oöperative clear-
ing for checks and notes received by London
gestive in the reading, than any but a few of
the earlier ones from the pen of his more ver-
banks from the country, instead of the labo-
rious and time-consuming individual treat-
satile younger contemporary. However, it is
ment of such commercial items that gave place of himself into a series of books too numerous
perhaps impossible for a man to put the best
to it, showed him to be both expert and origi-
nal in the sphere of banking, just as, for
even to count without weariness, besides leav-
example, his early researches in the vitelli. ing his impress on the laws of his nation and
on the public life of his day and generation,
genous glands of insects proved him to be not
and at the same time draw his own likeness
lacking in capacity for independent observa-
with speaking fidelity in his daily correspon-
tion and discovery in natural science.
dence. Certainly Lubbock has not done so,
Born in 1834, his adolescent years fell at a
and therefore to the number of those biogra-
rather fortunate time and amid rather favor- phies whose chief excellence lies in their being
able surroundings for the development of his little short of autobiographies Mr. Hutchin-
peculiar tastes and aptitudes. Darwin lived
son's work, however admirable in other re-
at Down, about a mile from the Lubbock
home at High Elms, and to the influence and
spects, cannot belong.
On the title-page of the book one notes the
* LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, LORD AVEBURY. By Horace G. rather conspicuous insertion, to the length of
Hutchinson. In two volumes.
New York: The
fifteen lines in small print, of Lord Avebury's
Illustrated.
Macmillan Co.


1915)
75
THE DIAL
many society memberships and honorary de “ One of his sons told me that on the day that
grees, just as in the later published works bis father first took him into the City, to introduce
from his own pen these innumerable adjuncts
him to the partners of their business house, Lord
to his name have not failed to make their Avebury drew a book out of his pocket as soon as
appearance, somewhat to the surprise of those
they were seated in the 'tube,' and said, 'I think
who like to imagine the author of "The Pleas-
you will find it a good plan always to have a book
with you, in your pocket, to read at odd times,' and
ures of Life" a person of simple tastes and
therewith he became at once so absorbed in his
unaffected deportment. The reason of this reading as to be quite unconscious of his fellow-
parade of personal distinctions we are now travellers and their conversation."
glad to find set forth with some care by the A pleasant personal touch and also an inci-
biographer. It is worth quoting.
dental testimony to the popularity of Lub-
“He was honorary member and fellow of an bock's books are to be found in another
extraordinarily large number of learned societies, passage that offers itself for citation. The
both home and foreign, and bearer of distinctions eldest boy by his second marriage had just
as various as his talents. Some surprise has been
been sent away to school at Rottingdean.
expressed at the conscientiousness with which he
gave at full length, after his name on the title-
“Sir John affectionately notes the sorrow of
himself and of Lady Lubbock in parting with him,
pages of his books, the initial letters indicating
these degrees, etc. Certainly Lord Avebury's very
but from the very first the school seems to have
been a success. The boy was happy there, his
simple character, without a touch of cynicism in its
composition, made him highly appreciative of the
reports were good and, for his age, he took a high
recognition of his fellows, but one of his publishers
place. His father and mother went down to see
him. Sir John writes that Harold conducted him
has explained to me what he believes to have been
his real motive in inscribing at full the initials sig-
to the school library and pointed out with pride to
the father that all the latter's books were 'out'.
nifying his dignities. Lord Avebury, in his opin- boys were reading them. He said they were always
ion, was influenced by the feeling that if any let-
ters of the kind were affixed to a name, a certain
out and were among the most popular. In this
year both the Pleasures and the Use of Life were
slight was cast on the institution which had hon-
oured him if the distinguishing initials of that
translated into Greek, Arabic, and Japanese."
institution were omitted. His idea was that all or
It is the first of the above-named books that,
none should be given, more especially as many of
of all his works, has won for its author the
the distinctions were of foreign origin, and it was largest number of readers, being now in its two
particularly imperative, by all laws of courtesy, hundred and seventy-second thousand (in
not to hurt foreign feelings. It is a motive per Part I.) and in its two hundred and thirty-
fectly in accord with Lord Avebury's peculiar second thousand (in Part II.). Of the some-
kindliness and sensitive consideration of other
what less popular kindred work, "The Use of
people."
Life," the author noted seventeen years ago
In this connection there is an amusing bit of that, beside editions in English, the book had
correspondence given by Mr. Hutchinson appeared in French (seven editions), German,
which perhaps may help to explain this punc- Dutch, Polish, Bohemian, Spanish, Italian,
tiliousness in the use of titles. An East Indian
Greek, Arabic (five editions), Marathi, Gujer-
scholar once exchanged some letters with the athi, Japanese (six editions), Danish, Rus-
author of “The Pleasures of Life" on the sub-
sian, Armenian, and Esthonian.
ject of a proposed translation of that book
As a zealously active member of Parliament
into one of the dialects of India; and in the
and, after 1900, an energetic participant in
latter part of the correspondence occurs this
the less momentous proceedings of the House
reproachful passage from the pen of the Orien-
of Lords, Lubbock advocated successfully
tal: “Formerly your Lordship used to ad-
many needed reforms and improvements. In
dress ‘Mr.' or 'Esquire,' but I don't know why a single parliamentary session we find him
your Lordship have omitted in the last two
introducing three important bills,- one for
letters. Although I did not gain or lose any-
the earlier closing of shops, one for amending
thing by it, but still I wonder.'
the public-library law, and one to facilitate
Lubbock's power of getting things done, the forming of open spaces in large cities.
both in his own person and through others, The first was blocked, says his biographer; the
argues unusual
energy and the strictest other two were passed. He held, first and
economy of time. Indeed, among his early last, a great number of chairmanships, includ-
papers there are various schemes or schedules ing that of the London County Council, and
assigning its particular task to each hour or he served the causes of science and humanity
half-hour of the day with a painful particu and education in various capacities, official
larity hardly surpassed by "Queed” himself and unofficial. In fact, the list of his activities
in the prime of his priggishness. An anecdote is much too long to be given here. Mr. Hutch-
very much to the point is as follows:
inson makes an impressive showing of these


76
[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
varied interests and occupations, and has pro-play-lover for his own sake; but he has the
duced a useful and not uninspiring biography, ulterior purpose, as befits the President of the
It is a record such as the late Dr. Samuel | Drama League of America, of encouraging
Smiles would have taken delight in pointing good drama by helping to provide the ideal
to as a most helpful one for eager and ambi audience.
tious youth. Its lessons in the value of econ Mr. Cheney divides his time about evenly
omy of time, making the most of one's between characterization of the play-writer's
resources, controlling one's temper under work and characterization of the new stage-
provocation, and so on, are many and obvious. craft. He has a great deal to say in praise of
Lord Avebury's qualities seem to have been the new drama, especially in England, as “the
admirable without exception, and these quali- drama of sincerity.” In America he sees the
ties are well depicted by his biographer. Two movement as “hardly more than a promise,
portraits of the man and views of two country in England and on the Continent as “both a
houses belonging to him adorn the volumes. promise and a vital, lasting achievement."
PERCY F. BICKNELL. He is especially enthusiastic for Mr. Gordon
Craig and the “æsthetic theatre movement,''
and hostile to naturalistic stagecraft, which
THE DRAMA MOVEMENT.*
he assails under the name of “Belascoism” as
the "theatre producer's perfect realization of
The new drama is still young, still youth a false ideal." Recognizing the tyranny of
fully and vigorously uncertain, still the sub-play-house commercialism in the United
ject of prophecy; but it seems nevertheless to States, for real progress he looks to such
have reached age and reliability enough to smaller centres of drama interest as the uni.
warrant the attempt to define it and to esti-versities and colleges, and the "art" theatres
mate the significance of its achievement and in the larger cities. The authority of Mr.
its tendencies. Among the most recent books, Cheney's otherwise excellent book is impaired
Mr. Sheldon Cheney's "The New Movement by repetition and careless expression. The
in the Theatre" is a broad survey of strictly last chapter, especially, on “Gordon Craig's
contemporaneous dramatic activity, especially Service, contains a great deal that is already
in England and the United States, and " The said in earlier chapters. There is too much
Changing Drama,” by Mr. Archibald Hender- of “gripping” and sincere” and “vital,” to
son, an already well-known writer on the say nothing of lapses like "chief protagonist,"
European dramatists, is a critical account of "such protagonists as Gordon Craig, etc.,'
the contributions and tendencies of the past “touches were infused,'' and “refreshing reti-
sixty years. If the lover of the stage will add cence of touch.” This, however, is perhaps to
to these two Mr. Richard Burton's “How to be charged to the New Education rather than
See a Play,” he will possess the means of to the author. There are not a few who suspect
greatly increasing his capacity for enjoyment that the new and broader universities that
of the contemporary drama, whether as reader are so splendidly maintaining their place at
or witness.
the forefront of American progress, to use
While Mr. Burton's volume shares the char- Mr. Cheney's words, are doing rather less to
acter of the other two in containing a measure preserve the ideal of the English language
of historical and critical matter, it is first of all than the “old hidebound institutions, with
a practical work, whose concern is the need of their set academic standards,” that come un-
the play-reader or theatre-goer. It discourses der his condemnation.
vigorously and sensibly on the structure of Mr. Henderson's book is primarily critical,
the play and the method of its composition, and is exceedingly stimulating. Such chapter
upon the qualities which make it real drama, headings as “The New Criticism and the New
upon its value as a cultural opportunity, and Ethics," "Realism and the Pulpit Stage,"
upon its possibilities as a factor in social im-
“The Battle with Illusions," "The New
provement. It recites the principal facts in Technic," "The New Content,” and “The
the history of the drama, leads up to and char Newer Tendencies,” indicate at once its com-
acterizes the modern school, and helps the prehensiveness, its philosophic character, and
reader to the means of making its literary as its pugnacious tone. Ibsen and Shaw are its
well as its stage acquaintance. Mr. Burton's main figures, and the social significance of the
immediate purpose is the enlightenment of the drama is the theme that runs through the
* How TO SEE A PLAY. By Richard Burton. New York:
whole discussion. Many indeed will think the
theme too prominent. “The great discovery
THE New MOVEMENT IN THE THEATRE. By Sheldon Cheney.
New York: Mitchell Kennerley.
of modern life ... is . . . that society has
THE CHANGING DRAMA: Contributions and Tendencies. By
Archibald Henderson. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
become the tyrant of the universe"; "the
The Macmillan Co.


1915)
77
THE DIAL
deterministic pressure of social institutions, theatre before a representative audience,” and
the tyranny of capital”; “the curved backs a drama as "a particular kind of a play.”
of oppressed humanity"; "the tocsin of re Mr. Henderson's definition seems at first
volt"; "an age that fought with dragons and sight handsomely liberal, though it does n't
an age that fights with microbes”; “the dra provide for the dance and marionettes; but
matic artists of to-day, of all races and all the next sentence, which begins three pages of
climes, have a sense of common purpose, a cer interpretation by saying that "the play in-
tain unity of aim," that "may best be de-trinsically, and its representation by the
scribed as the intention of advancing the cause interpreters, must be so effective, interesting,
of civilization” — there is an abundance of and moving as to induce the normal individual
these familiar expressions, and theatre-goer in appreciable numbers to make a sacrifice of
and play-writer begin to wonder as they read money and time, either one or both, for the
whether one more tyrant has not been set over privilege of witnessing its performance,
dramatic art in the shape of sociology. There would go a long way toward keeping the
are drama-lovers who, while recognizing the classics outside the definition. Who is the
fact of human suffering and sympathizing normal individual ? At least the normal indi-
with it, cannot agree that social tyranny has vidual of American theatrical commerce does
spread to the stars, or that the fault is never in not go to classic plays in appreciable numbers.
ourselves that we are underlings, but always But one receives the impression, too, that
in society, or that a social drama will prove the classics, both ancient and less remote,
the means of regeneration. These people
count comparatively little with either Mr.
would like the privilege of sometimes wit Henderson or Mr. Cheney. Like other valiant
nessing, reading, or writing plays for pure champions of the New, their first impulse is to
pleasure — plays which they dare to think
dispose of the past, and the past in these pro-
may be made by the real artist as efficacious
gressive days is more or less defenceless.
as the drama of “social conscientiousness'
They don't have to prove the ignorance and
and “moral propagandism.” In spite of over tyranny of the past; they simply admit these
emphasis of the social theme, however, and in
and all its other vices and incapabilities, and
spite of needless protests against the poor old go on. Mr. Cheney “has very little respect
unities and “art for art's sake,” which no one for what is commonly taken (like medicine) as
has insisted on for a long time now, and authoritative criticism." Mr. Henderson
against a really no longer tyrannous “person laments that “our critics of the drama
called Aristotle,” in Mr. Granville Barker's
are unfortunately classic in predilection.”
phrase, Mr. Henderson's volume is full of Shakespeare didn't love the common man,
thoughtful and illuminating criticism on the Molière sympathized with society rather
drama as art, and deserves high praise.
than the individual, and the Greeks missed
The reading of Mr. Cheney and Mr. Hen the social point utterly. “The false assump-
derson — for Dr. Burton's book is different in tion, which has persisted from the time of the
purpose and character — begets a number of Greeks to the present day,” is a phrase which
impressions in regard to the new drama. In can be applied with ease and comparative
the first place, it is clear that there is really safety to anything the modernist wishes to
something being achieved, and that the some remove from the path of his argument. Along
thing has to do with art as well as propa with other things New there seems to be a
gandism. In the second place, there exist a New Logic, which is almost capable of saying
striking number and variety of stage repre what it really means: “The world up to our
sentations claiming recognition as dramatic day has thought thus-and-so; we think other-
art, and there is a great deal of fruitful ex wise; therefore, the world up to our day has
perimentation in process. Mr. Cheney, after thought wrong.” The statements of Aristotle,
removing farce, melodrama, musical comedy, we are told, are incomplete and ridiculous,
and vaudeville, carefully divides what is left and he is guilty of gross and exaggerated dis-
into æsthetic drama, represented by Mr. tortions of the truth. To prove Aristotle's
Gordon Craig's marionette-drama, Herr Rein- comparative mediocrity as a critic of the
hardt's mimo-drama, and the Russian dance- drama by assuming that he knew nothing
drama; the drama of emotion, where "the beyond what he says, is of course no worse
appeal to the eye and the ear is merely a very than to prove his infallibility by assuming that
small aid to the effectiveness of the whole”; what he says implies everything he does n't
and the drama of thought, where more empha- say. It is the principle that is objectionable
sis is placed on the theme. Mr. Henderson - the use of an ancient and helpless person
defines a play as "any presentation of human to prove anything or everything, as if he were
life by human interpreters on a stage in a mere statistics, or, let us say, the “facts"


78
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
connected with the immediate beginning of a The opportunity to hear good drama comes
great war.
rarely to all but a very few places, and when it
Yet in spite of this independence and self does come costs the price of a half barrel of
sufficiency in the partisans of the New Drama, flour for the Belgians. Art drama at cost,
it can hardly fail to strike the attention of the produced by our dramatic societies, is con-
reader familiar with the classics that many of demned beforehand as "highbrow," and is
the virtues claimed for the drama of to-day poorly patronized. In all but a few journals,
are precisely the classical virtues, and the criticism of the drama is either identical with
ancient classical virtues at that. Compact advertising or the best is like the worst. Even
ness, simplicity of plot and omission of sub the Drama League of America puts the pro-
plot, breadth of character-drawing, the re hibitive price of seventy-five cents on its pub-
turn to the purely human, the use of scant lished single plays by contemporary authors.
and simple scenery, the open-air performance, It was possible at one time in the long ago to
the relief-theatre, the reconciliation of litera get a play of Shakespeare for six cents, and
ture and the stage, the tendency toward relig- the difference is not explainable wholly on the
ious drama — enumerate these things to one ground of Shakespeare's inferiority.
acquainted with the whole course of the
GRANT SHOWERMAN.
drama, and it will be Sophocles that he thinks
of, not Ibsen or Shaw. Even the much-
abused unities are being made welcome, in the
THE NEW FRANCE.*
one-act drama now so frequent. Gather all! For many years it has been the fashion
these virtues together, add nobility of lan-
among superficial observers to regard France
guage, without which drama can only by
as a decadent nation. It is true that for some
exception be other than local and ephemeral, time her population has been stationary and,
and the sense of the nobility of life, which indeed, the last census (1911) disclosed an
Mr. Cheney says the dramatists of the new
excess of deaths over births; but the phe-
movement lack, insist less on “the mystery and
nomenon of a declining birth rate is by no
immensity of little things” and “the apotheo-
means peculiar to France - it exists in most
sis of the insignificant," and more on univer-
sals, and we shall possess again the ideal of higher civilization. The situation in France
countries and is symptomatic of our so-called
twenty-five hundred years ago, the departure differs from that in England, Germany, and
from which, as Martin Schanz has said, never
the United States only in degree, and it seems
fails to bring its own revenge. Then get a
Then get a only a question of time when the populations
national theatre and cultivated audiences, and
of these countries will cease to increase.
the acting and writing of great drama will
There has also been a popular belief that the
depend upon the presence of genius among us.
mental and physical vigor of the French, their
But we do not possess all these virtues, national spirit, their patriotism, and their
either in America or abroad. The new drama, capacity to govern themselves have all been
like all youth, is too confident, and claims too
on the decline. To whatever degree this belief
much. A little more modesty and a little less may have been well founded in the past, no
combativeness would be as well for the cause well-informed person regards it as true to-day.
we all have at heart. The classics are not so
In a book entitled “France Herself Again”
dead, nor the new drama so “vital and last-
M. Ernest Dimnet, a professor in the College
ing," as the new critics think. Ibsen, who
of St. Stanislaus, Paris, and a distinguished
receives so much attention from Mr. Hender-
scholar who writes in perfect English, dwells
son, is already recognized by the new English
upon the far-reaching transformation which
artists, according to Mr. Cheney, as "not of
the national spirit of France has undergone in
their country, or their time (for the world has
recent years. That a remarkable change has
taken mighty strides forward since he ceased
come over France since the beginning of the
to write).” The social themes of to-day may
twentieth century, he says, cannot be denied
easily prove to have been neither for all time
or doubted, for everybody has felt it or heard
nor for all places, and the symbolic romance,
of it. To present a picture of this change in
extensive, vast, ” which in Mr. Henderson's
its true perspective M. Dimnet starts out with
thinking 'bids fair to express best the artistic
a review of the intellectual and moral deterio-
sense of the coming century,” may have its ration of France which set in during the
own “new content.” As to national theatres, Second Empire and continued steadily until
in America we have none, and are not likely the Tangier incident of 1905, an event which
to have them under popular government until seemed to awaken the French to a realization
the popular idea of the usefulness of literature
and the fine arts has undergone a change.
* FRANCE HERSELF AGAIN. By Ernest Dimnet. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons.


1915)
79
THE DIAL
of their national consciousness and kindle in the grand prix, and hunts rabbits. He cannot
the nation an esprit nouveau. After fifty exercise a single one of the numerous and
years of fruitless and often foolish experi- important powers which the letter of the writ-
mentation, distracted and gradually corrupted ten constitution gives him. The Radicals have
by false ideals and low morals, during which for a long time advocated the abolition of the
her precious hours and resources were wasted, Presidency, but the great majority of the peo-
France now desires to be a nation once more: ple desire a President who shall be a leader
“She is like a man whom philosophy or science
and a real executive like the President of the
mere intellectual pursuits — have absorbed until
United States. When M. Poincaré was elected
some great sorrow makes him feel that he has a the people believed and hoped that he would
heart as well as a brain and has to live as well as to be something more than a figurehead, but he
think in a way that will fit him for life.”
too, like his predecessors, has adopted a policy
At the beginning of the Second Empire, of self-effacement. Under the operation of the
France had only one rival in Europe -- that constitution, as it has developed, he could not
was England. The feeling of national su do otherwise. The whole trouble lies in the
premacy was expressed in a speech of the attitude of the parliament, which insists on
Emperor shortly after his accession in 1852 subordinating every other power in the state
when he said, “France is happy, Europe may
to itself. It is not content with legislating
now live in peace. This was no mere boast and controlling the ministers in respect to
but an absolutely true statement of French their general policies, but it insists on govern-
supremacy on the Continent. To-day all is ing and administering as well. The result is
changed. France no longer has it within her short-lived ministries (there have been about
power to impose her will upon Europe. The fifty-five since the establishment of the Third
German Empire, Italy, and Austria have risen Republic) and a President who plays only a
by her side to dispute her old time suprem-
ceremonial rôle. In its colonial and foreign
acy. The deterioration began, as has been policy, the Republic, we are told, has failed;
said, in the midst of the outward splendors in education the results have been unsatisfac-
of the Second Empire, when the seeds of tory and the education of the schools is mak-
materialism, the decadence of morals, the un- ing the country a nation of atheists. The
wholesomeness of literature, the hatred of bourgeois democracy is a fraud and the coun-
Christianity (under the guise of anti-clerical-try has been cursed with petty, low-born, God-
ism) were planted; and these seeds produced hating politicians who, not content with secu-
their full fruition during the Third Republic. larizing the schools, have broken up the
During this period the French lived on illu- religious orders, confiscated their property,
sions as on pleasure. Everyone seemed bent dispersed poor monks and nuns who had
on deceiving himself. Everywhere the spirit grown gray in the service of philanthropy,
of ideology and self-satisfaction was dominant. education, and charity, persecuted the church,
France was weakened by ideas which obscured and abrogated a solemn compact with the
her reason and enervated her moral powers. papacy that had endured more than a hundred
She could have quickly recovered from the years. Not stopping with this, the Radicals
losses of 1870 had it not been for the intellec-
have tried to drive Catholics from the army
tual deterioration which a harmful philosophy and the civil service. M. Dimnet's indictment
and a lawless literature produced. Within
of the Radicals for their anti-clerical policy is
twenty years, we are told, after Napoleon's severe, but there is another side to the ques-
boast that France was the arbiter of Europe, tion which naturally, because of his clerical
she had “fallen in power, influence, popula- affiliations, he entirely ignores. He makes no
tion and moral energy behind a rival whose
reference to the opposition of the church to
greatness her own monarch had helped and
the Republic, and its well-known activities in
practically made.” The chief cause of the favor of the monarchy; nothing is said of the
moral and political decadence of France under persecution of the greatest of French scholars
the Third Republic and the “state of dis and statesmen who were too liberal for the
order” in which the country found itself after church, of its fight against Dreyfus, of its
the retirement of Thiers, according to M. championship of MacMahon in the great crisis
Dimnet, is to be found in the character of the of 1877, of its sympathy for Boulanger, and
constitution. It is, he says, a mere makeshift of its opposition to science and liberal educa-
and is not only democratic but demagogic in tion. The Republicans of France believed,
its principles." The President of the Repub- and the evidence is not lacking, that the
lic is a mere dummy without real authority. schools, which until recently were under the
He presides without governing, he attends control of the church, were teaching the chil-
inaugurations, opens expositions, distributes dren to hate the Republic. For these and


80
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
other reasons which cannot be discussed here, the scientific tradition of exact scholarship.
the Republicans of France were compelled to To the first group belong the estimate of
do what they did, and although there may Bernini, the
the "Art of Portraiture," the
have been unnecessary harshness and severity "Phidias and Michael Angelo," and, essen-
in their methods, the general principle of their tially, the “Head of Athena from Cyrene.
legislation is what Americans have always Not claiming to add to our stock of knowledge,
stood for.
they seek to clarify it or to modify our critical
France, according to M. Dimnet, had judgments.
reached a state bordering on degradation when The most powerful of these, and the most
the Tangier affair of 1905 came like a flash of necessary, is the essay on Bernini. Since
lightning after which the clouds lifted. It Ruskin, and in the English-speaking world,
was one of those events, we are told, which Bernini, like all the artists of the Baroque, has
rapidly destroys a whole system of thought. lain under the condemnation of a prejudice
Since that time France has entered upon an at once irrelevant and unjustified. An ethical
era of regeneration, she has awakened from criterion, itself not germane, has been invoked
her apathy, and is beginning to return to her against them, without appreciation of their
own. A great change has occurred in the own moral sincerity. More serious, because
national spirit, in the mode of thinking, in the more philosophically supported, is the notion
character of the national literature, and even that they represent a time of purely artistic
in the attitude of the Radical party, which decay, inevitably following periods of growth
seems disposed to adopt a policy of greater and maturity. The analogy with organic life
conciliation toward the church.
which this view presupposes, however, like-
In a concluding chapter written after the wise has failed of demonstration, and the his-
outbreak of the present war, the author re tory of art, if subjected to any metaphor,
marks that while France has been the victim seems rather a succession of beats of a pendu-
of politicians and while the history of the lum, or an alternating crescendo and diminu-
Third Republic has been a history of radical endo, at any point of which greatness may
blunders, recent events have shown that the appear. Mr. Norton finds Bernini's greatness
nation has remained sound at the core. Ani in merits characteristic of his own time and
mated by a new spirit, conscious of her power, individuality — spiritual intensityartistic
France is ready to meet her duty. What she crescendo, dramatic power as well as in per-
now needs most is not a conversion of mind or sonal and moral qualities common to the
soul but a transformation of her institutions. titanic spirits of all ages. It is primarily with
With better institutions and the kind of lead- Bernini's work in sculpture that the author
ers she desires, the beginning of the century has concerned himself, passing lightly over
will soon appear as one of the greatest turning equally distinguished work in architecture,
points in her history.
yet in the field of sculpture alone he makes
With much of what M. Dimnet has to say in good his claim that Bernini is to be ranked as
criticism of the French constitution and of the one of the world's greatest masters.
class of politicians that have governed the The other essays of this group, dealing with
country since the advent of the Third Re less controversial material, lead to less striking
public, well-informed Americans will agree, conclusions. Portraiture, Mr. Norton sug-
although there will be a difference of opinion gests, has two possible modes, and but two: the
concerning his reproach of the Republicans embodiment of thought, as exemplified by the
for their anti-clerical policy. Most of us will Greeks and Venetians, and the embodiment of
feel that his rather gloomy picture of French action. Michael Angelo, though like Phidias
democracy and his indictment of the Republic in so many respects, and like him a supreme
have been overdrawn, but we all will share master, was less fortunate in his background,
with him the pride which he feels in the birth and his works are in the main monuments of
of a new France, and his optimism for the thwarted purpose. The head of Athena from
future.
JAMES W. GARNER. Cyrene, the work of a local sculptor, illus-
trates how pervading were the fundamental
characteristics of the Greek genius — human-
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF ART.*
ism and directness.
Of the essays in Mr. Richard Norton's luxu-
More promising are those portions of the
rious volume, “Bernini, and Other Studies in
book which are descriptive or scientific in their
the History of Art," some continue the lit-aim, the richly illustrated catalogues of Ber-
erary tradition of English criticism, others nini's clay models and his designs for the
* BERNINI, AND OTHER STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF ART. By Piazza of St. Peter's, and the two essays deal-
Richard Norton. With sixty-nine plates. New York: The
Macmillan Co.
ing with Giorgione. The sketch book for the


1915]
81
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Piazza, to be sure, has been already twice pub-lery, ascribed to the school of Giorgione, and,
lished by foreign scholars, yet it might have under reserves, a portrait of a youth in
been made to give up further secrets relative Vienna (copy). For the “Madonna, espe-
to the gradual development of the project in cially, he gives solid grounds for his belief, in
Bernini's mind. The author's idea, however, an analysis which is a model for such discus-
seems rather to have been merely to adduce sions.
the drawings as illustrations of Bernini's mys The book is written with a positiveness of
ticism in conception, grandiose power, and expression which may alienate those to whom
care in study. For a similar purpose, appar its conclusions are unpalatable, but it is a posi-
ently, the superb collection of sculptor's mod tiveness to be respected as the result of in-
els owned by Mrs. Brandegee is illustrated and dependent study and personal conviction.
described without any study of their relations Dwarfing the loose compilations on artistic
to the completed figures to which they corre subjects with which we have usually to con-
spond.
tent ourselves in America, the book comes as a
It is the essays on Giorgione which most reassuring testimony of faith that painstaking
repay the scholar. They summarize the at scholarship and concentrated thought may
tributions made by previous writers, and
still receive a hearing.
SIDNEY FISKE KIMBALL.
attempt a new and corrected list of his works,
based not only on a “combination of the best
points of the work of these very differently
YOUNG OF THE “NIGHT THOUGHTS.” *
endowed critics,” but on personal acquaint-
ance with the originals as intimate as theirs. It is strange that a poet so popular and
Agreement or disagreement with his conclu influential in his day as the author of “Night
sions will depend mainly on one's principles Thoughts” should have had to wait a hundred
of historical criticism. Mr. Norton reacts and fifty years for an adequate biography in
against what he considers an excessive atten his own language. This has been the fate of
tion to externality and detail in Morelli's Young; and therefore Mr. Shelley's substan-
methods, at the same time protesting against tial "Life and Letters of Edward Young"
Mr. Berenson's occasional affirmations of mys fills a real need. For the first time we have in
tical faith. From a similar impressionism, in- English a full-length portrait of that “polite
deed, Mr. Norton is by no means free. In hermit and witty saint," as Mrs. Montagu
stances could be multiplied from the book in called him. But there already existed in
hand of ascriptions made or denied without French an accurate and exhaustive study of
any assignment of logical grounds. Without Young's life and works, by W. Thomas, pub-
pressing the argumentum ad hominem, how- lished at Paris in 1901. Incredible as it may
ever, we may raise the question whether seem, Mr. Shelley appears never to have heard
another method which Mr. Norton employs by of this admirable biography. If he had been
preference is superior to those of his prede- able to consult it, he would have avoided a
cessors. It is based on the assumption that an number of minor errors and some really
artist postulated as great can never repeat serious ones, and could have filled certain gaps
himself, or fall below the standard established in his narrative. Thus he tells us (p. 2) that
for him. Such a doctrine of infallibility, read “one other child was born of the marriage”
ily maintained in a case like that of Giorgione of Young's parents; Thomas shows from the
by casting doubt on the authenticity of every parish records of Upham that Young had
thing inferior, falls to the ground in any case three sisters, two of whom, to be sure, died in
where a great number of works are authenti- childhood. Mr. Shelley, repeating earlier
cated, as in the case of Bernini. Mr. Norton writers, says that Lady Young died in Janu-
has to deprecate among the known works of ary, 1741; Thomas cites an entry from the
Bernini failures exactly similar to those which Welwyn parish register showing that she died
he cites as impossible in Botticelli and Gior- January 29, 1739 or 1740. The mistake is
gione, yet to him Bernini is a master of coör- serious, because upon the date of Lady
dinate rank and equal inspiration. Although Young's death depends the interpretation of
his purgations of this sort are of doubtful a famous passage in the “Night Thoughts,'
value, Mr. Norton's suggestions on the posi- involving the identification of the central
tive side must be very seriously considered. characters, and, to some extent, the whole
He adds to the list of Giorgione's works the question of the sincerity of the poem. The
“Gypsy Madonna" in Vienna, ascribed to matter is too complex to be discussed here;
Titian, the “Pietà" of the Correr Museum but it may be said that Mr. Shelley's wrong
(perhaps a copy), ascribed to Bellini, the
* LIFE AND LETTERS OF EDWARD YOUNG. By Henry C. Shel-
"David and Solomon” in the National Gal-
ley. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.


82
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
date leads him to suppose that Young left his robbed me already of all my money, would
wife in her last illness to pay a visit to the now rob me of my time; and rather than do
Duchess of Portland, and that he listened to nothing, which is very tedious, I was deter-
the Duchess's suggestion of a second mar mined to write nothing to your Grace.” This
riage at a date indecently near that of his is the Young of the satires, who could hit off
wife's death. Mr. Shelley's friendliness to so aptly the hypocritical church-goers :
the poet causes him to gloss over these sup “ And when their sins they set sincerely down,
posed delinquencies; but an examination of They'll find that their religion has been one,"
the Welwyn records would have shown him
or the ignorant librarians :
that Young needed no excuses.
“ Unlearned men of books assume the care,
The great value of Mr. Shelley's biography As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair."
of Young is in the abundance of new mate But Mr. Shelley does justice also to the
rial which it presents, consisting chiefly of
serious Young, the Young of the “Night
a series of letters from the poet to Margaret, Thoughts,
Thoughts," who placed in his garden a
Duchess of Portland. This correspondence painted bench, a mere optical deceit," and
covers the last twenty-five years of Young's inscribed on it the motto, “Invisibilia non
life; it began in 1740, when the poet was decipiunt."
fifty-seven and the Duchess twenty-five, and
As a portrait of the man Mr. Shelley's book
ended only a few weeks before his death in
is in many respects excellent. Apart from his
1765. The letters show Young at his best, as
inaccuracies as to fact his chief weakness is on
a man of the world, courtly, witty, and sensi-
the critical side. His estimate of Young's
ble; deeply religious, and grave on occasion,
work is not always discriminating; for in-
but more often gay. Incidentally they give stance, he rates the turgid tragedies much too
us a high opinion of the charm and guodness high. Little or nothing is said of literary
of the lady who inspired them. Her letters
Her letters influences on Young, and almost nothing of
to Young are unfortunately lost; by the Young's own great influence. His popularity
direction of his will, all his papers were on the Continent, for example, signalized by
destroyed. It is thus partly his own fault
translations into a dozen languages, is an ex-
that he has waited so long for a biographer, tremely interesting matter to which Mr.
and has been generally thought of as the mel-
Shelley scarcely alludes.
These are grave
ancholy type of a “grave-yard poet." Mr.
Mr. omissions; and here again the French study
Shelley has very properly emphasized the
would have furnished invaluable aid. When
other side of Young's temperament. We see all deductions are made, however, we must
the poet entertaining friends at his home, remain grateful to Mr. Shelley for his sym-
amusing the Duchess with lively stories, or pathetic and attractive portrait of a poet
rallying her on her failure to appreciate his nowadays neglected, and above all for the
friend Richardson's "Clarissa”; “your great- delightful series of letters which he has made
grandchildren," he tells her, "will read, and available.
HOMER E. WOODBRIDGE.
not without tears, the sheets that are now in
the press.
We see him at the age of sixty-
two making friends with that aged butterfly,
INTERPRETERS OF MUSIC.*
Colley Cibber, and delighting in his company. That inspiring novel, “Jean Christophe,''
Reproached for this intimacy, he defends has given M. Romain Rolland an international,
himself: “As for poor Colley, his impu- and, from present appearances, an enduring
dence diverts me, and his morals shall not fame. He holds the chair of musical criticism
hurt me, though, by the way, he is more fool in the Sorbonne and shares with his colleague,
than knave, and like other fools is a wit.' M. Combarieu, the foremost position in the
In another letter he complains humorously of ranks of writers on music in France. The
the insincerity of one of his fair admirers : present volume, which is admirably trans-
“Lady Andover does me honor in remember-
lated by Miss Mary Blaiklock, is the initial
ing that I exist. Yet 'tis all compliment; publication of a series to be called “The Musi-
there is no sincerity, or she had not disap- cian's Bookshelf.” M. Claude Landi, who
pointed my assignation with her. Why go to furnishes an Introduction, gives some inter-
town! Dishonorable creature! She is gone esting biographical details of M. Rolland, who
only with her husband!” Another letter of
won, at the age of twenty-nine, the grand
half-jocose moralizing ends as follows: “Your prix of the French Academy for a work on
Grace will wonder what all this means, and "The History of Opera in Europe before Lulli
what gives occasion to such random stuff.
* MUSICIANS OF TO-DAY. By Romain Rolland. Translated
Why, Madam, I am now in a coffee-house by Mary Blaiklock. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
NATUPE IN MUSIC. By Lawrence Gilman.
waiting for a rascally attorney, who, having John Lane Co.
77
New York:


1915)
83
THE DIAL
and Scarlatti, " and who has since gone on cult to discover, through this traditional insin-
accumulating laurels until his place among the cerity, the true and spontaneous form of French
leading men in musical interpretation and musical thought. But Berlioz found it by instinct.
literature is almost equivalent to a final and
From the first he strove to free French music from
positive verdict of posterity.
the oppression of the foreign tradition that was
smothering it.”
We have here a number of essays, some of
“ Berlioz is thus the true inheritor of Beetho-
which have seen the light before, dealing with ven's thought. The difference between a work
the deeper aspects of music in Germany and
like the ‘Roméo and Juliette' symphony of Berlioz
France. One paper, however, is devoted to the and one of Beethoven's symphonies is that the
Italian composer of oratorios, Don Lorenzo former, it would seem, endeavors to express objec-
Perosi. The author attempts to some extent a
tive emotions and themes in music. I do not see
comparison of recent German and French why music should not follow poetry in getting
composers, and makes no very profound secret away from introspection and try to paint the
of his predilection for the men of his own land
drama of the universe. Shakespeare is as good as
and time. This statement is not meant to be
Dante. Besides, one may add, it is always Berlioz
that may be discovered in his music; it is his soul,
disparaging, but to indicate the point of view
starving for love and mocked at by shadows, which
from which the work is written. Our author
is revealed through all the scenes of Roméo.”
also seems to be an eloquent advocate of music
The above quotations indicate the trend of
with a programme as the highest form of
music, a position which makes him something M. Rolland's thought, and the method of his
When he comes to treat of Ger-
of a reactionary. This view may be a recoil
procedure.
from the extreme views of Wagner and
man music, it must be said at once that he is
Strauss, and is perhaps shared by many musi-
eminently just, and generous in his admira-
tion. We may point to the essay on Hugo
cians of to-day; but it is always difficult to
take the step backward, and history, after all, Wolf, in which genuine appreciation of the
musician vies with sympathy for the un-
never repeats itself.
toward fate which overwhelmed the great tal-
The French composers of whom M. Rolland
ent at so many places and times in its career.
speaks are Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, d'Indy, and
Debussy; the German composers are Wagner,
In the comparison between French and Ger-
Strauss, and Hugo Wolf. He has a separate
man music, it must be conceded that his bias
in favor of the music of his own country shows
essay in which he compares German and
itself fully and clearly. Art, however, de-
French music; and there is an elaborate
account of the musical movement in Paris certainly time that we should outgrow na-
mands allegiance for its own sake, and it is
since 1870, which he calls “The Awakening,"
a title which leads to some consideration on
tional prejudices in matters of universal
concern. Nobody talks about French mathe-
the reader's part. The date 1870 has its con-
matics; why make so much of French music,
notations, and one may ask oneself what may
The
become of French and German music after the
or German music, or Italian music!
realm of art is above national limitations, it is
sinister years of 1914 and 1915.
its own creator, its own arbiter, its own
The essay on Berlioz is especially note-
appreciator. In it we become conscious of
worthy. M. Rolland is frank in revealing universal humanity, and nations are like shad-
Berlioz's weakness of character, and in our
ows of the night disappearing in the splendor
opinion gives altogether too much attention to
of the daytime. In the essays on Strauss and
that side of the case. The close connection
Wagner we see reflected M. Rolland's pre-
between character and achievement is indis- disposition for the symphony with the pro-
putable, but art has mostly to do with the lat-
gramme; he finds it somewhat objectionable in
ter, and in the lapse of the years the misdoings Strauss when in the “Sinfonia Domestica” he
of exceptional intelligences are lost in the
omits the programme altogether, and he evi-
record of service to the advancing destinies of dently prefers Wagner in the concert room to
the race. His view of Berlioz, and indeed his Wagner in the theatre. He says:
view of music as a whole, may be gathered
from the following paragraphs:
“ There are dilettanti who pretend that at a con-
cert the best way to enjoy Beethoven's last works-
“Before Berlioz's time there was really only one where the sonority is defective is to stop the
master of the first rank who made a great effort to ears and read the score. One might say with less
liberate French music; it was Rameau; and de of a paradox that the best way to follow a per-
spite his genius, he was conquered by Italian art. formance of Wagner's operas is to listen with the
By force of circumstances, therefore, French music eyes shut, so perfect is the music, so powerful is its
found itself moulded in foreign musical forms hold on the imagination that it leaves nothing to be
as most men speak more than they think, even desired; what it suggests to the mind is infinitely
thought itself became Germanized, and it was diffi finer than what the eyes may see.
I have never


84
[Feb. 1
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shared the opinion that Wagner's works may be repeated in more than one other place in the
best appreciated in the Theatre. His works are book, showing how near the subject is to the
epic symphonies. As a frame for them I should
author's heart, and how important he con-
like temples; as scenery, the illimitable land of
siders it.
thought; as actors, our dreams."
Mr. Gilman is evidently a mystic of the
We have no space to tell of the appreciation
of d’Indy, which is intense, or of the idealiza highest type. He has been a student of the
oriental literatures, and he bathes his subject
tion of Debussy, who represents to M. Rolland everywhere in the light which never was on
in their highest form some of the salient char- land or sea. This gives a unique quality to
acteristics of the French, or of the sincere his writing, and leads him everywhere to posi-
rhapsody on the theme of Saint-Saëns. There
tive conclusions. In an age of prevalent
is not a page of the book without arresting negation and materialistic nihilism, this is a
thought or insight; there is the enthusiasm of
fine faith and assurance. So in his essay on
the genuine lover of his art; there is no un “Death and the Musicians” he makes his
reasoning admiration, but the analytical ten climax with Schubert's “Death and the
dency of the modern critic. Coming from
Maiden," Wagner's “Isoldens Liebestod"
such a source, the book is, of course, authorita- and Strauss's "Tod und Verklärung,” in all
tive, and to those who love music it will prove of which there is imaged a region wonderful,
an opportunity to gain not only pleasure but
over which destroying time has no control.
an outlook fine and high.
With the defence of Herr Hugo von Hoff-
Mr. Lawrence Gilman's book, "Nature in mannsthal as given in the essay on “Strauss
Music,” follows in the main the same direc and the Greeks," apropos of the modernized
tion as M. Rolland's. The first essay gives the “Electra,” we are less inclined to be satisfied.
title to the volume. It is a history of the There is certainly no objection to poet or
growth of nature expression in music. Mr. musician making such use of the myth as he
Gilman says:
sees fit, filling it with a modern significance
“ The strongest appeal of natural beauty has and giving it splendors which it never had
always, then, been chiefly to people of emotional | before. The utterance, musical or otherwise,
habit, and especially to those of untrammeled belongs to him who does it best. But for the
imagination and non-conformist tendencies; in introduction of unnecessary disagreeable de-
other words, to poetically minded radicals, in all tails, and the lowering of tone in a drama
times and regions. It is probable that the curious
there seems no adequate excuse. The music
and enlightened enquirer, bearing in mind these
facts, would not be surprised to find, in studying the heaven of all its desires, “it is full of his
of Strauss, however, to the "Electra," is in
the various expressions of this attraction, as they
are recorded in the arts, that the uniquely sensi- typical qualities — he never halts or fumbles;
tive and eloquent art of music has long been the he has a superb assurance. His mastery of
handmaid of the Nature lover; and he would be his imaginative material and of his technic is
prepared to find the Nature lover himself appear absolute.'
ing often in the guise of that inherently emotional
Mr. Gilman has a reasonable word to say in
and often heterodox being, the music maker."
regard to opera in English. He comes in gen-
The transcriptions of nature in music date eral to the conclusion that an opera should be
back to very early periods. The earlier at sung in the language which its composer gave
tempts at nature description, however, were to it. He considers this country lucky over
merely imitative or sentimental; that is, they European nations in that it can always hear
were subjective; the painting of nature objec an operatic work in the language in which it
tively belongs to recent times; the further was produced. He instances the unhappy
advance to the use of nature expression as a translations with which we are all familiar,
symbol of spirit or intelligence, belongs to the in which the music does not fit the words; he
latest composers, Debussy, MacDowell, Loeffler. thinks that it is hopeless to expect that a talent
An example of the earlier nature music is spanning both music and words so completely
Mendelssohn's “Hebrides” overture, which as to be able to make a suitable translation
gives us the emotions of the composer in view could be induced to devote itself to so thank-
ing natural scenery. An example of the later less a task as the pouring of the liquor of
nature music is Debussy's "La Mer.”
thought from one vessel to another. It would
The essay, while here and there amenable be irresistibly led to creation, either in the
to the charge of being overburdened with lan drama or the opera. Therefore it behooves
guage, gives, nevertheless, a really satisfac the English-speaking public to encourage the
tory view of the contention of music in the bringing forth of English operas which will
matter of nature transcription, and contains have the importance of Wagner and Strauss
a strong defence of programme music, which is and Debussy in their respective mediums.


1915]
85
THE DIAL
-
We cannot close this notice without refer artistic bent, and one intermediate is a scientist.
ence to the essay called a "Musical Cosmopo The most aggressive of the number is wedded to a
lite,” which deals with the German-American
wife of tendencies which Americans will recognize
as Puritan in the less worthy sense of the word,
composer, Mr. Charles Martin Loeffler, who,
although born in Alsace, has done all his work
and her coldness leads to an estrangement which
ends with her complete surrender to the facts of
in our own country, and takes place as an life as her husband lives it. The youngest boy
American composer, for which let us be duly makes an earlier failure as a painter after running
thankful, as we have need of many recruits in away from home to study, but his designs for new
the department of music. Mr. Loeffler has now ribbons go far toward saving the business from
found his place on programmes everywhere, the effect of a relentless competition. It is one of
and in the opinion of our author, is one of the those artificially artless stories in which everything
greatest masters living to-day, with a message,
that has been wrong turns right at the best possible
sombre, perhaps, but high and noble, and with
moment, and is likely to appeal to a large follow-
ing. The character studies are well done and the
great control of musical resources.
translation excellent, except for the numerous
The book has some of the qualities of the scriptural quotations, where Miss Lazell might
music of which it treats; it has its enthusi-
have used the English authorized version to advan-
asms and its repugnances; it is full of knowl tage. The book is free from militarism; indeed,
edge, both of music and literature; it gives to from Germanism, with the exception of an extraor-
music its place among the great and serious dinary line from Von Moltke, “ In its own strength,
arts; it recognizes that music, like every art, in that alone, lies the strength of a nation.” The
is expressive of the World Ideal; and it must
italics are the author's, and the sentiment fairly
add to the genuine understanding of music astounding;
wherever it is thoughtfully read.
" Yourself and the Neighbours” (Devin-Adair)
is made up of a series of brief descriptions of life
LOUIS JAMES BLOCK. in Ireland among the peasantry, chiefly among
their small sons and daughters, written by Mr.
Seumas MacManus and illustrated by Mr. Thomas
NOTES ON NEW NOVELS.
Fogarty. As in others of Mr. MacManus's books,
the knowledge displayed has been gained at first
Until the outbreak of war the nearer capitals of hand, and is treated with complete comprehension
continental Europe held important colonies of and sympathy. The same may be said of the pic-
American students, many of them youthfully eager tures, which lack nothing of the wit of the text.
and impecunious. Remoteness and growing differ It is such stories as these that interpret racial spirit
ences in standards between these temporary exiles and bring to foreigners the assurance of a common
and their fiction-reading compatriots at home sug- / humanity which is the truest internationalism.
gest possible reasons why American writers have Excellent melodrama makes up Mr. J. C.
not utilized material so seemingly fitted for their Snaith's “Anne Feversham" (Appleton), a story
purposes to any notable extent. It is, perhaps, as of Elizabeth's time in which the author has had the
well, since it has remained for Mrs. Mary Roberts daring to introduce Shakespeare and his theatrical
Rinehart to open the way with a book of unusual associates as subordinate though important char-
interest, “The Street of Seven Stars" (Hough- acters. A beautiful youth is condemned to death
ton). The leading characters are an American most unjustly. A lovely girl has just been soundly
girl, studying the art of the violin in Vienna, and a whipped by her irate father for disobedience and
physician, her fellow-countryman, seeking wider cast into a dungeon where she is neighbor to the
knowledge. They are given the attributes we like beautiful youth. They effect their escape and have
to think of as American, satisfying admirably our the most astonishing adventures, eventually falling
idealists, though all suspicion of exaggeration is in with the Lord Chamberlain's Players at Oxford,
removed by the use of an eminently undesirable she disguised as a boy and both as gypsies. The
person or two and the sympathetic treatment of the part of Rosalind, which she had originally inspired,
Viennese introduced. A wide range of emotions is is created by her before the Queen, and a happy
successfully depicted and the love story is tender ending, virtue rewarded and vice rebuked, crowns
and true, and hopelessly impractical, as ideal love
the story.
stories may well be.
“The Place beyond the Winds” (Doubleday)
A refreshing novel, “Sons of the Rhine” (Des- is Mrs. Harriet T. Comstock's newest adventure in
mond FitzGerald), has been translated by Miss fiction. Its scene is laid near the Canadian border
Louise T. Lazell from the German of Herr Rudolf and its characters are tough pioneers and woods-
Herzog's “ Die Wiskottens.” The scene is laid in men and their gentler teachers and offspring. The
the province of the Rhine where the valley of the girl leaves a most unhappy home with her name
river Wupper is given over to manufacturing, and under a cloud, and becomes a trained nurse in New
the title of the work in the original is the family York. Once there, the interest becomes largely
name of the manufacturers, a father, mother, and medical and the most difficult of all problems con-
six sons, with whose fortunes the pages are con fronting the practising physician she solves by cut-
cerned. The elder sons inherit the business abilities ting the knot. This divided interest does not add
of their parents, the founders of a growing ribbon to the artistic value of the work, but it will surely
factory, while the two younger are of poetic and serve the cause in which M. Brieux conceived and


86
(Feb. 1
THE
DIAL
wrote more than one of his plays. The characters lent monographs which have been written
of the book are strongly differentiated, and the
upon various individual bureaus or adminis-
narrative diversified enough to appeal to many trative services make no pretense of covering
tastes. Practically impossible as it is for the author
the field. To the student of political science,
to be more explicit in stating the terms of her
problem, it strikingly lacks definition.
therefore (and doubtless to many people who
Irony and hyperbole combine with a very pretty lay no claim to such designation), Mr. Gaillard
wit to make Mr. Stephen Leacock's “Arcadian
Hunt's “The Department of State" (Yale
Adventures of the Idle Rich" (Lane) that rare
University Press) is highly gratifying, first be-
bird in contemporary English literature, a success cause in its plan and execution it so closely ap-
ful satire. The treatment of our plutocrats is proximates the ideal piece of work of its kind,
episodic, though many of the characters appear in and secondly because the preparation of it has
several of the tales. Nearly all of these are of pre fallen to a writer of such exceptional qualifi-
posterous wealth, which the men are striving to cations. For many years Mr. Hunt occupied
increase, only such persons of average possessions
the post of chief of the Bureau of Citizenship
being admitted to the pages as tend to enhance the
evidences of conspicuous waste. The reader will
in the State Department, and his knowledge
probably find the note rather shrill for continuous
of the Department is the product not only of
reading, much as the work deserves to be read. prolonged and painstaking historical investi-
The merger of two fashionable churches, one Angli- gation but of personal observation and of act-
can and the other Presbyterian, along the lines of ive participation in the Department's activi-
the most approved methods of high finance is one ties. His book is technical rather than popular
of the best bits of witty sarcasm in recent print. in character, and it is at the same time histori-
The heroine of Mr. Dion Clayton Calthrop's cal and descriptive. It is not a history of
“ Clay and Rainbows” (Stokes) is about as disa-
greeable a piece of feminine flesh as has appeared of the secretaries of state. It abounds, fur-
diplomacy, or a series of biographical sketches
in recent fiction, quite degenerate, even to the point thermore, in lengthy citations from laws, cir-
of suggesting that she would certainly be held a
moron in any morals court. Incapable of con-
culars, and regulations. But, as the author
stancy, she contrives to keep one fairly good man
rightly says, these documentary passages tell
and several others who are not so good in a state of
the story more accurately than a paraphrase
more or less complete unhappiness from one cover could do, and unquestionably their use will
of the book to the other. Before the tale is com contribute to a realization of the expressed
pleted, not one of the characters has retained the desire to make the book, so far as it goes, defini-
reader's sympathy, being thoroughly committed as
tive. The first three chapters recount suc-
lacking in elementary morality, good taste, or com-
cinctly the history of the varying arrange-
ments made for the conduct of foreign affairs
by the Continental Congress and by the Con-
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
gress of the Confederation, supplementing ad-
mirably the chapters of Mr. Learned in his
It is a curious and regrettable “President's Cabinet” dealing with the gen-
The Department fact that the great executive de eral administrative aspects of the period, and
of State.
partments of our Federal Gov- leaving apparently little or nothing further
ernment have not received from students and to be said. Two chapters are devoted to the
writers a measure of attention commensurate creation and organization of the State Depart-
with their interest and importance, or in fair ment in 1789, two others to the functions once
proportion to the amount of study which has exercised by the Department but now with-
been devoted to the presidency, the houses of drawn, together with those which are still
Congress, or even the courts.
exercised only on occasion, and two more to
recently there was not one book in which the the Department's past and present internal
organization and working of any one of the organization. Seven chapters serve for an
departments was described adequately, for analytical discussion of the Department's
either the expert or the general reader. There present functions. And the volume closes
is, of course, Ingersoll's “History of the War with an interesting account of the buildings
Department," Cushing's “Story of Our Post and rooms utilized for the work of the Depart-
Office, Swank's “Department of Agricul- ment throughout the past century and a quar-
ture, " and Easby-Smith's “Department of ter. With respect to the allotment of space
Justice,'' not to enumerate a considerable list one criticism only may be suggested. The
of histories of the navy. But all of these diplomatic and consular services are covered
works (except that of Mr. Easby-Smith, pub- together in a single chapter of but twenty
lished in 1904) are antiquated, or are mere pages. More space might well have been given
popular sketches, or are histories rather than them, even at the sacrifice of some details pre-
descriptive treatises. And the several excel sented upon other and less important subjects.
mon sense.
Until very


1915]
87
THE DIAL
admiral's
Caustic comment from Admiral of interest, sometimes of thrilling interest, and
A British
Lord Charles Beresford on naval often of great historic importance. His life
retrospect.
and other matters of current is, in very truth, a part of his country's his-
interest has obtained some publicity of late, tory. Mr. L. Cope Cornford provides the book
and shows him to be as incisive in speech as with useful Introduction and notes, and many
he has proved himself unhesitating and vigor-illustrations are interspersed.
ous in action during his long and distinguished
service afloat and ashore, in the navy and in
There is an undeniable fascina-
parliament, and in whatever rank or capacity
The life of tion about the men and women
it has been his lot to serve his country. In “The
a great singer.
who have won a prominent place
Memoirs of Admiral Lord Charles Beresford"
in the theatre, where we go to see life moving
(Little, Brown & Co.) he does not fail to
before us in a sort of dream. The applause
reveal a mastery of his native tongue such as
which they receive, the splendor in which they
few sailors can claim. Very early in his sea-
appear, the idealization which we give to their
faring life, which began when he was but thir-
character and attainments, set them apart
teen years old, he demonstrated the sufficiency
from the ordinary human being, and give
of his vocabulary in an amusing manner. He
interest to them in every aspect in which they
was asked to be coxswain of a racing crew
manifest themselves. We like especially to
belonging to the "Marlborough,'' the first ship know about them as simple human beings, and
of war to which he was assigned as naval
an opportunity to gaze into their daily life
cadet, and the invitation was extended in
away from the glamour of the stage is gladly
these words by the spokesman of the deputa- seized upon. Madame Lilli Lehmann Kalisch
tion entrusted with the business: “Well, sir,
it's like this here, sir, if you'll pardon me.
in her book, “My Path through Life” (Put-
nam), presents us with an autobiography
Yew be young-like, and what we was thinking singularly minute and agreeable. She begins
was whether you have the power of language
with her girlhood days and passes on to the
that du be required.” “I said I would do my period of her extraordinary triumphs, when
best,” relates the one thus honored. “I did.
she was almost without question the greatest
I astonished myself.” In his enthusiasm for
his calling, he rises almost to the realm of singer of her time. Her book shows her to be
a woman of remarkable insight and intelli-
poetry in an early chapter, which opens thus:
gence; her aims are, and have been, as high
"I wish I could convey to my readers some-
as those of the art which she made grander
thing of the pride and delight which a sailor
and nobler by her efforts; we doubt whether
feels in his ship. But who that has never had
any singer ever lived who brought to her art
the luck to be a deep-water sailor, can under-
sincerer devotion. Lilli Lehmann came of a
stand his joy in the noble vessel, or the uplift- musical family. Her mother, Marie Loew,
ing sense of his control over her matchless and
was a distinguished singer in opera, and her
splendid power, born of a knowledge of her father, Carl August Lehmann, was one of the
every rope and sail and timber, and of an
famous tenors of his day. The father proved
understanding of her behavior and ability.
a wayward person and his death released the
For every ship has her own spirit, her own
family from considerable embarrassment.
personality." Admiral Beresford comes of
The mother, who had left the stage, became
illustrious and gallant Irish stock, one mem-
harpist in the orchestra of the theatre in
ber of which, Admiral Sir John Poo Beres-
ford, achieved both unusual glory and uncom-
Prague, and maintained herself and two
daughters thus, and by giving lessons in sing-
mon length of years, dying in 1884 at the ex-
ing. Both girls followed their mother in their
treme age of one hundred and sixteen. Lord
careers, and Lilli Lehmann seems to think that
Charles himself, as we learn, but not from his
her sister Marie was a greater artist than her-
self. The account of these youthful days is
ous life broken his breast-bone and parted very entertaining, and the young girls soon
with a piece of it, broken his right leg, right had many chances of appearing in public,
hand, right foot, five ribs, one collar-bone securing thus an education which subse-
three times, the other once, his nose three quently proved invaluable to them. Richard
times, and one of the bones of the pelvis; but Wagner comes into their life very early. He
though he was in youth marked for an early was a friend of the mother, and at one time
grave by the wiseacres, his energy of will has made a serio-comic proposition for the adop-
carried him through to a well-preserved ma tion of Lilli. After some effort a professional
turity, for not yet can he be called old, being engagement for the elder daughter Lilli was
still on the sunny side of seventy. His two- obtained at the Prague National Theatre, and
volume autobiography is packed with events the life-work began in earnest. The book will
own narrative, has in the course of his strenu- self


88
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
be found enjoyable by musicians and laymen pictorial accompaniment the incidents of the
alike; for it is the story of a grand woman and undertaking, with such items of geographical
a great artist at her best. The translation by and agricultural and miscellaneous informa-
Mrs. Alice Benedict Seligman is in the main tion as naturally include themselves in a nar-
well done and the portraits and other illustra- rative of this kind. Especially impressive is
tions add to the value of the book.
the change recently wrought in the desert
regions of the Southwest by the introduction
Miss Ethel Colburn Mayne's of artificial irrigation, whereby the sandy
The mind
translation of the "Letters of
wastes of New Mexico and Arizona are made
of Dostoieffsky.
Dostoevsky” (Macmillan) is a to develop unsuspected fertility and the face
book that will interest all admirers of the Rus-
of nature is marvellously transformed. Mr.
sian novelist. The letters contain much that
Powell's chapter-headings indicate the tone of
our reading of the novels had prepared us for
his book; he chooses such picturesquely de-
and a little that was less to be expected. The scriptive captions as “Conquerors of Sun
extraordinary preoccupation of the young
and Sand," "Chopping a Path to To-mor-
Dostoieffsky with European literature, for
row," "The Land of Dreams-Come True,"
example, will be somewhat surprising to many
“Where Gold Grows on Trees, "The Coast
of his American readers. On the other hand, of Fairyland,” and “The Valley of Heart's
his characteristic enthusiasms are set down Delight.” Allowing himself a sufficiency of
here at the greatest length, with a fullness, rhetorical exuberance to preserve his style
indeed, that is a little trying to the patience.
from dullness, he perhaps carries to excess the
He was the most fanatical of Slavophils, find familiar devices of exaggeration and allitera-
ing little to admire and much to condemn in
tion, as where he describes the road from
the civilizations of the West. He was a mystic Phenix to the Roosevelt Dam, which he calls
in politics as in religion, and the efficiency of
"the trail of a thousand thrills," and says
modern Germany desolated his soul, while
“its right-angle corners and hairpin turns are
France seemed to him decadent and immoral.
calculated to make the hair of the motorist
The hope of European civilization appeared to permanently pompadour.” This last expres-
him to lie in "holy Russia," though he found sion is a favorite of his in emphasizing the
it difficult to convey this hope in intelligible startling character of far-western scenery. As
terms. His unfortunate quarrel with Tour-
in his preceding volume, “The Last Fron-
gueniéff was intensified by the latter's con-
tier," the author gives evidence of much expe-
tempt for Russian pretensions. Throughout rience as a “gentleman rover” (to use a term
the letters, as in the novels, one is struck by of his own) and an alert observer. There is a
the singular confusion that characterized wealth of entertainment and information in
Dostoieffsky as thinker. His grasp of abstract
ideas was always uncertain, and he was never
able to discipline himself by a rational con-
The William Brewster Clark
The biological
sideration of any subject that had deeply
Foundation at Amherst College
engaged his sympathy. The letters, although
aims to throw light in a genu-
illuminating to those already familiar with the inely scientific spirit upon the relations which
novels, should not be read as an introduction research and scientific discovery of to-day
to Dostoieffsky's works; they should be read
bear to individual attitude and social policy.
only by those who have already gained some
The second series of lectures, “Biology and
knowledge of the strength and the weakness of Social Problems,"
Social Problems," was given by Professor
the man who wrote them.
G. H. Parker of Harvard and they admirably
carry out both in letter and spirit the purpose
Enamoured of our youthful and
of the enterprise. The first lecture deals with
riches of the vigorous Far West, though him-
the fundamental conceptions and discoveries
Pacific coast.
self a resident of the effete East, of modern biology regarding the structure and
Mr. E. Alexander Powell, F.R.G.S., writes
action of the nervous system, in its relation to
with both enthusiasm and knowledge concern-
reflexes, freedom, and memory. The second
ing the manifold attractions and possibilities
concerns itself with the secretions of the duct-
of the vast domain stretching from the Mexi-
less glands and those mysterious chemical sub-
can border to Puget Sound, and even beyond, stances known as hormones, which profoundly
to the Alaskan boundary line. This region hé affect and control the activities of organs, de-
has traversed in a motor-car, being, he be- velopmental processes, and secondary sexual
lieves, the first to make the journey in that characters. The third lecture discusses the
manner. “The End of the Trail” (Scribner), wonderful revelations of the secrets of repro-
describes in vivid style and with a wealth of duction and heredity and their practical ap-
his pages.
basis of human
action.
Wonders and


1915]
89
THE
DIAL
plication in genetics. The closing lecture is a assumes that no work of the highest merit can
conservative estimate of the present status of be done by an author of obscure social stand-
our knowledge of the factors of organic evolu- ing and irregular education, and (3) an
tion, consisting of a frank recognition of the encyclopædic ignoring of all the facts which
profound inadequacy of our present proved do not fit into the writer's theory.
ground, a relegation of Darwin's natural selec-
tion to a place of secondary importance, and a
BRIEFER MENTION.
confident belief that experiment and analysis
will ultimately place in man's hands a fuller “ The Short Story” (McClurg), by Professor
knowledge of the factors which have brought E. A. Cross of the State Teachers' College of
about his existence. Lucidity, definite prog-
Colorado, is a well selected collection of eighteen or
ress to conclusions, frankness, and breadth of
twenty prose narratives with an Introduction and
brief notes. Unlike many recent books on the
view characterize this book and make it one of
same subject it gives no directions to the pros-
the best brief statements of current biological pective writer of short stories, but aims to help the
thought so far published for the general thoughtful reader to a better understanding of
reader. (Houghton Mifflin Co.)
this literary form.
Five new volumes in the Greek section of the
“Loeb Classical Library " have come to hand, as
A person who believes that Sir
Sir Walter
follows: the second and final volume of Mr. Walter
Raleigh and Walter Raleigh wrote Shake-
Shakespeare.
Miller's translation of Xenophon's "Cyropædia,"
speare's plays is not quite so
two volumes of a ten-volume translation of
crazy as a Baconian. Raleigh had far more “ Plutarch's Lives" by Mr. Bernadotte Perrin, the
than Bacon of the Elizabethan versatility; he first volume of Mr. H. B. Dewing's translation of
had also more imagination, and a very pretty Procopius, and the third volume of Mr. E. Cary's
talent for poetry. Still no one with any sensi translation of Dio's Roman history,
tiveness to style could suppose that the author “ The South African Year Book, 1914," edited
of “Give me my scallop-shell of quiet” could by Mr. W. H. Hosking and published by Messrs.
have written the tragedy of Lear or “The
E. P. Dutton & Co., is the first issue of an annual
Tempest.”. Nothing so imponderable as lit- publication of collated information regarding the
Union of South Africa. The data have been
erary quality, however, is noticed by Mr.
secured from official sources, chiefly from the
Henry Pemberton, Jr., in his “Shakespere Union, Provincial, German, and Portuguese gov-
and Sir Walter Raleigh” (Lippincott). He ernments, and a wide variety of matters regarding
applies, as he tells us in his Preface, methods the country is considered, such as, its orography,
to which he has been accustomed in the study hydrography, climate and meteorology, races and
of physical sciences.” Perhaps it is this scien- language, minerals, public health, agriculture, tar-
tific training which leads him to find profound iffs, harbours, or finance.
significance in the fact that on the title-pages
Ás excellent as their predecessors in every re-
of some early editions the name of the author
spect of printing and editing and serviceable bind-
is spelled with a hyphen, “Shake-speare.
ing are the additions to the “Oxford Editions,"
Surely it is not the scientific method which
which include the following titles: Newman's
“ The Dream of Gerontius, and Other Poems";
leads Mr. Pemberton to repeat from Charles “ The Poetical Works of George Crabbe," edited
Kingsley an outrageous calumny on Richard
by Messrs. A. J. Carlyle and R. M. Carlyle with
Burbage, based on a passage from one the poet's notes and the text of his own edition;
Jonson's masques; for if Mr. Pemberton had Keble's “ The Christian Year,” including “Lyra
looked up the reference, even he must have Innocentium,” and other poems, together with his
seen that Kingsley entirely misunderstood the sermon on “ National Apostasy"; the poems of
passage. In justice to Mr. Pemberton, how-
William Cullen Bryant; and the poems of Charles
ever, it should be said that he discovers no
Kingsley, including “The Saint's Tragedy,"
“Andromeda," and other verse. In the pocket
acrostics or cryptograms, but relies for his
series of “ World's Classics" recent additions com-
evidence upon a number of "topical allu-
prise: “Dreamthorp, with Selections from Last
sions”' in the plays and sonnets, which can be Leaves," by Alexander Smith, with an Introduction
explained as referring to various circum by Mr. Hugh Walker, LL.D.; “ Lorna Doone," by
stances in Raleigh's life. Some of these ex R. D. Blackmore, with an Introduction by Mr. T.
planations are neat and by themselves plausi-
Herbert Warren; “Goblin Market, The Prince's
ble. But the book exhibits beautifully the
Progress, and Other Poems,” by Christina Rossetti;
three fundamental weaknesses characteristic
“ The Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H. M. S.
of its class. Practically all such books are
Bounty,” by Sir John Barrow, with an Introduc-
tion by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge; The De-
based in great part upon (1) a literary stu-
fence of Guenevere, Life and Death of Jason, and
pidity which cannot distinguish between
Other Poems,” by William Morris; and “ Selected
sharply contrasted styles, (2) a form of snob-English Short Stories (Nineteenth Century),"
bishness which, in defiance of literary history, with an Introduction by Mr. Hugh Walker, LL.D.


90
(Feb. 1
THE DIAL
NOTES.
A circular to members of the Fifth International
A book by M. Emile Verhaeren, " The Belgian
Congress of Philosophy which was to have been
held in London next September announces that the
Spirit," is announced by Messrs. Houghton
war has made it impossible to carry through the
Mifflin Co.
arrangements for the meeting. The members of the
Mr. W. B. Maxwell's new novel, “ The Ragged organizing committee express “the earnest hope
Messenger,” will be published immediately by that the confederacy of the entire philosophical
Messrs. Bobbs-Merrill Co.
world, which has subsisted since the inauguration of
A play by Mr. Edward Sheldon, “ The Garden of the series of congresses in 1900, will not be set
Paradise," and one by Mr.
one by Mr. Israel Zangwill, aside for a longer time than untoward circum-
“ Plaster Saints," will be published immediately by stances render absolutely imperative.”
the Macmillan Co.
A " College of Arts” especially for American
“ James," a novel by “W. Dane Bank” which students is announced in London. Among those
was announced in the autumn but which was de who have promised to conduct classes are Mr. and
layed, will be published immediately by Messrs.
Mrs. Arnold Dolmetsch, Mr. Gaudier-Brzeska, Mr.
George H. Doran Co.
Wyndham Lewis, Mr. Reginald Wilenski, Mr.
Mr. Cecil Chesterton, brother of Mr. G. K. Ches Alvin Langdon Coburn, Mr. Edmond Dulac, Mr.
terton, has written “ The Prussian Has Said in His Charles T. Jacobi, and Mr. Ezra Pound. Besides
Heart," which Mr. Laurence J. Gomme announces sculpture, painting, music, dancing, and literature,
for publication on this side.
it is proposed to teach crafts, including printing,
A novel by Mr. Booth Tarkington, “The
bookbinding, furniture-making, and work in silver,
Turmoil,” which has been running serially in
enamel, and pottery. The secretary is Mr. Vaughn
“ Harper's Magazine,” is announced for publica- Baron, 5 Holland Place Chambers, Kensington,
tion on February 11 by Messrs. Harper & Brothers.
London, W.
Mr. Henry Sydnor Harrison's new story, James Elroy Flecker, who died recently at Davos
“Angela's Business,” which is being published Platz after a long illness, was one of the most dis-
serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine" will be tinguished of the younger English poets. The
issued in book form shortly by Messrs. Houghton author of several volumes of verse, he was best
Mifflin Co.
known by the collections entitled
“ Forty-two
Four new volumes of the “ Home University
Poems ” and “ The Golden Journey to Samarkand.”
Library” will be published by Messrs. Henry Holt
A novel, “ The King of Alsander," was published
& Co. next week. They are: “ The Navy and the
in this country only last autumn. A wanderer, a
Sea Power," by Mr. David Hannay; The Ancient
student of Oriental languages, a resident for a
East," by Mr. D. G. Hogarth; "The Negro," by
considerable period of Stamboul, Flecker was not
Mr. W. E. DuBois; and “Russian Literature," by intimately associated with any of the three or four
Mr. Maurice Baring.
groups of poets in London. Poems of his - were,
however, included in “ Georgian Poetry," the brief
Mr. Samuel Parsons is the author of " The Prin-
ciples and Practice of Landscape Gardening," Mr. Rupert Brooke in connection with those of
anthology which introduced his name and that of
which Messrs. Putnam announce for immediate
Mr. T. Sturge Moore and other men of more estab-
publication. The book is understood to be an
lished reputation.
attempt to state a theory of landscape gardening
and contains a considerable body of matter from
foreign writers on the subject whose work has not
TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS.
hitherto been translated into English.
February, 1915.
Professor Leo Wiener of Harvard is the author of
“An Interpretation of the Russian People” which American History and American Democracy.
McLaughlin
will be published shortly by Messrs. McBride, Nast American Literature. H. si. G. Tucker
& Co. Professor Wiener was born in Russia and American Poetry. Dorothea L. Mann
Borneo, Botanizing in. D. H. Campbell
Pop. Sc.
spent his youth there. Since he came to America he
Brann, William Cowper. H. E. Rollins
has taught in a number of schools and colleges. He Browning, Qualities of. Harry T. Baker
Mid-West
California. James D. Phelan
is the translator and editor of an edition of Tol-
Rev. of Revs.
Canal, Meaning of the., B. I. Wheeler
Rev. of Revs.
stoi's complete works. Altogether his experience Chile and Argentina. E. A. Ross
Century
Church, Apparent Collapse of the. E. D. Schoon.
should have qualified him in a peculiar degree to
maker .
Century
explain Russia to America.
Church, Social Mission of the. j. i. Melsh
Churches, Social Service and the. B. I. Bell
Katharine Coman, professor emeritus of eco Civil War, Plantation Memories of the. P. A. Bruce So. Atl.
nomics and sociology at Wellesley College, died on
Civil War Reminiscences
A. R. H. Ransom
Civilization and Courage. H. M. Aubrey
January 11. Miss Coman was called to the chair Climate and Civilization. Ellsworth Huntington Harper
of history at Wellesley in 1883, shortly after her
Coast Defence, Our. M. H. Thompson
No. Amer.
Colorado, Conditions in George Creel
Everybody's
graduation from the University of Michigan. In Contraband, Question of. Arthur Willert
1900 she became professor of economics. Ill health
Cosmic Evolution, Theories of. G. D. Swezey Mid-West
Country, In the Deep. Arthur C. Benson
No. Amer.
compelled her to retire from active teaching in Criticism, The Acid of Higher. Hugh Black Everybody's
1913. Miss Coman was the author of " The Growth
Culture. R. D. O'Leary
Sewanee
Diplomatic Service, Needs of our.' David J. Hill
Harper
of the English Nation," an “ Industrial History of Dramatist, The Uncommercial. E. A. Boyd
Forum
the United States," and " The Economic Begin-
Economic Opportunity, New.
Economics of the Sixteenth Century. L. M. Sears Sewanee
nings of the Far West.”
England, Chant of Love for. Helen G. Cone
Atlantic
A. C.
Am. Hist. Rev.
So. Atl.
Forum
So. Atl.
Atlantic
Atlantic
VI.
Sewanee
Forum
Atlantic
Witt Bowden
Forum


1915)
91
THE
DIAL
--
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
(The following list, containing 70 titles, includes books
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
.
England: Imperial Opportunist. S. P. Orth
Century
England and Contraband Cargoes. R. G. Usher Century
England's Naval Supremacy. W. Morgan Shuster Century
Eugenics, Misconceptions of. S. J. Holmes
Atlantic
Facts, Evanescence of. Jonathan Wright
Pop. Sc.
Family, The, and the Individual. Henry Bordeaux Atlantic
Feminism, The New, in Literature. H. H. Peckham So. Atl.
Fit, The Arrival of the. John Burroughs
No. Amer.
France, A Love Letter to. John Galsworthy
Atlantic
France: La Grande Nation. J. 0. P. Bland
Atlantic
French Revolution, The -- IV. Hilaire Belloc Century
German Spy System, The Sydney Brooks
Atlantic
Germany's Answer. Hans Delbrück
Atlantic
Glands, Ductless. Fielding H. Garrison
Pop. Sc.
Goethals, George W. Joseph B. Bishop
Scribner
Government Ownership. Samuel 0. Dunn
Atlantic
Granville, Lord, and Carolina. A. J. Morrison
So. Atl.
Hay, John, From the Diaries of. W. R. Thayer Harper
Hindu Student, American Impressions of a. Sudhindra
Bose
Forum
Holland, Two Revolutions in. H. M. Allen
Sewanee
Initiative and Referendum, Reforming the. E. S.
Potter
Rev. of Revs.
Johnson, Lionel. T. K. Whipple
Mid-West
Julian the Apostate. Sidney J. Cohen
Sewanee
“ Karluk Survivors, Rescue of the. B. M. McConnell Harper
Kiao-chau Situation, The. Adachi Kinnosuke Century
Laborer, The, and His Hire. Ida M. Tarbell American
Liberal Education, Defence of. R. B. Perry
Forum
Lions, Hunting. Stewart Edward White
American
Literature and Cosmopolitanism. H. D. Sedgwick Atlantic
Literature and the New Anti-Intellectualism. P. M.
Buck, Jr. .
Mid-West
Meade, George Gordon. Gamaliel Bradford Am. Hist. Rev.
Merchant-Marine Problem, The. W. C. Redfield Atlantic
Militarism and Democracy in Germany. O. G.
Villard
Scribner
Military Training in Colleges. J. G. Schurman Everybody's
Millet, Jean François. George M. Gould
Mid-West
Morals, Control of. Durant Drake
Forum
Motor in Warfare, The. Charles L. Freeston Scribner
Motoring, Women and. H. L. Towle
Scribner
Motorirg in the High Sierras. C. J. Belden Scribner
Musical Primitive, A. James Huneker
Forum
National Defence. Arthur Bullard
Century
National Societies, Foreign Associates of. E. C.
Pickering
Pop. Sc.
Naval Expenditures and waste.' G. v. L. Meyer No. Amer.
Neutral Rights and Duties. C. T. Revere
No. Amer.
Neutrality: Legal vs. Moral. Paul Fuller
Atlantic
Normandy under Henry II. C. H. Haskins Am. Hist. Rev.
North Carolina's Taxation Problem. C. L. Raper So. Atl.
Novel, Social Relations in the. Louise M. Field
Forum
Novels and Vitality. J. B. Cabell
Sewanee
Panama Canal, Opening the. Agnes C. Laut Rev. of Revs.
Panama-Pacific Fair, Architecture at the. Ernest
Knaufft
Rev. of Revs.
Paris in Etching. F. Weitenkampf
Scribner
Pater the Humanist. Augustus Ralli
No. Amer.
Peace - What It Will Be Like, Yves Guyot No. Amer.
Peace and Disarmament. W. Morgan Shuster
Century
Peirce at Johns Hopkins. E. W. Davis
Mid-West
Physical Valuation, Ethical Principle in. E. W.
James
Pop. Sc.
Plato's Political Ideas. P. H. Frye
Mid-West
Poland, Russian Fighting in. Stanley Washburn Rev. of Revs.
Progressivism -- True and False. R. T. Ely Rev. of Revs.
Public Opinion, Organization of. A. T. Hadley No. Amer.
Referendum and
among Romans. rank F.
Abbott
Sewanee
Republican Confidence, Bases of. George Harvey No. Amer.
Retrospect, In. Thomas Hardy
No. Amer.
Rural School, Problem for the. J. B. Sears
Pop. Sc.
Saloon, War against the. F. C. Iglehart Rev. of Revs.
Scandinavian Situation, The. Edwin Björkman Rev. of Revs.
Science, Thought in. B. C. Gruenberg
Pop. Sc.
Servia's Struggle. Michael I. Pupin.
Rev. of Rev8.
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[Feb. 1
THE DIAL
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THE DIAL
A Semi-ftilonthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
THE THREE-PLY THREAD OF LIFE.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 18t and
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-
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tions will begin with the current number. When no direct
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ceived, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is
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. LVIII. FEBRUARY 16, 1915
No. 688
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE THREE-PLY THREAD OF LIFE. Charles
Leonard Moore
101
103
CASUAL COMMENT
Poetry and efficiency.- A plea for library
support.- Battles and books.- A generous
benefaction to arts and letters. - A broad-
gauge periodical.- Aids to culture.— Lit-
erary likings of the serious Vermonters.-
Humors of the advertising page.- An edito-
rial retrospect.- Lumber-camp libraries for
Wisconsin.— The increasing cost of culture.
COMMUNICATIONS
. 106
“ German” and “American." Wallace Rice.
Literary" versus “ Commercial ” Drama.
Helen McAfee.
Mankind is always within six months of
starvation, and therefore it must work — that
is, act. And when it gets a day off and turns
to play it generally chooses a play of action.
Action is as universal as the casing air. And
this action, the action of stokers and steve-
dores, of locomotive firemen and ironworkers,
of doctors facing contagious disease or lawyers
fighting graft and injustice, of women in
childbirth or the charge of families, – is full
of heroism and dignity. Nine-tenths of us,
probably, deserve the Iron Cross. But the
decoration would have no value if so profusely
bestowed. We have to have representatives in
glory. Real distinction in the active life is
only for the chosen of a few favored classes.
Thucydides, describing the return of Bra-
sidas, the Spartan general, after a victorious
expedition, says: "He was received almost as
if he had been an athlete.” We suppose that
the player who kicks a goal or makes a home
run does receive applause more tumultuous
and dizzying than falls to the lot of any other
mortal. But the fame of a Brasidas is rather
more permanent. Of all men of action, in-
deed, the final and most satisfying award goes
to the soldier. Statues are erected for them,
histories are written around them, they live in
legend and the memory of the people. The
world recognizes that they risk more than other
men, and as a rule from more unselfish mo-
tives. Generals of course do not to-day lead
picturesque charges; but before they get to be
generals they have to chance their lives again
and again. They are the most concentrated
examples of that heroism which is the ideal of
the race. Explorers, discoverers, pioneers of
various kinds, deserve to and do attract the
admiration of mankind.
Statesmen are far less deep in our affec-
tions. For one thing their actions are not so
open and straightforward. They mine like
moles in the dark. For another thing, they are
a protected class, and do not much risk life or
limb. But they have great issues in their
hands, and genius and devotion will make
their memories sacred. Opportunity, how-
ever, plays a great part in their success.
66
A SOLDIER-SURGEON'S REMINISCENCES.
Percy F. Bicknell
109
.
.
ART AND HISTORY. H. M. Kallen
111
Frederic
SOME AMERICAN DISSENTERS.
Austin 099
114
IN ARCTIC LANDS FORLORN. Lawrence J.
Burpee
117
.
RECENT FICTION. Lucian Cary
118
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
120
M. Maeterlinck on subliminal phenomena.-
Farming as the finest of professions. The
war as a prelude to a nobler era.— Health in
its social aspects and significance.- Varied
aspects of American public life.—A camera
actress in West Africa.- Talks on life and
character by a college president.
NOTES
122
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
123
.


102
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
are all potentially politicians. Probably every bottom, and eat away the confining coasts,
third man one meets on Broadway or Chestnut keep the waters salt and sweet.
street would make a tolerably decent Presi The thinkers, then, are at once destroyers
dent of the United States. As they say of and saviors. The destruction they work is so
Hamlet, the part plays itself. The nation frightful that men instinctively sense them,
speaks and acts through its representative. before their theories get into operation, and
It is a mere truism to say that the men of offer them the cross, the hemlock, the prison
action are the servants of the men of thought. cell. If they escape these things it is because
The contemplators, the meditative minds, are they seem so harmless that their fellows think
the real dynamos that move the world. They them of no account. Mrs. Darwin once called
are the earthquakes, the volcanoes, which her cook into consultation to provide some
every now and then break up the crust of dainty to tempt her husband's appetite, which
formulas that is always tending to thicken was failing. “Begging your pardon, Mum,
over human life. Gautama, profoundly dis but if Mr. Darwin would do a little work he
satisfied with his palace and his princeship, would have an appetite.” “But Mr. Darwin
puts on the yellow robe, takes up the begging does work," objected her mistress. “Him
bowl, and becomes a guide to a quarter of the work!” said the cook. “Why, I see him with
human race. Christ, born in a manger, con my own eyes this morning sitting for two
fronts the Roman Empire, and in time it van hours in the garden, looking at an anthill."
ishes before him. Socrates, amid the most The only work Darwin did was to tear down
brilliant civilization the world has ever known, the dam-wall of tradition and let out on the
starts questionings about the soul and the good world a ravaging, but possibly a fertilizing,
of life which after a while tumble that civ-flood.
ilization down. Luther looks at the Roman But we cannot be soldiers in the war of ideas
Catholic creation of Europe and sees that it is all the time.
all the time. We must have rest, recreation,
not good, and it is shaken by his breath. Rous-happiness. There must come halcyon days,
seau sees the horror of the ancien régime and hours of charm and effortless exaltation. And
finds watchwords and formulas for the new that is what the creative minds give us.
age. The latest example of a thinker's power Theirs is an almost flawless bestowal. Shake-
has been so much discussed that it is hardly speare does not declare war, Rembrandt does
worth while to advert to it, except to say that not bombard cathedrals, Beethoven does not
it is a revolt against Rousseau's revolt. The starve out populations. They give us the keys
doctrines of liberty and equality had been car to another world, a world enough like ours
ried so far that it seemed to him time for the to be intelligible to us, but fairer, more glo-
ideas of rule and superiority to assert them rious, more perfect, and infinitely more amus-
selves.
ing. And our residence in that world is not
All these thinkers drew after them vast merely a refined kind of lotus-eating, which
agitations, changes, revolutions. Probably lifts us up as gods for the moment only to drop
more than half the wars which the historic us back on the hard stones of reality; it is not
world has known can be directly traced to only “the world's sweet inn of rest from
them or their like. The struggles between the troublesome annoy”; no,, it is a school of
Eastern and Western Roman Empire, the virtue. The precepts of the prophets do not
Mohammedan invasions, the Crusades, the really do us as much good as the examples of
Thirty Years' War, the French Revolution and the poets. The great, the magnificent, the
Napoleonic Wars, all these conflicts and many lovely, are there for us to admire and imitate;
more received their impetus from thinkers and the evil, the horrible, the grotesque, are
who desired only the good of man.
there for us to avoid or laugh at. All art must
And undoubtedly they have wrought his have its shadow to make its light stand out.
good. The clash of ideas and ideals has kept The deeper the shadow the more vivid the
humanity fluid. Even if it could be cast in a light; but it is the light which attracts.
mould of perfection, that would only be a liv Being so rich and almost blameless in their
ing death. But full of imperfection as it is, gifts to man, one should think that the poets
too much rest means decay and degeneration. in words and sounds and colors and forms
If the ocean were still it would stagnate; but would be welcomed, or at least would escape
the winds and waves that send ships to the being stoned as the prophets are. But the


1915]
103
THE DIAL
generality of them are starved in life and purpoetry. A keen observer of the spread of effi-
sued with malignant rancor after death.
death. ciency standards in all departments of human
What fables are existent about Shakespeare activity gave an address, not devoid of humor,
and Molière! What pitiful picayune gossip
before a recent gathering of educators. From
about Coleridge and Shelley and Poe and Car-
this address, now printed in “The School
lyle! The eternal whipper-snapper is like
Review," a brief passage is pertinent here.
Professor Fred Newton Scott is the speaker.
Gulliver perched upon the shoulder of Glum-
“In every field of knowledge — in economics,
dalclitch, and only sees rugosities and sores in in psychology, in linguistics, in sociology, in
what to equal eyes is the complexion of health ethics, in short in all the looser-woven 'ics'
and goodness. The hand of mediocrity gravi- and ‘ologies' — somebody is setting the screws
tates inevitably towards the mud. Anything a little harder. In every one of these depart-
shining only attracts it as a target. The
ments of instruction some stern, wall-eyed
scandal-mongers ought to have their mouths thinker, rising stiffly and frowning upon his
washed out with soap and an odorless excava-
shamefaced colleagues, has announced that in
tor put to work on their minds.
his book or brochure or syllabus the subject
has at last been elevated to the status of mathe-
It is a three-ply existence which we possess, matics, physics, chemistry, and astronomy.
and we ought not to follow exclusively any one
of the strands. Absolute devotion to the active subjects as literature, music, and the arts gen-
Nay, even in such irresponsible, Ariel-like
life brings us out at a pretty low level of intel-erally, the same motive is seen at work.
ligence. The contemplative mood is divorced Within the past few years a book by the
from practicality, and is likely to make us brother of an eminent scientist, himself a
persecute and kill one another because of dif scientist of some note, professes to have raised
ferences of opinion on points of theology or to the dignity of an exact science the whole
about the summum bonum. We can lose our-
subject of poetry.” This evidently refers to
selves in art; but there, too, we get out of
Mr. Hudson Maxim's work, “The Science of
touch with reality, and lacking knowledge of Poetry and the Philosophy of Language.
But it is not too much to hope that the Ariel-
the world will not even know what is good art.
like spirit of poetry will not be found to have
The wise thing is to exercise all our facul-
been caught and imprisoned for all time
ties; but unfortunately in order to do any within the definitions and rules of that scien-
thing important we must concentrate. We tific treatise.
must save all our oil for one lamp. Hence the
men of action will continue to persecute the A PLEA FOR LIBRARY SUPPORT is put forth in
prophets whom sooner or later they must obey; what should prove an eloquently persuasive
and both will brush aside the creative artists form by the administrative officers of the Chi-
who do the least harm, and who add some-
cago Public Library. It brings to prominent
thing of permanent value to the common stock
notice some significant facts not very credita-
of the world.
ble to those who have the apportionment of the
CHARLES LEONARD MOORE. city's annual income. Spending last year only
1.26 per cent of its total tax receipts on its
public library, while in the same period it
CASUAL COMMENT.
spent, wisely enough, nearly fifty per cent on
POETRY AND EFFICIENCY - dare we name the
its schools, Chicago is found to rank, in respect
two in the same breath, or even on the same
to library support, with cities having approxi-
day! And will the poet and his dream ever
mately only one quarter of its population and
be subjected to the indignity of the efficiency
area. In other words, Boston and Cleveland,
test, ever be brought so low as to have their
in proportion to their size, are four times as
efficiency curve plotted by some efficiency ex-
liberal in their treatment of their public
pert? Heaven forbid! Yet in these days
Yet in these days libraries. But even with its present inade-
when economics, linguistics, ethics, and even quate resources the Chicago institution man-
politics, are being brought into line with ages to take no lower than second place, among
mathematics and the other exact sciences, can our ten largest cities, in its circulation of
one hope that poetics will escape the general books and in the number of library-users.
doom? Already, if we mistake not, some ambi The number of volumes that it owns, however,
tious candidate for a Ph.D. degree has devoted places it third in a similar scale of rank, while
a laborious thesis to the discovery of an alge- in the number of volumes per inhabitant it
braic formula that shall express the degree of stands at the foot, and in the per capita cost
emotional effectiveness in any given piece of of its library service, under the present parsi-


104
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
monious policy, it holds the same unenviable hand, however, a new department of literature
position. In its number of branch library is admitted to the statistical tables, a depart-
buildings the city likewise leads the class at ment of naval and military works, which cer-
the lower end. The shame of Chicago may be tainly owes its present prominence to the
stated in still other and more definite terms, if existing belligerent state of Europe. Four
the foregoing be not humiliating enough. In hundred and two books are classed under this
a table of annual per capita expenditures for new head, and many of them have had large
library purposes embracing the same ten larg. sales. It would be interesting now to learn
est cities, we find Pittsburg heading the list what effect the war has had on the book-trade
with fifty-three cents for each inhabitant, Bos of Germany, hitherto the foremost of book-
ton following as a close second with fifty-one producing nations.
cents, New York coming fifth with thirty-
three cents, and the metropolis of the middle A GENEROUS BENEFACTION TO ARTS AND LET-
West contenting itself with the last place and TERS comes to public notice in Mr. Archer M.
an expenditure of but fifteen cents for each | Huntington's gift of a site, in upper Manhat-
member of its population. The whole situa tan, for a building to serve as a home for the
tion is put graphically before one, by means of American Academy of Arts and Letters and
diagrams with accompanying figures, in the the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
printed appeal referred to above. It ought to
The situation is suitable though not, to an
succeed in starting something, to the benefit of architect, ideal. It is at Broadway and 155th
the third largest public library in America and 156th streets, where other learned socie-
and its long-suffering users.
ties have their habitations, and where there-
fore the openness of space requisite to give
dignity to a fine building is lacking. The
BATTLES AND BOOKS represent two very dif-
ferent kinds of human activity--different,
Hispanic Society, the Numismatic Society,
in fact, as to be mutually antagonistic. Nev-
and the Geographical Society are already here
installed, and their presence will help to coun-
ertheless, as is shown by the "Publishers'
teract the less dignified aspect of the monster
Circular” in a review of England's book-pro- apartment houses that hem in the proposed
duction for the year recently closed, it is not
site on two sides. How to erect something
impossible for a powerful nation to carry on
less than a sky-scraper that shall not be
warfare and publication at the same time.
dwarfed by these pretentious rookeries will
For the twelve months there was a decrease of
less than seven per cent, as compared with the
be a problem for the resourceful architect to
wrestle with. A brief backward glance shows
preceding twelve months, in book-publishing, interestingly at this time that the Institute
or a fall from 12,379 to 11,537; and in the
will ere long be rounding out its second
rather panicky months just after the outbreak
decade, having come into existence in 1898,
of hostilities the difference was not so great as
might have been expected. August produced years of useful activity to its credit. Of the
while the Academy, its offspring, has six fewer
427 books, against 703 in August, 1913; Sep- original seven chosen by the Institute as a
tember 853 instead of the 1203 in the same
nucleus to the proposed Academy, Mr. How-
month of 1913; and October rallied to the
ells, the Academy's President, is the only one
extent of 1244, not a serious decrease from
now living, Clemens, Stedman, Hay, Saint-
the 1696 of the year before. November's
Gaudens, and La Farge having all paid their
record exactly equalled that of November,
debt to nature. Our Immortals, it will be
1913, and December exceeded by 135 the num-
ber credited to the last month of the preceding Academy embraces 'all the arts, whereas the
noted, number fifty, and not forty; but our
year. Significant of the seriousness of men's
French Academy is, ostensibly at least, one of
minds in these trying days is the increase of
letters. Our Academy will, in its proposed
religious books, from 889 to 969, in the British
home, front no River Seine, have as an ap-
book-trade of 1914 as compared with 1913.
Perhaps there is an equally obvious signifi: proach, no Pont des Arts, but it is always pos-
sible that it will build more stately mansions
cance in the lessened production of philosophi-
as the swift seasons roll.
cal works — 179 as compared with 280 — a
partial exclusion of German-made philosophy
being probably responsible for some of this A BROAD-GAUGE PERIODICAL, representing
decrease. Sociological discussion seems also what at first might be regarded as a rather
to have been somewhat restricted, the fine arts narrow range of interests, but which is easily
are not quite so flourishing, travel falls off a demonstrated to be the very reverse of narrow,
little, and even biography wanes - all, pre- is “The Newarker,” now widely and favor
sumably, on account of the war. On the other | ably known as “the house organ of the Newark


1915)
105
THE DIAL
-
Free Public Library.” A recent issue, con culture exclusively adapted to its own tastes
taining articles on civic beauty, clay and its and needs. In violent contrast with the
uses, old New Jersey pottery, and other sub French savant's liberal programme for all
jects less distantly related to library work, has Europe stands the recent utterance of a Prus-
also an editorial utterance in able and ener sian publicist, Herr Maximilian Harden, who
getic defence of the periodical's liberal policy makes bold to declare: “We do not stand
in relation to printable matter. So admirable before the judgment seat of Europe. We
in its make-up (its typography, paper, illus- acknowledge no such jurisdiction. Our might
trations, and general attractiveness) is “The shall create a new law in Europe. It is Ger-
Newarker,” that one is glad to aid in giving many that strikes. When she has conquered
further currency to its editor's enlightened new domains for her genius, then the priest-
views in respect to library publications. Of hoods of all the gods will praise the god of
his own monthly periodical he truly says that war. What a departure, in this representa-
it “does not to most libraries look like the tive of modern Germany, or of a certain part
publication of a library, its organ and pro of it, from the aims and ideals of Goethe and
moter. This is because most libraries do not
ecause most libraries do not Schiller and Lessing!
realize that a new day of print is upon us;
that their books and journals may continue to LITERARY LIKINGS OF THE SERIOUS VERMONT-
be used to 'broaden,' to 'uplift,' to 'spiritual ERS come interestingly to view in the “Tenth
ize,' to entertain, to refresh and to wait upon Biennial Report of the Free Public Library
scholarship, and yet may at the same time be Commission of the State of Vermont." With
useful to the tinker, the tailor, the candle- only two decades of organized library effort
stick-maker, the brick-layer, the salesman and to look back upon, the Green Mountain people
the farmer, in their homely tasks of earning a already have 198 free libraries, twenty-seven
living, finding a market and cheapening their not free, and 267 stations to which travelling
products. . . . THE NEWARKER goes against | libraries are sent, so that only twenty-nine
library traditions in the things which it towns remain unprovided with library facili-
prints," as the briefest glance at its varied ties of some sort, and only fifty have no per-
pages will show; and this is well, for perhaps manent libraries. In the record of travelling
there is no set of traditions that can so well collections of books it is noteworthy that
endure a little courageous smashing as the thirty-six per cent of the adult reading is of
traditions of the public library.
the class known as non-fiction, while the
juvenile reading of a similar serious character
AIDS TO CULTURE, of a less doubtful efficacy
attains the handsome total of fifty-six per cent.
than modern warfare, received timely con-
The average of non-fiction circulation in pub-
sideration the other day from Professor Henri
lic libraries is supposed to be about twenty-
Lichtenberger, Harvard exchange professor,
five per cent. Thus the Vermonters show
at the third meeting of the Alliance Française themselves to be considerably less frivolous
in Boston. European culture was his theme,
than the majority of their fellow-countrymen,
which he admitted might be thought a rather
and the Vermont children far less light-
inopportune subject to discuss at this time minded than their elders. But the tremen-
when national sentiment and national ideals
dous seriousness of childhood is proverbial
are so predominant over any larger and more
everywhere. In fact, the theory was long ago
inclusive conceptions. But even
now the
advanced by certain wise men of the East that,
European nations are betraying their uneasy
whereas the body is born young and grows
consciousness of not being, any one of them, every year older, the soul is born old and gains
wholly sufficient unto itself. The belligerent in youthfulness with the passage of time.
states thirst for the approval of their neutral | Hence, doubtless, our devotion to ephemeral
neighbors. Among the factors contributing fiction in our toothless and tottering old age.
to a more enlightened European culture the
speaker named the development of rational HUMORS OF THE ADVERTISING PAGE come
science, whether historical or natural, to which nowhere more frequently or more amusingly
all large universities lend a helping hand, and to notice than in the columns of the sober and
the promotion of a higher civilization through sedate London “Times." Some weeks ago
commerce. Stress was laid upon the need of that journal published an advertisement in-
developing a European spirit, as distinct from serted by a gentleman who signified his will-
a national spirit. Why not aim rather at a ingness to accept the free use of a touring car
cosmopolitan spirit and a world culture and accompanying chauffeur for week-end
Asiatic and European ideals are sure to clash excursions as a restorative from exhausting
if each continent remains content to develop a / labors in connection with the present interna-


106
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
tional conflict. And now a more recent issue jacks” that many of these artisans in timber
contains this specimen of advertising humor: are men of education, and they all prefer good
“Gentleman, 30, perfect health, magnificent books to trash. There is a tradition of a cer-
physique, absolutely fit, offers himself for tain lumber camp where the hunger for read-
vivisection experiments to any one who woulding-matter was so gnawing that a stray copy
care to infect him with complaint known as of “The Atlantic Monthly” was thumbed un-
the embarrassment of riches. One is tempted til its contents were committed to memory.
to search for the motive that prompts these On the other hand, the cheap illustrated
anonymous and obviously futile exhibitions of magazines are commonly rejected with dis-
facetiousness at a considerable cost to the gust by the sturdy axemen. The “Wisconsin
humorist himself. It must be a purely artis- | Library Bulletin” invites the assistance of
tic impulse, a love of art for art's sake, an irre- public libraries in that State in supplying
sistible desire to cut an intellectual caper, just books and periodicals for the lumber camp
as the armadillo and the wombat are known to travelling libraries. Communications should
execute in the night solitudes certain ridicu be sent to the Library Commission at Madi.
lous gambols that serve no purpose whatever son, and it is safe to infer that even assistance
except to give a moment's free play to the from beyond the borders of Wisconsin would
animal's creative instincts as an artist in not be unwelcome.
antics. It is the innate necessity of self-
expression in each case.
THE INCREASING COST OF CULTURE, or at least
of the culture bearing the college or university
label, is unmistakably indicated by the an-
AN EDITORIAL RETROSPECT of a not ungrati-
fying character is indulged in by “Public annual report, of a considerable deficit in the
nouncement, in President Lowell's latest
Libraries' on the occasion of its entrance
year's finances at Harvard, and in his recom-
upon its twentieth year of increasing use-
mendation of an increase in the rate of tuition.
fulness. When that excellent monthly was
Several professors have generously returned
started there was, says its editor, “but one
other periodical devoted exclusively to library others have relinquished a part of their pay.
their year's salaries to the treasurer, while
matters," and the new venture was regarded the president is said to have handed back his
as extremely hazardous. But the magazine salary in full. Significant at this time is the
has handsomely vindicated its right to exist- report of the Massachusetts Board of Educa-
ence, and has doubtless served to encourage
tion, just sent in, advising against the found-
the founding of the now sufficiently numerous
ing of a State university — a project for some
kindred publications that were not dreamt of
time under consideration - but suggesting as
twenty years ago. In library development it
a less expensive partial substitute for such
has witnessed the increase of states giving aid
action the annual appropriation of a certain
to library extension from a meagre two or sum for scholarships for deserving pupils in
three to a widely beneficent thirty-seven. Not
the existing colleges and universities and tech-
more than half a dozen library associations
nical schools of the commonwealth. The cost
had struggled into being when “Public Libra-
of higher education throughout the country
ries” drew its first breath; now there are
has greatly increased since many, not yet old,
seventy such local organizations with an esti-
received their college diplomas; but this is
mated membership of more than six thousand.
only another phase of the increased cost of
In fact, the great things and the new things living.
that have come to pass in the library world
within the lifetime of this monthly survey of
COMMUNICATIONS.
that world are far too numerous to mention --
"all of which," it might, in classic phrase, not
“ GERMAN” AND “
"AMERICAN."
immodestly add, “I saw, and a part of which
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
I was."
Mr. 0. E. Lessing asks a series of questions in
your issue of February 1, to which I beg to be
LUMBER-CAMP LIBRARIES FOR WISCONSIN fol allowed a partial response. In his introduction to
low quite promptly the establishment of such these questions, Mr. Lessing announces himself to
antidotes to ennui in the forests of Minnesota.
be“ a plain American citizen of German descent";
Of course these libraries have no costly and
I, using the words in precisely the sense in which
Mr. Lessing uses them, am a still plainer American
permanent Carnegie buildings; indeed they
citizen of American descent, as are rather more
have no buildings at all, but are housed in
than fifty millions of my countrymen. By that I
boxes that travel thither and yon as need re-
mean to say that, just as Mr. Lessing points with
quires. It is said by those who have had expe- pride to a father or grandfather born in Germany,
rience in supplying literature to the "lumber so do I and the fifty million others like me point


1915]
107
THE DIAL
with pride to a grandfather's grandfather who It is the world-old conflict between that fine old
fought for American independence against a Ger Bourbon maxim, even more effective in Germany
man king who was endeavoring to foist ideas upon in the twentieth century than it was in the
England, and so upon America, which bear a eighteenth, “ Everything for the people, nothing
marked family resemblance in method and content by the people"; and the English maxim finally
to the ideas which Germany is seeking to intrude crystallized in Lincoln's "A government of the
at this moment upon Belgium.
people, for the people, by the people.” It is the
The difference in point of view between us is a difference exemplified between the governments of
remarkable one, and one which most Americans of the English-speaking peoples and of the German-
ancestry and habits of thought similar to mine speaking people to-day, whether, as Jefferson,
could not have been convinced existed eight months author of the Declaration, said, governors are to
ago. The chief difference, it seems to me, lies in be in moral fear of the governed, or the governed
the fact that there is no phase of the present war
in physical fear of their governors.
We Amer-
which we Americans are viewing with a European
icans owe much to England and English laws and
squint; there are few phases of it which the Ger ideals. We owe much to Americans like Francis
mans in America are viewing with an American Lieber and Carl Schurz, who chanced to be of
squint. Note that I do not say
“ German German birth, and to the immigrants of '48 and
Americans." William the Greatest settled that bit ?49, who rebelled against the Prussian and other
of bastardy once and for all.“ Germans I know," German constitutions of that day, which stand
he said, “and Americans I know; but I do not practically unchanged at the present moment. But
know German-Americans.” I see no use in pre we have no criticism quite as effective as the pres-
tending to be more German than William the ence in this free country of what we are told are
Greatest; I merely assert that I and those like me twenty-five millions of Germans — the greater the
are Americans.
number the more effective the criticism who are
This brings me to the first question:
What
here because life was unendurable to them in the
does the Declaration of Independence' mean? Fatherland. Moreover, we expect many more mil-
Independence of English rule or German rule?” lions to add to the weight of this criticism and
The answer is rather pitifully obvious: Indepen-bring it down to date when this frantic war is over.
dence of both English and German rule, even
We Americans find ourselves criticized for our
though an English king was attempting to enforce Americanism by certain of these transplanted but
upon the freeborn Englishmen of the old colonies unrooted Germans, chiefly in periodicals mori-
ideas which were no more characteristically Ger bund or non-existent at the opening of the war.
man then than they are at this moment. Read the These find it logical to offset their devotion to
Declaration. It is directed against whom? Until German governmental ideals as exemplified by
the next paragraph before the last it speaks of one
William the Greatest by savage criticism of Amer-
individual only," the present King of Great Brit ican government as exemplified by the President
ain.” And who was he? George III., of German
of the United States, a Jefferson-minded man;
descent so pure that one has to go back seven apparently unaware that the very freedom of the
generations to find a suspicion of contaminating press they are exercising makes possible their live-
“Anglo-Saxon” blood. His government of the
lihood here as against life in jail and suppression
colonies was typically German, as exemplified in
of their organs in Germany. We can at least wel-
the government of Alsace-Lorraine to-day-gov come their appreciation of their new opportuni-
ernment without representation. The friends of
ties and their quickness in taking advantage of it.
the rebelling Americans were, quite characteris But we are inclined to resent any implication that
tically, the English Whigs, political ancestors of we as Americans would leap to the command of a
the Liberal party which found itself compelled to
British official, as so many Germans in this coun-
declare war against Germany last August. The try have come to heel at hearing their master's
friends of George III., quite characteristically,
voice echo through Dr. Richard Dernburg; and
were those obliging fellow German sovereigns who many of us have read Dr. Dernburg's arguments
lent him their soldiers to put down the American
in favor of mental reservations in oaths, or of ends
rebellion, when free Englishmen refused to recruit
justifying means, with a curiously baffled sense
his armies for service against us. Read from as
that those questions were disposed of in the
obvious a source as the Encyclopædia Britannica, English-speaking world during the reigns of the
a paragraph about George III.:
Stuarts.
“ He would have given England that dangerous
Coming to Mr. Lessing's second question, it
position of supremacy which was gained for France seems easy enough to admit that England, rather
by Lewis XIV. in the seventeenth century, and by than Germany, has wronged Ireland in the past,
Napoleon in the nineteenth century. He would but it still appears to us that this is largely due
have made his country still more haughty and to the fact that Germany had no chance; surely
arrogant than it was, till other nations rose against England may plead Home Rule in extenuation.
it, as they have three times risen against France,
But what can Germany and Austria plead in
rather than submit to the intolerable yoke."
extenuation of their treatment of the Poles; and
Has not this a certain familiar sound? What what has Germany to say for Alsace-Lorraine,
Americans fought for and what the Declaration of whose representatives in the Reichstag are not
Independence sets forth is the ideal of the English even elected by its people?
speaking peoples, and not the ideals of any of the Certainly, too, answering the third question,
German-speaking peoples made effective in history. | England and
England and not Germany conquered India,


108
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
22
get its
Egypt, and the Boer Republics. But again En “LITERARY” VERSUS “ COMMERCIAL”
gland can plead the results to-day in justification
DRAMA.
more or less complete. She has no frightful
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
slaughters on her mind like that of the Hereros in Your recent criticism of an article by Mr. W. C.
German Southwest Africa, nor exhibitions of de Mille in the January “Yale Review” puts sev-
Schrecklichkeit such as were given by the German eral questions to Mr. de Mille as to his conclusions
expeditionary force in China. Parenthetically it
about our
commercial"
" drama. I should like to
may be observed that Americans, fighting Indian go a step farther and ask a question about his
savages across a continent, have been familiar with premises. What does he mean by “commercial
this particular quality in warfare since the first drama anyway; and how, according to his defini-
settlements, just as Ross's destruction of the Con- tion, does it differ from that which he patroniz-
gressional Library in Washington in the reign of ingly refers to as “literary"? All through his
George III. lent us comprehension of Belgian feel article, we find assumed a distinction between the
ing when the Louvain library was fed to the flames. two forms, and always to the discredit of the lat-
Americans are able to see a vital difference ter. What, then, are the requirements that Mr. de
between British navalism and German mili Mille makes for the “ commercial” play? On
tarism, responding to the fourth question, “Who looking through the article, we find that the “ com-
controls the sea ?” We see Germany, for exam mercial” play must provide “entertainment,”
ple, quite as infected with “navalism' as Great
must tell a story which finds its best expression
Britain, while Great Britain was hardly touched through acting”; it must be a splendid piece of
by militarism at all before the outbreak of the craftsmanship"; it must“ reflect to a large degree
war, as unexpected by Britons as almost complete the point of view of its audience " and “
unpreparedness proves it to have been. We see, hands on their hearts." Now by a strange coinci-
too, that the navy of England performs its func dence, these — and no others — have always been
tions on the seas, and that its officers in no pos considered the requirements of the “ literary
sible sense dominate the daily thought of the play, which Mr. de Mille nowhere clearly defines.
British people. If it is an evil, it is at worst a Thus we may conclude that, under favorable cir-
cutaneous one, not a cancer eating out the nation's cumstances, “ commercial” drama and “ literary
vitals. Furthermore, the position of the British drama are one,- or rather become one through the
Isles makes starvation only too easy without con simple medium of the box-office. That these
trol of the seas, while Germany has never had that favorable circumstances once existed as they do
excuse to plead. Even now, had it not been for not exist to-day, no student of stage history would
that almost inevitable blundering that seems to deny. In Elizabethan London, prices of theatre
go with arrant militarism, whether under George seats were such that the drama was indeed a
III. or William the Greatest, America would be “democratic” art; and, further, no despotic cen-
supplying Germany with food for her civilian
sor or trust magnate intervened between public and
population. But, just as the question was about playwright. This was the great period of the lit-
to be tled to that effect, the German govern erary play, which, because it met the requirements
ment proclaimed all food supplies as the property of “ commercial " drama, drew crowded houses.
of the State, leaving discrimination between food On the other hand, when we get down to the
for civilians and food for the military impossible. early part of the nineteenth century in England, we
Finally, it may be urged that Great Britain's con-
find that the “ literary” play and the “
trol of the sea has been beneficent, with that per cial” play have become two different things, not
fect restraint which comes with accustomed power, necessarily through any fault of either public or
ever since America gave up its control of the seas dramatist, but through the outside interference of
after the Civil War; while there is nothing in official censor and theatrical manager. On the
German history since 1870 to lead us to believe commercial side, we have tawdry stage successes
that the same control could pass to other hands which would not at all answer Mr. de Mille's re-
with equal security to civilization.
quirements for “commercial ” drama, in that, for
I have no doubt that Mr. Lessing is right about one thing, they fail signally to reflect the viewpoint
Treitschke's being older than Nietzsche. When
of the great era succeeding the French Revolution.
German scholarship is not speaking about mili On the literary side, we have the closet-dramas of
tarism and its consequences, it is generally right. Byron and Shelley, which, although they breathe
Every American must regret that any German the fiery spirit of the social awakening, do not
can sneer at Anglo-Saxonry with a good con wholly obey generally accepted laws of technique.
science. We find it occasion for pride that we Let us hope that the time is approaching when
belong to a great family of self-governing nations “ literary” drama and “commercial” drama will
framed upon Anglo-Saxon ideas of individual
again be one. Perhaps Mr. de Mille means to
rights and constitutional liberty, hardly touched at prophesy this when in the cause of the “ commer-
all until this war began with militarism and lax
cial" play, he appropriates all the “literary ”
conceptions of treaty obligations. We take no less play's qualities. If this is so, one can only say
pride in a mighty literature which embodies these
that he appears to be confusing the issue when he
ideas and ideals, and has seldom been false to them exalts commercial ” drama thus endowed to so
at any point; and we should like to have the Ger-
high a seat and leaves
literary
drama, thus
mans proud of them, too, as we are proud of robbed and stripped, to lie by the roadside.
Goethe.
WALLACE RICE.
HELEN MCAFEE.
Chicago, February 4, 1915.
New Haven, Conn., Feb. 6, 1915.
commer-


1915)
109
THE DIAL
The New Books.
interest one in his other than poetic capaci-
ties, may not unreasonably be assumed. And
other things are not unequal, for the same
A SOLDIER-SURGEON'S REMINISCENCES.*
impress of a distinctive personality stamps
An autobiography richer in varied interest, itself on all his heterogeneous activities and
more diversified with pictures of life amid all saves his recital from any touch of triteness
sorts of surroundings and in many dissimilar or monotony. A rather sure index to a man's
fields of activity, and in the rehearsing of it character is commonly thought to be found by.
re-lived with keener zest and, if one may add a study of the mother's mental and moral
it without offence, greater complacency, of a endowment,
endowment. Therefore it may be possible to
justifiable sort, than the life-story of Dr. John throw a sidelight if not a full-face flash of
Allan Wyeth, is not offered to the reader
illumination on the subject of our inquiry by
every month in the year or every year in the relating in the author's own words the story
century. “With Sabre and Scalpel” he calls of how he “discovered” his maternal parent
this "autobiography of a soldier and sur when he was well advanced in his seventh
geon," but in addition to his dashing exploits year.
as a Confederate trooper in the Fourth Ala “ The discovery came about in this fashion:
bama Cavalry, and his subsequent notable a boy playmate lost his temper at something that
achievements in medicine and surgery, he has happened between us, and in anger gave me a slap
been a farmer, woodsman, cotton-planter,
which I did not resent. At this juncture I heard
cattle-buyer, river-pilot, telegraph-operator,
a voice from a near-by window, and, turning, I
land-speculator, building contractor, lecturer
saw my mother leaning out, her eyes flashing so
that I could almost see the sparks flying and her
in his profession, twice president of the New
cheeks as red as fire. In a tone about which there
York Academy of Medicine, founder of the
could be no misinterpretation, even by one who
New York Polyclinic School and Hospital, instinctively preferred peace to war, she asked me
which is the first institution of its kind in if the boy struck me in anger; and when I told
this country to offer post-graduate courses, her he had, she blazed up and said, 'And you
and author of numerous works both of tech didn't hit him back?' My response was that
nical and more general interest, including a
father had told me it was wrong to fight, and that
life of General Nathan B. Forrest and an his-
when another boy gave way to anger just to tell
torical sketch of the settlement of Oregon.
him it was wrong and not fight back. At this the
blue bonnet of Clan-Allan [the mother's maiden
No mean talent is his also for the turning of
name] went over the border,' and she fairly
graceful verse, as he is pleased to remind the
screamed: 'I don't care what your father told
reader by appending to his latest book a half-
you;
if you don't whip that boy this minute I'll
score of what may be styled occasional pieces, whip you!' And she looked on, and was satisfied
some if not all of which have already seen the when it was over. I date my career from that
light in magazines or elsewhere. If it be per eventful day; for I had come to the parting of
missible, for variety's sake, to give the present
the ways."
review a certain topsy-turviness, let us begin Thus sprung of Old Testament and New
by bespeaking the reader's favorable opinion Testament parentage, so to speak, the Ala-
of Dr. Wyeth the poet, and to this end quoting bama boy, who was sixteen years old when the
from his appendix the first stanza of some Civil War broke out, yielded to the prompt-
animated and pleasing verses that may be ings of the less pacific strain in his blood and
read in full in Bryant's “New Library of soon, with his noble mare, Fanny, whose sad
Poetry and Song." They are entitled “My
They are entitled “My end forms a touching episode in the narrative,
Sweetheart's Face,” and begin, with rather joined a troop of cavalry and played a spir-
original as well as felicitous imagery, as ited if inconspicuous part in the national
follows:
drama before he was taken prisoner in the
“My kingdom is my sweetheart's face, autumn of 1863 and confined for a year and
And these the boundaries I trace:
a half at Camp Morton, Indiana, after which
Northward her forehead fair;
there was no more fighting for him to do.
Beyond a wilderness of auburn hair;
Not to convey a false impression of the pacific
A rosy cheek to east and west;
father, it should be added that even his dis-
Her little mouth
inclination to violence did not keep him at
The sunny south,
It is the south that I love best."
home when the call to arms reached him. As
a matter of fact, he was earlier in the field
That a man capable of such flights of song than his son.
is, other things being equal, a man likely to
Interesting and enlightening are the views
* WITH SABRE AND SCALPEL. The Autobiography of a Sol which this loyal Southerner takes of sundry
dier and Surgeon. By John Allan Wyeth, M.D., LL.D. Illus-
trated. New York: Harper & Brothers.
questions that once were burning issues be-


110
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
tween the North and the South. His pictures The chapters devoted to memories of the
of the negro slave's not unhappy lot, of the war have the lively interest belonging to all
evils of abolitionism, of the splendid patriot- well-written accounts of personal experience
ism of those to whom state rights meant more in battle and in camp and on the march. The
than national unity, and of southern condi narrative of prison life at Camp Morton has
tions in general as he intimately knew them, the one fault of brevity, which cannot be
are not to be passed over with cursory and said of the author's term of imprisonment
unsympathetic glance, whatever the reader's itself. A larger view of things military is
preconceptions and predilections. From the found in the portion of the book devoted to
opening pages of the book the following the battle of Chickamauga, where the author
vehement utterance may be taken as char- | indulges in speculation as to what might have
acteristic and significant:
been. “In my opinion," he says, “the South-
“I am firmly convinced that if instead of the ern Confederacy was won here by desperate
nagging, irritating, insulting, and finally insurrec valor and lost by the failure of the command-
tionary and murderous meddlesomeness of the ing general to appreciate the magnitude of
Northern abolitionists, the conservative and better his victory and to take advantage of the great
portion had united in earnest and friendly co-
opportunity which was his for the capture or
operation with their brothers of the South, who
destruction of the entire Union army in
proved their zeal and devotion to principle by the
wholesale sacrifice of wealth and ease, the humane
Georgia and Tennessee. Chickamauga, as I
scheme of emancipation and colonization as set
interpret it from personal observation and
forth in the “ Virginia Resolutions' would have from careful study, marked the high tide of
been carried out and chattel slavery would have the Confederacy.'
disappeared by peaceful means."
Making an abrupt transition now, let us get
In a subsequent chapter we find the portrait a glimpse of Dr. Wyeth in one of his many
of that hero of anti-slavery days, John Brown, non-military aspects. Toward the end of his
drawn with no flattering touches. The fea- book, where the practice of medicine supplants
tures are delineated with strokes like this:
the sterner occupations of war, he shows him-
“ Out of this turmoil emerged a weird, red self interestingly in a character not unlike
handed specter in human form whose name but for that of Sherlock Holmes. After relating a
his lawless deeds in Kansas would never have
Holmes-like incident in Dr. Weir Mitchell's
crossed the boundaries of that fair State had he
not become the agent in one of the most nefarious professional experience, he details a similar
plots recorded in history. A group of men of
occurrence in his own.
intelligence, position, and wealth aided him in the Spending the summer near New York, I made
armed invasion of a peaceful and law-abiding com it the rule to be in my office in the city at a certain
munity. Brown's purpose was the treasonable hour on two days of each week. As I was nearing
capture of the United States arsenal and the my door I noticed a man a few feet ahead of me
appropriation of government property to an un who turned to ring my bell. He had on a long
lawful purpose, the robbery of the houses of law frock-coat which fitted well and wore a soft felt
abiding citizens, and murder. He sought to incite a hat. At first glance I took him to be from the
wide-spread slave insurrection and the consequent South; but as he was pulling at the bell-knob, he
massacre of thousands of helpless women and chil- having not yet seen me, I noticed on the rim of one
dren. This wicked deed, known as the 'Harper's ear a well-marked epithelioma, a form of cancer
Ferry Raid,' made secession possible and brought which occurs only after frost-bite. I then placed
on the Civil War."
him from the Northwest, for his coat and hat were
No gleam of admiration for a martyr's hero-
not of the East. As I came up the stoop just
ism is to be discerned in the glowing terms
behind him I said, 'You want to see Dr. Wyeth?'
with which the author paints the deeds of
He turned quickly and said, 'Yes.' I continued in
this remarkable man. On another page he
an off-hand manner as I was getting my key into
further writes in his dispraise that “having cancer?' He said, 'Yes. From the Northwest ?'
the lock and not looking toward him, 'About that
failed at every one of a half-dozen different
"Yes.' Nebraska or Iowa?' 'Why? Iowa!'
vocations to make a living for his family and What regiment did you serve in during the war?!
himself, a rolling stone so mossless that at the (He had a small Grand Army button on the lapel
age of fifty-five he was absolutely bankrupt of his coat collar.) 'I was major of the Thir-
in fortune, and no less so in honorable reputa-
teenth Iowa.' . . . By this time we were standing
tion, John Brown turned up in Kansas in within the hallway, and he said: 'All right; but
October, 1855, in the role of a professional
before we go any further I'd like to know how
Free-soil agitator.” If one wishes a view of
much you will charge me for the operation.' I
told him; and then he exclaimed: "Well, my
the Kansas occurrences of that day quite dif-
goodness! What kind of a man are you, anyway?
ferent from the accepted northern presenta You never saw me before in your life; you knew
tion of those historic events, let one read I was looking for you; knew what was the matter
Dr. Wyeth.
with me; knew what state I was from; knew I
6


1915 ]
111
THE DIAL
was in the Union army; and d me if you Soon, however, the reader begins to wonder
haven't named exactly the amount I made up my whether “race” would have been the better
mind to pay for the operation.'"
term. He observes the whole book permeated
Thus having, it is hoped, indicated in some by another and more general distinction, a
measure what kind of a man Dr. Wyeth is, distinction based on the presence of certain
and stirred some interest in the book that pre- qualities of the human spirit, and transverse
sents him more in detail and with far greater to the distinctions of race. The qualities are
fidelity, the reviewer will close with a word of notably intellectuality and passionate energy.
commendation for the attractive appearance With them, he finds, Mr. Phillipps coördinates
of the autobiography. Its matter is enter æsthetic traits. Thus, predominant horizon-
tainingly and conveniently grouped in two-tality in architectural line is said to reveal
score chapters or more, with an abundance of intellectuality in the people that use it, while
pictorial accompaniment, including two por- predominant verticality or obliquity is said to
traits of the author at widely separated reveal energy. The one is the expression or
periods in his life and a process-print repro effect of the other, so that Greek and Renais-
duction of his bust, recently unveiled at the sance builders built as they did because they
Polyclinic Hospital which he founded.
were intellectual; and they were intellectual
PERCY F. BICKNELL. because they built as they did. And Arabs
and Goths built as they did because they were
energetic; and they were energetic because
ART AND HISTORY.*
they built as they did. This is the skeleton of
“My desire," writes Mr. Lisle March Phil- Mr. Phillipps's “deduction”! With it the
lipps, in his book on “Art and Environment,
division of mankind into races is superseded
“has been to confine myself to the considera- by the division of mankind into psychological
and
tion of art as an expression of human life and groups, --sub-intellectual, intellectual,
character. Selecting some of the great periods, post-intellectual: the qualities of the arts be-
or creative epochs, in the art of the world, I
come coördinated with these qualities of mind;
have endeavoured to deduce from them the dis-
the monotony of the Egyptian, the energy and
tinguishing qualities, limitations, and points
élan of Arabian, the activity of the Gothic with
of view of the races which produced them.”
the sub- or un-intellectual; the unity and
These, Mr. Phillipps thinks, are revealed
definiteness of the Greek and the Renaissance
chiefly by architecture, and only secondarily
with the intellectual; the realism and expres-
by sculpture and painting and such minor arts
siveness of Hellenistic sculpture and Renais-
as furniture-making; consequently he devotes
sance sculpture and painting, intent on
the bulk of his book to an interpretation of catching the fleeting details of expression with
various architectures.
“spiritual emotion” which is post-intellectual.
Mr. Phillipps's treatment is both lively and
And there you are!
persuasive. Like all intelligent persons, he
As a "deduction,” Mr. Phillipps's argu-
has strong preferences and reasons for them
ment begs the question. But whatever may be
that he believes in, so that his epithets for what said of his argument as a deduction, nothing
he dislikes are striking, even though his com-
but good can be said of it as an interpretative
mendations of what he prefers do not appear
vision of life and art. Indeed, he might retort
excessive. So far as we are aware, no one
at in this field all arguments beg he ques-
since Taine has expounded with so much vigor tion, since they are really nothing more than
and good sense any phase of the principle that
an exhibition of analogies and similarities
works of art are to be understood in terms of
which are identical only to belief, and depend
race, time, and place. On the whole, Mr. Phil- for their force on persuasiveness rather than
lipps succeeds in ignoring time and place, par-
on logical cogency. And we must grant that
ticularly when considering those types of art
we have read nothing in recent years that ex-
that have his approval; environment seems to
hibits so persuasively the opinion that race,
matter chiefly in determining the works of the human quality, rather than time and place is,
Egyptians, the Arabs, and the eighteenth cen-
in art, the dominant agency of control and
tury aristocratic French, which he dislikes. creation. If, very frequently, other factors,
An innocent reader is led to wonder why the particularly environment, seem to displace
word “environment” and not "race," ap-
race in his account, the displacement should
pears in the title; all the more, in view of the be credited, not to Mr. Phillipps's inadvertence
author's avowed intention to deduce the quali or fallibility, but to his unusual intellectual
ties of races from their æsthetic creations. honesty,- the rarest thing in “art-criticism,”
and his eagerness to tell the truth as he
* ART AND ENVIRONMENT. By Lisle March Phillipps. Re-
vised edition. Illustrated. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
sees it.


112
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
What is the truth which he sees? The pendent of time and place, self-containing
great tradition of the Occident has its historic and self-contained, unvaried and unvarying
roots in Egypt. Mr. Phillipps begins, therefore, through the ages, like a syllogism, or a god of
with the analysis of Egyptian art. The Egyp- the Epicureans. This self-sufficiency, this
tians, in his opinion, were sub-intellectual. “unity and repose,
"unity and repose," are ordained by the eye's
Theirs was a case of arrested development,
-inertia and attained by the harmonious devel-
arrested by the Nile. The river's monotonous opment of a central structural theme. It is
routine held them until their life and its most conspicuous where the theme is un-
changes flowed as one; it fixed their habits, Hellenic; consequently, to see the essence of
dominated their thoughts, and ordained their the Greek mind in architecture, see it as it
behavior. Victims no less than beneficiaries handles the Roman arch in the church of
of their environment, they manifested its S. Sophia. That is the tour de force of the
overwhelming influence on them nowhere so logical Greek genius.
clearly as in their art. This is seen to be as This summary falls, we are afraid, far short
unvaried as the Nilotic floods, whose vegeta- of justice to Mr. Phillipps's brilliant chapters
tion supplies them with their model for orna on the Greeks. Perhaps this is because we
ment and design,-a perennial repetition of cannot help being quite as much impressed by
the primitive same, a childish reproduction of what they fail to say as by what they say.
forms not seen but recollected as a child recol. They make no mention of the possible influ-
lects, an accumulative repetition and reproduc ence of an immemorial environment, of an in-
tion, technically perfected through practice, tense and even feverish social activity during
spiritually inane. “Perfect yet primitive, the most brilliant period of Greek history, of
young yet old, its hoary infancy defies time. possible imitative response and compensatory
It is the image of routine, of deadly monotony reaction to nature and society. Yet can it be
and unthinking iteration."
that the Greek eye learned nothing from the
To this “hoary infancy” Greek art presents sharp, clean outlines of the low Greek hills
an absolute contrast. Natural, observant, against the intensely blue Greek skies, from
realistic, its essence is intellectuality, and in the barren landscapes definite as silhouettes in
tellectuality of a unique sort. Mr. Phillipps outlining the low and almost geometric for-
describes realism as an expression of intellec- estation? Why should the Greek have been
tuality; for intellectuality is definitive, and less susceptible to definiteness and articula-
realism defines. Sculpture is, he thinks, tion in Nature's shapes than the Egyptian to
uniquely the art of the Greeks because "sculp- the rank jungles and tepid hazes of the Nilotic
ture is definition. The sculptor undertakes to lotos-land which were Nature's face to him?
express his ideas in a hard material, in curt, And is it quite logical
And is it quite logical to say that the Greek
distinct lines, in concrete and exactly articu was eye-minded because he built Doric temples
lated forms. Hence his themes are neces as he built them, and then to say that he built
sarily"finite”; his art refuses, if he is a Greek, Doric temples in the lovely Doric manner be-
to deal with the unknown; it cannot express cause he was eye-minded? On the contrary,
“spiritual emotion" (whatever that may be); the strenuosity of Greek life, its athleticism
it is, for example, incapable of treating death and militarism, its emphasis on the impor-
as the Christian treats it. It is marked by tance of music in education, in the significant
limitations, as is all intellectuality; and this dynamism attributed by its most representa-
mark pervades the whole spiritual content of tive philosopher, Plato, to its most charac-
Greek life, no less than its representative art. teristic philosophic conception, the “Platonic
The limitation of Greek spirit differs from idea" (so distinctly visual a conception to
that of the other intellectualist races of the layman!) might easily lead to the opinion
Europe in a particular way, however. It is that the Greek was motor- or muscle-minded,
unique, and its uniqueness springs from the and that his works of art, far from being an
fact that the Greeks were an eye-minded peo- expression of his nature, were a compensation
ple. In them the faculty and preferences of for it. Just as desires unfulfilled in fact are
seeing infected and suffused the residuum of satisfied in imagination and in dream, so, it
consciousness. Consequently, the needs of the may be, a disorganized and embattled state
eye determine for them the principles of life may imagine unity and repose, and a torn
and art; nay, life is art, and the consumma mind may dream of peace. Such dreams and
tion of art the inspiration of life. In the Doric imaginings, realized in art, are not an ex-
temple the Greek genius expresses itself with pression of a people's actual character, but
organic completeness. The laws of vision de rather a compensation for it. So, the aesthetic
termine the details of its construction, and the mood of a people may be the direct opposite
construction is such that it is abstract, inde of its natural and political mood, even as the


1915)
113
THE
DIAL
vaudevillian tastes of the American man of po mention whatsoever. The origin of Gothic
affairs are the direct opposite of his puri- forms is to be found, he insists, in the genius
tanical acquisitiveness and devout republican of the Goth, at work in France and in En-
ism. Mr. Phillipps has not shown that this was gland. The Goths “were what they were
not the case with Greece.
making.” Their unconscious ideal, when
Nor, for that matter, is it the case with any they entered European history, was a life of
of the people he deals with,— certainly not action. “They valued exclusively, or at least
with the Arabs, with whose works he next primarily, such qualities as took effect in
invites our souls. Mr. Phillipps offers good action. When in the twelfth century they
reasons for not liking the Arabian creation, have become civilized enough to express them-
but he invokes environment, which with him selves consciously in art, the form that comes
acts like charity, to cover and explain the mul- spontaneously to their hand is the pointed
titude of its sins. The Arab lives in the desert, arch. This is because the essence of the arch
and his soul reproduces the desert's traits. He is its energy,— it“never sleeps”; the strong
is possessed of “the desert's fiery élan and “lateral thrust” tends to disintegrate it, and
restless inconstancy." His art is "a strange it must be repressed by a buttressing and
mingling of frailty, fickleness, and poetic whatnot. Gothic, says Mr. Phillipps bril-
energy, ” which throws together any kind of liantly, is not a style but a fight.
material in any way that will hold for the All of which may be so, and much of which
moment, which disintegrates the trabeated and no doubt is so. But are the factors which
arcuated solidities of the Greek and Roman Mr. Phillipps either completely sets aside or
buildings into unstable and fanciful forms, ignores deprived of potency because it is so?
which multiply as the shifting sands of the Is the relation not much more likely to have
desert multiply, all to no end. The whole of been reciprocal ? After all, Gothic is the solu-
Arab life has the fancifulness and irrelevancy tion of a structural problem; after all, Gothic
of Arab architecture, its science gets lost in does make use of small stones because the con-
magic, its philosophy in mysticism, its social ditions of labor were such as to make this use
order in confusion, its military prowess in inevitable. These conditions might, of them-
chaos. It is without reason and without con selves, have generated the Gothic style: they
tinuity, and before these it fades away like a are sufficient for its origin. If, indeed, race
mirage. All that Mr. Phillipps says about alone were potent, North European archi-
the Arabs is, we think, true; but here again tecture should still be Gothic. In point of
the truth is only half-truth. What would fact, the relation is reciprocal: purpose, need,
have been the fate of Arabian civilization if | modifies material; but material, and most par-
Christian had not conquered Moslem in Spain, ticularly in the art of building, limits purpose.
and Ottoman barbarism had not thrown It is still impossible to make a silk purse out of
Arabian culture back to its own level? What a sow's ear, while a very excellent one may be
is to be said of the persistence of the Arab | made in forms appropriate to pigskin. A
conversion to Mohammedanism, and the sta thousand years hence a Mr. Phillipps of the
bility and articulation of the new order that thirtieth century studying our art of the twen-
revelation prescribed ? If Arabian philosophy tieth may point to an exclusive causal connec-
is predominantly mystical, German is so no tion between American sky-scrapers and the
less; and as for fancifulness, — the German “natural” strenuosity of the American race.'
content may be different, but the irrelevance On the principle that verticality expresses
to reality is the same. Mr. Phillipps's account energy, he might demonstrate that the United
ing for the Arab in art is beautifully simple, States of the twentieth century was franti-
but Arabs are human, and with respect to the cally energetic and proportionally irrational.
characterization of human beings the simple He might gather innumerable accessory data
is too near the untrue.
from our political and economic life, our re-
It becomes dangerously near being identical ligion and our art. But he would neglect in
with the untrue in the discussion of Gothic all this the real causes of the development of
architecture. To explain this, Mr. Phillipps the sky-scraper. These are, first of all, the
disposes at a swoop of the various alternative unnaturally high rate of ground-rent in our
accounts of its origin. That the conditions American cities, and secondly the use of the
of labor determined the material, and the steel-girder and concrete as the architectural
material determined the structural form, he materials. Prevented for economic reasons
denies; as he denies its appearance as the solu from spreading horizontally, American archi-
tion of the structural problems of Romanesque tecture rises vertically. It could not have
builders who had difficulty in roofing their become vertical without the use of structural
naves and aisles. Of environment he makes steel. The limitations of material are ultimate.


114
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
That Mr. Phillipps knows all this, but is among them and with them, seeing them daily
unconscious of it, may be seen in the uncon and hourly, summer and winter, until their
scious paradox in which his analysis of the generic contours, their dominant shapes, must
Gothic style culminates. The essence of that have become part and parcel of the uncon-
style is the pointed arch. The arch alone,
The arch alone, scious funded mentality of the race. If
of all architectural forms, is energetic. The Egyptian temperament and architectural
lateral thrust, pushing outward and down- forms are determined by the Nile, if Arabian
ward, would unless checked disintegrate, by temperament and architectural forms are the
force of the energy it lets loose. Gothic con effects of the desert, why may not Gothic be
struction consists of check and counter-check the outcome of immemorial association with
of this energy. Withal, “it may be we sel the primeval forest? But Mr. Phillipps does
dom enough realize how strenuous and alive not even consider this possibility. Goth, like
are the forces which are here engaged." It is Greek, is represented by him as altogether
difficult to connect the idea of activity with uninfluenced by environment.
such rigid immobility.”
There are many things still to say, if
space
But the rareness of this realization, the permitted, about Mr. Phillipps's account of
difficulty of this connection, are a rareness
the art of the renaissance and its relation to
and difficulty which depend on a contrast be the recrudescence of intellectuality in Eu-
tween the structural and æsthetic tendencies rope; about the influence upon this art of
of Gothic architecture. It is an engineer's, what he calls “spiritual emotion,” and its
not an artist's, analysis of the Gothic arch connection with the philosophical ideas of
Mr. Phillipps here gives us; it has reference infinity. We should like even more to dis-
to the material. An æsthetic analysis would cuss his brilliant and perspicacious chapter
hàve reference to the form. And here the on the art of the French aristocracy of the
paradox begins to appear. For the Gothic court of Louis XV. We should like to show
form is, as Mr. Phillipps says, an æsthetic
in detail how unified and articulate his view
expression of energy; but it is energy in the is,- a vision, in fact, of the march of history
reverse direction from the structural energy. in terms of art. We should like to show how,
Mechanically, the energy of the arch moves like all things unified, it attains its unity
downward and outward: it is the energy of a always by minimizing or ignoring factors
push or thrust; aesthetically the energy moves
which an adequate account of art must con-
upward and outward: it is the energy of a sider; and how, therefore, one always must
linear pull. Mr. Phillipps's own language agree with Mr. Phillipps, but agree with
unconsciously expresses this fact. “Gothic reservations. One thing, however, readers
has been called the linear type of architecture. may agree in without reservation, namely,
... The web of interior lines. seem to that in recent years there has appeared no
uphold the structure . . . it is in these that general book on the arts which so well repays
the strength and vigour appear to reside.
the reading.
H. M. KALLEN.
[It is the most recognizable and salient
trait of the style. These light and sinewy
SOME AMERICAN DISSENTERS,*
lines pervade the whole structure. They dart
in sheaves from the floor ... diverge and
The capital fact in the political history of
the United States in the past ten years has
spread fanlike over the vault-surface .
In sum, the total effects is that of a lateral lift.
been the growth of dissent. Not, of course,
that dissent was unknown until the fateful
Inside, the lines that “uphold” “dart in
sheaves from the floor”; outside, the shadowed days in which we live. For there have been
peaks and curves of buttress against arch, and
many periods in which, in this country as
elsewhere, it has flourished.
arch against buttress, rising in intricate linear
It was, indeed,
dissent which first gave the nation being. And
tracings against the sky,— what is there in
nature for analogue, that might so impress Jeffersonian criticism of Federalist adminis-
one calls instantly to mind the epoch of
the mind of a people that their own significant tration, the decades of Abolitionist denuncia-
building would tend unconsciously to assume
tion of a national government palsied by the
forest of great trees, whose long, rising shafts grip of the slaveholder, and the Mugwump-
forest of great trees, whose long, rising shafts Granger-Populist-Socialist era of the eighties
are literally an upward lift against a down- and early nineties.
ward pull; literally alive with energy; whose
* PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY. By Herbert Croly. New York:
meeting branches form natural Gothic arches,
The Macmillan Co.
with intricate traceries in long avenues we
An Attempt to Diagnose the Cur.
By Walter Lippmann. New York: Mitchell
have learned from novels to know as Gothic?
By William English Wall-
For generations the northern peoples lived ing. New York: The Macmillan Co.
DRIFT AND MASTERY.
rent Unrest.
Kennerley.
PROGRESSIVISM -- AND AFTER.


1915)
115
THE DIAL
The dissent of the most recent years, how tory from a period as early as that of the
ever, has been peculiarly comprehensive in its formation of the Constitution.
scope, penetrating in its criticism, and relent The fundamental proposition of progressiv-
less in its methods. It began to gather ism, as Mr. Croly describes it, is that the
strength even before the turning of the cen injustice and wastage of our American indus-
tury. It won its earlier triumphs in the estab trial and social order are too deep-seated to be
lishment here and there of the initiative and overcome by ordinary expedients of reform;
the referendum, in the enfranchisement of and the process by which, as this conviction
women in a number of the western states, and has grown, reform has given way to insur-
in the widespread substitution of the direct gency and insurgency to progressivism is
primary for the nominating convention. It sketched with keen insight into both the
found expression in the rapid growth of trade psychology and the economic environment of
unionism, socialism, and the demand for in-
the American people. Reforms, whether in
dustrial democratization. It obtained, in the civil service, in municipal politics, or in
time, its most illustrious and influential pro other branches of public affairs, were always
tagonist in Mr. Roosevelt. And, finally, it (so we are told) half-hearted and ephemeral;
acquired a name to conjure with,— namely, insurgency was largely obstructionist and
progressivism.
negative; only progressivism takes the long
The future historian of our period will have view and seeks to build from the foundations.
as one of his principal tasks the interpretation There are, Mr. Croly admits, various brands
of the progressive movement. He will have of progressivism, and the comparison which is
the advantage of a perspective which is, of drawn between the progressivism of Mr.
course, unattainable at the present day. In Roosevelt and that of President Wilson is illu-
the meantime, we are being supplied with minating, if not at every point convincing.
some highly ingenious and interesting, even Roosevelt progressivism, it is admitted, “can
though tentative and incomplete, interpreta- fairly be charged with many ambiguities.”
tions from a group of young and keen students But in one essential respect, it is contended,
of American society who have been themselves its meaning is unmistakable. “Its advocates
numbered among the sympathizers with, or
are committed to a drastic reorganization of
the active participants in, the movement. the American political and economic system,
Conspicuous among these men are Mr. Croly, to the substitution of a frank social policy for
Mr. Lippmann, and Mr. Walling, all of whom, the individualism of the past, and to the
in recent months, have published books de-
realization of this policy, if necessary, by the
scriptive of progressivism as they see it. Mr.
use of efficient governmental instruments."
Croly is concerned chiefly with an explanation
The progressivism of President Wilson is
of the rise and growth of progressivism, and
characterized as "vague in precisely this essen-
with a sympathetic exposition of the multifold
tial respect,” and its vagueness is said to be of
a kind that is elusive and secretive rather than
character which it bears to-day. Mr. Lipp-
mann portrays the semi-chaotic state in which
merely flexible. While Roosevelt progressiv-
ism considers the existing order fundamen-
the break with the past has involved us, and
considers the means by which the sure mas-
tally unsound, so that no mere loppings off
here and tonings up there will meet the social
tery of the people is to be established. Mr.
need, the tendency of the Wilson school is to
Walling, approaching the subject as a social-
emphasize those aspects of progressivism
ist, seeks to demonstrate that the progressiv-
which “can be interpreted as the emancipa-
ism of to-day is but a step in the direction of
tion of an essentially excellent system from
the ultimate social democracy and the social-
corrupting and perverting parasites.” The
istic state.
progressivism which results is scrupulously
Mr. Croly's book must be pronounced a careful not to be too progressive, and, like the
work of first-rate importance. It is admirably reform movements which have been super-
written, and we are not likely soon to have a seded, it poses as a “higher conservatism.'
discussion of the subject with which it deals In its emphasis upon the restriction of gov-
that will be better informed, of fairer spirit, ernmental regulation, the "new freedom"
or more deeply philosophical. It is in no sense harks back to Jeffersonian individualism. It
a brief for the Progressive Party as such. The voices no desire “to substitute for an auto-
progressivism with which it deals transcends matic competitive economic régime one in
the bounds of party. It may be described which a conscious social purpose, equipped
more nearly as a state of mind than as a party with an adequate technical method, was to
programme, and its antecedents are to be play a decisive part.” Mr. Croly recognizes
traced to successive stages of the nation's his that Mr. Wilson's version of progressivism,
ܕܕ


116
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
“whatever its underlying tendency and mean pression chiefly in the initiative, the referen-
ing, is a high and serious doctrine, which is dum, and the recall — is retrogressive, merely
the outcome of real elevation of purpose and because its methods exhibit certain analogies
feeling, and which up to date has had on the to those used in city and tribal states, is
whole a beneficial effect on public opinion.” denied; and in a chapter under the title
He recognizes, too, that as a matter of prac- “Direct versus Representative Government”
tical politics Mr. Wilson, in his capacity of will be found an argument as masterful as
party leader, has been obliged to lay emphasis has been put in print in favor of the direct
upon any possible analogies between pro- system. The nationalizing of our democracy,
gressivism and the historic tradition of his while preserving in state and city vigorous
party. He feels, none the less, that the Presi agencies of local self-government; the break-
dent's progressivism has in too large a degree ing of the paralyzing grip of legalism, while
the backward look. It is not a new birth of preserving the respect of the people for law;
public spirit; it is a rebirth. It is not an the extension to the body politic of unre-
awakening of public opinion to something stricted and immediate control over its gov-
novel; it is a reawakening. It is not aiming ernmental institutions, while perpetuating the
at an unprecedented vitalizing of democracy, practical conveniences of the representative
but at its revival along traditional lines. system, — these are the supreme ends toward
Were it not for the trammels of his party and which, we are assured, all true progressivism
official connections, Mr. Croly suggests, Mr. moves.
Wilson would probably place the emphasis The cardinal proposition of Mr. Lippmann's
differently. But as it is, his progressivism book is that in the present era of unrest there
must be adjudged partial, halting, and inade- is too much aimless drifting, too much futile
quate to meet the needs of the times.
beating of the waves, and not enough mastery
Mr. Croly recognizes the value of the con of the situation such as the people are capable
servative spirit in a society, and he freely of if only they be well-informed, courageous,
admits the general sincerity of that portion of and ably led. That the epoch in which we
the American people which is, whether or not live is one of unrest is a condition not of our
it calls itself such, conservative.
He agrees
choosing. The case against absolutism, com-
that men cannot reasonably be expected to mercial oligarchy, and unquestioned creeds
break with an old system until they can see has been made out. “The rebel program is
what is to be put in its place. The providing stated.
stated. Scientific invention and blind social
of a substitute for the existing order in the currents have made the old authority impos-
United States is the peculiar and indispensa-sible in fact, the artillery fire of the iconoclasts
ble task of progressivism; and not merely a has shattered its prestige. We inherit a rebel
new order, but a new faith, “upon the rock of tradition.". In this situation, the battle for
which may be built a better structure of indi. us, we are admonished, lies not against crusted
vidual and social life.” The object of the
The object of the prejudice but against the chaos of a new free-
present volume is to consider "whether any dom. The danger is no longer from unreason-
substitute is needed for the traditional system, ing conservatism, but rather from the anarchy
and whether progressivism offers any prospect of untried, unorganized, combative radical-
of living up to the manifest requirements of ism. There must somewhere be mastery, and
The answer to both questions is, under twentieth century conditions and ideas
of course, affirmative; and whatever one's the only possible master is the people. This
opinion of the conclusions reached, it must be means democracy. But democracy must be
conceded that the spirit in which the inquiry conceived as something more than the absence
is made is altogether commendable.
of czars, more than freedom, more than equal
The vital defect of the existing system is opportunity. “It is a way of life, a use of
conceived to be the indirectness of popular freedom, an embrace of opportunity.” It is
control over the national government. The positive, virile, fundamental.
Constitution is too difficult to amend; the But the proper mastery of their own affairs
workings of the government are controlled too by the people is conditioned upon several
much by legalism rather than by the public things. It involves intelligence, alertness, and
will; the courts have become the irresponsible strong civic sense.
strong civic sense. “A servile community will
interpreters of the Constitution, and therefore have a master, if not a monarch then a land-
the irresponsible makers of law under the lord or a boss, and no legal device will save it.
Constitution. The best, and only real, remedy A nation of uncritical drifters can change
is declared to be direct government by the only the form of tyranny, for, like Christian's
people, "entered into with wisdom and cau sword, democracy is a weapon in the hands of
tion.” That direct government -- taking ex those who have the courage and the skill to
the part.


1915)
117
THE DIAL
wield it; in all others it is a rusty piece of way to that of privileged majorities, and by
junk.” The mastery of the people involves assisting in the establishment of true majority
also a new industrial emancipation. No one rule, albeit at first in the domain of govern-
unafflicted with invincible ignorance, we are ment only, progressivism is playing directly
told, desires to preserve our economic system into the hands of socialism. Of course Mr.
in its existing form. The thought is that Walling does not expect the triumph of social-
there can be no true political democracy unless ism immediately. On the contrary that event
there is a much closer approach than at pres is, he admits, a long way off. The capitalistic
ent to an economic democracy. Men must be régime will hold out yet awhile, and it will
reasonably well-to-do and accustomed to self even be constrained to extend to the wage-
mastery before they can achieve a stable and earning masses certain further improvements
masterful social or political democracy. in conditions of life and labor, although only
Recognizing that the day is past when any. as an expedient to increase productivity and
body can pretend to have laid down an inclu profits, not at all from considerations of altru-
sive or final analysis of the democratic prob ism or of patriotism. Eventually, however,
lem, Mr. Lippmann seeks in his book to diag. this will fail to satisfy and, the way having
nose the current unrest and to "arrive at some been prepared by the reforms carried through
sense of what democracy implies.' As he by progressivism, private capitalism will be
frankly explains, his chapters touch upon the succeeded by state capitalism; that in time
American problem at only a few significant will give way to state socialism, or laborism;
points. Of special interest is his discussion of and from this it will be but a step to the social-
the problem of “big business," the labor move istic society in its final and idealized form.
ment, the trusts, the woman's movement, and
FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG.
the contemporary processes of intellectual and
social emancipation. But the book is notable
for its points of view and for its penetrating,
IN ARCTIC LANDS FORLORN.*
often caustic, observations upon the phenom Under the happy though cheerless title of
ena of our time, rather than for systematic “Lands Forlorn, Mr. George M. Douglas
discussion of any subject or group of subjects. tells the story of his expedition in 1911-12
It is not a book of information, but one of through a portion of the Barren Grounds of
suggestion. If it preaches the doctrine of
Northern Canada to the mouth of the Copper-
progressivism, it does so by the general tenor
mine River. The ostensible object of the jour-
of its philosophy, not by the grosser method
ney was to report on the copper-bearing rocks
of direct argument. It could not more deftly of the Coppermine; but, although scientific
supplement Mr. Croly's book if it had been
data of value were obtained, one gets the im-
written expressly for the purpose.
pression throughout the narrative that the
In his “Progressivism — and After” Mr. underlying motive was exploration pure and
Walling has given us, from the point of view simple. Mr. Douglas had been engaged for
of a socialist, an economic interpretation of
years as an engineer in the hot and arid re-
contemporary American politics. That poli gions of the Southwest; and when oppor-
tics in our day has well-nigh become a mere tunity came for a holiday he naturally chose,
exercise in applied economics, is a fact known being of an adventurous and resourceful
to every competent observer. Three-fourths of disposition, the practically unexplored wilder-
the time Mr. Croly and Mr. Lippmann are ness of the extreme north. The journey in-
writing in their books about matters which are volved a certain amount of hardship, and
distinctly economic, or which involve impor- enough danger to give spice to the adventure;
tant economic relationships. Progressivism is but what one finds peculiarly refreshing is the
itself builded upon the unrest which arises entire absence of that heroic pose that marks
principally from economic conditions. It is
so many narratives of more or less original
not unnatural, therefore, that Mr. Walling exploration. Mr. Douglas makes it clear that
seeks to follow out in his thought the prepon a small party of white men, accustomed to
derating economic trend and attempts to iden- roughing it, with a suitable equipment, and
tify certain phases of present political and without the embarrassment of native guides,
industrial development as stages in the his can not only travel practically anywhere in
toric process whose ultimate product. as he Northern Canada, but may winter there with
views it, is to be the socialistic state. That a no very serious danger or even discomfort.
complete and absolute social democracy is to The route was by rail to Edmonton, thence
be the eventual outcome of past and present
* LANDS FORLORN. The Story of an Expedition to Hearne's
developments, he never for a moment doubts. Coppermine River. By George M. Douglas. With an Intro-
duction by James Douglas, LL.D.
The rule of privileged minorities is to give
Illustrated.
New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons.


118
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
by stage to Athabaska Landing on the Atha then we would exchange, and re-exchange
baska, thence by canoe and scow to Fort Mc them. Whether he knows less about the early
Murray, and by the steamers of the Hudson's history of France now than I do I would hesi-
Bay Company to Lake Athabaska and Great tate to conjecture. I don't think Lion ever
Slave Lake and down the Mackenzie to Fort tackled this book; had it been in three vol-
Norman at the mouth of Bear River. Here umes he might have done so." These winter
the expedition really began, Mr. Douglas and quarters were some twenty-five miles within
his companions being henceforth thrown upon the Arctic Circle; the sun was seen for the
their own resources. They made their way up last time on December 9, and for the first time
Bear River, and through Great Bear Lake, not on New Year's day; the temperature in Janu-
without a good deal of difficulty by reason of ary ran down to 56°, 57°, and 59° below zero.
the ice; and finally reached Dease River, That men inexperienced in travel in the far
where they built a comfortable log cabin to north could spend a winter on Great Bear
serve as headquarters. From this point to the Lake, not merely in comfort but with appar-
Coppermine was no very great distance as the ent enjoyment, upsets many popular impres-
crow flies, but the intervening country pre sions as to the hardships of this region.
sented serious difficulties, not the least of The spring journey was in every respect
which was the fact that very few white men successful. Thanks to their careful planning,
had passed this way since Hearne discovered and the knowledge of the route acquired the
the Coppermine in 1771, and even these had previous autumn, the explorers reached the
left most imperfect descriptions of the route. Coppermine without serious difficulty, and
Nevertheless Mr. Douglas managed before the made their way down to its mouth, spending
close of the season of 1911 to make his way some time in an examination of the copper
over the height of land and down to the Cop- deposits. Whether or not profitable ore exists
permine. Feeling that the way was now clear in this country cannot be determined without
to their more ambitious expedition planned a more thorough survey. Throughout this
for the succeeding spring, he and his compan part of the narrative one obtains exceedingly
ions settled down for the long winter at Hodg. | interesting glimpses of the Eskimos.
son's Point, their main camp.
The book is illustrated with reproductions
The chapter devoted to this winter in the of nearly two hundred photographs taken in
Arctic makes exceedingly interesting reading. the course of the journey, all interesting and
An ample supply of the right kind of provis some remarkably so. One that has rather a
ions had been brought up from Edmonton, tragic interest represents Radford and Street
and systematic hunting added more than suffi of the Mounted Police in their canoe, at Fort
cient caribou and ptarmigan to keep the party Simpson, as they started out on the expedition
in fresh meat, and for variety big lake trout from which they never returned.
could be got through the ice at any time; dead
LAWRENCE J. BURPEE.
spruce trees kept them in firewood. The work
was so distributed that each man had it in
turn to hunt, cook, and collect firewood; the
RECENT FICTION.*
first and last gave them outdoor exercise,
while cooking offered endless opportunities
The publication of an English version of
for culinary experiments not always favorably M. Artzibashef's “Sanine" is bound to at-
The book has been widely
received. Bird life was remarkably abundant tract attention,
for this rigorous country; ptarmigan were
regarded as an expression of the despair into
plentiful all the time, usually in large flocks,
which the Russian intelligentsia degenerated
ravens were occasionally seen, as well as sev-
after the failure of the last attempt to obtain
eral kinds of hawks, whisky-jacks, chickadees,
a truly constitutional government, a despair
and once a big snow-white owl. The only
which substituted doubt for faith and self-
really serious drawback seems to have been
It created a
indulgence for self-sacrifice.
the absence of a convenient circulating library.
furore in Europe. Saninism became a cult
Their stock of literature was naturally small.
which spread rapidly through young Russia.
The idea behind it was that the only happi-
Mr. Douglas had borrowed Michelet's "His-
ness in life is to be found in the satisfaction
tory of France" from the Hudson's Bay Com-
of one's immediate desires - an idea which
pany's factor at Fort Simpson, and this
the book upholds by precept rather than by
proved a godsend to the party. It was read example since, with the exception of the hero,
and re-read, though in a manner that was
surely somewhat original. “It was in two
By Michael Artzibashef. Translated into En-
glish by Percy Pinkerton, with a Preface by Gilbert Cannan.
volumes,” says Mr. Douglas, "and the Doctor
YOUNG EARNEST. By Gilbert Cannan. New York: D. Apple-
would read one while I pored over the other;
SANINE.
New York: B. W. Huebsch.
ton & Co.


1915]
119
THE DIAL
unhappiness is visited alike on those who those who, lacking vitality, exaggerate the
yield to their instincts and those who do not. satisfactions of physical strength, are as sus-
Until now "Sanine" has been regarded as ceptible to this sort of romanticism exactly as
unsuitable for translation into English, not vulgar, brutish people are susceptible to a
merely because of its scenes of passion (which kind of fine sentiment that amuses or disgusts
could, and to a degree have been, eliminated) persons of a critical sensibility. Those who
but because of its point of view, so alien to thunder against such a book and those who
the Anglo-Saxon in its acceptance of sex hail it with a glad cry are perhaps equally
hunger. Professor William Lyon Phelps mistaken. Its capacity to do good and its
takes M. Artzibashef seriously, assuring us capacity to do harm are alike limited. But
that while the tendency of this novel is to be whatever its defects it is a sincere work.
deplored its art proves the author a man "to Mr. Cannan's “Young Earnest" is very
be reckoned with.” Mr. Gilbert Cannan, who
much in the vein of its predecessor, “Old
has made out as good a case for the book as is
Mole." It is better organized, but there are
possible, takes rather the opposite view. He
not so many good bits in it. No one can possi-
remarks in his Preface to the present version :
bly take exception to it on the same grounds as
" It has been objected to M. Artzibashef's work exception has been taken to M. Artzibashef's
that it deals so little with love and so much with
book. René Fourmy, the "young Earnest”
physical necessity. That arises, I fancy, because
of the title, is an instructor in economics at a
his journalistic intention has overridden his artis-
provincial university who runs away from
tic purpose. He has been exasperated into frank-
his classes and his wife to adopt driving a
ness rather than moved to truth. He has desired
to lay certain facts of modern existence before the
taxi-cab as a profession and to take a Lon-
world and has done so in a form which could gain don factory girl as a mistress. Mr. Cannan
a hearing, as a pure work of art probably could is still vigorously engaged in attacking bour-
not. He has attempted a re-valuation where it geois society. It is characteristic that the
was most needed, where the unhappy Weininger struggle in his hero's mind, which is the strug-
failed. Weininger demanded, insanely, that hu gle to escape from sleep and death,” should
manity should renounce sex and the brutality it
take him from a university instructorship to
fosters; Artzibashef suggests that the brutishness
taxi-driving. It is characteristic, also, that
should be accepted frankly, cleared of confusion
with love, and slowly mastered so that out of pas-
Mr. Cannan should be much more convincing
sion love can grow."
about the sleep and death than about the
escape from it.
The story of how Linda
We suspect that M. Artzibashef will find some
Brock, clever, pretty, conscienceless, set out
little difficulty in understanding what Mr.
to capture René Fourmy is well done; the
Cannan is talking about, if he ever reads the
story of Ann Puddick is well done; and even
English Preface to his novel; but no matter.
the story of Catherine, whom he finally mar-
It is hard to believe that "Sanine” would
ried, is well done. But somehow or other,
have gained less of a hearing if it had been though the women are well sketched in, the
true instead of merely frank, like one of M.
man, who should be something more than a
Brieux's plays, but there is no question about sketch, is never put before us. The book
the justice of Mr. Cannan's adjectives. remains amusing, and sometimes moving, but
“Sanine" is journalistic and frank rather
it is not very real. Mr. Cannan has so much
than artistic and true. M. Artzibashef is
to say about his people that he has to save on
hardly more to be “reckoned with” than any
the space he uses in presenting them. In the
one of a dozen contemporary American nov-
endeavor to put the material of a very long
elists. He has set out to smash certain roman-
novel into a minimum of pages he skips too
tic notions about the sex motive, but in so far much. There are conversations between René
as he is successful he has only substituted one and his mother, René and his father, and
sentimentality for another. His admiration | René and the three women with whom he
for Sanine, the strong, healthy, natural man successively lives, of which one feels that peo-
who always takes what he wants and never ple don't say such things. Mr. Cannan is
regrets, who always says exactly what he aware of it. He has tried to give us the essen-
means and who is as free from illusions as he tials of their talk, having lent his people his
is from doubts, is almost as naive as the own expressiveness in order to save our being
adolescent boy's admiration for Jesse James. bored with their inexpressiveness, but he sac-
Sanine is the kind of dream of strength and rifices too much of the illusion. We feel, as
beauty one might expect a highly introspec we have felt before of Mr. Cannan's novels,
tive, unhappy, and physically weak man to that this book is the artistic experiment, im-
construct for himself. Those who are much mensely interesting, of a talent both “young"
given to the torture of doubt, and especially and “Earnest.”
LUCIAN CARY.


120
[Feb. 16
THE DIAL
>>
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
with treasures . . . Lastly, even at its best
moments, it behaves as though the fate of the
If not his best book, M. Maeter- | being in whose depth it dwells interested it
M. Maeterlinck
on subliminal linck's "The Unknown Guest” hardly at all, as though it had but an insignifi-
phenomena.
(Dodd) is certainly one of the cant share in his misfortunes, feeling assured,
most readable and stimulating works which he one might almost think, of an independent and
has yet produced. The clearness of his style, endless existence.” This “unknown guest
even in an English translation, is nothing pervades the book, and gives to its several
short of amazing and a revelation to English chapters a gripping unity.
readers accustomed to the cumbersome and in-
tricate subtleties of other writers in similar
If you don't believe that agricul-
fields. William James and M. Bergson have
Farming as
the finest of ture is a noble calling, ranking
brought modern philosophies out of the clos professions.
high among the learned profes-
ets; but an infinitely more difficult task is his sions, read Dr. Harvey W. Wiley's book, “The
who brings mysticism into the light of com Lure of the Land" (Century), in which the
mon day and makes of it the most triumphant former Chief Chemist of our national Depart-
sort of common sense. Of the five chapters in ment of Agriculture, now a scientific farmer
the present book, three have already appeared in Virginia, ably and at the same time with
in as many different magazines: "The Knowl- much charm of manner defends the thesis that
edge of the Future," "The Elberfeld Horses,' “farming requires the greatest industry, the
and “The Unknown Guest.” The other two keenest intellect, and the best training of all
chapters, “Phantasms of the Living and the of the professions." Though waiting until
Dead” and “Psychometry, are new. The comparatively late in life before furnishing
book is the second of a trilogy: the first was the most convincing possible proof of his faith
an essay on death, entitled “Our Eternity”; in farming as the worthiest of mortal pursuits,
the present volume, dealing with veridical
Dr. Wiley was born and bred on a farm and
apparitions and hallucinations, psychometric was from childhood familiar with the praises
manifestations, and all manner of subliminal of farming life from his father's lips. A
phenomena, is to be followed by a third which
favorite story often told by that wise father
will “treat of the miracles of Lourdes and was as follows: “A farmer with three sons
other places, the phenomena of so-called was asked what he purposed to make of them.
materialization, of the divining-rod and of He replied: 'John is the brightest of my
fluidic asepsis. In his chapter on “The boys, the most industrious, anxious to work,
Knowledge of the Future,” M. Maeterlinck and quick to learn.
and quick to learn. I am going to make a
presents a brief but trenchant scientific farmer of him. Sam would rather talk than
critique of the mightiest of all mysteries, work, and is fond of telling all he knows and
psychological or theological. His investiga- much that he imagines. I am going to make a
tion at Elberfeld of Herr Krall and his won lawyer of him. Thomas is the laziest one of all
derful "denkende Tiere,” Muhammed, Zarif, my boys. In fact, he is so lazy that he never
and the rest, leaves little to be desired from gets into any trouble of any kind. I am going
the standpoint of scientific criticism, and cer to make a preacher of him.'” One could
tainly nothing at all from that of artistic hardly be better qualified than Dr. Wiley both
presentation. M. Maeterlinck sees in these
to engage intelligently in scientific farming
animals indubitable indications of clairvoy- and to write instructively and entertainingly
ancy, and so thinks it proper to discuss their about it. Going “at a plump age," as he
miracles of rapid calculation and spontaneous expresses it, to till the soil, he has both a stock
thought-origination along with the other mul of useful technical knowledge in agricultural
tiform and restless travailings of the un chemistry and a good supply of apt idioms
known guest." There is within us, he writes, wherewith to communicate his knowledge and
"a strange, inconsistent, whimsical and dis the results of his experience to intending
concerting" entity that « seems to live on farmers and to those other readers who must
nothing but nondescript fare borrowed from content themselves with enjoying his book
worlds to which our intelligence as yet has no without yielding to “the lure of the land.”
access. It lives under our reason, in a sort of Comparatively few are those who can wisely
invisible and perhaps eternal palace, like a and successfully follow his example in taking
casual guest, dropped from another planet, up "farming after fifty," but there are thou-
whose interests, ideas, habits, passions have sands of younger men, already tilling the soil
naught in common with ours It knows or about to engage in that industry, who
everything, perhaps, but is ignorant of the should be able to profit by the admonition and
uses of its knowledge. It has its arms laden advice of this expert agriculturist.


1915)
121
THE DIAL
The war as
The present war will not last the brilliancy and piquancy of his attack, the
a prelude to forever, and it is not too soon to wealth of his material, and the forcefulness
a nobler era.
forecast its effect upon society. with which he repeatedly drives home the sig-
Among those who have sought to pierce the nificant conclusions regarding diseases and
veil of the future is Mr. L. Cecil Jane, whose their social consequences. His latest volume
volume entitled "The Nations at War: The of essays, “Civilization and Health” (Hough-
Birth of a New Era” (Dutton) is a strangely ton), is a rapid-fire defence of the new science
optimistic prophecy. If one half of the bless of preventive medicine, of the utilization of
ings that Mr. Jane categorically states will guinea pigs in medical research, and of the
follow in the train of this war should actually feminist movement in so far as it offers a
ensue, the nations would have secured them at wider field of action for women and is based
a bargain. The author believes that this war on a candid recognition of the physical differ-
will usher in an age of toleration to supersede ences between men and women in their nervous
intolerance in the recognition of nationalism, organization and limitations. He also takes up
and of voluntary assent in place of coercion in the cudgels for the employer's interest in the
government. These two substitutions will ful employee's health, the regulation of industry
fil all the law and the prophets : arbitration from the standpoint of hygiene and health,
will settle international and domestic disputes ; personal and national, lends a hand to the
militarism will perish, because the fallacy of swat the fly” and pure milk campaigns, and
entrusting the maintenance of peace to an has a good word to say for the vacation habit
armed camp has been exposed; the work of and the out-of-door life. Such books make for
the French Revolution will be consummated intelligent citizenship, and for efficiency in the
in the triumph of democracy; strikes will be hygienic functioning of the body politic.
no more, because employer and employee will
approach each other as friends with common
In Mr. James Davenport Whelp-
Varied aspects
interests; the sexes will be on a legal equality;
of American ley's volume entitled " ' Amer-
public life.
the agencies of culture, religion, and govern-
ican Public Opinion” (Dutton)
ment will all press forward with new ideals of
there are presented fourteen essays upon
tolerant coöperation ; statesmen will be sought, varied aspects of the public affairs of this
rather than party-men, by an electorate which
country. All save two have appeared pre-
viously in English or American magazines.
has a new sense of values. Few readers will
go all the way to his Utopia with Mr. Jane, but
Five deal with subjects of a domestic nature,
one may catch something of his enthusiasm,
including two in which there are some observa-
and be the better for it. If the world is going
tions upon the character of public opinion in
to be better after this war, as it must be, not
this country. The other nine deal with phases
one man but millions of men must have the
of foreign policy — the handicaps of the diplo-
faith and the optimism of Mr. Jane. The only
matic service, the Monroe Doctrine, food as an
way that one may sit in the present darkness
international asset, and the relations of the
United States with Mexico, with the Balkan
with any comfort is to believe that the light of
a better day is about to break in men's hearts.
States, with Russia, with Japan, and with the
It is encouraging that such a book as this
Far East in general. There is not in the essays
should find a publisher at the present time.
much that is new or anything that is profound.
There is a good deal that is inaccurate. For
The socialization of medicine in example, in the opening paragraph of “The
Health in its
social aspects volves not only the application Overtaxed Melting-Pot” we are told that the
and significance. of the discoveries of biological immigration measure vetoed in 1913 by Presi-
and medical sciences in the fields of public dent Taft imposed a literacy test upon every
and social hygiene, sanitation, and preventive alien coming to the United States, when as a
medicine, but also the creation of a sound pub- matter of fact large numbers of newcomers
lic opinion based on a knowledge and appre (relatives of admissible aliens) were specifi-
ciation of the discoveries of the past few years cally exempted. And one wonders by what
which are revolutionizing medical science and sort of prescience the author came to the
practice. One of the main factors in the crea knowledge that this measure, re-introduced in
tion of such a public opinion is the ability to the present Congress, would “in time become
command a hearing in this day of health fad a law with the sanction of President Wilson.
dists and of negations. Dr. Woods Hutchin The work of the Immigration Commission of
son wields so trenchant a pen that his readers 1907 is unjustly criticized, and the essay is in
are always interested and entertained, if not other respects at fault. All in all, one cannot
convinced. Unstilted, untechnical, versatile, repress the observation that if these papers
and rich in allusion to affairs past and pres were to be reprinted, they should first have
ent, he challenges the mind of his reader by | been revised and corrected.


122
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
A camera
actress in
The cinematograph is playing
NOTES.
no small part in undermining
West Africa.
Sir J. G. Frazer's selection of Addison's Essays,
the reading habit and lessening
which Messrs. Macmillan have in press, will be
the demand for printed books, particularly published in two volumes in the “ Eversley Series.”
among the rising generation. It is therefore
Professor Roland G. Usher's “ " Pan-American-
somewhat refreshing to discover from the pen
ism: A Forecast of the Inevitable Clash between
of a "movie" actress a serious book devoted to the United States and Europe's Victor” appears
the writer's experiences in West African
among the March announcements of the Century
wilds while collecting films depicting native Co.
life, and when posing as the white heroine in “Chaucer and His Poetry,” by Professor George
Anglo-African cinematograph dramas in con Lyman Kittredge, and "Mediæval Spanish Alle-
junction with Major Schomburgk. Miss M. gory," by Dr. Chandler R. Post, are two volumes
Gehrts's “A Camera Actress in the Wilds of announced for immediate issue by the Harvard
Togoland” (Lippincott) is written with little University Press.
stress on the professional aspects of the au “The Healing of Nations" is the title of Mr.
thor's remarkable trip into the remotest cor Edward Carpenter's new volume of essays which
ners of this German colony. It is, rather, an
is announced for early issue. In the volume are
extensively illustrated narrative of the jour-
essays on "Psychology of War and Recruiting,"
“ War and Lust," and " Conscription."
ney of a very observant woman,- observant
especially of German efficiency in matters of
Mr. Stephen Graham's articles on the Russian
health and sanitation, of the development of
Empire of to-day, and its share in the Great War,
will be republished in a new volume entitled
commerce and industry, and discipline of the
“ Russia and the World." The work will be illus-
native peoples under their control. She is trated with a series of photogravure plates.
chiefly interested in human nature, and as a
Mr. Henry Arthur Jones's volume of three short
result her narrative is concerned more with
plays, which Messrs. George H. Doran Co. have in
the incidents of the expedition than with the press, is entitled “ The Theatre of Ideas.” In the
natural features of the country she explored. Introduction the author satirizes the peace move-
Her excellent photographs and interesting ment and prevalent freak theatre movements of
chapters tell us little of the wild life of the
the day.
jungle, but are replete with accounts of the A collection of "African Adventure Stories"
native tribes.
will be published almost immediately in this coun-
try and England. The author is Mr. J. Alden
Loring, who was field naturalist to the Roosevelt
Talks on life
“The College Course and the
African Expedition, and Mr. Roosevelt contributes
and character
Preparation for Life" (Hough-
by a college
a foreword.
president. ton) is a series of eight talks Miss Evelyn Underhill, who has recently collabo-
delivered at Williams College by Dr. Albert rated with the Indian mystic, Mr. Rabindranath
Parker Fitch, president of the Faculty of Tagore, in the translation of his latest volume,
Andover Theological Seminary. The volume “ Songs of Kabir," is now at work on a book to be
is heartily to be recommended for its sane,
entitled “ Practical Mysticism,” which Messrs. Dut-
stimulating, and vivid discussion of the life
ton will publish.
and the ideals of college students. President A critical biography of Mr. Edward Carpenter
Fitch writes with a candor and an undeviating has been written by Mr. Edward Lewis, and will be
directness which must appeal to even the most
one of the books of the early spring. It will con-
blasé of young men. Fearlessly, nobly, and
tain a systematic exposition of Mr. Carpenter's
with good will for all youth, in his chapter teaching, together with some personal touches
which are only possible from the pen of an inti-
entitled “The Fight for Character” the au-
mate friend.
thor searches with explicit analysis the very
“ The Message of Japan to America,” recently
heart of the temptations of college life, and
published by Messrs. Putnam, is to be followed by
offers wise counsel to those who are dwarfed
a companion volume entitled, “ The Message of the
and cramped by unworthy standards. Whether United States to Japan," written by several repre-
read by collegians or by others, the book will sentative citizens of the United States. The same
prove an ardent and undidactic call to higher publishers announce a study of James Russell
ideals. The chapters on religious experience,
Lowell as a critic, by Mr. Joseph J. Reilly.
as well as those on “The Distaste for the Among the unusually large number of names of
Beautiful” and “Is Learning Essential ?” re prominent English and American novelists repre-
veal much that is profoundly significant in
sented on the spring announcement lists are those
the trend of modern life. Here, and through-
of Messrs. H. G. Wells, William Locke, E. F.
Benson, Maurice Hewlett, W. L. Comfort, Arthur
out the book, the keen idealism of a tolerant
Bullard (“Albert Edwards”), Frank Harris,
yet critical observer gives special zest to all Joseph Conrad, Eden Phillpotts, and Theodore
that President Fitch has to say.
Dreiser.


1915]
123
THE DIAL
--
a
Mr. Francis Gribble, who was in Luxemburg at Southern California, who wish to make this fur-
the outbreak of the war, and is now held by the ther announcement of their undertaking in order
Germans as a prisoner, has a new book coming to avoid any possible duplication of their labors.
out very soon dealing with “ The Royal House of Communications regarding the work may be ad-
Portugal.” The author traces the history of the dressed to Professor L. N. Broughton, Ithaca, N. Y.
House of Braganza back from its earliest days to Fairyland," the opera by Messrs. Brian
the revolution which resulted in its exile in this Hooker and Horatio Parker which was awarded
country.
first prize by the National Committee of the San
Under the title of “ The Lonely Nietzsche,” the Francisco Exposition, will be published this month
Sturgis & Walton Co. will soon publish the second by the Yale University Press. Other February
and concluding volume of the authorized life of books of this house include a new translation of
Friedrich Nietzsche, written by his sister, Mrs. Dante's “Divine Comedy,” prepared by Professor
Förster-Nietzsche. The first volume, “ The Young Henry Johnson; “ Yale Yesterdays," by the late
Nietzsche," dealt with the years of childhood and Clarence Deming; “ Centenary of the Yale Medi-
adolescence of the philosopher; the present book cal School," edited by Dr. William H. Carmalt;
recounts the later half of his career.
“ Critical Essays of the Eighteenth Century,"
The Drama League of America announces
edited by Dr. Willard H. Durham, and the first
prize of one hundred dollars, offered by Miss Kate volume of Bracton's “ De Legibus et Consuetudini-
Oglebay, National Chairman of the Junior Work, bus Angliæ," edited by Professor George E.
for the best play for children from six to sixteen
Woodbine.
years of age, submitted to the National Committee The Dunlap Society of New York has planned
by June 1, 1915, and meeting the requirements out the publication of books and prints relating to the
lined in their recent Bulletin. The prize-winning American stage. The first publication of the so-
play will be published by Messrs. Macmillan, the ciety will be “An Authentic and Impartial Record
author of it receiving the usual royalties from of the Career of Dion Boucicault” by Mr. Town-
publication.
send Walsh. Other volumes soon to be issued
The Rev. Fr. C. C. Martindale, S.J., has ac-
include "A Memoir of Steele MacKaye," by Mr.
cepted the invitation of Cardinal Bourne and Percy MacKaye, “A Short Account of the Earlier
Mr. A. C. Benson to write the authorized Life of Activities of the Dunlap Society, with a Descrip-
Monsignor R. Hugh Benson. He will be glad to tive List of Its Publications,” by Messrs. Brander
receive letters written by Monsignor Benson from Matthews and Evert Jansen Wendell, "A History
any who are kind enough to lend them. They may of Mitchel's Olympic Theatre" by Mr. Thomas J.
be sent to him at Stonyhurst College, Blackburn, McKee, and a history of the New York stage from
England, and will in all cases be returned. No 1900 to date, of which the first volume will appear
other biography will be authorized by Monsignor in the autumn.
Benson's representatives.
A complete translation of Treitschke's history
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
of modern Germany, in five volumes, running to a
million and a half words, is being arranged by a (The following list, containing 57 titles, includes books
London publisher. It is expected that the first received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
volume will be ready in April, and that the work
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES.
will be completed at the rate of one volume every Stiegel Glass : A Biography of Henry_William
three months. For this edition a supplementary Stiegel and an Account of the Method Employed
volume will be written for publication after the
by Him in the Manufacture of Glass. By Fred-
erick William Hunter, A.M. Illustrated in color,
present war, carrying the narrative from the point etc., large 8vo, 272 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
at which it was left by Treitschke down to the
$10. net.
Some Old Scots Judges: Anecdotes and Impressions.
declaration of peace.
By W. Forbes Gray. With portraits, 8vo, 317
E. P. Dutton & Co. $3. net.
Mr. Frederick W. Jenkins, librarian of the Nathan Hale, 1776: Biography and Memorials. By
Russell Sage Foundation Library, wishes other Henry Phelps Johnston. Revised and enlarged
Yale
librarians to know of his collection of duplicate
edition; illustrated, large 8vo, 296 pages.
University Press. $2.35 net.
publications on applied sociology.
These are
The Life of Cervantes. By Robinson Smith. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 121 pages. E. P. Dutton &
available for distribution, and full information on
Co. $1. net.
the subject, together with the first instalment of a
GENERAL LITERATURE.
list of these offered duplicates, will be found in the Fantastics, and Other Fancies. By Lafcadio Hearn;
January “Library Journal," which continues the edited by Charles Woodward Hutson. 12mo, 242
"Limited Edition." Houghton Miffin
list in subsequent numbers. Care has been taken to
$5. net.
exclude worthless matter from the list, so that Mr.
The Villa for Coelebs. By J. H. Yoxall. 8vo, 344
E. P. Dutton & Co. $2. net.
Jenkins's offer is something better than an appeal The Plays of Eugène Brieux. By P. V. Thomag.
for congestion-relief.
12mo, 111 pages. John W. Luce & Co.
The Orchard Pavilion. By Arthur Christopher Ben-
The undertaking of a concordance to the Poeti-
16mo, 136 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
cal Works of Robert Browning was announced at
$1. net.
the annual meeting of the Concordance Society of
NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE.
America, held at Columbia University, December
The Song of Roland. Translated into English verse
by Leonard Bacon. 8vo, 160 pages. Yale Uni-
30, 1914. This new work is under the editorship of versity Press. $1.50 net.
Professor L. N. Broughton of Cornell University
The Small Hymn-book: The World-book of the
Yattendon Hymnal. Edited by Robert Bridges.
and Professor B. F. Stelter of the University of 16mo. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.
pages.
pages.
Co.
pages.
son.


124
(Feb. 16
THE DIAL
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Collected and
edited by E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry.
New edition; in 10 volumes, illustrated in photo-
gravure, etc., 8vo. Charles Scribner's Sons.
$20. net.
The English Poems of Henry King, D.D., 1592-1669.
Collected and edited by Lawrence Mason, Ph.D.
Illustrated, 12mo, 226 pages. Yale University
Press. $1.35 net.
The History of England: From the Accession of
James the Second. By Lord Macaulay; edited
by Charles Harding Firth, M.A. Volume V.
Illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo. Macmillan
Co.
$3.25 net.
DRAMA AND VERSE.
New Poems. By Robert Browning and Elizabeth
Barrett Browning; edited by Sir Frederic G.
Kenyon. With photogravure portraits, 12mo,
186 pages.
Macmillan Co. $1.25 net.
The Free Spirit: Realizations of Middle Age, with
a Note on Personal Expression. By Henry Bryan
Binns. 12mo, 175
pages. B. W. Huebsch.
$1.50 net.
Possession: One-act Plays of Contemporary Life.
By George Middleton. 12mo, 217 pages. Henry
Holt & Co. $1.35 net.
The Witchmaid, and Other Verses. By Dorothea
Mackellar. 12mo, 99 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
$1. net.
The Conquest, and Other Poems. By Richard Os-
borne. 12mo, 271 pages.
Richard G. Badger.
A Page of Dreams. By George Klingle. 12mo, 126
pages. Richard G. Badger. $1. net.
FICTION.
Mrs. Martin's Man. By St. John G. Ervine. 12mo,
312 pages.
Macmillan Co. $1.35 net.
James. By W. Dane Bank. 12mo, 320 pages.
George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net.
Three Gentlemen from New Caledonia. By R. D.
Hemingway and Henry de Halsalle. 12mo, 437
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.35 net.
The Haunted Heart. By Agnes and Egerton Castle.
Illustrated, 12mo, 396 pages. D. Appleton &
Co. $1.35 net.
The Dusty Road. By Therese Tyler. With frontis-
piece, 12mo, 326 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co.
$1.25 net.
Sheep's Clothing. By Louis Joseph Vance. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 279 pages. Little, Brown & Co.
$1.25 net.
The Romances of Amosis Ra. By Frederic Thurs-
tan. 12mo, 388 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co.
Homeburg Memories. By George Fitch. Illug-
trated, 12mo, 302 pages. Little, Brown & Co.
$1.25 net.
The Magic Tale of Harvanger and Yolande. By
G. P. Baker. 12mo, 358 pages. George H. Doran
Co. $1.35 net.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.
The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the
Australian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914. By
Sir Douglas Mawson, D.Sc. In 2 volumes; illus-
trated in photogravure, etc., large 8vo. J. B.
Lippincott Co. $9. net.
Antarctic Adventure: Scott's Northern Party. By
Raymond E. Priestley. Illustrated, large 8vo,
382 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $5. net.
The Old East Indiamen. By E. Keble Chatterton.
Illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo, 343 pages.
J. B. Lippincott Co. $3. net.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS.- POLITICS, SOCIOLOGY,
AND ECONOMICS.
Welfare as an Economic Quantity. By G. P. Wat-
kins. 12mo, 191 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co.
$1.50 net.
The Law and the Poor. By Edward Abbott Parry.
8vo, 314 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net.
The Middle West Side and Mothers Who Must Earn.
By Otho G. Cartwright and Katharine Anthony.
Illustrated, 8vo, 223 pages. Survey Associates,
Inc. $2. net.
Conciliation and Arbitration in the Coal Industry
of America. By Arthur E. Suffern, M.A. 8vo,
371 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $2. net.
Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy. By Senator
Tommaso Tittoni; translated by Baron Bernardo
Quaranta di San Severino. With portrait, 8vo,
334 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net.
Boyhood and Lawlessness, and The Neglected Girl.
By Ruth S. True. Illustrated, 8vo, 143 pages.
Survey Associates, Inc. $2. net.
The Essence and the Ethics of Politics: Individual
Messages to the Public Conscience. By S. Arthur
Cook. 12mo, 348 pages. The Abingdon Press.
$1.25 net.
The Creation of Wealth: Modern Efficiency Methods
Analyzed and Applied. By J. H. Lockwood.
12mo, 225 pages. Cincinnati: The Standard
Publishing Co. $1. net.
BOOKS ABOUT THE WAR.
Germany and Europe. By J. W. Allen. 12mo, 133
pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net.
The Nations at War: The Birth of a New Era.
By L. Cecil Jane. 12mo, 228
pages. E. P.
Dutton & Co. $1. net.
Austria-Hungary and the War. By Ernest Lud-
wig; with Preface by Konstantin Theodor
Dumba. With frontispiece, 12mo, 220 pages.
J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Co.
August, 1914: The Coming of the War. By Spenser
Wilkinson. 12mo, 89 pages. Oxford University
Press.
The Economie Strength of Great Britain. By Harold
Cox. 12mo, 8 pages. Macmillan Co. Paper,
10 cts. net.
BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
Who's Who (in England), 1915. 8vo, 2375 pages.
Macmillan Co. $3.75 net.
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by
James Hastings and others. Volume VII., 4to,
911 pages.
Charles Scribner's Sons.
The Desk standard Dictionary of the English Lan-
guage. Abridged by James C. Fernald, L.H.D.
Illustrated, large 8vo, 894 pages. Funk & Wag-
nalls Co. $1.50 net.
The Englishman's Pocket Latin-English and En-
glish-Latin Dictionary. By S. C. Woodhouse,
M.A. 16mo, 491 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
75 cts. net.
Classified Catalogue of the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh, 1907-1911. Part X., 8vo. Pitts-
burgh: Carnegie Library, Paper.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Eficiency in
the
Household. By Thetta Quay
Franks. 8vo. Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.50 net.
A Handbook of American Pageantry. By Ralph
Davol. Illustrated, 8vo, 236 pages. Taunton,
Mass.: Davol Publishing Co.
Law and Usage of War: A Practical Handbook of
the Law and Usage of Land and Naval Warfare
and Prize. By Sir Thomas Barclay. 12mo, 245
pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50 net.
Some Staccato Notes for Singers. By Marie Withrow.
16mo, 111 pages.
Oliver Ditson Co. $1. net.
A Decade of American Government in the Phil.
ippines, 1903-1913. By David P. Barrows, LL.D.
With portrait, 12mo, 66 pages. World Book Co.
Report of the Smithsonian Institution, for the Year
Ending June 30, 1913. Illustrated, large 8vo,
804 pages. Washington: Government Printing
Office.
The New Chivalry. By Henry E. Jackson. 12mo,
122 pages.
George H. Doran Co. 50 cts. net.
Makers of America: Franklin, Washington, Jeffer-
son, and Lincoln, By Emma Lilian Dana. With
portraits, 12mo, 205 pages. New York: Immi-
grant Publication Society. Paper.
MRS. RACHEL WEST CLEMENT
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THE DIAL
A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
PAGE
THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published fortnightly
every other Thursday except in July and August, in which
WAR AND POETRY.
one issue for each month will appear. TERMS OF SUBSCRIP-
TION, $2. a year in advance, postage prepaid in the United
A German visitor came to the United
States and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian postage 50 cents
per year extra. REMITTANCES should be by check, or by States not long ago for the purpose of sound-
earpress or postal order, payable to THE DIAL. Unless other.
wise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current num-
ing American sentiment upon the subject of
ber. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of
the great war. After some weeks of investiga-
subscription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of
the subscription is desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on tion, during which he interviewed many peo-
application.
ple in the various walks of life, and read his
Published by THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY,
632 So. Sherman St., Chicago.
fill of newspaper and magazine comment, he
Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post became a very despondent and chastened per-
Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
son. In conversation one day, the discussion
turned upon the bankruptcy of German diplo-
Vol. LVIII. MARCH 4, 1915 No. 689
macy in the weeks preceding the outbreak of
hostilities, and it was suggested to him that
CONTENTS.
the capital error of his country was to be found
WAR AND POETRY.
133
in its failure to understand the psychology of
CASUAL COMMENT
135
the English people. He admitted the justice
The road to authorship: - Seekers after
curious and rare bits of information. An
of the criticism, and added with a sigh: “We
embarrassing obligation.— The passion for did not know how they hated us," – thereby
textual criticism.- Juvenile disrespect for
affording an illustration more striking than
literary property.- French poetry and Ger.
man poetry.- Readers behind the bars. any argument in its illumination of the charge.
The place of criticism.- Books as food for Now we knew very well how the Germans
the flames.- Common sense in bibliography.
hate the English. The passion is expressed in
One of the famous lawsuits of fiction.-
Books“
never in.” — Literary diplomats.-
thousands of sayings, both private and official,
The library as pacificator.– A set-back to that have of late found issue from the German
simplified spelling.- The lure of the édition
mind, and is a national attitude merely crys-
de luxe.- A university printing house.
COMMUNICATIONS
140
tallized in Herr Ernst Lissauer's "Hassge-
A French Feminist of To-day. Benj. M. sang,” which has been so adroitly turned into
Woodbridge.
English and so widely read. When this truly
Ruskin and War. Ralph Bronson.
When Is a Novel not a Novel? W. M. P.
hateful poem came to the attention of the
Did Milton Nodi W. F. Warren.
English public, it was accompanied (in a letter
Imperial Japanese Poetry. Ernest W. Clem-
to “The Spectator'') by an expression of
ent.
ONE WHOM THE GODS LOVED. Percy F.
naive surprise that it should have been first
Bicknell
143 published in “Jugend,” which from its title
CLASSICS ON THE ART OF PLAY-MAKING. would seem to be “a magazine for boys and
H. C. Chatfield-Taylor
145
girls." So even the most ghastly subjects are
EUROPEAN TRAVEL IN THE EIGHTEENTH
sometimes lighted up by flashes of unconscious
CENTURY. Clark S. Northup
147
CHARACTER-READING THROUGH THE
humor. Probably no German in these heated
FEATURES. M. V. O'Shea
149 days could grasp the simple and obvious truth
A SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA. that an outburst against Germany in Herr
Raymond M. Alden
151
Lissauer's violent strain could not possibly be
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
152
Lincoln the apostle of democracy.- Humors
a product of the English mind. We can read-
of the Scottish law-courts.-A study of musi ily imagine an Englishman of the type, say,
cal psychology.- Twenty great British writ-
of Mr. Galsworthy or Mr. Watson or Mr. Hew-
ers. - — The land of the Aztecs.— Impressions
of things out of the ordinary.— Fifty years lett, countering with an entirely sincere and
in Madagascar.– An unsolved problem in heartfelt "Liebesgesang” for the country of
modern medicine.- The bible of Renaissance
architects.
the enemy - although such an expression
NOTES.
156
would of course be addressed to the Germany
TOPICS IN MARCH PERIODICALS
158 of Goethe and Schiller, of Beethoven and
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
159 Wagner, of Kant and Schopenhauer, the coun-
.
.
•
O


134
(March 4
THE DIAL
try of the soul cherished in countless English the horror of last autumn, now still upon the
hearts, rather than to the
to the Germany of world, affords a case in point. It must be ad-
Treitschke and Bernhardi and the Prussian mitted that Browne's "Bugle Echoes," which
Kaiser, or of the excited German professors represents the best possible gleaning from that
whose manifesto last autumn was such a field of endeavor, is a work that contains very
shock to the moral consciousness of the world's little poetry of enduring value. We who knew
commonwealth of ideas. In very truth, no one the poems of the Civil War period when they
who has the least understanding of the En came white-hot from the heart and imagina-
glish psychology believes that its attitude tion of their singers, are still reluctant to
toward the Germans is one of hatred. It hates acquiesce in any appraisal that allows them
the evil of the German policies and pedantic no more than their eternal and objective value,
methods of warfare, but it retains a deep and but there remain, after all, very few pieces
genuine sympathy for the German people, and that belong to the world's golden treasury.
does not withhold from them its meed of praise Lowell's "Commemoration Ode" and Whit-
for their valor in arms, for their self-sacrifice man's “When lilacs last in the dooryard
and devotion to the Fatherland, and for the bloomed,” are about all that we are sure of,
beau geste that occasionally shines out through to which, for our inglorious little war of a
the murk of the strife. Those who imagine later date, must be added Moody's “Ode in
that Englishmen hate the Germans are of the Time of Hesitation." Mr. Stedman seems to
purblind tribe who find in the "Divine
find in the “Divine have said the last word of wisdom upon this
Comedy" merely a record of Dante's personal subject:
hatreds, and the expression of his vindictive " The late Civil War was not of itself an incen-
ness toward his enemies. Meanwhile, a differ-
tive to good poetry and art, nor directly productive
of them. Such disorders seldom are; action is a
ent sort of counter to the attack is provided
substitute for the ideal, and the thinker's or dream-
from America in Miss Helen Gray Cone's
er's life seems ignoble and repugnant. But we shall
beautiful “Song of Love for England,” pub see that the moral and emotional conflicts preceding
lished in “The Atlantic Monthly” a month the war, and leading to it, were largely stimulating
to poetic ardor; they broke into expression, and
ago.
buoyed with earnest and fervid sentiment our
The relations between poetry and war have
heroic verse.
The Civil War was a general
long been a subject of literary discussion and absorbent at the crisis when a second group of
even of controversy. There are some who hold poets began to form. The conflict not only checked
that such a flowering of a nation's passion as
the rise of a new school, but was followed by a time
is manifested by its participation in war is
of languor in which the songs of Apollo seemed
trivial to those who had listened to the shout of
bound to arouse and stimulate the poetical | Mars."
faculty to unwonted exaltations of expression. We cannot, then, predict with any assurance
By a careful process of selection, the facts may that the world war of this year will bear
often be made to fit in with this thesis, and the fruit of a poetical renascence. If it should,
give it plausible support. On the other hand, the ripening will be slow, and the harvest long
a broader view will tend to dislodge such a delayed. There is no indication that the poet
conclusion, and lead us back to the proposition for the occasion now exists anywhere - unless
that the wind of the spirit of genius “bloweth he be M. Verhaeren as the poet was found
where it listeth,” and that no historical syn in 1870-71 in the person of Victor Hugo, who
thesis can establish a sure relation (except for forged “L'Année Terrible” in the white heat
Tyrtæan strains) between the agony of war of his passionate indignation. No one seems
and the agony whereby the poet's mind is capable just now of getting the right perspec-
impelled to teach in song what it has learned tive, or striking a deeper note than that of
in suffering.
vehemence and outraged sensibility. Probably
“ Vex thou not the poet's mind
the finest poem occasioned by the Franco-
With thy shallow wit,"
Prussian war was George Meredith's "France
is an injunction that may profitably be laid in December, 1870," written at the time, it is
upon the theorists who are disposed to formu- true, but with so deep and comprehensive an
late rules upon which the poetic faculty per- understanding of its theme that it now reads
force must act.
like the verdict of the ages. But we scan the
Our own Civil War, one of the greatest in horizon in vain for a Meredith in this super-
history until all comparisons were dwarfed by terrible year.


1915)
135
THE DIAL
All this does not mean that the poets, such
CASUAL COMMENT.
as they are, have been silent during the past
half-year. They have risen promptly, even too THE ROAD TO AUTHORSHIP is of varying
promptly, to the appeal, and dashed off com length. Some writers produce books in their
positions innumerable showing their hearts to
early 'teens, while others, not less endowed
be in the right place (Tipperary or else-
with the vision and the faculty divine, yet
want the accomplishment of book-writing,
where), but not often reaching the heights of
and die with only a meagre magazine article
which their previous performances have shown
or two to their credit. An instance not at all
them capable. The flow of their rhymes has
belonging in this latter class comes to our
too often been turgid, and its waters anything attention. In 1890 a young colored man of
but crystal-clear. Now and then, indeed, as in Alabama was so fortunate as to find himself
Mr. Barry Pain's lines on “The Kaiser and in the neighborhood of Tuskegee and yielded
God,” we get a really impressive bit of verse: to the impulse to seek an interview with Mr.
“Impious braggart, you forget;
Booker Washington, in the hope of gaining
God is not your conscript yet;
admittance to the Institute under the latter's
You shall learn in dumb amaze
superintendence. In answer to certain ques-
That His ways are not your ways,
tions put to him as an entrance examination,
That the mire through which you trod
the young man was unable even to tell the
Is not the high white road of God,
county or the state or the nation in which he
lived, and when interrogated as to the parts
To Whom, whichever way the combat rolls,
We, fighting to the end, commend our souls."
of speech he answered that they were the lips,
teeth, tongue, and throat. Nevertheless he
But it must be admitted that the poetry of the
was admitted to the Tuskegee Institute and
war has thus far proved a disappointment.
was put to work at stripping fodder from
The output of English verse upon this theme sorghum cane. It is this member of our large
seems to deserve, as a whole, the treatment negro population who now comes before the
given it in these lines by a London journalist: book-reading public as author of "The Black
“ Has Robert Bridges's success with fighting
Man's Burden,” evidently a not insignificant
Been such as to encourage emulation?
piece of work, to which the Principal of Tus-
Or Dr. Watson's 'bit them in the Bight'-ing? kegee contributes an introduction, and which
Or the same author's other lucubration
one critic pronounces to be “among the six
(Yet one more blow for a disthressful nation)
greatest works by members of the negro race"
In which, dead gravelled for a rhyme for 'Ireland,
that he has read. Mr. William H. Holtzclaw
He struggled out with motherland and sireland'?
for he is the author was graduated from
“ Did even the voice from Rudyard Kipling's shelf | Tuskegee in 1898, and has since then founded
Say anything it had not said before?
and built up the Utica Normal and Industrial
And was not Stephen Phillips just himself?
Institute, at Utica, Mississippi, which to-day
And was not Newbolt's effort on the war
has more than five hundred pupils, taught by
Distinctly less effective than of yore?
thirty-five instructors, and owns 1700 acres of
And would not German shrapnel in the leg be land, with fourteen buildings. And less than
Less lacerating than the verse of Begbie?
twenty-five years ago the head of this great
After all, poets exist by the grace of God, school and the author of the notable book that
and neither war nor any other fortuitous cir has served as text to these rather desultory re-
cumstance can create them. If they are on marks did not know the parts of speech.
hand in a great spiritual crisis like the pres-
ent, well and good; but we must not expect SEEKERS AFTER CURIOUS AND RARE BITS OF
them to be struck off from the mint of human INFORMATION furnish more occupation to ref-
potentiality even by such a struggle as the erence-room attendants than all other persons
present, in which all the interests and ideals combined. Experience in library work has
that civilization holds dear are at stake. The proved that there is almost no imaginable
real singers of the present cataclysm may be
query that may not at any time be sprung
yet unborn, and that Weltgericht which it is
upon the supposedly omniscient librarian or
some member of his staff.
the peculiar mission of the poet to pronounce
For instance,
earnest inquiry was once made, in our hearing,
upon it may not find expression until the hor-
at a certain public library, concerning the
rors of this war have become as
color of the Duc de Reichstadt's hair and eyes,
“Old, unhappy, far-off things,
and as to whether his hair was curly or
And battles long ago."
straight; and another inquirer wished to
WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. know how much port wine was consumed in


136
March 4
THE DIAL
England in the year 1716. No veteran library too little read) who by her graces and accom-
worker would be surprised or very much dis-plishments as hostess could so delight those
concerted at being abruptly asked whether who gathered about her rather meagre board
Queen Elizabeth was in the habit of putting that they became unaware whether they were
her right shoe on before her left, or the re partaking of simple bread and butter and tea
verse; or whether dentistry was known to the or were feasting on ambrosia and nectar, but
ancient Egyptians; or what proportion of with a subsequent impression that it had been
those wounded in the battle of Hastings died ambrosia and nectar.
of their injuries. In order to meet with smil-
ing confidence such manifestations of extraor-
dinary, thirst for knowledge, libraries are now
THE PASSION FOR TEXTUAL CRITICISM has un-
more and more following the practice of index-
doubtedly been indulged in with less restraint
ing and classifying their available stores of by German scholars than by the scholars of
out-of-the-way information. The Chicago
any other country, and the stock illustration
Public Library has begun a "Facts and Fig.
of this passion raised to its highest power is
ures Index” of this nature. From a week's
the traditional but unauthenticated instance
list of inquiries it publishes a few sample ques-
of the learned Teuton who devoted a lifetime
tions on the preparation of peanuts for mar-
to the study and explanation of a certain
ket, the number of buildings erected in large punctuation mark in an ancient manuscript,
cities in 1913, the regulations for packing only to discover at the very end that it was
motion-picture films for shipping, the rise in nothing but a fly-speck after all. A conspicu-
real-estate values, the amount of food con-
ous example of industry and zeal in textual
sumed by the nations at war, the number
criticism was the late Ingram Bywater, for-
of deaths attributable to alcohol, and other merly Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford,
equally interesting matters. If one would
who died in one of the last days of the past
learn the vast range and variety of his own
year, and whose titles and honors and list of
ignorance, let him serve for a week as refer- scholarly publications make a most impressive
ence librarian in a large library.
showing. He edited with microscopic care the
fragments of Heraclitus, the works of Pris:
cianus Lydus, Aristotle's "Nicomachean
AN EMBARRASSING OBLIGATION that has often Ethics” and “Poetics," and wrote a treatise
made itself felt outside the library world is on the textual criticism of the “Ethics." But
the subject of some editorial remarks in the it was his work on the “Poetics” that consti-
"Library Occurrent” the quarterly publica- tuted his magnum opus, though that frag-
tion of the Indiana Public Library Commis mentary disquisition itself is but an opuscule,
sion. After giving suggestions for district an inconsiderable item in the list of Aristotle's
meetings of library workers, the writer refers works. Years of painstaking research were
to two reasons that “clearly seem to have devoted to this task, and it was not until 1897,
deterred some districts from meeting oftener: when Bywater was fifty-seven years old, that
difficulty in finding an easily accessible meet he ventured to give to the world his recension
ing place, and fear of social obligations con of the text, with critical commentary. Then
nected with the meeting. As to the latter followed a dozen years of further study of the
reason,—“District meetings are professional Aristotelian text, after which, in 1909, he
meetings, and, though there is properly a so issued his final enlarged and emended work
cial atmosphere when friends meet, there on the “Poetics,” accompanied by a transla-
should be no attempt on the part of the host tion and elaborate commentary. From that
to furnish refreshments or entertainment. time until his death he had lived, more em-
Unquestionably, such hospitality adds much to phatically than before, the life of a scholarly
the pleasure of the meeting, but the expressed recluse among his books, in his home at Onslow
opinions of many librarians make as unques Square, London.
tionable the fact that many librarians whose
boards are unwilling to pay for such entertain JUVENILE DISRESPECT FOR LITERARY PROP-
ment and who themselves cannot afford to do ERTY, or, in plainer language, young people's
so, feel it impossible to invite the district to tendency to steal books, has compelled the
meet with them. Either such entertaining trustees of the Cambridge (Mass.) Public
should be entirely omitted or the district itself, Library to discontinue, so far as the children
if it so votes, should contribute towards the of that city of culture are concerned, the free-
expense. Possibly a useful hint might here dom of access to bookshelves which is the glory
be conveyed by citing the example of the and the pride of those library workers who like
charming Mrs. Ware (wife of the author of to believe that the great public is becoming
"Zenobia," "Julian,' and other books now more and more intelligently and conscien-


1915)
137
THE DIAL
home."
tiously responsive to the increasing opportuni- poet sings of love and home; you feel that
ties and privileges extended to it by those who there is at least a possibility that the passion
purvey to its literary needs. An inventory, of to-day will outlast the year, or the years.
the first one in five years, has lately been com Constancy is one of its very elements. When
pleted in the juvenile department of the Cam the French poet sings of love, it is very deli-
bridge library, and it reveals a loss, by theft cate, rosy, beautiful, but we do not hear of
or otherwise, of more than a thousand vol-
These quotations are from the just-
umes. Hence the trustees' action in enclosing published biography of Sill, reviewed on an-
the formerly open children's shelves. “The other page.
new arrangement,” reports the librarian, “is
working admirably from the point of view of READERS BEHIND THE BARS of prison cells
both the children and the attendants. Its make a peculiar appeal to the library worker,
economic, administrative and educational ad- and library-extension activities in our penal
vantages seem already assured. It makes institutions are increasing at an encouraging
practicable the keeping of the books in better rate. Stone walls do not a prison make, nor
condition, and the room in better order. It iron bars a cage, to a convict absorbed in a
enables the attendants to know that a book not good book. To the old school of penologists
in its proper place on the shelves is really out this would seem to be an argument for with-
and not merely misplaced. It tends, by empha- holding the good book, but luckily the ten-
sizing our own care for the books, to make the dency now is to lessen the rigors of incarcera-
children more reverent and careful of them. tion in various reformatory ways, including
Above all, it obviates the moral risk involved the influence of wholesome literature. In the
in an arrangement which, because of the struc “Seventh Biennial Report of the Nebraska
tural plan of the room, permitted among chil Public Library Commission" a very readable
dren frequent and undetected thefts." It section treats of the Commission's supervision
may be that these children will value their of libraries in State institutions. Here is a
later and less restricted library privileges the passage: “In writing of his library work with
more highly for this early curb to their law the men at the penitentiary, one of our former
lessness.
librarians says, 'A prison library can be the
drive wheel on the engine of discipline.' This
FRENCH POETRY AND GERMAN POETRY were
once compared, or contrasted, by Edward
same man, whose first introduction to a library
Rowland Sill, in humorously realistic phrase,
was in our state prison, after his release sent
in from one of our far western counties for a
in one of his familiar letters. He said: “I am
traveling library for the girls and boys of the
coming to believe the Germans an unpoetic community. The books had to be hauled thirty
people — even their greatest poets are pretty miles from the railroad. This fall he sent for
wordy and dull and clumsy. But there is a
another library and sent an additional request
school of modern French poets worth trans-
for books for the nearest school. Still later,
lating. I have been doing some of Sully Prud-
another request was received from this same
homme, for instance. It is - to the Germans
district. We are proud indeed of the work
as cloud-fluff to cheese." In the same vein
this man is voluntarily doing and to know
one of his published bits of prose has this:
that his interest in libraries is a permanent
"Perhaps the best topics on which to feel the
difference are those two immemorial inspirers of Nebraska, where whole counties are still
one." It needs but a glance at a library map
of song, war and love. When the German poet library-less, to demonstrate the opportunity
sings of war, it is with the solemnity of there offered for an unlimited amount of such
Körner's "Gebet während der Schlacht.'
library-extension work as this ex-convict is
When the French poet sings of it, it is with
the 'Gai! Gai!' of Béranger. In the one, you
now so zealously doing.
hear the heavy tread of men, a dull, regular
beat, which, after all, is not very distinguish THE PLACE OF CRITICISM in the scheme of
able to the ear, as to whether it be an advanc- things is one to which the critics themselves
ing column or a funeral march. In the other are, naturally enough, prone to ascribe too
you hear only the bugles ringing and shouts of much importance. In a current magazine
enthusiasm and excitement.” In what fol article on "The Acid of Criticism” the Rev.
lows the Germans seem to have the better of Hugh Black says some things that apply not
it; or are the French here, too, more truly only to Bible criticism, which is his main
poetic? “In their treatment of love there is theme, but also to literary criticism in general
even sharper contrast. The German word and, in fact, to criticism in a still more inclu-
Liebe has quite a different atmosphere of sug sive sense. It is well to be reminded, now and
gestion from the French amour. The German | then, that criticism commonly, though not


138
[ March 4
THE DIAL
always, “deals with the fringe, the methods “hindsight” in the fireproofing of libraries are
and the outward manifestations of life. There cited by the Michigan Library Association in
is room for criticism, for thought, for reason an appeal to the State Legislature to provide
in the unfathomable depths of divine truth, safe quarters for the Michigan State Library
but these do not generate the truth. It is at Lansing.
intuitive. The child, the ignorant, the un-
learned may see it. It is to be seen, not argued
COMMON SENSE IN BIBLIOGRAPHY needs to be
about. Men spoke before the laws of gram-
preached to the enthusiastic bibliographer.
mar were propounded. Men reasoned before
Here is a wise word from the current number
Aristotle built up logic. Men sang before the
of “The Papers of the Bibliographical Society
theory of music was dreamed of. Men ate of America,” the writer being Mr. Frederick
before the chemistry of edibles was studied.
W. Jenkins: “To my mind the greatest need
Men believed before the theology was built up
is not more of the mechanical records of every
into a system to formulate their faith. The good, bad, and indifferent publication, but an
explanation may be difficult, but the thing indication of really important articles and
itself is simple. The science of it may be im- pamphlets, as well as books. In using such
perfect and hard, but the thing itself is intui-
records I find nine-tenths of the entries only
tive-a flash, a gleam, an inspiration, an act.'
an annoyance. The scholarly tendency to put
Those who believe that the first duty of criti-
down every conceivable thing is like the crazy
cism is to be constructive and not destructive, librarian who saves everything in type. The
positive and not negative, sympathetic and
real service to the public is to make a list of
generously appreciative rather than antipa- the things one really needs to read. It is a
thetic and grudgingly laudatory, will enjoy mighty unimportant thing practically to peo-
reading in full the utterance here fragmen-ple to see a catalogue of everything that has
tarily cited. It is to be found in the February been printed on a certain point; 99 per cent.
number of “Everybody's Magazine.”
of the value rests in finding what there is that
is worth consulting.” This is from an article
on “Bibliography and its Relation to Social
BOOKS AS FOOD FOR THE FLAMES are expen-
Work”. a not very obvious relation at first
sive fuel. The number of valuable libraries
thought, but still existent, else Mr. Jenkins
that, partly or wholly, have in recent years
could not have filled four octavo pages on the
gone up in smoke is larger than most people subject. Other papers in the same issue are
would suspect. The fire in the Wisconsin
a "Bibliographical Outline of French-Cana-
State House destroyed several department dian Literature," by Mr. James Geddes, Jr.,
libraries and the travelling library collections
a short article on the proposed check-list of
there in store. The Maryland Institute lost by Canadian public documents, by Mr. Lawrence
fire a rich collection of works on art and archi-
J. Burpee, and an account of the Durrett Col-
tecture, more than twenty thousand volumes lection in the Library of the University of
in all. McGill University suffered a like de Chicago, more especially its newspapers, by
struction of its medical library; the Spring. Mr. Edward A. Henry.
field (Mass.) City Library has experienced a
serious loss by damage to its books by fire;
ONE OF THE FAMOUS LAWSUITS OF FICTION is
Turin's ancient university had one hundred
recalled to the novel-reader's mind by the
thousand volumes of its library reduced to
recent death of David Jennings in the work-
ashes; a branch of the St. Louis Public
house at Wolverhampton, England. He was
Library was wiped out by fire; San Francisco
of rather more than local celebrity as the
lost its public library by earthquake and fire;
claimant to the “Jennings millions," a Bir-
the Equitable Life Insurance Society of New
mingham estate long held in rather precarious
York, after forming what was esteemed a
possession, and at an immense cost for legal de-
unique library in its special department, saw fence, by the descendants of Lady Andover and
it fall a prey to the flames; the Paterson
Earl Howe; or at least that is the current ac-
(N. J.) Public Library was totally destroyed count of the matter. Dickens's famous case of
by fire; the library of the University of Vir-
"Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce" in "Bleak House,"
ginia suffered a like fate; and, to cap the cli the wearisome Chancery suit "never ending,
max, the State Library at Albany, N. Y., the still beginning, " is said to be taken from the
most important collection of its kind in the Jennings controversy over the Birmingham
country, fed to the flames nearly half a million property. William Jennings, or Jennens,
volumes, more than quarter of a million manu known as “William the Rich," accumulated
scripts, and three hundred thousand pam wealth to the extent of about eight million
phlets. These rather startling proofs of dollars, and also owned extensive tracts of


1915)
139
THE DIAL
land in what is now the centre of Birming- chapters. Dr. van Dyke, too, at The Hague,
ham. He died in 1798, and the greater part must have been acquiring a store of raw mate-
of this handsome property passed to the two rial for future literary use such as falls to the
persons named above, who claimed to be the lot of few writers. Mr. Walter Page, also,
next of kin. From that time until about forty trained to the labors of the pen before he
years ago there was almost constant litigation essayed those of the ambassador, is in the very
over the disputed millions, and a goodly share heart of things at London, and may be reck-
thereof was spent in keeping them out of the oned upon to give some interesting account of
avid Jenningses' hands — which, for aught himself one of these days. Our other Ambas-
one knows, may have been the hands rightly sador Page, at Rome, is somewhat removed
entitled to them. But with the death of poor from the crash and the din; but even his sit-
David in the workhouse the likelihood of fur uation is not without its possibilities, and
ther legal dispute over the famous property something in the form of fiction, or perhaps of
seems to have disappeared.
most interesting diary or reminiscence, will be
expected from him to show how far he has
Books "NEVER IN” are naturally regarded been awake to his enviable opportunities.
by many disappointed library-frequenters as
nothing but a snare and a delusion. The latest
THE LIBRARY AS PACIFICATOR has a duty to
quarterly bulletin of the Carnegie Library of perform, as we are reminded by an editorial
Atlanta prints some observations and direc note in the current “Quarterly Booklist" of
tions in regard to these elusive works of litera the Pratt Institute Free Library, second only
ture, remarking with truth that "nothing is
in importance to its duty as educator. Or
more discouraging than to go to the library perhaps the order of importance should be
several times in a vain attempt to find a book, reversed. At any rate, the Pratt Institute
and informing the reader how, at the expense librarian holds that “the Library is an instru-
of one cent for a postal card, to secure the mentality for peace," and continues: “Our
reservation of such book, unless it be a novel recently published list of books dealing with
not in the rent collection, at the earliest pos the historical, social and economic issues that
sible moment. Some libraries undertake to led to the European eruption is intended to be
reserve for applicants all novels except recent
an argument for peaee. Without infraction
accessions; others go so far as to reserve even of 'neutrality,' the exercise of private judg-
these upon request; and we recall one library ment as to the righteousness of the opposing
where instruction was issued from high quar contentions is encouraged by the extensive
ters to the desk attendants to make a note of all literature the Library affords on both sides of
books, of whatever kind, applied for unsuccess-
the case. We invite open-minded reading that
fully, with names and addresses of the appli- may lead to the ultimate conviction of the
cants, and to reserve these books as fast as they unrighteousness of war upon any pretext, and
came in, at the same time notifying the appli- | the futility of it as a means of deliverance
cants that the books asked for were now avail- from the ills of the world.'
from the ills of the world.” The writer opti-
able. Any library worker can easily imagine mistically expects the forthcoming peace
the rapidly increasing congestion and confu (when it does come) to be “not a truce under
sion that speedily resulted in the department
arms, a calm of suspended hostilities, the
undertaking this record. Only a quiet and dis- quiet of exhaustion, the silence of repression,
creet disobedience of the rule, in all its rigor, but the permanent abolition of warfare with
saved the desk attendants from insanity and all its paraphernalia.” If abundance of read-
the circulation department from paralysis. ing matter on subjects of war and peace could
insure that desirable end, even a cursory
LITERARY DIPLOMATS from the United States glance at the array of such literature exposed
of America are at present filling positions call. to view in most of our public libraries would
ing for the greatest practical sagacity and encourage hopes of a speedy dawn of a new
untiring energy as well as the utmost tact and era in the world's history.
diplomacy. A more difficult task than that
imposed for the past six months on our Bel A SET-BACK TO SIMPLIFIED SPELLING, in En-
gian minister could hardly be imagined. gland at least, is what the war seems in some
Probably Mr. Whitlock's previous “forty measure to be, if one may judge from an
years of it” will seem as child's play to him "editorial noet” in the latest issue of "The
when contrasted with this subsequent shorter Pioneer ov Simplified Speling.” Until the
period, which ought to furnish a supplement return of "pees" (good Chaucerian orthog-
to that earlier narrative far more thrilling raphy, by the way) the paper will be published
than anything recorded in those noteworthy | bi-monthly instead of every month. As a pos-


140
[March 4
THE DIAL
sibly interesting curiosity, and as a lesson in small printing office in East Hall, where much
the trans-oceanic form of unorthodox spelling, of the incidental printing of the university
and also as an announcement which its author has been done. The basement of the school of
may like to see enjoying such publicity as we journalism will be used as quarters for the new
can give it, the "editorial noet” is here re establishment.
printed in full :
“It haz been desieded tu publish THE PIONEER
COMMUNICATIONS.
everi uther munth until pees iz restord. The Edi-
tor'z adres iz 45 Ladbroke Grove, London, W.
A FRENCH FEMINIST OF TO-DAY.*
THE PIONEER iz sent graitis tu aul Memberz ov the
Simplified Speling Sosieti. The anyual subskrip-
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
shon for Asoeshiait Memberz iz a minimum ov wun The novels of Madame Marcelle Tinayre have
shiling, that for Aktiv Memberz a minimum ov received little notice from American critics, but
fiev shilingz. Mor muni meenz mor pouer tu kari
have aroused considerable discussion in France.
on the kampain. Memberz ar urjd tu aplie for She is hailed by the feminists as a champion of
leeflets seting forth the aimz ov the Sosieti. Theez their cause, a fact which may give her some title
and aul uther informaishon wil be gladli sent bi to interest on this side of the water. At least it is
the Sekretari ov the Simplified Speling Sosieti, 44 interesting to note the trend of her theories of
Great Russell Street, London, W.C.”
woman's rights. “ The only feminism possible,".
says a reviewer of her first work, “ Before Love"
(1897), “would be that which strives to keep
THE LURE OF THE EDITION DE LUXE, despite woman in the unique religion of Love." Mme.
repeated warnings from those who know the Tinayre seems to have accepted the views of her
perils and pitfalls awaiting the innocent vic- critic, for her novels are a justification and glorifi-
tims, still shows itself to be irresistible in a cation of feminine passion. The most interesting
surprising number of instances. The federal
of her characters are her heroines. She says she
has “ dreamed them in accordance with the ideal of
district court at New York has recently found
guilty two men engaged in the sale of books
an ancient poet,- feminine body, heart of man,
alleged to be of great rarity and value, the regard them as romantic titans with a super-
and head of angel." The reader may be inclined to
charge brought against the defendants being, abundance of feminine body.
of course, that of illegally using the mails for
Marianne, in “Before Love," demands “her
the advertising and sale of their spurious place in the sun, and her right to love," by which
goods. More than ten million dollars, it is she understands little more than the elemental
believed, has been thus fraudulently obtained privilege given by nature. Jacqueline Vallier in
by these culprits and others from too credu-
“ The Ransom " is a frivolous young woman
lous buyers, who were assured that, if they bilities as wife and mother. The reader is a bit
aroused by illicit love to a sense of her responsi-
desired, their purchases would be resold for
startled to see adultery seriously proposed as a
them at a handsome profit to European book-
school of ethics, and, contrasting the work with
lovers eager to secure such precious examples
“The Princesse de Clèves,” in which the character
of the art of book-manufacture. In vain the
of the heroine develops through her victory over
net is spread in the sight of any bird, but the passion, one is inclined to agree with Miss Repplier
very obvious snare of the édition de luxe needs that our age is marked by a " loss of moral nerve."
no concealment when so many foolish persons “ The Storm Bird” is the author's weakest attempt.
show such a predilection for being caught in
One critic has observed that it is the counterpart
its toils.
of “ Madame Bovary," apparently because Mme.
Tinayre treats her erring provincial heroine with
A UNIVERSITY PRINTING HOUSE is to be added
all tenderness, while Flaubert applies the sternest
to the equipment of Columbia University, says
logic to Emma Bovary. “ Hellé" is the story of
the niece of a distinguished Hellenist who has edu-
report. The Columbia "Spectator," first of
college journals to own and operate its print- aim was to give to her, a woman, what the Renais-
cated her according to principles of his own. His
ing plant, has transferred this to the uni-
sance had brought to the men of the sixteenth cen-
versity, and it will form the nucleus of the tury,— liberation of the spirit from the chains of
new Bureau of Printing which is at last assum convention, social and religious. She is deeply
ing definite shape after several years' tenta-
read in the masterpieces of antiquity, and is thus
tive discussion. Here, then, instead of outside led to an ideal of complete and harmonious devel-
the academic bounds as hitherto, the product
opment of character. She has been trained to be
the peer and comrade of her husband, who is to be,
of the literary activity, or a considerable part
of it, of the professors and other university
as her uncle puts it, one who has known how to
create in himself a demi-god. Introduced to Pari-
members addicted to writing, will be put into
sian society, she scandalizes the dear old ladies of
printed form; and for the present, at least, the another generation by revolting against the idea of
bursar will superintend the work, having al-
* A detailed study of Mme. Tinayre is to appear shortly in
ready gained experience in the conduct of a the “ Bulletin " of the University of Texas.
–


1915)
141
THE DIAL
effacing her personality in love. She is at last fiction, is permitted her share of sound judgment
united to a high-minded though rather pedantic and some sense of humor.
social reformer, whose work she shares. Very It is interesting to note that many of the author's
much a woman and perhaps the most attractive of ideas will seem less revolutionary in America than
the author's heroines, she is yet more a rebel than in France of to-day. We are rapidly consenting to
any of them, as her battle is for intellectual the re-division of social privilege, and are giving
equality.
woman an equal part with man; she receives prac-
Mme. Tinayre's masterpiece, “ The House of the tically the same education, and can thus enter life's
Sin," is not a thesis novel, though some critics struggle on equal terms with him. Marriage is
would make it a diatribe against Christianity. It more or less a partnership, in which both parties
relates the struggle between human passion and a
retain to a large extent their right of individual
fanatical Jansenism; but the action rises naturally
development, and in which sacrifices are divided.
from the characters, and both sides receive fair
Other claims on which Mme. Tinayre insists more
treatment. Nowhere has the author succeeded in
may be less acceptable. She regards passion as an
giving such a variety of uniformly convincing and
universal and irresistible force, perhaps stronger
well-drawn portraits. “The Amours of François
in woman than in man. She comes perilously near
Barbazanges” is a charming idyll which presents
demanding the application in favor of her sex of
amid pathetic and comic incidents two clashing
the “wild oats theory." Herein lies a curious con-
images of love,- that of the so-called idealists tradiction in her thought. Her heroines are con-
(the scene is laid in the seventeenth century), and stantly enslaved by the very passion they demand
that of the realists. “ The Rebel" is the maturest
freedom to gratify. It is written of the rebel her-
work of the author in the literature of revolt.
self: “She is no longer Josanne Valentin, she is
Josanne Valentin is an older sister of Marianne,
woman before man," and she returns to elemental
and a relative at least of Hellé; she pleads her
instincts in the embrace of her lover. If it is all to
cause more passionately than either. She demands end thus, why so much ado?
equality with man, and freedom in both emotional
Mme. Tinayre's work shows some striking points
and intellectual spheres; but in the working out of
of resemblance to that of George Sand. In both
the story the emphasis is on liberty in passion. A
are found the passionate rebel, the socialist and the
question similar to that of " Tess of the D'Urber-
lover of picturesque landscape with its humble toil-
villes" is posed, but the conclusion is very different
ers. It may be hoped that this new titan, like her
from Mr. Hardy's: “Victory remained with love
predecessor, will abandon theses, choosing defi-
which had not despaired, with love strong as life."
nitely to present new corners of Limousin and
The best of the novel is the description of humble
above all to portray character without bias. In her
quarters of Paris, with their picturesque denizens,
thesis novels, to put it brutally, there is too much
and of Josanne's work as reporter for “Le Monde
that recalls Rabelais's “Et tout pour les tripes!”
Féminin,” where the author seems to be drawing
BENJ. M. WOODBRIDGE.
on her own experience as a journalist. The fault University of Texas, Feb. 18, 1915.
of the book is its over-stress on the thesis; one
feels that the characters, however living, are forced
RUSKIN AND WAR.
into subordination to it. The social order combat-
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
ted by Mme. Tinayre as the universal one, is
reversed in her novels: woman holds the strings
Those who hold to the belief, urged in your pages
and man dances to her music. Slave of his slave
recently by Mr. Charles Leonard Moore, that war
becomes his doom, and the reader cannot escape
and cultural progress are somehow inseparable are
the impression of a decidedly abnormal state of
often fond of citing Ruskin as a conspicuous cham-
society.
pion of their theory. And it is true that Ruskin
The author's latest books seem to be drawing
did believe that in the past war had been “the
foundation of all the high virtues and faculties of
away from “problem” studies. “Mourning Love
is a collection of short stories relating the suffering waged to-day, let us hear what he has to say, (The
men." But of modern war, of war as it is being
imposed by passion in different situations. Love is
passage is to be found in the lecture on War re-
represented as an all-conquering force for whose printed in " The Crown of Wild Olive.")
loss there is no consolation but death. “ The
“ If you have to take away masses of men from
Shadow of Love" takes us to the author's native
all industrial employment,- to feed them by the
province, Limousin, and charming descriptions of
labour of others, – to move them and provide them
this out-of-the-way region serve to lighten a dis-
with destructive machines, varied daily in national
agreeable story. Mme. Tinayre is at her best in
rivalship of inventive cost; if you have to ravage
portraying picturesque characters and landscape; the country which you attack, - to destroy for a
here Limousin gives her ample opportunity. The
score of future years, its roads, its woods, its cities,
background of “The Sweetness of Living” is and its harbours, and if, finally, having brought
Naples; the subject is the effect of the voluptuous
masses of men, counted by hundreds of thousands,
Italian sky on visitors from the north. The last
face to face, you tear those masses to pieces with
book, “ Madeleine at the Mirror," is not a novel, jagged shot, and leave the fragments of living crea-
but the reveries of a young widow. It is written in tures, countlessly beyond all help of surgery, to
a rich poetic style, and, best of all, portrays a starve and parch, through days of torture, down
woman's character so simply that we almost forget into clots of clay — what book of accounts shall
its complexity. Madeleine, not being a heroine of record the cost of your work ;— what book of judg-


142
[ March 4
THE DIAL
66
may claim a
ment sentence the guilt of it? That, I say, is mod Hell to a point hard by the gate of Heaven. But
ern war,— scientific war, - chemical and mechanic in spite of this, some lines further on, as Satan is
war, worse even than the savage's poisoned arrow." closing his speech, he is evidently not at the bottom,
When one considers the hellish perfection to
but at the top of the new viaduct. On it he pro-
which chemical and mechanic" war has been poses to descend to Hell, l. 394; on it he does
brought since Ruskin's time, one cannot but feel descend to Hell-gate, 1. 414; furthermore to reach
that even that supreme master of language would the terrestrial paradise Sin and Death must de-
have been at a loss for words forcible and fiery scend, 1. 398; - all three of them are near Heay-
enough to express his abhorrence of the “insensate en's door" 1. 389. Has the poet in closing the
devilry " of modern war. I, for one, cannot but scene forgotten where he began it? That seems
believe that he would have preferred to see all the
incredible. Have we then just here evidence of
great cultural treasures of the past perish like the inadvertence on the part of some amanuensis?
manuscripts of Louvain or the painted glass of This also seems incredible, for there is no one word
Rheims rather than that Europe should be devas-
or phrase failure to catch which would account for
tated and tortured and impoverished and brutalized
the inconsistency.
as is being done to-day.
RALPH BRONSON.
This passage (330ff.) is of the greater impor-
tance because of its bearing upon the problem of
Wyoming, N. Y., Feb. 23, 1915.
the correct location of the head of “the new won-
drous pontifice.” Dr. Stopford A. Brooke, in his
WHEN IS A NOVEL NOT A NOVEL! “ Milton Primer," p. 87, makes the structure ter-
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
minate at the base" of the newly created cosmos,
while Professor Masson and Dr. Orchard carry it
Having been occupied with the reviewing of
novels for some thirty years past, I
higher, even to the summit, hard by the foot of the
Golden Heaven-stair. The parallelism in function
certain acquaintance with the subject-matter of the
between the celestial stair and the infernal bridge
above query. A circulating library called the
favors Dr. Brooke's interpretation, but the passage
New Fiction Library," having branches in many
cities, publicly advertises its readiness to supply its
before us is clearly against it. If any reader of
THE DIAL will harmonize the data of this problem,
customers in the following language: “Any book
he will surely place many students under obliga-
of new fiction not in stock will be secured on the
following day." For several weeks now I have
tion. Even a conjecture should be of value.
been asking to be supplied with Nexo's “ Pelle the
W. F. WARREN.
Conqueror," and have been refused. At last comes Brookline, Mass., Feb. 19, 1915.
a letter from the New York headquarters of the
concern, stating as the reason for refusal that
IMPERIAL JAPANESE POETRY.
“ Pelle" is not a work of fiction. This assertion is
not only a ridiculous falsehood, but it comes with
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
comical effect from a concern which supplies its The late Emperor, Meiji Tenno, as he is posthu-
customers with “ Jean-Christophe" and " The Re mously known, and the late Empress, were both
volt of the Angels." A second reason adduced (as proficient and prolific in the production of the
in the old story of the stolen kettle), is that famous Japanese short poem. The present Em-
Pelle" is in two volumes, “which in itself would peror and Empress seem to be following in the
bar it from being placed in our library."
." But how footsteps of their predecessors. The following
about “ Jean-Christophe,” in three volumes? Last translations of some of their recent poems will
of all, the real reason for the refusal is given: indicate how their minds are occupied at the pres-
“Pelle is not a popular book of fiction, and would ent time. The first three are by the Emperor; the
only be read once or twice." But this does not seem remaining two by the Empress.
to be in accordance with the advertised promise, as
“If life, for country's sake men give,
above quoted.
W. M. P.
How shall dependent loved ones live?”
Chicago, Feb. 20, 1915
“ The fortress hard to take!
Alas! the children, wives,
Set mourning for the sake
DID MILTON NOD?
Of those who gave their lives!”
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
“As monuments sublime war trophies stand.
In the tenth book of “ Paradise Lost” there occurs Their cost? The lives of men throughout the land."
a textual difficulty to which I have never seen atten “See! Skilled of hand and brave of heart,
tion called. It is in the account of Satan's second Kind women into service press,
interview with Sin and Death, and has to do with From homes and little ones apart,
the cosmic locality in which the poet would have his
The soldiers' ills to heal and bless."
reader picture the parties. At the moment of the “ The widowed ones, how shall they spend their years?
meeting Satan is represented as now returned to Their keepsakes, soldiers' letters, stained with tears!”
hell,” 1. 346; and as being " near the foot” of
I might add that the work of translation and
the upright structure just completed by Sin and
Death, 1. 348. . His location, therefore, as at or
versification has been done by Mr. D. Miyake, of
near Hell-gate, seems doubly indicated: (1) he has
the Japanese Navy, and Professor Philip Henry
returned from Earth to his own abode; and (2)
Dodge.
ERNEST W. CLEMENT.
he is at the foot of a structure which rises from Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 2, 1915.


1915)
143
THE DIAL
The New Books.
in Pennsylvania, and finally at Exeter, that he
spent the years devoted to preparation for
Yale, whence he was graduated at twenty.
ONE WHOM THE GODS LOVED.*
A voyage to California then followed, and half
Not having a heart dry as summer dust,'
a dozen years of changing occupations in that
Edward Rowland Sill was not one of those
new land, after which came marriage, a brief
who are suffered to “ burn to the socket," but
taste of theological study at the Harvard
rather did he belong among those favorites of Divinity School, six weeks of journalism in
heaven to whom an early death is benignantly New York, two years of high-school principal-
granted. Five and forty years was his allotted ship and superintendency of schools at Cuya-
span, and it sufficed him for such rare and hoga Falls, twelve of teaching in California,
exquisite self-expression in word and deed, in including nine years in the chair of English
prose and verse and daily conduct, as will long
at the State University, and, finally, from
be an inspiration to those qualified to appre-
1883 until his death in 1887, literary pursuits
ciate what his too-short life and his too-modest
at Cuyahoga Falls with no daily grind of reci-
contribution to literature stood for. Of these tations and lectures. But from his college
discerning few is his present biographer, Mr.
days to the end Sill was addicted to writing,
William Belmont Parker, who is also the editor
with brilliant success in competition for aca-
of his collected poems, and who, as he tells us,
demic honors, but apparently never with any
more than ten years ago, in a burst of enthu- consuming desire to see himself in print. On
siasm and admiration, entered upon this more
this point he said of himself in later life, in
important task now so happily completed. writing to an editor and friend :
When half-way through his work as originally “I don't think other people feel the way I do
planned, the author came under the influence about that. When a thing is written, they have a
of that master-biographer, Leslie Stephen, and
trembling hope, at least, that it is good, and any-
turned back to make his book as far as possible equanimity with which I write thing after thing –
how wish to have it used. But you should see the
an autobiography of Sill, drawing largely
upon the latter's correspondence and other sending them anywhere, or thinking of printing any
both prose and verse and stow them away, never
writings for the purpose. For it was a dictum
book of them, at present, if ever. Sometimes I do
of Stephen's that "nobody ever wrote a dull think I will leave a lot of stuff for some one to pick
autobiography," and that though “the biog out a post-humorous volume from — but more and
rapher can never quite equal the autobiog more my sober judgment tells me that other people
rapher," yet “with a sufficient supply of have seen or will see all that I have, and will state
letters he may approach very closely to the
it better."
same results."
Thus, while no one can tell This lack of eagerness for public fame both
how good Mr. Parker's work as first con contributes to the charm he exerts over us and
ceived would have been, it is certain that the helps to account for the veil of anonymity he
actual production, with its copious extracts chose to throw over much of his best literary
from Sill's unpublished manuscripts, epis- work. It was in the unpretentious“ Contribu-
tolary and other, gives a clear and vivid im tors' Club" of the magazine edited by his
pression of what manner of human being here friend Aldrich that he most frequently ap-
confronts us.
peared in his choice bits of unsigned prose,
“Like most American men of letters,” and it was in the same monthly periodical that
the opening chapter begins, “the author of he first came somewhat conspicuously into
"Opportunity' and “The Fool's Prayer was a public view as a poet. Even as a poet of whose
native of New England.” Windsor, Connect-
merit Aldrich delighted to regard himself as
icut, was his birthplace; April 29, 1841, the the discoverer, Sill would fain have remained
date of his birth. He was a descendant of unknown by name. He writes to the editor:
Presbyterian and Congregational ministers on
“I like the anonymousness of the Contribu-
his mother's side, of physicians and surgeons
tors' Club. Would you not as soon print
on his father's, and his ancestral tree is rich poems for me unsigned ?” Occasionally he was
in Walcotts, Grants, Edwardses, Ellsworths, permitted to use a pen-name, partly to avoid
Rowlands, Allyns, and representatives of
any seeming excess of his verse in the maga-
other good old New England families. Early zine. On the subject of pseudonymity occurs
left an orphan, Sill had no very permanent this characteristic utterance in one of his let-
place of abode in all his life. An uncle's house ters to Aldrich :
at Cuyahoga Falls in Ohio was always open to “It may be said — but a man would be in danger
him, and it was there and at another uncle's of printing (or offering for print) things that he
would have made better if his own name were to go
• EDWARD ROWLAND SILL.
Belmont Parker. Illustrated. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. with them. No, I think not. If he had a perma-
His Life and Work. By William


144
(March 4
THE DIAL
nent mask he would be more sensitive about this solemn conviction that a man must speak the
even than his own proper face, and would do his truth as fast and as far as he knows it — truth
best for it."
to him. I may be in error — but what I
Significant of his modesty and of his un believe is my sacred truth, and must not be
willingness to bear the responsibility of any. diluted. When I get money enough to live on
thing short of the best possible in his art, is I mean to preach religion as I believe in it.
the fact that only one slight volume, “The Emerson could not preach, and now I under-
Hermitage, and Other Poems," was given by stand why.” Hence, once more, his inability,
him to the public; what else we have from his as a mere youth, to conduct himself as a model
pen in book form is of the posthumous sort student at the hide-bound Yale College of his
which he wittily but not quite accurately chose day; and in the light of his subsequent devel-
to regard as post-humorous." This anxious opment one is not surprised to find him chafing
concern about the products of his pen appears under meaningless restraint, breaking arbi-
again and again in his correspondence — so trary rules, and rusticated at the end of
often as possibly to arouse a suspicion of mock Freshman year for neglect of college exercises,
modesty, unjust though such a suspicion must which included perfunctory and undevotional
be held by his admirers - and it is found in chapel attendance sixteen times a week.
an amusing form in a letter to Aldrich that is Of Sill's variety and brilliancy of endow-
worth quoting, in part, at this point, largely
ment we get a hint from the testimonies of
because it shows how far the writer had classmates printed in the biography. Gov-
strayed from the rigid orthodoxy of his Pres-
ernor Baldwin, of Connecticut, finds written
byterian ancestors. He writes, under date of
in his diary of those student days: “We
June 9, 1885 :
have n't got much of a class, but Sill is some-
“Do you want to do me a great favor? I don't what of a genius, to be sure. Before his first
know in the least what your proclivities (or declivi year of college was half completed this was
ties) are in the way of religious matters, but I am the general verdict concerning him. Another
going to assume that yours are not far away from classmate recalls that "despite his slight fig.
mine — enough to ask you, if you are naturally in
ure, he had a beautiful rich bass voice; and
the way of seeing manuscripts, submitted to the
firm for publication, to look into an essay I sent
he had, of course, as lyric poets must have, a
them (with some others) entitled 'The XIXth Cen-
genius for music. He could play on any in-
tury' – along toward the end of it and purloin
strument he took a notion to, with very little
certain pages treating of the Christian Church as a practice. Yet I don't remember that he sang
nuisance and a fraud — if it is likely, otherwise, to
in the choir. Perhaps he would have been apt
be read by some members of the firm (I don't in to refrain in those rebellious years, because of
the least know who or what they are) — some very distaste for the service.” It appears that at
conservative, elderly, religious, sensitive, choleric, one time he thought seriously of training him-
old-fashioned gentleman with gold-spectacles and self to become an organist. That was in the
high collar, and a pew in church and gold-headed
first California period, when also he came
- who hates George Sand and Herbert Spen-
cer (by reputation) and loves Joseph Cook Is
within a little of adopting the stage as his
there such a fearful catastrophe imminent as that profession, and when too he made trial of the
such a man should read my essay and be made law (or gave some thought thereto), of ranch-
really ill by it?”
ing, of bank-clerking, of post-office work, for a
Almost twenty years earlier the conviction
season coquetted with the notion of studying
had begun to force itself upon Sill that he medicine, and doubtless turned his eager and
could never be other than a non-conformist,
active mind in many other more or less prom-
that he must live his own life and think his ising directions besides. As an actor or as a
own thoughts in entire independence. Hence, musician there is reason to believe he might
in part at least, the severing of his connection
have won distinction; as an expounder of the
with the University of California, where in his “nice sharp quillets of the law'' he would have
day a free-thinker was not exactly a persona
been a ludicrous misfit; and as a healer of
grata. Hence also, still earlier, his departure
the sick he would, despite his gentleness, his
from Cambridge and his farewell to the study sympathy, and his tenderness, have rebelled
of theology. “There could be no pulpit for against the monotony and the drudgery of the
me after going through there,” he says, “ex-
calling.
cept as an independent, self-supported minis As already intimated, the author has done
ter, which of course is open to any one with a well to let Sill tell most of his own story, and
purse. I came reluctantly to that conclusion. to withhold, so far as the present work is con-
Another person, even with my opinions in cerned, such excursions in "essay and criti-
theology, might have judged differently. It cism” as had been included in his first plan.
is no sentimentalism with me - it is simply a The real Edward Rowland Sill was what his
cane


1915)
145
THE DIAL
lovers were waiting for, and this is what Mr. conditions in conformity with which they were
Parker's book, written with the sanction and composed."
help of Sill's relatives and friends, and well With this pronouncement all those who really
provided with portraits and other illustra know the stage and its functions will agree;
tions, now faithfully presents.
for although we may read dramatic master-
PERCY F. BICKNELL.
pieces while sitting in a comfortable library
chair, we should not forget that they were
written to be seen on the stage. In other
CLASSICS ON THE ART OF PLAY-MAKING.* words, unless we can visualize the size and
When the new Hall of Philosophy at
arrangement of the theatres in which they
were played, as well as the character of the
Columbia University was opened in 1911, two
audiences to which they made appeal, we can-
rooms were allotted to Professor Brander
not rightly estimate the work of such masters
Matthews in which to house the dramatic
as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Molière, and Gol-
museum it had long been his ambition to
doni. As an aid to this necessary visualiza-
establish. The larger of these rooms now con tion, Professor Matthews's museum stands
tains a dramatic library of several thousand unique. The Comédie Française possesses
volumes; a considerable proportion of which certain models illustrating plays it has pro-
are the gift of Professor Matthews himself, duced; while at the Clara-Ziegler Haus in
while the smaller has been set apart for the Munich, there is a museum showing the his-
exhibition of an historical series of models, tory of the German stage; yet neither of
illustrating the successive stages in the devel these chauvinistic collections, nor the Museo
opment of the drama from the days of the Teatrale in the Scala Theatre at Milan, shows
Greeks to the present time. Many of these the successive stages in the development of
models have already been installed; a few, the drama throughout the world.
such as the Palladian Theatre at Vicenza and To perform this latter function is the aim
the theatre built by Richelieu in the Palais of the Dramatic Museum of Columbia Uni-
Cardinal, await a patron's bounty, all the versity,- an institution which should right-
models displayed being the gifts of individ- fully have been called the Brander Matthews
uals. Although still incomplete, this excep Museum, so entirely is it the creation of its
tional museum contains in miniature the founder. The Professor of Dramatic Litera-
Athenian Theatre of Dionysus, a platform of ture at Columbia has not been content, how-
a French mystery play, a pageant-wagon of ever, to confine his efforts to those of the
an English mystery, a platform in a Tudor librarian or curator; the same reverence for
inn yard, a stage-set of the Italian comedy of professional stage-craft which led to the estab-
Masks, a multiple-set at the Hotel de Bour lishment of his museum as a laboratory for
gogne and the Fortune Theatre, a fairly com his students having inspired the publication
plete historical series with which to make of several series of papers to be known as the
plain to the student the development of the Publications of the Dramatic Museum of
drama from the days of the Greeks to the time Columbia University. The first of these, re-
when Molière, inspired by Italian mask com cently published by subscription in an edition
edy, created the modern drama.
of three hundred and thirty-three copies, con-
No true student of the stage will gainsay
sists of four neat little volumes on the art of
the practicality of this museum. Indeed, as play-making, comprising respectively: “The
Professor Matthews says in his prefatory note
New Art of Making Plays," by Lope de Vega,
to its catalogue:
translated by Professor William Tenney
“ In so far as the drama is within the limits of Brewster, with an introduction and notes by
literature it can be studied in a library; but in so
Professor Brander Matthews; "The Auto-
far as it is outside the limits of literature, it needs biography of a Play,” by Bronson Howard,
for its proper understanding a gallery and a with introduction by Mr.
by Mr. Augustus
museum, containing the graphic material which will Thomas; "The Law of the Theatre," by M.
help the student to reconstruct for himself the
Ferdinand Brunetière, translated by Mr.
conditions under which the masterpieces of the
Philip M. Hayden, with an introduction by
great dramatists were originally performed - the
Mr. Henry Arthur Jones; and “Robert Louis
* PUBLICATIONS OF THE DRAMATIC MUSEUM OF COLUMBIA Stevenson as a Dramatist,” by Sir Arthur
UNIVERSITY. Comprising: The New Art of Writing Plays,
by Lope de Vega, translated by William T. Brewster, with Wing Pinero, with an introduction and a
Introduction by Brander Matthews; The Autobiography of a
bibliographical appendix by Mr. Clayton
Play, by Bronson Howard, with Introduction by Augustus
Thomas; The Law of the Drama, by Ferdinand Brunetière, Hamilton. Although his name appears here
with Introduction by Henry Arthur Jones; Robert Louis
Stevenson as a Dramatist, by Arthur Wing Pinero, with solely as author of the introduction to one of
Introduction by Clayton Hamilton. New York: Dramatic
Museum of Columbia University.
these booklets, Professor Matthews is as en-
an


146
[March 4
THE DIAL
0
tirely the originator and editor of these pub « True it is that I have sometimes written in
lications as he is the founder and curator of accordance with the art which few know; but, no
a dramatic museum in the catalogue of which
sooner do I see coming from some other source the
he is not recorded as functioning in any
monstrosities full of painted scenes where the
capacity whatsoever, a self-effacement nota-
crowd congregates and the women who canonize
ble in an age when the rays of the lime-light barous habit, and when I have to write a comedy
this sad business, than I return to that same bar-
are sought even by college professors.
I lock in the precepts with six keys, I banish Ter-
Turning from this exceptional modesty to ence and Plautus from my study that they may
the four enlightening volumes Professor Mat not cry out at me; for truth, even in dumb books,
thews has edited, it may be said forthwith is wont to call aloud; and I write in accordance
that here is both solid shot and canister with
with that art which they devised who aspired to the
which to rout the ardent enthusiasts whose applause of the crowd; for since the crowd pays
self-imposed task is to “uplift” the drama.
for the comedies, it is fitting to talk foolishly to it
Indeed, with the exception of M. Brunetière,
to satisfy its taste.'
the authors of these papers on play-making The authorship of some two thousand or more
may be classed as commercial dramatists, who plays is attributed to this same Lope de Vega,
believe that the function of the theatre is to
yet his name spells Spanish drama. As Pro-
please and not to preach. As Mr. Henry
As Mr. Henry fessor Matthews says, in his introduction to
Arthur Jones writes the introduction to this Lope's “New Art of Writing Plays," "it was
single exception to Professor Matthews's rule he who made the pattern that Calderon and
that papers on play-making should be written all the rest were to employ." Here is the pat-
by makers of plays, the voice of the practical tern drawn by this master craftsman:
man may be said to be raised even here. “Do not spend sententious thoughts and witty
Moreover, Mr. Jones's scintillant introduction
sayings on family trifles, . . . But when the char-
quite eclipses in interest M. Brunetière' acter who is introduced persuades, counsels, or dis-
didactic holding of his pet thesis that a play suades, then there should be gravity or wit
“is the spectacle of a will striving toward a If the king should speak, imitate as much as possi-
goal, and conscious of the means which it
ble the gravity of a king; if the sage speak,
employs.” In contravention of this theory,
observe a sententious modesty; describe lovers with
Mr. William Archer has insisted that a play is
those passions which greatly move whoever listens
to them . . . Let him (the playwright] be on his
a crisis not a conflict. But Mr. Jones frames guard against impossible things, for it is of the
a law of his own. "Drama arises,” he says, chiefest importance that only the likeness of truth
“when any person or persons in a play are should be represented
consciously or unconsciously 'up against' “ In the first act set forth the case.
In the sec-
some antagonistic person, or circumstance, or ond weave together the events, in such wise that
fortune."
until the middle of the third act one may hardly
Whether a drama be a conflict, a crisis, or
guess the outcome. Always trick expectancy; and
hence it may come to pass that something quite far
a case of "up against it,”, is of minor impor- from what is promised may be left to the under-
tance, the elusive art of play-making being to standing."
hold the interest of an audience. To place a
To study further the laws of dramatic con-
person or persons in a play "up against"
something that will get over the footlights is struction, except in practice, is largely futile;
the problem that confronts the dramatist, and
since, in the words of the late Bronson How-
it matters little whether that something be ard, “When all the mysteries of humanity
defined as a conflict or a crisis, provided it be have been solved, the laws of dramatic con-
novel enough to excite interest or human
struction can be codified and clearly ex-
Yet this lamented
enough to inspire sympathy. Moreover, the plained; not until then.”
test of the box-office is also the test of time,
American has himself framed a vital law of
since a play that does not appeal to its own age
construction in his edifying "Autobiography
sufficiently to gain at least a respectable hear-
of a Play.” “A dramatist," he holds,
ing will not live long enough for posterity to
“should deal so far as possible with subjects
become aware of its existence.
of universal interest, instead of with such as
Knowing his contempt for the closet-drama, appeal strongly to a part of the public."
one suspects Professor Matthews of having Realizing, as have all successful dramatists,
published these instructive papers on play- that a stage appeal must not be made to
making in order to confound the “high-“hearts here and there,” but to "a thousand
brows,” for the voice of the successful dra hearts at once," he reaches the logical conclu-
matist inevitably conjures up the spectre of sion that “love of the sexes is most interesting
commercialism. Listen to Lope de Vega, as to that aggregation of human hearts we call
commercial a dramatist as ever wrote:
the audience."


1915)
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so forth.”
To Lope de Vega's epitome of the art of The art of play-making, which the eminent
play-making and Bronson Howard's sane rule dramatist just quoted so aptly defines as
of selection should be added Sir Arthur Wing “compressing life without falsification," is
Pinero's definition of strategy as “the general too serious an art to play with. Stevenson
laying out of a play,” and tactics as “the art approached the dramatic gold mine believing
of getting the characters on and off the stage, he had only to scratch the earth in order to
of conveying information to the audience and disclose the ingots.
disclose the ingots. These, alas! lie far be-
To complete this vade-mecum for neath the surface. Only by infinite patience
the playwright, it is necessary to turn to La and skill may they be unearthed.
Critique de l'École des Femmes, a dramatic To the novelists who share Stevenson's con-
polemic written by Molière to confound the tempt for the drama, as well as to the enthu-
"high-brows" of his day. In scorn of their siasts engaged in elevating it, the admirable
"rules made only to embarrass the ignorant booklets Professor Brander Matthews has
and deafen the rest of us,” Molière thus modestly issued in the name of his pet achieve-
frames the one universal law, not only of the ment are recommended as pertinent reading.
drama, but of every art:
Papers on the art of acting by Talma, Coque-
“I should like to know whether the great rule lin, William Gillette, etc., are to be added in
of all rules is not to please, and if a play which has the autumn to these publications of the Dra-
attained that end has not travelled a good road? | matic Museum of Columbia University. That
Can the entire public be mistaken, and is not
they may prove as illuminating as the present
each one capable of judging of the pleasure he
group on play-making should be the wish of
receives?"
all who have the welfare of the drama at heart.
The drama is the most democratic as well as
H. C. CHATFIELD-TAYLOR.
the most contemporary of the arts; its appeal
being made not to people of the future but to
those of the present, not to one class but to all.
EUROPEAN TRAVEL IN THE EIGHTEENTH
If a play pleases the public of its own time,
CENTURY.
has it not, as Molière says, travelled a good
road! Moreover, can the entire public be mis If not quite a pioneer in the rich field of
taken? This question is answered by Sir early European travel, Professor Mead is one
Arthur Wing Pinero in his paper on “Robert of the first to work systematically therein.
Louis Stevenson as a Dramatist.” "The in Miss Howard's “English Travellers of the
stinct,” he says, “by which the public feels Renaissance," Mr. Bates's
Bates's "Touring in
that one form of drama, and not another, is 1600,” and most other detailed studies have
what best satisfies its intellectual and spiritual dealt mainly with the sixteenth and seven-
needs, at this period or that, is a natural and teenth centuries. Babeau's "Les Voyageurs
justified instinct."
en France,” though covering about three cen-
A dramatist may rise to a moral plane as
turies, is limited to one country. Professor
high as the ideals of his public, or debase his
Mead has therefore limited himself to the
talents to the limit of police toleration; but
eighteenth century, with an occasional glance
he cannot disregard the instinct of which Sir
backward and forward, and, in the nature of
Arthur speaks, without failure as the penalty. things, to those countries (France, Italy, Ger-
It should be apparent, therefore, that if in a
many, and the Low Countries) which were
particular age this instinct is either vicious or
generally included in the conventional grand
tour.
crass, the public, rather than the stage, needs
“uplifting," a task for the accomplishment
Foreign travel for the avowed purpose of
of which a cohesion of all the moral elements
education - of becoming the complete gen-
in the community, rather than the ardor of
tleman” - may be said to have begun in
a few zealots, is required.
Elizabethan times, and owing to the heavy
Another pertinent lesson in stage-craft is
expense involved was limited to the upper
taught by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero in his
classes. With occasional interruptions due to
analysis of the failure as a dramatist of so
war, the stream of Continental travel contin-
dramatic a novelist as Robert Louis Stevenson.
ued, and in the eighteenth century travelling
The prizes of the dramatist were to Steven-
became, relatively, so easy that large numbers
son's thinking “out of all proportion to the
of young Englishmen were constantly to be
payment of the man of letters”; therefore the
found in the great centres of the countries
theatre was “a gold mine,"
chiefly visited. So numerous, indeed, did they
upon which to
become that it was not easy for a Briton to
keep his commercial eye. However, he failed
to secure its ingots, because, as Sir Arthur
Boston: Houghton Mif-
says, "he played at being a playwright."
By
# THE GRAND TOUR IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
William Edward Mead. Illustrated.
flin Co.


148
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get away from his countrymen for the pur all except that which led to Rome, and this
pose of acquiring the language. This, however, was in winter so bad that “one ran great risk
did not seriously trouble many Englishmen, of being swallowed up in the mud-holes."
who cared little about learning foreign lan- German roads were notoriously bad; improve-
guages. The indifference of Englishmen to ments did not begin till 1753. In Nugent's
the Continental vernaculars has always been time (about 1756) post wagons made about
marked.
eighteen miles a day. In Hanover, as late as
It was of course a far different Europe that 1826, John Russell reports, scarcely outside
the eighteenth century tourist saw from that the gates the wheels of the coach sank up to
of to-day. It was the Europe of pre-Revolu- the axle-tree.
tionary days, before the social order had been Unless one could afford one's own vehicle,
transformed. France had not yet got away one travelled in the diligence -a vehicle
from the fatal centralizing policy of Louis which grew in massiveness until those used by
XIV. Spain was “in full decadence.” Italy Fenimore Cooper were “ as large as an ordi-
was at the lowest ebb of her decline; “no man nary load of hay, carried twenty or thirty
could take pride in the name of Italian." passengers, and weighed five tons." Many
Germany was slowly recovering from the preferred the post-chaise, which was more
Thirty Years' War, and was “inert and un expensive. From Calais to Paris (thirty-two
progressive, feudal in spirit and practice, and posts) a single post fare in 1756 cost about
everywhere divided against itself.” The Low $21.75; two could do it for $31.50. Private
Countries alone were on the whole free and coaches were very expensive. In Italy one
prosperous; except Belgium, whose commer could travel “with post-horses; with a vet-
cial expansion was blocked by Holland and tura or hired coach or calash in which they
England.
do not change horses; and, finally, with a
The impression left by Professor Mead's procaccio or stage-coach that undertakes to
chapters on Water Travel, Roads, Carriages, furnish passengers and necessary accommoda-
and Inns is that tourists were courageous to
tions on the road. The German post wagon
travel at all. The railways have completely was much more clumsy and unwieldy than the
revolutionized travel; by making it easy to French, and went only about three miles an
get over the country they have vastly in-
hour.
creased the number of travellers, and thus The inns left much to be desired, and their
have forced an improvement in accommoda wretched condition compelled travellers to
tions and — at least a partial — change of take much more luggage (both linen and pro-
heart on the part of innkeepers, who now real-visions) than is necessary to-day. Beds were
ize how essential it is to make travellers likely to be damp and dirty; there were only
comfortable. Before the advent of steam, how the most primitive sanitary arrangements. In
ever, travel both by land and by water was Italy and Germany especially the food, except
"no unmixed delight." In 1787 Arthur in the large towns, was often poor or ill
Young spent fourteen hours between Dover cooked; and as Smollett remarks, a common
and Calais. On the Continent travel by prisoner in the Marshalsea or King's-Bench
water was much more common than now. One was more cleanly and commodiously lodged
could go from Paris to Lyons by water (ten than travellers were in many places between
days, thirty-five livres, or about $6.75); the Rome and Florence.
water journey from Lyons to Avignon alone
Yet in spite of these drawbacks, the attrac-
required three days. To avoid the Alps, many tions of travel proved too strong to be re-
preferred the Mediterranean trip from Mar- sisted. In the “Letters Concerning the Present
seilles or Nice to Genoa, even with its possi-State of England” (1772) it is said that
bility of sea-sickness and its danger of capture where one Englishman travelled in the
by the dreaded Barbary pirates. In Ger- reigns of the first two Georges, ten now go on
many the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Danube
a grand tour." The number who travelled
were utilized as far as possible, and in the
chiefly for the purpose of improving their
Low Countries water travel was well organ-minds and gaining intelligence, however,
ized. James Edward Smith says that the con does not seem to have been relatively very
venience and pleasure of travel in Holland great. Few were well prepared to reap the
and Flanders can hardly be conceived from
maximum advantage from foreign travel.
description."
At the university a man “could not avoid
Land travel was scarcely less difficult than picking up the rudiments of Latin and Greek
in former times, and was vastly more tedious and some bits of information about ancient
than now.
French roads were better than Rome and a few other cities, but of the topog-
Italian. Naples had practically no roads at raphy, the history, the government, the art,


1915)
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the architecture, the social conditions of the description they must all appear nearly the same;
countries he intended to visit, he was
yet, in fact, every river, cataract, rock, mountain,
often disgracefully ignorant.” Many still precipice, are respectively distinguished by an infi-
favored the plan of sending boys abroad in
nite diversity of modifications, and by all the possi-
care of a tutor; but the number of competent horror. But these discriminating variations, though
ble forms of beauty, magnificence, sublimity, or
tutors was small indeed.
too visibly marked to escape even the least observ-
Attempting some generalizations, Profes- | ing eye, elude representation, and defy the strong-
sor Mead thinks that the average English est powers of the pen and pencil.”
tourist was incompetent to form a judgment Yet with all his obtuseness and his inability
of the people of the Continent. "Perhaps the
"Perhaps the to make the most out of his opportunities, the
most striking characteristic of the ordinary Englishman must have got more out of his
run of English travellers was their insularity travels than we generally give him credit for.
and their unreadiness to admit the excel-
We are accustomed, following Matthew Ar-
lence of anything that was unfamiliar."
Yet nold and some others, to think of John Bull
Englishmen who chose to be popular on the as a singularly obstinate and conservative
Continent were often remarkably so. They person. Yet we shall have to admit that in
“had a reputation for fair dealing, and for Britain new ideas have made steady if slow
keeping their promises."
progress. The most flexible of British minds
Likewise Englishmen were unable to esti Shakespeare, Burke, Arnold himself-
mate fairly the art and architecture of the have been leaders of many. The success of
Middle Ages. "To many an Englishman British colonial policy in these latter days
Italy was interesting chiefly as a vast museum shows that Burke's view has at length pre-
of antiquity which enabled him to vivify his vailed; and we cannot help thinking that
recollections of the classics." Addison at something of this change of attitude is due to
once occurs to those familiar with his travels,
the observing British travellers who have
as of this class. On such men the glories of penetrated to the ends of the earth. And if
mediæval Gothic made no impression.
for a few years following the present war the
The change of attitude which took place | English and the Germans could frankly ex-
toward mountain scenery in the eighteenth plore each other's country (forgetting all
century has been often commented upon. St. about spies), it is safe to say that there would
John's view, as late as 1787, is typical of never be a repetition of the crime that is now
many:
being perpetrated on the innocent bystanders
“Far off lay the mountains of Switzerland, of Europe.
forming a most awful and tremendous amphithea Professor Mead has succeeded in producing
tre. When first I turned my glass upon them, if I a volume which is both entertaining and of
may so express myself, and bronght their terrors high scholarly value. Typographically the
closer to my eye, I started with affright! ... Per book leaves nothing to be desired; and the
haps on approaching, and having them continually
eleven illustrations have been well chosen.
in view, they would not appear so dreadful as at
We dislike to have all the notes relegated to
first; but even yet at so great a distance, I could
the back; nothing of importance is gained,
not behold them through a glass without terror.”
and hunting for the notes where they are
Gray was one of the first to admire mountain
wastes too much time. There is an adequate
scenery, and there seem not to have been bibliographical note (supplementing Pinker-
many who followed him, at least for a long ton), and a good index.
time. The failure to appreciate the Alps, the
CLARK S. NORTHUP.
Pyrenees, and the Apennines was probably
due to two things: first, men's preoccupa-
tion with "the proper study of mankind”;
CHARACTER-READING THROUGH THE
FEATURES.*
and secondly, the difficulties experienced in
traversing these barren and forbidding re Since Aristotle's day, at least, men have
gions. As these difficulties gradually dimin diligently searched for a key with which to let
ished, Gray's delight in the sublimity of themselves into the inner life of their fellows;
mountain scenery found an echo in many and no subject of study seems to have been so
hearts. William Coxe wrote to his friend fascinating and at the same time so elusive as
William Melmoth in August, 1776:
this one.
The ancients sought to solve the
“I have now visited the sources of three great great mystery by comparing the features of
rivers in Switzerland, and traced their impetuous man with those of animals, on the principle
progress through a tract of country, in which that likeness in features denoted similarity in
nature has exhibited the grandest and most august
of her works. But it is impossible adequately to
* CHARACTER READING THROUGH ANALYSIS OF THE FEATURES.
By Gerald Elton Fosbrooke.
deseribe these majestic and astonishing scenes! In New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Illustrated by Carl Bohnen.


150
(March 4
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intellectual and temperamental traits. They dextral half of the body.
dextral half of the body. If one should be
assumed, for instance, that a man with a injured in the left hemisphere where the
leonine brow must have a lion's characteris- chart localizes “spirituality," he would be
tics, while a man with a canine brow must paralyzed in the right leg. He probably
have the traits of a dog. This mode of ap would not have any more or any less spiritu-
proach to the secrets of character has been the ality than he had before. If one should ex-
favorite one, though not the only one, all the pose this area and stimulate it, the right leg
way down to our own day. Mr. Fosbrooke's of the subject would respond; but there
'Character Reading through Analysis of the would be no spiritual demonstration whatever.
Features” is based in part on this conception, But the most amazing feature of this phreno-
and in part on the doctrine that a particular logical chart is the location of the language
formation of features denotes a special sort of faculty underneath the left eye. Modern
intellect and type of character. But the au research has shown that the vocal language
thor does not depend entirely on analysis of centre is in the middle motor region of the
the features in a strictly anatomical sense. At left hemisphere. The visual language centre
times he bases his "reading' on the expres is in the occipital lobe. The graphic language
sion of the features, rather than on their form, centre is differentiated out of the general
size, and relation. The frontispiece is a pic- right-hand centre in the left hemisphere, and
ture of a woman, and bears the title, “Con- the auditory language centre is in the audi-
centration." It is evident that the author tory region of the brain. How anyone in
intended the reader to get the idea of concen these times can continue to befuddle the lay-
tration from the expression of the woman's man by pretending to read linguistic ability
face,—the lines of strain in the brow and from an examination of the topography of the
about the eye,- and from the attitude of her region below the left eye is inconceivable.
body; and not from the size and shape of her
There are many conflicting statements in
nose, ears, or chin, the color of her eyes and
the book,- although no more than in any
hair, the construction of her lips, or any other book which attempts to delineate character on
anatomical characteristic.
a physiognomical basis. One may read that a
The sketches for the various types of each certain face shows in the forehead “reflective
feature are unusually good. The impression and perceptive formation, ability to reason
which a hasty turning of the leaves makes from cause to effect, good comparative powers,
upon one is that there will be some interesting natural knowledge of human nature, construc-
secrets revealed in this book, and that stu tive and executive ability, reverence, firmness,
dents of human nature will get suggestions and a love of approbation, a desire to learn,
from it which they can utilize in classifying power of judgment as to size and weight,
people. But the critical reader will be disap- mental order well developed resulting in a
pointed when he comes upon Plate I., for this good memory. Eyebrows show indications of
is a reproduction of the conventional phreno- irritability, the eye shows observation, pene-
logical chart in which all the varied faculties tration, and intellect. Upper eyelids show
of the soul are localized in the left hemisphere selfishness, self will, and self satisfaction.'
of the brain. What the right hemisphere is
What little progress psychology has made
used for is a mystery about as profound as
in trying to differentiate the characteristics
the other mysteries discussed in the book.
and powers of individuals has led to the view
A dozen or so of the faculties, such as “lan-
that the strongly reflective type of person, one
guage,
""form," "size," "weight," "color,"
who has marked ability in reasoning from
“order,” and “calculation,” are located over
cause to effect, is likely to be lacking in execu-
the left frontal sinus and below the left eye.
tive ability. Again, the psychologist has been
The author says that the “bump" theory in
able to show that there are as many kinds of
character-reading was exploded years ago;
memory as there are kinds of perceptions and
and yet he endorses this phrenological chart, ideas, and to say that the forehead shows that
and relies upon it in his analysis of concrete
one has a good memory is indeed humorous.
cases in the latter part of the book. It seems
Often in this book one reads that the forehead
extraordinary that in the light of modern
shows lack of concentration, while the nose
research on the brain anyone should locate shows just the opposite, the lips something
“ideality," "sublimity," "hope," "spiritu- else, and the chin still something different.
ality," "veneration, and "conscientious What kind of a theory of mind can a person
ness" in the upper middle region of the left have who believes that mental characteristics
hemisphere. It has been shown literally hun are revealed in anatomical traits, when differ-
dreds of times that this is the general motor ent traits suggest diametrically opposite
region which regulates the movements of the abilities !


1915]
151
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If those who are engaged in an attempt to A SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA.*
develop a science of character-reading would
take their cue from Darwin, they might in
Professor Schelling is so well known as an
time give us something which would be of authority on Elizabethan drama that one ap-
service; but when they base their “readings” proaches his treatment of that field with
upon phrenology and physiognomy, they are
assurance, knowing that even if it were noth-
certain to lead their followers into blind ing more than a condensation of his large
alleys. Darwin showed that the fundamental
work on the subject it would be well worth
emotions are revealed in characteristic muscu-
while. The chief question concerns his treat-
lar movements and adaptations of the body as
ment of the later periods, in which the whole
a whole, and of the more mobile parts of the subject of English drama is so much less at-
face, hands, etc. These muscular activities tractive, and has been so much less put in
were once of service in the struggle for exist-
order by scholarship, than in its greatest age.
ence, and they have persisted even down Here, also, it may be said at once, there is
through human life in more or less modified
little but praise called forth either by Profes-
and complicated forms. Darwin also showed
sor Schelling's judgments in themselves or by
that certain of the very general intellectual
his frank but urbane manner of pronouncing
traits, such as attentiveness and concentra-
them. In respect to the matter of proportion,
tion, are revealed in specific muscular adapta- however, some greater doubt may be felt. Ad-
tions; and the frontispiece in Mr. Fosbrooke's mitting the immensely preponderant interest
volume illustrates this very well. But no man
of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, the
has ever shown any connection whatever be-
dreariness of English drama in the neo-
tween the expression of the eyes, the lips, etc.,
classical age, and the still tender youth of the
and particular types of thinking, as in phys-
fresh growth of the form in our own time, yet
ics, chemistry, psychology, philosophy, his-
to give substantially two hundred pages out
tory, etc. And still there are many persons
of 330 to the matter from Lyly to Davenant,
and but forty to the entire eighteenth cen-
who imagine that every intellectual activity is
tury, with some sixteen for the nineteenth, is
revealed in some kind of characteristic tension
open to question. The really large product
or adaptation of some or all of the features.
of the eighteenth century in serious literary
A large proportion of American people drama, while of course of no corresponding
have apparently not yet grown out of their intrinsic excellence, leads the student to de
superstitious feeling about the reading of sire some careful consideration of it, if for no
character. They still think that someone has other reason than to explain its limitations.
discovered the connection between every The great value of the important portion of
"attribute of the soul" and the construction
the book, that dealing with what may be called
and expression of the features. Superstitious Professor Schelling's own period, is the topi.
people of this sort read the analyses of fea cal analysis of the rich material it affords,
tures such as appear in books like the one according to which the several types, such as
under review, in which a great multitude of romantic comedy, the “drama of everyday
the most general activities, abilities, and life," and the like, are separately accounted
attributes are enumerated; and they will feel for with brevity and sureness.
This is the
that they are in the presence of a great revela method of the author's large work, “Eliza-
tion of subtle truth, when they are really only bethan Drama,” and in that instance it has
being plunged deeper and deeper into confu- sometimes been found troublesome because of
sion. The author is probably not under as the effect in separating rather widely matters
great an illusion as his readers will be, for in chronologically akin; but in a book of the
his chapters on "How to Read Faces” and present compass there can be little question
"The Knowledge of Physiognomy and Its of its usefulness. And the writer has not
Uses” he does not make a definite statement permitted himself, even where so great con-
applying his own principles, though he does
densation was demanded, to make his chapters
this for the concrete types presented in the
mere lists and summaries, without distinction
last chapters of the book. But how can any-
and individuality of style. On the contrary
one test the accuracy of his analyses when
his agreeable personality is almost always
they concern only imaginary persons designed present. Witness such an obiter dictum as
this:
by the artist ?
It may be added that the artist has done
“In our own time the example of Everyman has
his work admirably, and that the book is at-
begotten a progeny of contemporary plays, and
tractively made on the physical side.
created, even on the popular stage of England and
* ENGLISH DRAMA. By Felix E. Schelling.
M. V. O'SHEA.
66
English Literature."
Channels of
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.


152
[March 4
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Lincoln the
America, a wholesome diversion from the dismal and humane, of much riches. Few living men
problems and trivial improbabilities that for the -doubtless no one else in America - could
most part rule there."
have done this special task so well. And it
Or this:
may be observed that while certain of these
“ The pathos of Shylock is totally of 19th cen type-subjects — the lyric for instance,- are
tury manufacture, and as absurd as it is gratuitous. rather ill adapted to consecutive historical
It is referable, like our modern shudder at the
treatment, in the manner of the present series,
robust punishment meted out to the Jew, to our
the drama is of just the opposite character.
emasculated contemporary sentimentality that hab-
itually meddles with clumsy hand to interpose rather than in isolated individuals.
It thrives in some sense as an organism,
The
between human acts of folly and criminality and
their logical consequences."
study of causes, effects, and quasi-biological
Another fine passage is on the relation be-
relations, is nowhere more significant. It
would be well if we could have, one day, a
tween Ford and that modern romanticism
whose faith is "in the divine guidance of
new edition of this volume, including a study
passion”; but there is the less need to quote made with the same care which has been be-
of the recent development of English drama
this because it is found in substantially the
stowed on the golden age of its youth.
same form in the earlier and larger work.
Readers familiar with Professor Schelling's
RAYMOND M. ALDEN.
criticism will be prepared to guard themselves
-unless they be of the same school — against
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
his disposition to teach that Shakespeare
could do no wrong. This is evidently not due
Believing that “we have had no
to mere traditionalism, but to a truly devout apostle of life written of Abraham Lin-
democracy.
and—one must admit - an intelligent faith
coln worthy of that great man,
in the methods of the great master's art. Yet Miss Rose Strunsky courageously essays the
it sometimes leads to results dubious at best. task of worthily picturing to us the veritable
If Professor Schelling, for instance, finds the Lincoln, the man of the people, “the apostle
conclusion of “Measure for Measure" ethi of true democracy," and of placing in a new
çally satisfying (see page 100), he differs not and true historical perspective both the man
only from Coleridge, who called it "a hate and his time. While it is beyond dispute that
ful work,” but surely from very many of us. Lincoln is so great a man, so noble a figure in
In “Othello” he seems to find a certain poetic history, and from manifold points of view so
justice of the old-fashioned sort (page 133), attractive a personality, that we can hardly
which again is at least questionable. And
And have too many faithful and well-written ac-
once more he refuses assent (page 186) to that counts of his life, it is also not to be denied
view of Shakespeare's latest plays which that already more than one able pen has
recognizes a certain falling off in dramatic traced without serious distortion the features
power, though this may now fairly be called of this perennially interesting man and shown
the orthodox view, and to the present writer with some clearness his abiding significance in
seems indisputable.
our national history. Although Miss Strun-
The bibliographical material in this volume sky declares that "the truth is we have not
is by no means so rich as in the author's sim- been taught how to tell of his life," many of
ilar volume on the Lyric, in the corresponding us were of the impression that no ignoble
American series; but this is due to no fault attempt to achieve that end was to be found
of his, but to the plan of the general editors. in the ten volumes of Nicolay and Hay's great
Despite this, he has managed to include, in a work, as well as in such less elaborate under-
number of valuable footnotes, apparatus sure takings as Miss Tarbell's careful book, Mr.
to be very useful to the serious reader. The William E. Curtis's account of “The True
index is of the wholly mechanical and almost Abraham Lincoln,” and, by no means least of
wholly useless sort; but this again is obviously all, the late Francis Fisher Browne's capti-
the fault of the publishers. Nor is the proof- vating volume, “The Every-Day Life of
reading impeccable, though better than in Abraham Lincoln.' What Miss Strunsky
Mr. Rhys's volume in the same series. Par- would lay emphasis on, however — and it is
ticularly distressing is the punctuation, an aspect of the subject not to be overlooked
whether due to unusual theories on the part - is the moulding influence of his environ-
of author or printer one cannot say.
ment and his time in the production of the
When all is said of such details as these, leader demanded at that particular period
whereon we critics thrive, this book remains a and in those peculiar circumstances. “We
really notable achievement in the packing into cannot tell his life by speaking of his life
small compass, by methods at once scholarly | alone,” she truly says. “We were looking for


1915)
153
THE DIAL
our old-time hero of the sagas, and here came lordship says.” It was the same incorrigible
along one who made the people hero," she Caledonian who said of young Francis Jeffrey,
further tells us, and again : “We speak of fresh from Oxford and beginning his profes-
one who was no more or less than the execu sional practice at the Scottish bar, “The laddie
tive and administrator of the will of the peo has clean tint his Scotch and fund nae En-
ple. Whatever were the ideals and desires and glish." To Jeffrey himself, in due time
faults of the common people of his day were raised to the bench, the author devotes one of
the ideals and desires and faults of Abraham his most readable chapters. It is significant
Lincoln." This is paring down his native to find the man who, as first editor of the
genius and force, his distinct individuality, “Edinburgh Review,” misjudged the poetic
rather unduly, and is making of Lincoln an genius of others, equally at fault in estimating
opportunist and a time-server instead of a his own endowment as a writer of imperish-
leader and the champion of a cause. The able verse.
“I feel, " he wrote to his sister,
writer makes not slavery but "property in “I shall never be a great man unless it be as
land” the real cause of the Civil War. Yet a poet.
" In addition to the celebrities already
the southern plantation system would have named, the book has sketches of Lords Kames,
been impossible without slavery, and thus the Monboddo, Gardenstone, Hailes, Eskgrove,
latter must still bear the responsibility com Balmuto, Newton, Hermand, Eldin, and Cock-
monly ascribed to it. Speaking of what the burn — all of the later eighteenth and earlier
present-day American is striving for, the au nineteenth centuries. Portraits of all are pro-
thor closes her book with this reading of the vided, and an unusually full index closes the
signs of the times: “Behind the ægis of book, which may be confidently commended to
Lincoln he is advancing towards the new order the lover of biographical anecdote and well-
of social control - small capitalistic and considered terse characterization.
closely-knit together.” Is it so certain that
the day of large industrial and financial
In his clearly written and en-
operations is near its sunset? The book, in A study
of musical tertaining book, “The Musical
telligently planned, agreeably written, and psychology.
Faculty” (Macmillan Co.), Mr.
provided with half a dozen appropriate illus William Wallace endeavors to consider, in its
trations, is a welcome though hardly an
abstractness as a part of the musician's inner
epoch-making addition to the literature of its
equipment, the conscious activity which pro-
inexhaustibly fertile theme. (Macmillan.)
duces music. The noun in the title indicates
the point of view from which the book is writ-
The peculiarities of the Scottish ten. We had supposed that this was a phase
Humors of
the Scottish character show themselves no of speculation somewhat overworn. The iso-
law-courts.
where more unmistakably than lating of a section of the consciousness, and
in the clash of wits that takes place in a Scot the elaborate treatment of this abstraction,
tish court of law. Hence the fund of amusing leads generally to rather shadowy results.
anecdote and character-sketch that such a We are inclined to believe that there is no such
book as “Some Old Scots Judges” (Dutton), thing as a musical faculty; but that the whole
by Mr. W. Forbes Gray, is likely to contain. man, his entire development and achievement,
It is not a work of laborious biographical re all that he is and knows, go to the produc-
search, but rather an entertaining compilation tion of his aim,- in this case, an expres-
from such sources as Cockburn's “Memorials sion in sound of some profound insight or
of his Time,” Ramsay's “Scotland and Scots some overmastering experience. Nevertheless,
men," Kay's “Edinburgh Portraits,' and this is a book full of interesting if not new
Knight's “Monboddo and his Contempora- analyses of various aspects of musical phe-
ries,” with such editorial touches as serve to nomena. Mr. Wallace maintains that the ear-
set the several characters in their proper per- lier composers had no individual development;
spective and give a sufficient unity and pro they showed no growth in their compositions ;
portion to the volume. Here we have, for their later works, like their earlier ones, were
instance, the bluff, unpolished Lord Braxfield built upon the same model, and showed the
airing his broad humor and his broader dia same tonal characteristics. With Beethoven
lect on the judicial bench. “Hae ye ony coon the break with the old was made; he aban-
sel, man?” he asks of Maurice Margorot, doned his forerunners, and set sail upon the
brought before him on a charge of sedition. unfathomed sea on which the argosies of the
“No," was the laconic answer. “Dae ye want bold musicians of to-day are navigating,
to hae ony appointit?” he continues. “No," bound for ports never dreamed of before. The
is the sarcastic rejoinder, “I only want an question appears in every art form to-day, and
interpreter to make me understand what your yet the orthodox sonata in Beethoven's hands


154
(March 4
THE DIAL
the Aztecs.
are
Twenty great
British writers.
was the medium of utterance for ideas not sur even to Johnson or Carlyle; that is, a selec-
passed by any of his successors. Mr. Wallace tion of pithy sayings — beginning with,
analyzes the intellectual equipment of the “Blessed is the man who, having nothing to
“wonder child” who seems to know every say, refrains from calling attention to the
thing in music when wholly immature in all fact" — is made from her books and ap-
other directions. He concludes that there is pended to the section headed by her name.
something occult here which as yet entirely in his opening paragraph the scholarly author
exceeds our understanding. He describes the allows himself a little indulgence in what
nervous apparatus at the basis of music; he seems not exactly like scholarly restraint, the
deals with the mental hearing of music, as in scholar's preference for understatement, when
the case of a deaf musician; the extraordinary he says that “one could collect several hun-
power of inhibition or concentration required dred definitions of literature or religion.” It
of the musician; the character of musical would be a task for most of us to collect a
memory; and the vast command of multitudi dozen of each. What one likes most in this
nous resources demanded of the modern leader attractive book from an ardent lover of "the
of the orchestra. He discusses at length the best that has been said and thought in the
problem of musical heredity, and has small world” is the contagion of enthusiasm for
respect for the theories usually advanced on that “best” which its pages spread.
the subject. He considers the great musician
as a representative person at the highest point
Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft's
of human development, and combats the no The land of
“History of Mexico” (Bancroft
tion that the so-called "genius" invariably
Co.) is a revision, with exten-
possesses a diseased consciousness and is al-
sion to the summer of 1914, of his work pub-
ways an abnormality. The book is provided | lished twenty-eight years ago, "A Popular
with a useful bibliography, a satisfactory in-
History of the Mexican People. The im-
dex, and contains a great deal of material that penetrable obscurity enveloping the origin and
is valuable.
early history of the Mexican aborigines is
A score of great names
acknowledged at the outset by this sixty-years
selected by Professor Edwin student of the subject, and he claims little
Watts Chubb, in his “Masters that is new for his opening section on the pre-
of English Literature” (McClurg), to repre. Spanish period of Mexican history. The re
sent seven of the eight periods into which he maining five sections of the work deal with the
conveniently divides that literature. Those Spanish conquest, the viceregal or colonial
periods are: the Anglo-Saxon or Early En- period, the war for independence, the period
glish, the Middle English, the Elizabethan, of national existence to the downfall of Maxi-
the Puritan, the Restoration, the Age of milian, and the later course of events to the
Classicism, the Age of Romanticism, and the abdication of Huerta, with a concluding chap-
Victorian Age. The Anglo-Saxon period he ter on the country's general conditions and
leaves unrepresented, for obvious reasons, in
natural resources. Not wanting in contemp-
a popular treatise such as he has prepared; tuous sarcasm is the historian's treatment of
to illustrate the others we have Chaucer, recent American policy toward Mexico, but he
Shakespeare (whose name Professor Chubb formulates no alternative course as a remedy
prefers to write in almost its briefest possible for existing ills, though he does say toward
form), Milton, Dryden, Swift, Pope, Johnson, the close: "Out of the predicament there ap-
Burns, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, pears for the United States one of two courses:
Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Car open, inglorious retreat, or conquest, protec-
lyle, Ruskin, Tennyson, and Browning. A tion, and dismemberment." The latter mode
brief biographical sketch and a generously of cure, however, he hardly seems to favor
appreciative rather than severely critical when he says, a little earlier: “Three special
account of his works are given under each years of infamous treatment they had had at
writer's name, the whole being preceded by a the hands of their own countrymen, and now
brief Preface and an introductory outline of the foreign invader is at their door to bring
English literature as divided into the fore them happiness in the form of thirty years
going periods, and interspersed with frequent more of war and bloodshed, for without this
short quoted passages, while bibliographical and more the promised pacification will never
references at the end of each chapter point come to pass.
It would have added to the
the student to more extended sources of in- | book's value as a handy work of reference, and
formation. George Eliot, the one woman would have made its substance easier of mas-
writer on the list, has a compliment paid to tery, if dates had been given in the table of
her apophthegmatic quality which is not paid contents, or in the chapter-headings or page-
1 !!
-


1915)
155
THE DIAL
Fifty years
headings, or occasionally in the margin ness of Easter Island, taken from a notebook
year dates, we mean, as some avoidable uncer of early youth, but subjected to some needed
tainty arises from too frequent mention of revision, is the most remarkably arresting
months and days of the month in the text, piece of writing in the book. It alone would
with no year at the top of the page or else- justify the volume's existence. The compe-
where for ready reference. This fault, it tent translator of these well-selected sketches
should be added, is partly corrected by the is Mr. Fred Rothwell, who also contributes a
appending of a “chronological table of the finely appreciative preface.
rulers of Mexico, and dates upon which they
assumed office." Maps and illustrations
Africa's largest island is a thou-
abound, and in general the work is very ser-
in Madagascar.
sand miles long, three hundred
viceable and also agreeably readable.
and more broad, and contains
230,000 square miles - somewhat larger than
A selection of M. Pierre Loti's
all the Atlantic States north of the Carolina
Impressions
of things out of slighter sketches, of various line. “A Naturalist in Madagascar: A Rec-
the ordinary.
dates, appears in excellent trans-
ord of Observation, Experiences, and Impres-
lation under the title “On Life's By-ways”
sions Made during a Period of over Fifty
(Macmillan). The book presents in pleasing Years' Intimate Association with the Natives
form the French naval officer's impressions of
and Study of the Animal and Vegetable Life
things seen in different parts of the world to
of the Island” (Lippincott) contains this in-
which “the exigencies of a seafaring life,” as
formation, and a great deal more. It is the
he expresses it, have at various times called work of the Rev. James Sibree, F.R.G.S., a
him, together with a brief chapter on Alphonse missionary who has written extensively about
Daudet as man and friend, and another on
his theatre of operations. The book is in-
Michelet's book, “The Sea.” With exquisite tended rather to be enjoyed than to be studied,
art the gifted Frenchman makes one expe-
and is made up of informal accounts of a num-
rience with him the varied and novel sensa-
ber of journeys made in the island. Precise
tions evoked by varied and novel sights and
scientific terms are little insisted upon, native
sounds in divers quarters of the globe - in names are given wherever possible, numerous
Senegal, on Easter Island, in the Basque coun- reproduced photographs heighten the interest
try, in Madrid, and under the shadow of the of the text, and result in a substantial octavo
great Sphinx. Of unusual interest to an packed with knowledge imparted cheerfully.
American are the pages written at the Spanish As the principal haunt of the interesting
capital soon after the outbreak of our war for
lemurs and of most of the chameleons, with
the liberation of Cuba, or, as this sympathizer
a fauna and flora sufficiently distinct from
with Spain phrases it, in “the early days of
that of the mainland to heighten investiga-
the American aggression.” The charges of
The charges of tion, as well as being the home of several sorts
perfidy and atrocity there brought against us
of humankind, apparently compounded in
bear an interesting likeness to the charges now
various degrees of Melanesians and Negroes,
so vehemently urged against one or another of
the island is abundantly worth the time and
the belligerent nations by the opposite side.
space here devoted to it, and is rapidly assum-
Warmly espousing the cause of his hospitable ing importance since its conquest by the
entertainers, the writer paints a touching pic- French nearly twenty years ago. Told as it
ture of the sad-eyed Queen Regent in those
is in an intimate and gossiping manner, the
distressing days. Now and then, through the
volume makes excellent reading, and conveys
impressionism of these vividly descriptive the idea that the author has led a long, happy,
chapters, one gets a glimpse of the author's
and interesting life, crowded with strenuous
philosophy of life, a philosophy not always so
duties cheerfully performed.
admirable as the style in which it is clothed.
After witnessing, with proper loathing, the
In Dr. W. S. Bainbridge's "The
An unsolved
abhorrent spectacle of a Spanish bull-fight, problem in Cancer Problem” (Macmillan)
the writer thus lightly dispels the shameful modern medicine.
one of the greatest menaces of
vision: “Then, remembering that only what human life is dealt with in a competent man-
constitutes physical beauty, the charm and ner. Medical research in ever-increasing vol-
delight of the eye, does not prove deceptive, ume is being directed to the solution of this
I turned my gaze away from the arena and problem; but it remains a problem as yet un-
looked up at the beautiful señora, dressed in solved, both as to the cause of cancer and to
light blue, and wearing on her head a white any effective cure. The less technical conclu-
mantilla and in her breast a bunch of tea sions thus far arrived at indicate that inheri.
roses.” A description of the barren dreari tance of cancer holds no special element of


156
[ March 4
THE DIAL
alarm, that the contagiousness or infectious-
NOTES.
ness of cancer is far from proved, that danger
of its accidental acquirement is slight, and Mr. Rudyard Kipling's articles on “The New
that care and attention to diet and hygienic Army in Training.”
Army in Training” are to be republished as a
booklet.
surroundings are of utmost importance; that
cancer is local in its beginning, and when
Mr. Jethro Bithell has written a volume on “ Con-
accessible it may in its beginning be removed temporary Belgian Literature” which will be pub-
lished this spring.
so perfectly by radical surgical operation that
the chances are overwhelmingly in favor of its
Miss Constance Smedley is bringing out a new
non-recurrence. The book is abundantly illus-
novel with Messrs. Putnam this spring entitled
trated, has an extensive bibliography, and
" On the Fighting Line."
holds a mine of technical information on the
A new volume by Mr. Joseph Conrad, containing
theories as to the cause of cancer, the course of
three stories, will be published shortly. The tales
the various types of the disease, and the
include “ The Planter of Malata,” “ The Partner,”
and “ The Inn of the Two Witches."
various methods of treatment and so-called
'cures. There is also a plea for scientific
Mrs. Payne Erskine's new story of the mountain
statistics and a campaign of public education
people of North Carolina will be called "A Girl of
the Blue Ridge." It will come from the press of
to protect sufferers from the dread disease by
Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. before long.
prompt surgical treatment. We note the
omission of Boveri's very important contribu-
“The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain
tion (possibly too recent for inclusion) to the
and Nineteenth Century Europe," by the late J. A.
etiology of cancer derived from the study of
Cramb, author of “Germany and England,” is
promised for early publication by Messrs. E. P.
abnormal cell divisions. Dr. Bainbridge's vol Dutton & Co.
ume is a standard reference work, for both the
A new volume of essays on art entitled “Form
practitioner and the patient, concerning all and Colour," by Mr. Lisle March Phillipps (whose
the more general relations of this paramount important work on “Art and Environment" was
medical problem.
reviewed in our previous issue), will be issued dur-
ing the spring.
Professor Morris Hickey Mor-
Still another book on the Shakespeare-Bacon
The bible of
Renaissance gan's posthumous translation of question is promised in Mr. James Phinney Bax-
architects.
Vitruvius (Harvard University
ter's historical and critical study, “ The Greatest of
Press) hardly calls for comment on the origi-
Literary Problems,” which the Houghton Mifflin
nal — the bible of the architects of the
Co. will publish.
Renaissance, which still profoundly influ-
Rambling essays on the pleasures of spring walks
ences our classical architecture. Besides sev-
and of whimsical hobbies, written by Mr. Charles
eral score of Latin editions and translations
S. Brooks and entitled “ Journeys to Bagdad,” will
into foreign languages, there have been three
appear next month with the imprint of the Yale
University Press.
previous translations into English, those of
A second series of lectures on " Germany in the
Newton, 1791, of Wilkins, 1813 (three books
Nineteenth Century," edited by Professor C. H.
only), and of Gwilt, 1826. None of these,
Herford with a prefatory note by Professor T. F.
naturally, can show the ripeness of classical Tout, will be published immediately by Messrs.
scholarship or the benefits of modern archæo- Longmans, Green & Co.
logical research which the present version
The first biography to appear in English of Mr.
enjoys through Professor Morgan, through | Rabindranath Tagore has been written by Basanta
the editor (Professor A. A. Howard), and Koomar Roy, a friend of the Be