I have
these old slurs and slanders on the Negro? Simple derived neither the profit of coincident conviction
historical accuracy to-day demands that the facts nor the pleasure of honest disagreement. This de-
of Reconstruction be studied without prejudice vitalized theory of criticism simply reduces itself
and with a reasonable amount of care. No situa to an algebraic formula in which the reader's
tion that has ever arisen in American history has interest and enjoyment represent zero.
received more gross exaggeration than the tale of
Is it not significant that grocer-shop criticism
the ex-slave's shortcomings when he was given a
almost always parades under the mask of anonym-
chance in the political life of the nation. Why? ity? It is the uniform of the so-called " sound
Because it is the popular thing to give the Negro reviewer," whose personality is various and may
a kick. As a matter of fact the Negro was for the
be interchanged ad lib., without any noticeable
most part simply the victim of the greed of men
change in the product. Indeed, the instrument is
far more criminal and at the time more capable fitted, interchangeably, for any commodity on the
than himself. Major John R. Lynch has recently
market.
shown us in "The Facts of Reconstruction" (issued
PARKE FARLEY.
by the Neale Publishing Co., New York) that in Chicago, July 18, 1914.


74
(August 1
THE DIAL
The New Books.
cere enough in what he said; only one doubts
whether he said all that was in his mind.
Ordinarily, the playwright leaves the writing
MR. SHAW'S NEW PREFACE.*
of his preface to the professional critic. But
Bernard Shaw has done more than any of
Mr. Shaw had seen what the critics did to
his contemporaries to reconcile us to the Ibsen; that their ineptitudes and pathetic
thorough-going moralistic attitude, and he
trivialities made a deep impression on his
has done so by insisting that the conquest of mind, is sufficiently apparent from the ex-
morality is at least as difficult and dangerous
tended excerpts he has ironically handed on
as the quest of the Holy Grail. Odd that we
to posterity in “The Quintessence of Ibsen-
should need to be reminded of anything so
ism. Could, then, a serious dramatist, bent
obvious.
Yet in spite of the martyrdom of
on handling subjects of the utmost social sig.
saints and the torture of heretics, in spite of nificance, trust himself to be interpreted by a
Luther and John Knox, we are given to think-
group of amiable æsthetes, whom he himself
ing of morality in terms of submission rather
had described as fainéants? Whether he ac-
than in terms of revolt. Mr. Shaw will not tually asked himself this question or not, it
is certain that Mr. Shaw did not hesitate to
hear of this morality, which he has identified
for his own purposes with the current sub-
assume the risk of explaining his own mes-
urban morality. As a matter of fact, we may
sage, an exceedingly delicate and difficult
doubt whether its influence is really so per-
task'in which he has absolutely no equal. So
vasive; it is pretty certain that it has never
true is this that it is nothing but a work of
gripped the masculine half of the race, how- supererogation to attempt to interpret Mr.
ever much it may have served to console his Shaw, even if the attempt is not simply an
mate in less militant epochs than ours. But
ineptitude and consequently an impertinence.
it has been preached persistently by myopic
Those of us who delight in Mr. Shaw as a
persons of the best intentions, who remained
man with an infinite capacity for life and
blissfully unaware that it is rarely applied in
civic responsibility, do not in the least regret
practice.
his facility in self-explanation, though when
Those who fancy a quiet life only follow a
we are a bit impatient we may allow ourselves
the trite remark that his skill in the preface
profound instinct when they discourage the
rise of a new moralist. Traditional morality is a measure of his limitation as a dramatist.
is a convenient substitute for earnest thought.
We simply seize a shabby old idea — one of
Those who disturb it, make us uncomfortable,
those æsthetic ideas about which Mr. Shaw
and we revenge ourselves by calling them im-
has happily shown so little curiosity — and
moralists, as in the case of Ibsen, or irre-
say that no first-rate creative gift has ever
sponsible paradoxers, as in the case of Mr. itself or others. What of it? We may be
been so immediately intelligible, either to
Shaw. It is a convenient way of evading the
issue. But Mr. Shaw was determined that
sure that Mr. Shaw has so profound a distaste
the issue should not be evaded, and he would
for vagueness that we may doubt whether the
not be Mr. Shaw if he had not had his way. possession of genius like Shakespeare's could
Neither would comfortable abstract discussion
compensate him for the sense in himself of
serve, the futility of such discussion being something he could not fully comprehend.
sufficiently proved by the experience of those
And apropos of the prefaces, the impression
clergymen who find that they can continue somehow prevails that Mr. Shaw's ideas have
to draw their salaries only by avoiding the
the precision and inexorable unfolding of a
concrete. Mr. Shaw, with the instinct of the proposition from Euclid. Mr. Arthur Symons
dramatist, wrapped the Seven Deadly Sins in speaks with a shudder of his remorseless logic
But if we
the trappings of our industrial civilization, and unanswerable common sense.
and left them to point the moral.
think of Mr. Shaw as a person puffed up
But it will hardly do, either, to say that he
with the logician's silly pride in his logic as
left his puppets to point the moral : he did a weapon sufficient for any occasion, is it not
not; he pulled up the curtain on the show, because we are so largely occupied with the
which he had first taken the trouble to make
fictitious Shaw of the reporters rather than
as amusing as possible, and then stepped to
with the genuine Shaw of the prefaces ? It
would be nearer the truth to insist
the front of the stage and harangued the mob
nat hat
in a preface. Mr. Shaw has ingeniously de-
he has sought to give us is less a programme
fended what surely needs no defence — his
than a point of view. No, although he
reliance on the preface. Doubtless he was sin-
possesses enough ideas to set a score of doc-
trinaires up in business, he is not himself a
* MISALLIANCE, THE DARK LADY OF THE SONNETS, AND doctrinaire. He is concerned with the spirit
FANNY'S FIRST PLAY. With a Treatise on Parents and Chil-
dren. By Bernard Shaw, New York: Brentano's.
rather than with the letter.
ן דיי
T-IL TIT


1914)
75
THE DIAL
No better instance, indeed, of the con which, though you may decipher it, you cannot in
cealed but still discernible modesty with which any fruitful sense read, though the enforced at-
Mr. Shaw offers to arrange our destiny could
tempt will make you loathe the sight of a book all
be cited than his latest volume of plays. If
the rest of your life. With millions of acres of
he were really the prideful logician we care-
woods and valleys and hills and wind and air and
birds and streams and fishes and all sorts of in-
lessly assume him to be, he would not have
structive and healthy things easily accessible, or
written two of the plays in this volume
with streets and shop windows and crowds and
"Misalliance” and “Fanny's First Play,” vehicles and all sorts of city delights at the door,
the third being nothing but a Shakespearean you are forced to sit, not in a room with some
jeu d'esprit. For he is here engaged in ex human grace and comfort of furniture and decora-
ploring the problem of parents and children; tion, but in a stalled pound with a lot of other
and, although his moralist's hope of a better children, beaten if you talk, beaten if you move,
humanity rests squarely on the child, it would beaten if you cannot prove by answering idiotic
be idle to pretend that he has given us any-
questions that even when you escaped from the
thing like a programme for improving the pound and from the eye of your gaoler, you were
state of the child. He cannot tell us in detail
still agonizing over his detestable sham books in-
what we ought to do, though he has no hesita-
stead of daring to live.”
tion in telling us what we ought not to do As a partial corrective of this black picture,
his task there being reduced to a simple one may say at once that Mr. Shaw frankly
description of our actual practice.
admits he was not beaten; but he assures
The two chief influences in the life of the
us he was sent to a schoolmaster so excep-
child are, of course, the home and the school. tionally indifferent that he was allowed to
In the well-known Shavian view, the middle-
escape without learning anything. If neither
the home nor the school will do for the child
class home is no place for any social being; | (which is, in the Shavian view, a fresh experi-
it is exclusive and narrow; a place where
ment of the Life Force trying to improve on
people make affection an excuse for deplorable
manners. It is bad for adults, impossible for plicitly confesses the inadequacy of logic:
its parents), what then? Here Mr. Shaw ex-
children. A child has no political rights; it
is a chattel, the exclusive possession of its
“I must not pretend, then, that I have a system
ready to replace all the other systems. Obstruct-
parents, who may ruin it as effectually by too
ing the way of the proper organization of child-
much petting as by too much beating. And
hood, as of everything else, lies our ridiculous
the problem is further complicated by the fact misdistribution of the national income, with its
that a child is a nuisance to a grown-up per accompanying class distinctions and imposition of
son. “What is more, the nuisance becomes snobbery on children as a necessary part of their
more and more intolerable as the grown-up social training. The result of our economic folly
person becomes more cultivated, more sensi is that we are a nation of undesirable acquaintances;
tive, and more deeply engaged in the highest
and the first object of all our institutions for chil-
methods of adult work. The child at play is dren is segregation.”
noisy and ought to be noisy: Sir Isaac New We ask for a solution of this most perplex-
ton at work is quiet and ought to be quiet." ing of problems — the problem of the child -
Moreover, real understanding cannot exist and Mr. Shaw murmurs vaguely about a world
between an adult and a creature so essen made more habitable for children by Social-
tially cruel and selfish as a child. It is idle ism. But he does not pretend, you see, that
to pretend that the family provides children
he has a programme.
What he wishes is to
with edifying adult society. Here, as in so emphasize the spirit in which he thinks we
many other respects, the home is nothing but should go to work. Take the case of political
a humbug. Mr. Shaw finds proof of this in rights. Not the most astute of statesmen, ac-
the fact that parents who can afford to send tuated by the most humane motives, could
their children to a board school will not have remove that disability of the child. As long
them at home. The parents, of course, will as there are parents, children will be largely
tell you that they have to