the
second edition is now ready.
The sixteenth of the Harvard Economic Studies
is Joseph S. Davis's “Earlier History of Amer-
ican Corporations," which has just been published
by the Harvard University Press in two volumes.
Arthur Gleason ventures to forecast some of the
constitutional changes in Great Britain after the
war in his volume “Inside the British Isles,"
which has just been published by the Century Co.
Harper and Brothers are publishing to-day
“Over the Border," by Herman Whitaker, and
“The Treasure Train,” by Arthur Reeve. Mark
Twain's “The Mysterious Stranger" will be put
to press next week for reprinting.
The St. Paul College Club has instituted a
library scholarship to be awarded to some mem-
ber of the St. Paul Public Library planning to
attend a library school. It is believed that this
is the first time in the history of libraries that
such a scholarship has been established.
A new volume of verse by Richard Burton is
published to-day by Henry Holt & Co. The new
volume is entitled “Poems of Earth's Meaning."
Other books just off their press are "Flame and the
Shadow Eater,” by Henrietta Weaver, and "Work-
manship of Shakespeare," by Sir Arthur Quiller-
Couch.
Forthcoming pamphlets in the Modern American
Library Economy series, published by the Elm
Tree Press, Newark, N. J., include: "List of Sub-
ject Headings for Information File”; “Filing Sys-
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
The Rhythm of Prose
An experimental investigation of individual dif-
ference in the sense of rhythm. By William
Morrison Patterson, Ph.D. 12mo, cloth, pp.
xvii+193.
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The Gloria d'Amor of Fra Rocabertí
A Catalan Vision-poem of the 15th Century.
Edited by H, C. Heaton, Ph.D. 12mo, cloth, pp.
ix+167.
$1.50 net
The first critical edition of this interesting Cat-
alan poem.
The book contains, in addition to the
text, a detailed analysis of the poem, an intro-
duction, notes and glossary.
Prolegomena to an Edition of the Works
of Decimus Magnus Ausonius
By Sister Marie Jose Byrne, Ph.D.
8vo, cloth, pp. viji +-101.
$1.25 net
Although Ausonius
a strikingly typical
figure in the literary activity of the fourth cen-
tury A. D., no complete edition of his works has
yet been published. The present volume gives
the introductory matter requisite for such an
edition,
Our Analytical Cbemistry and Its Future
By William Francis Hillebrand, Ph.D. Chief of
the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C.
8vo, paper, pp. 36.
$0.25 net
An interesting review of the present condition of
this increasingly important branch of chemistry
and its outlook for the future. The Chandler
Lecture, 1916.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
LEMCKE & BUECHNER, AGENTS
30-32 West 27th Street
New York City
was


1917]
451
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ME 500
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By JOSEPH S. DAVIS, Ph.D.
Studies in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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tem by Colored Bands”; and “Management of
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Messrs. G. P. Putnam announce for publication
late this month. Other announcements include:
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of the Flower Garden and the Bye-Way,” by C.
Arthur Coan, LL.B.; "The Adventure of Death,”
by Robert W. Mackenna; and “Algernon Charles
Swinburne," being personal recollections by his
cousin, Mrs. Disney Leith.
George H. Doran's May list includes: “Cecilia
of the Pink Roses," by Katharine Haviland Tay-
lor, a new American writer; "The Land of Deep-
ening Shadow," an account of what is going on
behind the scenes in Germany, by D. Thomas
Curtin; “The Battle of the Somme," by John
Buchan; “The German Terror in Belgium,” by
Arnold J. Toynbee; “The German Road to the
East,” by P. Evans Lewin; “One Young Man,'
the true story of a London clerk who enlisted
early in the war; “The Survival of Jesus,” a
study of telepathy, by John Huntley Skrine and
“The Book of Joy,” by Rev. John T. Faris.
May publications of the J. B. Lippincott Co.
include: “The Life of Dr. Robert Hare," by Dr.
Edgar F. Smith, Provost of the University of
Pennsylvania; "Church Advertising," by W. B.
Ashley; “Rural School from Within," by M. C.
Kirkpatrick, of the Kansas State Board of Educa-
tion; "Technique of Pictorial Photography," by
Paul L. Anderson; “A Hand Book of English
Literature," by Edwin L. Miller; “Productive
Plant Husbandry," by K. C. Davis, editor of the
Lippincott Farm Manuals; "State Board Ques-
tions and Answers for Nurses,” by John Foote,
M.D., and “Our Flag and Its Message," by Major
James A. Moss and Major M. B. Stewart, U. S. A.
A successor to Dr. Horace G. Wadlin, who has
resigned the librarianship of the Boston Public
Library, has been chosen in the person of Mr.
Charles F. D. Belden, the present head of the
Massachusetts State Library and chairman of the
Massachusetts Public Library Commission. Born
at Syracuse, N. Y., in 1870, graduated from Har-
vard in 1895, and from the Harvard Law School
in 1898, Mr. Belden is a member of the Massa-
chusetts Bar Association and also of the New York
bar. He was secretary of the law faculty and
assistant librarian of the law school library at
Harvard from 1898 to 1908; librarian of the
Social Law Library for a year; and received his
appointment as state librarian in 1909. He has
served as vice-president and afterward as president
of the Massachusetts Library Club. His latest
conspicuous public service was his opposition to
the proposed inclusion of public library appoint-
ments in the civil service. His activities as member
of the library commission extend over nearly eight
years, during most of which time he has been
chairman of the board. His selection as head of
the great library in Copley Square will commend
itself to all who have watched his steady rise in
his profession.
an
Why you should read William H. Davies.
The Autobiography of a
Super-Tramp
1.
2.
Bernard Shaw, in a typical preface, itself
"worth the price of admission," recommends
it as an "amazing book.”
The Chicago Daily News says:
“The ex-
traordinary autobiography of a most extraor-
dinary man; a man who, in turn, has lived
the wayward, wandering life of hobo and
lodging house bum, the sweating life of day
laborer and ship's cattleman, the weary life
of the dying and then recreating invalid, the
heart breaking life of a disappointed literary
artist and the wholesome, happy life of a suc-
cessful poet, all within thirty-five years."
The New York Times says:
“Here is an
extraordinary book, a fascinatingly interest-
ing book, amazing book... Im-
mensely worth reading.
3.
an
Of Mr. Davies' COLLECTED POEMS The
San Francisco Chronicle says: "Songs of the
sea, the birds, the bees, the butterflies, songs of
the flowing bowl, of love and laughter, of joy
and pleasure and pain, songs of childhood, of
boyhood and maidenhood.”
ALFRED A. KNOPF publishes these books in
New York. They may be seen (and should be pur-
chased) at your book shop.'


452
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-


THE DIAL
A fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information.
Vol. LXII.
MAY 31, 1917
No. 743
CASUAL COMMENT
CONTENTS.
CASUAL COMMENT
: . 461
Twelve months after the beginning of the
European struggle.-Two important cente-
naries among the publishers.-Chicago's
prompt utilization of its new poets.—The
hit-or-miss procedure of good luck.—The Re-
port to the Contributors to the American
Authors' Fund.
A RUSSIAN DRAMATIST AND THE AMERI-
CAN STAGE. Louis S. Friedland . 463
.
ADVERTISING POLITICS
466
LITERARY AFFAIRS IN FRANCE, Theodore
Stanton
467
.
COMMUNICATIONS
470
French Proper Names. Benj. M. Wood-
bridge.
The Short-Story. Searle Hendee.
Miss Monroe Responds. Harriet Monroe.
An Old Dramatic Device. Louis How.
INTERNATIONAL CONFUSIONS. Harold J.
Laski
472
A MONUMENT TO THE VICTORIANS. Lud-
wig Lewisohn
473
TWELVE MONTHS AFTER THE BEGINNING OF
THE EUROPEAN STRUGGLE, Mr. L. P. Jacks
wrote an article on the "peacefulness” of be-
ing at war. The tone was almost idyllic. Eng-
lishmen, he said, had found "rest for their
souls"; they had at last discovered a mission
and were able to put certainty in the place of
confusion; the old uproar of rival"idealisms”
had been stilled in the thunder of the guns.
And out of "moral chaos" there had emerged
a happy and united people. Yes, “happy” was
not too strong a term, he assured us, feeling
possibly that it might sound a little incredible
and even blasphemous to Americans not yet
touched by the fever of war. What Mr.
Jacks described with even more than his cus-
tomary eloquence, Mr. Wells looks at from
the other side in his “Italy, France and Brit-
ain at War.” Mr. Wells finds something of
the same attitude in all the peoples at war;
but he does not call it "peace of mind”; he
calls it simply a paralysis of thought. The
war has absorbed every energy, centred every
activity in itself, forced men to live only in
the present. It has developed a whole tech-
nique of evasion, which is sufficiently ex-
pressed in that triumphant platitude: "This
war is going to produce enormous changes in
everything.' The phrase is felt to have all
the mystic force of a conjuration; it is a
might soporific. It assumes that the future
will take care of itself. There is, in a word,
precisely the old tendency to drift, a tendency
enormously intensified by the distractions of
war. There is naturally a great deal of stir
but it is hardly a stir of mind. There is no
effort to understand and control events-even
the events that led to the war; there is no deep
realization of the formidable problems of the
reconstruction. The mind of Europe, like a
schoolboy freed from his books, has simply
gone on a vacation. And that is the real
"peacefulness" of being at war.
POETRY WITHOUT MAGIC. Conrad Aiken , 475
DEMOLISHING THE BRITANNICA. Henry
B. Fuller
477
ORGANIZED CHARITY. Edith Abbott . 478
PEPYS AT THE THEATRE. W. E. Simonds . 480
THE SLAVOPHILE DREAM. Nellie Poorman 481
NOTES ON NEW FICTION
482
The Diplomat.—Pip.—The Magpie's Nest.-
Louisburg Square.-Backwater.--Vesprie
Towers.—The Light in the Clearing.–Starr
of the Desert.-Nadine Narska.—The Son of
His Father.-Her Own Sort.-The Mark of
Cain.—The Postmaster's Daughter.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
484
The Contemporary Drama of Ireland.--Short
Rations.—Man's Unconscious Conftict.-
Early Narratives of the Northwest.—The
Book of the Peony.-Afternoon.-St. Jean
de Crèvecæur.An Introduction to the His-
tory of Science.-Seven Years in Vienna.
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES. John E. Rob-
inson
188
TWO IMPORTANT CENTENARIES AMONG THE
PUBLISHERS fall in the present year. Messrs.
Harper & Bros., 1817-1917, are out with an
announcement of a “centennial anniversary"
-one that “carries all friendly regard and
NOTES AND NEWS
490
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
491


462
[May 31
THE DIAL
son.
.
best wishes
to the authors of to THE HIT-OR-MISS PROCEDURE OF GOOD LUCK
day”; and “Blackwood's Magazine”—the will never cease to astonish. There is the
“Maga” beloved of Edinburgh and London man who brings out his book only to discover,
-has advanced into its hundredth year. After however good his will, that it is the wrong
a preliminary venture which involved in book for the time, or the wrong time for the
capable editors and too-restricted honoraria book, and that his royalties are nil. And
this magazine, in its present aspect, struck there is the man who, however unknowingly,
its gait in October, 1817—the first periodical brings out the right book at the right time
decoration of the kind indulged in by the and reaps, most unexpectedly, a great reward.
large publishing houses; the immediate pre Take, for example, "The Plattsburg Manual”
decessor of "Bentley's,” “Chambers'," "Fras and the two young lieutenants in the United
er's,” “Longman's," and the rest, down to States army who are its fortunate authors.
“Harper's," and beyond. The renovated After the 1916 Plattsburg Camp, where they
magazine took its second step under the were employed as instructors, they sat down
guidance of the boisterous and exuberant to produce a book which would meet a need
Wilson, and of Lockhart, that sarcastic de found there-a manual that should teach a
tractor of Hunt, Hazlitt, Keats, and Tenny man a number of things which he could learn
It published George Eliot's “Amos
“Amos quite as well at home, before beginning train-
Barton" in 1857, and later enjoyed the serv ing at a camp; and their modest expectation
ices of Mrs. Oliphant as historiographer. In probably was to sell a thousand or so copies
days when so many of the best periodicals, to intending Plattsburgers for 1917. The
issued by the best houses on both sides of the book appeared about the time of our declara-
water, are suffering lapses, suppressions, and tion of war, and army heads, seeing at once
metamorphoses, the continuing careers of its value, hastened to give it their approval.
“Blackwood's,” which has run its century, In consequence, it has been steadily on the
and of “Harper's,” which has completed two press ever since publication; and its authors,
thirds of a century, are matter for gratula- besides having rendered their country timely
tion.
and valuable service, will gain in royalties an
equivalent, several times over, of a lieuten-
CHICAGO'S PROMPT UTILIZATION OF ITS NEW ant's proverbially modest salary. With good
POETS, for purposes of social entertainment, luck so frequently hitting the undeserving, it
was an outstanding feature of the first "field is a pleasure to record one instance of the
day” of the Cordon Club.
A few years
opposite nature.
ago Messrs. Sandburg, Masters, Lindsay, and
the rest were far from being household
THE REPORT TO THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE
words; but to-day the “quick comédiennes"
of the Cordon not only know them but bur-
AMERICAN AUTHORS' FUND, instituted a year
lesque them, and not only burlesque them,
ago for the relief of the wounded soldiers of
but bid them come and see the thing done.
the allied nations, shows that $6000 was
In “The Gods of the Market”—a travesty
raised, of which, after deducting various costs
obviously referring to Lord Dunsany's mas-
and charges, some $5000 was distributed
terpiece—these new friends and spokesmen of among the military hospitals of France, Eng.
ours were put through various paces. Such
land, Servia, Italy, and Russia. “Mrs. Edith
a confident concernment with local matters
Wharton,” says the report, “has arranged
may be either metropolitan or provincial-
that a bed in the hospital for Les Tuberculeux
it all depends. If successfully put over, the
de la Guerre should be endowed, and called
deed becomes that of a metropolis; if not, it
"The Gift of American Authors,' ” and a
falls to that of a parish. As the general
small portion of the fund has been devoted to
movement of the town is toward a metropoli-
the work of teaching blind soldiers how to
tan status, the lively ladies of the Cordon support themselves. The amount asked of
may be given the benefit of any possible
each individual was modest, one dollar, or
doubt. Yet a readiness to burlesque litera more,-and the authors contributing num-
ture and its votaries is perhaps not the best bered thirty-seven hundred. The report nat-
way of indicating that literature may be a urally carries a postscript asking for further
serious concern; nor does it greatly brace contributions, as the needs of the situation
the morale of the men whose work, done have grown rather than lessened. The com-
with full sobriety, furnishes the grounds for mittee hopes to raise at least $3000 more, and
the skit. Of course, there is the "advertis offerings to the fund, of which Mrs. Margaret
ing”; but réclame does not always yield a Deland still remains treasurer, may be sent
sufficient consolation.
to the State Street Trust Company, Boston.
L


1917]
463
THE DIAL
A Russian Dramatist and the American
Stage
a
The Russians are candid and disconcerting to the American stage.” The European stage
critics. They lack the cement of hypocrisy, still retains a far-away connection with the
if we are to trust the judgment of Professor ancient “mysteries” that were permeated with
Miliukov, the guiding spirit of the recent Rev- religious feeling. To-day, this religious sen-
olution. They are bluntly outspoken and do timent takes the form of æstheticism, or sym-
not make a virtue of mental and sentimental bolism, or mysticism, as in the case of Maeter-
reservations. When their intellectuals come linck, Ibsen, Andreyev. The American the-
to America and make harsh comments on cer atre has abruptly severed all relations with
tain phases of our artistic and social life, we these sentiments. It is following an indepen-
can well afford to listen respectfully to their dent course and attempts to work out its own
verdicts. For one thing, they have the ad salvation. “At best it moralizes, at worst
vantage of being in a position to institute it is a cheap amusement for a contented
comparisons. And, happily, they do not have crowd.”
the deadly certainty, SO common among
The dramatist of the old world has before
Anglo-Saxons, that their own notions of doing him the ideal spectator—a cultivated indiv-
things are far and away superior to all other idual. With us, art is sacrificed to the mob;
varieties. Russians never hesitate to point the mob leads the author; and “he is only one
a reproving finger at their own shortcomings. of the crowd, not the only one above the
It is naïve and refreshing. They were all crowd, as in Europe.' The American play
brought up under an autocracy and they are must appeal to every spectator, whether in the
very diffident. What will happen to this crit- pit or the gallery.
pit or the gallery. Hence the appeal of an
ical sanity if they decide to become out-and American drama is to the emotions rather
out democratic, one can only contemplate with than to the intellect, for the emotions are more
dread. In such an event, imagine the superior nearly universal, more primitive, less separ-
spread-eagleism they will have every right ative. Therefore, in order to please the pop-
and precedent to indulge in. The largest dem ular taste, drama is remodelled and
ocracy in the world! But their judgment is mutilated dozens of times before it is pro-
as yet unspoiled. They have not learned to duced. Under such conditions, the dogged rise
say what they do not think.
of the action to a pitiless and inevitable climax
One of these Russian intellectuals at present is impossible, as is the dénouement that will
residing in America is Ossip Dymov, the bring the purgation of pity and terror. There
author of “Niu," now being played in New must be no discord between the author and
York under the management of Ordinsky and the spectator, the stage and the audience. The
Urban. Dymov has been in this country for whole situation may be summed up in the
the last two and a half years, and, in an compact formula : "In Europe, they listen to
essay written for the “Viestnik Ameriki,” he a drama; in America they look at a drama."
has some illuminating things to say about the This necessity of appealing to the eye makes
American theatre. The American stage is a the American producer aim at a painful per-
true reflection of our feverish civilization; it fection of realism. The spectator "sees” all
is attuned to the rhythm of American life. the steps in the development of the action;
It has developed, not by centuries, but by he even “sees” the catastrophe,-in most cases
decades. In the countries of Europe there a “happy ending,”—and the only thing he is
exists a similarity of culture. This imparts permitted to guess is “how gorgeous, how rich
to the European drama a certain essential the wedding will be.” As a consequence, all
uniformity. European authors form one large attempts at impressionism, symbolism, the
family and dramas are freely translated from modes of artistic reserve—all seeking of new
one language to another. But the American ways is viewed with disapproval. “The
stage remains "unconquered territory," and American stage is rudely realistic, naturalistic
lives its own peculiar life in pleased provin to utter tastelessness." Æsthetic experimen-
ciality. “It is seldom that a member of the tation is sacrificed to the stolid stability of the
international family succeeds in penetrating stage.


464
[May 31
THE DIAL
The stage of America is all aglow with munity and neighborhood playhouses, the
“stars," each shedding his or her constant, "pageant” movement,—all are signs of a
unchanging light. “Real artists, with a spark dramatic awakening in America. It is the
of the divine fire, are a rarity.” The Russian
The Russian prospect of this rebirth that gives special
method of acting through inner life, through significance to the production of Dymov's
emotional experience is totally foreign to the play, “Niu.”
play, “Niu." The real importance for our
American theatre. Talent, versatility, artistic stage of this work, lies in its courageous at-
rebirths, are stifled by the tyranny of a suc tempt to apply a new principle that of the
cessful “part," of a rôle that has won the despised "movies”—to the spoken drama. Al-
plaudits of the audience. There are no re though moving-pictures were a rarity in
incarnations; there are
are only repetitions Russia at the time the play was written, Dy-
faintly disguised. In the theatres of Europe, mov realized that they were destined to serve
even before the war, the directors were clamor an important end in the civilization of the
ing for more plays. They complained of a future. He determined to write a play which
dearth, and the drama seemed to be passing would not develop a single action interrupted
through a sharp crisis. A few talented play- only by the artificial act divisions, but which
wrights had a virtual monopoly of dramatic would be a series of separate pictures, follow-
production; Andreyev, Hauptmann, Bern- ing each other in rapid succession. This play
stein, D'Annunzio, Hamsun. In America is “Niu,” which is composed of ten scenes
there is no crisis; New York alone has an presented with the very briefest of intervals.
annual output of one hundred new plays. It The novel principle involved appealed to other
is as if the whole thing were run by an ex Russian dramatists, among them Sologub, who
cellently adjusted machine, working, let us wrote his “Vanjka Kluchnik and Page Jean,"
say, with the force of several thousand horse in thirteen "pictures.”
power. But within very recent years, a new The artistic basis of “Niu” would make the
spirit has penetrated the American stage. author of “The New Laokoon” shudder. The
Foreign stars have been cordially received, play bids defiance to the ordinary concep-
and there have been sporadic performances of tion of dramatic unity, and represents the
foreign dramas. The dramatic art of all
attempt by another iconoclastic modern to
countries is passing through a period of tran merge the genres. But why should the mod-
sition, and if the American theatre is being
erns shut their eyes to the artistic combina-
Europeanized, the European theatre is being tions made possible by the new developments
Americanized. The compensation will enrich and discoveries in the mechanical arts? In a
both. And when, to the perfection of Amer sense, the dramatic principle underlying
ican stage technique shall be added the “inner D'Annunzio's “Cabiria” and Knoblauch's
life” of the Russian drama, the ideal theatre “My Lady's Dress” is the same. In the mov-
will arise.
ing-pictures miracles abound, causal connec-
Dymov is by no means a carping or ungen tion is almost destroyed, a lack of sober
erous critic. But there is no doubt that he reasonableness is apparent, and the audience
finds our "dramatic morality” smug and bour finds itself in the realm of the inexplicable
geois and our playwrights and play producers and the unmotivated. But a drama intended
obsessed by a synthetic apparition—the Amer for the stage can never depart from the higher
ican audience which forever whispers a hol unity of impression. Each of the scenes of
low and affrighted Verboten. His views lead “My Lady's Dress" is a separate and dis-
to the verdict that our stage is in a sad, but tinct "drama," yet all are linked together by
hopeful condition. Hope depends upon fur a single idea or mood and a unified motivation.
ther European impregnation. He has noth The same is true of “The Affairs of Anatol.”
ing to say about our really excellent plays. A spectacular drama-really a pageant-like
In all likelihood he is not acquainted with “The Wanderer,” or “Caliban of the Yellow
them. Perhaps he is not able to appreciate, Sands," has the looseness of structure that
at its true worth, the “inner life,” the native characterizes the old miracle cycles. The
spirit of our drama. Nor does he give suffi dramatic structure of “Niu" differs from both
cient credit to the valiant efforts that are mak of these types. It keeps close to the true
ing for the cultivation of an æsthetic sense in dramatic form by introducing few characters,
our people. The "little theatres,” the com by focussing the interest upon the heroine,


1917]
465
THE DIAL
Annette or Niu, and by limiting the action troubling. Her very substantial husband
to one central conflict. All this appears ortho and her light-o'-love poet will never under-
dox enough. But in its dramatic technique stand this woman who can be neither wife nor
“Niu” makes bold innovations. Each of its mistress. And when she dies, the two men
parts is a separate picture,—one in a "reel” become as one to her—placers of wreaths upon
of ten scenes. Each scene has the elaboration
a coffin.
of detail, the suggestive background, the sym It is interesting to speculate on how Dymov
bolic side-business, the pantomimic action of came to see the possibility of applying the
the “movies.” The motion-picture heart-throb principle of the moving-picture to the spoken
is there, and the appeal to the primary emo drama. In all his work, Dymov shows a keen
tions of the very “crowd” that, as we have consciousness of subtle qualities and relations.
seen, Dymov counsels our American dram The very titles of his two volumes of short
atists to leave out of their reckoning.
stories—“Solstice,” “The Earth is Blossom-
But “Niu” pays a heavy penalty for its ing"-suggest something of the author's style
thoroughgoing attempt to apply the principle and method. Ossip Dymov is a skilful and re-
of the moving-picture to the spoken drama. fined impressionist and a mystic. For him
The action drags along with slow, lumbering everything in nature is a miracle, every stir
gait and much drawing of creaking curtains. and heave and movement in the world of
The effects are painfully obvious: symbolism, things about us is a manifestation of a mi-
contrasts, pantomime, fated occurrences—all raculous universe. The opening of a door,
are palpable and disenchanting. The dra- sunrise, a first kiss, the new spring, the birth
matic devices protrude like bare bones, and of a noble thought, the song of a skylark on an
each one is made to work overtime. There is April morning-all are eloquent with divine
no artistic reticence. Everything is won the
Everything is “on the meaning. Mystery lurks in all things. “Some
stage,” plain as a pikestaff, distractingly strange mystery marks women long before
simple, literal, naked, unequivocal, ploddingly their birth,” says Dymov in one of the stories
consequential. The characters bring them in “Solstice.” The phrase would make an
selves to book and dissect their emotions with appropriate motto for the play, “Niu,”.
decadent relish. And yet the drama has a study of a woman seeking a love and a con-
flavor that is quite unique-possibly Russian, tentment which she never finds, and which
surely exotic. This quality exists in the play forever remain a mystery to her.
not because of the central situation—which Even in the walls of a room Dymov sees
is a variation on the orthodox "triangle"— miracles. In one place he writes: "Strange
but because Niu and her husband are beings and incomprehensible is this influence of the
strangely compounded and oddly entangled. walls upon a man and of the man upon the
The husband's hold on his wife rests on a walls.” And yet there is something shallow
sexual uxoriousness which makes him a weak-
and ready-made about this facile mysticism,
ling. He becomes distressing and hateful to something of the disenchanting in these mul-
a woman suffering from the nostalgia of the
tiplied mysteries and superabundant miracles.
distant, the inexplicable, the desire for a love
It all comes too easy; you feel no laboring
that is mystically near and yet forever unat-
of the spirit to acquire a sense of otherworldly
tainable. To the spectator Niu is the most
connotations. It is no better than the fluent
interesting character in the play because she
is the one that least understands herself. Psy. symbolism of so many of the moderns. As a
Russian critic says: “Gold would have no
cho-analysts will hail her as a "case"; literary
value to the man who found that all the cob-
analysts will significantly group her with The
Lady from the Sea. But Niu does not set out
blestones were made of gold.” But the spirit
on a search for emancipation. Not even free-
that animates Dymov's works is an earnest
dom to love can heal her psychic malady. attempt to light up and glorify a workaday
Hers is a recoil from the threadbare sameness
world. In his portrayal of character Dymov
of love and life, an inexpressible yearning for
shows the same awareness of hidden mysteries
miraculous and magic experiences, a tragic in human beings, in their motives and in their
weariness of the spirit in which regret and strivings; seeking to understand these, he
longing and hopeless boredom are strangely comes upon miracles.
mingled. Only in death can she cease from
LOUIS S. FRIEDLAND.
a


466
(May 31
THE DIAL
Advertising
Politics
tion of the Governors with Washington, the
working of local committees, the plan and
Not since the Civil War have men been so purpose behind the hastily erected structures
interested in the business of politics as they of national organization, the attempt to cope
are at the present time. The entrance of with the problems of food and of shipping-
America into the European struggle has to all these must be given their full dramatic
dramatized the significance of national affairs. quality. It is hardly too much to claim that
They have become genuinely interesting to twelve months of adequate insistence may
the average man. They have taken on some well serve to change the whole perspective of
thing of that fascination which before he American political life.
ascribed only to baseball and Wall Street. It The basic machinery of such an enterprise
is a change in attitude of momentous impor- the President has already created. The Pub-
tance. For the last twenty-five years ob- licity Bureau, of which Mr. George Creel has
servers have not ceased to complain that the been made director, has an immense opportu-
modern democracy is uninterested in its own nity in its hands. It is, in reality, the impre-
life. Certainly, politics seems, too often, to sario of government; and it is hardly an
have been regarded as outside the legitimate exaggeration to suggest that popular interest
scope of ordinary conversation. Social psy in the war will largely depend upon the qual-
chologists were not slow to point out the ity of its stage-management. It must take the
cause of this: they explained that politics largest possible conception of its functions.
failed to relate itself to the national life with Two great duties have clearly devolved upon
such emphasis as to secure the eager attention
it. It has to relate the President's war-
of busy and somewhat weary men. Now, with speech to every issue of the present struggle:
amazing rapidity, the whole perspective is and it has to trace out the steps by which the
changed. Everyone is talking politics. The claims of that address are made effective in
ories of the state are tossed off lightly at the
the events of the war. It is, of course, a diffi-
dinner tables of Broadway. They have ideas cult task; but it is also a task of immense
on the technique of administration in Kansas ; importance. The Bureau has in its hands the
California is full of plans for the vitalization
most effective means our generation has pos-
of Washington. It is a great opportunity
sessed for the education of democracy. It
for the reconstruction of political life. How must mobilize the intellectual talent of
are we to take advantage of it?
America. It must attach to itself every writer
The central need is very clear. What we
who has the capacity to make politics an in-
have to do is to make this sudden spurt of teresting study to ordinary men. It must
national interest a permanent fascination. popularize the efforts of bureaus like that over
What we have to do is to make the study of
which Miss Lathrop presides to conserve the
politics so important in the eyes of everyone,
child-life of the nation. It must illuminate
so arrestingly intelligible to him, so clearly the way in which the army and navy coördi-
the kind of topic that springs as naturally to
nate their efforts. It must show us exactly
his lips as the weather, that he will wonder,
how the President affects the activities of
when the war is over, that there was ever a
Congress. It must interpret in popular terms
period in his life when he was not an eager
the vast financial operations which, to most
student of national affairs. Our business is
of us, are like nothing so much, at present,
as a somewhat suspicious sleight-of-hand per-
to create an educated and equipped electorate;
formance. It must bring home to every mem-
and the basis of that is an interested elector-
ber of the nation what is meant by the
ate. But the medium of interest in a popula-
national life. It must relate the pledge of
tion so busy as own, a population, Congress to use all the resources of America
moreover, to which, from the nature of things,
for victory to the actual labor of men and
thought must be something of a luxury, is the
women in field and factory and workshop. It
adequate provision of information. We must
must popularize the kind of work the British
give them news about the working of govern committees on the physiological significance
mental machinery; we must relate the news of industry have achieved, in order that the
we give to the theories implied in events. manufacturers of New York and Massachu-
The relation of the State to labor, the coöpera setts shall not think of long hours as the first
our


1917]
467
THE DIAL
step to victory; and the workers thereby be can place the business of Congress at the dis-
rendered not unnaturally suspicious of the posal of every man who can read the English
whole effort we are making. In this broad language. It can even assist in the business
aspect, what the Bureau of Publicity can do of Americanization by having its accounts in-
is like nothing so much as photographing a terpreted for the foreign journals of the dif-
nation at work. Everyone knows the human ferent nationalities among us. It is difficult
desire to be photographed. Everyone can. to think of a greater service to the effective
feel tolerably certain that effects will follow prosecution of the war.
from the distribution of copies.
No one can fail to be impressed by the
But that is not all. There is a subtler and immense eagerness on the part of men and
more difficult task that it is important to women all over the country to do something in
achieve. There are all varieties of studies, this crisis. But their eagerness is paralleled
at present semi-technical in character, of by their ignorance. Many of them find that
which the conditions need to be stated in or the life of the nation is a thing of which they
dinarily intelligible terms. We talk much, form a blind, dumb part. They have been
for example, of the Prussian theory of the uninterested in its processes.
It speaks a
State;
but it is not too much to say that be- language they do not understand. They can-
yond a vague thought that despotism is in not interpret its needs, nor serve its purposes
tended, the concept is quite without realistic save by the dangerous path of slavish obe-
content to the majority of men. We shall dience to command. But they are passionately
have to control production and probably con anxious to begin afresh. They are determined
sumption, in every phase of their activity. to understand every act and thought which
We need nothing so much as the restatement bears to-day upon the changes in the social
of these questions in ordinary terms. It is fabric. It is an immense opportunity. It
useless to relegate them to the awkward hin gives us, for the first time in half a century,
terland of the expert. If war is not to convert the opportunity to refresh the wellspring of
a democracy into a rasping bureaucracy, then our national life. No more solemn duty was
upon every question which comes near to
ever laid upon a government than to take
the life of the people, a public opinion must
effective advantage of this tremendous good
be generated. Above all, the electorate must
will.
be interested in the business of Congress.
That will serve two great ends. It will, in the
first place, improve the quality of congres-
Literary Affairs in France
sional life. It will probably result in a larger
proportion of able men being willing, as a
(Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.)
Aloïs Ladislas de Damaiowice Strzembosz,
consequence, to devote themselves to political
service. But to that end we must place
or, as his name was shortened by his intimates,
Ladislas Strzem bosz, has just died. He was
within popular reach an account of congres-
librarian of the Bibliothèque Polonaise, in-
sional life. For this purpose the “Record”
stalled in a quaint old building on the quai
is useless: it is too big, too clumsy, and too
d'Orléans, the southern and sunny side of
full of unintelligent particularization; it is the Isle Saint Louis, in the very heart of
written for posterity. We need a journal that ancient Paris. M. Strzembosz's health had
meets the very special requirements of the been failing for a long time and for many
present hour.
Now the great journals are months he had been bed-ridden with con-
already tolerably well cared for in this re sumption. He was known in French learned
spect. They retain their correspondents at circles for his thorough knowledge of bibliog-
Washington, who compile an adequate and in-
raphy and heraldry, but his special promi-
teresting summary of congressional business.
nence was due perhaps to his position as head
But there are thousands of small journals all
of this interesting Polish library, founded
over the country, daily and weekly, to which
many years ago by the Polish refugees after
their various unsuccessful efforts to restore
this is an impossible luxury. Nothing would
their nationality. It counted among its bene-
be more valuable to them than such an ac-
factors the most famous Polish patriots of the
count. One great thing the Bureau of Pub-
past century-Prince Adam Czartoryski,
licity can perform is to supply that need. It General Kniaziewicz and General Dembinski,


468
[May 31
THE DIAL
the poets Adam Mickiewicz and Bogdan spectacle to the world. The Russian revolution has
Zaleski, the historians Levewel and Niemce-
struck off at a blow all the heads of the monster;
autocracy in falling has dragged down with it the
wicz. Niemcewicz accompanied Kosciusko to
orthodox hurch; and religious liberty has been pro-
America when he visited us in 1797.
claimed.
The library contains some 80,000 volumes The Teutonic peril awakened the Russian con-
and the Adam Mickiewicz museum, formed of
science. Some day history may succeed in showing
the manuscripts, portraits, and other objects
how much the martyrdom of Poland, with her thou-
sands of deported citizens, contributed to the miraeu-
which belonged to the poet, all the editions
lous metamorphosis we have witnessed in the last few
and translations of his works, and a great weeks.
number of printed articles concerning him. That other great territorial theft-Alsace-
Among other notable things in this library Lorraine—is quite as much to the fore in
are a fine collection of engravings and auto European books as is that of Poland. The
graphs, a part of the archives of the Polish whole question is well treated from the French
Legation which existed in France at the be-
point of view in a scholarly and detailed man-
ginning of Louis Philippe's reign, and his ner by the late Professor Antonin Debidour,
toric documents like the act of dethronement of Paris University, in his “Histoire Diplo-
of the Czar Nicholas, voted and signed in matique de l'Europe" (Paris: Félix Alcan,
1831 by the Senate and Chamber of Nuncios 4 vol. 32 fr.). The third volume, “La Paix
of Poland. The confiscation of the libraries Armée" (1878-1904), appeared last year, and
in Poland explains the creation of Polish the concluding volume, “Vers la Grande
libraries in foreign lands, the first being that Guerre" (1904-1916), was published this
at Paris. The present librarian, M. Ladislas year, just a week before the author's death.
Mickiewicz, grandson of the poet, sends me, The work deals not only with the Alsace-
apropos of the death of M. Strzembosz, the
Lorraine question but with the origin of the
following view of the Polish situation :
war, which is presented in a clear, concise,
Printed matter concerning Poland is, of course, and convincing manner. The preface to the
very abundant in our library, and present events
third volume, written a year ago by the well-
have added a great number of pamphlets and books
French
known
statesman,
to the mass born of our various revolutions.
Senator Léon
With
more or less reticence and precaution, these publica- Bourgeois, is an excellent résumé of the whole
tions all point to the same solution of the problem. subject. The closing paragraph is devoted
Many of their authors are very diplomatic in their to our attitude to the war and is marked
treatment of the cabinets whom they try to mollify: by its kindly tone, though we had then
Others imagine ingenious compromises or propose to
the cabinets this or that concession, without bother reached only the stage of the President's note
ing themselves as to whether they have any author of April 20, 1915.
ity for making such proposals. But the Russian Professor Prignet, of
of the Montpellier
revolution has upset all the combinations of these
Machiavellis in miniature; most of them were imme-
Lycée, presents the subject in a freer narra-
diately converted to the advocacy of the most un-
tive manner in his handsome volume, “L’Al-
compromising measures, while others turned toward sace-Lorraine” (Paris: Delagrave, 4 fr.),
arms and have offered their services to the Russian
printed on heavy paper and very finely illus-
revolutionary parties with the same eagerness with
trated, several of the pictures being by Hansi,
which they had been wont to court the ministers who
have fallen. They are to be held in suspicion and
whose drawings of Alsatian life, and espe-
are probably the source of much of the contradic cially of Alsatian children, richly deserve
tory "news" sent out from Saint Petersburg or “neu their fame. This one sentence from the text
tral” news centres.
I have never felt that the salvation of Poland
shows the spirit in which the book is written:
would come from Austria, a composite empire, a
“The fixed determination on the part of
mosaic of nationalities; still less from Prussia, a France to make no peace which does not
predatory state, born of the perjury of a religious include the return of Alsace-Lorraine was de-
order, enlarged by successive robberies from its neigh-
cided upon at the very opening of the cam-
bors, cemented by the shameful brigandage of Fred-
rick II and by the partition of Poland.
paign.”
Many signs lead us to hope that Russia will no How thoroughly this idea has taken pos-
longer remain the passive instrument of an autocracy session of all classes in France comes out in a
without bowels of compassion. Liberated Russia ab-
peculiar fashion in a thin little book called,
jures despotism, bureaucratic corruption, and relig-
ious persecution, which were the governing principles
“Alsaciens, Corrigeons notre Accent" (Paris :
of Czarism. Who does not pray that this new con-
Berger-Levrault, 2 fr.), by Baron Albert de
vert to freedom may continue in the way where she Dietrich, whose wife is a Hottingeur, both
can find happiness for herself and at the same time
members of the household being thus of the
repair her century-long wrongs to Poland? To
most ancient and distinguished Alsatian
substitute the reign of justice for that of in-
justice, to recognize her obligations toward the un-
stock. The social standing of the author is
fortunate whom she has robbed, and to break her own
in itself significant ; significant too is the rea-
bonds at the same time, would be to offer a grand son he gives for writing the book : "French
.


1917]
469
THE DIAL
baldly spoken causes suspicion at this time.”
Then follows a learned disquisition on pho-
netics in their bearing on the Alsatian dia-
lect and Alsatian French. Though some
critics may doubt whether many Alsatians
will observe the rather complicated rules for
good pronunciation laid down in these pages,
the state of mind which drew them up is full
of meaning.
This book also, as well as a pamphlet by the
same author—“Alsaciens, Lorrains, nos
Frères !” (Paris: Henri Diéval, 25 centimes)
-discreetly reveals as few French books do
the latent friction which often shows itself
between the population of France and that of
the Lost Provinces. This little family un-
pleasantness comes out in these lines which I
have received from M. de Dietrich: “The
misunderstandings between French and Al-
satians are disappearing and we are begin-
ning to recognize the patriotism and bravery
of many Alsatian soldiers who have shown
devotion to France." There can be no doubt
of this bravery and this devotion. The offi-
cial journal of Germany has published twelve
lists of young men of Alsace-Lorraine, total-
ing 5149 names, who have fled the country
since the war broke out, in order to escape
service in the German armies. Many of these
are in the French armies and not a few have
been killed or wounded.
M. Albert Trombert's “Souvenirs d’Al-
sace" and “Ombres Glorieuses" (Paris :
Chaix, 3 fr. 50 each) are not controversial.
The author abandoned his Colmar home in
1871, and preserved his French citizenship by
establishing himself at Paris, where he has
become an authority on social science and a
part of the publishing world of the French
capital. The first of these volumes is, as its
title indicates, a collection of personal rem-
iniscences of Alsace, and the second presents
historic Alsatian scenes during the war of
1870. They not only give one an insight
into the more intimate side of Alsatian life,
but explain why so many Frenchmen are at-
tached to the country and why they now de-
mand its return with such unanimity.
If one has time to read but a single book on
the present Alsace-Lorraine problem, I would
recommend that by the brothers Henri and
André Lichtenberger, "La Question d'Alsace-
Lorraine” (Paris : Chapelot, 1 fr.), which
has gone through some half a dozen editions.
Professor Henri Lichtenberger, of the Sor-
bonne, was the exchange professor at Har-
vard during the first year of the war and is
not forgotten in American university circles.
His two sons were to have been freshmen at
Cambridge while their father lectured there;
but instead, they went to the western trenches,
and M. Lichtenberger, in sending me his book,
can say: “We work, struggle and stand firm,
though not without some melancholy at see-
ing the day of peace further off than ever.
But the morale remains good, and faith in the
final victory as strong as ever.”
French war poetry is also deeply impreg-
nated with this Alsatian spirit. Take, for
instance, the volume “Rimes Vengeresses”
(Paris : Hachette, 3 fr.). The title suffices
to show the nature of the poems between the
covers, and Germany and the Kaiser are
treated with a severity unequaled in any
other book I have seen. Of the author, M.
Stéphen Liégard, “the Lorraine poet,” his
friend M. Arthur Meyer once said to me:
“In his youth, Liégard was seven times lau-
reate of the Toulouse Floral Games, which,
it will be remembered, initiated the celebrity
of Victor Hugo. One of his volumes, 'La
Côte d'Azur,' has given its very poetic and
appropriate name to the whole superb coast-
line stretching from Marseilles to Genoa.
Just now his poems are very popular at all
our patriotic reunions and at the concerts for
the wounded in our hospitals. He is the last
surviving deputy of the part of Lorraine an-
nexed to Germany, and was one of those who,
seer-like, foresaw the war of 1870. The
warmth and nobility of soul which pervaded
his speeches of that period are reflected in
his poems to-day.”
In sending me his volume, so full of fire
and aggressiveness, the poet adds these lines
concerning the future of Alsace-Lorraine :
That these Lost Provinces should and would be
re-incorporated into France, I have not ceased to pre-
dict and to demand during the forty-four years which
have separated 1870 from 1914, and now more than
ever I am convinced of the necessity of the meas-
To-day, after so much blood has been poured
out by the Mother Country and the Allies, the non-
realization of this hope seems to me impossible. And
when this occurs, I trust, with the help of God, to
take my seat again as deputy for Thionville.
“Le Laurier Sanglant" (Paris: Calmann-
Lévy, 3 fr. 50), is also made up of poems
relating to the last two French wars. The
language is less extreme than that of M. Lié-
gard, and the verses devoted to the present
conflict are largely reflections of military
hospital life, reproducing that life with all its
pathos and with a remarkable exactitude
which is explained by the fact that the author,
M. Jacques Normand, has been acting as
librarian in one of the hospitals at Saint-
Jean-de-Luz.
THEODORE STANTON.
May 19, 1917.
ure.


470
[May 31
THE DIAL
:
COMMUNICATIONS
the first exceeds her proposed space limit by more
than 2000, and the other by more than 7000,
FRENCH PROPER NAMES.
words.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
It is contended that by arbitrarily limiting the
In reading Mr. Cory's interesting article on length of the short-story, verbosity would be over-
“The Senility of the Short-Story” in your issue
come, and that by lowering its market value,
of May 3, I note a mistake often made by for certain writers would cease prostituting their abil-
eigners in the use of French proper names. Mr.
ities. Condensation would greatly improve most
Cory writes: "Its chief masters, men like Poe stories, but it does not follow that none should
and de Maupassant, etc." The particle is de exceed 3000 words. Who are the writers who
trop, but the error is everywhere; the “Century have been prostituted by the so-called high prices
Dictionary” speaks of de Musset.' I beg the use
paid for short stories? Since when has the short-
of your columns to call to the attention of Amer-
story been considered a highly profitable form of
ican writers the following rules from Vian—“La literature? Isn't the rambling, anæmie serial
Particule Nobiliaire”:
chiefly at fault! It is the high-priced product
The particle de is never placed alone before the
that has made many writers turn from the short-
name; one does not sign de Montmorency, de Biron,
story entirely. Men who once wrote creditably are
de Noailles, but Charles de Montmorency, duc de
Biron, Paul de Noailles. In signing a note to a
now grinding out continued instalments of mushy
friend or a document, de is not used: Grammont,
flapdoodle—not short stories. It would seem, also,
Richelieu, Montemart. When the title of nobility
that Mrs. Colum fails to differentiate between the
or the title of Monsieur or Monseigneur is not used, prices paid for short-stories and those offered for
there is no de: I met le comte de Ségur, not I met names. It is reasonable to suppose that the status
de Ségur; mon cher Grignan, and not de Grignan, says of the short story would be raised if its value were
Mme. de Sévigné. There are two exceptions: the de enhanced. If a premium were placed upon form
is used, even without given name, qualification or
and thought instead of upon words and sweetness,
title: (1) before names of one syllable or of two
syllables ending in a mute e: de Thou wrote cor-
standards would climb. Incentive is needed; not
rectly-I have seen de Sèze ; (2) before names
discouragement. If the real short-story were made
which begin with a vowel or a silent h: l'Armorial de
more profitable than the serial, or the scenario, it
d'Hozier; à moi d'Auvergne; fils de d'Orléans. would be produced.
-(Littré, Dict. Fran. under nobiliaire.)
Elsewhere we are told that “Most of all the
BENJ. M. WOODBRIDGE. short-story suffers from that blight which affects
University of Texas, May 19, 1917.
all creative art in America—the want of intellec-
tual freedom-a want that saps the energy and
withers up all but the most valiant and violent of
THE SHORT-STORY.
creative spirits.” If this be true, would it help
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
matters to inflict still further limitations upon
In her verbose discourse on “The American the writer?
Short-Story," Mary M. Colum mothers some as-
SEARLE HENDEE.
tonishing philosophy. The most ridiculous of her
Chicago, IU., May 9, 1917.
platitudinous utterances are the weird uplift sug-
gestions she offers “a few magazine editors.” “By
declining short-stories over three thousand words
Miss MONROE RESPONDS.
long and by refusing to pay more than a hundred
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
dollars for any short-story, they could create a new Having been rusticating in North Carolina, I
standard and raise both the prestige of the short have just read, in your issue of May 3rd, Mr. Con-
story and of their magazines,” she asserts. rad Aiken's review of “The New Poetry,” which
Thus, we have only to standardize and cheapen was edited by Mrs. Henderson and myself. It may
the short-story to improve its literary quality. As not be de rigueur for an author to take any official
soon as it becomes a less profitable form, more notice of his critics, but perhaps a mere editor of
painstaking work will be devoted to it. To per an anthology may say a word without transgress-
fect it, we must make it a staple article, 8915 ems ing literary proprieties.
or less in length, worth so much a stick. Would I am not surprised that Mr. Aiken does not like
it not be equally logical to contend that by limit the anthology; in fact, I long since ceased to
ing the size of canvases to 12 by 18 inches, the hope that any undertaking of the editors of “Poe-
quality of American paintings would be im try” would satisfy his fastidious taste. From the
proved
beginning of the magazine they have been, to their
It is true that wordiness is one of our glaring deep regret, unable to follow his lead, or to be
defects. But can it be cured and artistic stand aroused to editorial enthusiasm over his various
ards raised by making the column measure books of verse; and his fierce and facile pen has
metre of literary values? And just what is the spitted them for many a roast in various journals,
tremendous psychological effect $100 checks would even before The Dial granted him the hospitality
have upon writers? In one breath Mrs. Colum of its columns. Always they have confessed his
condemns commercial standardization and in the skill, and marvelled at the agility of his weather-
next proposes more rigid standardization. She cock mind—as now, when he rebukes them for
mentions Poe's "Ligeia," and Kipling's “Without giving too little space to Messrs. Fletcher and
Benefit of Clergy. According to her reasoning, Flint, both hardened imagists, after all his bitter
neither of these should have been published, for diatribes against imagism. But this friendly tilt-
a


1917]
471
THE DIAL
a
ing has been all according to the rules of the game, confined us chiefly to the poems first printed in
and all, I trust, for the greater glory of the art. “Poetry.” He draws up a formidable indictment
So Mr. Aiken will gladly permit me, no doubt, to against my humble self, pronounces me a "senti-
take up a few of the points he makes so sharply
mental idealist-anthropocentric, deist, panpsy-
against the new anthology.
chist, or what not, but never, by any chance, a de-
“Oh, that mine enemy had written a book!" tached or fearless observer” because three or
cried a wise man long ago. He would have been four of his favorites, which he seems to think I
wiser still if he had wished on his enemy an an found too daring in tone, are not in the anthology.
thology, as I now wish one on Mr. Aiken. He will The fact is, one of these poems, Mr. Masters's
find that poets and their publishers, especially “Arabel,” first saw the light in “Poetry," and I
those across the water, have their own ideas, can't see that any of them outdares certain poems
favorable or unfavorable, about anthologies and included in the new collection.
their representation in them, and that the editor's As for the more general accusation that the
preferences cannot always be carried out. In anthology favors America, and especially the Mid-
this case certain of the finest poems “Poetry” ever dle West, and slights England, I can only say that
printed were withheld from the anthology by their its editors would rather be accused of that excess
authors; for example, Mr. T. S. Eliot, who was than of the long prevalent sycophantic colonialism
about to bring out a book, very reasonably denied in taste which has usually been too evident in
us its chief feature, “Prufrock," which Mr. Aiken books of this kind, and which Mr. Aiken himself
blames us for omitting. The space accorded to is guilty of when he braces his own opinion of
Mr. Masefield, Mr. Robinson, and a number of Mr. Abercrombie with that of two English poets.
other poets is less than it should be because of The proportions of English and American verse in
these perfectly proper inhibitions from poets and the anthology represent, except for certain inhibi-
publishers who were mostly very generous, and to
tions above noted, the editors' opinion of relative
whom we can only be grateful for the loan of any values; but even if they did not, the book, being
of their copyrighted property. As for Mr. Robin chiefly for American readers, might well lay a
son's “Ben Jonson Entertains Man from certain stress upon our own poets, and thus try to
Stratford,” we agree with Mr. Aiken about its ex combat the ingrained American sentimental preju-
traordinary quality, as “Poetry” has stated more dice in favor of foreign art. And between East
than once, and we should have been overjoyed to and West in our own country, also, the East has
include it, the author consenting, if its length, 425 always had a similar advantage.
lines, nearly three times that of any poem in the I will say nothing of the bitter arraignment of
collection, were not prohibitive.
"Poetry's” policy and of the shortcomings of its
Those objections of Mr. Aiken which may not editors which Mr. Aiken drags into his review. It
be met by such statements of editorial difficulties is sufficient to refer your readers to our files,
reduce themselves simply to differences of defini which categorically disprove many of his state-
tion and taste. I don't know how he would define ments and amply defend us against others.
He
the phrase, “the new poetry": in this article he has shown less regard for truth than for making
seems to delimit it by greater radicalism of feeling out a plausible case. But I fear he is “intoxicated
and form than he has hitherto stood for, since he
with the exuberance of his own verbosity”-mere
would exclude certain of our poets whom he calls
assertion is not evidence.
"distinctly traditional" or "pleasantly convention-
HARRIET MONROE.
al," while it would be difficult to count the various Chicago, Il., May 19, 1917.
traditions and conventions—Masefieldian, Gibson-
ian, etc.—which he has followed in the course of
AN OLD DRAMATIC DEVICE.
his brief career. Our definition would include re-
cent poems, beautiful in their simplicity, sincerity,
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
and lyric intensity, whether their form and motive
In his article on “Some Experiments in Amer-
be of the latest pattern or not; while it would ex-
ican Drama," in your issue of May 17, Mr. Homer
clude the elaborate and deliberately thought-out
E. Woodbridge states that Mr. Dreiser makes “use
artificiality of Mr. Abercrombie, and other forms
of a device which, so far as I know, is new even
of modern rhetoric. Which is the more just defini in closet drama, and which is a source of fatal
tion each reader of “The New Poetry” will doubt weakness. From speech to speech, Mr. Dreiser
less decide for himself.
shifts his scene; with one speech we are in a com-
I despair of pointing out the triviality of some fortable drawing room; with the next on the street
of Mr. Aiken's strictures, and the injustice or in outside listening to the talk of passers-by, etc."
correctness of others, while I must leave your I venture to comment that Mr. Woodbridge does
readers to pronounce on the tone and temper of not know very far. The author, whoever he was,
his article. He thinks Mr. Lindsay's “General of “La Celestina," probably the greatest closet
Booth" an "ephemeral jingle”: I disagree. He drama of all literature, made use of that device;
prefers Mr. Fletcher's green and white symphon and its weakness was not fatal enough to prevent
ies: we have ventured to quote the blue one. He “La Celestina” from still being, although over four
praises Brooke's “Clouds” and “Dust” and “Li centuries old, one of the few most alive of the
bido": we think the dead poet's war sonnets and supreme works of art Europe has produced.
“Retrospect” would still represent him as well or
LOUIS How.
better, even if our permit from his estate had not New York, May 21, 1917.
..


472
[May 31
THE DIAL
AND
By
International Confusions other writer's thesis than for any fundamental
contribution of its own.
OBSTACLES TO PEACE. By S. S. McClure. Professor Muir is an accomplished book-
(Houghton Mifflin; $2.)
maker, and this latest of his war books is a
NATIONALISM
INTERNATIONALISM.
useful illustration of his method. A success-
Ramsay Muir. (Houghton Mifflin; $1.25.)
HESITATIONS. By W. M. Fullerton. (Double-
ful teacher of history, he is accustomed to
day, Page & Co.; $1.)
make facile generalizations of the kind that
THE WAR OF DEMOCRACY. Edited by Viscount are large enough to be grasped immediately
Bryce. (Doubleday, Page & Co.; $2.)
by the average intelligence. He writes well;
Of the making of war books there is as and he is able to support his argument by an
suredly no end; and no one can envy the his abundance of apt illustrations. What he has
torian of the twenty-first century who shall endeavored to do-what, indeed, he has very
attempt the philosophical analysis of the effectively done—is to interpret the meaning
present struggle. It is probable, indeed, that of nationalism and to prove the futility of
only by coöperative effort will it be possible any cosmopolitan ideal which is not firmly
to achieve an adequate analysis of this three grounded upon such a basis. If the thesis was
years' experience. The points of view it worth maintaining, Professor Muir has cer-
seems possible to adopt are as manifold as tainly reënforced it; though it may be doubted
they are irreconcilable. The official dispatches whether it is worth while reënforcing the ob-
in no sense complete one another. Eyewit vious in some two hundred pages. Professor
nesses are clearly trusting less to the objective Muir, of course, would reply that the ar-
vision than to that “inward eye” which is the gument is unsound, since the rulers of modern
basis of mystic interpretation. We barely Germany do not accept his conclusions. But
understand what has happened. In an age since it is, to say the least, unlikely that the
when the means of communication are better ruling caste of Germany will read his book,
than at any time in history, objective truth it still remains a work of supererogation.
has become almost grotesquely unattainable. Moreover, it may be urged that the very
All we can do is to hold firmly by the large, facility of his generalizations and the easy
vague outlines of events; the details must go. charm of his style will act as a dangerous
Now and then some great feat of heroism will soporific to thought. His picture of law, for
cast a light across the whole, some tragic fail example, as the “organized will and con-
ure, as at the Dardanelles, reveal the purpose science of the community” has a certain just-
of gigantic effort. But, on the whole, we have ification from the limits of space he has set
to wait patiently and soberly for an under himself; but it neglects the fact that a very
standing that, to most of us at any rate, may
important school of thought denies that law
never come.
as administered is so communally representa-
Any book, therefore, that has a genuine tive. His law, so defined, is what the Romans
contribution to offer is particularly welcome. meant by their jus naturae; but no Common
Mr. McClure has many faults. He is an in Law, and certainly no Civil Law, represents
curable gossip. He writes with astonishing any a priori principles of abstract justice.
carelessness. He continually obtrudes his own Equally useless is Mr. Muir's conception of
personality into events where it has no place. liberty. Lord Acton took forty years to col-
But, again and again, he has some useful lect material for its history, and, in the end,
document to transcribe, some valuable fact to he was mastered by the very vastness of his
record; and for these alone his book would subject; but Mr. Muir has no difficulty in
be worth reading. As an attempt at analyzing disposing of it as an operating principle of
the real aims of the belligerents the book is a
western civilization, in a couple of pages.
failure. Mr. McClure mistakes his anecdotes
He does not in the least seem to realize that
for history. He has the incurable habit of
the problem of liberty is the most fundamental
repetition. Much of his book lacks the per-
question which confronts the modern state;
spective into which it should have been thrown
and it is worse than useless to rehash the con-
clusions of John Stuart Mill without an
by the reading, for instance, of Herr Nau-
mann's "Mittel-Europa”; for at this stage of
attempt to analyze the degree of their applic-
ability to our modern time. These are not
the conflict it is very clear that the essential
the only cases where Professor Muir obscures
crime of Germany is her willingness to sac-
truth by his eagerness for broad conclusions.
rifice the safeguards of democracy for His theory of nationality, his interpretation
economic gain in the Near East. I imagine of medieval cosmopolitanism are both of them
that in the future Mr. McClure's book will brilliant pieces of journalism, but they are
be more useful as an illustration for some brilliant journalism only because they rep-
I


1917)
473
THE DIAL
TURE.
resent an unnatural simplification of complex alone can ensure those safeguards for the
facts. They take no account of exceptions, or democratic adventure to which Mr. Wilson
else they regard them as easy jests. Professor so finely pledged the resources of the United
Muir has written a book that is useful for the States. The temper of the book is admirable
purposes of dinner-table conversation. But it in its moderation and its calm common sense.
is not profound enough in its acquaintance It is greatly to be hoped that this collection is
with the real issues at stake to be more than only the first of a series which will winnow
a skilful piece of political persiflage.
from the immense mass of pamphlets some,
Mr. W. M. Fullerton was very anxious for at any rate, of those which have more than a
America to go to war, and he saw only signs of momentary importance.
pathetic weakness in Mr. Wilson's painful
HAROLD J. LASKI.
hesitations. This book is the evidence of his
impatience, and undoubtedly he has the merit
of having pointed out the path America has A Monument to the Victorians
finally chosen. But there is still something to
be said for Mr. Wilson, even when Mr. Ful THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERA-
lerton's accusations have filtered down into
Vols. XIII and XIV. The Nineteenth
their small precipitate of actual fact. The
Century. II and III. (G. P. Putnam's Sons;
$2.75 each.)
fault of his book is that he continually mis-
takes his private feelings for the public opin-
The completion of the “Cambridge History
ion of America. It is very clear that the war
of English Literature” is an event which may
took, not merely Mr. Wilson, but also the justly give rise to some fruitful discussion
American people by surprise, and that both
concerning the method and the aim of literary
had to grow into the full realization of its history. And it may do so not because that
issues. Mr. Fullerton seems unable to under-
science or art—whichever one pleases—has
stand how wide was the abyss which separated
been illustrated in this massive and important
the traditions of the hemispheres in foreign work, but because it has been frankly and
politics. He does not take account of the im-
definitely abandoned. Both the arrangement
mense difficulties, racial, emotional, political,
of the history as a whole and the structure of
that Mr. Wilson had to confront. The Pres-
the individual chapters follow the method of
ident's policy was twofold. He had to gather
a primitive chronicle. The facts are grouped
the nation into an effective striking unit, and
in the rudest way. The individual contribu-
he had to give it a cause for which to strike.
tors show a conscious timidity in respect of
He could not take the declared statements of anything that may rise above a description of
any of the belligerents as adequate; he had
the obvious and the notorious.
to wait on their action. It was action alone
Of the likelihood of such a reproach the
which could prove to the American people the general editors are not wholly unaware. In
real nature of German ambitions. From the a' significant postscript to the fourteenth vol-
moment that Germany displayed her real ume, they warn the student against tracing
hand, Mr. Wilson made a masterly use of the in the literature of a given period "a reflec-
material at his disposal. His hesitations, now, tion or refraction of the experiences of con-
have been coerced by Germany into the vig- temporary national history,” and against
orous protest of a validated moral purpose. "treating the course of a nation's literary his-
In such an analysis, Mr. Fullerton's book is tory as an organic part of its political and
simply a long misinterpretation of the facts social experiences.” With these warnings one
at issue.
may readily agree. But the editors seem not
Lord Bryce has rendered a useful service to have suspected the fact that political and
by the publication of these important state social experience manifests itself historically,
ments. Some, as the account of Miss Cavell's as group-experience, and that the precious-
death and M. Barrès's prose-poem, are simply ness and enduring meaningfulness of litera-
the emotional penumbra of the larger issues. ture is due to the fact that it springs from the
Others, as Mr. Fisher's discussion of the value experience of individual souls and again ad-
of small states, are historical analyses of dresses itself to individuals. Hence a poem,
permanent importance. The real value of the a story, or a play shows, as nothing else can,
collection appears, however, when it is judged how the pang and joy of life was felt and
as a totality. It has, indeed, many of the envisaged by the author. If, furthermore, it
obvious defects a partisan statement must gained a wide or an intense acceptance among
possess. But when the last criticism has been the author's contemporaries, it may help to
made, it is a valuable statement of the atti- fix and to commemorate the spiritual temper
tude to problems of foreign politics which of an entire age. The history of literature,


474
[May 31
THE DIAL
in other words, is, in a far deeper and more ness of the first citation or the spiritual snob-
intimate sense than political or social history, bishness of the second. But, indeed, a grim
a record of the experience and of the experi- and militant provincialism is the presiding
encing spirit of mankind. And it is such a spirit of the volumes. Only so can one ex-
record not only in its subject-matter but also, plain the fact that Newman is mentioned only
if rightly and skilfully interpreted, in the in scattered references and nowhere treated
peculiar forms of beauty in which the “mak as the great master of prose that he was, that
ers of a given age embodied their special Meredith’s “Modern Love” is slurred over as
sense of mat, of nature and of human life.” unimportant, and that the treatment of Pat-
From he apceptance of such a theory the more's later verse (“The Toys,” “Magna est
editors of the Sambridge History” would Veritas," etc.), of Henley, and of Pater is
guard themselves by insisting that “genius brief and grudging. Nor need one have an
defies conditions of time and space.” It does, inordinate admiration for Oscar Wilde to be
without doubt, in its occurrence, in the meas very sure that a history of literature which
ure and the radiance of its powers. But its finds ample space for the verse of Roden Noel
vision of things and its expression of that and Thomas Ashe, liberal space for the plays
vision are not independent of historic cir of Robertson and Gilbert, and dismisses the
cumstance. Such an assertion would be ab Irishman's work in prose and verse and com-
surd. Sophocles and Euripides, Virgil and edy in nine lines of print, is not written in a
Horace, Marlowe and Shakespeare, Schiller disinterested or philosophical spirit.
and Goethe are each supremely individual. Yet it is not difficult to treat the Victorian
But each pair is profoundly alike and pro era, to which (through the questionable omis-
foundly different from every other pair by sion of living writers) these volumes confine
virtue of qualities that are historic and the themselves, in such a spirit. The significant
proper objects of historical inquis And of facts are scattered over the whole period:
such inquiry there is hardly a race in the Tennyson was very anxious not to be identi-
“Cambridge History." Nor, one fears will fied with the protagonist of “Maud"; Thack-
better literary history be written in Tond eray, as Lewis Melville tells us, called “Mme.
or America until scholars pay less autem on Bovary,” “a bad book
a heartless,
to the externalities of politics and more to cold blooded study”; Mr. Saintsbury com-
those deeper sources of human liberty which plains uneasily of the literariness" of the
are revealed in the history of speculative secondary poets whom he criticizes ; “Modern
thought, of morals, and of culture.
Love” and “Jenny” founded no school and
One must clearly, then, accept the “Cam- transmitted neither their vision nor their
bridge History" as a series of essays following method ; Browning, superb poet that he was,
the course of English literature in chro wearies one at last by his robust and un-
nological order. Even as such, the chapters discriminating joyfulness of assurance; Swin-
of the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes fill burne, the last giant of the period, shocked
one with a mild astonishment. Except in the Philistines by recounting sins in which no
Professor Robertson's account of Carlyle and sensible person believes and ended by trying
Professor Grierson's of Tennyson, there is no to drown his emptiness of matter in an ever
aptness of phrase because there is no close wilder onrush of verbal music. Gladstone,
ness of thinking ; commentary and narrative finally, admired Tennyson for making so
creep along at the level of a mediocre text- poetical the description of a game-pie. It
book to sink occasionally to sheer parochial never occurred to Tennyson that he must
ism and ineptitude. Thus one is told concern either lift the game-pie itself into poetry-
ing Rossetti's magnificent “Jenny,” a poem make the object itself poetic—or leave it
whose importance in the development of alone. This humble but not trivial instance
modern literature might impress the dull may sum up and serve to interpret all the
est, that “no one can take exception to the others. The Victorians distrusted experience
poet's moral attitude," but that “the situa and were timid in the presence of reality.
tion of the speaker is one with which moral Except in the narrow sphere of the specific-
reflection is seldom associated.” In the dis ally religious emotions, they depended upon
cussion of “The Mill on the Floss," it is re tradition, upon history, and upon literature
marked in regard to the forever delightful for their subject matter. So, it may be urged,
Dodson sisters, that “the inquiry into the did Shakespeare and Goethe. But the Vic-
motives of ordinary doings by ordinary peo torians did not pour into their borrowed
ple is, at times, trying.” The great literature stories that wealth of passion and pain, of ex-
of a great people cannot be adequately perience and the wisdom wrought by personal
recorded by persons capable of the priggish- experience which vibrates in “Hamlet” and in

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475
THE DIAL
“Faust." Their idealisms were not ignoble How fortifying, in such a world as this, after
but they were not sufficiently hard won. the questionable theologies and otherwordly
Tennyson and Browning, Ruskin and New- aspirations of his great contemporaries, that
man, Macaulay and Thackeray, each in his summons to the spirit of manhood that can
own way, loved something else—the mellow never lose its validity:
beauty of order, an emotion of boundless hope, Charge once more, then, and be dumb!
a plexus of ethical reactions, a metaphysical
Let the victors when they come,
When the forts of folly fall,
assumption, a political principle, a sense of
Find thy body by the wall!
contrast and irony—a little better than he
loved truth. Each brought to the contempla-
That is the most tonic note of the whole Vic-
tion of the inner and the outer life a system
torian age. And it was uttered one who
of anterior prejudices, habits, inhibitions,
was fundamentally a strangarin it, by one
that rendered impossible the free translation
who has not yet come fully into his own.
of experience into art. Hence the "literari-
LUDWIG LEWISOHN.
ness" of the whole period, hence its exquisite
and radiant achievements in the technique of
literature the verse of “The Lotos Eaters” Poetry without Magic
and "A Forsaken Garden,” the prose of the
“Apologia,” and of “Henry Esmond.” But THE ROAD TO CASTALY. By Alice Brown. (Mac-
hence, too, the absence in the whole period millan Co.; $1.50.)
properly called Victorian of the lyric cry,
ASPHALT AND OTHER POEMS. By Orrick Johns.
the immediate utterance of the impassioned
(Alfred A. Knopf; $1.25.)
soul—the accent of Catullus and Goethe and
TWELVE POEMS. By J. C. Squire. (London:
The Morland Press; $1.25.)
Shelley. Nor did any effort after a freer,
A LONELY FLUTE. By Odell Shepard. (Hough-
braver, and more veracious art find following ton Mifflin Co.; $1.25.)
or applause. To this day it is not understood GLAD TH. By Clement Wood. (Gomme;
that the hope for the future of English
T'OMS.
poetry lies not in the romantic historical epic
By “X.” (Doubleday, Page &
Tts.)
(Noyes's “Drake”), nor in the pseudo-classic
HHLAND REGIMENT. By E. A. Mackin-
masque (Bridges's “Demeter”), but in that
tosh. (John Lane Co.; $1.25.)
neglected tradition of modern English verse THESE TIMES. By Louis Untermeyer. (Henry
which arose with “Modern Love" and “Jen. Holt & Co.; $1.25.)
ny," was continued in Blunt's "Love Sonnets It is a singular and perplexing thing, with
of Proteus," Henley's "In Hospital” and so much verse being written nowadays, and so
“London Types,” Housman's “A Shropshire much of it on a high level, that we so seldom
Lad,” and culminates for the present in the find poetry with magic. Is it possible that
poetic work of Arthur Symons.
we are sometimes blind to it where it really
But no one should, and the present re exists,—that it becomes apparent only to the
viewer assuredly could not, leave the briefest after-comer, who sees it in a more detached
remarks on the Victorian era without a word way! This might be true, certainly, of the
on its keenest critic and most illuminated more realistic of contemporary poets, or, to
spirit-without a word on Matthew Arnold. be more precise, of those who boldly use the
In the incisive but always lovely wisdom of everyday speech of the times, who to a cer-
his best prose, he spoke out clearly concerning tain extent write journalese, or even employ.
the provincial timidities, the gross self-decep- slang; for often what is the slang speech of
tions of the England of his day, the intellect- to-day is the poetic speech of to-morrow. But
ual dishonesty he could not understand, the to use this medium demands of the poet a
mean compromises he would not share. Again very keen sense of values : he must be a good
and again in his poetry, but especially in guesser, and pin his faith to the words and
“The Buried Life," he mourns over the in- phrases most likely to survive, failing which
ability of his period to be its truly human he himself must perish. Equally unsafe is it
self and to express that self. After the elab to cling solely to the sort of speech which
orate harmonies of Tennyson, after the im has come to be regarded as "poetic”: to-
perious exaltation of Browning, with what a morrow it is frigid. For the average poet-
nameless and natural charm his quietest which the average poet is—it is far safer to
verses fall on the ear:
stick to the middle ground, using both, but
Come to me in my dreams, and then
sparingly. If luck is with him he may here
By day I shall be well again.
and there leave a jewel for anthologies, by
And they do so because, in words that are old achieving an unforeseen beauty in the ex-
but never trite, they came from the heart. pression of one of the great permanencies in


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476
[May 31
THE DIAL
human experience; or, as more often happens, With the other four poets one feels at
by pitching his tent in some shabby suburb once more at home. They talk our own lan-
of poetry which a great genius may later ex guage, and about things we ourselves know
ploit. For the genius, of course, we can make and do; they live, it is plain, in our world.
no rules. He will do as he has to, and will For this very reason we are a little too prone
compel a change in values to suit his own to forgive them their shortcomings as artists.
changes in method. Some will profit by this, Shortcomings they clearly have. If the tradi-
and some will die.
tionalists hound beauty to death, these realists
In accordance with this theory the present
do likewise by truth : Beauty gets but a glance
rather miscellaneous group of books may sidelong. Mr. Wood, for example, makes it
without much violence be divided into two clear that he lives in a world intensely real,
parts. It would not be rash to assume that a world familiar to us; but he seems utterly
the great poet is not among them. The level, unable to focus sharply upon it. He has the
as usual, is perplexingly high ; there is often air of one for whom it would be painful to
a technical skill of which great poets need cut from the moving surface of experience the
not have been ashamed. In one group we significant moment or mood or impression. It
have the traditionalists, who manifest a ten is his failing, as artist, that he cannot synthe-
derness for a speech deliberately poetic; in size. Mr. Untermeyer suffers from the same
the other, the modernists (the terms will have difficulty, but not so much ; now and again he
to be vague), who use the language of prose. crystallizes his ideas; and he does not to the
The former group will comprise Miss Alice same extent subside into mere prose. He
Brown, Mr. Shepard, Mr. Mackintosh, and shows an instinct for rhythmic invention, for
the author of “War Poems by 'X'"; the lat melody, but not a subtle one. He is a little
ter, Messrs. Squire, Wood, Johns, and Unter prone to shout, and is often obtuse to the
meyer. It will be seen that those who prefer point of quaintness in his sense of word values.
a "poetic" speech prefer also the conven Both he and Mr. Wood make the mistake of
tionally “poetic" tone and mood, and that dragging their ethics about with them. Both
the others are essentially realists. For the have their moments of vividness and beauty,
tough-minded, bread-loving modern, it is as but uncertainly, and in conjunction with
difficult to be just to the former as to the much that is muddily perceived, scarcely felt,
latter. Miss Brown, with much to say in and vaguely phrased.
affectionate diminutives and literary archa-
It remains for Mr. Squire and Mr. Johns
isms of Pan, Dian, elves, and other Spenserian
to intimate (rather than demonstrate) how we
and Miltonic properties, and Mr. Shepard,
who sings a little more lyrically and easily life, analyze those emotions or states of mind
may at the same time use the speech of daily
of the same world, but with the deities them-
selves absent (recently, one feels), seem some-
which are common to all, and yet achieve
how remote from us: they live in archaic
beauty. The six movements of Mr. Squire's
worlds of their own, worlds emotionally tenu-
“On a Friend Recently Dead,” which take
ous, hard to remember. Mr. Mackintosh and
up half of his very slender book, are singu-
“X,” who write of the war—one as the sol-
larly powerful; the thought is dogged, com-
dier whose glance is backward to remembered pact, living; and if occasionally there are
beauty, who sings about it with a ballad-like lapses into the stilted and artificial, the tone
tunefulness, simple and a trifle iterative, the as a whole is remarkably true. This is a real
other as the spectator whom the sound of bat grief—we have ourselves experienced just
tle rouses to an unsatisfied militancy, which such heavy linked chains of feeling. Mr.
he expresses deftly, but with the rather col Squire discloses a state of mind profoundly
orless deftness of Occasional Verse-these, familiar to us. The ruggedness of the verse,
too, leave us unsatisfied. For all their cun its tortuous involutions are here a help rather
ning there is something unripe and vague than a hindrance; in the rest of Mr. Squire's
about them. They leave us with a feeling book they stand alone, or with ideas some-
that they have not wholly understood them what trivial, and are almost unreadable. Mr.
selves. All four of these poets are pretti- Johns, on the other hand, is essentially lyri-
fiers, and it is hard to give them sufficient cal. One could wish that he had omitted the
credit for doing well what they set out to dialect poems at the beginning of his book,
do,-particularly Mr. Mackintosh, who now but in reading many of the lyrics which com-
and then expresses a simple and deeply felt pose the rest one experiences little but
emotion with effective clearness, and Mr. delight. Not only has Mr. Johns a very seduc-
Shepard.
tive gift of melody, but at times he has what
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1917]
477
THE DIAL
is rare among contemporary American poets, Demolishing the Britannica
charm,—which is only one degree removed
from magic. Partly this is rhythmic, partly MISINFORMING A NATION. By Willard Hunt-
a quaint blending of decorum and whim, ington Wright. (B. W. Huebsch; $1.25 net.)
partly a rather subtle instinct for approach-
Though it is more interesting, and certainly
more inspiring, to see a big building going up
ing a mood tangentially. Mr. Johns does not
than coming down, the spectacle of demolition
set out to exhaust an idea; he contents him-
can usually hold us for a while. We watch
self with the gleaming hint. Beyond this he
the activities of the workmen with pickaxes
does not go, nor attempt to go. For his suc-
atop the walls: the bricks fall, the dust flies,
cess in this we can forgive him his failures
the racket runs on; but after a little while
and the occasional echo of Robinson.
one is likely to tire of the monotonous thump-
Taken all in all, this group of volumes il- ing and to say to himself: “Well, I've had
lustrates exceptionally well a singular feature enough of this; I think I'll move on.”
of contemporary poetry: its lack of magic. The “Encyclopædia Britannica” is an ex-
It lacks this quality quite as much when it is tensive, big-bulking edifice, if not complete
traditionally "poetic” as when it deals realis and not perfectly proportioned ; and Willard
tically with everyday experience. If there Huntington Wright stands on top of it, pick
are gleams of magic in the work of Mr. Squire
in hand, reducing it to débris. It is altogether
and Mr. Johns, they are momentary and un-
too Britannic, he says. He calls it bourgeois,
controlled, as with most contemporary poets; evangelical, chauvinistic, distorted, insular.
one feels that they are accidental, at least
It inflates English interests and deflates non-
in part. And it is impossible, of course, to
It is unfair to Ireland
English interests.
tell a poet how to achieve this quality, even
and unjust to the Roman Catholic Church.
In poetry, fiction, drama, painting, music,
if we knew. We can offer rather obvious
science, invention, æsthetics, philosophy, and
advice to most poets, on the purely technical
religion, England is boomed and France,
side. We may suggest that most traditional-
Germany, Italy, Russia, and America suffer
ists would profit by a loosening of the rigid neglect. Especially America. The earlier
rhythm-patterns and idea-patterns to which Britannica” made the United States, intel-
they cling, by inventing their own stanzas, lectually, a mere colony of England, and its
by using more freely the language of the latest, widely vaunted Eleventh Edition is
streets; we may hint to the realists that they keeping our land in that undesirable and
would do well to avoid more frequently the ignoble attitude.
ignoble attitude. And, whack! goes the pick-
rhythms of prose, to allow themselves (if axe, and another brick falls.
they can) a freer use of melody, which would A few specimen bricks herewith: Turge-
in turn involve a more careful condensation nev, it is pointed out, gets less space than
of their material. But for the matter of Kipling ; Baudelaire less than Austin Dobson.
magic, one can give little beyond a vague
Benjamin West is made an Englishman; Wil-
restatement of its mechanism. According to
liam M. Chase is allowed but sixteen lines.
Pavlov's law, one may re-create in the mind a
Tschaikowsky receives less than two columns
more or less elaborate sensory pattern by
- little more than half the space given to
giving a sharp stimulus to one carefully se-
Arthur Sullivan; Edward MacDowell is
fobbed off with thirty lines. H. T. Byron is
lected and highly familiar point in that pat- given over half a column, but David Belasco
tern; the pattern is completed by a motor
gets nothing. Nothing !—one is desolated.
reaction. The poet, then, must single out one
Among philosophers, Sir William Hamilton
aspect of an image which, from a sensory
has a page and a half; William James—and
viewpoint, is so highly characteristic that it
here Mr. Wright feels keenly the “contempt
will stimulate the mind to re-creation of the which England has for this country"-only
image entire. It is something more than
twenty-eight lines. Thus the bricks fall, and
choosing the exact word—it is choosing the thus the dust of indignation is made to fill our
exact idea. The phrase should be secondary. nostrils.
It is largely because our poets are so often And the omissions! Belasco is but one. Two
intent on phrases rather than on ideas, and hundred are listed—moderns all. Even that
because they present their images in a cumula would seem to confer some measure of celeb-
tive group rather than singly, that they min- rity. There appear, in fact, to be three de-
imize for themselves the chances for this grees of fame, or of famelessness : first, to be
happy accident.
mentioned in the "Britannica”; second, not
CONRAD AIKEN. to be mentioned, but to have the omission


478
(May 31
THE DIAL
noted; third, not to be mentioned, yet to have concerned altogether with current movements
the omission passed over. Sometimes life and latter-day personalities. Then all the
seems very dreary.
New Ones will get a hearing; then justice
Well, now, where in this "great English will be done the philosophy of Bergson
Encyclopædia, with its twenty-nine volumes, and the oil-engines of Diesel; the music
its 30,000 pages, its 500,000 references, and of Charpentier and Wolf-Ferrari and the
its 44,000,000 words,” are Rachmaninov and photography of Gertrude Käsebier; the
Cui? Nowhere. Where are Luther Burbank poems of Bliss Carman and of Heiden-
and Jacques Loeb and Wilbur Wright! Ab stam (recent winner of a Nobel prize); the
sent. Where are John Dewey and G. Stanley fiction of Edith Wharton and of Romain Rol-
Hall? Missing. Where are Tchekhoff and land-(think of him-of them-left out!);
Grazia Deledda and Theodore Dreiser and and the painting of Bellows and Mary Cas-
Percy MacKaye! To seek. Where are Zorn satt and, again, Cézanne, “who has admittedly
and Robert Henri and Cézanne ? Cézanne! had more influence than any man of modern
Here the pick becomes a battering-ram and a times.” Cézanne omitted! What “narrow-
vast section of the unworthy old hulk falls mindedness"! What "ignorance"! What
with a crash.
anything !—when there is plenty of room
As many people know, Mr. Wright is a found for Luke Fildes and J. W. Water-
modern,-right up to the minute, -and a house.
slashing, flashing modern at that. He is ar Treated and used in the way I have indi-
dent; he is indignant; he means mighty well cated, Mr. Wright's book, which is full of
by current life and by his own country. Yet knowledge, research, and vim, would be a
an encyclopædia, like any other great human real course in Modernity. It would almost
undertaking, can scarcely be accomplished on completely clarify and illuminate Our Own
a basis purely abstract. It must be condi Day. We should come to learn about Eek-
tioned by human training and by human pref houd and Ricarda Huch and Clara Viebig
erences. British scholars dig in the British and S. J. Meltzer and Joseph O'Dwyer and
Museum; the first interest of the Briton lies Tetans and Stuart Merrill and ever so many
in British businesses and bosoms. The edi others who are waiting for Americans to
tors of the “Britannica," comparing their lat know them better. How much finer to build
est edition with preceding ones, have a right than to wreck, to boost than to bang.
to feel that, after all, they have limbered up
HENRY B. FULLER.
considerably,-have done a good deal for
continental Europe and for the United States.
Mr. Wright might entertain himself by going
Organized Charity
through “Larousse” or “Brockhaus.” The
editors may not have given all that their
CRIMES OF CHARITY. By Konrad Bercovici.
prospectuses and advertisements claim; yet (Alfred A. Knopf; $1.50.)
how many big edifices carry out, in all de The case against the charity organization
tails, the plans and specifications of the archi societies was perhaps most forcibly stated
tects, particularly in case of a comprehensive long ago by the late John Boyle O'Reilly
remodelling? And surely such a structure when he wrote of
has the right, even the duty, to guard itself
Organized charity, scrimped and iced
against the intrusion of probable ephemera. In the name of a cautious statistical Christ.
What skyscraper is complete without wire More recently, various members of the Fabian
screens?
Society, notably Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb,
Mr. Wright's book, as a pamphlet against have drawn up carefully prepared indict-
a long-established literary institution, gets to ments against the methods of organized char-
be rather wearying and irritating. One is
ity as represented by the work of the
irked by his disproportionate preoccupation
London Charity Organization Society; and
with the arts. The remorseless and unstay-
the economist, Mr. John A. Hobson, has also
able thoroughness with which he works his
system gets on one's nerves. He clangs; he
analyzed and rejected the principles of this
clanks. So good a book ought not to produce organization. The attack upon the London
such an effect. I suggest that it be read in a
Society has, however, been a criticism of its
different spirit from that in which it is writ social philosophy rather than of its work for
ten, and that it be made to serve a different
the poor, and it is of interest to us in America
purpose. Let it be thoroughly indexed that the English critics of “Charity Organiza-
and annotated, and used as a little “Encyclo tion” have in general agreed that the societies
pædia Moderna” (if such Latin will pass), on this side of the Atlantic are free from the


1917)
479
THE DIAL
are
objectionable characteristics of organized organization that can only be described as a
charity in England.
caricature of the methods used by any repu-
The publication, therefore, of an attack table charity organization in America at the
upon organized charity in America might be present time. The picture of the office-inter-
expected to interest those who are concerned viewer in this book, a young man said to be
with the care of the poor in this country. “about twenty,” “with the pipe between his
Unfortunately the author of "Crimes of Char teeth, reading an application and putting his
ity” makes no attempt to present a reasoned insolent questions, laughing in the applicant's
statement of the case against organized char face, calling tham [sic] liars, lazy immoral
ity, and the book will be a disappointment to women, dirty, and all the rest of it," is typical
those who are looking for facts or arguments of the charitable society described in this
rather than journalistic impressions. Al book. Applicants for assistance are described
though the book is advertised as an “attack by this representative of organized charity as
on organized charity,” it is almost impossible "all the same, vicious scoundrels d licts.
to believe that the author understands the beggars, rascals
... This whole damned
meaning of the term. It is, of course, now pack is the degenerate fringe of our century,”
used to describe the work of a definite type of he lamented. “We should do away with them
private charitable agency, such as we find and not help them to live."
in most American cities under the name of That the representatives and the methods
“The Associated Charities" or the “United of this imaginary society are those of “or-
Charities” or, in Eastern cities, “The Charity ganized charity” would hardly be believed by
Organization Society.”
its most uncompromising opponents. If it
Many of the charities condemned by the was the author's purpose to "attack organ-
author of "Crimes of Charity” would cer ized charity,” his method has been the build-
tainly not be considered forms of “organized ing up of a grotesque straw figure that must
charity” by those who are supposed to know fail of its own weight. Take, for example,
what these words stand for. For example, this extract from the book :
an old people's “Home” is described in which The children of the poor
are the greatest
the inmates are beaten and an orphan's home
sufferers of them all. They are continually cross
Never
examined by the investigators.
in which the children are "treated like little
they
trusted, and the word, “liar," is always on the
would-be criminals”; but“organized charity” lips of their torturers. The “Why don't you go
does not support such institutions. The or to work?” is repeated every second. Their ages are
phan-house described by Marguerite Audoux always disputed. An applicant's child is always over
in “Marie-Claire” is referred to as illustrat-
fourteen (working age) in the eyes of the neighbours,
ing the miseries for which organized charity
janitor, groceryman, butcher, investigator, and all
the rest of the torturers. A woman's pension
is responsible, and an account is given of the has been discontinued because her children looked too
Baron de Rothschild Kitchen in Paris, al-
well—" they were the picture of health," and as the
though neither of these institutions has the
investigator could not understand it the pension was
discontinued. I know of a boy to whom his
remotest connection with organized charity mother had given vinegar to drink because his cheeks
in the United States.
were too red to please the investigator.
But the book is chiefly devoted to the work To one who knows the solicitude of the real
of a large relief agency, apparently a Jewish “charity visitor” for the children under her
relief society in New York, and the author
care, the careful medical examinations pro-
finds his opportunity to observe the methods vided, the country outings arranged, the use
of the society by becoming what he calls a of open air schools and convalescent homes,
“charity spy." Officially employed as a de the searching of records to secure evidence
tective on the trail of the society's “investi that will mean the return to school of a child
gators," he obtains information about the illegally employed, the raising of scholarships
pensioners of the organization by falsely de to keep in school the child who is legally old
scribing himself, when he makes a visit, as a enough but not physically fit for work, the
sewing-machine agent, a representative of the stories in this book are not fact but fiction
Gerry Society, an agent from Ellis Island, that has not even a remote resemblance to
and an officer of the Board of Health. Is it fact.
necessary to say that such dishonesty is not The language of the author is extremely
really the method of organized charity in violent throughout. “This stupid ass
America!
charge of the poor,” “This spiritual hog,"
The plan of the book is the narration of are typical of expressions found throughout
imaginary interviews between applicants for the book. His conduct is almost equally vio-
relief and cruelly offensive interviewers, de lent. Thus, after a disturbing visit, he de-
tectives, spies, and other representatives of an scribes his conduct as follows: “I ran out.
.
in


480
[May 31
THE DIAL
I wanted to drink. I stayed at home novel or exceptional fact about the play, the
and drank brandy until I fell asleep. I drank players, the scenery, the music, the dancing,
and swore until I slept.” And the account of the audience, or the theater itself, we feel cer-
his treatment of the office boy in the “charity tain that he has noted it."
office" is unfortunately not more revolting It is therefore as a sympathetic and keen
than many other passages in the book.
“I observer that the diarist appeals to us. As
got hold of him, boxed his ears soundly, and literary criticism, unfortunately, his judg-
before any one had time to interfere I had
ments are not impressive; but as cicerone,
turned up his head and spat upon him full with what engaging intimacy, with what vi.
in the face. It was a disgusting act but a vacity does he not discourse! Pepys takes us
sweet revenge.
I did it, then called out, to all the London playhouses of that first dec-
'Feel how it tastes—you do it to every one. ade of Charles II's reign. We occupy places
Whatever the faults of organized charity in pit, gallery, or—though rarely—box, in the
may be, they are certainly not set forth in this
theatres just reopened. Once we are “troubled
volume of hysterical stories. Long ago Ar to be seen by four of our office clerks, which
nold Toynbee wrote in criticizing some pro sat in the half-crown box” while we are in the
posals on the subject of almsgiving: “What middle gallery at one and sixpence. Once
we now see to be required is not the repression we enter late upon the plea that we are look-
of the instincts of benevolence but their or ing for friends, and so see part of the play for
ganization. To make benevolence scientific is nothing; but conscience troubles us. The
the great problem of the present age.” No fashionable company in the audience interests
one knows better than the most devoted work us as keenly as the play.
ers in the Charity Organization Societies in
My wife and I to the theater, and there saw “The
this country how far they are, even now,
from Jovial Crew,” where the King, Duke and Duchess
the solution of this "great problem." But and Madame Palmer were, and my wife, to her
their mistakes and their successes are equally
great content, had a full sight of them all the
while. The play full of mirth. The whole play
unintelligible to the writer of this volume. pleases me well; and most of all, the sight of many
EDITH ABBOTT. fine ladies.
It has become the fashion for these ladies
to wear vizards, which add to the fascination
Pepys at the Theatre of unidentified beauty, and furnish excuse for
gallantries. The wits and rakes of the aris-
PEPYS ON THE RESTORATION STAGE. By Helen tocracy are there. In the intervals of the play
McAfee. (Yale University Press.)
the orange-girls sell their wares at sixpence,
For the drama of the Restoration period, jest with the gentlemen, and convey messages
Pepys's delectable “Diary” is a familiar between them and the ladies of the stage. If
source of information, vivid and valuable. A A royalty is present royalty's latest mistress is
new compilation from the famous journal, by near at hand. Sometimes a diverting passage
Helen McAfee brings together, with compact at arms occurs between two of these frail fair
ness and in a form singularly practical, all of
ones.
The court scandal of the day is whis-
Pepys's notations on the contemporary drama. pered in our ear.
The edition of the “Diary” used is that of And what of the play? The piece for the
Wheatley (1893-9), and thus the work is afternoon may be one of Sir William D'Aven-
based upon the most recent and most inclu ant's, written or adapted for the Duke's
sive version of the original. The introduction Theater, of which he is manager; or, if we
of some fifty pages expounds the value of the are at the King's playhouse, it may be Dry-
“Diary” in relation to the history of the Eng- den’s, perhaps “The Maiden Queen,” which
lish theatre. In contrast to Evelyn, whom Pepys saw seven times within a year. The
moral scruples prevented from frequent at pre-Restoration drama is by no means obsolete.
tendance at the public playhouses and who Twelve of Shakespeare's plays are mentioned
did not hesitate to condemn the moral loose in the “Diary," eight of which were prob-
ness of the stage, Pepys "could enjoy without ably unaltered. The romances of Beaumont
let or hindrance everything about it, from and Fletcher are especially popular. Pepys
Betterton's Hamlet to the orange-girls. saw no less than twenty-six presented. For
His curiosity was unbounded here as else the comedies of Ben Jonson he exhibits more
where. He liked to read plays on his trips enthusiasm than for the Shakespearean pro-
to and from Deptford on Admiralty business ductions, although he professes immense ad-
as well as to see them at the theater. Hence miration for “Macbeth” and “Hamlet." The
everything and everybody on the stage ap spectacular appeals to him; he applauds the
pealed to him;
if there was a single costuming in a certain play-"the garments


1917]
481
THE DIAL
fire.”
.
like Romans very well”; “there was the finest able at last to throw off the shackles of liter-
scene of the Emperor and his people about ary bondage to publishers and write without
him, standing in their fixed and different pos doing it under the lash of necessity and time.
tures in their Roman habits, above all that Then, too, he wrote his famous novel, “The
ever I yet saw at any of the theaters.” An Brothers Karamazov, that extraordinary
other play has “a good scene of a town on epic of human vileness, aberration, and psy-
“To the theater
where a chopathy. With this he became a person of
woman acted Parthenia, and came afterwards tremendous literary influence.
on the stage in man's clothes, and had the In the sixties of the nineteenth century,
best legs that ever I saw."
Russia began to acquire free speech, free
In January, 1660-1, Pepys for the first thought, and a free press. The social fer-
time saw women on the stage, and thereafter ment was prodigious and everyone consid-
the noted actresses of the day, with several ered it his mission to aid matters as much as
of whom he was on terms of intimacy, figure possible either by word or deed. The press
prominently in the “Diary.” Chief among became the hub of the wheel of progress and
them, of course, is Nell Gynn-pretty, witty
in this movement Dostoevsky was most prom-
Nell.
inent. He, with two others, edited the jour-
So great a performance of a comical part was nal “Vremya,” in which an attempt was made
never, I believe, in the world before as Neil do this to break away from the excessive imitation
[Florimell, in “The Maiden Queen"], both as a mad
of Europe and create an independent Russian
girle, then most and best of all when she comes in
like a young gallant; and hath the motions and car-
outlook. In 1873 Dosťoevsky became the ed-
riage of a spark the most that ever I saw any man itor of Grazhdonin, and lastly, in 1876, he
have.
began the "Journal of an Author.” Scat-
The greatest of the actors was Thomas Bet tered through its pages are many and varied
terton. “And so to the Duke's House, and ideas: a bright and optimistic study of Rus-
there saw 'Hamlet' done, giving us fresh rea sian youth; a suggestion for a reformatory
son never to think enough of Betterton." for young criminals; a plea for the feminine
"Mightily pleased with it ['Hamlet']; but, movement; discussions of legal processes; and
above all, with Betterton, the best part, I be many other articles, all excellent, though they
lieve, that ever man acted."
lacked system and were united by no definite
The plan of the book brings into groups all programme. The Journal enjoyed great pop-
the notations bearing upon specific plays or ularity and Dostoevsky was hailed as
details connected with their presentation. prophet.
Thus, for example, we have all of Pepys's Throughout his life, in all his novels, he
comments on “Hamlet” grouped chronolog had been a "narodnik," or cultivator of the
ically; the references to Betterton and to Nell people, and this tendency and his personal
Gynn are similarly arranged; successive popularity reached their apogee with his
chapters include the references in the "Diary” speech at the Pushkin festival. This speech,
to Plays, Actors, Actresses, Playwrights, which the present book contains, indicates
Audiences, Theatres, and Stage Productions. Dostoevsky's views of the people. He looked
W. E. SIMONDS.
upon them as a great, silent mass wherein
lurked all truth. He looked upon them as
the sole repository of the wisdom of the heart
and as the basis of the future not only of
The Slavophile Dream
Russia but of all Europe. He scorned the
Intelligentsia, so subservient to
subservient to Western
PAGES FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AUTHOR. By
Fyodor Dostoevsky. (John W. Luce & Co.;
ideals, and bade them humble themselves and
$1.25.)
"listen to the Grey Smocks.” He dreamed
PENULTIMATE WORDS. By Leon Shestov. (John that strange Slavophile dream of the Russian
W. Luce & Co.; $1.25.)
soul playing a universal rôle and in the
“ The Journal of an Author” began to ap light of recent events that nation bids fair
pear in 1876, that is, after Dostoevsky's re to realize the dream. The speech begins with
turn from abroad, and it therefore coincides a masterly analysis of Pushkin's "The Gip-
with what his biographers call “the highest sies” and “Eugène Onyegin,” whose heroes,
period of his life.” He was then happily Aleko and Onyegin respectively, are the type
married, a man of secure position, of ever of the unhappy Russian wanderer, uprooted
growing renown, the author of a marvellous from among the people. These sufferers seek
series of novels. His financial circumstances their universal ideals among Western coun-
-ever an essential factor in his career tries and in every fantastic spot except that
underwent a marked improvement; he was place where they are being preserved-among
a


482
[May 31
THE DIAL
the people. Dostoevsky divides Pushkin's the "grey smocks," of his pronouncement of
work into three periods: those of the virile the truth that man and his works, if divorced
imitator, the poet of his native land, and, from the popular element, are like uprooted
lastly, the universal poet. In praising the grass-blades, bound to wither and die. Any.
poet's universal sympathy, the critic contends way, as Voltaire says: “It is the privilege of
that this is the preëminent characteristic of genius to make great mistakes with impun-
the Russian people, that “to be a true Rus ity," and all admit that Dostoevsky belongs
sian does indeed mean to aspire finally to among the greatest of the great.
reconcile the contradictions of Europe, to
NELLIE POORMAN.
show the end of European yearning in our
Russian soul, omni-human and all-uniting.”
He also emphasizes the fact that "all that is
NOTES ON NEW FICTION
truly beautiful in our literature has come
of the masses, from Pushkin's creation of the In “Life” there once appeared a cartoon which
humble, simple-minded type, onwards.” pictured a bespectacled author laboring over his
Into this little volume has been put also typewriter from which a stream of manuscript ran
“The Dream of a Queer Fellow"-another
into a press. From the press a heap of novels
queer fellow like Raskolnikov, Rogozhin, and
tumbled forth at the feet of a young lady who
Ivan Karamazov-and this time his name is
was avidly reading one of them. As we remember
it, the cartoon was entitled “The Endless Stream."
Fyodor Dostoevsky. He tells us how he had
It was incomplete in one respect, for there should
determined to kill himself but fell asleep
have been also a yawning cavern labelled, “Obli-
and dreamed a dream which gave him the in vion," into which the lady finally cast every book.
spiration to fight against despair and the fear For this endless stream of novels one can hardly
that nothing matters. He had a vision of blame the novelist. He must make his hay while
Truth, like Nietzsche among the mountains
the sun shines.
The general public has become
and valleys of the Engadine, like Tolstoy,
"movie-minded." Change the new thing—has be-
like Descartes and Schelling. He discovered
come the order (or the disorder) of the day. There
is no denying that movie attendance has developed
that each of us is morally responsible and
in a great mass of people the craving for skeleton-
that the essence of life lies in humility and
ized, melodramatic plots with no characterizations,
love. In short, the little story or essay of no delicate nuances of style, or poetic moments-
sombre intensity is a key to Dostoevsky's plots which are all forgotten as soon as seen or
works.
read. And so the demand for more books and
In his book, Shestov attacks many philos ever more, and also therefore-but why reiterate
ophers and authors, devoting articles of vary-
the law of supply and demand? The novelist has
his formulas: "the woman” and “the man" and
ing length to Hegel, Schopenhauer and others
“the other woman,” and still more popular recently
-a destructive criticism, for he gives us no
in the biographical style, “the woman" and sev-
discoverable positive philosophy of his own in
eral men or “the man and several women. Add
the place of those destroyed. In no country a little padding of conversation and description
has dogmatism such power as in Russia, and and there you are--a novel!
Shestov seems almost unnerved by the fear “The Diplomat" (Longmans, Green; $1.50), is
that he too may be made an authority and a written in the leisurely Trollope manner and han-
rule, and he protests mightily against the dles Trollope's subject, English country gentry.
idolatrous love of thinkers, against exalting We are told the story of the lives of three Wades,
a philosopher to a god. The two longest
Thomas, the diplomat, Gilmore, and Charlotte. In
articles are given to Chekhov and Dostoevsky,
the beginnirig all are more or less at the mercy of
and Shestov ridicules the work done by the
chance; they allow themselves to drift until cir-
cumstances become adverse enough to rouse their
latter in the press and “The Journal of an
strength of character. Thomas wades through
Author." It is doubtless true from the
various entanglements produced by his susceptibil-
purely academic standpoint that Dostoevsky ity to feminine charms, but he arrives at length
was poorly equipped for propaganda work. on the heights of a gentle philosophy. Gilmore
Many of his prophecies and chauvinistic ut marries an actress and kills her former husband,
terances lay him open to an attack such as
and Charlotte marries a Lord, who is also mys-
this. For example, Shestov mocked at the
teriously killed. All of this sounds melodramatic
enough, but it isn't in Mr. Guy Fleming's simple
prophecy that Russia would be in Constanti-
telling of the tale.
nople soon and accused Dostoevsky of being
spoiled by the ease that came to him at this
Ian Hay gives us in “Pip” (Houghton Mifflin;
time, and of being unwilling to struggle. The
$1.50) all that any reader can demand. He passes
through the first three ages of man in this book.
article is hardly just, for it does not take into
As a boy he plays naughty pranks; as a youth
account all Dostoevsky's social work and no-
he refuses to wear out his brain by too much study,
where makes mention of his championship of but becomes a first-rate cricketer; as a young man
11
=


1917]
483
THE DIAL
2
he promptly accepts responsibility when it comes the world, is thrown out upon that world for a liv-
to him, very properly bloodies the nose of his rival ing. Her breeding and her beauty stand her in
in love, and wins the lady. After that, of course, little stead in the struggle, and her own uncon-
the reader's interest in him ends, for it is incon scious class snobbery prevents her from attaining
ceivable that any one should be interesting after that easy-going comradeship which might have
marriage.
saved her in the beginning. But her hereditary
In her search for happiness, Hope Fielding has
faith in the family luck and the devotion of the
endless adventures with men. In her desire to obscure but heroic son of the “Stratford Slasher"
know and understand life, she is thoroughly uncon-
restore her to her place in the sun.
ventional, so that some of her adventures, set forth Life in upper New York State in the days before
in “The Magpie's Nest," touch on the sordid, the Civil War has rarely been better or more
though she emerges unsoiled. She flirts with a charmingly described than by Irving Bacheller in
married man, his chauffeur, a bank clerk, a spec his latest novel, “The Light in the Clearing."
ulator, and numerous others, and to some her al (Bobbs-Merrill; $1.50). The boy, Barton Baynes,
lure brings misfortune. Isabel Paterson's heroine was “raised” by his Aunt Deel and his Uncle Pea-
reminds one of Owen Johnston's “Salamander,” body in the sturdy old way that produced bone
a fact which will doubtless recommend the book to and gristle and a hardy character capable of
many. (Lane; $1.40.)
weathering all storms. He discovered early in life
In decided contrast to Hope's hoydenish, un that for lesser crimes in which conscience was not
sheltered career is that of Rosalind Copley, for concerned his uncle's slipper belabored the bed,
she is a member of one of the ultra-conservative but that when it was a question of conscious guilt,
families of Boston. Robert Cutler's “Louisburg the slipper had a way of approaching his own
Square" (Macmillan; $1.50) belongs to the type person. Forced to distinguish wrong on his own
of book in which the heroine hesitates between two account and to follow his own conscience, he be-
men, the reasons for her hesitation being various came one of the sturdy citizens destined for a
misunderstandings and pity for the rejected. The career in the world that lay outside his farm. But
author makes some attempt at characterization, but the novel, while more intimately concerned with
the result is not very convincing. The whole with Bart Baynes's life and romance, gives an excellent
its irritating self-immolation is somewhat too sug picture of Silas Wright. Senator and great-hearted
gestive of an “Elsie” book to be pleasant, and it leader, the man who refused the practically unani-
is truly Bostonese in that it never moves its scene
mous nomination of the Baltimore Convention
from that Eastern village. To be sure, that in it when Polk was chosen, Wright has been too little
self is enough to render the book worth while. known; and this story, told with simplicity, kindly
The second volume, “Backwater" (Knopf; humor, and genuine understanding, will help to
$1.35), of Dorothy M. Richardson's trilogy takes
make him better known.
its heroine, Miriam, through the ordeal of employ One of the strongest points in the writing of
ment as resident governess in a school frequented B. M. Bower, author of “Starr of the Desert"
by the daughters of the North London middle class. (Little, Brown; $1.35), is his sense of humor,
It is a chronicle of the commonplace. Banbury which never deserts him. His latest novel shows
Park has its counterparts throughout England, and no falling off in his ability to make a good plot
Miss Richardson probes, through her one example, and plausible characters, and to create suspense.
the nature of the institutionalism to which hun One must grant him one more point-timeliness-
dreds of such communities are subject, studying in the present case, for he deals with a Mexican
with notable insight the inbred pettiness against plot to snatch three states from the Union, and fol-
which Miriam finally revolts and the sentimental lows the exploits of Starr, the United States secret
nature of English education. Those pregnant mo service agent in his efforts to round up the in-
ments when the realization is borne in upon the stigators thereof.
individual that there is something beyond the mere In “Nadine Narska" the Baroness Mahrah de
imparting of knowledge, the moods that of a sud-
Meyer treats us to a miscellaneous mixture of pa.
den throw one out of “the proper teacher's frame
ganism, diluted Nietzsche, worldly morals, and the
of mind,” the rare vacation days when nothing
doctrine of reincarnation. The heroine absorbs
seems real, neither the present nor the past-all
and struggles to digest idea after idea. She is rest-
these were Miriam's. Miss Richardson promises less, passionate, pure, tragic, and never contented.
to be a writer of unusual power, a little too con-
A mysterious person from India, “beautiful as an
sciously clever perhaps, but one to whom we may archangel," appears at opportune moments to save
look for work of real value.
Nadine from herself. He tells her that she is a
“Vesprie Towers," by Theodore Watts-Dunton “believing Nihilist" looking for something she
(Lane; $1.35), is one of those leisurely, well “had not yet found," and he preaches patiently and
ripened Victorian novels that convey relaxation constantly. She had a troubled life, since her
and a gentle degree of interest to their readers. husband distressed her acutely, but the reader finds
The kindly, beauty-loving nature of its author, his it difficult to be stirred by her tribulations. (Wil-
environment of culture, and his association with marth Publishing Co.; $1.35.)
the Pre-Raphaelites are reflected here. The story Authors as a class are seldom rich. This may
is concerned with a young girl, Violet Vesprie, account for their occasional desire to prove in
who, becoming mistress of Vesprie Towers at an fiction that, given the coveted opportunity, money
early age and owner of absolutely nothing else in may be made quickly and easily. In “The Son


484
[May 31
THE DIAL
DIAL
of His Father,” Mr. Ridgwell Cullum assures us
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
that it can be done with no bother at all. Gordon
Carbhoy promised his father to make $100,000 in THE CONTEMPORARY DRAMA OF IRELAND. By
six months, if he had to rob a bank. He did not Ernest A. Boyd. Little, Brown; $1.25.
rob a bank; he robbed his father instead; and Scarcely half a year has gone by since Mr.
having inherited the paternal talent for high- Boyd published his monumental book on “Ire-
handedness, he continued to have things come his land's Literary Renaissance"; he follows it up now
way. It is a plausible tale, but one is pained at with another work, written previously, if we are
the extraordinary English employed by a New not mistaken, a fine, agile, and spirited contribu-
York millionaire. Perhaps he had been too busy tion to Professor Burton's "Contemporary Drama
making a fortune to acquire more than a smatter Series." Those who are most familiar with Irish
ing of his native tongue. (George W. Jacobs & letters will be surprised, we imagine, at the impres-
Co.; $1.35.)
sive showing of the Irish theatre, as Mr. Boyd
“I've often wondered why we actors are as we presents it, among the various national theatres
are, says the moving-picture actor in “Her Own of twentieth-century Europe. Certainly it can hold
Sort" (Scribner's; $1.35). “I've sometimes its own with those of Russia and Germany, and
thought it must be the footlights. They flare up more than hold its own with that of England,-
between us and the audience and to look like all of which goes to prove the force and value
human beings we've got to paint our faces, and of an extra-artistic vision, a communal impulse
to act like real people we've got to exaggerate our behind and beneath the artistic impulse itself.
manners and grimace and gesticulate like monkeys. Much of Mr. Boyd's matter is familiar enough to
And then in time we come to exaggerate off the reading Americans; certain chapters, on the other
stage and pose and assume a grand manner and hand, notably those on Edward Martyn, on the
wear loud clothes.
We're no worse than your learned histrionic art of the brothers Fay, on the
friends I met to-day—the only difference is that originative genius of Padraic Colum, and on the
we always have our make-ups on." This explains, Ulster Literary Theatre, contain a good deal that
perhaps, why Charles Belmont Davis fails to “get is fresh and surprising; and the deftness with
it over” in all but one of this collection of short which Mr. Boyd puts St. John Irvine in his place,
stories: the make-up is always there; the puppets if this is not too strong an expression, is only.
never become quite human. In the light of the equalled by that with which he sets before us in
author's imagination “The Octopus” and “ “The a few paragraphs a number of distinguished talents
Professor may seem real, but to the rest of us hitherto unknown on this side of the water. For
they are stagy and do not arrive; they merely the rest, Mr. Boyd contends, most interestingly and
"grimace and gesticulate." Exception may be provocatively, that Edward Martyn has extracted
made to "The Joy of Dying." It is a pathetic and the essence of Ibsenism in a far more personal
gruesome little tragedy.
way than Bernard Shaw or any of the later Eng-
It is interesting to compare two recent detective lish playwrights, and he points out that Colum had
stories, one by an American writer, Carolyn Wells, given the measure of his originality rather before
“The Mark of Cain" (Lippincott; $1.35), and the than after Synge and ranks with Synge as a
other by an Englishman, Louis Tracy, “The Post founder in the tradition of folk drama. The Irish
master's Daughter" (Clode; $1.35). Here are two Theatre has indeed proved itself a remarkable phe-
novels written for the sole purpose of entertain nomenon in these eighteen years, during which it
ment and having practically the same theme, the has held the ear not of a clique but of the general
solution of a murder mystery. But how shall we public; and it is one of the unique fortunes of
account for the extraordinary difference in qual Ireland that it has weathered the war and promises
ity? “The Mark of Cain" is a crude thriller. It to continue to be, in spite of a tendency to live on
is carelessly written, with no skill in characteriza its tradition, a vital factor in the complete unfold-
tion or plot; its ingenuity is not above that in ing of the national consciousness.
spiring the Sunday "feature story"; its humor is
of the same quality as the “comic” sheet and where SHORT RATIONS. By Madeleine Z. Doty.
the author would be exciting she is only lurid. It Century; $1.50.
is shoddy. Yet it was written to amuse the Amer By means of a very feminine degree of in-
ican public! On the other hand, the English novel, tuition, a journalistic sense of observation, a tele-
written for the same purpose, possesses genuine graphic style, and a purely American sense of
literary worth in characterization and construc humor, Miss Doty has achieved one of the most
tion. Where the one is a dreary rehash of stereo suggestive reports of conditions inside the German
typed "mystery," the other is fresh and Empire that it has been our fortune to see. With
enthralling; where the one has a set of manikins
a complete ignorance of the German tongue, she
for characters, the other has living people who had the courage to push her way through to Ber-
possess individuality and charm; where the one is lin after her visit to the Woman's Conference at
vulgarly commonplace and flagrant, the other is re the Hague in 1915, and again in 1916, when she
freshing and subtle. Why the difference? Does found interesting developments in sentiment and
the English public demand better stuff for its in conditions. It is in the spiritual sense as well
diversion, or does the English author respect him as in the material that she has called her book
self even when writing a pot-boiler? “The Post “Short Rations." Although the daily food ration
master's Daughter” is a first-rate story, one to be in Germany is pitifully scanty, she found the
recommended with a clear conscience!
spiritual starvation even more marked. No thought


1917]
485
THE DIAL
OF
THE
is now given to the sick, the aged, the children, or replaced by a thorough grounding in the only
the prisoners, except in so far as these affect the psychology which deals with the real dynamics of
military strength of the nation. All effort and all consciousness. But the field is as yet too unex-
care is expended upon the army, to which the plored and our knowledge too indefinite for any
German people look with pathetic expectation. The prescriptive regulations of the art of teaching on
attitude is perhaps best shown in her description the basis of Freudian assumptions. Although
of “the human circus," the Lazaret for armless much that Dr. Lay says under the rubric of “edu-
and legless men, which was exhibited, together cational applications" is descriptive of recurrent
with like marvels of German efficiency expressly situations in the school-room, the dangers involved
designed for publicity, in the course of a tour for in an educational practice based on it at present
journalists. “The doctor's talk ran as follows: outweigh the advantages it might generate. The
*This one has had his leg off just below the knee most needful thing is investigation, and then more
but he walks quite well, and he started the man investigation, and then investigation still.
down the room. "This one,' jerking another wreck
forward, 'has one leg off at the knee and the EARLY
NARRATIVES
NORTHWEST
other at the thigh, but see how well he walks, Edited by Louise Phelps Kellogg. Scribner;
and the maimed wreck was pranced up and down $3.
before us. 'Now this one, continued the doctor
The exploits of the founders of New France,
with pride, ‘has had both legs and an arm removed although often recounted, form a tale which stilí
but you see he is quite satisfactory.' I began to holds its fascination for serious student and casual
feel in a horrible nightmare. It seemed to me in reader alike. Men of the type of Champlain and
another moment the doctor would be saying, "Now
Frontenac, gifted as they were with imaginations
this man had his head shot off and we have sub-
which permitted them to see golden visions of the
stituted a wooden one. We found the spine future greatness of France when the vast hinter-
controlled muscular action and he makes a per land of North America should be hers, were men
fectly satisfactory worker.' In addition to this
of action as well as dreamers of dreams. They
quite general lack of the realization of human
gathered around themselves and inspired those who
sensibility, Miss Doty perceived a profound igno-
led the expeditions which traversed the streams,
rance of the constitution of human efficiency. Ger-
woodlands, and prairies from Quebec to the
many is organized industrially with the utmost
Rockies. These leaders, who were recruited chiefly
perfection, but human values are without recogni-
from among the lesser nobility and the better mid-
tion. Plenty of food may be obtained—for money. dle class in France, were fired by the same patriotic
But the condition of Germany's poor is such that sentiments which moved their superiors. The
many cannot afford even a daily visit to the soup
struggles, the tragic failures, and the brilliant suc-
kitchen. To starve Germany means to starve
cesses of these heroes of the wilderness, Parkman
these, in whom lies the hope of democracy, and has woven into an epic familiar to every reader
to leave those responsible for the war untouched of American history. Yet, in the accounts of the
except by a determination for revenge. “Regen; expeditions set down, as they often were, in the
eration," she says, “always comes from within.
homely phrases of men more used to doing things
It cannot be imposed upon Germany by her
than to reporting them, there is a gripping inter-
enemies.
est for the student of the French régime. In the
“Early Narratives of the Northwest” are gathered
Man's UNCONSCIOUS CONFLICT. By Wilfrid
thirteen of these accounts dealing entirely with the
Lay. Dodd, Mead; $1.50.
exploration of the region of the upper Great Lakes
Dr. Lay has succeeded in giving a coherent and and the northeastern Mississippi Valley-le pays
systematic account, in simple terms, of the fun d'en haut, or the Upper Country, as the French
damental principles and conceptions that are im designated it. With two exceptions—Father
plied in the discoveries and hypotheses of Freud Vimont's account of Nicolet's journey into the
and his school. This is in itself no small achieve Wisconsin country (1634) and Father Lalemant's
ment, for basic as these discoveries are, they are account of the journey of the Jesuits, Raymbault
overlaid, even in the work of Freud himself, with and Jogues, to the Sault (1641)—the documents
the excesses, irrelevancies, and extravagances relate to the explorations of the second half of the
usual to fertilizing novelty, and in a large meas seventeenth century. Of these there are Radisson's
ure inevitable to novelties in the particular region account of his journey to the western country, an
of human investigation with which Freud con extract of La Potherie's account of the adventures
cerns himself. Dr. Lay seems not only to have of Nicolas Perrot, Father Allouez's journeys (the
read all the literature, but to have assimilated one to Lake Superior, the other to the Wisconsin
it. It is a pity that he still defers so much to country), the journey of the Sulpicians, Dollier
the rather inconclusive and therapeutically as well and Galinée, from Montreal to the Sault, Father
as theoretically useless generalization of sex; that Marquette's voyages, Tonty's Memoir recording
he underestimates, if he at all considers, the im La Salle's discoveries, Duluth's account of the
portance of the "self-regarding instinct"; and Sioux country, St. Cosme's letter describing his
that he offers hasty prescriptions to teachers. It voyage from Michilimackinac to the Arkansas
is undoubtedly true that the effectiveness of all river, and the Jesuits' report of the imposing
teachers would be increased if the futile pedagogy ceremony held at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671, when
which "educators" thrust upon them could be Sieur de St. Lusson acting in the name of Louis


486
[May 31
THE DIAL
verse:
XIV appeared before the assembled representa-
I bring you, this eve, an offering of joy
tives of the Indian tribes and took formal posses-
From having drenched my body in the gold
sion of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence valleys.
And silken texture of the joyous wind
All the documents have appeared before in print
And in the yellow splendour of the sun.
but the advantage of having them grouped in a Surely no translation will satisfy those who can
single volume is obvious. All, with the exception appreciate the original. Take, for instance, this
of Radisson's journal, were originally written in
French and have been reprinted from the best
Je te regarde, et tous les jours je te découvre.
available translations.
an echo, perhaps, of Racine's Titus:
Depuis cinq ans entiers chaque jour je la vois
THE BOOK OF THE PEONY. By Mrs. Edward
Et crois toujours la voir pour la première fois.
Harding. Lippincott; $6.
Mr. Murphy renders Verhaeren quite literally:
“And when I look at you I make discoveries,” but
The ever-widening interest shown in gardening
the abyss that separates poetry from prose lies
by serious amateurs has encouraged the publica-
between the two. Still, frequently the translator
tion of books on garden specialties. In the present
catches the true rhythm of the original :
book Mrs. Harding does at least three things ex-
And, like an eager ship with wind-swept masts, our
tremely well: she gives a fascinating account of
joy
the history and legend of the peony; she makes
Voyages upon the seas of our desire,
her reader feel the charm and value of this flower;
and, having inspired the amateur gardener to
while once, at least, he has improved upon the
French.
cultivate peonies, she tells him simply and clearly
how to do it. An encyclopædia is explicit, but it
What matter that the years grow heavier ?
Since I know well that nothing can e'er bound
is not inspiring. For example, Bailey says, “The Or trouble our exalted happiness,
propagation of peonies from seed is tedious.' Mrs.
And that our souls are too profound
Harding, on the other hand, tells us that while the For love to die for want of loveliness.
propagation of peonies from seed is extremely
“Pour que l'amour dépende encor de la beauté,"
slow it offers untold possibilities for the devel-
is the original of the last line.
opment of new and beautiful varieties, and she
makes it clear why this is so. She possesses the
ST. JEAN DE CRÈVECEUR. By Julia Post
two most important attributes of the successful
Mitchell. Columbia University Press; $1.50.
gardener-patience and imagination. Although
a large bibliography on the peony is given, no
St. Jean (or Saint John) de Crèvecøur was a
other volume yet published appears to be so com-
native of Normandy who earned his own living,
plete as this one, with its minute directions for
prior to the American Revolution, as surveyor and
growing peonies, its useful classifications of types,
farmer, in what were to be our Middle States.
and its beautiful illustrations. The two chapters
He became a naturalized citizen of New York,
on tree peonies present material new to many
and was appreciative in the highest degree of the
gardeners, and Professor H. H. Whetzel's dis peace, plenty, religious liberty, and political free-
cussion of “Diseases of the Peony" represents the
dom of American life. During our Revolution be
suffered both as a family man and as an indi-
latest research. Mrs. Harding's book is delight-
vidual; indeed, he was arrested by the British on
fully written and should not be neglected by
suspicion of being a spy and was for some time
amateur gardeners.
detained in prison in New York City, whither he
was to return, after a stormy voyage to the Old
AFTERNOON. By Emile Verhaeren. Trans-
World (he tells us he was shipwrecked off the
lated by Charles R. Murphy. Lane; $1.
Irish Coast), as France's first Consul at New
It is a pleasure to note the rapidity with which York—his headquarters for the business of the
Verhaeren's works are being offered to English three states to which he was accredited. As a
readers. A companion volume to “The Sunlit member of the circle of Madame d'Houdetot
Hours," recently reviewed in THE DIAL, contains
(mistress of Rousseau and later of Saint-Lam--
an excellent translation of the second of the tril-
bert), he saw something of literary and aris-
ogy of love poems, “Les Heures d'Après-Midi.”
tocratic society in his native land; later, he passed
The poet again invites us to his garden, for he
through the French Revolution as a harmless old
would “hide from men who are too wise.” The
man. Active in establishing the first regular mail
packet service linking the United States and
theme also is the same – the expression, beautiful
France (through the ports of New York and
in its simplicity, of reverential affection and grat Lorient, in Brittany), Consul Crèvecmur was not
itude.
content merely to carry out his routine duties-
Nothing is better than to feel
trying (as his biographer records) “to spread
Happy and limpid still—after what years? abroad such medical and botanical information as
But if fate had willed above
was at his disposal. But it is as the author of a
For us two naught but suffering and tears,
modest series of papers that, by their lyric qual-
Still, would I have wished to live and die
ity, quaintness, and revelation of a love of nature
Complaintless, in such unrelenting love!
at once highly modern and incontestably sincere,
The inspiration which nature always had for Ver that Crèvecæur is honorably remembered to-day,
haeren, and which made of him a pantheist, is after having charmed such readers as the Pan-
everywhere in his work.
tisocratic circle of Coleridge, Campbell, and


1917]
487
THE DIAL
Southey; and the essayists, Hazlitt and Lowell. its continuity of growth in Caucasian civilization.
The manuscript of “Letters from an American Of particular charm, precisely because of the rela-
Farmer” was sold by Crèvecour to a London pub- tively unhackneyed character of the subjects, are
lisher for thirty guineas, and was first published the chapters on "Coöperation in Science" and
in 1782. In late years the Farmer's memory has “The Scientist-Sir Humphry Davy.” On the
been warmed by the reprinting of his principal other hand, no good reason is apparent for the
work by two American publishers (Duffield 1904; disproportionate
disproportionate space devoted to Benjamin
Dutton 1913) and now we have Dr. Mitchell's Franklin, whose biography is amply known in
biographical study of more than three hundred America and who certainly does not merit over a
pages.
This doctoral dissertation is the evidence dozen pages in a history of science when Newton
of a good many years of untiring research, and must content himself with two.
is therefore much less superficial or fragmentary The treatment of scientific law must be con-
than investigations by the late Robert de Crève sidered rather inadequate, for even in an ele-
cour, F. B._Sanborn, Mr. Barton Blake, and mentary discussion it would have been possible
others. Dr. Post fixes the principal facts in the to bring home some of the results of latter-day
life of a colonist who exchanged letters with many philosophy of science and to correct popular no-
persons of note in America and in France: à tions as to the “laws of nature.” Finally, there is
worker for agricultural betterments, and, as not lacking a tang of provincialism in the con-
noted above, New York's first Consul of France. cluding chapter on “Science and Democratic
Even Miss Mitchell's devoted energies have, how Culture.” In spite of attempts at qualification Pro-
ever, failed to establish certain facts about the
fessor Libby is somewhat too obviously convinced
Farmer-Philosopher, notably the details of the that American democracy is the best conceivable
earlier stages of his career in America. This is condition in the best of conceivable universes.
no tragedy: for the minutiæ of such a life as his Moreover, he seems not sufficiently aware of the
are more important to the candidate for academic romantic strain in many of the world's great sci-
honors than to mere readers. New readers will entists. Some of them, no doubt, had the in-
hardly be drawn to Crèvecour and his "Letters" by stinctive craving for power “subdued to patience,
this scholarly biography. Dr. Mitchell's stagnancy industry, and philanthropy.” But in science all
of style in her “Life” of an author who was seldom is not of the colorlessness of a five o'clock tea.
wanting in a certain naïve vivacity, no doubt fol Personalities will assert themselves, and the clash
lows the purest German tradition, which is too of their individual temperaments and antagonistic
generally, in American universities, the tradition world-views in scientific controversy is as fascinat-
of our scholarship also; but that authoritative ing as any phenomenon in human society. These,
theses are necessarily dull hậs been disproved to however, are minor matters. There can be little
us again and again by the work of candidates question that Professor Libby has rendered a capi-
for the French doctorate of letters. To demand tal service to the American public. No subject is
humor or style or charm of our own doctors of so well adapted to bridge the gulf between techni-
philosophy, even when writing of a Frenchman, cal knowledge and the humanities as the history of
would be, however, both cruel and unusual. science. The growing necessity for studies in this
branch of knowledge has been clamorously voiced
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF Sci by professional scientists during the last year or
ENCE. By Walter Libby. Houghton Mifflin; two. Their demands are paralleled by the needs
$1.50.
of the laity who seek light as to the place of
Professor Libby's unpretentious little volume science in modern culture and who will be able
conforms strictly to the requirements of a pro-
to get their first bearings with the aid of Pro-
pædeutic course. It is not a systematic history
fessor Libby's primer.
tracing the development of the several sciences,
SEVEN YEARS IN VIENNA. A Record of In-
nor an essay on the psychology of investigation,
trigue. Houghton Mifflin; $1.50.
nor a philosophy of science, but a simple intro-
duction to all three, with the emphasis perhaps
Court gossip from Berlin and Vienna has been
even more on the cultural aspects and relations
rather plentifully supplied to the world in the last
of science than on its history. The book is an
two years and a half. The anonymous writer of
attempt to rouse interest in the subject, being the
“Seven Years in Vienna" is described as an Eng-
outgrowth of lectures to young men of from seven-
lish resident of the Austrian capital, and what he
teen to twenty-two years of age. The choice of
or she has to say of the inner workings of gov-
topics and of chapter headings (for the two do
ernment machinery is entertaining enough, but
not always coincide) was evidently determined by unsupported by any basis of authority. Emphasis
this pedagogical, in one or two cases we are al-
is laid upon the late Emperor's dislike of the
most tempted to say journalistic, sense for the
murdered Archduke and his wife, and it is strongly
popularly interesting. Professor Libby has un insinuated that the Sarajevo crime was planned,
doubtedly done very well what he set out to do. not in Servia or Bosnia, but in Vienna. The array
Forced to exclude much that is important by the
of circumstantial evidence in the case forms the
limitation to less than 300 pages, he has chosen
most notable chapter in the book, which other-
little that is not worth while and brought into wise is largely devoted to sketches of character
prominence several leading ideas, such as the de and summaries of recent events rendered impor-
velopment of science from everyday needs and tant by the war.


488
[May 31
THE DIAL
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES
pears a portrait of Chaucer himself in a hooded
cloak and mounted on a horse. At the end of the
[Inquiries or contributions to this department should be ad-
dressed to John E. Robinson, the Editor, who will be
volume is a copy in a contemporary hand of
pleased to render to readers such services as are possible. ] Chaucer's “Balade of Truth." At the beginning,
in a later hand, are written two poems which were
The famous library at Bridgewater House, Lon erroneously attributed to Chaucer. With the
don, the property of the Earl of Ellesmere, has
possible exception of John Milton's autograph
been bought at private sale from Sotheby, Wil manuscripts in the library of Trinity College,
kinson, and Hodge of that city by George D. Smith, Cambridge, this manuscript is unquestionably the
of New York, for a sum said to exceed $1,000,000. greatest monument of English literature in the
It comprises upwards of 4400 volumes of printed world. It appears to have been in the possession
books, bound tracts and pamphlets, eighteenth cen of the Bridgewater and Ellesmere families for two
tury plays, civil war newspapers, proclamations hundred years. Professor W. W. Skeat used the
and broadsides, 200 illuminated and other manu text of this manuscript as the basis of his edition
scripts, and from 8000 to 10,000 historical docu of “The Canterbury Tales" in the “Complete
ments and autograph letters. This constitutes the Works of Chaucer," and says in his Introduction
whole of the Bridgewater library with the excep that it is "the finest and best of all the MSS. now
tion of a certain number of books of no commercial extant. . . It not only gives good lines and
value, and a few issues mainly or entirely of fam good sense, but is also (usually) grammatically
ily interest.
accurate and thoroughly well spelt. This
The library came to this country on several splendid MS. has also the great merit of being
steamships that braved the peril of submarines. complete, requiring no supplement from any
It was packed in 101 cases, and was the most ex other source, except in the few cases where a line
tensive shipment of literary material ever trans or two has been missed." The manuscript is
ported over seas. A large number of the books undated. It was certainly written after Chaucer's
and manuscripts will pass into the possession of death in 1400, but not more than a few years later,
Henry E. Huntington, who now takes rank as the
possibly 1405.
foremost collector of rare books in the world. Other manuscripts, almost equally interesting, if
Great historical interest is attached to the foun not so valuable, include John Gower's “Confessio
dation of this library. It owes its origin_to the Amantis,” early fifteenth century manuscript il-
books and manuscripts collected by Sir Thomas luminated; Lydgate's translations of "La Danse
Egerton, Baron Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley, Macabre" and "De Regimine Principum,” four-
who was Solicitor and Attorney General, 1581-94, teenth century; copies of Magna Carta, thirteenth
Master of the Rolls, 1594-96, and Lord Chancellor and fifteenth centuries; “Speculum Juris Canon-
to Queen Elizabeth and to King James I; by his ici," fourteenth century, illuminated; Psalter in
son, John, first Earl of Bridgewater, and by his Latin, fourteenth century, richly illuminated;
grandson, John, the second Earl. Additions have “Statuta Forestarum," Henry III-Edward III;
also been made by subsequent noble owners, and “Treatise of Hunting," a contemporary manu-
especially by Francis Egerton, first Earl of Elles-
script on vellum by the Master of Game to King
mere, who died in 1857. Some of the original Henry IV, dedicated to Prince Henry, afterward
books came into the library through Frances, the King Henry V; “Biblia Vulgata," fourteenth cen-
wife of the first Earl of Bridgewater, who, as tury, decorated; "Liber Sanctorum," 1380; Missal,
co-heiress of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, appears with musical notes, fourteenth centu.y; “Modus
to have received two or three hundred books as a sive forma Regum et Reginarum Coronationis in
part of her inheritance. Lord Chancellor Egerton, Regno Angliae," fourteenth century; several her-
his son, and grandson were men of scholarly at aldic manuscripts with arms emblazoned; "The
tainments and lovers of literature, and may be Book of Garnsey" (Guernsey) 1580-87; John
reckoned amongst the earliest known book-col Penry's “Journal,” 1592; volume of examinations
lectors in England. Many of the books appear to of Recusants, time of Henry VIII; Francis
have been acquired by gift from their authors Thynne's "Animadversions on Speght's Chaucer,
and from other noteworthy persons. The library 1598; Thomas Middleton's "Game at Chesse," for
is especially rich in English manuscripts from the which the author was imprisoned in 1624; J. Mar-
thirteenth century onward. Lord Chancellor ston's “Mask,” presented to Alice, Countess Dow-
Egerton obtained a gift of the possessions of the ager of Derby, in the author's autograph; poems
Monastery of Ashridge, which included several in the autograph of John Donne, and “Olympian
manuscripts.
Catastrophe" by Sir A. Gorges, 1612. There are
Perhaps the most notable item in the library is also a richly illuminated French “Book of Hours,"
“The Canterbury Tales," or the “Ellesmere fifteenth century, on vellum; a collection of decor-
Chaucer.” This is an illuminated manuscript writ-
ated miniatures from Venetian “Ducali" of the
ten in large gothic characters on 232 leaves of fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and Johannis
vellum. Large ornamental letters appear at the
Hispani “Flos Decretorum," fifteenth century, il-
commencement of each “Tale” and elsewhere, to
luminated on vellum.
the total number of seventy. In addition to the
Of considerable dramatic and general interest is
decoration there are curious drawings, in colors
the collection of plays in manuscript formed by
heightened with gold, of twenty-three of the Can John Larpent, who in 1778 became Inspector of
terbury Pilgrims. On the verso of folio 159 ap Plays under the Lord Chamberlain. The collec-
92


1917]
489
THE DIAL
tion comprises upwards of 2000 separate plays, William Caxton's press at Westminster is rep-
the original drafts sent to the Lord Chamberlain resented by Higden's “Polychronicon," 1492,
for inspection before the license to play “should Mirks's “Festivall," 1483, and “Quattuor Ser-
be granted. About 120 authors are represented, mones," 1483. Books from the presses of Wynkyn
including David Garrick, the Sheridans, James de Worde, R. Pynson, R. Myer, and J. Mychell are
Lacy, the Kembles, Thomas Dibdin, H. Siddons, also present.
George Colman and his son, and John Dryden. There is a choice series of Americana, includ-
In most cases a letter, signed by the author or ing three rare works of Captain John Smith,
authors, accompanies each play, stating where namely, “Map of Virginia," 1612, “Description of
and when it is to be produced. There are legal and New England," 1616 (author's dedication copy and
general papers of Sir Thomas Egerton, docuinents unique), and "Virginia," 1624. Other works are
of the first three Earls of Bridgewater, papers of Castell's “Short Discoverie of America,” 1644,
the family of the Earls of Derby, manuscripts Lederer's “Discoveries in Virginia,” 1672, “Sad
referring to topographical matters, and a series of and Deplorable News from New England," 1676,
letters and documents of the third Earl of Bridge John Eliot's translation of the New Testament into
water, 1646-1701, who was Colonial Secretary, re the Indian language, 1661, and “Strange News
lating to America and the West Indies.
from Virginia," 1677. Other items of American
Besides the first four folio editions of Shake interest are to be found in a large collection of
speare's plays and his quartos, which include the English royal proclamations of the time of King
very scarce “Titus Andronicus,” 1600, of which James I–King Charles II.
only one other copy is known, there are a large There are many other rarities, including the
number of plays which influenced Shakespeare or "Pelerinaige de vie humaine," printed on vellum
became the foundation of his own plays. Among and with painted borders and miniatures in gold
these are “Taming of the Shrew," 1596; "Jacke and colors.
Drum's Entertainment,” 1601; “Knacke to Knowe
There was an interesting sale at the American
an honest man,” 1596; “Raigne of King Edward Art Galleries, New York, on May 14, of books,
III," 1599; "Warres of Cyrus,” 1594; “Comedie broadsides, prints, and autograph letters relating
upon the Historie of Jacob and Esau," 1568; “Sir
to Revolutionary and Constitutional American
Giles Goosecappe," 1606; “Wisdom of Doctor History. Among the items were autograph letters
Dodypol," 1600; "Tragical History of Selimus,"
by and to General Nathanael Greene. They formed
1594; “Enterlude called New Custome," 1573;
one of the most important collections of his cor-
"Sir John Oldcastle," 1600; "Menaecmi of Plau-
respondence ever offered at public sale in America.
tus," 1595; and “Comedy of George a Greene, Covering a period of four years, and treating of
1599. All these plays are bound in separate vol one of the most important campaigns of the entire
umes, and generally speaking their condition is
Revolutionary War, they made a series of great
much better than was the case with the Devonshire
historical interest. Opposed by one of the ablest
Quartos. A valuable and interesting adjunct to
British generals, Lord Cornwallis, Greene baffled
the Shakespearean collection is the extra-illustrated
and outgeneralled him and freed the Southern
edition of Steevens's “Dramatic Works of Shake-
department. The highest price was $105, paid
speare,” extended to 44 large folio volumes.
by Thomas F. Madigan for a four page folio
British dramatists and poets generally are well letter by Greene, dated Camp Boyd's Ferry on the
represented and include among others the follow-
Dan, February 15, 1781, and addressed to Gov-
ing, for the most part in original editions of their
ernor Thomas Jefferson. After the Battle of the
works: William Alexander, B. Barnes, Lord Barry, Cowpens, Cornwallis, who was determined on the
Beaumont and Fletcher (12 works), R. Blome, L. destruction of Greene's army, followed him with
Carlell, T. Campion, I. Cartwright, George Chap-
great speed and energy. Greene only escaped
man, H. Chettle, Thomas Churchyard, J. Locke, S.
by getting across the rivers first. He finally ob-
Daniel, Sir William Davenant, J. Davies of Here tained reënforcements, recrossed the Dan, gave
ford, Sir J. Davies, J. Day, Thomas Dekker (21
battle at Guilford Court House, ruined Corn-
works), T. Deloney, Michael Drayton, N. Field, J.
wallis, and brought about his downfall at York-
Fletcher, J. Ford, George Gascoigne, T. Goffe, town.
Robert Greene, George Herbert, with the earliest
Other items sold as follows: “Decius's Letters on
issues of “The Temple," Thomas Heywood (20
the Opposition to the New Constitution in Vir-
works), Ben Jonson (10 works), J. Lyllie (11
works), Sir D. Lyndsay's “Complaint of a Popin- $187.50; “Conference between Jonathan Belcher,
ginia," Richmond, 1789, Charles F. Heartman,
jay,” 1538, C. Marlow (6 works), J. Marston (10
Governor of Massachusetts Bay and the Indian
works), P. Massinger (12 works), T. May, Thomas
Chiefs,” Boston, 1732, Rosenbach and Co., Phila-
Middleton (16 works), Milton's "Paradise Lost,"
delphia, $280; series of four views of the naval
“Comus," 1637, and other works, A. Monday, T.
action between the British frigate “Shannon" and
Nabbes, T. Nash, G. Pelle, H. Porter, T. Randolph,
the American frigate “Chesapeake," June 1, 1813,
S. Rowley, E. Sharpham, J. Shirley (27 works),
Mrs. G. F. Carlisle, $570; North Carolina Laws,
Edmund Spenser, Sir John Suckling, J. Taylor, 1773, Rosenbach and Co., $200; and a manuscript
R. Wilson, and N. Woodes. The principal works
survey entirely in the autograph of George Wash-
of the more notable French dramatists of the
ington, August 20, 1750, made when he was only
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are found in 18 years of age for his half-brother, Major Law-
a collection of 129 plays in separate volumes. rence Washington, Joseph Sabin, $142.50.


490
(May 31
THE DIAL
9
NOTES AND NEWS
through the Northwest, preparatory to writing
a volume on Canada.
Of the contributors to the present issue, Louis S.
“Brothers in Arms,” by E. Alexander Powell,
Friedland is an Associate Editor of the "Russian
the well-known correspondent, will be published
Review” and professor of English at the Univer-
on June 2nd by Houghton Mifflin Co. Mr. Pow-
sity of the City of New York.
ell's book does for our relations with France what
Harold J. Laski, sometime Exhibitioner of New Ian Hay in his "Getting Together" did for our
College, Oxford, is a member of the Department connection with our British allies. The book con-
of History at Harvard. His latest book, "Studies
tains an account of the arrival of Joffre and his
in the Problem of Sovereignty," was reviewed at
party on our shores.
length in the last issue of THE DIAL.
Baroness Souiny, whose “Russia of Yesterday
Ludwig Lewisohn is the author of "A Night in and Tomorrow" will be published by the Century
Alexandria,” “The Modern Drama," and other Company early in June, is in America studying
books. He acted as editor and chief translator the country with the view to a future interpreta-
of the “Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann." tion of American women, in whom she is deeply
Edith Abbott is a social worker long resident interested. It is said that her impression of the
at Hull House. She is associated with the Chi contrast between Russian women and American
cago School of Civics and Philanthropy.
is not entirely in favor of the American.
W. E. Simonds is professor of English at Knox A new book by Hermann Fernau, whose “Be-
College.
cause I Am a German" attracted much attention
Nellie Poorman was educated at Northwestern last year, will be published in the near future by
University and is Supervisor of Music in the E. P. Dutton & Co. It will be called “The Coming
Evanston schools.
Democracy" and it will make a study of the causes
of the war from the standpoint of a German whose
The second volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's convictions render it impossible for him to live
“History of the Great War” is announced by the in Germany. The author reaches the conclusion
George H. Doran Co. for June publication.
that democracy is the one form of government
A timely publication is "A Russian Anthology in most likely to avoid and prevent war.
English” (Dutton), which contains extracts in The National Child Labor Committee, 105 East
verse and prose characteristic of the more promi 22nd Street, New York, has prepared a pamphlet
nent Russian writers.
on “Children in War Time," which contains a
William McFee, author of “Casuals of the plan for the organization of children as auxiliary
Sea” (Doubleday, Page & Co.), is now on a British gardeners and farm assistants. The plan is offered
transport in the Mediterranean, where in his spare
after conference with the directors of the Play-
time he is working at a new novel.
ground Association and Boy Scouts of America,
Miss Hilda M. Sharp's novel, “The Stars in the New York Commissioner of Education, the
Their Courses,” which was recently published by
president of the New York City Board of Educa-
G. P. Putnam's Sons in this country, has been tion, and the Agricultural Committee of the Mer-
translated into Swedish and is now appearing
chants' Association.
serially.
Professor M. G. Fulton of Davidson College
Dr. James W. Bright's sketch of the life of
has edited for Ginn & Co. a 500-page volume,
James Mercer Garnett, which appeared in the
“Southern Life in Southern Literature," for use in
spring number of “The American Journal of Phil schools. The character of the book is revealed by
ology," is issued in separate pamphlet form - a the title. Thus the prose of Poe, whose stories have
reprint from the “Journal."
an indefinite background “out of space, out of
The Little Book Publisher of Arlington, N. J.,
time,” is represented by a single selection, “The
Fall of the House of Usher”; while to J. P. Ken-
announces a new volume of poems by Scudder
Middleton, whose poem, “The Clerk,'
nedy, who reflects actual life and local customs, is
tioned by Mr. Braithwaite as being one of the five
assigned more than fifty pages. The volume is
best poems published in 1916.
given over to fiction, essays, and poems; there
are no specimens of historical, biographical, or
The material in Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's political writing.
“Workmanship of Shakespeare," which has re-
Messrs. Ginn and Co. will publish in the near
cently been published by Messrs. Henry Holt &
future an edition of Poe's Poems, by Professor
Co., has been taken mainly from lectures delivered
by the author at the University of Cambridge.
Killis Campbell, of the University of Texas. This
edition presents a revised and corrected text both
Harper & Brothers announce that they will pub-
of the poems and of the many textual revisions
lish on June 7th, “Are We Capable of Self-Gov made by the poet in republishing his verses. It
ernment ?" by Frank W. Noxon, to which Harry will contain, besides copious notes, in which a
A. Wheeler, first president of the Chamber of large body of historical and interpretative mate-
Commerce of the United States, has written an in rial is now collected for the first time, interesting
troduction.
sections on the poet's relations to other poets, and
Mr. Archie Bell, who has contributed several on the clash of critical opinion respecting his
volumes to The Page Company's “Spell Series,” is literary achievement, together with a biographical
the author of a new volume just announced, sketch embodying the results of the latest re-
“The Spell of China.” He is now travelling searches in the life of Poe.
was men-


1917]
491
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THE DIAL
A fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information,
VOL. LXII.
JUNE 14, 1917.
No. 744.
CASUAL COMMENT
ers."
.
· 516
CONTENTS.
SOME CHANGES LIKELY TO BE WROUGHT IN
ENGLISH EDUCATION BY THE GREAT WAR are
CASUAL COMMENT
505 foreshadowed by Gilbert Murray in the
Some changes likely to be wrought in Eng-
“Educational Review." Continental boys
lish education by the Great War.—The es-
cape of the war correspondent from the wiles and girls, he says, work a great deal harder
of Germany.- Poems written for advertising than English ones and demand less amuse-
purposes.—The potency of the printed word ment. Pleasure, in fact, simply occupies
as a means to fame.-The propensity of fact
to look like fiction.
too large a place in the English scheme
of life: “We want this spirit changed; we
THE ART OF THEODORE DREISER. Ran-
want a better husbanding of our vital pow-
dolph Bourne
. 507
He calls too for a number of concrete
A COSMOPOLITAN POET. S. Griswold Morley 509
and definite educational reforms: smaller
COMMUNICATIONS
511
Ignoring the Question. M. C. Otto.
classes and a more personal treatment in
More About the Short Story. Mary M.
elementary school; better buildings; better
Colum.
teachers, with a backing of culture and a real
Ireland's Debt to Foreign Scholars. Ed love for their work; differentiation of teach-
ward Sapir.
Saint-Saëns on Wagner and Shakespeare.
ing, so that “both the scientific and the
Theodore Stanton.
humanistic needs of the country may be sup-
Poetry and Criticism. Constance Skinner. plied”; and supervision and help, after school
SOME FUNDAMENTALS OF PEACE. Max is left, whether through continuation-classes
Sylvius Handman
. 514 or clubs. A few other things might have been
A COOK'S TOUR IN ARNOLD. M. C. Otto
added as necessary steps in England's renova-
THE PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZATION. Har.
tion: a higher regard for the things of the
old J. Laski .
. 517 mind," as George Gissing put it; a lessened
THE CURRENT DRIFT. George Bernard Don contempt for science and its devotees; and a
lin
519 general social readjustment which should in-
MAD SHELLEY AS AN HEIR. Garland duce a greater respect for the teacher and his
Greever
521
work.
SOCIALISM AND CHRISTIANITY. Ward
Swain
523
THE ESCAPE OF THE WAR CORRESPONDENT
CHINA AND JAPAN. Frederic Austin Ogg 524
FROM THE WILES OF GERMANY will sometime
JAMES JOYCE. John Macy .
525
constitute one of the interesting, if minor,
NOTES ON NEW FICTION
527
chapters in the record of the Great War. Too
Visions.-Seen and Heard, Before and After
1914.-Flame and the Shadow-Eater.-An
many of these men—even some possessed of
Alabaster Box.-The Confessions of a Little good Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Irish names—al-
Man During Great Days.-The Triflers. lowed Prussian officialdom to have its own
Cecilia of the Pink Roses.-Antony Gray,
way with them.
Carefully shepherded, they
Gardener.-The American Ambassador.-
The Wanderer on a Thousand Hills.
went hither and yon, seeing what they were
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
528
told to see, hearing what they were told to
At Plattsburg.-Lloyd George: The Man and hear, catching their color, like chameleons,
His Story.-Some Russian Heroes, Saints from their environment, and all the time as
and Sinners.-The Issue.-Masterpieces of completely soaked in their surroundings as a
Modern Spanish Drama.—Recollections of a
Rebel Reefer.—The Celtic Dawn.-In Can-
fish in water. Even the best of them, though
ada's Wonderful Northland.-Great Inspir in possession of their faculties and senses,
ers.--Highways and Byways in Nottingham were obliged to seem complaisant, in order
shire.-Si Briggs Talks.--Hygiene in Mex that their functioning as correspondents
ico.—The Mirror of Gesture.--English Biog-
raphy.-A Student in Arms.
might continue. The very violence of reac-
LIST OF BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR
tion, as evidenced by printed matter now com-
SUMMER READING
533 ing from men of this latter type, proves the
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES. John E. Rob-
calculating pressure to which they were sub-
inson
534 | jected. This reaction is shown nowhere more
NOTES AND NEWS
537 markedly than in the case of Carl W. Acker-
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
539
man, representative in Germany of the United
.
..
.
.
.


506
(June 14
THE DIAL
Press for the last two years. He, in the recent ciently sum up for England the heroism of
phrase of ex-Ambassador Gerard, remained the present hard years. Heroism unrecorded
a true American in spite of all the blandish - however poignant, however deserving—flies
ments and temptations of Berlin. Mr. Ack down the wind. The “Poems" of Alan Seeger
erman's book, announced for this month, has are now followed by his “Letters and Diary.”
no less a title than “Germany, the Next Re The "Letters from France" of Victor Chap-
public.” Not every reader will see so far and man, first of American aviators to fall in
so optimistically as Mr. Ackerman; but many foreign service, are lately published, with a
a one will be prompted to wonder whether memoir by his father, John Jay Chapman, the
James O'Donnell Bennett or Dr. William Atlantic essayist. All this mechanism of pious
Bayard Hale could ever become capable of care works as it should. Yet one somehow in-
throwing so grandly about himself the wide dulges a faint feeling that literary fame, in
cloak of gallant prophecy.
war time, is always slightly factitious and
often somewhat unjust; and a thought must
go out for the thousands who died no less
POEMS WRITTEN FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES bravely, yet who, because inarticulate, can
are sometimes good, but poems that are adapt- hope for no enduring memorials in the gen-
able to advertising purposes may be even bet eral mind and eye.
ter. A young English writer, pausing before
a grocer's window, has lately produced some
THE PROPENSITY OF FACT TO LOOK LIKE FIC-
couplets which might never have been achieved
TION continues to plague the artist in many
by the mere fabricator ad hoc.
fields. A prominent "producer” in the mov-
Soap to keep us pure and white
ing-picture world has been complaining that
may indeed be within the reach of the hack;
but its companion-line,
people at the serious junctures of real life
seldom act in a way that the films can use
Candles, the slim sons of light,
convincingly. They do not express joyas
is beyond the range of anyone save a born
they ought to; nor sorrow, nor hate, nor ter-
poet, functioning for poetry's own sake. An-
ror. A hospital patient, told that he is soon
other couplet again brackets happily the defi-
nite and the inspired:
to die, may express his feelings with a general
inexpressiveness that is utterly malapropos
Eggs, fresh within and white without,
and unserviceable. Worse yet, the doctor him-
Cocoa, of origin devout, -
thus at once depicting "hen fruit” that looks
self does not know how to tell his patient his
and tastes as it ought and setting forth the
coming fate. Consequently, the registration
morning's beverage with a backing of Quaker ordinary, casual audience, must be convention-
of emotion, if it is to be caught quickly by an
trustworthiness. If so slight a bit of verse
can yield so much for one branch of trade,
alized, standardized. A similar difficulty
what might not “Bartlett” or some good con-
sometimes meets the author who makes up a
cordance yield for another?
book out of novel material. The manuscript-
wise may say to him, “Your facts are fancies.”
For example, a Canadian government em-
THE POTENCY OF THE PRINTED WORD AS A ployee, going about collecting Canadian
MEANS TO FAME becomes more and more ap folk-tales for official publication, and doubtless
parent as the months of war go on. The man realizing how completely such material, if
who is marked for memory is the man who published on such a plan, might be buried in
goes “on record”—the man who comes to be government archives, obtained permission to
imbedded in his nation's literature. It is the use a certain number of the tales separately in
literary soldier who is likely-except in cases a book of his own. But a New York “reader"
of conspicuous, supreme leadership-to get, declared that his stories were works of imag-
with whatever degree of justice, the inside ination and not genuine folk-tales. This drove
track; and if, as is commonly the case, the their compiler to London. Here another
fighter with a gift for literary expression is reader declared that, novel and curious and
companied and survived by friends of his own fascinating as they were, no one but a genius
tastes and affiliations, he is likely to keep it. of the first rank could have “invented” them,
One recalls with difficulty the name of the and that, as no such genius existed, the tales
commander under whom Sir Philip Sidney were doubtless what they purported to be.
or Theodore Körner may have served; yet On such derogatory grounds as these an agree-
these two gallant spirits survive perpetually ment was reached. It would be well if the
in the anthologies. It is likely enough that, discordant claims of fact and of fiction, in
generations hence, the name of Rupert Brooke, whatever field they crop out, could be settled
with a page or two of his verse, may suffi with less pain to amour-propre.


1917]
507
THE DIAL
The Art of Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser has had the good fortune typical as to be almost epic. No one has ever
to evoke a peculiar quality of pugnacious in- pictured this lower middle-class American
terest among the younger American intelli life so winningly, because no one has had the
gentsia such as has been the lot of almost necessary literary skill with the lack of self-
nobody else writing to-day unless it be Miss consciousness. Mr. Dreiser is often sentimen.
Amy Lowell. We do not usually take lit- tal, but it is a sentimentality that captivates
erature seriously enough to quarrel over it. you with its candor. You are seeing this
Or else we take it so seriously that we ur vacuous, wistful, spiritually rootless, mid-
banely avoid squabbles. Certainly there are dle-Western life through the eyes of a naïve
none of the vendettas that rage in a culture but very wise boy. Mr. Dreiser seems queer
like that of France. But Mr. Dreiser seems only because he has carried along his youthful
to have made himself, particularly since the attitude in unbroken continuity. He is fas-
suppression of “The 'Genius,'” a veritable cinated with sex because youth is usually ob-
issue. Interesting and surprising are the sessed with sex. He puzzles about the universe
reactions to him. Edgar Lee Masters makes because youth usually puzzles. He thrills to
him a "soul-enrapt demi-urge, walking the crudity and violence because sensitive youth
earth, stalking life”; Harris Merton Lyon saw usually recoils from the savagery of the in-
in him a "seer of inscrutable mien”; Arthur dustrial world. Imagine incorrigible, sensuous
Davison Ficke sees him as master of a passing youth endowed with the brooding skepticism
throng of figures, “labored with immortal illu of the philosopher who feels the vanity of
sion, the terrible and beautiful, cruel and life, and you have the paradox of Mr. Dreiser.
wonder-laden illusion of life”; Mr. Powys For these two attitudes in him support rather
makes him an epic philosopher of the “life than oppose each other. His spiritual evolu-
tide”; H. L. Mencken puts him ahead of Con tion was out of a pious, ascetic atmosphere
rad, with "an agnosticism that has almost into intellectual and personal freedom. He
passed beyond curiosity.” On the other seems to have found himself without losing
hand, an unhappy critic in the “Nation” last himself. Of how many American writers can
year gave Mr. Dreiser his place for all time this be said! And for this much shall be for-
in a neat antithesis between the realism that given him,-his slovenliness of style, his lack
was based on a theory of human conduct and of nuances, his apathy to the finer shades of
the naturalism that reduced life to a mere beauty, his weakness for the mystical and the
animal behavior. For Dreiser this last special vague. Mr. Dreiser suggests the over-sensitive
hell was reserved, and the jungle-like and temperament that protects itself by an ad-
simian activities of his characters rather ex miration for crudity and cruelty. His latest
haustively outlined. At the time this anti book reveals the boyhood shyness and timidity
thesis looked silly. With the appearance of of this Don Juan of novelists. Mr. Dreiser is
Mr. Dreiser's latest book, “A Hoosier Holi- complicated, but he is complicated in a very
day," it becomes nonsensical. For that wise understandable American way, the product of
and delightful book reveals him as a very hu the uncouth forces of small-town life and the
man critic of very-common human life, ro vast disorganization of the wider American
mantically sensual and poetically realistic, world. As he reveals himself, it is a revelation
with an artist's vision and a thick, warm feel- of a certain broad level of the American soul.
ing for American life.
Mr. Dreiser seems uncommon only because
This book gives the clue to Mr. Dreiser, to he is more naïve than most of us. It is not so
his insatiable curiosity about people, about much that he swarms his pages with sexful
their sexual inclinations, about their dreams, figures as that he rescues sex for the scheme
about the homely qualities that make them of personal life. He feels a holy mission to
American. His memories give a picture of slay the American literary superstition that
the floundering young American that is so men and women are not sensual beings. But


508
[June 14
THE DIAL
he does not brush this fact in the sniggering the charm of girlhood. Through different so-
way of the popular magazines. He takes it
He takes it cial planes, through business and manual
very seriously, so much so that some of his labor and the feverish world of artists, he pur-
novels become caricatures of desire. It is, sues this lure. Dreiser is refreshing in his air
however, a misfortune that it has been Brieux of the moral democrat, who sees life impas-
and Freud and not native Theodore Dreiser sively, neither praising nor blaming, at the
who soaked the sexual imagination of the same time that he realizes how much more
younger American intelligentsia. It would terrible and beautiful and incalculable life is
have been far healthier to have absorbed Mr. than any of us are willing to admit. It may
Dreiser's literary treatment of sex than to be all apologia, but it comes with the grave
have gone hysterical over its pathology. Sex air of a mind that wants us to understand just
has little significance unless it is treated in how it all happened. “Sister Carrie” will al-
personally artistic, novelistic terms. The ways retain the fresh charm of a spontaneous
American tradition had tabooed the treatment working-out of mediocre, and yet elemental
of those infinite gradations and complexities and significant, lives. A good novelist catches
of love that fill the literary imagination of a hold of the thread of human desire. Dreiser
sensitive people. When curiosity got too does this, and that is why his admirers for-
strong and reticence was repealed in America, give him so many faults.
we had no means of articulating ourselves If you like to speculate about personal and
except in a deplorable pseudo-scientific jargon literary qualities that are specifically Amer-
that has no more to do with the relevance of ican, Dreiser should be as interesting as any
sex than the chemical composition of orange one now writing in America. This becomes
paint has to do with the artist's vision. clearer as he writes more about his youth. His
Dreiser has done a real service to the Amer- hopelessly unorientated, half-educated, boy.
ican imagination in despising the underworld hood is so typical of the uncritical and care-
and going gravely to the business of picturing less society in which wistful American talent
sex as it is lived in the personal relations of has had to grope. He had to be spiritually a
bungling, wistful, or masterful men and self-made man, work out a philosophy of life,
women. He seemed strange and rowdy only discover his own sincerity. Talent in Amer-
because he made sex human, and American ica outside of the ruling class flowers very
tradition had never made it human. It had late, because it takes so long to find its bear-
only made it either sacred or vulgar, and ings. It has had almost to create its own soil,
when these categories no longer worked, we before it could put in its roots and grow. It
fell under the dubious and perverting magic is born shivering into an inhospitable and
of the psycho-analysts.
irrelevant group. It has to find its own kind
In spite of his looseness of literary gait of people and piece together its links of com-
and heaviness of style Dreiser seems a sincere prehension. It is a gruelling and tedious
groper after beauty. It is natural enough task, but those who come through it con-
that this should so largely be the beauty of tribute, like Vachel Lindsay, creative work
sex. For where would a sensitive boy, brought that is both novel and indigenous. The
up in Indiana and in the big American cities, process can be more easily traced in Dreiser
get beauty expressed for him except in than in almost anybody else. “A Hoosier
women ? What does mid-Western America Holiday" not only traces the personal process,
offer to the starving except its personal but it gives the social background. The com-
beauty? A few landscapes, an occasional pic- mon life, as seen throughout the countryside,
ture in a museum, a book of verse perhaps! is touched off quizzically, and yet sympathet-
Would not all the rest be one long, flaunting ically, with an artist's vision. Dreiser sees
offense of ugliness and depression? “The the American masses in their commonness
'Genius,' ?" instead of being that mass of por- and at their pleasure as brisk, rather vacuous
nographic horror which the Vice Societies people, a little pathetic in their innocence of
repute it to be, is the story of a groping artist the possibilities of life and their optimistic
whose love of beauty runs obsessingly upon trustfulness. He sees them ruled by great


1917]
509
THE DIAL
barons of industry, and yet unconscious of
A Cosmopolitan Poet
their serfdom. He seems to love this coun-
tryside, and he makes you love it.
Rubén Darío died on the 6th of February,
Dreiser loves, too, the ugly violent bursts 1916, at the age of forty-nine. He had earned
of American industry,—the flaming steel-mills an undisputed title as the most famous Cas-
and gaunt lakesides. “The Titan” and “The tilian poet of his day, the leader of the
Financier" are unattractive novels, but they
younger generation of writers in every sty-
listic innovation. He was a Nicaraguan, and
are human documents of the brawn of a pass-
therein lies the marvel of his power over Span-
ing American era. Those stenographic con-
ish letters. Never before has a Spanish-
versations, webs of financial intrigue, bare
American been the fugleman of a literary
bones of enterprise, insult our artistic sense. overturn in Spain, as Darío was the originator
There is too much raw beef, and yet it all of modernism. His personal victory over
has the taste and smell of the primitive busi continental indifference and superiority would
ness-jungle it deals with. These crude and have been less notable had he issued from
greedy captains of finance with their wars
Argentina, Chile, or Colombia, — the recog-
and their amours had to be given some kind
nized centres of Spanish-American culture.
of literary embodiment, and Dreiser has ham-
Tiny, feud-torn Nicaragua could lend him no
prestige.
mered a sort of raw epic out of their lives.
Modernism is a term used in Spain to de-
It is not only his feeling for these themes
note a movement in its world of letters which
of crude power and sex and the American began there not long before the disaster of
common life that makes Dreiser interesting. 1898, and still continues to develop. It is
His emphases are those of a new America not easy to define, since nebulosity is one of
which is latently expressive and which must its aims. But Darío, who was engagingly
develop its art before we shall really have
frank in his self-criticism, discloses without
become articulate. For Dreiser is a true
reserve his own literary ancestry, and with it
that of the school.
hyphenate, a product of that conglomerate wholly French.
The lineage is almost
Victor Hugo was Darío's
Americanism that springs from other roots
greatest object of admiration, both early and
than the English tradition. Do we realize late. Next to him came Théophile Gautier
how rare it is to find a talent that is thor and Verlaine; then Leconte de Lisle, Hérédia,
oughly American and wholly un-English ? and lesser men, such as Banville, Moréas, Vil-
Culturally we have somehow suppressed the liers, Armand Silvestre, and, in prose, Daudet
and Flaubert. Poe and Walt Whitman were
hyphenate. Only recently has he forced his
often on his lips. Juan Valera commented
way through the unofficial literary censorship.
with amazement upon the Parisian spirit of
The vers-librists teem with him, but Dreiser
“Azul,” published at Valparaiso, Chile, in
is almost the first to achieve a largeness of 1888. “None of the men of the peninsula who
utterance. His outlook, it is true, flouts the have had the most cosmopolitan spirit,” said
American canons of optimism and redemption, he, “who have lived longest in France and who
but these were never anything but conven-
speak French and other languages the best,
tions. There stirs in Dreiser's books a new
has ever seemed to me so steeped in the
French spirit as Darío.” This, of a youth of
American quality. It is not at all German.
twenty-one who had never left Central Amer-
It is an authentic attempt to make something ica except to go to Chile! And underlying
artistic out of the chaotic materials that lie the French culture was classical training of a
around us in American life. Dreiser inter- thoroughness which, in this country, has
ests because we can watch him grope and feel passed into a legendary state. Nearly every
line Darío wrote testifies to his familiarity
his clumsiness. He has the artist's vision
with Greek and Latin mythology, metre, and
without the sureness of the artist's technique.
art. Evidently, in the eighties, Leon of
That is one of the tragedies of America. But Nicaragua possessed real teachers of the hu-
his faults are those of his material and of manities.
uncouth bulk, and not of shoddiness. He ex Modernism, then, is nothing but a blend of
presses an America that is in process of form-
romanticism, the Parnassus, symbolism, vers
librism, and any other recent French isms.
ing. The interest he evokes is part of the
The surprising thing is that none of the cur-
eager interest we feel in that growth.
rents posterior to le Parnasse had been able
RANDOLPH BOURNE. to cross the Pyrenees directly. It remained


510
[June 14
THE DIAL
.
for Darío, in his corner of the New World, to ities, dropping at times into mannerism and
catch the different strands, weave them into a preciosity, are something new in Spanish
single cord, and ship his wares back across the poetry. One must go back to Luis de León
Atlantic to the cradle of his race, there to and Góngora to find anything resembling it,
create a sensation and a school.
and then remotely.
Darío and his followers say, with justice, He is un-Spanish in the lack of that sono-
that they have renewed Spanish poetry, freed rous, mouth-filling rhetoric which impresses
it from age-old shackles. It is invariably the any reader of Castilian lyrics. Darío worked
formal, metrical side of their achievement for lightness, freedom, and delicacy, and to
that they stress. "I applied to the Castilian that end substituted short words for long as
tongue verbal advantages of other languages," much as possible. He is un-Spanish, too, in
says Darío.
“Attention to inner melody, his lack of realism. Like many another poet
which contributes to the success of rhythmic who worked hard for a living, he put into
expression ; novelty in adjectives, study of the his verse as little as possible of the sordid side
historical meaning of each word, use of a of his life. To him his art meant an oppor-
discreet erudition, lexicographic aristocracy, tunity to retire into an ideal world, "within
were my aims... I think I have struck an ivory tower," as he put it, to regale himself
a new note in the orchestration of the octo with the joy of creation in a realm of dreams
syllable.” “I flexibilized,” he says again, with and illusions. Even in his erotic poetry, much
his customary neologism, “the hendecasyllable of it a veritable hymn to Pan, the divinity of
to its utmost.” He was, indeed, an indefatig sex, the fundamental idea is clad in such a
able experimenter with rhymes and rhythms, magical veil of imagery and mythology that
but one must not forget that he never dis it is incapable of offending. The great ex-
carded a system till he had become proficient cesses of his own life found only an idealized
in it, and that his daring innovations sprang
echo in his verse. He was a robust, full-
consciously from supreme technical skill, from blooded product of the tropics, having prob-
a minute understanding of the intricacies of ably a slight admixture of Indian blood, but
metrics, ancient and modern. He was not such was the aristocracy of his intellect that
trying, like a cubist painter or some poets of
he would no more have soiled a blank sheet
the day, to escape the bonds of rules that he with slops than he would have cheapened it
had not patience to master. It is noteworthy with rhyme-tags. I am speaking, naturally,
that, in spite of the liberty he preached, he of Darío in his prime, the Darío of “Azul,"
was not a vers librist, except in occasional “Prosas Profanas,” and “Cantos de Vida y
unimportant poems. His anarchy developed Esperanza.
within the limits of rhyme and syllable-count. Lastly, Darío is un-Spanish in his vacillat-
It is not likely that his more extreme licenses, ing religious faith. Every critic recognizes
such as enjambement with a pendant definite the duality of his nature, the "cosmic sen-
article, will remain in the language.
sualism” of his pantheistic mythology, par-
As might be expected in view of its origins,
alleled or contradicted by yearnings toward
Darío's art is more French than Spanish.
revealed religion. Darío himself affirmed that
Not that he was unpatriotic or neglectful of he was “a Christian if not a Catholic,” and
the glories of his race. He was intensely loyal
some of his admirers have tried to claim him
to his native tropics always and did not share
for the Church, but it is indubitable that
the antipathy for Spain that many Spanish- paganism was the essence of his soul, while
Americans harbor. He came to love her his faith was hesitating and frail. Repeat-
national history and ancient honors. But the edly, in both prose and verse, he describes the
spirit of his art was quite unlike what we are horror of death, a purely physical fear of
accustomed to consider Castilian. To be sure,
annihilation, that beset him from his earliest
it may be all the more universal art for that. years: “in my desolation," he says, “I have
The savor of Spanish soil is so strong that,
rushed to God as a refuge, I have seized
undiluted, it appears not to be much relished prayer as a parachute.”
So he prayed :
away from home.
Jesus, sower of wheat, grant me the tender
Darío was un-Spanish, first, in the meticu-
bread of thy hostia; grant me salvation from hell,
that yawns for the rage and the lusts of an ancient
lous polish of his verse. “Slap-dash methods offender.
and indifference to form," says Fitzmaurice Tell me the terrible horror of death that pursues me
Kelly, "are characteristic of the greatest
is naught but illusion, the wraith of unspeakable sin;
Spaniards.” The impeccable choice of words,
that dying means only a flood of new light to suffuse
me,
the sapient harmony of line, the alliteration, that then thou wilt say to me “Raise thee, and enter
the silvery combinations of vocables, the in in."
spired placing of the cæsura,—all these qual. This is not the ardent faith of a convinced
>
-
-


1917]
511
THE DIAL
some
Christian ; St. Theresa and John of the Cross perhaps only to startle the bourgeois, that “all
would not recognize it as kin to their own. Spanish poetry may be reduced to two names,
In fact, it bears a curious inverse resemblance Jorge Manrique and Darío.” It is early even
to
recent remarks of Miguel de to boast, with a French critic, that "Darío had
Unamuno, the celebrated free lance of the a hand in the funeral of Nuñez de Arce and
University of Salamanca. To an interviewer all that his art represents." The world of
he said: “I am very much afraid of certain letters is probably not ready to discard for-
things, and especially of dying." And in the ever, in favor of modernism, the poetry of
same breath he added, in response to a ques definite ideas. What cannot be denied is that
tion concerning his religious belief: “Here Darío, single-handed, initiated a movement in
in Spain even we atheists are Catholics.” Spain that affects to-day nearly every branch
The sentiments of Darío are not separated of literary art; that he renovated the tech-
from those of Unamuno by any such chasm nique of both poetry and prose; that he made
as parts both from the rapturous yearning his own many diverse styles; and that his
for death so often expressed by the true Span verse is often so inevitable as to touch the
ish mystics. Nor did Darío possess the finality of art. He was a real leader who
equally Spanish courage of consistent mate could write: “I am not an iconoclast. The
rialism. He was bold toward the world, but time lost in destroying is always needed for
timid toward himself. His lyrics are the creation.'
quintessence of pantheism, and yet he could
S. GRISWOLD MORLEY.
snatch at prayer as a parachute.
A like fluctuation is apparent in his poetry.
His protean nature is the hardest in the world
COMMUNICATIONS
to pin a label to. Usually he is dubbed an
apostle of imprecision, a translator of delicate
IGNORING THE QUESTION.
nuances of mood into lines shaded with equal
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
delicacy. He is, very often, that kind of
The criticism of Willard Huntington Wright's
Verlainian. Take as an example the opening “Misinforming a Nation" which appeared in your
stanzas of the well-known “Era un Aire
issue of May 31st may be recommended to teachers
Suave.
of logic who are on the lookout for living ex-
amples to illustrate the common fallacy known
There came a gentle breeze in tardy whirls,
the fairy Harmony took rhythmic flight;
as Ignoring the Question. Mr. Wright's book
a cello sobbed in cadence; sighs of girls
is intended to show that the Encyclopædia Britan-
and whispers floated outward, vague and light.
nica is a British book; that it is unfair, all along
the line, to other countries, especially to America.
Upon the terrace, where the boughs hang near, It is based, as the critic, Mr. Fuller, confesses,
you would have said that, when the silk attire upon wide knowledge and careful research, and
caressed the white magnolias, you could hear considerable evidence is offered in its pages for
a tremolo from some æolian lyre.
the author's contention.
But that sort of thing is really untranslatable, Does Mr. Fuller meet the argument squarely
of course. The charm is too closely linked to
in his unfavorable review? Does he show that
the form. No sooner have you decided that Mr. Wright is in error? If he does, I quite over-
Darío stands for nothing else than this, when, looked the place. He makes fun of Mr. Wright
at some turn of a leaf, you come upon a son as a slashing, dashing, up-to-the-minute modern;
net of robust contour, firmly imagined and he suggests that the present edition of the Britan-
strongly chiselled, an ode of frosty brilliance, nica is an improvement upon earlier editions; he
a martial and aggressive polemic. He is often
tells us something about the feelings with which
assumed to be a pure æsthete, but he gives
he reads the book; but he consistently avoids the
proof of clear reasoning and exactness, when
issue. Personally, I am glad to know of Mr.
Wright's attitude toward contemporary life, and
he wishes. Now a pagan lover of fleshly
am encouraged to learn of the improvement in
beauty, at times he dallies with a wholly sen the Britannica. And I hope I am not so ungra-
suous Christian mysticism ; again, he is over cious as to be uninterested in the mental and emo-
come by a sense of the futility of life. His one tional state aroused in the critic by the reading
constant trait is the worship of art for art's of this “Pamphlet against a long-established lit-
sake, of the rare and delicate in every man-
erary institution.'
But unfortunately my mind
ifestation.
makes no connection between these and Mr.
Somewhere in his work there is meat for
Wright's strictures. Perhaps Mr. Wright is
every taste.
Is this the dilettantism of a
wrong in his belief that such men as Luther Bur-
bank, John Dewey, and Wilbur Wright would have
roving assimilator? Is it rather the full
found a place in an unbiased encyclopædia. Per-
many-sidedness of genius! I incline to the
haps there is no ground for his objection to the
latter hypothesis. It is early to declare with dismissal of William James with twenty-eight lines
the novelist Valle-Inclán, in a boutade meant where Sir William Hamilton gets a page and


512
[June 14
THE DIAL
66
79
a half. Perhaps he is likewise wide of the mark by such masters as Tchekhovor Schnitzler or
in his estimate of the men of other nations. It is Paul Heyse would be of great interest if Mr. Cory
even conceivable that Mr. Wright completely fails had given it to us.
to prove that the Encyclopædia Britannica booms He gives three reasons for his condemnation
England at the expense of France, Germany, Rus of the short story. First, because the unity is
sia, and the rest. If so, Mr. Fuller does not move abnormally artificial and intense. Now what can
a finger to show it. He simply smiles condescend Mr. Cory mean by an “intense” unity? As to its
ingly and continues to elaborate a figure of speech being artificial, the unity in any art is artificial.
in which the Encyclopædia is a wonderful sky And is the unity in any good short story more
scraper and Mr. Wright an amusing workman bent abnormally artificial than the unity in any good
upon reducing it to debris with a pick.
play, poem, or novel? As to his second point-
I regret that Mr. Fuller could be satisfied with a
"the popular habit of truncating the short story
superficial analysis of a criticism the truth or violently at the climax"—this I pass over, as it
fallacy of which it is of considerable importance is merely a popular habit and has nothing to do
to establish. Perhaps the reason is to be found with any art. 'Consider thirdly,” says Mr. Cory,
in the assumptions which apparently underlie his “the rapid action of the short story. Life is made
review, namely, that everything modern is ephem to whirl by like the walls of a subway." In
eral, and that long-established institutions are
certain genres, no doubt, the action is rapid. But
sacred. If so, I can well understand why Mr. when he speaks of life whirling by like the walls
Wright's book should get on his nerves, as he ad of a subway, it is again apparent that Mr. Cory's
mits it did, and why, rather than make a serious
exemplars are all in magazine fiction. If life
attempt to weigh the evidence offered by Mr. whirls by in this way we are reading something
Wright, he resorts to that battered shield of the
that ought to be dealt with in a novel or a play
defeated: “How much finer to build than to
or some other form. It might be as well to state
wreck, to boost than to bang.
here that the material of a short story, properly
Madison, Wis., May 31, 1917. M. C. OTTO. speaking, cannot be dealt with in any other literary
form.
MORE ABOUT THE SHORT STORY.
Mr. Cory writes: “If a great artist would take
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
subjects like 'Poverty,' 'Immigration,' 'Violence
and the Labor Movement' and treat them with
Mr. Cory in his article “The Senility of the
Short Story” says many things that are beside
thoroughness and eloquence in a form compounded
the point and many others that are bound to be of historical narrative and reflective essay, if he
puzzling to even an attentive reader. He declares could unite in himself the dialectic of metaphysics
that the short story shows signs of degeneration with its concern over fundamental principles, the
and senility and that one of these signs is its sense of the picturesque tempered by a sense of
overwhelming popularity. But is not Mr. Cory moral horror, an Emersonian or, better, a Fichtean
thinking, not of real short stories, but of Ameri fervor to edify, he would express the aspiration of
can magazine fiction-a very different proposi the world to-day,-he would be our supreme ar-
tion? That the "commercial short story” is at tist.” Why should work on these lines take the
a low level, I have already said in a previous place of the short story? There is no reason why
article in THE DIAL. But Mr. Cory seems to be both should not flourish side by side. As a matter
aware only of this vast rubbish-heap and because of fact this Emersonian or Fichtean fervor to
of it he damns the whole art of the short story. edify is all too common in America to-day. It
But is not this like condemning painting as "de oozes through magazine fiction, which is often
generate” and “pathological” because of the ad- really tracts on Efficiency, Social Service, and so
vertising posters in the magazines or
on the
on under fictional disguise. Is not Mr. Griffith in
hoardings? There is nothing rarer than to find a his motion pictures really approaching what Mr.
bona fide short story in the magazines.
Cory desires ? He has already given us “Intol-
When Mr. Cory writes about the short story as erance." He will doubtless in time arrive at
a "genre," I find it difficult to know what he “Immigration” and “Violence and the Labor
means. For the short story is a distinct literary Movement." An Emersonian or Fichtean fervor
art like the play or the novel, and like the play
to edify would be more likely to find in a great
and the novel it has many
genres.” For the
artist à satirist rather than an exponent. A
moment some of these “genres” are doubtless done Cervantes of the New World might find his Don
to death as were the eighteenth century formula Quixote in one of these Emersonian or Fichtean
for satire and the nineteenth century formula uplifters.
for Tennysonian verse. That many are patho-
He writes: “The short story teems to-day on
logical I am prepared to admit. But the modern our news-stands." Let me assure Mr. Cory and
art of the short story as distinct from the maga the readers of this note with all the earnestness
zine fiction industry Mr. Cory does not seem I can command that the short story is rarely found
to be conscious of. I hardly think it worth while at all on our news-stands. And I really believe
to consider whether this latter is degenerate or that if it was it would give considerable satisfaction
senile or anything else, for it cannot seriously be to a goodly proportion of the reading population
considered as writing at all. However, a thought of this country. The manufactured fiction or com-
ful consideration of what are the defects of the mercial short story, in spite of the high price paid
modern art of the short story as represented, say, for it, appeals to very few of the people who for


1917]
513
THE DIAL
various reasons buy the magazine. When he tells he has against Shakespeare, and even this ap-
us that the reading of it is a mere public habit, plies more to the present-day admirers of the poet
I am heartily in agreement with Mr. Cory. than to the poet himself, is the growing tendency
June 8, 1917.
MARY M. COLUM. in Paris to put his plays on the stage.' ake-
speare is better in the reading than in the acting,
he holds. Yet at the very moment when his let-
IRELAND'S DEBT TO FOREIGN SCHOLARS.
ter to you was crossing the ocean, M. Firmin
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Gémier, one of the really great living actors of
In your issue of May 17th, Mr. Padraic Colum
France, was making at the Théâtre Antoine perhaps
speaks of the indebtedness of Irish language and the hit of the season with “The Merchant of
literature to certain French, Italian, and German Venice," the very play to the production of which
scholars. Zeuss, of course, is the great pioneer M. Saint-Saëns objects because “it has often been
of the scientific study of Celtic philology. With given in Paris in French and Italian.”
And yet
Zimmer, Windisch, and Kuno Meyer, however, one this new presentation is unanimously approved by
would have liked to see mentioned the great Ger the leading dramatic critics of the French capital.
man authority on Old Irish, Rudolf Thurneysen. Thus, in the "Temps" not less than three of its
His exhaustive work on the Irish language of the regular staff write laudatory articles thereon-
monuments of the eighth and ninth centuries, M. Adolphe Aderer in the issue of April 25,
“Handbuch des Alt-Irischen” (Heidelberg, 1909), M. Abel Hermant in that for the 27th, while
is probably the most important single monograph M. Adolphe Brisson seems to sum up all their
yet published on Irish linguistics. Thurneysen's views on May 7 in these words: “Shakespeare
book is at the same time one of the most admir-
triomphe en ce moment à Paris; une sympathie
able specimens of philological writing that have voisine de l'enthousiasme a accueilli la première
come to my notice. No doubt Zimmer, Windisch, représentation du Marchand de Venise.
and Meyer are better known to the Irish them-
The truth of the matter is that M. Saint-Saëns,
selves, as these men have occupied themselves not
like many of us old folk, grows more and more
only with the Irish language but also with the bitter in his judgments as he advances in years,
literary monuments of the Middle Irish period.
but is evidently not aware of the fact.
One further regrets Mr. Colum's failure to
THEODORE STANTON.
mention the great English student of Irish, Whit Cornell Campus, May 31, 1917.
ley Stokes, who ranks easily with the rest. In-
cidentally, “d'Arbois de Jourainville" should be
corrected to "d'Arbois de Jubainville.” This is
POETRY AND CRITICISM.
probably a printer's error.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
Ottawa, Ont., June 5, 1917. EDWARD SAPIR.
In two recent issues Mr. Conrad Aiken writes,
first, an arraignment of Miss Harriet Monroe as
editor of an Anthology of New Poetry; secondly,
SAINT-SAËNS ON WAGNER AND SHAKESPEARE. an article deploring the lack of magic in new
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
poetry.
The letter of M. Saint-Saëns, which you pub It seems to me that the spirit of his first
lished in your issue of May 3, refers to two para article answers the query of his second. The poet
graphs in my correspondence of January 11, cannot write with magic unless he himself is
where I touched upon this well-known French “magicked.” The spirit of magic in poetry is
musician's present excessive antipathy to Wag the spirit of the child-heart. It is the spirit of
ner and his rather half-hearted admiration for receptivity, blitheness, comradeship, laissez-faire,
Shakespeare. As regards the first-named genius, hope, wonder, and the always attendant wistful-
I may point out, perhaps, that just after the ness, Gemüth. Magic is a stranger to bitterness
Franco-Prussian war of 1870, Saint-Saëns was a and carping
warm supporter of Wagner; and in connection The poets of this hour are, in general, too much
with his changed position to-day, one should concerned about each other's development and not
read the article by M. Jean Marnold, the music enough concerned with their own. They spend too
critic of the “Mercure de France,” in the Septem much conversation and type in exposing the flaws
ber issue of that periodical. To say that M. they believe they find in other poets' work—and
Marnold handles M. Saint-Saëns without gloves, is in the other poets' mentalities; and they expend
to put it very mildly.
too little thought in understanding, disciplining,
As regards M. Saint-Saëns's attitude toward and developing their own “urge. They show a
Shakespeare, as expressed in his communication tendency to divide into little groups, partly for
to the "Renaissance," M. Paul Souday, the lit-
destructive oral and calligraphical warfare
erary critic of the Paris “Temps,” got the same
other little groups.
impression of that article as I did, as will be
Less attention to personalities and a deeper sub-
seen by reading M. Souday's strictures in the mergence of self in life would result in poetry
issue of the “Temps" for November 3. Since my with magic now, even as in the past. “Each in
correspondence appeared in your columns, I have his separate star-,' The first rule of every
seen the “Renaissance" article, and I find that
creator who has stepped out of the "high average
M. Saint-Saëns shows therein very little enthu class into greatness has been-“mind your own
siasm for the Bard of Avon.
business."
CONSTANCE SKINNER.
M. Saint-Saëns states that the only real grudge New York, June 20, 1917.
99
on


514
[June 14
THE DIAL
Some Fundamentals of Peace to be wanting in their old-time comforts and
stability. Taking thought is conceivably
AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF PEACE AND more likely now to result in a way of living
THE TERMS OF ITS PERPETUATION. By Thorstein in accord with that thought than ever before.
Veblen. (Macmillan Co.; $2.)
Or to put it more as Mr. Veblen presents it,
Critics of the work of Mr. Thorstein Veb-
taking thought may result in the abolition of
len have found fault with him for treating a part or the whole of that system of organ-
the social problems with which he concerns ized and revered nuisances which makes up
himself in the impersonal and detached way so much of our institutional scheme of mental
in which he does. They have asked him to habituation.
leave the rarified atmosphere of scientific dis For so Mr. Veblen views the nature of
passionateness and come down into the arena, peace and the means of its perpetuation. To
where the fighting is done, and tell us what to
him, peace is less in the nature of something
do about it and how to do it. Mr. Veblen, how to be established than of something not to be
ever, has persistently refused to forsake his
disturbed. An inquiry into the nature of
scientific objectivity and has continued to
peace would, therefore, reduce itself to an
handle society, particularly in its economic inquiry into the agencies calculated or not
aspects, as a question to be understood rather
calculated to interfere with the established
than to become excited and inflamed over.
peace.
If Mr. Veblen's critics interpret his dispas Assuming that our voluble professions of
sionateness as indifference, they have been pacific intentions are to be taken seriously,
indifferent readers of his works. No man who Mr. Veblen presents a few propositions which
has spent a lifetime studying and describing he believes will make for peace, in case the
society can be said not to care about the hu situation at the end of the war is of a char-
manity of the thing which he has so in acter to make possible the establishment of an
timately made his own. In fact, the economic order opposed to disturbance of the peace.
aspect of social activity is about the last field These propositions assume the existence of
imaginable where one can rest satisfied with a league of nations, something on the order
a mere analysis or statement of how the bug of the much-heralded League to Enforce
buzzes. Mr. Veblen is interested, intensely Peace. The propositions are:
interested, in what is to-day rather smugly (1) The definitive elimination of the Imperial
called social welfare. That he has not felt (German) establishment, together with the monarch-
it incumbent upon him to indulge in advice
ical establishments of the several states of the Em-
pire and the privileged classes;
and exhortation is perhaps due, on the one
(2) Removal or destruction of all warlike equip-
hand, to the fact that he saw no particular ment, military and naval, defensive and offensive;
scarcity of that commodity, and on the other, (3) Cancelment of the public debt of the Em-
to the preconception on which his scheme of pire and of its members—creditors of the Empire
social psychology may be said to rest.
being accounted accessory to the culpable enterprise
of the Imperial government;
This preconception runs to the effect that
(4) Confiscation of such industrial equipment
taking thought has so far not succeeded in
and resources as have contributed to the carrying
deviating the workaday habits of any com on of the war, as being also accessory;
munity from idiotic activities or imbecile (5) Assumption by the league at large of all
debts incurred by the Entente belligerents or by
preoccupations. Such taking thought is only
a half-hearted affair at best, surrounded as
neutrals for the prosecution or by reason of the war,
and distribution of the obligation so assumed im-
it is by the terribly heavy and intricate mass partially among the members of the league, including
of former and present thoughts derived from the peoples of the defeated nations;
the manner in which the daily work of the
(6) Indemnification for all injury done to civil-
world is carried on. Since one's habits of
ians in the invaded territories; the means for such
indemnification to be procured by confiscation of all
mind are so intimately determined by one's estates in the defeated countries exceeding a certain
habits of work,—work in the large sense of very modest maximum, calculated on the average of
the activities connected with daily living and property owned, say, by the poorer three-fourths of
dying,—advice and exhortation would be
the population,—the kept classes being properly ac-
counted accessory to the Empire's culpable enter-
simply in the nature of homiletic supereroga prise.
tion, useful for the purpose of emotional dif-
It will be seen at once that Mr. Veblen
fusion or ästhetic complaisance.
assumes the defeat of the German Imperial
The situation is different in a crisis, such as
power as a necessary condition for any but
the present war may be said to have pro a German peace. The reason for such an as-
duced. The ordinary ways of living and dy- sumption is found in the very character of
ing have been wrenched from their moorings any Imperial power, the tendency to war,
and the ordinary habits of thought are found dominion, and exploitation being its "original


1917]
515
THE DIAL
nature.” As long as such an Imperial power much as the single-minded and single-hearted
is running around loose, there is absolutely purpose of financial returns demands such a
no chance for any peace except on terms procedure.
dictated by that Imperial power—a Pax Ger The crucial factor in this disturbance of
manica on the order and analogy of the an the peace by these various, variously ill-mean-
cient Pax Romana. Mr. Veblen discusses at
ing agencies, is, after all, the system of tribal
length the contingency of a "peace without loyalties and habits, of fribal animosities and
honor,” and he concludes that, while biolog- pugnacities which make up the essence of
ically such a peace is no more an obstacle to patriotism. It is on the basis of these that
useful, decent, and upright living than the the knight-errant in search of adventure and
system of balances of power under which we the knight-investor in search of dividends
live at present, the ordinary man is alto construct their schemes of assault and bat-
gether too patriotic, too much imbued with tery known as national expansion. This feeling
"a sense of partisan solidarity in respect of of patriotic devotion is given due treat-
prestige," to tolerate any such violent dam ment by Mr. Veblen. He finds democracy
age to his feelings of respect for tribal prec not lacking in such feeling and mankind in-
edence and decorum.
differently and abundantly provided with it.
There remains a third alternative. If the With it also he finds that the system of me-
dynastic busybodies who run the business of chanical habits of work and thought which
Imperialistic expansion by means of death characterizes the modern machine process,
and destruction can be put out of that busi makes for an insubordination necessary to
ness, if the devoted loyalty of the rank and the ultimate defeat of that feeling. In this
file of Imperial subjects can ever be made respect warlike organizations find themselves
amenable to a sense of the discrepancy be in the dilemma brought about by the modern
tween that loyalty and its corresponding cost industrial revolution. They cannot success-
in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, fully prosecute their wars without the prod-
then the Imperial show will have to be closed ucts of the machine process, modern warfare
down and the danger of disturbance of the being altogether a question of mechanical and
peace will be diminished by that much. Mr. industrial technique,—and, in the long run,
Veblen has no illusions on that score. Habits they cannot get along with it. In the last
are slowly learned and slowly unlearned analysis, Mr. Veblen bases his hope for
not so slowly unlearned, perhaps, but slowly peace on the foundation of the revolution in
enough. Still, the thing can be done by fol. mental habits which goes with the machine
lowing a policy of thorough neutralization process.
and stubborn refusal to take the host of gen Such, in the barest outline, is Mr. Veblen's
teel military and bureaucratic parasites at analysis of the factors which make for or
their own valuation.
against peace. It is an analysis not written
While the Imperial establishment is by far for the man who wants to read while he runs.
the most gifted with potentialities for dis None of Mr. Veblen's works were written
turbing the peace, the so-called constitutional
with such readers in view. If the subject is
monarchies are not altogether slackers in that
worth writing a book about, it is also worthy
respect. Wherever there is a system of hier-
of a book that must be read with thought and
archically graded men, there peace trembles
consideration. Mr. Veblen's great care in
in the balance. To the extent that this grad- expressing his thoughts may mislead some
ing system has a basis in the affections of the
into believing him difficult of access. This
common man, to that extent is a weapon
is not the case, except for the man who wants
placed in the hands of the irresponsible,
which they can, and which they usually do,
to get the greatest immediate returns for the
least effort. Mr. Veblen's manner of writing
use for their God, their King, and their coun-
try—different names for their own predilec- tion in the common sense of the word; no idea
is symphonic; what he repeats is not repeti-
tions.
is quite the same after he has stated it twice
Lastly, one must not exclude from the list
or even three times. The theme may be the
of the potential trouble-makers the so-called
same, but the complex working out of the
republics by the grace of the business man.
theme gives it the value of an entirely new
They also share, and share richly, in that composition. Above all there stands a mas-
potentiality. Under modern conditions of terly intellect, holding the various strands of
financial investment, when God, King, and fact and thought securely in its grasp and
country are transformed into national honor weaving them into patterns of compelling
at so much per cent, it is to be expected that truth.
the peace will be disturbed as often and as
Max SYLVIUS HANDMAN.
1


516
[June 14
THE DIAL
A Cook's Tour in Arnold be made perfectly clear. I am not finding
fault with the content, style, or spirit of the
MATTHEW ARNOLD, How to Know Him.
By
book. My criticism goes deeper, or else is be-
Stuart P. Sherman. (Bobbs-Merrill Co.; $1.50.) side the mark. I object to the general theory
Adam doubtless had lonesome moments in upon which the book is based; I attack Mr.
Eden, but one thing he was spared: there were Sherman's method. Assuming that the sub-
no official guides to advertise the scenery; title, “How to Know Him," means “How
no experts to legislate his taste. His was a best to become acquainted with what he
life of discovery. How different the envir wrote," I submit there is but one answer:
onment of his descendants in these efficient read him. That is old-fashioned advice, and
days! So completely have conditions changed to follow it takes time, but no better way to
that the son or daughter of Adam who enjoys know him has, I believe, been invented. To be
the privilege of discovery even in moderation sure, there is a better and a worse way of
is a rare and heroic specimen. The vast reading any writer, and judicious guidance
majority of individuals, educated as well as is of value at this point. But there is no
uneducated, clothe their ignorance in bor- adequate substitute for extensive contact with
rowed finery, and are as much embarrassed the writer's own works. The besetting
when caught in any other dress as in none at temptation of literary experts is to disregard
all. Even our universities, ostensibly ded this fact. They find it well-nigh impossible
icated to discovery, have developed an effec to stop with introducing the reader to the
tive technique for safeguarding society writer and giving some general directions on
against the appearance of intellectual how to go about developing a personal ac-
“sports." Everywhere it is bad form to per quaintance. Nor are they satisfied to tell you
ceive or enjoy immediately rather than vica what interested them, what they liked, and
riously, and to confess the experience. So why. They must tell you what the author
deep-seated has this habit of mind become meant by what he said, if not what he should
that one undertakes a heavy task in trying have said. In a word, they deviate the
to sequester even a small corner of one's spir- reader's interest in an author to occupation
itual domain from the rule of the omnipres with another's criticism of him and block
ent specialists. What are the experts for,
What are the experts for, direct, spontaneous approach with a mass of
is the language of our environment, if not interpretation.
to teach us what to think and how to feel? Enjoyable as Mr. Sherman's book is it
These remarks are occasioned by the read. yields, in my judgment, to this temptation.
ing of Stuart P. Sherman's book, “Matthew Take, for example, the chapter entitled
Arnold, How to Know Him." There is much “Poems of the Personal Life." Here frag-
to be said in favor of the volume. Its rich ments of Arnold's poetry, and now and then
content is expressed in a style combining vi. a complete poem, are set in a running com-
vacity with restraint, while the author's sym ment of interpretation—the background out
pathetic treatment of Arnold's standpoint is of which the verses grew, the mood they illus-
tempered by independence of judgment. The trate, what they mean, and so on. Limita-
reader will turn from the book with a distinct tions of space make cutting necessary, and
impression of Matthew Arnold as a person,
at times Arnold's lines have to be replaced
and with a pretty clear concept of what he by Mr. Sherman's prose, with only enough
considered it necessary to believe regarding verse to point the moral or adorn the tale.
poetry, education, politics, and religion—if “Empedocles on Etna” thus shrinks to nine-
one would see life and see it whole. Indeed, teen lines, not counting broken bits scattered
except for an occasional overstraining to turn here and there. And at every turn, the
a smart phrase, a somewhat superior attitude reader is forearmed with an interpretation
toward"middle-class virtues” and “the against the danger of coming face to face with
people," and an irritable manner with those Arnold's words. It seems to me that the
who are still young enough to find fault with lover of poetry should be protected instead
Arnold (“younger critic,” it would seem, is against finding an exquisite lyric such as
Mr. Sherman's damn), the book is an admir Arnold's “Longing" framed in the following
able study. It is, however, an invitation to comment:
substitute knowledge about Arnold for ac To bring out still more clearly the conflicting
quaintance with him, and for that reason may
forces in Arnold's nature let us take first a passage
fail to arouse the enthusiasm of many who
from “Faded Leaves" in which one feels the pang
and hears the cry of the heart uttered in pure lyr-
have hopes and fears for literature.
ical abandon:
To avoid misunderstanding and in justice
Now let us have a single stanza from "Absence,"
to the author, the point of the criticism must the Switzerland series which seems to sum up the


1917]
517
THE DIAL
>>
comment of Arnold's reason upon the sweet tumult was. Perhaps, after all, the book is intended
of the emotional life.
as a biography. I am, at all events, more than
But the job is well done; so well indeed that ever convinced that the art of furthering ac-
one almost forgets to be critical. One ap- quaintance with the best that has been written
pears to get over a good deal of Arnold and
is an art of arts.
one enjoys it. One learns from citations and
I conclude with the fear that this review
comments that Arnold passed through three
fails to convey, in Mr. Sherman's words, “that
distinct phases of disillusionment, "as is indispensable personal gusto of the interpreter
commonly enough the case with young men
which excites the envy of the reader, stim-
crossing the threshold of manhood—: a dis ulates his curiosity, and makes him feel that,
illusionment about love and human relation unless he shares it, he is excluded from one
ships; a disillusionment about his powers and
of the most exquisite pleasures of the world.”
his career; and a disillusionment about God
If so, a discussion of the content rather than
and the universe. One learns in the follow-
the method of the book might not have led
ing quotation how he recovered himself: to the same failure. And there were many
Without any special reference to chronology, we temptations : Mr. Sherman's easy method of
can find the record in his poems of a gradual spiritual solving the religious problem by moving God
pilgrimage through disillusions to ennui and despair,
from metaphysics to experience, for example;
thence to resignation and stoical endurance, and
ultimately to a new kind of courage and hope, denot-
or his interpretation of Arnold's character
ing a pretty complete moral recovery.
as winsome; or his tendency, in common with
But all this is obviously biographical. It con-
all those who bow the knee as to Pope Arnold,
tinues the treatment of Arnold's character
to talk about eternal values as a matter of
and career completed in the first chapter. To
course. In spite of disagreements, considera-
mistake what one learns about the man who
tion of these matters would have led to the
wrote the poems for an acquaintance with the placing of greater emphasis upon the excel-
poems he wrote, is a not unnatural result of
lences of the book.
Mr. Sherman's convincing style, but it is none
Nor could I have been content to speak in
the less an error. Were there less of an air mild praise of chapter five, which is an ex-
of finality about the chapter, were it definitely cellent discussion of educational values and
constructed with the purpose of serving as an
of the warfare between the sciences and the
introduction, were there some suggestion as
humanities, as represented by Spencer and
to what should be read by one who would
Arnold. If it seemed better on the whole to
become acquainted with the personal poems
attack a single bone of contention, this should
of Arnold, the chapter might act as an in-
not be construed as condemning the juiciness
ducement. The whole structure of the study,
of what was left untouched in the disb.
however, encourages the idea that it may be
M. C. OTTO.
substituted for direct contact with Arnold's
personal poems, and this, if taken seriously,
would surely be a pity.
The Problems of Organization
The remaining chapters—“Poems of the
External World, ""Literary Criticism,” “Edu COMMUNITY. By R. M. Maciver. (Macmillan
cation," "Politics and Society," "Religion” Co.; $3.75.)
are not all equally open to the same objection, Mr. Maciver has written an able but disap-
for there is an occasional slight encour pointing book. It is an able book because Mr.
agement to follow up Mr. Sherman's discus Maciver has thought deeply upon his subject,
sion by a reading of Arnold, or it is taken for and he has much to say that is both timely
granted that the poems have been read. The and important. But it is disappointing partly
suggestion, however, is always most delicate, from a certain curious scholasticism of form,
and from the beginning to the end of the book and partly from its somewhat colorless char-
there is no clear indication that it is to serve acter. It suffers from a certain abstractness.
merely as a prolegomenon, or that a wide Again and again one needs the apt illustration
reading of Arnold is thought necessary. The which will serve to drive home the point that
form of discourse fathers the delusion that has been made. It is a well-arranged book;
the reader is “doing" Arnold. As a text for and a student who is acquainted with the lit-
college classes, accompanied by a wise pro erature of which it is a part can read it with
gramme of reading and class discussion, or as interest and profit. It is, indeed, here that
a guide to teachers who must get up “back- its main value lies. It is nothing so much as
ground" for a course in Arnold, Mr. Sherman an encyclopædia of the problems involved in
has hit the mark. But I cannot say that
the fact of human organization. It suggests
“How to Know Him” is clearer to me than it the kinds of question to which more and more


518
[June 14
THE DIAL
it is becoming imperative that an adequate American Federation of Labor respect the
theory of the state shall make answer. For, state, and a member of the Confédération
war-time apart, it is very clear that the state Générale du Travail concern himself with
no longer commands from its subjects the high denying it. What is the part of habit and of
respect it formerly possessed. It has become fear in our obedience to law? What kinds
simply one of a great series of public associa of association command our permanent affec-
tions, and such other groups as churches and tion, and why? What has been their histor-
trade unions make incessant demand upon the ical significance? These may not be questions
loyalties of men. The state, indeed, is still for the sociologist, but it seems to me that
the great guardian of public order and the these are the questions we want answered.
dispenser of justice. But it is increasingly The most admirable section of Mr. Maciver's
compelled to enter areas of activity where its book is his discussion of what he calls “false
divinity may well be challenged. The Union- perspectives of community.”
Here every
ists in Ulster and the I. W. W. in America word that he has to say is golden, and there
may well serve to remind us that we live in is not a word too much. He disposes at once
an age when refusal of obedience to state law of the idea of community as an organism;
is taken almost as a matter of course. The that very dead horse has a skin which does
relation of the individual to the state is un not repay the cost of removal. He analyzes
dergoing a vast change in perspective. It is the idea of a communal will, and decides that
becoming clear that the primary fact is not it is in reality no more than the action of a
the state but society and that it is to the latter number of individual wills directed to a
that our first loyalty is due. But we greatly single end. He refuses to look upon commu-
need an analysis of the conditions under which nity as greater than the sum of its parts. For
men act as members of a group; and to that him the only realities are individuals and
necessity Mr. Maciver has made a useful con this fashionable communalizing is no more
tribution.
than the resurrection of mediæval nominalism.
What I cannot help doubting is whether Mr. But the problem is in reality much more
Maciver's method is likely to lead to the kind complex, and it cannot be understood with-
of results we require. The “fundamental out reference to a considerable juristic liter-
laws” which he endeavors to lay down seem ature which, as I suspect, is outside Mr.
to me a little premature at this stage of so Maciver's purview. He knows of Maitland's
ciological development. I confess, too, that famous introduction to the translation of
long discussions of the place of sociology Gierke, but he does not seem aware that that
among the sciences seem to me, on the whole, classic utterance is the beginning and not the
so much beating of the philosophic wind. Let end of a literature. No one can really un-
us each say what is within us, and it hardlyderstand the nature of communal action who
seems to matter if we appropriate material has not read widely in the English law re-
of which other thinkers are jealously con ports. Why is it that the American courts
servative. Methodological discussion is one have been driven to the creation of de facto
of the most barren tracts upon which a thinker corporations? Why is it that in the Taff
can wander. It serves every sociological Vale case the House of Lords was compelled
writer as a perpetual King Charles's head. to recognize an association which Parliament
What does it matter how a thinker sets to had specifically ordained to be outside the
work, if, as Cromwell said, he has the root law? Why is it that the courts are increas-
of the matter in him? My skepticism about ingly driven to take account of corporate
Mr. Maciver's method is of a different kind. crime? Simply because where men act to-
It seems to me dubious whether the facts exist gether they tend to create, to use Professor
which warrant the abstract analysis upon Dicey's words, "a body which, from no fiction
which he has embarked. To take a single ex of law, but from the very nature of things,
ample: no one has yet given us an adequate differs from the individuals of whom it is
analysis of the psychological factors upon constituted.” Our social philosophy must be
which community rests. The theories of pragmatic enough to realize that personality
Hobbes and Bentham, of Bagehot and of is too broad a category to admit only living
Tarde, all vanish into nothingness at the men. I wish that Mr. Maciver would read the
subtle touch of Mr. Graham Wallas's dissolv great work of Léon Michoud, or M. Hauriou's
ing hand. Here, where help is so badly fine essay on personality as an element in
needed, Mr. Maciver has little to give us; social organization, and then give us his
sociology is not psychology, and we must not thoughts on this vital problem. He does not
wander outside the province of the sociologist. seem to know that M. Duguit has defended the
We want to know what makes a member of the individualist position in half a dozen most


1917]
519
THE DIAL
brilliant books, and that M. Duguit in his be impelled to pass. He will recognize its
turn, has been ably attacked from the realist usefulness; but he will regret that it has at-
standpoint. It is not quite sufficient to dis- tempted so immense a superstructure on so
miss realism with a smiling reference to narrow, and, often, so insecure, a foundation.
the anthropomorphic fancies of St. Paul and I do not doubt that if Mr. Maciver will give
the great Nicholas of Cusa. There is still a us a full analysis of some single aspect of his
great deal of valuable truth to be extracted problem, he will write a very valuable book.
from the bog of medieval speculation; and For that one must be content to wait. But it
one at least of Mr. Maciver's readers is con is permissible to suggest that future work of
tent to regard realism as a pragmatic ne this kind will be the more useful and sug-
cessity. The criticism he makes of corporate gestive exactly in so far as it is written from
realism is able within its limits, but it does the standpoint of historical experience.
not cover the necessary ground.
HAROLD J. LASKI.
Mr. Maciver has admirably argued that the
“true relation of localities to the whole com-
munity may be described as federal.” It is in
The Current Drift
just such an aspect of his thought as this that
the poverty of abstract analysis becomes most LITERATURE IN THE MAKING. Presented by
evident. Here is a thesis that admits of the Joyce Kilmer. (Harper & Brothers; $1.40.)
most abundant and incisive illustration. The THE YOUNG IDEA. Compiled with an introduc-
centralization of modern France has been
tory and concluding essay by Lloyd R. Morris.
(Duffield & Co.; $1.25.)
assailed by jurists and monarchists. It has
been made the theme of an admirable and
Here are two books that attempt to trace
the current drift in American literature.
distinguished survey by M. Paul-Boncour. An
analysis of its defects would have enabled
They have little enough in common except
Mr. Maciver to prove the force of what at
the originating purpose, for they are ad-
dressed to different audiences and show a dif-
present stands in his book less as a conclu-
sion than as a premise. He had admirable
ferent bias throughout. It is hardly too much
material in the relation of the states to Wash-
to say that Mr. Kilmer speaks confidently to
ington, in the growing disorganization of local
the wide-eyed if not to the open-mouthed; he
government in England. The variety of
is the glip and complacent showman; he rests
Greece as against the uniformity of Rome
heavily on the Established and does not dis-
Freeman had already demonstrated in the
dain the Commercial, though he sweeps in the
greatest of his encyclopædic monuments and
New also as a phenomenon not without its sig-
his conclusions ought to find their place in
nificance for purposes of orientation. He be-
Mr. Maciver's volume.
gins, unexceptionably, with Mr. Howells,
One last criticism it is worth while mak-
passes indulgently on to Mr. Chambers, Mr.
ing. Mr. Maciver is not a biologist and it is
Rex Beach, and Mr. McCutcheon, and winds
difficult not to read with regret his long dis-
up with Mr. Charles Rann Kennedy and Miss
cussion of the sociological significance of
Lowell. His book is a compilation of Sunday
Weismannism. Whatever may be said of the
“specials” that appeared originally in the
theoretical parts of the latter's work, his argu-
New York “Times”-a piece of facile journal-
ment against the transmission of acquired
ism, easy, altogether too easy, to read, and
characters is admitted as a starting-point of
not very obviously worth reading. The essays
modern studies in heredity. To quote, as Mr.
were based on talks with the various writers
Maciver does, the experiments of Laitinen on
represented; they fit and skim over the sur-
infant mortality is to be ignorant of the fact
face of our life without plunging into any
that Professor Karl Pearson, in one of the
of its depths or searching out any of its dark
most brilliant of his essays, has conclusively
places. Mr. Kilmer, one infers, wanted the
demonstrated their worthlessness. Acquaint-
art to seduce his subjects into the unguarded
ance with the work of the Galton Laboratory
fervor of real talk in which revelational hints
would convince him that his attempt to write
and flashes might have emerged; they simply
social progress in terms of environment is a discoursed on set themes, not always too hap-
mistaken one. Its importance we may not in
pily set, either. The measure of Mr. Kilmer's
any degree deny. But its importance is rela-
sensitiveness is sufficiently indicated, for ex-
tive to the material with which it interacts ample, by the fact that he talked of sex to
and Mr. Maciver nowhere gives adequate con Robert Herrick and of Flaubert and genius
sideration to the hereditary factor.
to Robert Chambers. If one feels that such
These are the kind of criticisms anyone who a choice of topics was fortunate, then one
reads Mr. Maciver's book at all carefully will will want to read Mr. Kilmer's book.


520
(June 14
THE DIAL
Mr. Morris ranged less widely than Mr. new flavor in literature with a new and great
Kilmer: he has restricted himself almost en truth in science.” If it were not indeed for
tirely to the New, and by that I mean the the enormous influence which he has been able
obviously and rather aggressively New, the to exercise, directly or indirectly, on the
self-consciously New, at all events. And since young, one would be inclined to call Mr. Veb-
the New in America flows most easily into the len the obscurest great man in America, and
forms of verse, he has considered chiefly to add that his obscurity was a sufficient com-
the poets. He looks for and finds a breaking mentary on our good sense and the measure
up of moulds, an overturning of traditions, a of our appetite for unpalatable truth; but
preparation for another renascence of beauty. he is fortunate at least in his prospective
Whether he really finds much more than a heirs and assigns and no man having that
preparation, I don't know; but it is clear happy fate can honestly be called unlucky-
enough that he is an optimist and willing to even during his lifetime.
take good intentions at pretty much their face If Mr. Morris's book fails to be representa-
value. He has less the air of being a critic tive of all aspects of the newer movement, that
(in spite of a formidable penchant for bris is, I should think, one of the best things about
tling classifications) than a skirmisher with the it. There is, for example, very little of the
advance guard. He finds the fresh drive thor- metaphysical framework with which the va-
oughly exhilarating and is fairly certain at rious schools and coteries are given to shor-
least that it is mainly a drive in the right ing up the artistic structure. Since the meta-
direction—that is, a drive toward an art physics of the artists is notoriously of a
broadly and sincerely expressive of the com suspicious tenuity and spun besides of the
mon lot.
most disparate material, the lack of it is all
Indeed, if you examine the various credos to the good. The metaphysics of the artists
contributed by such poets as Miss Lowell, centres usually about form, and since even
Vachel Lindsay, Conrad Aiken, Louis Unter those who are given to emphasizing form are
meyer, Max Eastman, and Miss Monroe, you
inclined to admit, with Miss Lowell, that form
will hear them all repeating in one form or is relatively unimportant after all, it seems
another the conviction that what chiefly marks to be more profitable to ignore such discus-
off our period is the passion for emancipation. sions and turn again to the spirit.
The rebels are present in sufficient numbers Here there is, as I have said, a striking
and are sufficiently eloquent to give the tone
unanimity. Mr. Eastman declares that the
to the book and smother the protests of the younger men have “tasted an affirmative and
Traditionalists, who are, on the whole, a less universal sympathy with all realities of life
vigorous lot. Romanticism, which is a per that lies far out and beyond culture in the
fectly natural reaction against the scientific mind's adventure.” Mr. Untermeyer finds the
attitude and expresses the age-old revolt of characteristic quality of our time in “its
man at the thought of being put too contemp- sharp, probing quality, its insatiable curios-
tuously in his place, has had a belated rebirth ity, its determined self-analysis.” The poet
in America, but it is anæmic and scarcely has been set free from a “preoccupation with
yet articulate. There has been almost nothing a poetic past, from the repeating of echoes
of that recrudescence of the tinseled and the and glib superficials.” He is free to turn
meretricious which pessimists looked for as his eyes on the here and now, to express as
one result of the war, but it is altogether pos much truth as he is able to see. As Miss
sible that it is still too early and that we are Lowell puts it, the poets to-day “are seeking
not yet ready for easy consolations masquer-
reality—the greater reality, which includes
ading as spiritual elevation. The apostasy ideality; they are seeking it through the sim-
of so stout a soul as Mr. Wells warns one not
plicity and beauty of current speech.
to be over-confident.
Mr. Aiken finds it chiefly encouraging that
Mr. Eastman, who is one of the keenest
poetry has vastly extended its sweep, and he
thinkers and most accomplished critics of the
makes the same claim for it that Mr. Wells
younger group, exhibits the continuing tri-
made some time ago for the hovel : that it
umph of the realistic attitude and explains the
reason for it here with his usual lucidity. We
"should take all life for its province, and all
knowledge, too." Since that is certainly an
suspect, he says, "everything that is called
culture —we suspect it of the taint of pe-
excessive claim to make for poetry in an age
cuniary elegance. We have armed our crit when specialization has taken most subjects
ical judgment with Thorstein Veblen's out of the province of even the amiable gen-
“Theory of the Leisure Class'—perhaps the eral writer in prose, one must interpret the
greatest book of our day, for it combines a words rather mystically.


1917]
521
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But the thing that strikes one as, after all, familiar matter, or else he should have in-
strangest about these various passionate con corporated them in a new biography. He
fessions of faith is that there should be felt has halted half way between the two meth-
to be so pressing a need to defend the claims ods. Thus he has treated Shelley's boyhood
of truth on our attention. Truth is the beg more fully than his discoveries about it would
gar-maid and one must apologize for the rags require; he has, in a sense, brought the story
in which she is brought to the feast. How down to the death of the poet's son in 1889;
characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon mind that and yet he has all but ignored-perhaps
is, and how swiftly illuminating as to the through loyalty to his title--the association
Anglo-Saxon tradition! On the whole, one with Byron in Switzerland, which belongs to
of the things of which we seem to be most the very years he traces in fullest detail. His
unalterably convinced is the inadequacy of work is too bulky for a supplement to Dow-
nature to meet the claims of the ideal. It takes den's and too scant for a successor.
a great deal of adornment, of stubborn and He deserves much credit, however, for as-
even blind idealization, to be quite tolerable. sembling a variety of information which has
Idealization becomes thus a branch of good been accumulated since Dowden's time. He
form. The effort to abolish this pestiferous deserves still more credit for original con-
dualism by dialectics may be necessary, but tributions to our knowledge of Shelley. Most
how much more persuasive is the innocence of the contributions could not have been made
of the Russian, who never thinks of apologiz without a use of the material which Mr.
ing for telling the truth and has always re Charles Withall brought to light. This in-
garded his everyday adventure as the stuff
cludes twenty-nine of the poet's letters, dat-
out of which to fashion the most profound ing from 1810 to 1818; various pedigrees and
and strangely beautiful creations of the mod legal documents; official papers relating to
ern mind.
the inquest on Harriet's body; two letters
GEORGE BERNARD DONLIN. by Byron; and letters by Sir Timothy, Sir
Bysshe, Whitton, Mary Shelley, Peacock, and
others. Mr. Ingpen adds extracts from Shel-
Mad Shelley as an Heir ley's notebook, now in the possession of Sir
John C. E. Shelley. Of these extracts the
SHELLEY IN ENGLAND. By Roger Ingpen. most interesting are the notes for the preface
(Houghton Mifflin Co.; 2 vols. $5.)
of "Adonais" and the early draft of a section
Some years ago Mr. Charles Withall, of
of the poem.
Messrs. Withall & Withall, discovered some The new information does not revolution-
material relative to the poet Shelley among ize our impressions of Shelley, either as to his
the papers which had come to the firm from temperament or as to the course of his life.
William Whitton, a man long in charge of It serves rather to clarify details and often
the legal business of Sir Bysshe and Sir Tim allows us to substitute certainty for conject-
othy Shelley. This material he augmented by ure. It establishes the fact, for example, that
a further search and arranged with laborious the poet was married to Harriet in Edin-
care. In consequence an array of letters, burgh; it seems to indicate that in 1815 he
diaries, and other documents was at length acted under an assumed name in perform-
turned over to Mr. Roger Ingpen, who had ances of Shakespeare on the Windsor stage;
brought out two excellent volumes of the and it reveals that he was twice arrested for
poet's "Letters,” to be edited. “The most debt-once in Carnarvon and once in Marlow.
satisfactory manner of utilizing this material Above all, it enables us to thread the com-
appeared” to Mr. Ingpen "to be that of re plicated mazes of Shelley's long contention
telling the story of Shelley's early years, the with his father.
portion of his life that he passed in England, The character of the dispute has long been
especially as many new facts have been familiar. Shelley had already awakened
brought to light since the publication of Pro grave disquiet in Sir Timothy when he en-
fessor Dowden's monumental biography of tered Oxford, and his expulsion on account
the poet.” The task has now been completed. of his pamphlet on atheism was a shock to his
The initial criticism must be adverse. Mr. conservative and opinionated father. After
Ingpen's materials are of such character as Sir Timothy had laid down impossible terms,
to add substantially to our knowledge of cer such as a breach with Hogg and an apology
tain aspects and periods of Shelley's life, and to the authorities at Oxford, and the poet had
to add nothing to others. He should there advanced counter proposals that were equally
fore either have published them by them- unacceptable, the estrangement was lessened
selves with the least possible addition of by the softening processes of time. Shelley


522
[June 14
THE DIAL
press ideas
renewed it by his elopement with Harriet.
Again it was diminished, and again intensi-
fied—this time by the elopement with Mary
Godwin. Various monetary arrangements
were made, only to be suspended or modified
in consequence of what Shelley thought was
his father's tyrannical caprice, but what Sir
Timothy thought was the demand of pru-
dence and justice. The difficulty was accent-
uated by the fact that Shelley was to come
ultimately into property that belonged to his
eccentric, self-willed grandfather, Sir Bysshe,
who was out of sympathy with both Sir Tim-
othy and the poet. Mutual inability to
accept the other's view made a real accommo-
dation impossible, and even after Shelley's
death his widow and his son, the latter now
heir to the property, long felt the weight of
Sir Timothy's distrust.
Our more minute acquaintance with the
struggle brings home to us the pathos of it.
Had Sir Timothy dared trust his natural im-
pulses, it is possible that a modus vivendi,
if not a reconciliation, might have been ef-
fected. Certainly much bitterness would
have been spared. Sir Timothy trusted a law-
yer insteađ.
Whatever Whitton's skill in
other respects, he was singularly incapable of
understanding Shelley. He pointed out
offences' against convention, self-interest, fam-
ily pride, –all of which Shelley heartily de-
spised. He snubbed Shelley, lectured him.
He thought it wisdom to wrest from Shelley,
by cutting off his resources, the one thing the
poet would have at all costs-liberty. No
wonder that Shelley, exasperated that his mes-
sages to his father must pass through Whit-
ton's hands, to be withheld or forwarded as
the lawyer saw fit, sometimes broke into furi-
ous invective: “I am not a likely person to
submit to the imperious manner of address,
of which this evening's letter is a specimen.”
Again: “William Whitton's letter is con-
cieved [sic] in terms which justify Mr. P.
Shelley's returning it for his cool reperusal.
Mr. S. commends Mr. W. when he deals with
gentlemen (which opportunity perhaps may
not often occur), to refrain from opening pri-
vate letters, or impudence may draw down
chastisement upon contemptibility.” Armed
with a missive like one of these (“the most
scurrilous letter that a mad viper could dic-
tate”), Whitton experienced no difficulty in
extracting from Sir Timothy the decision:
“These sallies of Folly and Madness ought to
be restrain’d and kept within bounds. Noth-
ing provokes him so much as civility.”
Nothing provokes him so much as civility-a
more absolute ministerpretation of a son by a
blundering and muddle-headed father has yet
to be recorded. Shelley appealed to his
grandfather: "Language is given us to ex-
he who fetters it is a
BIGOT and a TYRANT, from these have my mis-
fortunes arisen." Sir Bysshe made it em-
phatically clear that he thought his grandson
“in a state of High rebellion." Shelley,
yearning to be understood, wrote secretly to
his sister Helen :
Everybody near you says that I have behaved very
ill, and that I can love no one. But how do you know
that everything that is told you is true? A great
many people tell a great many lies, and believe them,
but that is no reason that you are to believe them.
Because everybody else hates me, that is no reason
that you should. Think for yourself, my dear girl,
and write to tell me what you think. Think-
ing, and thinking without letting anything but reason
influence your mind, is the great thing.
No answer came. Sir Timothy had inter-
cepted the letter—and sent it to Whitton.
Mr. Ingpen is to be commended for re-
fraining from sentimentally making out a
case for Shelley. For if much may be said
for the poet, much also may be said for Sir
Timothy—and it is best to set the personali-
ties before us and let them plead for
themselves. With less narrow notions of re-
spectability than Sir Timothy entertained, we
might still hesitate to stand in the relationship
of father to such a man as Shelley. We might
doubt the pure reason of a son who would
mortgage his future to stem the avalanche of
debts contracted by the cold and unforgiving
Godwin. We might question the altruism of
a son who wrote: “To interest, to fortune I
am indifferent” and who denounced institu-
tions, and then shrilly protested in our ears:
“You must treat me as a son, and by the
common institutions of society your super-
fluities ought to go towards my support."
We might be genuinely puzzled by the logic
which would permit such a son, a thorough-
going atheist, to address us as follows:
Let us admit even that it is an injury that I have
done. Father, are you a Christian . . I
appeal to your duty to the God whose worship you
profess. Father, are you a Christian Judge
not, then, lest you be judged. What! will you
not forgive? How then can your boasted professions
of Christianity appear to the world, since if you for-
give not you can be no Christian
A moral
one [atheist] would
quietly put in practise
that forgiveness which all your vauntings cannot
make you exert.
Nor might we, finally, listen with patience to
the reproach of a son who had wrecked many
a fond hope for us:
This is a cowardly, base, contemptible expedient of
persecution: is it not enough that you have deprived
me of the means of subsistence (which means, recol-
lect, you unequivocally promised), but that you must
take advantage of the defencelessness which our rela-
tion entails upon me, to libel me! Have you for-
..


1917]
523
THE DIAL
In an-
gotten what a libel is? or is your memory so very Christian virtues of mercy, poverty of spirit,
treacherous ?
You have treated me ill, vilely.
the apotheosis of suffering, renunciation, and
Even had we been so discriminating as to see the like would continue to exist transfigured,
that Shelley was the most ethereal lyrist and while Christian doctrines, even such as those
one of the most valiant champions of liberty of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Atone-
the nation had produced, we should hardly ment, would remain essential. In fact, so-
have deemed him an exemplary son.
cialism being the essence of Christianity, it
So long as the genius has freakish qualities, would continue all the elements which Chris-
and other men have worldly qualities, fric tians have taught through the ages.
She
tionless adjustments will not be the rule. finally found a reconciliation of historical
But the contrasts, the oppositions, the an Christian mysticism and modern humanita-
tipathies will not often be so stringent as in rianism_in something resembling a high-
the example we have studied. Shelley might church Episcopalianism.
have cursed the harsh fates for making Sir The present volume unites a number of
Timothy his father, and Sir Timothy in turn papers continuing this discussion. Thus on
might have cursed them for making Shelley the cover itself we are told that the object of
his son.
the book is "to promote better understanding
GARLAND GREEVER. between the religious world which fears social
revolution and the unchurched world of rad-
ical passion which demands it." With this
Socialism and Christianity
end in view, the author first denounces the
modern church for its failure to meet the mod-
THE CHURCH AND THE HOUR: Papers by a ern social emergency, and then suggests meth-
Socialist Churchwoman. By Vida D. Scudder. ods by which this might be done. On the
(E. P. Dutton & Co.; $1.)
other hand, she protests vigorously when the
The point of view which Miss Scudder here “Masses” indulges in anti-clerical attacks,
exposes is a most interesting and important saying that "it should be possible to believe
one. At present it is not very widely held, people who tell us they see a light we don't,
but it is probable that as time goes on an in and to accept them courteously as fellow-pil-
creasing number of people will be led to grims toward the City of Equity."
adopt it, for the author finds herself in a other essay she discusses why the church does
predicament in which many others would be not turn socialist. The answer is found in
if only they saw as clearly as she. Miss the statement that the church's business is
Scudder is a descendant of the Puritans, and to cultivate "spiritual values” not “social
has retained their old zeal for righteousness justice,” but, on the other hand, the same
and their sense of the importance of religion, individual who is a Christian might and
but she is also aware of modern problems. should be a socialist. Finally, in the Intro-
A few years ago, in her book on “Socialism duction, the author collects a number of prac-
and Character,” she traced the history of a tical programmes for social reform which
"soul”-perhaps her own—which began with have been adopted recently by the General
the study of the great idealists of the nine Conventions of the Episcopal Church—"a
teenth century and from them became aware body usually reckoned one of the most in-
of the existence of the social question. Rem- stinctively conservative and aristocratic, but
edies were sought in philanthropy and re whose recent action at least partially exoner-
form, but in vain; and she was forced at ates it from this accusation.”
length to turn to socialism.
But no sooner There is much to be said for the point of
had she done this than she began to feel that view set forth in this book: it is certain that
modern socialism frequently lacks some of the if socialism is to win the world it must give
lofty idealism of her former teachers : if life a place to religious idealists and mystics like
ever were really as materialistic as some Miss Scudder; it is equally certain that if one
socialists would apparently like to see it, she practised the ethical teachings of Jesus, he
would not consider it worth living. She be would be a socialist.
came convinced, however, that socialism is But is it also true that a socialist should
not necessarily materialistic, and that it unite himself with the historical Christian
might easily adopt the highest idealism. She Church? It would be hard for him to answer
maintained that even though one accept the in the affirmative. There are many features
socialist doctrines of the economic interpreta- of the church, particularly the Catholic
tion of history and the class struggle, he need Church, such as its solidarism and catholic-
not become a helpless materialist; on the con ity, its internationalism and its teaching of
trary, in the Socialist State itself, the lofty the ultimate equality of all men, which every


524
[June 14
THE DIAL
socialist would accept; but on a host of other “Development of China," which is carefully
points he would have to differ from it as written, fair, and free from excessive tech-
white differs from black. In their ultimate nicalities. Mr. Latourette writes as one who
conceptions of life, the two are diametrically came to know the Chinese language, history,
opposed. Thus Christianity bids men "praise and civilization through years of service in
God from whom all blessings flow”; socialism the College of Yale in China. His purpose
bids the "proletarians of the world unite” has been to produce a compact Chinese his-
and seize these blessings for themselves. tory which will attract the general reader and
Christianity teaches that the church goes at the same time meet the needs of college
through three phases—the church militant, the courses in Oriental Politics and related sub-
church suffering, the church triumphant; so- jects.
cialism reverses this evolution and says, so The general reader, at all events, will not
ciety suffering, society militant, and society regret that the author has chosen to pass
triumphant. Christianity cannot cease assert very lightly over the narrative of Chinese
ing that it is a “supernatural” religion ; so- history prior to the nineteenth century, in
cialism cannot help denying that there is order to have space for highly informing chap-
anything supernatural. The church looks
ters on the geographic background of the
above to God for its hope and defence; social- country's development, the nature of Chinese
ism seeks them in Humanity below. Whatever culture at the beginning of intimate contact
Jesus may have taught, the Christianity of with the West, and present-day problems of
the church (even Miss Scudder's variety) is the young republic. The narrative is car-
hopelessly and fundamentally aristocratic; ried over the entire stretch from unknown
socialism is democratic. In fine, the great antiquity to 1840 in seventy pages. Yet the
question is, Can a democratic society believe essentials are brought out, and the roots of the
in the Christian God! The question is not Chinese national life are satisfactorily laid
settled, but it is one of the most important bare.
that we have before us to-day. Any intelli Under the changed condition of the world
gent discussion of it must be of value. in modern times it was inevitable, Mr. Latour-
WARD SWAIN. ette says, that the ancient Chinese civiliza-
tion should be superseded—not because it was
decadent, but because it was based on a self-
China and Japan
contained national existence which is no
longer possible. If most of the nineteenth
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA. By Kenneth
century was an era of stagnation, the fault
Scott Latourette. (Houghton Mifflin; $1.75.)
was that of the ruling Manchu dynasty, not
The world has many reasons for being inter-
of the people. “One does well to remember
ested in China. It is the most ancient of na-
that within so short a period as a century
tions, being already old when Greece and
and a half ago, when the Manchus were at
Rome dominated the Mediterranean.
It con-
their height, China was among the best-gov-
tains between a fifth and an eighth of the
erned and most highly civilized nations on
entire population of the globe, and has wielded earth, and that its reputation in the West was
a cultural influence over a still greater propor-
such that it was held up by many as an ideal
tion of the human race. Since 1895, and
in industry and the arts of living.”
especially since the revolution of 1911-12, it
The story of the building up of European
has been undergoing stupendous transforma-
and American trading interests in China after
tion, involving nothing less than the dissolu the Opium War of 1840 has been often told.
tion of an old civilization and the swift It contains a good deal that is sordid, yet
upbuilding of a new one. Finally, its rela- something of the heroic; and Mr. Latourette
tions with Japan have become one of the most has satisfactorily stressed both aspects. Gen-
crucial phases of world politics—easily the erally satisfactory, too, is his sketch of
most crucial aside from the problems raised European and Japanese aggrandizement on
directly by the world war.
Chinese soil between 1894 and 1916. How-
Perhaps a dozen brief histories of China ever, the connection between Chinese borrow-
are available in English. Some of them are ing in European capitals after the defeat of
hastily written and untrustworthy. Some 1894-5 and the memorable series of conces-
are prejudiced. Some are overloaded with sions of 1898 is not brought out; and while
dynastic details, in which the Western reader the direful consequences of the country's re-
finds it difficult to become interested. There cent fiscal weakness are emphasized, there is
is, therefore, a place for Mr. Latourette's no adequate explanation of the part played


1917]
525
THE DIAL
in producing that weakness by the huge and
James Joyce
unfair indemnity imposed by the powers after
the Boxer uprising of 1900.
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN.
The author's interpretation of Japan's By James Joyce. (B. W. Huebsch; $1.50.)
course since 1914 is that the Tokio authorities DUBLINERS. By James Joyce. (B. W. Huebsch;
have been resolved to take advantage of the
$1.50.)
preoccupation of the Western nations to get
In the preface of “Pendennis” Thackeray
a grip on China's trade, and even on her
says: “Since the author of 'Tom Jones' was
governmental affairs, that cannot be broken. buried, no writer of fiction among us has been
“From Japan's standpoint it appears to be permitted to depict to his utmost power a
a matter of life and death that she be assured
Man. We must drape him and give him a
certain conventional simper. Society will not
an open door to her great neighbor. There is
tolerate the Natural in our Art.” If Thack-
the natural field for her commercial expan-
eray felt that, why did he not take his reputa-
sion, and without this expansion her future
tion and his fortune in his hands and,
as a great power is dark. China possesses
China possesses defying the social restrictions which he de-
great quantities of coal and iron and a huge plored, paint us a true portrait of a young
population which can be organized into a
gentleman of his time? He might have done
mighty industrial force. She is potentially a much for English art and English honesty. As
fabulously rich market. What wonder that
it was, he did as much as any writer of his
the Japanese should desire to lead her and to generation to fasten on English fiction the fet-
establish that leadership so firmly that it can ters of an inartistic reticence. It was only in
not be disputed by the Western powers? the last generation that English and Irish nov-
The great war offered the opportunity elists, under the influence of French litera-
for which she has been looking. While the
ture, freed themselves from the cowardice of
nations of Europe were busy at home, she
Victorian fiction and assumed that anything
could gain so great a hold on her neighbor human under the sun is proper subject-matter
that they would be forced to recognize it after
for art. If they have not produced master-
the war.
As an ally of Great Britain she pieces (and I do not admit that they have
could drive out Germany, and as the price not), they have made a brave beginning. Such
a book as “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
of her aid she could demand a freer hand in
Man” would have been impossible forty years
China."
ago. Far from looking back with regret at
The events of the past two and a half years the good old novelists of the nineteenth cen.
readily bear out this view. In 1914 Japan tury (whom, besides, we need never lose), I
ruthlessly violated Chinese sovereignty in her believe that our fiction is immensely freer and
campaign against the Germans in Shantung. richer than the fiction of our immediate fore-
In 1915 she forced the Peking government fathers.
to accept a series of political and economic Joyce's work is outspoken, vigorous, orig-
arrangements tantamount to vassalage. In inal, beautiful. Whether it faithfully reflects
the same year she capped her rapprochement Irish politics and the emotional conflicts of
with Russia with a strong defensive alliance. the Catholic religion one who is neither Irish
Small wonder that China trembles with rage, nor Catholic cannot judge with certainty.
that Great Britain has grown cool, and that It seems, however, that the noisy controversies
the United States is beginning to realize that over Parnell and the priests in which the boy's
her Japanese problem is in China, not Cal. elders indulge have the sound of living Irish
ifornia! If China enters the war, she will
voices; and the distracted boy's wrestlings
gain an opportunity for a hearing by the na-
with his sins and his faith are so movingly
human that they hold the sympathy even
tions; and she may get relief from the present
of one who is indifferent to the religious argu-
burdens of the Boxer indemnity, extra-terri-
ments. I am afraid that the religious ques-
toriality, and the Japanese menace. In any
tions and the political questions are too
event, her future will give the powers-per roughly handled to please the incurably de-
haps most of all the United States—serious
vout and patriotic. If they ever put up a
thought. The outlook is considered by Mr.
statue of Joyce in Dublin, it will not be dur-
Latourette encouraging, provided the huge ing his life time.
ing his life time. For he is no respecter of
republic can be assured an opportunity to anything except art and human nature and
build up its new government and civilization language.
in its own way.
There are some who, to turn his own imag-
FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG. inative phrase, will fret in the shadow of his


526
(June 14
THE DIAL
language. He makes boys talk as boys do, history; it is pleasanter to read him first and
as they did in your school and mine, except find out about him afterward. “A Portrait
that we lacked the Irish imagery and whim of the Artist” bears the dates, "Dublin, 1904:
sicality. If the young hero is abnormal and Trieste, 1914.” The first American edition
precocious, that is because he is not an or was published last year. One book which I
dinary boy but an artist, gifted with thoughts have not seen, “Chamber Music,” is not yet
and phrases above our common abilities. This printed in this country. The third book, a
is a portrait of an artist by an artist, a lit collection of sketches called “Dubliners,"
erary artist of the finest quality.
bears only the American dates, 1916, 1917.
The style is a joy. “Čranly's speech,” he Is this a man who writes little and writes
writes, “had neither rare phrases of Eliza- slowly? Or has he been buried and come to
bethan English nor quaintly turned versions life again? The dates show a writing life
of Irish idioms." In that Joyce has defined of more than ten years, and the writing shows
his own style. It is Elizabethan, yet thor a trained artist, not a casual wanderer into
oughly modern; it is racily Irish, yet univer literature.
sal English. It is unblushingly plain-spoken The sketches in “Dubliners” are perfect,
and richly fanciful, like Shakespeare and Ben each in its own way, and all in one way: they
Jonson.
The effect of complete possession imply a vast deal that is not said. They are
of the traditional resources of language is small as the eye-glass of a telescope is small;
combined with an effect of complete indiffer- you look through them to depths and dis-
ence to traditional methods of fiction. Epi tances. They are a kind of short story un-
sodes, sensations, dreams, emotions trivial and known to the American magazine if not to the
tragic succeed each other neither coherently American writer. An American editor might
nor incoherently; each is developed vividly read them for his private pleasure, but from
for a moment, then fades away into the next, his professional point of view he would not
with or without the mechanical devices of see that there was any story there at all. The
chapter divisions or rows of stars. Life is American short story is explicit and over-
so; a fellow is pandied by the schoolmaster developed and thin as a moving-picture film;
for no offense ; the cricket bats strike the balls, it takes nothing for granted, except in some
pick, pock, puck; there is a girl to dream of its rapid-fire farcical humor; it knows noth-
about; and Byron was a greater poet than ing of the art of the hintful, the suggestive,
Tennyson anyhow.
the selected single detail which lodges fertilely
The sufferings of the poor little sinner are in the reader's mind begetting ideas and emo-
told with perfect fidelity to his point of view. tions. America is not the only offender (for
Since he is an artist his thoughts appropri- patriotism is the fashion and bids criticism
ately find expression in phrases of maturer relent); there is much professional Irish
beauty than the speech of ordinary boys. He humor which is funny enough but as subtle
is enamored of words, intrigued by their mys as a shillallah. And English short stories,
tery and color; wherefore the biographer such at least as we see in magazines, are ob-
plays through the boy's thoughts with all vious and “express” rather than expressive.
manner of verbal loveliness.
Joyce's power to disentangle a single thread
Did he then love the rhythmic rise and fall of from the confusion of life and let you run
words better than their associations of legend and
colour? Or was it that, being as weak of sight as
briefly back upon it until you encounter the
he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the
confusion and are left to think about it your-
reflection of the glowing sensible world through the self—that is a power rare enough in any lit-
prism of a language many-coloured and richly storied erature. I have an impression of having felt
than from the contemplation of an inner world of
individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid
that power in some of Gissing's sketches,
supple periodic prose!
though that is only an impression which I
From the fading splendor of an evening as
should not care to formulate as a critical
beautifully described as any in English, he
judgment until I had read Gissing again. (A
tumbles into the sordid day of a house rich good thing to do, by the way.)
in pawn tickets. That is life. “Welcome, Except one story, “A Painful Case,” I
O life!” he bids farewell to his young man-
could not tell the plot of any of these sketches.
hood. “I go to encounter for the millionth Because there is no plot going from beginning
time the reality of experience and to forge to end. The plot goes from the surface in-
in the smithy of my soul the uncreated con-
ward, from a near view away into a back-
science of my race. old father, old artificer, ground. A person appears for a moment-a
stand me now and ever in good stead." priest, or a girl, or a small boy, or a street-
I know nothing of Mr. James Joyce, the corner tough, or a drunken salesman-and
man, and I have not yet tried to look up his does and says things not extraordinary in
2
1


1917]
527
THE DIAL
themselves; and somehow you know all about sketches; and a recruit who is not a recruit, an old
these people and feel that you could think out plumber who returns to work and life when war
their entire lives. Some are stupid, some are
takes away his young competitors, and two old
pathetic, some are funny in an unhilarious spinsters who through loss of income are forced
way. The dominant mood is reticent irony.
to work and thereby achieve happiness and sanity
as the outstanding figures of the war time. Mary
The last story in the book, "The Dead," is a
contributes but one tale to the collection, that of
masterpiece which will never be popular, be-
the two spinsters, and she writes with the more
cause it is all about living people; there is trenchant realism. Both write however in the old-
only one dead person in it and he is not men fashioned way, where thoughts, sentences, para-
tioned until near the end. That's the kind graphs, and story are all nicely rounded out, a
of trick an Irishman like Synge or Joyce thoroughness enlightened by the caustic Scotch
would play on us, and perhaps a Frenchman
humor. (Dutton; $1.50.)
or a Russian would do it; but we would not
In “Flame and the Shadow-Eater" (Holt; $1.40)
stand it from one of our own writers.
Henrietta Weaver endeavors to put the philosophy
JOHN MACY.
of Persia before the reader in allegorical tales
which emphasize the weariness and servitude im-
posed by many possessions, the blindness of ma-
terialism, the glory of self-sacrifice, and the beauty
NOTES ON NEW FICTION
of kindliness and brotherly love. The stories are
told in a supposedly oriental style; they offer us
Count Ilya Tolstoy, like Siegfried Wagner and ethereal creatures who wing their way hither and
so many others, will probably suffer from having
discover the emptiness of earthly love, a king who
a genius for a father-suffer from too much blame
gives up his kingdom after discourse with the
or too much praise. The hasty will endow him
gods, and a prince who seeks far and wide to
with his father's stature or censure him for not know whether man is immortal; in short, they solve
attaining to that stature. In any case, comparison metaphysical questions by the dozen. The only
is inevitable. “Visions” contains five war stories
trouble with such a book is that only the ethereal-
and four stories of Russian life; and in reading minded will read it, while the light-minded, the
the former, the reviewer inevitably recalled the
serious-minded, and the materialist go on their
father's Sebastopol sketches—those sketches that way rejoicing.
reveal such a change in the writer's outlook. In
“An Alabaster Box," by Mary E. Wilkins Free-
many respects the matter is similar; there are the
man ‘and Florence Morse Kingsley (Appletons;
same numerous pictures of the wounded and dying, $1.50), belies its title, its jacket, and its appar-
of the agony in the hospitals; but the son's man-
ent intentions by being, not a rather crude detec-
ner is never truly Tolstoyan. It is intrinsically
tive
hly amusing, well-written story
the modern, introspective Russian manner-not
of New England life and character. The heroine
great but simply good. There is some of the
appeared one fine day in the town of Brookfield,
father's ability as a reporter (so wonderfully ex-
put life into a church fair, paid the minister's
emplified in the Sebastopol pieces), but nowhere
salary, and settled down as benefactress to the
does this attain the impressive and the grand.
struggling village, which fifteen years previously
The tale called “The Little Green Stick” is an
had been ruined by the convincing charm and
attempt to answer the question so often asked the
the financial acquisitiveness of one Andrew Bol-
count: “What would your father say about the
ton. The tale is extraordinarily true to village
war if he were living to-day?”. His father is
life, with its petty gossip, its importance over
buried in the woods about a mile from his home at
trifles, its stiff-necked pride, and its humor, con-
Yasnaya Polyana. In this place, says the tale, is
scious and unconscious.
buried a little green stick on which is written a
Each must do his bit and in doing it he will
word that will render all men brothers and all
people happy. This “sacred coveted word will
achieve the salvation of his own soul-save it from
some day be heard. The little green stick is there;
fatty degeneration. This is the point made by
its power must manifest itself upon the earth.”
Leonid Andreyev in “The Confessions of a Little
But now its voice is drowned by the roar of the
Man During Great Days” (Knopf; $1.35)—An-
(James B. Pond; $1.35.)
dreyev, the author of "The Red Laugh”! The hero
The Findlaters are quite themselves in their
is a clerk in Petrograd, who lays bare his soul
latest stories, “Seen and Heard, Before and After
in a diary which extends from August, 1914, until
1914”: dear Scotch ladies, conscientious workmen,
January, 1916. The diary tells us how he was
indulging ever and anon in deliciously amusing happy service for his country-from self-centred
gradually forced from selfish contentment into
moralizings. We never read a book of theirs with-
individualism into a whole-hearted willingness to
out recalling Nora Archibald's sketch of them, sit-
be just a cell in the Russian organism. Following
ting down together at the big table to write, each the loss of relatives and position, Dementev (the
undisturbed by the other's rustling and fluttering clerk) is brought through grief and self-pity into
Their stories, here as elsewhere, are interesting bits pity for others, and eventually into that larger
of reality from Scotch backwaters, with shiftless, pity which expresses itself in serving the people.
wandering tinkers, a chimney sweep, and a simple Andreyev's genius for analysis attains an intensity
farmer for the chief figures in the ante-bellum at times that is fairly hypnotic. The diary sets be-
ory, but
war.


528
[June 14
THE DIAL
It is puz-
.fore us a man undergoing horrible moral torture.
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
Fear, especially, is avowed and shown in all its ugli-
ness. Dementev tells of nervous crises which assail AT PLATTSBURG. By Allen French. Serib-
him at night; unforgettable pages are devoted to the ner's; $1.35.
description of all that passes through the mind
The wrapper compares Mr. French's book to
of the unhappy man, an ordinary man, timid and Captain Ian Hay Beith's now famous “First
feverish, depressed by the feeling of his solitude
Hundred Thousand.” And the comparison has its
and the indifference of a world at war, and then
justification. The humors, the pleasures, and the
uplifted by the joy caused by sentimental sacrifice.
trials of military training everywhere differ only
But the analysis is not all. There are moments of
great poetic freshness—pages of lyric beauty with
in degree. Mr. French is facile and vivacious,
accents exultant or despairing, as in the vivid pic- except in his unhappy stiffening of love story and
tures of springtime in Petrograd, or the moonlit
melodrama. But Ian Hay is a veteran novelist;
city, still and mysterious and fearful, or the scene
he puts real character into his soldiers and offi-
in the depot where the wounded soldiers arrive. cers; he has “done up" the British amateur fighter
Frederick Orin Bartlett's tale, "The Triflers," as Kipling long ago "did up" the professional.
is well named. Throughout the book Monte and It is a play-time Plattsburg which Mr. French
Marjory advance and retreat, love and languish, las described so agreeably,-a Plattsburg already
waiting in agony for the last chapter to put them past,-a stepping-stone toward the universal
out of their misery. Peter did his best to make American army, which in turn will do away with
them see clearly, but Monte and Marjory shut their all such effervescences. That old Plattsburg was
eyes to facts without sense or reason.
unique, and a unique success. Good, wholesome
zling that the Peter's of fiction should be generally
Americans who could conveniently spare the time
condemned to self-sacrifice and patient suffering.
There must be something fatal about the name.
and money—as well as some who could not-
Mr. Bartlett has so much skill and charm, his style
drifted in on Pullmans for a month, worked hard,
is so clear and pleasing that some day he will
and were photographed continuously The tired
surely write a less trifling book. (Houghton
business man found a new and novel relaxation
Mifflin; $1.40.)
in permitting his every move to be bossed by
Frankly sentimental books often disarm the young Second Lieutenants fresh from the Point.
worldly-wise by simple charm. Katherine Havi And he found that that bossing was done remark-
land Taylor has done this in her first book. Apart ably well. And the tired business man's juniors
from minor faults—such as dragging the unwarned rivalled one another in "military efficiency" to
reader too suddenly from one scene to another, win promotion and the right to wear the coveted
and frequent repetition of the same word in a chevrons during the final week. The arrangements
paragraph—“Cecilia of the Pink Roses" is as sweet
and the equipment were of the best—while the
and fresh as the flowers themselves. (Doran;
militia on the border went without. There was
$1.25.)
The rake and the recluse have always fascinated
no pay, but prospects of a refund if only Con-
women. Leslie Moore's preference appears to lean
gress-Congress was early recognized as the per-
toward men compelled to shut themselves from
petual stumbling block in the way of all reforms
the world, yet willing to re-enter it hand in hand -would pass the Army Appropriation Bill, and let
with a lady. Charm, lightness, deft love-making,
the army have what it needed. Moreover, there
delightful descriptions of “the nice, fresh, cool, was the ultimate goal of a Reserve Commission,
clean country” are combined into a delicate pot opportunity for a man to use his brains and
pourri of a book. “Antony Gray,–Gardener” knowledge in the service of his country.
(Putnam's; $1.50) is an excellent specimen of its
The "rookies” were a picked lot; so perhaps
type.
were the officers detailed to the camp. At any rate
"You rarely see an American man who looks as mutual appreciation grew apace._But most of all
if he had ancestors. We usually appear to have was General Wood respected. To him was due
been made in a hurry.” Thus Mr. Lawrence Byrne the camp and the whole great effort which it
sums up, unconsciously, the fault of his novel, typified. And in the meantime, rumors-although
“The American Ambassador.” (Scribner's; $1.35.)
the day's work and its novelties were generally
John T. Colborne is an unusual specimen of more interesting than rumors occasionally flitted
“Shirtsleeve Diplomacy,” shrewd and homely, in through the camp, rumors of General Wood's dis-
telligent and forceful. Had the author taken favor at Washington, of efforts made there to
greater pains to create him and build up a story wreck his camp (after the previous summer had
revealing his abilities, the result would have been proved its success) by taking away its best offi-
more refreshing.
Theodore Roosevelt visited the camp; so
Cruelty, cunning, superstition, fantasy—these did a plethora of college presidents; and the Sec-
are the impressions given by “The Wanderer on retary of War finally came to make a somewhat
a Thousand Hills." While the soul of the Far perfunctory speech. So ended that bold and suc-
East still remains an unsolved mystery, in spite cessful effort to make America know its army.
of Edith Wherry's painstaking and sympathetic General Wood was beheaded six months after-
study of the Chinese, her story of the evolution wards, but too late. Things have started; the
of the kidnapped child lifts the book above the war we are now in only came to quicken them.
commonplace. (Lane; $1.40.)
Every line of Mr. French's book shows it.
cers.


1917]
529
THE DIAL
LLOYD GEORGE: The Man and His Story. By
Frank Dilnot. Harper; $1.
Nothing makes and unmakes careers like war;
and when the present conflagration is over it will
be interesting to reckon up its tale of humble men
exalted and mighty men abased. One thing that
the conflict has already done is to lay hold of a
vivacious and daring Welshman, who as early
as 1908 had risen from obscurity to the control
of a great national treasury, and make of him
the dictator of the British Empire. How this
came about-and, indeed, the whole fascinating
record of the British Premier's career—is splen-
didly told in Mr. Dilnot's book. Mr. Dilnot has
had first-hand acquaintance with British politics
and political leaders for two or three decades,
and he has written a substantial book on the
dramatic contest over the Lloyd George budget
of 1909. The present biography is a simple
chronicle, highly laudatory, yet hardly more than
the subject seems to demand. For it is difficult
to exaggerate the achievement that is represented
in Mr. Lloyd George's rise to his present position.
Born of humble parents, left fatherless at the age
of three, educated in the rough-and-ready way
of the Welsh back-country, trained for the law,
forcing his way from a penniless practitioner to
a successful barrister, entering politics, going to
Parliament, becoming a minister, ramming down
the throats of the vested interests the most rad-
ical financial reform known to the history of the
country, rapidly absorbing leadership under the
stress of the world war, called to Buckingham pal-
ace and asked to form a ministry, rallying the
forces of a disorganized nation against a still pow-
erful and unbeaten enemy, and guiding the des-
tinies of a great empire almost single-handed-
Lloyd George has a career that at many points
runs astonishingly parallel to that of our own
Lincoln. There is little to criticize in Mr. Dil-
not's book. No attempt has been made to write
history in the large or with finality, and no one
will quarrel with the few somewhat doubtful gen-
eralizations that appear The story is told simply
and directly, with much of the flavor of Welsh
and English life.
ingly real. One gets a sense that Russian history
has always been an ebb and flow, a series of
actions and reactions. No matter how complete
a victory seemed, there was always a leader of
another faction to stir up trouble. Popularity has
ever been ephemeral. One instinctively draws
comparisons. An observant English ambassador
in the sixteenth century remarked that the stuff of
which Russians were made was good—it was the
conditions which needed changing. The great mil-
itary leader, Yermak, was confronted with a per-
petual struggle to maintain the morale of his men.
The Russians have always displayed courage and
endurance, and in prehistoric times a Greek writer
said they were conquerable only because of their
internal dissensions.
Mrs. Howe wrote this book, of course, before
the late Russian revolution. She promises to write
further of Russia, and we may hope for some
interesting interpretations of modern conditions.
Meantime, she has written with authority of Rus-
sian history, a task for which she is suited by
temperament and intellect, for, to quote the poet,
“Faith alone can fathom Russia.
THE ISSUE. By J. W. Headlam. Houghton
Mifflin; $1.
Speculation concerning Germany's intentions in
war and in peace provides a never-ending source
of intellectual or emotional stimulus. Mr. Head-
lam ought to be one of the best equipped of Eng-
lishmen to give the material for such speculation.
Certainly he is thoroughly sane. In his recent
collection of articles he examines Germany's inten-
tions as they have been expressed in the manifes-
toes of the six Industrial Associations, and of
the German professors, which were suppressed by
the government on account of their ill-timed ap-
pearance; in the speeches of the Chancellor; in
the words of Prince Bülow concerning peace; and
in the writings of Dr. Naumann concerning the
establishment of a Central European state. The
significance of these collected utterances lies in
their virtual agreement and their indubitably rep-
resentative nature. They agree in their deter-
mination that Germany's next war shall not be
fought on her own frontiers, but on the frontiers
of those dependent countries which she shall have
“attracted” to her own industrial domination. Ger-
many repudiates the word “annexation"; her posi-
tion after peace is to be that of the larger astral
body that draws toward itself numberless stars of
lesser magnitude. She does not ask for annexa-
tion-out of deference to the susceptibilities of her
own Socialists—but for "guarantees.” That is, she
will establish a nominally autonomous Belgium,
Poland, and so on, with industrial, financial, and
military dependence upon herself. She will re-
move the French “peril” by taking over the rich
industrial districts of Northern France, and the
Russian "peril," by drawing all Poland under her
beneficent wing. The difficulty of government she
will settle by removing the inhabitants of these
conquered regions and by transporting thither
well-trained German citizens, making the conquered
SOME RUSSIAN HEROES, SAINTS AND SINNERS.
Legendary and Historical. By Sonia E. Howe.
Lippincott; $2.50.
The pursuit of finding counterparts and par-
allels in history becomes particularly fascinating
when one begins to speculate about Russia. In
reading Mrs. Howe's volume, one is constantly
reminded that racial characteristics do not rad-
ically change, and that the great Russian leaders
of to-day are of the same flesh and blood, are the
spiritual descendants, as it were, of those por-
trayed in this book.
Mrs. Howe, in preparing these sketches, has
consulted mainly Russian authorities, and has
dipped into legend as well as history. She
has the gift of painting her characters with vivid-
ness, almost as if she had known them face to
face: the terrible Ivan, the staunch Yermak, and
the pious Boywiyinia Morozov become astonish-


530
[June 14
THE DIAL
countries pay the cost. Thus will she guarantee makes it in its way a masterpiece. Mr. Morgan
herself security.
was born with a roving, adventurous disposition.
This is virtually the same issue that was raised He came of a good family. He was gifted with
by M. Chéradame's “Pan-German Plot Un an extraordinary sense for the significant and
masked.” The emphasis and the proofs in the two picturesque elements of any situation in which he
books are different, but the facts are the same. found himself. As a result of these qualities he
Mr. Headlam urges that the war go on until Ger has had a strenuous career, met interesting people,
many is crushed. He believes that the feeling and observed as many aspects of life on this
which the manifestoes represented is growing planet as could well come to anyone's knowledge
weaker with each month of warfare, and that the in three score years and ten. As a midshipman
repudiation of their government by the people aboard the old “Constitution," he was associated
themselves can only be accomplished through de with four of the future captains who played lead-
cisive military disaster. That may be true; but ing parts in the destruction of Cervera's fleet.
it is at least open to question whether the people Resigning at the outbreak of the Civil War, he
will not be more crushed in the process of defeat served for a time along the Mississippi; was res-
than the government and the autocracy which were cued from a romantic plight at Charleston by
responsible for their disaster.
the future Secretary of the Confederate Treas-
ury, whose daughter he was to marry; engaged
MASTERPIECES OF MODERN SPANISH DRAMA. in remarkable exploits aboard the commerce raider,
Edited by Barrett H. Clark. Duffield; $2. “Georgia"; assisted in the defence of Richmond;
It cannot be said that Mr. Barrett H. Clark's and escorted Mrs. Jefferson Davis, to whom he
collection of three “Masterpieces of Modern Span was related by marriage, in her flight from the
ish Drama” offers much that is stimulating to
city. After holding for a few years a commis-
readers who are at all familiar with modern plays.
sion in the army of the Khedive of Egypt, he
Echegaray's “The Great Galeoto" is already known
settled in South Carolina in time to receive the
through previous translations and public read-
full benefits of the hell of reconstruction. Con-
ings; "The Duchess of San Quentin,” by Galdós,
nection with the silver mines of Mexico, a con-
seems a little facile, theatrical, and old-fashioned, sulship in Australia, and a mission to Panama at
like some of the once “daring” works of Strind the time of the revolution are possibly the most
berg, revived and translated a decade after the interesting of his remaining experiences. His
wind had been taken out of their sails by still
narrative is frank and relieved with humor, and
more advanced innovators; Guimerá's “Daniela” the breadth of outlook it displays gives it value
alone, translated from the Catalan by John Gar as a historical document.
rett Underhill, comes to us with all the force
of a new sensation, and this by virtue of the THE CELTIC Dawn. By Lloyd R. Morris.
profound and tragic poetry of its theme. That Macmillan; $1.50.
* The Duchess of San Quentin” does not greatly "The Celtic Dawn,” an adaptation of one of W.
move us is no doubt due to its being a social
B. Yeats's happy phrases, is not itself the hap-
comedy hinged upon conditions that have largely piest title that Mr. Morris might have found for
ceased to obtain in the great world; it is a stage his book; but the book itself, the work of an
play that hardly transcends these conditions. American student, is perhaps the most compre-
“Daniela,” on the other hand, the story of the hensive of all the recent surveys of the Irish ren-
pecadora who returns from the scene of her tri-
ascence. And it differs to advantage from most
umphs to the little Catalan village where she was American surveys in rather under-emphasizing
born and where she longs to regain before her than otherwise the purely æsthetic aspect of that
death some of the innocence of her childhood, is wonderful transformation of a small nationality
of the great order, not least in the impressive so intimately related to our own republic that, as
art with which the author has conveyed the prim the case is apt to be with members of a common
itive atmosphere of peasant psychology across family, we have most appreciated its less essential
which the personality of his heroine passes like excellences. What interests us in the new Ireland
a meteor only to be engulfed in the end. For is no longer the shadow-literature that so charmed
this play at least we are indebted to the editor the world a dozen years ago; it is the reality that
and the translator.
has emerged from the shadow, and the pungent,
ironic, realistic, tragic personal attitudes to which
RECOLLECTIONS A REBEL REEFER. By this reality has given birth. Mr. Morris, while
James Morris Morgan. Houghton Mifflin; $3. entirely just to Yeats as a poet, is just also to
“Dumas would have woven a three volume novel
Yeats's negative and life-denying philosophy: it
from this stirring book of reminiscences,” say
the is a pity that he has included in his account of the
publishers of Mr. Morgan's autobiography. For
minor poets two or three at least who are en-
once the publishers are right. Or rather may
titled to the distinction only because they are
we say that the narrative itself is as absorbing as
blessed with Celtic names and an infinite capacity
Dumas would have made it, and has all the ear-
for pseudo-Celtic wool-gathering. Mr. Morris
marks of actuality besides. Without literary pre is particularly happy in his characterizations of
tence, with slips here and there in the details of A.E., Synge, and James Stephens, but we miss
style, it yet has about it a straightforwardness, a that recent remarkable apparition James Joyce,
veracity, a genuineness of speaking right on that and is it the part of good taste to take “Fiona
OF
-


1917]
531
THE DIAL
Macleod," that Highland echo, so seriously?
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN NOTTINGHAM-
Might we not have had a still more detailed ac SHIRE. By J. B. Firth. Macmillan; $2.
count of “John Eglinton," a rare mind certainly, Nottingham, according to an eighteenth-century
a unique figure in modern criticism, whose writ authority, “may be called, as a man may say,
ings should long before this have been brought Paradise Restored, for here you find large streets,
before the American public?
fair built houses, fine women, and many coaches
rattling about, and their shops full of all mer-
IN CANADA'S WONDERFUL NORTHLAND. Ву chantable riches." This pleasant town, with the
W. Tees Curran and H. A. Calkins. Putnam; region about it, forms the subject of the latest
$2.50.
addition to the "Highways and Byways" series
When it is borne in mind that the Province of that has already given us agreeable descriptions
Quebec alone is larger than Great Britain, France, of many other English counties. Wide valleys,
Spain, and Germany combined, and that its re broad meadows, the famous Sherwood Forest
sources are as yet only vaguely suspected, Mr. W. (what is left of it), old castles and abbeys and
Tees Curran and Mr. Harold A. Calkins, ex churches,- of such matters does the book treat in
plorers of the coast region bordering the south a readably discursive fashion, with a copious
eastern portion of Hudson Bay, are found to be fund of anecdote, tradition, metrical lore, and
justified in naming the account of their expedition curious family history. Mr. Frederick L. Griggs
"In Canada's Wonderful Northland." So im contributes excellent drawings in profusion, and
pressed are they with the agricultural and other good maps are supplied.
possibilities of this region that Mr. Curran con-
fidently predicts the early building of the largest SI BRIGGS TALKS. By Madeline Yale Wynne.
grain storehouses in the world on the shores of Houghton Mifflin; $1.25.
Hudson Bay, and the establishment of steamship That free verse still remains in the fluid, forma-
lines between there and European ports. In an tive stage is the impression left by this little book
earlier work of his issued by the Canadian govern of sketches and anecdotes of New England life
ment and entitled “Glimpses of Northern Canada, and character. Any new hand, it would seem, may
a land of Hidden Treasure,” which he tells us, give this now popular form a light touch as it
with manifest exaggeration, “found its way into spins, like a vase on the potter's wheel, through
every public library, both at home and in foreign
a series of novel, if ephemeral, shapes; and Mrs.
lands," he described his first impressions of this Wynne's touch—in this field, as in many others she
vast and little-explored territory. His later book has entered—is not only light, but deft, confident,
continues the description of the marvellous virgin
and original. She adds rhyme at her pleasure, and
land awaiting development. As far north as the
even rhyme within rhyme. A system of carefully
Nastapoka River he and his party pushed their
carried out indention keeps the reader constantly
explorations, and the varied and well-written nar-
rative has all the illustrations and maps that could
advised as to the progress of the rhyme-scheme.
be desired, though no attempt has been made to
The following ten-line poem shows, within nar-
mark the route followed. Such graphic itinerary
row limits, the newest efflorescence of vers libre:
would have been a help to the reader. The book You could n't faze Uncle Sid.
prefigures, in all likelihood, a remarkable expan-
They tell this yarn
sion northward in the near future.
On him: One day Hiram, Uncle Sid's hired man,
Went out to the barn
GREAT INSPIRERS. By J. A. Zahm. Appleton;
And hung himself to a beam.
A neighbor found him, and ran
$1.50.
In and told Uncle Sid.
The “woman in the case" in Dr. Zahm's “Great He jest shook his head
Inspirers” exerts no baleful influence; on the con-
And said,
trary, she is the moving spirit to noble achieve “Wall, wall, what'll Hiram do next, I wonder!"
ment. St. Jerome's benefactress and powerful Rhyme, it will be seen, follows indention, just
aid, Paula, mother of Blesilla and Eustochium, and as “trade follows the flag." And, “No indention,
grandmother of the younger Paula, all of whom
no rhyme"; just as the earlier New England once
were his devoted disciples and able assistants;
and Beatrice, adored and idealized by Dante-
declared, “No representation, no taxation.” Some
these are the chief figures in the book, the in-
of these small, quaint pieces have the fortune to
spirers of great men and thus, by a reflected
end rhyme-wise, when the adaptability of this
light, great themselves. But Paula and her daugh-
method for closing a pointed anecdote with an
ters were remarkable in themselves, and Beatrice,
epigrammatic crack of the whip becomes quite ap-
viewed as a veritable personage, as Dr. Zahm
parent. The following lines wind up a debate on
would have her viewed, and not as a poetic ab-
Sabbath-breaking among gardeners:
straction, must have possessed a rare nobility of
I've often tried
soul. The book is a thoughtful and scholarly
But never yet have seed
production, and illustrates anew its author's vari-
The difference between
ety of learning and range of interests. To many
A-flickin' off a worm
he is better known under his pseudonym, “H. J.
And a-snakin' out a weed.
Mozans," as the writer of several fascinating books The elaborate scheme of illustration is more
of travel and a work on “Woman in Science." notable for consistency than for strength.


532
[June 14
THE DIAL
HYGIENE IN MEXICO. By Alberto J. Pani. Dramatic interpretation in India, however, is by
Putnam's; $1.50.
no means so stiff and lifeless as its traditional
The present political and social conditions in technique might seem to imply; it "wears an air
Mexico, even under the most optimistic interpreta- of perfect spontaneity,” although “hardly a posi-
tion, can hardly be considered promising for fruit tion of the hands or of the body
has not
ful scientific or social endeavor. Hence our a recognized name and a precise significance."
surprise at this seriously intelligent study of the
Science, therefore, together with art, is at the
sanitary problems of the afflicted capital city and
basis of the “Mirror of Gesture"-a science of
of the still more fundamental educational problems expression much more fundamentally studied than
upon whose prior solution any considerable san anything our schools have yet produced. “The four
itary improvement in the state must ultimately
aims of human life-virtue, wealth, pleasure, and
rest. The literacy of the Mexican population as a
spiritual freedom”—are expressed through obser-
whole is only about thirty per cent. Obviously
Obviously vation of human habits combined with archæologi-
compulsory primary education must precede the cal study of ancient symbols and traditional modes
compulsory sanitation which the author proposes
of thought. Behind them all is the wonderful quiet
for every city in which “the mortality shall exceed
of the reflective oriental mind, which compares its
the maximum limit of tolerated contamination." pure god to an actor-dancer.
The mortality in Mexican cities is nearly three
times that in our own cities. The work deals more ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY. By Waldo H. Dunn.
with the author's hopes for future achievements Dutton; $1.50.
than with past accomplishments. The problem as Seventh in the series entitled “The Channels
he conceives it consists in “hygienizing the popula- of English Literature” comes Professor Dunn's
tion, physically and morally, and in endeavoring, study of English biography, a work of careful
by all available means, to improve the precarious research and also the first formal treatise on its
economical situation of our proletariat." Hygiene subject. It does for English biography what an-
in our sister would-be republic is evidently synon other pioneer work of a few years ago did for
omous with universal social uplift. A Gallic fer autobiography; we mean Mrs. Burr's treatise on
vor for system and for a well-expanded and that theme. It traces the rise and growth of
rounded-out scheme for the hygienic redemption of biography in our language and supplies references
the state permeates the work. Señor Pani's treatise for those who wish to push their inquiries further.
on public hygiene in Mexico is like unto a shoot Its methodical procedure is seen at the very outset
out of dry ground. Let us hope it is an omen of in the ten pages of Introduction devoted to an
better days to come in that troubled land, and a elucidation of the meaning of “biography." Then
forecast of the intellectual and scientific awaken-
follows the orderly survey of the field, with two
ing which must prepare the way for the coming chapters given to autobiography as a species of
Mexican social renaissance.
biography, and with considerations of "problems
and tendencies of the present," a comparative view
THE MIRROR OF GESTURE. The Abhinaya of biographical works, and a glance at English
Darpana of Nandikesvara. Translated by biography as literature. The author names Xen-
Ananda Coomaraswamy and Gopala Kris ophon's Memorabilia" as "the first specimen of
nayya Duggirala. Harvard University Press. deliberate biography"-a rather unexpected char-
The best of the European actors and actresses acterization of those fragments of Socratic wisdom
to whom are dedicated the curious pages of the and habit of life. In its appended matter and its
Indian “Mirror of Gesture" cannot but be grateful index the book maintains the scholarly system with
for the high ideal of their art here set forth with which it begins. It is a useful manual, welcome
a sincerity half concealed by oriental subtlety. to the lovers of one of the most fascinating depart-
According to the preface by Ananda Coomaras ments of literature.
wamy, the volume is merely an introduction “to
Indian dramatic technique and to oriental acting
Mr. Hankey's theme in "A Student in Arms"
in general," brought out in English not so much
(Dutton; $1.50) is the growth of spiritual strength
to be a pattern for occidental actors as to inspire
in the peoples at war. We see the trenches as a
them “with the enthusiasm and the patience need great melting pot, where the Cockney is glorified,
ful for the recreation of the drama" in the western
the ordinary Englishman learns to philosophize,
world. Nothing in this ancient "deliberate art" "is Oxford is taught to be on time, the practical man
left to chance," nothing is changed in the ritual of affairs learns from the Oxford product the
of the legitimate Hindu drama as it passes down art of living, and the church learns how to reach
from age to age, ignoring the claims of its finite men's hearts. Mr. Hankey scores three kinds of
interpreters, demanding of them, indeed, a self war literature: journalese or heroics, written by
discipline and a submission to studied forms far
men who make copy out of soldier's blood, comic
more complete than Europe has ever understood sketches, and stories by ladies who portray the
or admitted. Consequently each exhibition of the soldier as a curly-haired darling. For his part,
actor's skill is “altogether independent of his own the author treats the subject in a matter-of-fact
emotional condition”; he is never allowed to ex way, which, by its very rarity, becomes effective.
ploit his theme for personal effect, as is too often The few pages of heroics are forceful and vera-
done by our contemporary stars.
cious.


1917]
533
THE DIAL
Books for Summer Reading
THE DIAL offers herewith a list of outstanding books published during the spring of 1917,
assuming that it will be understood that such lists are suggestive rather than final.
ESSAYS AND GENERAL LITERATURE.
The Notebooks of Samuel Butler, with an introduc-
tion by Francis Hackett. Dutton; $2.
Figures of Several Centuries. Arthur Symons.
Dutton; $2.50.
Creative Criticism: Essays on Unity of Genius
and Taste. J. E. Spingarn. Holt; $1.20.
Twilight In Italy. D. H. Lawrence. Huebsch; $1.50.
The Journal of Leo Tolstoi, edited by V. Tchertkov.
Knopf; $2.
The Spirit of Modern German Literature. Ludwig
Lewisohn. Huebsch; $1.
The Journal of an Author. Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Luce; $1.25.
The Celtic Dawn. Lloyd R. Morris. Macmillan;
$1.50.
A Life of Swinburne. Edmund Gosse. Macmillan;
$3.50.
My Reminiscences. Sir Rabindranath Tagore. Mac-
millan; $1.50.
A
Life of Henry D. Thoreau. F. B. Sanborn.
Houghton Mifflin; $3.
Herbert Spencer. Hugh Elliott. Holt; $2.
Lite and Letters of Theodore Watts-Dunton.
Thomas Hake and Arthur Compton Ricketts.
Putnam's; 2 vols., 0.
Shelley in England. Roger Ingpen. Houghton
Mifflin; $5.
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY.
The History of the United States, Vol. IV. Ed-
ward Channing. Macmillan; $2.50.
Treitschke's History of Germany in the 19th Cen-
tury, Vols. II and III, each $3.25. McBride.
Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty. Harold J.
Laski. Yale University Press; $2.50.
Modern Russian History. Alexander Kornilov.
Knopf; $5.
Imperial Germany. Prince Bernard von Bülow.
Dodd, Mead; $2.
Economic Development of Modern Europe. Fred-
eric Austin Ogg. Macmillan; $2.50.
Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic
Attitude. John Dewey and Others. Holt; $2.
The Order of Nature. Lawrence Joseph Henderson.
Harvard University Press; $1.50.
The Philosophy of William James. T. Flournoy.
Translated by Edwin B. Holt and William James,
Jr. Holt; $1.40.
DRAMA AND THE STAGE.
Plays. Emile Verhaeren. Houghton Mifflin.
The Contemporary Drama of Ireland. Ernest A.
Boyd. Little, Brown; $1.25.
Comedies of Words and Other Plays. Arthur
Schnitzler. Stewart & Kidd; $1.50.
Dramatic Works (Vol. VII). Gerhart Hauptmann.
Huebsch; $1.50.
La Pecadora-Daniela. Angel Guimerà. Putnam's.
Masterpieces of Modern Spanish Drama. Barrett
H. Clark. Duffield; $2.
The Open Air Theatre. Sheldon Cheney. Mitchell
Kennerly; 75 cts.
BOOKS BEARING ON WAR AND PEACE.
An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms
of its Perpetuation. Thorstein Veblen. Mac-
millan; $2.
Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the In-
ternational Duel. Bertrand Russell. Century;
$1.50.
The War of Democracy, with an Introduction by
Viscount Bryce. Doubleday, Page; $2.
The Issue. J. W. Headlam. Houghton Mifflin; $1.
Central Europe. Friedrich Naumann. Knopf; $3.
American World Politics. Walter E. Weyl. Mac-
millan; $1.50.
Germany's Commercial Grip of the World. Henri
Hauser. Scribner's; $1.65.
Essays in War-Times: Further Studies in the Task
of Social Hygiene. Havelock Ellis; $1.50.
Journal of Small Things. Helen Mackay. Duffield;
$1.35.
“The War, Madame.” Paul Géraldy. Scribner's;
75 cts.
POETRY.
Merlin. Edwin Arlington Robinson. Macmillan;
$1.25.
Afternoon. Emile Verhaeren. Putnam's; $1.
Livelihood: Dramatic Reveries. Wilfrid Wilson
Gibson. Macmillan; $1.25.
Peacock Pie. Walter de la Mare. Holt; $2.
War Flames. John Curtis Underwood. Macmillan;
$1.35.
Asphalt and Other Poems. Orrick Johns. Knopf;
$1.25.
An April Elegy. Arthur Davison Ficke. Mitchell
Kennerly; $1.25.
Some Imagist Poets, 1917. Houghton Mifflin; 75 cts.
The New Poetry, An Anthology. Edited by Harriet
Monroe and Alice Corbin Henderson. Macmil-
lan; $1.50.
The Broken Wing. Sarojini Naidu. Lane; $1.25.
Lines Long and short, Henry B. Fuller. Houghton
Mifflin; $1.25.
Lollington Downs. John Masefield. Macmillan;
$1.25.
Life Sings a Song. Samuel Hoffenstein. Wilmarth
Publishing Co.; $1.
The Collected Poems of James Elroy Flecker.
Doubleday, Page; $2.
Love Poems. Emile Verhaeren. Houghton Mifflin;
$1.25.
The Poetic Year for 1916: A Critical Anthology.
William Stanley Braithwaite. Small, Maynard;
$2.
OUTSTANDING FICTION.
The Eternal Husband. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Mac-
millan; $1.50.
The Bulwark. Theodore Dreiser. Lane; $1.75.
The Shadow-Line. Joseph Conrad, Doubleday,
Page; $1.35.
A Diversity of Creatures. Rudyard Kipling.
Doubleday, Page; $1.50.
His Family. Ernest Poole. Macmillan; $1.50.
The Amethyst Ring. Anatole France. Lane; $1.75.
The Bracelet of Garnets and Other Stories. Alex-
ander Kuprin. Scribner's; $1.35.
Pelle the Conqueror. Martin Andersen Nexo. Holt.
4 vols., each $1.50.
The Purple Land. W. H. Hudson. Dutton; $1.50.
The Created Legend. Feodor Sologub. Stokes;
$1.35.
Tales of the Revolution.
Michael Artzibashef.
Huebsch; $1.50.
Second Youth. Allan Updegrafi. Harper; $1.35.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. James
Joyce. Huebsch; $1.50.
Dubliners. James Joyce. Huebsch; $1.50.
The Chosen People. Sidney L. Nyburg. Lippincott;
$1.40.
The Unwelcome Man. Waldo Frank. Little,
Brown; $1.50.
Summer. Edith Wharton. Appleton; $1.40.
The Prussian Officer and Other Stories. D. H.
Lawrence. Huebsch; $1.50.
Mendel. Gilbert Cannan. Doran; $1.50.
The Confessions of a Little Man During Great
Days. Leonid Andreyev. Knopf; $1.35.
Regiment of Women, clemence Dane. Macmillan;
$1.50.
The Ford. Mary Austin, Houghton Mifflin; $1.50.
Thorgils. Maurice Hewlett. Dodd, Mead; $1.35.
A Soldier of Life. Hugh de Selincourt. Macmillan;
$1.50.
A Man of Athens. Julia D. Dragoumis. Houghton
Miffiin; $1.50.
Philosophy, An Autobiographical Fragment. Henrie
Waste. Longmans, Green. $1.25.
The Druid Path. Marah Ellis Ryan. McClurg.
$1.35.
The Diplomat. Guy Fleming. Longmans, Green,
& Co.; $1.50.
LIGHTER READING.
The Balance. Francis R. Bellamy. Doubleday,
Page; $1.35.
The Wave. Algernon Blackwood. Dutton; $1.50.
The Girl. Katherine Keith. Holt; $1.35.
I, Mary MacLane. Mary MacLane. Stokes; $1.40.
In the wilderness. Robert Hichens. Stokes; $1.50.


534
[June 14
THE DIAL
NEW BOOKS
Aristodemocracy
An Alabaster Box. Mary Wilkins Freeman and
Florence Morse Kingsley. Appleton; $1.50.
This is the End. Stella Benson. Macmillan; $1.35.
Echo of Voices. Richard Curle. Knopf; $1.50.
Paradise Auction. Nalbro Bartley. Small, May-
nard; $1.50.
Backwater. Dorothy Richardson. Knopf; $1.50.
Those Fitzenbergers. Helen R. Martin. Doubleday,
Page; $1.35.
The Hiding Places. Allen French. Scribner's; $1.35.
The Hornet's Nest. Mrs. Wilson Woodrow. Little,
Brown; $1.35.
Wildfire, Zane Grey. Harper; $1.35.
Aurora the Magnificent. Gertrude Hall. Century;
$1.40.
The Middle Pasture. Mathilde Bilbro. Small, May-
nard; $1.25.
Lydia of the Pines. Honoré Willsie. Stokes; $1.40.
The Light in the Clearing. Irving Bacheller.
Bobbs-Merrill; $1.50.
The Hillman. E. Phillips Oppenheim. Little,
Brown; $1.35.
Afterwards. Kathlyn Rhodes. Duffield; $1.35.
Bindle. Herbert Jenkins. Stokes; $1.35.
The Postmaster's Daughter. Louis Tracy. Clode;
$1.35.
To the Last Penny. Edwin Lefevre. Harper; $1.35.
The Golden Arrow. Mary Webb, Dutton; $1.50.
The Complete Gentleman, Bohun Lynch. Doran;
$1.35.
The Stars in Their Courses. Hilda M. Sharp. Put-
nam's; $1.50.
The Dancing Hours. Harold Ohlson. Lane; $1.25.
McAllister's Grove. Marion Hill. Appleton; $1.50.
NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES
[Inquiries or contributions to this department should be ad-
dressed to John E. Robinson, the Editor, who will be
pleased to render to readers such services as are possible.]
FROM THE GREAT WAR BACK
TO MOSES, CHRIST AND PLATO
By SIR CHARLES WALDSTEIN, Litt.D., Fellow
and Lecturer of King's College, Cambridge ; late
Reader in Classical Archæology and Slade Professor
of Fine Art, Cambridge. Reissue (N. Y.) with an
American Preface. 8vo.
$3.50 net
Its predominant aim is “to put into logical and
intelligible form an outline scheme for the moral
regeneration of our own times and of the Western
civilized nations, a regeneration which of itself
would make a war, such as the one from which
the whole of civilized humanity is now suffering,
impossible in the future."
"Few of the many books which the war has called
forth merit more careful consideration than Sir
Charles Waldstein's 'Aristodemocracy.' His long and
varied experience, his scholarship, and residence
in foreign countries, including Germany, give great
weight to his judgments upon men and affairs.
His is no bookman's book. He is able to draw upon
interesting facts and materials within his own
special knowledge, and to enrich and strengthen
his argument with reminiscences of a kind rarely
found in war literature.”—The Times (London).
Just Ready
A RUSSIAN GENTLEMAN
By SERGE AKSAKOFF, Translated from the Rus-
sian by J. D. Duff, Fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge. 8vo.
$2.10 net
This is Aksakoff's most famous book; and the
portrait of his grandfather, Stepan Mihailovitch,
the most formidable and most lovable of men, is
the finest in his whole gallery. The minute ac-
count of Russian life in the days of the Empress
Catherine is priceless to the historian; and the
dramatic skill and human interest of the narrative
have fascinated Russian readers for sixty years
past.
“As a piece of literature it is a sheer delight; as
& document revealing the Russian spirit it is of
singular value at the present time."-Daily Graphic.
By the Same Author
YEARS OF CHILDHOOD
Translated from the Russian by J. D. Duff. With
Portrait. 8vo.
$3.00 net
“No understanding of Russian literature is complete
without a knowledge of the life and work of
Serghei Timofeevitch Aksakoff.
Biography
such as this does more than introduce another
Russian to the western world. It brings with it
a view and an understanding not merely of the
life of a little boy in Russia at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, but also a clear series of
pictures of the rural Russia of that period."-Bos-
ton Transcript.
JAN SMUTS: Being a Character Sketch of
Gen. the Hon. J. C. Smuts, P.C.,
K.C., M.L.A., Minister of Defense, Union of South
Africa.
By N. LEVI, With Portraits of General Smuts and
His Family and Other Illustrations. Crown 8vo.
$2.50 net
"General Smuts, leader of the British forces against
the Germans in German Southeast Africa, has gone
to England as a member of the British Imperial
War Cabinet.
He is one of the really
interesting personalities of this far-flung war.
The author of the present volume has offered
a real contribution to the knowledge of the world
at large.
It is written with great sim-
plicity, out of a heart-felt admiration, with the
utmost sympathy and the most intimate knowl-
edge both of the man himself and of the circum-
stance and the events of his life. And it is ex-
ceedingly interesting."-The Times (New York).
The collection of original autograph dispatches
of General U. S. Grant, during the Wilderness cam-
paign, 1864-5, for the capture of Richmond, em-
bracing nearly five hundred dispatches to President
Lincoln, to Secretary of War Stanton, to Secretary
of the Navy Welles, and to his generals, was sold
on the afternoon of June 8 by Stan. V. Henkels,
1304 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. The col-
lection was kept together by Major George Keller
Leet, who held that rank in the regular army with
brevet lieutenant-colonel. He was in charge of the
headquarters in Washington during the time that
General Grant was at City Point, Va., which was
his headquarters during the campaign. Major Leet
was a member of his staff. The dispatches had
been in the possession of the family ever since
and were sold by order of his son, Grant Leet.
“I will fight it out on this line if it takes all
summer,” were the words which General Grant used
when about to enter on the Wilderness campaign.
The dispatches, which are, with a very few excep-
tions, virtually full autograph letters signed by
him, are the originals handed to his Aide-de-Camp
for the purpose of transmitting them by wire to
the persons indicated. They are written in terse,
vigorous language, in a fine, clear hand. The most
momentous questions are decided with the same
certain, calm, quick judgment as are those of minor
importance. His personal interest in his com-
manders and lesser officers and the sympathy be-
tween himself and President Lincoln are vividly
revealed. Leaving City Point in pursuit of Gen-
eral Lee, after the evacuation of Richmond, we
find Grant moving swiftly from place to place, at
.
Longmans, Green, & Co.
NEW YORK


1917]
535
THE DIAL
GERTRUDE ATHERTON'S
or
THE
LIVING PRESENT
A brilliantly written, interesting account of
what the women of France have done to help
their country in the time of mortal danger.
Their activity is brought into relation with the
woman's movement of other years in other coun-
tries. Her chapters on American conditions are
filled with original ideas, provocative of discus-
sion. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo, net $1.40.
RICHARDSON WRIGHT'S
THE RUSSIANS
An Interpretation
What is this Russia that has had such an
amazing revolution ? Who is the Russ? Mr.
Wright, who knows Russia and its people from
long and intimate association, gives a helpful and
interesting interpretation. Cloth, 8vo, net $1.50.
ARTHUR GLEASON'S
IN
OUR PART THE
GREAT WAR
times pencilling his orders on "scraps of paper.
All dispatches are in excellent condition and the
collection was one of the most remarkable of Civil
War material ever offered. Few erasures
changes of any
kind appear.
If Grant needed any
vindication of his ability as a general, the material
in this collection performs that service. At one
moment he is communicating with the Secretary of
War with reference to necessary military place-
ments in the Valley of the Shenandoah; the next
moment he is asking reënforcements for the Army
of the West and wants to know the names of com-
manders and corps with Sherman in his march
through Georgia. Mr. Henkels says of the collec-
tion:
These dispatches, many of them written during
the turmoil of strife, naturally indicate the char-
acter of the man. When they relate to the enemy no
vindictiveness is shown, no exultation over success,
only kindly feelings expressed toward all, insisting
on proper performance of duty by his generals, re-
proving their seeming deficiencies in carrying out
orders by putting them in other places more fitting
to their abilities, upholding his agreements with the
enemy in relation to the exchange of prisoners, scold-
ing the Federal authorities when his orders in this
respect were not carried out, receiving emissaries from
the enemy with courtesy and kindness. These traits
in his character are so forcibly portrayed in these
dispatches that it is no wonder he won the love and
respect not only of his own army, but that of the
enemy, who laid down their arms before him on the
field at Appomattox. By those traits he proved that
a man can be a soldier, and at the same time have
a feeling of brotherly love for his fellow-men, even
if opposed to him in arms.
A dispatch, dated July 16, 1864, to Major-Gen-
eral Halleck, Washington, D. C., shows the precau-
tion Grant took to prevent the Confederate forces
under Early and others from invading that city.
In a dispatch to Major General Ord, August 25,
1864, he says:
I have just received the dispatch to General Pickett,
which was intercepted by our Signal Officers (with
reference to the mine to be exploded at Petersburg).
If there is to be any blowing up it will probably be
in front of the 18th corps (which Ord commanded).
The men who are likely to be exposed however ought
to be notified so they will not be stampeded. If we
can be on our guard when a mine is sprung the
enemy ought to be repulsed with great slaughter.
When do you understand from the dispatch the ex-
plosion was to take place?
On November 30, 1864, he wires Major-General
Butler:
I have files of Savannah and Augusta papers sent
me by Col. Mulford from which I gather that
Bragg has gone to Georgia, taking with him what I
judge to be most of the forces from about Wilming-
ton. It is therefore important that Weitzel should
get off during his absence, and, if successful in effect-
ing landing, he may, by a bold dash, also succeed in
capturing Wilmington. Make all the arrangement
for his departure so that the Navy will not be de-
tained one moment for the Army. Did you order
Palmer to make move proposed yesterday? It is im-
portant that he should do so without delay.
He says to Major-General Halleck on December
8, 1864:
Please direct General Dodge to send all the troops
he can spare to Gen. Thomas. With such an order
Straight talk from a man who has been at the
front most of the time since the war began.
What he says about Americans who have helped
and Americans who have hindered, about the
French and what they have endured-all means
more to us now that we are in the war. Cloth,
12mo, net $1.35.
ÉMILE BOIRAC'S
OUR
HIDDEN FORCES
Translated with a Preface by Dr. W. de Kerlor.
The mysteries of hypnotism, animo-magnetism
and spiritism explained and described with many
interesting experiments by the leading psycholo-
gist of France. The author proves that every
human being possesses latent psychic powers of
real practical value. Nuustrated. Cloth, 8vo, net
$2.00.
RECOMMENDED FICTION:
LYDIA OF PINES
THE
By HONORE WILLSIE
An essentially American novel of young woman-
hood in the Hiawatha Country. Net $1.40.
IN THE WILDERNESS
By ROBERT HICHENS
Better than “The Garden of Allah." “Hich-
ens' masterpiece.”—Brooklyn Eagle. Net $1.50.
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY


536
(June 14
THE DIAL
EVERYBODY
men and women
alike are drawn
in sympathy toward the man, who from
small beginnings makes his way from
the bottom rung of the ladder to the
top.—Hence the appeal of “Big Bill"
Matthews, super-man
and dominant
figure in
THE ROAD OF
AMBITION
Elaine Sterne's big novel in which the
great steel industry of the nation serves
as a background. Reviewers are more
than generous in their praise of this
story. Some say it is
The Big Novel of the Year
and others that it is “The biggest story
in years.”
New York Tribune says: "A big story
about a big man, who did big things in
a big way.”
Boston Herald: "Miss Sterne's story
has the appeal of its hero's powerful
personality.”
Philadelphia North American: “All
play their parts well so that when the
final curtain falls there is nothing more
to be said or thought."
Richmond Dispatch :-“A story of the
masses and the classes—the kind that
keeps the world from going back."
New York World :-“This author has
written a story vividly and richly hu-
man and completely convincing, reveal-
ing in herself 'Big Bill's' own power
to reach the goal of purpose.”
Pittsburgh Press :"One is awed by the
bigness and vitality of this book which
fairly shakes with power. It is the best
novel in years."
he may be relied on to send all that can properly
go. They had probably better be sent to Louisville,
for I fear either Hood or Breckenridge will get into
the Ohio river. I will submit whether it is not
advisable to call on Ohio, Iowa and Illinois for sixty
thousand men for thirty days. If Thomas has not
struck yet he ought to be ordered to hand over his
command to Schofield. There is no better man to
repel an attack than Thomas, but I fear he is too
cautious to ever take the initiative.
He wires as follows on March 2, 1865, to Secre-
tary Stanton:
My dispatch of this afternoon answers yours of
9.30 this evening. I do not think it possible for
Lee to send anything towards Washington unless it
should be a brigade of Cavalry. Augur's returns show
a good force of cavalry to meet anything of the
kind, besides a large infantry force.
The great
number of deserters and refugees coming in daily
enable us to learn if any considerable force starts
off almost immediately as soon as it starts. Except
in the neighborhood of Stanton there is not now
North of the Chickahominy 5,000 rebel soldiers, in-
cluding all the guards on the Central Railroad. I
have not sent a force to the Rappabannock, but shall
do so as soon as possible.
Mr. Henkels also sold on the evening of June 8
a collection of important autographs, including
rare letters and documents relating to Charles I,
the Regicides, and other important characters of
that time; a fine series of letters from Colonel
John Trumbull with regard to his painting at the
National Capital and to his estate; a series of
pathetic letters from Robert Morris, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, to
John Nicholson during his financial difficulty; doc-
uments signed by Lincoln and Franklin.
There was also the autograph manuscript, signed
by Samuel F. Smith, of the song "America. It
consisted of the five stanzas complete, including
the lines about this country's one hundred years.
A letter of the author, which accompanied the song,
denied the generally accepted statement that he re-
ceived money for copies of it. “I have never
under any circumstances," he says, “received pay
for autographs of 'America,' though I have written
many for benevolent causes. I take pleasure in
aiding your good designs by sending two copies
of the song.
Another interesting item was a lock
of John Milton's hair, in an old black and ormolu
miniature frame. The vendor was Miss Martineau,
of Fairlight Lodge, Hastings. She is the great
granddaughter of Dr. Robert Batty, of the
'European Magazine," who died in 1859. He ob-
tained the lock of hair from John Harte, Dr.
Samuel Johnson's executor. Before Johnson ac-
quired it, Joseph Addison is supposed to have
been the owner, but it is on record that Johnson
took a great interest in Milton's surviving daugh-
ter, and composed a prologue recited by David
Garrick at a benefit arranged for her.
sible, therefore, that Johnson obtained it from
her. Dr. Batty gave a portion of the hair to Leigh
Hunt, who shared it with Robert Browning. The
remainder had been at Fairlight Lodge ever since.
The poem by John Keats was written after seeing
the lock at Leigh Hunt's house. The Milton-
Browning lock was sold at the Coggeshall sale in
New York, June 15, 1916.
97
It is pos-
At All Bookstores $1.35 net
Britton Publishing Company
NEW YORK


1917]
537
THE DIAL
NOTES AND NEWS
A book for the hammock
Lend Me
Your Name!
99
THE DIAL takes pleasure in announcing that,
with the present issue, Mr. John Macy and Mr.
Conrad Aiken join its staff as Contributing Edi-
tors. Mr. Macy was graduated from Harvard in
1899. After a period of teaching, he served on
the staff of “The Youth's Companion,” and was
for two years literary editor of the Boston
“Herald." He is the author of a “Life of Poe,
"The Spirit of American Literature,” and “So-
cialism in America." Mr. Aiken attracted the
attention of discriminating readers with his first
book of verse, “Earth Triumphant, and Other
Tales," published two years after he left Har-
vard. He has since published a second book of
poetry and is a frequent contributor to the maga-

zines.
"Pals First"
"The Haunted Pajamas“
Of the contributors to the present issue, S. Gris-
wold Morley is a teacher at the University of Cali-
fornia.
Max Sylvius Handman was formerly a member
of the Department of Sociology at the University
of Chicago and the University of Missouri. He
was educated at Columbia and abroad, and he has
had the benefit of long association with Professor
Veblen.
M. C. Otto is a teacher of philosophy at the
University of Wisconsin.
Harold J. Laski is well known to readers of
THE DIAL.
Garland Greever is associate professor of Eng-
lish at Indiana State University.
Ward Swain is a teacher of French at Wabash
College. He was educated at Columbia and at the
University of Paris.
Frederic Austin Ogg is associate professor of
political science at the University of Wisconsin.
He is the author of “Social Progress in Modern
Europe,” “Social and Industrial History of Eu-
rope since the French Revolution,” “Governments
of Europe," etc.
Gossamer? Yes—but who
wants woolens in summer?
There's a forest in Lend Me Your
Name!- a cool green forest, with a
schoolful of girls near by—“The
Forest of Arden." There the earl,
incognito, meets the girl, whose name
is Rosalind, just as it was in that
other Forest of Arden. They had
just the right setting for an idyll,
and the earl finds himself a far bet-
ter idyller than he had ever hoped
to be.
Billy is born to an earldom, Biffers
has it thrust upon him, and Hastings
achieves one, temporarily - as does
Rosalind, permanently.
Earl Billy and Rosalind alone would
make a fine love story, but with the
Burglar and Milady Sophronia and
Hastings and Marcelle, they make a
story that is dainty and joyous and
keen.
You will remember it
you
will like to
remember it.
Lend Me Your Name!
By Francis Perry Elliott
$1.25 net
A new novel by William J. Locke, entitled “The
Red Planet,” is announced by the John Lane Co.
for publication July 6th.
The letters which comprise "War Flying," just
published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, were
written by a young pilot in the Royal Flying
Corps to his family.
Robert J. Shores, the New York publisher, has
organized a committee of publishers to contribute
books and magazines through the American Red
Cross to American soldiers in camp.
Simultaneously with the publication of the
Northland Edition of Selma Lagerlöf's works,
Doubleday, Page & Co. have published a brochure
entitled: "Selma Lagerlöf, the Woman, Her Work,
Her Message.
Captain Thomas Arthur Nelson, senior mem-
ber of the firm of Thomas Nelson & Sons, New
York, London, Edinburgh, and Paris, was killed
by shell fire about the middle of April while on
special service on the Western front with the
tanks.
and
THE REILLYT&BRITTON.CO
an
PVBLISHERS
CHICAGO


538
[June 14
THE DIAL
“AT MCCLURG'S”
It is of interest and importance
to Librarians to know that the
books reviewed and advertised
in this magazine can be pur-
chased from us at advantageous
prices by
Public Libraries, Schools,
Colleges and Universities
In addition to these books we
have an exceptionally large
stock of the books of all pub-
lishers - a more complete as.
sortment than can be found on
the shelves of any other book-
store in the entire country. We
solicit correspondence from
librarians unacquainted with
our facilities.
LIBRARY DEPARTMENT
A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago
Paul Claudel, the French poet, whose “East I
Know" was translated by Mr. and Mrs. Benét
and his "Tidings Brought to Mary," by Louise
Morgan Sill (Yale University Press), has been
appointed Plenipotentiary Minister of France to
Brazil.
The Marshall Jones Co. have just received
word that the Eddic volume of “The Mythology of
All Races,” which was nearly completed by Pro-
fessor Axel Olrick of Copenhagen at the time of
his death in February, is now almost entirely ar-
ranged for.
Harry Houston Peckham and Paul Sidell, in-
structors in English at Purdue University, have
compiled a conveniently annotated list of Ameri-
can Fiction. The list is divided into two parts,
covering the periods from the beginnings to 1870
and from that date to the present.
Fleet Street is brought up to date in “The
Street of Ink,” just published by Funk & Wag-
nalls. The author is H. Simonds, the director of
the London “Daily News” and “The Star," who
has been intimately associated with the London
newspaper world for twenty-one years.
Several of the plays produced by Stuart Walk-
er's “Portmanteau Theatre" have been collected
in “Portmanteau Plays," just published by the
Stewart & Kidd Co. The plays included are:
“Trimplet," "Six Who Pass While the Lentils
Boil,” “Nevertheless,” and “Medicine-Show.” The
volume contains an introduction by Edward Hale
Bierstadt.
Instead of publishing the usual annual cumula-
tion of the monthly issues of “The Open Shelf,"
the Cleveland Public Library has this year sub-
stituted a number of slips, folders, and leaflets,
each one containing a limited selection from the
“best” books in some one class added to the library
during 1916. There are nineteen varieties of these
annotated lists.
Harry A. Franck, author of "Four Months
Afoot in Spain," "Tramping Through Mexico,
Guatemala and Honduras," etc., has gone to a
Plattsburg camp to train for an officers' commis-
sion. His new book, “Vagabonding Down the
Andes,” is announced by the Century Co. for
publication next fall.
Late June publications by Little, Brown
& Co. are:
“Constitutional Conventions: Their
Nature, Powers and Limitations,” by Roger Sher-
man Hoar; "Food Preparedness for the United
States," by Charles O'Brien, and a new revised
edition of “The American Dramatist," by Mont-
rose J. Moses.
“Seneca's Morals,” the first book published by
Harper & Brothers, is soon to be republished in a
limited edition. The first and last page of each
section of the old edition will be reproduced in
facsimile, together with numerous
which show typographical variations from present-
day taste and methods. In each case these pages
will face the newly set pages containing the same
matter. The format has been selected by William
Dana Orcutt, who will also design a special bind-
ing
I|IIIII
ON|||||||||||||||||||||II||||||IICOTMICONDANNEGUIN COMUNI
HENRY THOREAU
AS REMEMBERED BY
A YOUNG FRIEND
By
Edward Waldo Emerson
son of
These recollections by a
Ralph Waldo Emerson present a
picture of the great poet-naturalist
that could have come from no other
source. During their entire child-
hood Thoreau was like an older
brother to the Emerson children.
The book gives a picture of the
great poet-naturalist that it would
be quite impossible to get from any
other source and dispels for all
time the popular misconception of
Thoreau as an idle fanatic and
hermit.
$1.25 net
other pages
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston and New York
6:11 Call||||C3|CO|||||||||||||||||||||||||NUCIMUOMUCENONE


1917]
539
THE DIAL
THE DIAL
. Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism,
Discussion, and Information
GEORGE BERNARD DONLIN
TRAVIS HOKE
Editor
Associate
Contributing Editors
RANDOLPH BOURNE
HENRY B. FULLER
WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY H. M. KALLEN
PADRAIO COLUM
J. E. ROBINSON
THEODORE STANTON
J. C. SQUIRE
Published by
THE DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
608 South Dearborn Street, Chicago
Telephone Harrison 3293
MARTYN JOHNSON
WILLARD C. KITCHEL
President
Sec’y-Treas.
THE DIAL (founded in 1880 by Francis F.
Browne) is published fortnightly — every other
Thursday except in July, when but one issue will
appear.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION:— $3. a year in
advance, postage prepaid in the United States and its
possessions, Canada, and Mexico. Foreign postage,
50 cents a year extra. Price of single copies, 15 cents.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS:- Subscribers may have
their mailing address changed as often as desired.
In ordering such changes, it is necessary that both
the old and new addresses be given.
REMITTANCES should be made payable to THE
DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, and should be in
the form of Express or Money Order, or in New
York or Chicago exchange. When remitting by per.
sonal check, 10 cents should be added for cost of
collection.
Entered as Second-class matter Oct. 8, 1892, at the
Post Office at Chicago, under Act of March 3, 1879.
In this day of mental and social up-
heaval, society must needs adapt its
mediums to its ideals. This is partic-
ularly true of patriotic songs.
NEW SONGS OF AMERICA
by SIMON N. PATTEN
a leaflet containing the words of sixteen
patriotic songs (no music) to be sung to
familiar tunes, are expressive of present-day
ideals of democracy. The old type of patri-
otic song no longer meets the need of the
American spirit. These songs attempt to
combine social and patriotic ideals. You may
have a copy for 6c in stamps.
B. W. HUEBSCH, Publisher
225 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
THE AUTHORIZED LIFE OF
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
JAMES
J. HILL
[The following list, containing 114 titles, includes
books received by THE DIAL since its last issue.]
By Joseph Gilpin Pyle
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES.
The Life of James J. Hill. By Joseph Gilpin Pyle.
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