y Ernest H. Wilkins and Algernon
Coleman, paper, 40 cts. (University of Chicago
Press.)
The Studio Year-Book of Decorative Art, 1918, illus.,
$3. (John Lane Co.)
Everyday Law, by Frederick H. Bacon, $1. (Robert
M. McBride & Co.)
Simplest Spoken French, by W. F. Giese and Barry
Cerf, 65 cts. (Henry Holt & Co.)
The Boys' Book of Engine-Building, by A. Frederick
Collins, illus., $1.25. (Small, Maynard & Co.)
Russian Grammar
By NeviLL FORBES. Second Edition, Revised
and Enlarged. Crown 8vo (77x574), pp. 276
: $2.40
A practical rather than a scientific grammar
with a specially lengthy treatment of the verb.
First Russian Book
By NeviLL FORBES. Crown 8vo (7%2x574),
pp. 124......
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A practical means of acquainting the student
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guage-the case-endings.
Second Russian Book
By Nevill FORBES. Crown 8vo (742x574),
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A practical guide to the study of the Rus-
bian verb.
Third Russian Book
By NevilL FORBES. Crown 8vo (77/2x574),
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.$1.00
Extracts from Aksákov, Grigoróvich, Herzen,
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and complete vocabulary.
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..60c
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By L. H. ALEXANDER. Pp. xx + 355....$1.00
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UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMERICAN BRANCH
NEW YORK


372
[April 11
THE DIAL
FOR THINKING PEOPLE
FIFTY YEARS OF ASSOCIATION WORK AMONG
YOUNG WOMEN. By Elizabeth Wilson
A history of the growth and development of the
Y. W. C. A. movement in the United States with
an illuminating presentation of the background
which has made possible the Association's power
to meet international demands in the present
crisis. Illus.
Svo. Cloth, Net, $1.35; Lib.
Edn., Net, $1.60.
THE YOUNG WOMAN CITIZEN. By Mary Austin
A comprehensive discussion of citizenship with
special reference to its social and moral obligations.
12mo. Cloth, Net, $1.00
MOBILIZING WOMAN-POWER
By Harriot Stanton Blatch
A survey of women's work as applied to the
war and the period of reconstruction which will
follow. Illus. 12mo. Cloth, Net, $1.25
HEALTH AND THE WOMAN MOVEMENT
By Clelia Duel Mosher, M.D.
A solution of the Health Problem as affecting
women who are called upon to substitute man-
power in industry.
16mo. Board, Net, 25 cents
GIRLHOOD AND CHARACTER. By Mary E. Mozcey
A careful study of the principles of physical and
mental growth which affect the moral and spirit-
ual development of girls.
121u. Cloth, Net, $1.50
ICE-BREAKERS. By Edna Geister
A book of Games and Stunts for Large and
Small Groups based upon the author's methods
for introducing recreational activities in schools
and war centers. 12mo. Cloth, Net, $1.00
Order through your Bookseller or
THE WOMANS PRESS
Publication Department, National Board
Young Womens Christian Associations
600 Lexington Avenue
NEW YORK CITY
Birds of Field, Forest and Park, by Albert Field Gil-
more, illus., $2. (The Page Co.)
The Conquest of the Air, by A. Lawrence Rotch, re-
vised by Alexander Klemin, illus., $1.25. (Moffat,
Yard & Co.)
Wooden Shipbuilding, by W. J. Thompson, $2.50.-
How to Speak Convincingly, by Edwin G. Law-
rence, $1.—Statistics, by W. B. Bailey and John
Cummings, 60 cts. (A. C. McClurg & Co.)
The Social Letter, by Elizabeth Myers, $1.—The Avia-
tor's Pocket Dictionary: French-English and English-
French, frontispiece, $1.—The Aviator's Elementary
Handbook, by A. Gramont De Guiche, translated by
Dwight M. Miner, illus., $1. (Brentano.)
A Manual of Histology, by Henry Erdmann Radasch,
illus., $2.50.—How to Keep Fit in Camp and Trench,
by Col. Charles Lynch and Maj. James G. Cum-
ming, illus., paper, 30 cts. (P. Blakiston's Son
& Co.)
Complete U. S. Infantry Guide, arranged by Maj.
James K. Parsons, illus., $6.—Tactics and Tech-
nique of River Crossings, by Col. Mertens, trans-
lated by Maj. Walter Krueger, illus., $2.50.-
Military and Naval Recognition Book, by Lieut.
J. W. Bunkley, illus., $1. (D. Van Nostrand Co.)
The Orthopedic Treatment of Gunshot Injuries, by
Leo Mayer, illus.-Industrial Medicine and Surgery,
by Maj. Harry E. Mock, illus.-Principles of Sur-
gical Nursing: A Guide to Modern Surgical Tech-
nic, by Frederick C. Warnshuis, illus.- Laboratory
Outline of Neurology, by C. Judson Herrick and
Elizabeth C. Crosby, $1. (W. B. Saunders Co.)
The Farm Tractor: Its Mechanism, Use, Care, and
Repair, by Wallace B. Blood, $2.50.—Controlling
Profits: Simplified Efficiency Methods in Store
Record Keeping, by Eugene Herz, $1.–Starland
Sketches, by P. A. Price, maps, $1.-A Compendium
of Parliamentary Law, by Emma Guy Cromwell,
chart, 75 cts. (Laird & Lee.)
How to Breathe Right, by Edward Lanlow. (Edward
J. Clode.)
Ice-Breakers: Games and Stunts for Large and Small
Groups, by Edna Geister, $1. (Woman's Press.)
United States Army, Facts and Insignia, by Valdemar
Paulsen, illus., 50 cts. (Rand McNally & Co.)
City Manager Plan, by Edward C. Mabie, $1.25.
(H. W. Wilson Co.)
How to Have Bird Neighbors, by S. Louise Patteson,
illus., 90 cts. (George W. Jacobs Co.)
Aeroplane Construction and Operation, by John B.
Rathbun, $1.50. (Stanton & Van Vliet.)
Secrets of Success in Poultry Culture, by Hugh M.
Wallace, illus., $1.50. (Standard Publishing Co.)
How Shall I Take Exercise and Set-Up? by Samuel
Delano, illus., $2. (Four Seas Co.)
Winter Butterflies in Bolinas, by Mary D. Barber,
50 cts. (Paul Elder & Co.)
REFERENCE
Encyclopedia Medica, new second edition, edited by
J. W. Ballantyne, 15 vols., Vols. I-V, illus., $6, per
vol. in sets by subscription.--Human physiology, by
Luigi Luciani, translated by Frances A. Welby,
edited by Gordon M. Holmes, preface by J. N.
Langley, 5 vols., illus., $5.25 per vol.-Typhoid
Fever: Considered as a Problem of Scientific Medi-
cine, by Frederick P. Gay, $2.50.–An Atlas of the
Dissection of the Cow, by Grant Sherman Hopkins,
illus. (The Macmillan Co.)
Periodic Orbits, by F. R. Moulton and Collaborators.
-An Atlas of the Milky Way, by E. E. Barnard.-
The Cactaceæ: Descriptions and Illustrations of
Plants of the Cactus Family, by N. L. Britton and
J. N. Rose, Vol. I. (Carnegie Institution.)
If you want to understand the I. W. W. from the his-
torical point of view read André Tridon's concise
presentation,
THE NEW UNIONISM
"A CLEAR exposition of the philosophy and practice of syndi-
calism, its history and its present status all over the world. His
account might be looked at as a valuable handbook, supplement-
ing the works of Simkhovitch, Spargo, John Graham Brooks, and
other writers, who do not apply so thoroughly the doctrine to
the concrete experience of the agitation that is daily taking
place."
- Boston Transcript.
($1.00]
If you want to understand syndicalism as it is rooted
in philosophy, examine Georges Sorel's classic,
REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE
"It is doubtful if any book can be named that is better calcu-
lated to state the spirit
and method of revolution than this special
volume by Georges Sorel. The Introduction alone will con-
vince any reader that this study is not to be skipped by one who
would know the most penetrating observations upon the various
anarchisms of the hour." -American Economic Review.
($2.25)
If you want the Socialist reaction to the revolutionary
labor movements see John Spargo's statement,
SYNDICALISM, INDUSTRIAL
UNIONISM and SOCIALISM
"The best exposition of syndicalism and its
allied subjects is John Spargo's book. It is a
careful piece of work, dealing, from the orthodox
Socialist standpoint, with the origin, methods
and philosophy of syndicalism and its relation to
Socialism.' ($1.25] - The Independent
Obtainable through good booksellers
everywhere or of the publisher
THIS MARK ON
GOOD BOOKS B. W. HUEBSCH 295 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW


1918]
373
THE DIAL
BOOKS WITH
PURPOSE
Published
By
AP
Association
Press
Publication Department
International Committee
YMCA
Two New Fosdick
Books that Are
Making a Tremendous
Impression-
Slavic Europe: A Selected Bibliography in the West-
ern European Languages, Comprising History, Lan-
guages, and Literature, by Robert Joseph Kerner.-
Treaties: A Bibliography of Collections of Treaties
and Related Material, by Denys Peter Myers.—A
Bibliography of Municipal_Utility Regulation and
Municipal Ownership, by Don Lorenzo Stevens.-
Handbook of Red-Figured Vases, by Joseph Clark
Hoppin, illus.-Attic Red-Figured Vases in American
Museums, by J. D. Beazley, illus. (Harvard Uni-
versity Press.)
Catalogue of the Hemiptera of America North of
Mexico, by Edward P. Van Duzee, $5.50.-A Synop-
sis of the Bats of California, by Hilda Wood Grin-
nell, illus., paper, $2.-Abscission of Flowers and
Fruits in Solanaceæ, With Special Reference to
Nicotiana, by John N. Kendall, illus., 85 cts. (Uni-
versity of California Press.)
Larger English-Irish Dictionary, by T. O'Neill Lane,
$7.50.—Cassell's French-English and English-French
Dictionary, edited by James Boielle, $1.50.-Fifteen
Thousand Useful Phrases, by Grenville Kleiser,
$1.60. (Funk & Wagnalls Co.)
The Standard Index to Short Stories, 1900-1914, by
Francis J. Hannigan, $10.00.-Sayings That Never
Grow old, by Marshall Brown, $1. (Small, May-
nard & Co.)
The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, Master
of the Revels, 1623-1673, edited by Joseph Quincy
Adams, Jr.,, illus., $2.50. (Yale University Press.)
A Sumero-Babylonian Sign List, by Samuel A. B.
Mercer, $6. _(Columbia University Press.)
A Lithuanian Etymological Index, by H. H. Bender.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE
PRESENT CRISIS
Boards, 50c
By HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK
30 Thousand Copies Sold in a Few Months
Its 5th Edition Now on Press
IN THIS FEARLESS analysis of the value of
force and its limitations, the place of militarism
in a Christian civilization, and other funda-
mental elements in the present situation which
constitute a challenge to Christian churches and
individuals, the author proves afresh his power
to interpret the current thoughts of men and to
guide them to higher levels.
"FOSDICK'S 'The Challenge of the Present
Crisis' seems to me the clearest, finest statement
of our best Christian thought on the war that I
know. He has done a great service in preparing
it, and you, in publishing it.”-OZORA S. DAVIS.
“THE MEANING OF
FAITH".
By HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK
Author of "The Meaning of Prayer, Etc.
"An Everyday Life Book”
Thin Paper, Art Leather Click; $1.00
(Princeton University Press.)
The American Year Book, edited by Francis G. Wick-
ware, $3. (D. Appleton & Co.)
Sign Talk, by Ernest Thompson Seton, illus., $3.
(Doubleday, Page & Co.)
Tube Teeth and Porcelain Rods, by John Girdwood,
illus., $5. (Longmans, Green & Co.)
Masonic Bookplates, by Winward Prescott, illus., $1.
(Four Seas Co.)
New English-Italian and Italian-English Dictionary,
by F. Millhouse and F. Bracciforti, $4.50. (Peter
Reilly.)
The Mythology of All Races: Egyptian, Indo-Chinese,
by W. Max Müller and Sir James George Scott;
Celtic, Slavic, by Canon John A. MacCulloch and
Jan Máchal, illus., $6. each. (Marshall, Jones & Co.)
The Therapy of Surgical Diseases, by James Peter
Warbasse, 3 vols., illus.-History of Phytopathology,
by Herbert Hice Whetzel, illus.--Obstetrics, by Bar-
ton Cooke Hirst, illus., $5.-D eases of the Male
Urethra, by Irving S. Koll, illus. (W. B. Saun-
ders Co.)
Bibliographies: Automobiles and Motorcycles, by
Arthur R. Blessing; Birth Control, by Theodore
Schroeder; Office Methods, by Blanche Baird Shelp,
25 cts. each. (H. W. Wilson Co.)
WOMAN AND THE HOME
The Woman Voter's Manual, by S. E. Forman and
Marjorie Shuler, introduction by Mrs. Carrie Chap-
man Catt, $1.—The A. B. C. of Voting: A Hand-
book on Government and Politics for the Women
of New York State, by Marion B. Cothren, intro-
duction by Governor Charles S. Whitman, 60 cts.
(The Century Co.)
Caroline King's Cook Book, illus., $1.50.—The Economy
Cook Book, by Marion Harris Neil, illus., $1.50.-
Economy in Food, by Mabel T. Wellman, 40 cts.
(Little, Brown & Co.)
Everyday Foods in War Time, by Mary Swartz Rose,
75 cts. (The Macmillan Co.)
Round CornersPocket ize,
THIS IS THE BOOK that Fosdick was work-
ing on for years, and turned aside long enough
to write “The Challenge of the Present Crisis."
The author's purpose in these twelve studies is
to clear away the misapprehensions involved in
the commonly accepted theories of faith, to in-
dicate the relationship of faith to other aspects
of life, to face frankly the serious question of
suffering as an obstacle of faith, and to expound
the vital significance of faith in Jesus Christ.
It is a book for the times, strong, vital, signifi-
cant.
WRITE FOR OUR CATALOG OF "BOOKS
WITH PURPOSE"
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ASSOCIATION PRESS
124 E. 28th St.
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374
(April 11
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 par-
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 pab-
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
C
A Complete System of Nursing, by A. Millicent Ash-
down, illus., $5.—Diabetic Cookery, by Rebecca
Oppenheimer, $2.—The Economy Cook Book, by
Mrs. H. V. K. Gilmore.-Organizing Girls, by
Helen J. Ferris. (E. P. Dutton & Co.)
The Labour-Saving House, by Mrs. C. S. Peel, illus.,
$1.25.—The Eat-Less-Meat Book, by Mrs. C. S.
Peel, $1.-Soups, Oysters, and Surprises, by Mrs.
Lionel Guest, paper, 25 cts. (John Lane Co.)
The Blue Grass Cook Book, by Minerva C. Fox, intro-
duction by John Fox, Jr.-Home Vegetables and
Small Fruits: Their Culture and Preservation, by
Frances Duncan, illus. (Charles Scribner's Sons.)
Food and Freedom, by Mabel Dulon Purdy, illus., $1.
-Your Vote and How to Use It, by Mrs. Raymond
Brown, foreword by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
75 cts. (Harper & Brothers.)
How to Keep Well, by William A. Evans, illus., $5.-
Wheatless and Meatless Days, by Pauline D. Part.
ridge and Hester M. Conklin, $1.25. (D. Apple-
ton & Co.)
A Little Sewing Book for a Little Girl, by Louise von
Palm, illus., 75 cts.-A Little Candy Book for a
Little Girl, by Amy L. Waterman, illus., 75 cts.
(The Page Co.)
Colour in My Garden, by Louise Beebe Wilder, illus.,
$15.—Home Vegetable Gardening, by Adolph Kruhm,
illus., $1.25. (Doubleday, Page & Co.)
Natural Care and Food for Child and Mother, by
Mrs. William R. Rummler, $1.50. (Rand McNally
& Co.)
War-Time Breads and Cakes, by Amy L. Handy,
75 cts. (Houghton Mifflin Co.)
Physical Beauty—How to Keep It, by Annette Keller-
man, illus., $2. (George H. Doran Co.)
The Home Garden, by Eben E. Rexford, illus., $1.25.
(J. B. Lippincott Co.)
Home Help in Music Study, by Harriette Brower, $1.25.
(Frederick A. Stokes Co.)
Mrs. Allen's Cook Book, by Ida C. Bailey Allen,
illus., $2. (Small, Maynard & Co.)
The Home Poultry Book, by Edward I. Farrington,
illus., $1. (Robert M. McBride & Co.)
The Book of Corn Cookery, by Mary L. Wade, 75 cts.
(A. C. McClurg & Co.)
Woman: Past, Present, and Future, by August Bebel,
$1.50. (Boni & Liveright.)
Thrift in the Household, by Dora Morrell Hughes,

XEXOXEXEXEXEXEXEXUXUXL
Hundreds of
Thousands
XIXIXIXIX
of WEBSTER'S
NEW INTERNATIONAL
DICTIONARIES are in use by business men, en-
gineers, bankers, judges, architects, physicians,
farmers, teachers, librarians, clergymen, by suc-
cessful men and women the world over.
ARE YOU EQUIPPED TO WIN?
The New International provides the means to
success. It is an all-knowing teacher, a universal
question answerer.
If you seek efficiency and advancement why not
make daily use of this vast fund of information?
400,000 Vocabulary Terms.
2700 Pages. 6000 Illustrations.
Colored Plates. 30,000 Geo-
graphical Subjects. 12,000 Bio-
graphical Entries.
Regular and
India-Paper Editions.
Write for specimen pages, il-
lustrations, etc. Free, a set
of Pocket Maps if you name
THE DIAL.
G. & C. MERRIAM CO.,
Springfield, Mass.
POSTERS
$1.25. (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.)
The Backyard Garden: A Handbook for the Ama-
teur, by Edward I. Farrington, $1. (Laird & Lec.)
Low Cost Recipes-A War-Time Cook Book, by Edith
G. Harbison, $1. (George W. Jacobs & Co.)
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
(The following list, containing 109 titles, includes
books received by The Dial since its last issue.
THE WAR.
Men in War. By Andreas Latzko. Boni & Live-
right. $1.50.
The Winning of the War. By Roland G. Usher.
Illustrated, 12mo, 382 pages. Harper & Bros. $2.
Germany at Bay. By Major Haldane Macfall.
With an introduction by Field Marshal Viscount
French. Illustrated, 8vo, 304 pages. George H.
Doran Co. $1.50.
Out There. By Charles W. Whitehair. Illustrated,
12mo, 249 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50.
Outwitting the Hun. By Lieut. Pat O'Brien. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 284 pages. Harper & Bros. $1.50.
A "Temporary Gentleman” in France. Home letters
from an officer at the front. With introductory
chapters by Capt. A. J. Dawson. 12mo, 263
pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50.
1
XOXOX
XOXEXOX XOXOXOXOXOX
1


1918]
375
THE DIAL
The Book Sensation of the Year
OSCAR WILDE:
HIS LIFE AND CONFESSIONS
By FRANK HARRIS
with MEMORIES OF OSCAR WILDE by
Bernard Shaw
An excellent biography, intimate,
sympathetic, yet rigidly honest.
-H. L. Mencken, in Smart Set
A candid, revealing, and noble piece
of literature. A book more impor-
tant than anything Wilde ever did.
-Floyd Dell, in The Masses.
TWO VOLUMES
FIVE DOLLARS
ORDER FROM
PEARSON'S MAGAZINE
34 Union Square East, N. Y. City
THE UNDERGRADUATE
AND HIS COLLEGE
By Frederick P. Keppel
Former Dean of the College
Columbia University
Tb Bagdad With the British. By Arthur Tillotson
Clark. Illustrated, 12mo, 295 pages. D. Apple-
ton & Co. $1.50.
Donald Thompson in Russia. By Donald C. Thomp-
son. Illustrated, 8vo, 353 pages, The Century
Co. $2.
Glorious Exploits of the Air. By Edgar Middleton.
Illustrated, 12mo, 256 pages. D. Appleton & Co.
$1.35.
The Glory of the Trenches. By Coningsby Dawson.
With frontispiece, 12mo, 141 pages. John Lane
Co. $1.
The Father of a Soldier. By W. J. Dawson.
12mo, 164 pages. John Lane Co. $1.
Letters to the Mother of a Soldier. By Richardson
Wright. 12mo, 135 pages. Frederick A. Stokes
Co. $1.
America After the War. By an American Jurist.
12mo, 208 pages. The Century Co. $1.
Lloyd George and the War. By "An Independent
Liberal." 12mo, 159 pages. The Macmillan Co.
Paper. 80 cts.
The Trial of Sir Roger Casement. Edited by
George H. Knott. Illustrated, 8vo, 304 pages.
The Cromarty Law Book Co., Philadelphia.
Full Text of the Secret Treaties. (As Revealed at
Petrograd.) 4to, 15 pages. New York Evening
Post. Paper. 10 cts.
Feld Artillery Officer's Notes. Compiled by Capt.
Wm. H. Caldwell. Under the direction of Lieut.
Col. Robert M. Danford. 12mo, 77 pages. E. P.
Dutton & Co, $1.50.
Manual of Military Map Making and Reading. By
Lieut.-Col. J. M. Hutchinson and Capt. A. J.
MacElroy. Illustrated, 16mo, 122 pages. D. Ap-
pleton & Co. 75 cts.
Manual of Physical Training: As issued by the
War Department for use in the United States
Army. Illustrated, 16mo, 207 pages. George
Sully & Co. 75 cts.
How to Keep Fit in Camp and Trench. By Col.
Charles Lynch and Major James G. Cumming.
16mo, 72 pages. P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 30 cts.
FICTION,
Old People and Things That Pass. By Louis Cou-
perus. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de
Mattos. 12mo, 388 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.50.
Five Tales. By John Galsworthy. 12mo, 380
pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.
Nine Humorous Tales. By Anton Chekhov. Trans-
lated by Isaac Goldberg and Henry T. Schnitt-
kind. 12mo, 60 pages. The Stratford Co. 25 cts.
An Autumn Sowing. By E. F. Benson. 12mo, 336
pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.35.
The Pawns Count. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
With frontispiece. 12mo, 315
pages, Little,
Brown & Co. $1.50.
The Best People. By Anne Warwick. 12mo, 345
pages. John Lane Co. $1.50.
Miss Amerikanka. By Olive Gilbreath. Illustrated,
12mo, 297 pages. Harper & Bros. $1.40.
The Wings of Youth. By Elizabeth Jordan. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 320 pages. Harper & Bros.
$1.40.
The Flower of the Chapdelaines. By Goerge W.
Cable. With frontispiece, 12mo, 339
pages.
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.35.
The Happy Garret. The Recollections of Hebe Hill.
Edited by V. Goldie, 12mo, 314 pages. E. P.
Dutton & Co. $1.50.
Greater Than the Greatest. By Hamilton Drum-
mond. 12mo, 304 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co.
$1.50.
The Firefly of France. By Marion Polk Angelloti.
Illustrated, 12mo, 350 pages. The Century Co.
$1.40.
Drifting (With Browne). By Byers Fletcher. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 275 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.50.
Coelebs. By F. E. Mills Young. 12mo, 311 pages.
John Lane Co. $1.40.
After. By Frederic P. Ladd. 12mo, 311
pages.
Duffield & Co. $1.50.
Howard Chase, Red Hill, Kansas. Charles M. Shel.
don. 12mo, 291 pages. George H. Doran Co.
$1.25.
The Ne'er-Do-Much. By Eleanor Hallowell Abbott.
Illustrated, 16mo, 144 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co.
$1.
The Apple Tree Girl. By George Weston. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 157 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.
“The point of view is throughout that of the
student; the wisdom that of the teacher; and
the result is a description and an arraignment,
that should arouse almost equally wide dis-
cussion.”-N. Y. Evening Post.
“He approaches his subject with such catholic-
ity of mind, with such entire freedom from
insularity and complete acquaintance with edu-
cational progress, that his book is little less
than an authoritative statement of the present
stage of the evolution of our undergraduate
institutions.”— JAMES THAYER GEROULD in The
Bellman.
$1.60 net at all bookstores.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston
New York


376
[April 11
THE DIAL
The Century
Tells the Same Story in
Schools That It Does
in Homes
That story is the knowledge that comes from
reading contributions of historians, statesmen,
men who have circled the globe; men who are
on the inside of international affairs, both at
home and abroad; men who are giving their
all in the fight for democracy and who as time
permits, will contribute that human interest
material that means so much to each reader
and is of such inestimable value from the stand-
point of facts and genuine information.
The May Century Has a
Wealth of Articles
A Few of Them Are Listed Below
GOVERNMENT BY IMPRESSIONS, .David Lawrence
An unusually important article by the Wash-
ington correspondent of the New York Evening
Post on the subject of forming public opinion.
New IDEALS FOR Peace..... .Frederic C. Howe
VENIZEOLOS OF Greece....
.Jules Bois
This article on the international famous
Premier of Greece gives a concise yet thorough
account of his political and national activity.
The PHYSICIAN AND THE War...
Frederick Peterson, M.D.
A most informative article on the work of the
medical fraternity in the war.
Fiction
THE BOOMERANG....
.David Grey
Illustrated by Norman Price
Is a new serial beginning in this issue.
SHORT STORIES by Marjorie Morton, Charles D.
Stewart and Others.
ALSO
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THE DIAL
VOLUME LXIV
No. 765
APRIL 25, 1918
CONTENTS
· 392
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
THE PASSING OF NATIONAL FRONTIERS Thorstein Veblen . 387
ANTIQUATED YOUTH
Kenneth Macgowan . 390
A GOSSIP ON JAMES BRANCH Cabell . Wilson Follett.
FOR THE YOUNG Men DEAD Verse Florence Kiper Frank . 396
OUR LONDON LETTER .
Edward Shanks
. 396
The Voice OF REASON
Harold Stearns . 399
LITERARY CLAPTRAP
James Weber Linn 401
A Swiss VIEW OF WILLIAM JAMES . H. M. Kallen.
401
A SCHOLARLY VAGABOND .
Myron R. Williams 402
THE DETERIORATION OF POETS .
Conrad Aiken.
. 403
The BREVITY SCHOOL IN FICTION . Randolph Bourne. . 405
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
. 407
Japanese Art Motives.-A History of the Pacific Northwest.—The Quest of El
Dorado.-Poems of War and Peace.-Italian Rhapsody, and Other Poems of
Italy.--Pawns of War.
CASUAL COMMENT .
410
BRIEFER MENTION .
412
NOTES AND News
414
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
416
.
.
GEORGE BERNARD DONLIN, Editor
HAROLD E. STEARNS, Associate
Contributing Editors
CONRAD AIKEN
VAN WYCK BROOKS
H. M. KALLEN
RANDOLPH BOURNE
PADRAIC COLUM
KENNETH MACGOWAN
ROBERT DELL
HENRY B. FULLER
CLARENCE BRITTEN
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[April 25, 1918
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When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL.


THE DIAL
a fortnightly Journal of Criticism and Discussion of Literature and The arts
a
a
The Passing of National Frontiers
It is to be accepted as a major premise, a rehabilitation of the passing order, or a a
underlying any argument or speculation drift to new ground and a New Order.
that bears on current events or on the The principles of right and honest living
calculable future, that the peoples of are of the nature of habit, and like other
Christendom are now coming to face a habits of thought these principles change
revolutionary situation. “It is a condition, in response to the circumstances which
not a theory, that confronts us." This will condition habituation. But they change
hold true with equal cogency for inter- tardily; they are tenacious and refractory;
national relations and for the domestic and anything like a deliberate shifting to
affairs of any one of the civilized countries. new ground in such a matter will come to
It means not necessarily that a radical pass only after the old position has become
change of base in the existing law and patently untenable, and after the discipline
order is expedient or desired, but only that exercised by the new conditions of life
circumstances have been falling into such has had time to bend the spiritual attitude
shape that a radical change of base can be of the community into a new bias that will
avoided, if at all, only at the cost of a hard- be consonant with the new conditions. At
handed and sustained reactionary policy. such a juncture a critical situation will arise.
Indeed, it may be an open question whether So today a critical situation has arisen,
any concerted scheme of reactionary precipitated and emphasized by the exper-
measures will suffice to maintain or to re- ience of the war, which has served to
establish the passing status quo. It takes demonstrate that the received scheme of
the form of a question as to whether use and wont, of law and order and equity,
the Old Order can be rehabilitated, not is not competent to meet the exigencies of
whether it will stand over by its own
inertia. And it is, perhaps, still more of In the last resort, these changes of cir-
an open question what would be the nature cumstance that have so been going forward
and dimensions of those departures from and have put the received scheme of law
the holding ground of the Old Order which and order out of joint are changes of a
the new conditions of life insist on. technological kind, changes that affect the
But the situation is of a revolutionary state of the industrial arts and take effect
character, in the sense that those under- through the processes of industry. One
lying principles of human intercourse on thing and another in the institutional heri-
which the Old Order rests are no longer tage has so been outworn, or out-lived;
consonant with the circumstances which and among these is the received conception
now condition this intercourse. The spirit of the place and value of nationalities.
ual ground on which rights and duties have The modern industrial system is world-
been resting has shifted, beyond recall. wide, and the modern technological knowl-
What has been accepted hitherto as funda- edge is no respecter of national frontiers.
mentally right and good is no longer The best efforts of legislators, police, and
securely right and good in human inter- business men, bent on confining the knowl-
course as it must necessarily run under the edge and use of the modern industrial arts
altered circumstances of today and tomor- within national frontiers, has been able to
row. The question, in substance, is not as accomplish nothing more to the point than
to whether the scheme is to be revised, but a partial and transient restriction on minor
only as to the scope and method of its details. Such success as these endeavors in
revision, which may take the direction of restraint of technological knowledge have
the present.


388
(April 25
THE DIAL
met with has effected nothing better than of the community centres on industrial ef-
a slight retardation of the advance and dif- ficiency, on the uninterrupted production
fusion of such knowledge among the of goods at the lowest practicable cost in
civilized nations. Quite patently, these terms of material and man power. The
measures in restraint of industrial knowl- productive efficiency of any one industrial
edge and practice have been detrimental plant or industrial process is in no degree
to all the peoples concerned, in that they enhanced by the inefficiency of any other
have lowered the aggregate industrial plant or process comprised in the industrial
efficiency of the peoples concerned, without system; nor does any productive advantage
increasing the efficiency, wealth, or well- come to the one from a disadvantage
being of any one of them. Also quite imposed on another. The industrial proc-
patently, these endeavors in restraint of ess at large is of a coöperative nature, in
industry, have not successfully prevented no degree competitive—and it is on the
the modern industrial system from reach- productive efficiency of the industrial
ing across the national frontiers in all direc- process at large that the community's
tions, for materials and for information material interest centres. But while busi-
and experience. Indeed, so far as regards ness enterprise gets its gains from industry,
the industrial work of the modern peoples, the gains which it gets are got in compe-
as distinct from the commercial traffic of tition with rivals; and so it becomes the
their business men, it is plain that the aim of competitive business concerns to
national frontiers are serving no better pur- hinder the productive efficiency of those
pose than a moderately effectual obstruc- industrial units that are controlled by their
tion. In this respect, the national frontiers, rivals. Hence what has been called "capi-
.
and all that system of discrimination and talistic sabotage." All this, of course,
jealousy to which the frontiers give defi- is the merest commonplace of economic
nition and emphasis, are worse than use- science.
less; although circumstances which the At this point the national frontiers come
commercialized statesmen are unable to into the scheme of economic life, with the
control have made the frontiers a less ef- jealousies and discrimination which the
fectual bar to intercourse than would suit frontiers mark and embody. The front-
the designs of national statecraft.
iers, and that obstruction to traffic and
The case stands somewhat different as intercourse in which the frontiers take
regards that commercial traffic that makes effect, may serve a gainful purpose for the
use of the modern industrial system. Busi- business concerns within the frontiers by
ness enterprise is a pursuit of private gain. imposing disadvantages on those outside,
Not infrequently one business concern will the result being a lowered efficiency of
gain at the cost of another. Enterprising industry on both sides of the frontier. In
business concerns habitually seek their own short, so far as concerns their place and
advantage at the cost of their rivals in the value in modern economic life, the national
pursuit of gain; and a disadvantage im- frontiers are a means of capitalistic sabot.
posed on a rival concern or on a competing age; and indeed that is all they are good
line of business enterprise constitutes a for in this connection. All this, again, is
competitive advantage. Hindrance of a also a commonplace of economic science.
competitor is an advantage gained. Busi- In past time, before modern industry had
ness enterprise is competitive, even where taken on its modern character and taken
given business men may work in collusion to the use of a wide range of diversified
for the time being with a view to gains materials and products drawn from all
that are presently to be divided. And over the habitable world—in the past the
success in business is always finally a matter obstruction to industry, and therefore to
of private gain, frequently at the cost of material well-being, involved in the use of
some one else. Business enterprise is the frontiers as a means of sabotage was
competitive.
of relatively slight consequence. In the
But the like is not the case with indus- state of the industrial arts as it prevailed
trial efficiency. And the material interest in that past era, the industrial processes


1918]
389
THE DIAL
1
no
a
ran on a smaller scale and made relatively well-devised obstructive measures of the
little use of materials drawn from abroad. commercialized statesmen.
The mischief worked by sabotage at the As an industrial unit, the Nation is out
frontiers was consequently also relatively of date. This will have to be the point of
slight; and it is commonly believed that departure for the incoming New Order.
other, incidental gains of a national charac- And the New Order will take effect only
a
ter would accrue from so obstructing so far and so soon as men are content
traffic at the frontiers, in the way of to make up their account with this change
national self-sufficiency and warlike prep- of base that is enforced by the new com-
aration. These presumed gains in point plexion of the material circumstances
of “preparedness," it has been presumed, which condition human intercourse. Life
would outweigh the relatively slight eco- and material well-being are bound up with
nomic mischief involved in the practice of the effectual working of the industrial
national sabotage by the obstructive use system; and the industrial system is of an
of the frontiers, under the old system international character—or it should per-
of small-scale and home-bred industry. haps rather be said that it is of a cosmo-
Latterly this state of things, which once politan character, under an order of things
served in its degree to minimize the eco- in which the nation has no place or value.
nomic mischief of the national frontiers, But it is otherwise with the business men
has become obsolete. As things stand and their vested interests. Such business
now,
civilized country's industrial concerns as come into competition with
system will work in isolation. Not only other business concerns domiciled beyond
will it not work at a high efficiency if it is the national frontiers have an interest in
effectually confined within the national the national frontiers as
means of
frontiers, but it will not work at all. The obstructing competition from beyond. For
modern state of the industrial arts will the purpose of private gains, to accrue
not tolerate that degree of isolation on to certain business concerns within the
the part of any country, even in case of country, the national frontiers, and the
so large and diversified a country as the spirit of national jealousy, are valuable as
United States. The great war has demon-
a contrivance for the restraint of trade; or,
strated all that. Of course, it may be as the modern phrasing would make it,
conceived to be conceivable that a modern these things are made use of as a means
civilized community should take thought
of sabotage, to limit competition and pre-
and deliberately forgo the use of this
vent an unprofitably large output of
modern state of the industrial arts which merchantable goods being put on the
—
demands a draft on all the outlying market-unprofitable, that is
, to the vested
interests already referred to, though ad-
regions of the earth for resources neces-
vantageous to the community at large.
sary to its carrying-on; and so should
return to the archaic scheme of economic the pursuit of private gain in foreign parts,
Conversely, vested interests engaged in
life that prevailed in the days before the in the way of foreign investments, foreign
Industrial Revolution; and so would be concessions, export trade, and the like, also
able to carry on its industrial life in a
find the national establishment serviceable
passable state of isolation, such as still in enforcing claims and in procuring a
floats before the vision of the commercial- profitably benevolent consideration of their
ized statesmen. But all that line of craving for gain on the part of those
fantastic speculation can have only a foreign nations into whose jurisdiction
speculative interest. In point of practical their quest of profits is driving them. At
fact, the nations of Christendom are here this point, again, the community at large,
together, and they live and move and have the common men of the nation, have no
their being within this modern state of the material interest in furthering the advan-
industrial arts, which binds them all in an tage of the vested interests by use of the
endless web of give and take across all national power; quite the contrary in fact,
national frontiers and in spite of all the inasmuch as the whole matter resolves


390
[April 25
THE DIAL
science.
itself into a use of the nation's powers and by the national establishment, they are a
prestige for the pecuniary benefit of certain matter of special benefits designed to
vested interests which happen to be domi- accrue to the vested interests at the cost
ciled within the national frontiers. All this, of the common man. So that the question
again, is a commonplace of economic of retaining or discarding the national
establishment and its frontiers, in all that
The conclusion is equally simple and touches the community's economic rela-
obvious. As regards the modern industrial tions with foreign parts, becomes in effect
system, the production and distribution of
goods for common use, the national estab- the vested interests and the common man
a detail of that prospective contest between
lishment and its frontiers and jurisdiction
out of which the New Order is to emerge,
serve substantially no other purpose than
obstruction, retardation, and a lessened
in case the outcome of the struggle turns
in favor of the common man.
efficiency. As regards the commercial an
financial considerations to be taken care of
THORSTEIN VEBLEN.
Antiquated Youth
About five years ago a certain young ing series of events in middle Europe to
dramatic critic was dreadfully shocked by make us think a little less or a little more
being asked if, after all, “Sumurun" wasn't about the theatre. Finally have come the
the sort of thing that the theatre really distinguished writer of fiction to ask us
ought to do instead of tackling social “Why Marry?" and a specimen of the
problems. At that time the critic was younger generation of England to tell us
superintending the reformation of the about “Youth”—all just in time to be
world and his wife through the agency of compared with a revival of twenty-five-
a few choice spirits and artist-philosophers years-old “Mrs. Warren's Profession."
like Augustus Thomas, William C. de And what a terrible bore it all is !—these
Mille, George Broadhurst, and Charles plays of Messrs. Jesse Lynch Williams
Klein, with occasional assistance from the and Miles Malleson.
(printed) plays of Henrik Ibsen and Of course this is all very inconsistent
George Bernard Shaw. And it only in- and unfair. It is critical suicide to applaud
creased the critic's distress to realize that the polemic poppycock of “The Woman"
he was getting more spiritual sustenance and sneer at “Why Marry?”—to salute
out of the Reinhardt picture-play of pas- chastely the maidenly maunderings of "A
sion and knockabout cruelty than he could Man's World” and yawn at “Youth.”
draw from that defense of woman's integ. "Why Marry?” is clever. “Youth" is
rity, “Bought and Paid For," that exposé pitifully sincere. "Why Marry?" has
of corrupt politics, “The Woman,” and style. There is impassioned writing in
that arraignment of Wall Street finance, “Youth,” and real humor. Yet both of
"The Gamblers," all rolled into one. In them end by being deeply and thoroughly
the end, however, the young critic put and boringly unsatisfying.
the doubt from him. Of course, Klein
To put it as crudely as a thesis-play, a
was just a bit crude as a manufacturer of lot of us are tired of these modern dramas,
dramas of discussion. Wait till a few of just as we are tired of modern life. It is
our really distinguished fiction-writers all a mess of grubbing and grabbing and
tried their hands at it, and the younger blunder and compromise, with no passion
generation came along.
and no blazing faith to light a path across.
Since then a great many critics have Sometimes it almost seems as if the world
estimated and reëstimated the number of itself had become suddenly aware of the
gallons of water that have passed under stink and boredom of this era and had
their favorite metaphorical bridge, and conceived the perverse solution of com-
since then we have had a rather disturb mitting terrestrial suicide. Perhaps we


1918]
391
THE DIAL
ing at.
are retreating into the theatre of beauty Jesse Lynch Williams assures the twentieth
just to escape the confusion of today's century through “Why Marry?" that cer-
terrible immolation. But I think we should tain people are wrong in thinking that sex
gladly, however mistakenly, stick to our is evil, or that work is rewarded in
guns if there were anything worth shoot- inverse ratio to its usefulness to society.
What is the use of pottering It is even a bit difficult to credit Mr. Wil- .
round with luke-warm heresies and half. liams with cleverness when he urges a
baked iconoclasms that can't keep pace with
defender of the wedding ring as “only a
the shifting society that they Aatter them- symbol,” not to "insult the woman you love
selves they are reforming ? No, the old -even symbolically." And when, in the
world is dead and no one knows the dif. face of the conductorettes, he expects us to
ference-which is as sober and as sensible worry about a young lady who bemoans
an explanation as any for the sudden the fact that she is "following the only pro-
futility of plays like "Why Marry?” and fession you've allowed me to learn-mar-
“Youth," and for the solemnity with which riage,
riage," even the most stalwart pillar of
some of us accept them as works of art playhouse progress must crack under the
and the absurd vigor which others bestow strain.
on their regurgitation.
Likewise Mr. Miles Malleson, author
Yet even without the war I think we of “Youth," which preceded “Mrs. War-
should be tired of these things. We are ren" at the Comedy. He is more in the
tired of talk. . We are tired of talk that good old artist-philosopher strain than
everyone accepts and nobody acts on. We Mr. Williams. He has hold of his prob-
are tired of talk that nobody accepts and lem. He isn't swinging it in circles round
everyone acts on. We are even tired of his head like a dead cat on a string. And
talk that nobody accepts and nobody acts
he writes with enthusiasm, even beauty.
on—except, perhaps, the angels and a few Yet the interesting psychological fact re-
Bolsheviki.
mains that it is a bit hard to get excited
When you go to one of Mary Shaw's over things like:
periodic revivals of “Mrs. Warren's Pro- A wife is terribly often a married-lady-in-a
fession," such as she is now giving in New drawing-room, worn
”
out doing nothing-ora
York with the aid of the Washington much; according to the income of her owner.
married-woman-in-a-kitchen, worn out doing too
.
Square Players, you remember that Shaw
Why do you suppose men wink so pleasantly at
wrote it just a quarter of a century ago, one another over their own little love affairs, and
and you are ready to display at least a can't find words bad enough for the woman who
little antiquarian curiosity over passages
loves outside her wedding ring?
A wife is
the last word in private property
and that
like Sir George Croft's defense of his
is always a curse. When the sky is privately
partnership with Mrs. Warren:
owned, some large firm will charge to view the
Why the devil shouldn't I invest my money
sunset!
that way? I take the interest on my capital like We might as well admit that as talk this
other people: I hope you don't think I dirty my
is “old hat”-like everything else we hear
own hands with the work. Come: you wouldn't
refuse the acquaintance of my mother's cousin, the
in “plays with a purpose.
If it were
Duke of Belgravia, because some of the rents he
carried out in action-either in the theatre
gets are earned in queer ways. You wouldn't cut or in life it would be a little better. Both
the Archbishop of Canterbury, I suppose, because plays might, indeed, have carried us back
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have a few publi-
to some of the fascination of "A Doll's
cans and sinners among their tenants ?
remember your Crofts Scholarship at Newnham?
House,” if the playwrights could have seen
Well, that was founded by my brother the M. P. their themes through with half the resolute
He gets his twenty-two per cent out of a factory enthusiasm that they bestowed on digging
with 600 girls in it, and not one of them getting
up their talk. For if both plays are full
enough to live on. How d’ye suppose most of them
of "old hat" sentiments, they are both
manage? Ask your mother. And do you expect
me to turn back on thirty-five per cent when all
written on a thoroughly "new hat” sub-
the rest are pocketing what they can, like sensible ject. They both wonder if marriage—in
men?
the legal sense—is good for young people.
It is no easier to be moved when Mr. But “Why Marry ?" never gets any nearer
Do you


392
[April 25
THE DIAL
a reason than the false supposition that it in a week's-run failure called "Steve,'
it is impossible for a couple of young and Mr. Cohan may do it one of these
scientists to marry when one can earn days.
$2000 a year and the other $900, and I am naturally tempted to end with the
bewilderingly and amusingly chases its tail announcement that only such an eventual.
round that supposition; while “Youth” ity will save the theatre from "Sumurun'
forgets some excellent doubts that it raises and Mr. Gordon Craig.
and Mr. Gordon Craig. But it happens
of a young man's ability to pick a per- that the theatre is rapidly getting old
manent mate when flushed with youth's enough to be all things to all men. There
passional curiosity, and backs its two was a day when a poem was an epic, and
culprits off in a couple of corners to wait another when a book was only a book-
a few weeks while the young man makes when Homer cast lyrics under the striding
up a mind which, according to the first two feet of war, and Bunyan thought he was
acts, he has been consistently and rightly writing some sort of theological tome when
,
unable to make up because of the very he was making the first English novel.
essence of the problem.
The theatre is still a little in that mood.
After all, can this talky-talky business be But it is no great effort to imagine that
"good theatre” in any but three ways: if when the Great Peace has shaken us up
it is as thoroughgoing as "Getting Mar- a dozen times as thoroughly as the Great
ried”—absolutely artificial in its elimina- War has yet done, our plays may be as
tion of emotional violence; if it is so full of the fine thrilling variety of life as
handled by an impossible master-drama- our prose and poetry today. Then those
tist—which Ibsen is every now and then- of us who want Theda Bara and Charlie
that the perfection of the product alone Chaplin wed in the guise of “Sumurun, "
fascinates; or if somebody chucks all the and those of us who like to worry about
talk overboard and tells us our modern Youth, will all be satisfied. But it is also
“problem story" in the plain terms of safe to say that Youth will sing a rather
inarticulate human beings and their ac- different tune.
tions? A man named McIntyre once did
KENNETH MACGOWAN.
* A Gossip on James Branch Cabell
One of the prerogatives of genius, as capped by existence, and make his name a
distinguished from eminent ability or even legend, so that those who dispute whether
positive greatness, is the entire impunity his tales are true must also dispute whether
with which it refuses to live "in character." their author ever lived. He should be an
Everything that living in character has de- Ossian without any Macpherson to embar-
manded of Mr. Cabell as a man, he has rass his æsthetic consistency, a jongleur
done in his books as an author—and there without a genealogist tagging at his heels.
only. There could be no more clinching Time would fail me to set down in any
objection to some widely trusted fashions detail the respects in which Mr. Cabell is
of deducing an author's works from his the most resourceful jongleur of his trade.
life and then turning about to deduce his But at least I may signify how some of the
life from his works. At the same time most dexterous of his contrivances involve
there could be no more clinching demon- the name of Nicolas de Caen. Collecting
stration that an author's works are the in 1905 the seven tales of "The Line of
quintessence of his reality, reducing his life
and all else to flat irrelevance. The real-
ity of Mr. Cabell is jongleur, trickster-
"Toy-Maker," as he has it in the title of a
poem.
The creator of Nicolas de Caen
GENEALOGY: Branchiana, 1907; Branch of Abingdon, 1911;
and of Horvendile, refusing to play his
part out in life, has no license in æsthetics
to live at all. He should write unhandi-
*NOVELS AND TALES: The Eagle's Shadow, 1904; The Line
of Love, 1905; Gallantry, 1907; The Cords of Vanity, 1908 ;
Chivalry, 1909; The Soul of Melicent, 1913; The Rivet in
Grandfather's Neck, 1915; The Certain Hour, 1916; The
Cream of the Jest, 1917.
VERSE: From the Hidden Way, 1916.
The Majors and Their Marriages, 1916.
For access to much interesting material by and about Mr.
Cabell, including two books now out of print, I make grate
ful acknowledgment to Mr. Guy Holt of Robert M. McBride
& Co., Mr. Cabell's publishers.


1918]
393
THE DIAL
Love,” Mr. Cabell invented Nicolas out- And many a reviewer—including the one
right as the probable author of the first most redoubtable arbiter elegantiarum
tale, “Adhelmar at Puysange." The orig- among poetic cults, an industrious antholo-
inal manuscript, “Les Aventures d'Adhel. gist who presides, a sort of professional
mar de Nointel," exists “in an out-of-the- omniscience, over the chaos of the newer
way corner of the library at Allonby modes—intimated his own casual familiar-
Shaw”—the library, presumably, of the ity with the "originals” of the verses in
family of that Stephen Allonby, later "From the Hidden Way,” heedless quite
Marquis of Falmouth, who may be met as of the prefatory admonition : "Vous enten-
hero of the seventh tale. Nicolas de Caen, dez bien joncherie?" Mr. Cabell must
to whom this manuscript is attributed, have done, first and last, a deal of chuck-
though on no very conclusive evidence," ling over such evidences of his ambidex-
is “better known as a lyric poet and satirist terity.
(circa 1450).” In the epilogue to “The But I think his greatest debt to Nicolas
Line of Love" it is noted that "Nicolas de de Caen is that worthy's suggestion of the
Caen as yet lacks an English editor for his “dizain.” For it seems to me that we must
'Roman de Lusignan' and his curious seek Mr. Cabell's richest deposits in the
‘Dizain des Reines'—those not unhand- four volumes which work out that
sugges-
some pieces, latterly included and anno- tion: in “Gallantry” his “Dizain des Fêtes
tated in the ‘Bibliotheca Abscondita.'” Galantes,” in “Chivalry” his “Dizain des
Finding Nicolas accepted at his face value, Reines,” in “The Certain Hour” his
Mr. Cabell subsequently evolved the books "Dizain des Poëtes," and in “The Line of
to fit this hinted promise: the “Dizain des Love,” which would be his “Dizain des
Reines" is Mr. "Cabell's "Chivalry''; and Mariages” if he had only thought then of
the “Roman de Lusignan,” for which “our "the decimal system of composition.”
sole authority
must continue to These four, together with "The Soul of
be the fragmentary MS. No. 503 in the
No. 503 in the Melicent," are purest distillate of Cabell.
Allonbian Collection,” is “The Soul of In the title of the one dizain of tales
Melicent." It is interesting to note that casually ascribed to Nicolas lies the germ
the poem “À son Livret,” which ends of Mr. Cabell's quintessential product-
Nicolas's epilogue to “Chivalry,” is also the sequence of stories unified, not by re-
the first piece in Mr. Cabell's volume of peating the personæ, nor yet by enclosing
verses, "From the Hidden Way''; which the episodes in one frame of place or
detail is one among a thousand hints of period, but by making them illustrational
the elvish magic whereby this author
author of a common motif, a common acceptance
makes all his books conspire together to of life. “The Line of Love” is a geneal-
evoke in you a dreamlike and excited won- ogy of pairs of lovers tricked by fate into
der how it happens that you have read each others' arms without the romantic
them before. "From the Hidden Way” prerequisite of a passion shared; “Chiv-
contains also many another "adaptation" alry” is a sequence of studies of the code
from Nicolas, as well as from his com- whose root is “the assumption
peers Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Antoine that a gentleman will serve his God, his
Riczi, Théodore Passerat, and several honor, and his lady without any reserva-
more, all of whose existences are estab- tion"; "Gallantry' presents in ten “come-
lished in a preface which contains some of dies” that Chesterfieldian attitude whose
Mr. Cabell's most admirable fine fooling secret was "to accept the pleasures of life
Few there have been to question the his- leisurely and its inconveniences with a
toricity of these singers so little "likely shrug”; and “The Certain Hour" is a ten-
ever to cut a dash in popular romance.” fold embodiment of the imaginative art-
Mr. Cabell is rumored on impressive au- ist's temperament in its characteristic
thority to prize a letter from Caen, where dilemma of art against human love. These
a committee organizing to honor their tales have individually, I like to repeat
"distinguished ex-townsman” with a me- from an earlier comment, the vibrancy and
morial of some sort could find nothing the quick vision of the best dramatic mono-
about him in the Bibliothèque Nationale. logues of Browning; and for that we make


394
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THE DIAL
a
a
acknowledgment to the author alone. But were a puppet?" All that happens to him
for the shapely continuity of the volumes happens "haphazardly
in some
that contain them I think Mr. Cabell owes three pounds of fibrous matter tucked in-
something to that creature of his own de- side his skull”; what, then, is to certify his
vising, Messire Nicolas de Caen.
touch with any objective reality at all?
This extension of jonglerie from the Kennaston, awake and sane in the twen-
materials into the whole shape and super- tieth century, publishes his tale, achieves
structure of Mr. Cabell's art is proof some eminence, a fortune, social position,
enough that the starting point for appre- a wife whom he is fond of. But life con-
ciation is at his inestimable gift for hocus- tinues to mock him. He finds half of a
pocus. But this extension is not the end. broken metal disc covered with strange
He no sooner perpetrates the jest than he hieroglyphics, a talisman with which "the
makes a philosophy of it. His little world Wardens of Earth unbar strange win-
in which the artist is a jester at the expense dows." Hypnotized by its glitter, he
of the gullible is only one convolution of
escapes more and more gladly out of his
the greater cosmos in which life is an in- hum-drum existence of a prospering and
scrutable jester at the expense of us all, respectable citizen into a world of
including the artist himself. “Heine was queerly inconsecutive dream-episodes—in-
right; there is an Aristophanes in heaven,' cidentally, they bear a distorted resem-
Robert Etheridge Townsend is overheard blance to certain of Mr. Cabell's earlier
to murmur on more than one ironic con- tales—in which he rejoins for fleeting mo-
tretemps in “The Cords of Vanity”; and ments the ageless woman Ettarre. These
it is but a minor point in the consistency of parentheses rapidly become the real con-
a universe framed on the jesting principle text of his life, and all the rest mere inter-
that there should also be an Aristophanes lude; and in the gaps he wonders “how
in Virginia. Mr. Cabell moves, and is our this dull fellow seated here in this lux-
guide, in a world of "supernal double-deal- urious room" can actually be Felix Ken-
ing. “All available analogues,” reflected naston. Yet even in his dreams life
Felix Kennaston in “The Cream of the mocked him; for if he touched Ettarre
Jest," "went to show that nothing in nature “the dream ended, and the universe
dealt with its inferiors candidly''; and seemed to fold about him, just as a hand
"everywhere
men had labored closes.” And, crowning mockery, it trans-
blindly, at flat odds with rationality, and pires that his “talisman" is but a meaning-
had achieved everything of note by acci- less fragment of the cover of a cold cream
dent.'
jar. “Many thousand husbands may find
It is this same Kennaston, lately redi- at will among their wives' possessions just
vivus in "The Cream of the Jest," more such a talisman as Kennaston had discov-
than a decade after his first appearance in ered.” Also, they may find in their wives,
“The Eagle's Shadow," who makes this the story hints, just such glimpses of
philosophy explicit. We meet Kennaston Ettarre the ageless woman as Kennaston
in the midst of a medieval tale which he saw in Kathleen on the occasion of his dis-
has himself written, playing in a dream the covering the other half of the disc on her
part of one of his own characters, yet re- dressing-table. For the upshot of the
membering his twentieth-century identity whole matter is that Kennaston is every
and vainly trying to persuade the others man, and Ettarre the ageless woman of
that they are but puppets of his making and every man's worship, wholly seen of no
that he alone is real. To them he is only man save in dreams, yet obscurely prisoned
the half-insane clerk Horvendile, and in in the flesh of every woman born.
despair at their incredulity he is driven to Succinctly, then, Cabell is the comedist
reflect: "It may be that I, too, am only a of those two beings who wear the flesh of
figment of some greater dream, in just such every body—of the idealist lover and the
case as yours, and that I, too, cannot under- earth-bound respectable citizen who ten-
stand. It
may be the very cream of the ant the same clay. All his tales are in
jest that my country is no more real than some sort "the song of the double-soul, dis-
Storisende. How could I judge if I, too, tortedly two in one."
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1918]
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a
Thus two by two we wrangle and blunder about Whence Mr. Cabell's two recurrent char-
the earth,
acters: the artist lover who is an inferior
And that body we share we may not spare; but the
citizen, and the writing artist who is an in-
gods have need of mirth.
It is the secret idealist in each of us that
ferior lover. His tales are populated with
mainly interests Mr. Cabell; for, he seems
lovers who must say with Antoine Riczi:
everywhere to be saying, it is only the one
"Love leads us, and through the sunlight of the
world he leads us, and through the filth of it Love
best part of us which is real at all. The
leads us, but always in the end, if we but follow
gods have their jest by yoking us unequally without swerving, he leads upward. Yet, O God
with ourselves; but there is for every man upon the Cross! Thou that in the article of death
one way to cheat the jest of half its point, didst pardon Dysmas! as what maimed warriors
if only he can find the way.
of life, as what bemired travellers in muddied
byways, must we presently come to Thee!”
And what, ultimately, is Mr. Cabell's
And the tales are filled too with those of
sense of this way to high individual ad-
venture? It is wholly characteristic of him whom “life claims nothing very insistently
that whatever guidance he offers is the save that they write perfectly of beautiful
guidance of an artist, never of a moralist. happenings." These, and the ageless
His one inclusive and continuous interest is
woman by whichever name known, make
in the artistic or poetizing temper—a nar-
up his trinity. His lovers are great enough
row enough interest in seeming, when so
artists to find the ageless woman in the
phrased, but expanded by his tacit defini- human mistress; his writers are great
tion until it is not only the centre, but also enough artists to break faith with the
the circumference, of everything. The human mistress because they can find the
duality of his world is essentially that of ageless woman only in dreams. His great-
the artistic against the mediocre; for the
est lovers are various sorts of fools,
essential part of every being, the one part outlaws, and failures generally; and his
that can turn the single life from a sorry writing men, from Shakespeare and Villon
jest into a brave spectacle, is the poetic.
to Robert Etheridge Townsend and John
The artist in each man requires that he Charteris and Kennaston, are irresponsible
give up every cherished thing for the sake hedonists in love.
of one thing cherished most. Under this
It is said of Mr. Cabell in a high quarter
tyranny the lover, the fighter, the chival- that "he has done quite the most distin-
rous gentleman, the quixotic fool, the art- guished romance-writing - except Miss
ist in words, all sacrifice everything to their Johnston's very best — published in this
own kinds of self-completion; for self-com- country during the last twenty-five years. '
pletion is the law, and attainment of it the To my mind this is a little like saying that
only success. Mr. Cabell's ideal of success Mrs. Wharton has written quite the most
is to reach the consummation of this some- distinguished realistic novels—except Mr.
thing central in one's self, and incidentally Winston Churchill's very best. Mr. Cabell
to miss everything else that one might have has doubtless made up his mind to be
had. His ideal of heroism is to sacrifice praised often by the faint damnation of
all for one's own kind of perfection and critics who think him almost as great as
then fail to gain even that, for this is the his inferiors, such as Miss Johnston and
one kind of failure that has moral dignity Mr. Hewlett; but one wonders with what
enough to be tragic.
equanimity he hears himself dismissed as
He is at heart, then, a prophet of that an innocent romancer who, tired of his
austere æsthetic doctrine, the single-mind- trade, has made a few excursions into real-
edness of the artist. He has made up his ism, as in “The Cords of Vanity" and
mind, it seems, to the tragic disparity which “The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck.”
condemns the perfect writer to be a Under whatever trappings of period, cir-
wretched bungler at the art of living, the cumstance, or code, his work is one in pur-
perfect lover a fool in relation to all affairs pose and in meaning—and the meaning is
save those of the heart, and the man of as realistic in “The Soul of Melicent” as
executive might always “more or less men- in “The Rivet." All his work alike is
tally deficient." To be perfectly one- expression of a duality which is in essence
self means to miss being everybody else. realistic—the duality, not of the world and
.
-
a


396
[April 25
THE DIAL
1
a
the individual, but of the individual within
Our London Letter
himself. Always, even in his one vapidly
frivolous book, "The Eagle's Shadow," he It was not of course to be supposed that Mr.
has written of "the thing one cannot do for Edmund Gosse's charming and vivacious, if
the reason that one is constituted as one sometimes over reticent, portrait of Swin-
is,” which is "the real riyet in grandfath- burne would remain forever unchallenged. The
er's neck and everybody else's." Mr. counterblast has come, whence it might have
Cabell is a romancer only by the most been expected, from two members of the Watts-
superficial of all the distinctions that can Dunton circle, in a volume entitled "The Letters
be drawn. Basically, he is a realist without of Algernon Charles Swinburne, with Some
the astigmatism of the localist and the Personal Recollections,” by Thomas Hake and
modernist, and without their expert and Arthur Compton-Rickett (John Murray, Lon-
industrious provision for a quick oblivion. don, 10/6). It may be said at once that the
He is the realist of the realities which counterblast takes a singularly gentle and court-
have nothing to say to fashion and change, eous form and that there is no trace of
any
and his momentary function among us is to desire on the part of the authors to begin one
reconstitute that higher realism which is of those gigantic literary quarrels which Swin-
the only true romance.
That he should burne himself found so pleasant. They only
have got himself accepted to right and left remark in their introduction that Mr. Gosse is
as "only the idle singer of an empty day' not altogether fair in his account of Swin-
is perhaps the cream of his own prolonged burne's later life, and they protest against his
and elaborate personal jest. So at least we estimate of Watts-Dunton's influence. In the
may agree to call it-unless it should press body of their book they certainly endeavor to
ently transpire that his three goodly vol- present Swinburne's years of retirement at the
umes of genealogy are his sole essays in Pines in as cheerful a light as possible; but they
fiction, and his tales true pages of authentic are far from being quarrelsome and, except in
history. This impish inversion, cunningly one very slight instance, they do not contradict
.
planned for the subtler fun of watching the Mr. Gosse in matters of fact. From this point of
clever folk go wrong because of their clev- view the book is a model of restraint and literary
erness and the stupid folk go right because good manners. It is even-I am bound to con-
of their stupidity, would be less Mr.
would be less Mr. fess, remembering the leanings of its subject-
Cabell's self-contradiction than his Aristo- a little disappointing.
phanic crown. Wilson FOLLETT.
But taken as a whole it cannot be compared
with Mr. Gosse's study; nor is it very good
regarded by itself, without any comparison. The
For the Young Men Dead
title is somewhat misleading. Only a com-
paratively small number of letters are quoted
Give them the Spring again some other place! and the book does not cover the whole of Swin-
Though they are dead, now let them have a birth burne's life or even, with any sort of complete-
In Spring—the languor of the earth,
ness, any one period of his life. It looks very
The sharp delight of apple-trees, or a face. much, in fact, as though the authors had at their
Let them on moorlands by a blue sea race
disposal a quite fortuitously selected heap of
The tumbling little breezes, yapping mirth.
letters, out of which they made as good a book
Give them the light, the breathing, and the girth
as they could. They do not seem to have made
Of a Spring day that is enough of space.
any use of Mr. T. J. Wise's privately printed
They are so young, I don't think they decay
collection, and it is obvious that before we can
Quickly, as those perhaps more worn with life, fully judge Swinburne as a letter-writer we must
Nor do they take quiescence as their lot.
wait for the volume which Mr. Gosse has an-
They wake, they stir, they are leaping, they're at nounced.
play
But such letters as are given here are extremely
At young men's games, wrestling, putting the interesting and whet one's appetite for a larger
shot,
and fuller book. Swinburne is not likely to be
And the fields of heaven are noisy with clean
placed in the very first rank of letter-writers
strife.
FLORENCE KIPER FRANK. for just the same reason that keeps him out of the
a
9


1918]
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THE DIAL
a
he says:
first rank of poets. He was far too much Swinburne's literary criticism without, as a rule,
interested in literature and far too little interested the luxuriant verbiage and high-pitched super-
in life. It may be objected that nearly all the latives of his set essays. If they are to be taken
most entertaining letter-writers write a good deal as pieces of self-revelation there is nothing in them
about literature and that some of the best so pathetic or so enlightening as this, in a letter
letters in the world are bookish letters. But
to Watts-Dunton:
Swinburne's curse was that he completely con- Chatto has not sent a single weekly newspaper to
fused literature and life. He looked at life
order; they should all have been here by nine this
morning. On second thoughts, to prevent any con-
through literature, and when he was confronted fusion of my own with my mother's account, I shall
with a new fact or a new personality he promptly
not order the "Pall Mall” of the people who supply
her with journals, but order it straight from the
made up some more literature through which to office, subscribing for three or six months. Will you
regard it. All his passions, his republicanism, kindly draw up and forward me a proper business-
his enthusiasm for Italy—a country he hardly much, I ought to pay in advance, a task which you,
like order to that effect, and let me know if, and how
knew—were self-hypnotisms based on poetical perhaps, would undertake for me, and I could send
conventions. This unfortunate characteristic
you a cheque for the amount as soon as you can
get and send me a cheque book?
makes
many
of his letters as unreal as much of his
This heart-rending paragraph raises at once, in
poetry; but they are still readable and good,
most uncompromising form, the question
and they are always extremely like their author.
whether Swinburne was right in submitting
Some of the best are those in which Swinburne,
himself to the protection and guardianship of
in a mixture of ecstasy, humility, and critical
Watts-Dunton.
precision, advises Dante Gabriel Rossetti on the
And, personally, I have no hestitation what-
changes to be made in the proof-sheets of his
ever in replying that the authors of this book
forthcoming volume of poems. The opinions are are right and that Mr. Gosse, with all his
sometimes characteristically extravagant, as when sympathy and brilliance, is wrong. The ques-
tion was whether the amazing and magnificent
Of the sonnets gathered up together in the book, I youthful Swinburne, whose incredibly dissolute
can only say I am always in an equal wonder at habits we are all so afraid of mentioning, should
their overrunning wealth of thought and phrase,
dissolve altogether or should consent to an order-
clothed and set in such absolutely impeccable and
inevitable perfection of expressive form.
ing of his life that would prolong it but would
Swinburne's likes and dislikes were generally certainly rob it of all its magnificence. There
pretty irrational; and when he liked a thing he
seems to have been no alternative between a
had as a rule only a rich, but never a very pre-
somewhat tamed and faded poet and a dead, or
cise or enlightening, vocabulary of praise. When
at the very best an insane, poet. I do not think
he disliked, or liked only faintly or reluctantly,
the faded poet who lived at the Pines was really
he was often much closer in his expression. Thus, of very much interest to the world; but then
in the same letter, he defines the faults of Morris's
neither would a poet dead or mad have been.
"Earthly Paradise" very clearly:
Mr. Gosse, I fancy, is led astray by his feeling
for composition. That long and terrible anti-
I have just received Topsy's book: the Oudrun
story is excellently told, I can see, and of keen climax offends his artistic instincts, and a Swin-
interest, but I find generally no change in the trailing burne either dying horribly or shut up in a mad-
style of work. His Muse is like Homer's Trojan
house would have made a much more effective
women; she drags her robes as she walks. I really
think any Muse (when she is neither resting or Aying) close to the story. I do not mean that Mr.
ought to tighten her girdle, tuck up her skirts, and step
Gosse has thought all this out so brutally, or
out. It is better than Tennyson's short-winded and
artificial concision-but there is such a thing as swift even consciously at all; but I think these must
and spontaneous strife. Top's is spontaneous and
be the sub-conscious considerations which have
slow; and, especially, my ear hungers for more force
and variety of sound in the verse. It looks as if he affected his judgment. Of course some other
purposely avoided all strenuous emotion or strength
person might have been found for the job of
of music in thought and word; and so, when set by
other work as good, his work seems hardly done in
guardian. Watts-Dunton was an excessively dull
thorough earnest.
novelist and poet, and a critic more magisterial
This is sound and illuminating; and perhaps the than sympathetic; but, after all, Swinburne
best that can be said of these letters is that they probably wanted to live and retain his reason.
give the ardency and occasional good sense of Watts-Dunton managed that for him in a very


398
[April 25
THE DIAL
But pre-
effective way and may be forgiven for his poems pieces of philosophical writing of modern times.
and novels.
In general recent philosophy has either been of
Swinburne is still by way of being a mystery
a highly technical order (like Croce's) or has
and I may be excused for taking up so much leaned towards the popularity of the salon and
space with anything that throws a little new the lecture-room, more anxious to be striking and
light on him. But I wish I had left myself a up-to-date than to be elevating and profound
little more for dealing with Mr. Bertrand Rus- (like Bergson's). Philosophy was tending to dis-
sell's new book, “Mysticism and Logic" (Long- appear in two directions from the survey of the
mans, Green; $2.50). The other day, when I ordinary, unspecialized, but cultured man, who
was reading the literary column of a weekly was left to nourish his soul on poetry alone.
paper, I was a little astonished to see that the Now again, perhaps, if he has courage to face
writer, in opposing the view that we have today Mr. Russell's frightful universe and to extract
no first-class prose writers, mentioned Mr. Rus- from it the lessons of courage and exaltation
sell as an instance to the contrary. But the
which Mr. Russell extracts, he can say:
more I thought of it the more I began to believe How charming is divine philosophy!
he was right; and "Mysticism and Logic"
Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose
But musical as is Apollo's lute.
has been quite enough to settle my doubts. My
In conclusion I must mention not a book but
hesitation was caused by the fact that one thinks
first of Mr. Russell as a mathematical philosopher
an incident or an affair. One ought to begin:
"All London has been talking .
of extraordinary profundity, part-author of the
great "Principia Mathematica," of which it has
cisely what bothers me is that London has been
been said that only eighty-seven persons in the
doing nothing of the kind. A certain gentleman,
a Mr. Austin Fryers, has produced on the stage
world can understand it and that this number
does not include both the authors. But he is
of the Court Theatre a play called “Realities,”
more besides. He is a writer who can popular-
which, he says, was written by Ibsen as a sequel
to “Ghosts." Now Mr. Heinemann, Ibsen's
ize philosophy, even mathematical philosophy,
without making it vulgar or becoming himself English publisher, to whom apparently Mr. Fry-
ers offered the copyright of this piece, produces
condescending; and he can write nobly and
a letter from Dr. Sigurd Ibsen, the son of the
greatly in a manner intelligible to the laity with-
dramatist, to the effect that his father never
out ever seeming to stoop to their level.
wrote any such play. Moreover the Norwegian
"Mysticism and Logic" contains so much wit
original of the piece, it seems, is not forthcom-
and handles difficult matters so lightly and ing-only the English translation. However, it
adroitly that at first the temptation to use an
has been performed. I do not know whether it
easy cliché and call Mr. Russell a "Laughing is of Ibsen or not. Oswald is recovered, Mrs.
Philosopher" is almost overwhelming. But then Alving is paralyzed, Oswald is still in love with
one turns over the pages and comes on this pas- Regina and uses drugs to back up the effects of
sage:
his blandishments—but no! I do not think it
That man is the product of causes which had no is by Ibsen. The odd thing is that no
prevision of the end they were achieving; that his
seems to care, and this perplexes me.
Of two
origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves
and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental things, one: either an impudent fraud has been
collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no attempted on the English public, or an unknown
intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an
play of Ibsen's maturity has been discovered.
individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours
of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all But, I say again in my bewilderment, no one
the noonday brightness of human genius are destined
seems to care; and the critics rather lackadaisically
to extinction in the vast death of the solar system,
and that the whole temple of man's achievement must
discuss three possible solutions: (a) that it is all
inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe Ibsen; (b) that it is all Fryers; (c) that it is
in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, some of each. The truth is, I suppose, that
are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which
rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the
Ibsen is a little out of fashion at the moment;
scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm founda- and this must be very disappointing to Mr.
tion of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation
henceforth be safely built.
Fryers, whoever wrote the play. However it is
This is not comfortable doctrine, but it is nobly
too late for him now to fasten the thing on to
Shakespeare.
expressed; and the essay from which it is taken,
EDWARD SHANKS.
“A Free Man's Worship,” is one of the finest London, April 6, 1918.
one


1918]
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THE DIAL
50 cts.
pages in all.
a
The Voice of Reason
or France. The vexed problems of the Balkans
and of the African colonies are, with a con-
The AIMS OF LABOUR. By Arthur Henderson, sistency that never loses touch with the facts,
M. P., Secretary of the Labour Party. Huebsch;
freely recommended to the decision of an inter-
national commission acting under the authority of
Here is a pamphlet of some eighty-two pages
that league of nations which it is the business
by Mr. Henderson, to which is appended the
“Memorandum on War Aims” of the British
of this war to make practicable. The Labor
Labor Party, together with that remarkable
Party's hostile attitude toward an economic "war
,
after the war” and its placing of complete repara-
document on reconstruction, "Labour and the
tion of Belgium as the sine qua non of even
New Social Order"-only a hundred odd printed
Yet in this small compass are
discussion of peace do not need elaboration. The
point is, nothing has been left to a mere general
contained the most explicit and illuminating
declaration of good intentions. The outline is
answers to those questions which the war has
full and detailed.
compelled every one of us, hopefully or despair-
ingly, to ask. If we would know the purpose
No one can read this document and fail to see
that it is the most uncompromising programme
and meaning of the democratic forces which the
conflict has summoned even while, for the time
for an acceptable peace yet proposed. The corner
stone of the entire scheme, of course, is the
being, it has ruthlessly crushed their outward
manifestation, that knowledge is here; if we are
proposed league of nations. But it is precisely
the surrender of complete national sovereignty
eager to discover on what terms and until what
point the war ought to continue, the answer is
implicit in any league of nations which runs
counter to the whole purpose and philosophy of
here; if we sometimes wonder about what kind
of programme must be followed in the coming Germany's world politics. Only a defeated or a
revolutionized Germany can be a trustworthy
strange days of peace, if we are to avoid disaster
in an impoverished and exhausted world, that
partner in any such league as the British Labor
Party proposes.
Even what is conventionally
programme, in specific as well as general terms,
called "victory" will not satisfy it. “Any
is presented to us here. All the complexities and
cross-purposes that Entente diplomacy has fum- victory," writes Mr. Henderson, "however spec-
tacular and dramatic in a military sense it may
blingly and palteringly bickered over, being either
afraid or unwilling to bring them into the open
be, which falls short of the realization of the
light of common discussion, are here frankly
ideals with which we entered the war, will not be
envisaged. The Labor Party does not Ainch from
a victory but a defeat. We strive for victory be-
the most "delicate" questions of the hushed-voice
cause we want to end war altogether, not merely
diplomacy, which cannot even yet wholly free
to prove the superiority of British arms over
itself from the nineteenth-century tradition of
those of Germany. We continue the struggle,
dreadful though the cost of it has become, be-
back-stairs pourparlers. The break is complete
and final with that kind of conventional foreign-
cause we have to enforce reparation for a great
office method, which regards the representative
wrong perpetrated upon a small unoffending
chamber as a mere audience hall where the tri-
nation, to liberate subject peoples and enable
them to live under a form of government of
umphs of secret negotiations can be eloquently
exposed or the not-to-be-hidden failures gracefully
their own choosing, and to destroy, not a great
explained away. Every card is laid on the table,
nation, but a militarist autocracy which had de-
and although the discussion is tactful, the claims liberately planned war without considering the in-
of the feelings of diplomats are not regarded
terests either of their own people or of the Euro-
pean Commonwealth of which they are a part.”
as more urgent than the demand for a more
decent world from the millions who have suf-
Yet in the face of such assertions it is the
fered all things to bring it into existence. For
solemn truth that Arthur Henderson has been
example, the legitimate aspirations of Italy are
described as a person of "pacifist" tendencies
unhesitatingly supported, but the flavor of im- by people who really ought to have known bet-
perialistic ambition in other Italian claims is as ter. Perhaps the myth arose from his resigna-
unhesitatingly condemned. Similarly, Alsace- tion from the Lloyd George cabinet when he
Lorraine is treated, as it ought all along to have disagreed with the Premier over the advisabil-
been treated, as an international question, not ity of sending delegates to the international con-
as a private property problem of either Germany ference of labor and socialists, called by the
a


400
(April 25
THE DIAL
Russians. Mr. Henderson is content to leave the folly of this attitude in a few words: “The out-
judgment upon the merits of that controversy to standing facts of world politics at the present
history, but his growing leadership in interna- time—and when peace comes this fact will be
tional affairs indicates that perhaps a large part made still more clear—is that a great tide of
of the contemporary world of labor has already revolutionary feeling is rising in every country.”
judged. He stands today as the most consistent, The reactionaries are tragically deceiving them-
the most fearless, and the most powerful advo- selves if they imagine that the present unchal-
cate of a moral victory over German—and every lenging submission of the peoples to all sorts of
other-imperialism. It is no accident that his restriction upon freedom is an earnest of the
hopes, and the hopes of those for whom he speaks, temper with which they will face the problems
receive their greatest encouragement from the of reconstruction. Of course Mr. Henderson
policies and aims enunciated by President Wilson. does not believe in violent revolution; the whole
Now what does it mean—this clarity and con- bent of the English mind is towards constitutional
ciseness from an unofficial body? Since Mr. and orderly change. Organized revolution in the
Henderson's book was written the programme he continental sense is not part of England's historic
advocates has been adopted by inter-Allied labor, background; her people do not plan dramatic and
and the visiting delegates of American labor, sudden coups d'état. But, as Mr. Henderson
according to recent dispatches from London, points out, they "are capable of vigorous action,
announce themselves as sympathetic. In brief, the of persistent and steady agitation year in and year
whole drift of events shows that if governments out, of stubborn and resolute pressure against
will not of themselves officially present a common which nothing can stand.” Our own gusty and
diplomatic front to the enemy, the peoples will sporadic methods of political agitation might
,
do it unofficially and without invitation. Already learn with considerable profit from this even,
they are making the abolishment of secret diplom- stubborn temper of the British. In any modern
acy more than an unctuous phrase—here is a clear highly organized industrial democracy the people
instance of open pragmatic diplomacy in action. stand to lose almost as much as they gain by
Bit by bit the whole rotten structure of interna- resorting to the barricade and the red flag. It is
tional intrigue, as we knew it before the war, just the prosaic problem of production; a decent
is being destroyed. Conventional diplomacy has social order is not the flower of that impoverish-
shown itself bankrupt, and the peoples are ment which inevitably arises when the whole
appointing their own receivers—"the people will machinery of production is thrown askew.
not choose to entrust their destinies at the Peace Yet the decision as to whether reconstruction is
Conference to statesmen who have not perceived to be a violent or peaceful affair does not, after
the moral significance of the struggle, and who all, rest with the democracies. It rests with the
are not prepared to make a people's peace.” small powerful cliques that control the ma-
In this pamphlet Mr. Henderson makes his chinery of the modern state.
chinery of the modern state. A mere restoration
eloquent plea for preparation for a people's peace of the capitalistic régime which the war has dis-
even in war time. It is a plea written with credited and in large part destroyed will not be
admirable good temper and good sense. The war tolerated, not even in Germany; for as Mr. Hen-
has raised so many problems that it is a kind of derson says with such fine dispassion, “conscience
psychological self-protection to fall back on the and reason do not end upon the frontiers of
mechanical theory of progress—that preparation Central Europe.” In a word, when the war is
for a new world goes on while we sleep, and over and democracy has defeated its foreign
that a finer social order somehow inheres in the enemies, it will know how to defeat its domestic
mere end of hostilities. Our own political think- enemies. That domestic victory will come either
ing, for instance, is so dominated by the legalistic through peaceable means or direct assault, but the
tradition, which cannot even imaginatively envis- decision as to which method shall be followed
age any other political entities than the sovereign depends upon the reasonableness of those in con-
national state, that our press is quite content with
trol. They cannot too early begin to cultivate
what one might call the automatic slot machine
the mood whereby they can gracefully relinquish
theory of war and peace. The theory is: you put
power. For only in an atmosphere of rational
in the penny of a military victory and automat-
accommodation can peace, when finally it does
ically pull out the gum of a perfect peace and
come, be in very truth a jewel without price.
a happy world. Mr. Henderson puts the criminal
HAROLD STEARNS.


1918]
401
THE DIAL
Literary Claptrap
only in the use of the pronoun “you” whenever
America or Americans are signified, but in the
LITERARY CHAPTERS. By W. L. George. Little, employment of such phrases as “a dark horse"
Brown; $1.50.
and "a combine of publishers.” Mr. George is
Mr. George is best known to us as the author
very gentle with America; on the whole she
of "The Second Blooming.” The little essays of
seems to him, like Miss Kaye-Smith, ultimately
this little book are his own second blooming, promising.
presumably. They are a little forced, and will
I cannot forbear quoting one stanza from
fade early.
D. H. Lawrence's verse, and Mr. George's com-
He seems, himself, to think them rather daring.
ment:
"I will affront the condemnatory vagueness of
Helen, you let my kisses steam
wool and fleecy cloud." I knew a lady once, Wasteful into the night's black nostrils; drink
intelligent and of uncertain age, who confessed Me up, I pray; oh, you who are Night's Bacchante,
that to use the word "harlot” always gave her a
How can you from my bowl of kisses shrink!
certain thrill. I should say Mr. George's essays
"I cannot," says our author, "having no faith
affected him in the same fashion. As a matter of
in my power to judge poetry, proclaim Mr.
fact they are most agreeably genteel. Novelists,
Lawrence to Parnassus, but I doubt whether such
Mr. George declares, are not as highly thought cries as these, where an urgent wistfulness min-
of as they ought to be. The fame of the novel gles in tender neighborhood with joy and pain
must inevitably become a little complicated in our
together coupled, can remain unheard."
increasingly complicated age. Arnold Bennett,
Any unfortunate parent whose child has suf-
Joseph Conrad, John Galsworthy, Thomas
fered from croup will recognize at once the force
Hardy, and H. G. Wells "hold without chal- and accuracy of both Mr. Lawrence's figure and
lenge the premier position today" (boy, page
Mr. George's conviction.
George Moore). J. D. Beresford, Gilbert
JAMES WEBER LINN.
Cannan, E. M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence,
Compton Mackenzie, Oliver Onions, Frank
Swinnerton are particularly promising. (Later A Swiss View of William James
one discovers that “Mr. Bennett and Mr. Wells
have taken the plunge which leads to popularity, The PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM JAMES. By Thomas
but the younger ones have produced one man,
Flournoy. Authorized translation by Edwin B.
Holt and William James, Jr. Holt; $1.30.
Mr. D. H. Lawrence.") Miss Amber Reeves
and Miss Sheila Kaye-Smith are very clever
In the spring of 1910 William James went
abroad to seek relief from the growing heart-
young women. Genius does not apparently flour-
trouble which, in the summer of the same year,
ish in the soil of a comfortable democracy. And
killed him. The president of the Association
finally (this is Mr. George's way of uttering the
Chrétienne Suisse d'Etudiants, learning of the
word which thrilled my friend) the English pub-
lic still refuses to allow any presentation of sex-
philosopher's presence in Europe, invited him to
interests which gives their actual proportion in
address the association at its meeting in St.
the scheme of life. A criticism or two, of the
Croix. He agreed to do so, his health permit-
sort which many hundreds of people drop from
ting. His health, however, did not permit, and
their sleeves on the desks of scores of editors of
M. Flournoy, an old friend of William James's,
literary magazines, fill out Mr. George's 240
was invited to take his place. By that time Wil-
pages. I confess I did not find myself gasping
liam James was dead. The lectures Flournoy
anywhere at Mr. George's audacity.
gave, the 'substance of this book, are a distin-
He writes well, at times. “It may be that the
guished act of piety and grace, in memory of a
sunset of genius and the sunrise of democracy
great thinker who was also a near friend.
happened all within one day.” “Humanity grows
M. Flournoy has accomplished admirably the
fat, and the grease of its comfort collects round
task he set himself. He has found, in James's
its heart.” But in his style, as in his ideas, he
own spirit, the right beginnings for James's the-
pushes to the verge of triteness. “It is good to ory of life in James's temperament, in that bal-
know the young giant who will some day make ance of sensibility and reasonableness which
the sacred footsteps on the sands of time." That makes an artist and which leads him to regard
the "literary chapters" were composed chiefly for the individuality and autonomy in things with-
American consumption is steadily evident, not out missing their connections and interplay.
>


402
[April 25
THE DIAL
6
and yet
From this regard sprang his rejection of monism, pluralistically, and was also in this respect at one
his "radical empiricism," his conception of the with James. Finally both were-shall I say sus-
character and function of thought and knowing tained ?-by a Swiss: "it would be elaborating
which he called pragmatism, his pluralism, his the obvious to dwell longer on this justification
tychism, and his defence of the plausibility of of views which, heterodox as they are, have been
theism. M. Flournoy's exposition of these ably supported among us a few years ago by so
themes and of their interrelation is admirable, notable a Christian as Wilfred Monod.”
However, all this is supererogatory. M. Flour-
And yet—although the opinions are the opin- noy has written an admirable book, the best on
ions of James, the spirit is the spirit of Flour- William James that has yet appeared. This
noy. That this should be so is more or less English version has been made by Edwin Holt,
inevitable. No mind that is truly a mind can an old friend and the most brilliant pupil of
merely reproduce what it apprehends. Even so James, and William James, Jr., a son. They
passive a thing as a mirror turns around what have given it a distinction which always equals
it reflects, and the relations it presents are con- and at points exceeds that of the original.
verse to those presented it. How much more
H. M. KALLEN.
transforming the reflection of an active spirit!
And when the theme is the outlook of a man
so myriad-minded and sympathetic as William
A Scholarly Vagabond
James! It then becomes almost inevitable that
the pattern into which his thought is rewoven, Alone IN THE CARIBBEAN. By Frederic A. Fenger.
the places on which the high lights are thrown Doran; $2.
and the shadows spread, shall be those that utter, Little as Milton was thinking of tales of travel
not a little, the temperament and hope of the when he said the mind can make a heaven of
interpreter at least as much as the character of hell, this is exactly what the sensible traveler
his subject matter. M. Flournoy is of Swiss seems to think when he reports his journey.
citizenship, of French nationality, of the Christian Satan's wistful idealism is not always needed;
religion, and to be counted among idealists in what is needed however is that the writer pro-
the schools of philosophy. And James had once ceed on the principle that what he thinks about
been a student in Geneva! The assimilation it all is quite as useful and entertaining as where
of his teaching to the national tradition and per-
he has been and what he has seen. The two
sonal bias of his interpreter has this empirical things, of course, need not be mutually exclusive.
ground, then; and it is made unconsciously and Such another Satanic sightseer is Mr. Fenger,
imperceptibly. Pragmatism is thus turned into whose "Alone in the Caribbean" is an absorbing
a defence of spiritualism, which it is not; into a review of his ride along the Lesser Antilles in his
doctrine of the limitations of the intellect, which sailing canoe "Yakaboo." Yet it took more than
it is not; into a teleological subjectivism, which a jaunty stylist to sail a canoe over the cross
it is not.
It is adduced to Kant, who would currents and chops of these island channels, to
have been horrified, as James used to be amused, the universal wonder of the natives. Although
at such adduction, and to a whole series of Swiss Mr. Fenger pauses to illustrate by diagrams the
writers, among them Secrétan and Fremmel, construction of his craft and to describe subtle
who were preoccupied with radically different tacks at critical times, he is chiefly interested in
things, special pleadings, in fact, for religion the country and its inhabitants. This interest the
against the scientific method of which pragma- reader inherits, and adds to it a hearty liking
tism is the philosophical statement. Radical em- for the whimsical, independent navigator.
piricism is made to mean that reality is experience, Much of the interest, to be sure, lies in the
and declared to agree with a “phenomenalism” nature of the subject: forgotten little islands in
such as Renouvier's. James's personality and the South Atlantic which have not changed
philosophy are declared "purely Christian in
greatly since the sway of the ancien régime, when
spirit," and Christ is designated as "the fir the Empress Josephine and Alexander Hamilton
pragmatist when he declared that 'by their fruits
were born here-a romantic setting, free for the
shall ye know them' and that the truth of his taking. But lively as is kept the reader's curiosity
doctrine was to be judged by putting it in prac- about the region, and unusual as this vehicle of
tice." Also, Christ treated the problem of evil romance may be (a deep sea canoe with no rud-


1918]
403
THE DIAL
come
a
der), it is Mr. Fenger's style of thought and The Deterioration of Poets
expression that count most.
In the first place, it is no sentimental journey, The LAST BLACKBIRD. By Ralph Hodgson. Mac-
no travels with a donkey; which is to say that it
millan; $1.35.
is refreshingly unliterary. Stevenson, Conrad,
Hill Tracks. By Wilfrid Wilson Gibson. Mac-
millan; $1.75.
W. H. Hudson, the author probably has read, A FATHER OF Women, and Other Poems. By
but laudably forgotten-quite as they forget one Alice Meynell. Burns & Oates, London; 27.
another. Somewhere toward the end of his
Poems. By Edward Thomas. Holt; $1.
The LILY OF MALUD, and Other Poems. By J.
chronicle the writer happens to remark, “The C. Squire. Martin Secker, London.
world is merely one huge farce of comparison.” The OLD HUNTSMAN. By Siegfried Sassoon.
Dutton; $2.
Making these comparisons is his entertainment
A LAP FULL OF Seed. By Max Plowman. Black-
—and the reader's as well. Some are not espe- well, London; 3/6.
cially illustrative; many of them are brilliant bits
For the psychologist there could be few more
of verisimilitude; but the busy skipper fishes them fascinating problems than the rise and decline
up and honestly turns all over to you just as they of a poet's power. It is a truism to say that for
to him.
Unlike
many
a traveloguist, every artist, of whatever art, there comes
and shopman, he never strives to please. The inevitably a time of deterioration; but this is
result is that he fascinates from the time "the
particularly true among poets, it is certainly more
new clean sails hung from their spars like the conspicuous among them, and it may well be
unprinted leaves of a book" until he "was back in
asked whether by the rate and time of it one
civilization again and as far from the 'Yakaboo'
cannot accurately appraise a poet's importance.
and the Lesser Antilles as you, sitting on the Not always, perhaps; if we adhered too strictly
back of your neck in a Morris chair." There is
to this theory we should be compelled to rank
a good Yankee slant to most of these figures the lyric poets almost invariably below the narra-
which is irresistible. In the Bay of Fort de
tive or contemplative poets, a ranking which
France, for example, he had difficulty with the
could hardly be acceptable to all. For it is a
customs officials but succeeded in calling out to curious fact that just as the novelist usually
the crowd gathered on the quay for one M.
exhibits greater staying power than the poet, con-
Richaud, to whom he had a letter of introduction. triving for a longer time to produce works on a
“There was a movement in the crowd and a little relatively higher plane and in greater quantity,
man was pushed to the outer edge, like the stone
so the objective poet, quite as clearly, tends to
out of a prune"—the more realistic since the outstrip the subjective poet.
a
The Freudians
crowd was made up of negroes. Quite as unprec- might say that this is because the subjective poet,
edented is the following, from an account of a
speaking always in his own person, out of his own
pursuit of humpback whales in a native outfit: heart, more rapidly therefore gives release and
“We had eaten no food since the night before,
full expression to his emotional hungers; whereas
and all day long the brown-black almost hairless
the objective poet, finding only semioccasionally
calves of the men had been reminding me in an
in the course of his work an opportunity for
agonizing way of the breast of roasted duck."
surrender to these cherished and secret compul-
After passages like that describing the author's
sions, compulsions of which to be sure he is only
moonlight visit to St. Pierre, the Pompeii of the
partially aware, leaves them, always, in that
Antilles, and how he “loafed in the high noon of
state of restlessness and frustration which incites
the moon" through the lava covered streets, tak-
him to a renewal of labor. It might be a mis-
ing refuge at last in the cemetery among the
take then, if there are any such things as purely
legitimately dead and buried, it is not so easy to
subjective or purely objective poets, to judge the
show that Mr. Fenger is no stylist. At last one
two sorts more than speculatively by this stand-
realizes the beguilingly simple art of this navi-
ard. It would be obviously fairer to measure
gator who once recalled Southern France and
only subjective against subjective, objective
once Venice, wore a Swedish leather dog-skin coat
against objective. One has no right to demand
over his rags when he climbed Mt. Pelee, and
of a Rossetti as prolonged and fecund a bril-
read himself to sleep with the “Æneid” in the
liance as of a Browning. The affair is further
cockpit of his canoe. There's no vagabond like a
complicated by the fact that purity of type is so
gentleman and a scholar.
rare, particularly as regards the poet whom we
MYRON R. WILLIAMS. must call, for lack of a more accurate term,
6


404
(April 25
THE DIAL
a
objective. Many objective poets begin their that Mr. Gibson has nothing of importance to
careers in a lyric vein, and some of them show add to what he has already said. He belongs to
a disposition to return once more to it at the that type of poet which, while objective, can be
end. This last is perhaps the class to which objective in only one style, which even when
belong our greatest poets, those whose careers least personal in theme is none the less idiosyn-
present a cyclic evolution. In these rare cases cratic in manner; he employs the type of
it is not so much deterioration one looks for objectivity which does not develop under the
as change.
guidance of a free-roving and universally healthy
а
In the main however, if we keep in mind these intellectual attitude, but at the dictate of a
provisos, we may consider the temporal span strong personal bias, or what the Freudians
of a poet's evolution to be a fairly good empirical would call a complex. Shakespeare and Chaucer
index to his importance, it being understood of in this respect lie at the extreme in one direction,
course that his work shows sufficient brilliance to Verlaine and Leopardi in the other. Poets like
warrant the question at all. “This is good,” we
Masefield and Gibson lie midway between. This
remark, "but can he keep it up?" And on the is not to imply that the present volume is utterly
answer depends very largely our judgment. There devoid of power and charm: a poet of Mr. Gib-
is also to be considered the merely practical son's ability cannot lose his technique or per-
aspect of this: in a sphere so overcrowded it is sonality overnight, and even in deterioration his
those who endure longest, producing most, who work remains interesting. At the same time, one
will be longest remembered. The lyric poet who is driven to conclude that if Mr. Gibson is to
early exhausts himself, the narrative poet who
keep his hold on us he must evolve a new manner,
begins to repeat his theme and manner, become sink a new shaft; his vein seems to be exhausted.
as it were known quantities; and unfortunately “Hill-Tracks” is a monotonous book, composed
the world is disposed to lose interest in known almost wholly of poems which lie midway in
quantities all too quickly. Only the type of manner between his earlier narrative style and
poetic genius who possesses a capacity for new
the ballad. The structural method is discourag-
experience, perpetually generating new complexes, ingly uniform. Mr. Gibson has surrendered
evolving therefore from one manner or emotional
himself to a predilection for place-names which
attitude to another, can continue to delight by amounts almost to mania, and poem after poem
continuing to surprise. And of this type too
follows the same scheme-beginning and ending
there are infinite gradations, some completing with a recital of place-names, sometimes even
their orbits much more rapidly than others. iterating them throughout. The narrative ele-
Mr. Gibson, Mr. Hodgson, and Mrs. Meynell
ment is thin; the emotional element is frequently
are the immediate occasion for these reflections, altogether absent.
for all three of them, in their latest books, exhibit Mrs. Meynell's book is slight, and demands
a marked deterioration in quality. Whether or
little comment. Mrs. Meynell's technique and
not this deterioration is permanent we have, to
manner are nearly always precise to the point of
be sure, no way of knowing. In the case of preciosity, and in the present instance, as indeed
Mr. Gibson the deterioration is least striking, for some time past, they approximate the frigid.
as is natural, since Mr. Gibson is predominantly It is not that she has nothing to say, or nothing
an objective poet. The deterioration of a lyric to feel; but the emotivity of the lyric poet is not
poet is apt to be abrupt. That of a narrative inexhaustible, and Mrs. Meynell's lyric gift was
poet is usually slow, sometimes only clearly always a slender one. It is enough to say that
perceptible in retrospect. We can see now that her verse, while adroit, no longer has gusto.
since the publication of "Fires" Mr. Gibson has The case of Mr. Hodgson is more interesting
tended to repeat himself, to allow his sensibilities and more uncertain. One would like nothing
to harden; his manner has become, to borrow a better than to be told that his new book, “The
psychological term, autistic. Petrifaction of Last Blackbird,” is not really a successor but a
style, the failure to invent new medium and new predecessor of the earlier published “Poems.” If
theme, the comfortable habit of relying a little that is not the case, then all one can say is that
too easily on the well-known and often-used Mr. Hodgson's collapse is nothing short of ap-
gesture, began perhaps in "Fires” itself and has palling. Of the delicious charm and magic
now, in “Hill-Tracks," reached a point where, which infused "Eve," "Stupidity Street," "The
-
barring an unexpected development, we may say Bull," and other things in the earlier book,


1918]
405
THE DIAL
there remains in the present volume hardly a too self-conscious and academic. Mr. Plowman,
trace. Mr. Hodgson appears to have outwept a disciple of Blake, eliminates too persistently the
his rain, and rather suddenly. Instead the sensuous element without which poetry is barren.
earlier warmth, color, and whim, one finds here He is also a little too studiously archaic.
little but chill abstractions, smooth modulation, Occasionally however, as in the symbolic poem
and a curious tendency towards the cool formal- "The Bowman," he gives us a formal lyric which
ism of certain eighteenth century poets, notably is very effective.
Thomas Gray. It begins to look as if our On the whole, if these seven volumes are a
expectations of Mr. Hodgson had been too fair test, it appears that the renaissance of poetry
sanguine. Must we class him among the three- in England is not so vigorous or interesting today
poem poets?
as it was between 1912 and 1915. Have the
The remaining four volumes—those of Ed- maturer poets of England, those of established
ward Thomas, J. C. Squire, Siegfried Sassoon, reputation, completed their orbits, and has the
and Max Plowman-do not relate to our theme interregnum now arrived during which the
of deterioration. Edward Thomas was killed apprentice poets, in greater numbers, and profit-
in action, and “Poems” was his first and lasting by the adventures of their predecessors, are
book of verse. To many it will probably prove preparing for the next flight? That, at any rate,
disappointing. Most of it is the work of a appears to be the state of things in both England
sensitive prose craftsman, a lover of poetry, with and America—the chief difference being that the
a
a mind rich in observation; but it is not, per- American poets will inherit a greater freedom,
haps, the work of a born poet. It is a verse of the English a finer sensitiveness to language.
restless approximations rather than of achieve-
CONRAD AIKEN.
ment. The sense of rhythm is so imperfect that
one is continually obliged to reread a line several
times. This is no doubt due in part to the
The Brevity School in Fiction
verse-theory of Mr. Robert Frost (to whom the
book is dedicated) that the rhythm of poetry
ON THE STAIRS. By Henry B. Fuller. Houghton
should be that of colloquial speech; but it is also Mifflin; $1.50.
due to defective ear and a consequent poverty in Last year, you will remember, Mr. Fuller, in
the sense of prosodic arrangement. In general The DIAL, made his plea for shorter novels. He
the style is cerebral, cumulative rather than selec- had unkind words for the loose-tongued, self-
tive, and somewhat fatiguing; the most we can indulgent Englishman who chats, sprawls, goes
say
is that from the book as a whole emerges an quite ungirt, and for the diffuseness and form-
engaging personality, a personality of many and lessness that are the capital defects of the English
complex moods, most at home however in the novel. He approves the critic who says that the
pastoral.
task of the novelist is to discover the nature of
In some respects Mr. J. C. Squire's work is his interest in life, and to express that interest in
not unlike that of Thomas: it is apt to be crabbed the form of a story. But, he adds, it must be an
and uneven, and it is almost always cerebral interest disciplined, which shall result in a unified
rather than emotional. One sometimes admires, impression. He believes that in 50,000 words,
but seldom is one moved. In the title poem, properly packed, the novelist can cover long
“The Lily of Malud,” Mr. Squire has con- periods of time and can handle adequately a large
siderably overworked a goodish idea, though number of individuals and of family groups. To
even to begin with the idea was perhaps a trifle this end he would rule out long descriptions of
precious. The effect aimed at was one of eeriness, persons, set descriptions of places, conversation
but Mr. Squire's details are too commonplacely which fills the page without illuminating it, con-
real, and the rather frequent references to the ventional scenes and situations. The novel should
mud from which the mysterious lily ascends pre- be spare-ribbed and athletic. The irrelevant
cipitate the vapor of illusion somewhat abruptly. should be pared off, so as to leave a clear outline
It is a kind of intellectual falseness, for movement and idea. Mr. Fuller's plea for
also, which undoes Mr. Sassoon and Mr. Plow- shorter novels was a plea for more artistic novels.
Mr. Sassoon is at his best in the shorter These interminable stories that Americans are so
war-poems, though even in these he is a trifle fond of, with their would-be realism, but without
man.


406
[April 25
THE DIAL
form or development, lack even the rudiments of anything but become a pallid servitor of the arts.
art. We are becoming fatty with too much read- Chicago proves an infertile field for the æsthete.
ing. The quickened tempo of our modern intelli- Raymond's personal contacts are scarcely more
gence demands a change.
successful than his contacts with business affairs.
Mr. Fuller did not tell us that, all the time, he His protagonist, John W. McComas, who began
had
up his sleeve a most brilliant example of the life as the Prince coachman's son, and has found
very kind of novel he asked for. In “Lines Long the world his oyster, manages to swing Ray-
and Short" he had made a series of sketches for mond's wife and even his son into his influence;
the “short novel.” Free verse, he saw, offered a and Raymond is left, resentfully contented in the
tempting vehicle for the modern story seeking to obscure, irresponsible bachelor existence that
escape the “stale and inflated conventions." This
This should have been his walk of life from the begin-
new form could "lay tribute upon some of the ning. Raymond's divorced wife is long since
best effects and advantages of poetry, the packed
married to the widowed McComas; the son,
thought, the winged epithet, the concentrated ex- home from the war, with a financial career ahead
pression." And these little sketches of his dry, of him, is marrying McComas's daughter. Every-
sardonic, etched in brisk, sharp strokes—made one goes up the stairs but Raymond, who goes out
story-telling seem like almost a new art. They by that same door wherein he went.
were spacious enough to improve upon that The satiric vision of these two men is contrib-
"trebly compressed, quintessentialized pungency uted by a narrator, who purports to be an old
of Spoon River" with its "escape of strongest schoolmate of both, tasting in his own life neither
ammonia." Yet they avoided all the confection- the public splendor of McComas nor the pale
ery of description and the patter of conversation. European flavor of Raymond. He is not envious,
After such a book and Mr. Fuller's articles the this narrator, but his tone, acid but not unpleas-
“short novel” was inevitable.
ant, biting but not quite cynical, sets exactly in
In "On the Stairs" he has filled out the design, the most just and vivid light this so indigenously
and has produced a book which has all the brisk, American social study. To the consumer of the
sardonic interest of these free-verse narratives and average American novel “On the Stairs" will
yet gives the spacious sense of a full-sized novel. seem quite dreadfully to lack sympathy. But it
True to his “conviction that story-telling, what- will delight every person who is looking for that
ever form it may take, can be done within limits rarest of all qualities in the contemporary Ameri-
narrower than those now generally employed,” can novel-wisd
It the wisdom of a mind
he has put into less than 50,000 words a story that has nothing to preach, no social problem
that covers the developing Chicago of the last solve, no moral to bequeath. Mr. Fuller looks at
forty years, the history of a wealthy family, the this human comedy that he has studied for many
rise of a self-made man, the interlocking of his years, and puts down in a clear and composed
fortunes with the wealthy scion, who, while the form the truth as it appears to him. The result
other mounts the stair of fortune, sinks into an is an extremely bracing attitude, the effect of an
ineffective citizen, “unable to command and un- uncompromisingly artistic effort instead of an
willing to obey." There is the younger genera-
ethical one.
The reader is balked of any moral
tion as affected by the war. There is the whole preferences. The self-made man is no more at-
ironic comedy of the feeble struggle of the æs- tractive than the tepid connoisseur. You may
thetic spirit against the hearty and masterful despise Raymond for his choked patriotism, but
Chicago growth and self-confidence. Into this you can scarcely admire the young hero, his son,
story Mr. Fuller has packed the essentials of that who returns from the war to his capitalistic ambi-
sweep of American life that interests him. And tions. What you remember is not any moral,
he has done it triumphantly, with just that terse but the fine, clear outlines of a piece of literary
suggestiveness and classic sense of form that he art that is a criticism of American life as well as
has admired and urged in others. The physician, a dramatic story.
anxious about the health of American fiction, It is not only the contour that is classic. Mr.
has quite beautifully healed himself.
Fuller has been able to make his characters types
Raymond Prince is a masterly portrait-the as well as individuals. They criticize American
rich young man utterly indifferent to business or society in that they symbolize whole classes, ex-
a professional career, who is drawn to Europe, press certain current attitudes. Raymond and
where he is too good and self-controlled to do Gertrude and Albert satirize themselves and all


1918]
407
THE DIAL
a
who are like them, and they do it just by being
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
what they are in the essential attributes that Mr.
Fuller gives them. This, I take it, is the note of
JAPANESE ART MOTIVES. By Maude Rex
Allen. McClurg; $3.
the good old classic tales, and Mr. Fuller in his
The survival and persistent revival of the arts
rigor for form has achieved the same effect of
of the Orient, particularly of the decorative pos-
significant generality expressed through the indi-
sibilities which have become an integral part of
vidual. Similarly a typical incident or a fragment
every recently and properly “done” house, make
of talk tells more than pages of description a fitting occasion for the analysis of "Japanese
or orthodox vraisemblable conversation. "The Art Motives." In her book Maude Rex Allen
world, in these days of easy travel and abundant has accomplished her task thoroughly. The large
depiction, has come to know itself pretty well,” selected bibliography with which she concludes
Mr. Fuller. All we need is a hint to call up
says
her volume confirms the fact that one may find,
the image or the sociological setting we should
in several languages, many treatises on the per-
have before us. The novelist who uses more is
petually fascinating topic of Oriental art-its
origin, significance, and adaptation. But this
either letting his poetic nature run away with
him, or is writing a sociological document, of knowledge necessarily imposed on the most inter-
author, foreseeing the limitations of time and
value doubtless in future centuries, but inadequate ested of auditors, has gathered from these sources,
as a contemporary work of art. Mr. Fuller
and has presented clearly and specifically, the
achieves a further criticism of the ordinary essential factors which from the Japanese angle
novel by maliciously calling the reader's attention, underlie the objects of beauty and utility from
at various points in the story, to his tempting which our civilization is deriving benefit.
romantic opportunities—only to turn away to
Brought up as we are on the Greek and Roman
the inexorable truth before him and continue his mythologies, we approach Miss Allen's subject
prosaic but tonic way.
matter with an unfamiliarity based on ignorance.
With our proverbially superficial knowledge of
"On the Stairs" is thus a variety of good and
even those arts we enjoy, we have accepted the
important things, summing up into a delightful beauty of the Orient with no attempt to com-
piece of literary art. But its chief significance prehend the meaning that the creators thereof
ought to be the liberation of those embryo Ameri- have put into it. Even the casual reader of this
can novelists who have been writing their stories book will be instantaneously impressed by its
in free verse.
Here is a brilliant and sound wealth of material--the abundance of mythol-
working model of the "novel within narrower ogy, of symbolism, of creative imagination. It
limits.” Will the younger American writers fol-
astounds us as much by its similarity to, as by
low Mr. Fuller's evolution from lines long and
its preponderance over, the conventional classical
short into the brevity novel? Of course it would
lore. Here, indeed, is an ancient and fecund
field wherein the dramatist-artist will find sug-
be unfair to expect them to achieve the artistic
gestive themes, although the recently dramatized
finish of a writer who twenty years ago was legend of “The Willow Tree" supplies a none
writing some of the best novels of his day. Per- too favorable example.
haps Mr. Fuller at sixty will have to go on Never forgetting her aim or her audience, Miss
writing the younger generation's novels for them. Allen has arranged this undoubtedly chaotic mix-
But here is a new and stirring lead that must be ture of religion, superstition, and fact with skilful
followed if we are to get down in black and Under the headings “Plants,” “Animals,"
white and in brisk pertinent form the myriad "Deities,” and miscellaneous "Symbolic Objects"
"
stories of the American life we know. You can-
she has grouped the better known emblems, giv-
ing them their foreign and English names, and
not read “On the Stairs” without hoping that
briefly explaining their generic significances and
here is a new fashion in literary art. “If a new
their application. We see the reasons for the nu-
day," Mr. Fuller said in one of those memorable
merous Japanese festivals, and the "five o'clock”
Dial articles, "is going to express itself to ad- becomes a doubly cherished moment when, with
vantage, it must make its new moulds as well as
a charm of detail, we visualize the augustly au-
find its new material. The latter vintage, crude spicious function in which we are participating
and homely as it may be, deserves its own bot- And we regret that one cannot always limit, in
tles.” A bottle with the fine contour, brilliance,
the orthodox Japanese fashion, the guests to the
and availability of Mr. Fuller's brevity is a good
"celestial number" of five, nor employ thirty-two
bottle for any vintage. Let the vineyards bring blessed implements in the brewing. Even the ar-
tificial landscape arrangements are so interestingly
forth.
RANDOLPH BOURNE. described that we will give attention hereafter
care.


408
[April 25
THE DIAL
a
to the least attractive of our bowled miniatures THE QUEST OF EL DORADO. By J. A.
--an appreciation mingled with an intellectual Zahm. Appleton; $1.50.
enjoyment hitherto lacking.
Under the pen-name “H. J. Mozans,” Father
That is the main contribution of Miss Allen's Zahm is known as the author of several attractive
compendium. Its illustrations, occasionally col- books of South American travels. “The Quest
ored, are helpful; its index and references valu- of El Dorado" is devoted to a series of essays
able; its tales interesting. But its distinctive
(“chapters," they are termed) describing the
feature is that it contains and transmits a true
expeditions of his sixteenth-century predecessors
educational impulse; it teaches us by making us
in the same regions—that succession of amazing
learn. Perhaps a few hours after our reading we
explorers, from Belalcazar to Raleigh, who
shall have forgotten exactly what the "Yo and
achieved the impossible in their quest of the
In" motive meant to the Chinese Emperor from incredible, and thereby made of South America a
whom it originated. The “Raincoat of Invisi-
mine of romance richer and more lasting than
bility" may justifiably become a delightful name,
the gold of all her empires. Nowhere are the
instead of a memory of the conventionalized nat-
pages of human history more writ with the
ural form it represents. But there is no question grandiose and the bizarre-preposterous courage,
that the information to be derived from this book
preposterous cruelty, preposterous imagination.
will prevent our handling a Japanese objet d'art
What the Spaniard brought to America out-
without some recognition of the symbolism with glittered what he found there—an orgulous mag-
which it is pregnant.
nificence of mind which distorted the world of
sensation into the splendors of a mirage.
A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.
By Joseph Schafer. Revised edition. Mac-
El Dorado, the “Gilded Man," priest-king
millan ; $2.25.
of a mythic golden city, was first heard of,
according to the tradition, from a poor Indian,
This is a new edition of an excellent book.
whose description of what appears to have been
It gives, as did the earlier edition, a brief and
a native rite at one time practiced by the tribes
authoritative account of the discovery, settlement,
about Lake Guatavita so excited at once the love
and acquisition by the United States of the
region formerly known as the Oregon Territory,
of gold and the imagining of marvels in his
now Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. There hearers that the tale became the noise of the
is a good map of the country, with the emphasis
whole world, and, growing in enchantment with
on the Pacific Northwest. And the interest of
its own telling, it mingled with and colored all
the story is enhanced by the inclusion of portraits
the fables of Amazon queens, lost empires of
and illustrations. The new chapters treat of the
the Incas, charmed Cities of the Cæsars, and
boundary dispute with England, of the social
resplendent Houses of the Sun, in which the Old
changes, and of the recent experiments in govern-
and New Worlds had wedded their combining
mental procedure which the country calls radical. fancies. “The Most Romantic Episode in the
The author not entirely convinced that the History of South American Conquest" is Father
initiative, referendum, and recall are the most Zahm's rather tame sub-title for his introduction
successful method of reaching social ends; but he to what is certainly the most abundant fountain
makes very clear the reason why these new com- of adventure—thrilling and bloody and fuming
munities became the experiment stations in reform with glory—that is as yet untouched by the
for the country. It is worth noting today that
literary. The introduction itself is admirable,
as Oregon is abandoning the famous three R's, if only for its clear sketch of events and its care-
Massachusetts is making an effort to adopt them.
ful references to Spanish originals, many of them
Professor Schafer does not point out that it has
little known in the United States, and, especially
always been the new community, at least in the in the case of the South American imprints, not
,
United States, which responded most quickly to readily accessible.
demands for democratic reforms and the remedy The chance of the times is throwing into Span-
of abuses. Kentucky tried to abandon slavery in ish courses many of our young college folk; this
her early days; Illinois was democratic before she chance will not altogether have failed of fortune
grew rich. But he does describe the social revo- if it turn but one or two, fresh with the gift
lution from ranchmen to small farmers, and then of fancy, to this field of romance at once rich
the next revolution from small farmers to great- and ripe for a gorgeous harvesting. Father
scale wheat producers. Any who may need a
.
Zahm's book is liberally illustrated with repro-
handy manual of the principal facts in the up-
ductions of sixteenth-century prints and maps,
building of the far Northwest might go far and which add the glamor of their own quaint dis-
search long before finding a better work.
tortions of fact.


1918]
409
THE DIAL
.
.
.
more
.
Poems OF WAR AND Peace.
the passion that evokes the genius loci. In Mr.
ITALIAN RHAPSODY, and Other Poems of Johnson's Italy no sunburned girls write naughty
Italy. By Robert Underwood Johnson. words with fingers dipped in wine. And when-
Published by the author, 70 Fifth Avenue, ever feeling deserts him, his ear goes too; his
New York; $1.50 and $1.
verses turn pedestrian or jig-jog; his rhymes
Of his “Poems of War and Peace” Mr. Rob- become obvious (“June . . . dune tune";
ert Underwood Johnson, who has become his
"love. dove above") or wrenched
own publisher, has now issued a second edition, ("torso
so ... Corso”). Passion-
which includes “The Panama Ode" and "The ate poets hold their audience in spite of faults of
Corridors of Congress,” together with several taste, but when taste fails the literary poet he
pieces inspired by the war. Although odes, son- is undone. Mr. Johnson is a literary poet whose
nets, and blank verse by no means fill the vol- taste is not always loyal to him.
ume, and in spite of a careful definitive arrange-
ment, the heroic mood dominates the book and
PAWNS OF WAR. A Play by Bosworth
gives it a somewhat archaic flavor; for the grand Crocker. With a foreword by John Gals-
manner—with all its panoply of alliteration, rep-
worthy. Little, Brown; $1.25.
etition, inversion, elision, obtrusive rhyme, class-
This is a compact and moving little play,
ical gear, capitalized abstractions, and senten-
written in a fine, sustained style. Perhaps it is
tiousness—can no longer report reality, if indeed
still too early for any play woven around the
it ever did. In a day of such grim business as
invasion of Belgium to have the even imperson-
today's, poetry can move us with unique tran-
ality of tone which is characteristic of great
scripts of that business or with complete escapes tragedy. Yet Mr. Crocker almost completely
from it. Mr. Johnson offers neither: he seems
avoids the polemical emphasis, and the high praise
unable to report this war as no other war has
which Mr. Galsworthy bestows in his foreword
been reported; in his pages war is War, peace
is well merited. The dramatist does not Ainch
is Peace, man is Man, the enemy is the Enemy-
from portraying the full horror of the whole
and they are nothing more; yet he cannot escape
brutal business, as that nation-wide horror is
from the war:
reflected in the lives of one small household. But
What were Nature, Love, and Song
the Germans too are human, caught like the
In the presence of such wrong?
Belgians in the meshes of the net of fate. At
He is like a laureate whose business it is to pro- the final scene—an eloquently restrained and
duce occasional poems about events of which he pathetic climax—when the household is to pay
has no intimate knowledge; and, as becomes an with their lives for the death of the head of
Academician, he does this much rather well-
the General Staff, the German commandant can-
if one will overlook the infrequent halt line and
not bring himself to punish the wife and the
hunted rhymes like “poor ... Kohinoor.” But
Kohinoor.” But daughter. There is tragedy for him as well as
such poems are not criticisms of life: they are
the others when he says, “If my life were mine
studied reflections of the glamors with which
to give-you should go—unharmed-you and
other laureates have gilded life.
yours; but my life is not my own; it is pledged
;
This somewhat stale, somewhat frigid unre- to the honor of the Fatherland; I am General of
ality characterizes Mr. Johnson's lyrics also. It the Sixteenth Division; the order has been given;
taints the humor of the two or three vernacular the proclamation is posted on your walls; my
pieces, permitting him to make a puppy say: Chief of Staff has been shot down in this house;
“For cleanliness," my father said,
there is no way out.” Anger at the revolting
"Is next, my dears, to dogliness.”
cynicism which could dictate the invasion of a
His humor, like his beauty and his learning, is peaceful country as a mere military measure, is
,
bestowed on his subjects from without, instead strengthened rather than weakened by the play-
of suffusing them from within; his emotions, like wright's assessment of the invaders' character
his epithets, are bookish. The Italy of the verses without moralistic bias. And in an atmosphere
in “Italian Rhapsody, and Other Poems” is the of bitterness and vindictiveness it is a consider-
Italy of the literary visitor, of the poetic tradi- able achievement to write a play around the
tion—the Italy of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and invasion of Belgium that shall have some of the
Keats, but not the Italy of Browning. This inevitability of movement and structure which
unreality does not preclude feeling, for some of the mere propaganda play can never attain, to
the lyrics—and notably the "Farewell to Italy" stir pity more than weak hatred. The play's
-achieve beauty through a gentle dew of emo- temper is admirably reflected in the title, "Pawns
tion, continently expressed; but it does preclude of War."


410
[April 25
THE DIAL
CASUAL COMMENT
in the dispatches describing our own “doughboys”
in France. Ernest Poole's exposition of Russia
The ÆSTHETIC FUNCTION OF MUSIC, LIKE
and the Russians in his new book, “The Dark
that of poetry, is most misunderstood by those
People,” is a fine bit of work. Perhaps a dozen
who are most adept in the practice of the arts.
Skill in the exercise of technical methods speedily really noble heights, surely an average not greater
times during the year our poetry has risen to
becomes a pleasure in itself, comparable only to
than that of ordinary peace times. But taken
the delight of solving a problem in higher mathe-
altogether these few stars have not constituted
matics. The advocates of "pure” or absolute
a wonderful literary firmament. We can now
music, much as the defenders of imagist poetry, appreciate how the propaganda spirit infects even
derive their real thrills from their quick recogni-
the calmer of our writers. Everybody seems
tion of the hidden order in a complicated science
anxious to prove something or to disprove some-
of relations. They urge an art washed clean of thing else. The recriminating and bickering
any mere animal feeling, stripped of any factitious spirit has insinuated itself into the most objec-
penumbra of representational memory or con-
tive of our prose stylists. It is the mood not of
fused, instinctive suggestion. In a word, they creation, but of argument. And when the puri-
,
tan tradition, as strongly entrenched as it is
metaphysics. These, perhaps, are legitimate with us, marries a new and rather unwieldly
pleasures for the virtuosi who can retain the
militaristic experiment, the result may come peril-
sanity of realizing their own weakness. But too
ously close to moral megalomania. Our writers
many of our musicians and poets are in danger have yet to learn, for example, that the most
of forgetting the homely maxim that for a work powerful propaganda is the quietest propaganda
of art, as for a quarrel, two are required-the
---that under-emphasis is considerably more ef-
artist and the audience. They resent, when they fective than shrillness, that truth of artistic vision
do not ignore, the human, all too human claims
and courage of artistic conviction have inalien-
of their auditors.
able claims. When we wish to catch a glimpse
of the human side of that mighty conflict red-
LIKE EVERY OTHER BELLIGERENT WE HAVE dening and rending the earth of Flanders and
discovered that an atmosphere of war is not Picardy we still have to turn to those fine dis-
necessarily an atmosphere conducive to great lit- patches of Philip Gibbs. Nowhere do the
erature. Especially has it been painfully im-
courage and steadiness of those who are battling
pressed upon us that the war itself is a somewhat
for us gleam more clearly; yet the account is
thankless muse. John Masefield, although him- written without rancor and without bitterness,
self the author of two notable ooks about the
and with great pity at the horror and awfulness
war, "Gallipoli" and "The Old Front Line"
of that wasted young flesh.
(once more, in many places, the line of today),
has frankly stated his belief that art cannot flour-
ish during the actual progress of war. It must The HISTORY OF QUR' SO-CALLED POETIC
wait for that quieter temper which will follow renaissance will contain no sprightlier chapter
the end of hostilities. Although somewhat em- than the tale of the Spectrist school. The Spec-
barrassing, it is not really impossible to remember trists came among us in a moment that favored
when we were chuckling at the foolish German their design. The Muse was on the make here-
“hymns of hate” and wondering why on August abouts: patronesses had been discovering her;
4, 1914 all the English writers whom we loved prizes were multiplying; newspapers were giv-
and admired—with a strikingly few exceptions ing critics their head; poetry magazines, mush-
seemed all at once to be stricken with literary rooms or hardier plants, were springing up over-
palsy. Well, we have lived for over a year in night; it was raining anthologies—boom times!
the glass house of war itself, and certainly are In concert hall and museum the public had been
no longer in a position to cast stones at our acquiring sophistication and a safe air of non-
neighbors. What great piece of American fic- committal amusement before artistic queerness.
tion has our first year of war brought forth? If Cubists, Futurists, Imagists, Vorticists, and
Or of poetry? Or of really fine writing? If Others—why not Spectrists? So when Emanuel
we are honest, we have to admit-practically Morgan and Anne Knish got out their odd little
Courageous and first-rate bits of jour- black and white volume of “Spectra: New
nalism we have had more than our due share of. Poems," which Mr. Kennerley slipped unobtru-
Some of Will Irwin's descriptions, though “pop- sively into the 1916 tide of anthologies, the
ular” in every sense, would have been creditable public smiled, winked, and swallowed. The char-
performances for any writer. Occasionally there acteristic verse inscription dedicated the Spectra
Aickers something of the Mark Twain spirit to Remy de Gourmont. The inevitable preface
a
none.


1918]
411
THE DIAL
.
a
expounded, with the right mingling of erudition must have had an enviable control of their facial
and mysticism, the Spectric theory that “the muscles, acquired perhaps through reading the
theme of a poem is to be regarded as a prism, innumerable serious reviews of their so success-
upon which the colorless white light of infinite ful volume. For the reviewers ran signally true
existence falls and is broken up into glowing, to form: the more conservative reviewed with
beautiful, and intelligible hues”; that a poem is
, alarm; the more radical poured out superlatives;
as it were, an after-image of "the poet's initial the professionally cautious maintained their fence-
vision"; that the "overtones, adumbrations, or rail dignity. The supremely canny avoided the
spectres which for the poet haunt all objects both question altogether, or evaded responsibility.
of the seen and the unseen world . . . should And thereby hangs quite the funniest tale of the
touch with a tremulous vibrancy of ultimate fact whole affair. One of the editors of a distin-
the reader's sense of the immediate theme"—the guished journal of opinion delegated his duty to
last clause fairly crying for an Imagist rebuttal. Mr. Witter Bynner, and the journal paid Mr.
Mr. Morgan employed metre and rhyme; Miss Bynner a neat honorarium for his solmenly judi-
Knish wrote free verse: the partisans of each cial appraisal of himself in the role of "Eman-
form were gratified. By way of madness, the uel Morgan," originator of the Spectrist the-
poets headed their Spectra not with titles but
ory. . . One wonders whether the genesis and
with opus numbers; and by way of reason in course of Spectrism is not the most illuminating
their madness, their table of contents supplied criticism of much that is most pretentious in the
the lowbrow a key of titles. In due time it was
new arts. It seems that Mr. Bynner, while
divulged that Mr. Morgan was a painter who
watching a performance by the Russian Ballet,
in Paris had fallen under the influence of Remy
announced a sudden determination to found a
de Gourmont, gone in for poetry, and abandoned
new school in poetry. What to call it? His
painting—but not his sensitiveness to color; that
Miss Knish was a Hungarian who had published followed two weeks of indefatigable composition
programme lay open at "La Spectre de la Rose."
a volume of poems in Russian under a Latin title.
in collaboration with "Miss Knish," then pub-
Take it altogether, Hoyle was satisfied and the
lication and fame. Probably neither of the
Spectrists were gathered to the bosom of the
authors was prepared for so gratifying a success.
renaissance.
Indeed, there is no telling how far the "move-
ment” might have gone but for the interruption
Some of the SPECTRA, TO BE SURE, WERE
of the war, which gave “Miss Knish” a commis-
pretty staggeringly “queer”; but queerer things sion as Captain Arthur Davison Ficke.
had been—and were to be. Some of them, too,
were undeniably effective. The authors began
to be deluged with adulatory letters from the
The PUBLISHERS OF “The ATLANTIC
most advanced poets of our very advanced day, Monthly” have assumed control of “The Liv-
of whom the men naturally inclined to addressing Age" and announce that the venerable weekly,
Miss Knish, and the women Mr. Morgan. than which no American periodical except “The
Here at last, it appeared, was the real thing— North American Review” has had a longer unin-
pretense stripped away, technique reduced to low- terrupted history, will shortly broaden its scope to
est terms, passionate beauty impaled for a marvel- include again reprints of contributions to Brit-
ing posterity-that ultimate method for which the ish periodicals, to which selections from Conti-
poets from Homer to themselves had been so nental magazines will now be added. In 1844,
many voices crying in the wilderness. Certain when Littell founded “The Living Age,” Amer-
poetry magazines were impressed and sought the ican periodicals were almost wholly dependent
privilege of giving the world more Spectra, not upon English journals for their contents and
all of which have yet been printed. "Others" upon a very unreliable trans-Atlantic service.
devoted an entire issue to the Spectrists; they were The editor was wont to complain that he had
successfully parodied in a college magazine; they to go to press hearing “the noise of the steamer's
acquired disciples—a Harvard undergraduate, arrival,” knowing that his contributions were on
for instance, forswore Imagism for Spectrism, and board, but unable to make use of them before
had his apostasy roundly rebuked by the high another issue. The war, which has greatly in-
priestess of his earlier faith. Meanwhile poets creased our intellectual demands upon Europe,
had been proving their discernment by calling has also restored something of that uncertainty
the attention of fellow poets to these bright new of communication, as subscribers to foreign pub-
stars in the firmament of verse, sometimes inad- lications can bear witness. One trusts that his-
vertently introducing the Spectrists to themselves tory will not repeat itself too annoyingly in the
-entertaining angels unawares. The angels new office of “The Living Age.”


412
(April 25
THE DIAL
BRIEFER MENTION
WN
PRINCETON
Spring
UNIVERSITY) Books
PRESS
Wasp Studies Afield, by Phil and
Nellie Rau. Do you know how the wasps build
and burrow? How they work and play? Have
you ever seen their sun-dance? The authors
have watched it all, and report their observa-
tions with scientific accuracy and in most enter-
taining style. Many excellent photographs and
drawings illustrate the text. Ready in May.
Price, about $2 net. Order now.
Above the French Lines: letters of
Stuart Walcott, member of the Princeton Class
of 1917, killed in combat last December. They
inspire confidence and courage. Illustrated,
$1 net; by mail, $1.06.
Crime Prevention: Some aspects of the
police problem of diverting potential lawbreak-
ers from criminal courses. By Arthur Woods,
formerly police commissioner of Greater New
York. A crisp, practical, well-filled book.
$1 net; by mail, $1.06.
Early Christian Iconography and a
School of Ivory Carvers in Provence,
by E. Baldwin Smith (No. 6, Princeton Mono-
.graphs in Art and Archaeology), $6 net; by
mail, $6.24.
Platonism, by Paul Elmer More, $1.75
net; by mail, $1.83.
Tales of an Old Sea Port (Bristol,
R. I.), by Wilfred H. Munro, $1.50 net; by
mail, $1.58.
National Strength and Interna-
tional Duty, by Theodore Roosevelt, $1 net;
by mail, $1.06.
The World Peril, by members of the
faculty of Princeton University, $1 net; by
mail, $1.06.
England and Germany, 1740-
1914, by Bernadotte Everly Schmitt, $2 net;
by mail, $2.10.
Protestantism in Germany, by Kerr
D. Macmillan, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.58.
Coöperative Marketing, by W. W.
Cumberland, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.58.
The President's Control of Foreign
Relations, by Edward S. Corwin, $1.50 net;
by mail, $1.58.
The New Purchase, a record of pio-
neer days in Indiana, $2 net; by mail, $2.10.
Rather tardily, but perhaps as soon as we could
expect, are appearing manuals of information about
military organization and insignia, first aids for the
inquiring civilian. One of the most complete is
Lieut. J. W. Bunkley's “Military and Naval Rec-
ognition Handbook" (Van Nostrand; $1.), a
clearly illustrated guide which should prove not
without value in the services as well. The chap-
ters on the organization of our army and navy,
and on the etiquette and customs peculiar to them,
are naturally of first interest; but the descriptions
of insignia of rank in the other important armies
and navies are already helpful in some American
cities and should prove increasingly useful as
strange uniforms multiply upon our streets.
"A Yankee in the Trenches,” by R. Derby
Holmes (Little, Brown; $1.35), is a straightfor-
ward, objective report, not without humor, by an
American who enlisted in the British army early in
the war. His regiment was stationed in the Somme
district and took part in the battle of High Wood,
where the tanks made their dramatic first appear-
ance, to the demoralization of the Germans. But
Corporal Holmes is most readable when he is tell-
ing about the life of Tommy Atkins between his
periods of trench service, that less spectacular life
—full of quiet incident and homely detail-which
the author has had to subordinate in his lectures.
He understands and admires his cockney comrades,
most loyal when "grousing" most bitterly. He de-
scribes and commends the Y. M. C. A. recreation
work. His book will help satisfy the curiosity of
our stay-at-home public about the everyday routine
of life at the front; and a chapter of suggestions
about what to send, and what not to send, to the
Sammies should prove even more useful than the
appended glossary of army slang.
"The Animal Mind," by Margaret Floy Wash-
burn (Macmillan; $1.90) has in its second edition
been subjected to a thorough and comprehensive
revision. So much has been added to our knowl-
edge of animal behavior in the last decade that the
data, and in part the interpretation, must be pre-
sented in altered perspective. Along with this
increased activity, which has brought about a special
technique for animal study—the product of the joint
interest of the biologist and the psychologist-the
position of comparative psychology has become more
central to the interpretation of human behavior.
All these interests are admirably presented in Pro-
fessor Washburn's work. The volume is well suited
to the needs of college students; and its availability
should act as an encouragement to the introduction
of such courses in institutions that set value upon
adequate surveys of the essential fields in the broad
domain of the mind.
Though a wan humor plays over the characters
in “Children of Passage," by Frederick Watson
(Dutton; $1.50), there is a pervading gloom as of
Highland mists and mildewed Scottish castles. The
poor but proud and noble heroine and the ancestor-
less millionaire lover are familiar figures which the
author has not endowed with any particular dis-
Write for Complete Catalogue
Princeton University Press
Princeton, N. J.


1918]
413
THE DIAL
CASSARD
a
Gunner Depew
are
tinction. Their fortunes Aluctuate a bit tediously
through the three hundred odd pages, and in the
end the hero enlists and the fragile heroine is denied
any real earthly happiness. Both are allowed the
rather doubtful satisfaction of looking forward to
some future state where impecunious nobility is
supposed to have much in common with plebeian
prosperity
"Kitty Canary," by Kate Langley Bosher (Har-
pers; $1.) is a "glad" book with a typically loving
and cheerful heroine who finds a congenial back-
ground for her romantic optimism in a typically
Southern village. Kitty Canary-more sedately
Katherine Bird-is a precociously philosophical
young person, deeply concerned with life and given
to high-handed management of her own and other
people's affairs. When Father or Miss Susanna
shows signs of insubordination, Kitty Canary just
What the critics say
whirls the objector giddily about the room and
after this joyful exercise her wishes are pursued
about that most amaz.
with astonishing docility. Lovers are reunited; a
ing story of the war-
sick wife iş nursed back to health; a selfish husband
is punished; dowdy spinsters are transformed; and
other desirable changes are speedily effected. At
the end, the heroine's own love affairs are satis-
An American sailor
factorily arranged. The village life and characters
are pleasantly suggested; and doubtless the story
in the service of France
will contain many charms for girl readers of board-
ing school age.
"It is impossible to laud too highly the optimism
and laughing good nature, even amid battle scenes,
"The Neapolitan Lovers" (Brentano; $1.40) is
wounds and death, unfolded in this remarkable story
an historical novel by the famous author of "The of his part in the big war, as played by an American
Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Muske- sailor boy. It is the frankest, most natural story of
teers.” Frankly, unless one be of that happy broth- its kind. The word-pictures of battle scenes
erhood of readers who "thoroughly enjoy” his- splendidly written. But the most graphic writing in
torical romance, this story is to be read when one
the book is where Depew describes his experience
is sixteen and cares little if a book be neither fish
as a prisoner of war in Germany."-Portland Ore-
gonian.
nor fowl nor good red herring. The older reader,
used to and demanding credible psychology, is likely
“Depew's story needs no embroidering, no exaggera-
tions. It is a tale that would loom in graphic quality
to find the story of the story more interesting than
if told in words of one syllable. That part of it
the novel itself. For, according to the introduction which relates to the voyage of terror on the Yarrow-
by R. S. Garnett, the book's translator, “Dumas dale has been told in its completeness by no other
had long awaited an opportunity of dealing with writer.”—New York World.
the Neapolitan Claudius and the Venetian Mes- "It is a capital book which gives us another of
salina (King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Caro- those intimate touches with regard to this war which
lina).
He might have said in the words of
are entertaining and inspiring."- Philadelphia En-
Hernani: ‘La meurtre est entre nous affaire de
quirer.
"I think this one of the best war books I have seen."
famille.' In 1851 Dumas wrote: 'Perhaps some
-John R. Rathom, Editor, Providence Journal.
day my filial vengeance will evoke these two blood-
“It is a rare find in the literary world."-Rochester
stained spectres and force them to pose in naked
Democrat.
hideousness before posterity.'” For it seems that
“Here, evidently, is a soldier of the legion with
King Ferdinand was Dumas's father's murderer,
a story worth hearing. The sense of realism,
and Dumas's lifelong desire was for revenge. It of verisimilitude, is so strong that all the reader has
was through Garibaldi, who had installed Dumas to do, all he can think of, is to plunge ahead with
in the Chiatamone Palace with permission to exam-
the writer in his headlong race to episodical finishes,
all more or less startling and amazing.”—Philadelphia
ine the secret archives of the city, that the author
North American.
found the unique set of public documents, manu-
“It appeals to me as one of the most gripping war
scripts, and letters which the hangman had reserved narratives I have ever read."-Managing Editor,
for the King. And anyone who has read even one Cleveland Plain Dealer.
of Dumas's many historical romances may easily “Told in a more unsophisticated, self-revealing and
imagine that writer's delight at the opportunity. war-revealing fashion than most of its predecessors.
This interesting explanation of the writing of the Every page is worth reading."-Chicago Post.
novel, then, may excusably be given in lieu of a
At All Bookstores. $1.50 net
review; there isn't a hint in the romance itself that
it is done to revenge the murder of the author's Chicago REILLY & BRITTON - Publishers
father.

a


414
[April 25
THE DIAL

NOTES AND NEWS
POLISHERS
ECEKSELLERS
ISCLURO
BOOK
SEDI
URORTO
XONE
Thorstein Veblen, author of the famous "Nature
of Peace,” has previously contributed to The DIAL,
and needs little introduction to our readers. “The
Passing of National Frontiers,” which is the lead-
ing article for the current issue, is the first of a
series of papers on internationalism that Professor
Veblen will contribute from time to time. For the
present, Professor Veblen has given up academic
duties for work connected with the United States
Food Administration.
James Weber Linn, who contributes a brief dis-
cussion of W. L. George's "Literary Chapters" to
this issue, is in the English Department of the
“I visited with a natural rapture the University of Chicago. He is a frequent contributor
to magazines and newspapers, and is the author of
largest bookstore in the world."
“The Second Generation” and “The Chameleon."
See the chapter on Chicago, page 43, “Your
Florence Kiper Frank (Mrs. Jerome N.) is the
author of "The Jew to Jesus, and Other Poems”
United States," by Arnold Bennett
(Kennerley, 1915); of a one-act poetic drama,
It is recognized throughout the country
"Jael,” published by the Chicago Little Theatre;
of some plays for amateurs; and of many maga-
that we earned this reputation because we
zine contributions in prose and verse. She lives in
have on hand at all times a more complete Hubbard Woods, Illinois.
assortment of the books of all publishers than
can be found on the shelves of any other book-
The Century Co. will shortly issue Professor
dealer in the entire United States. It is of
Edward Alsworth Ross's "Russia in Upheaval.”
Doubleday, Page & Co. have added "Artists'
interest and importance to all bookbuyers to
Families," by Eugene Brieux, to the “Drama
know that the books reviewed and advertised League Series” of plays.
in this magazine can be procured from us with The library of the late Mark P. Robinson and
the least possible delay. We invite you to
a collection of books in fine bindings will be on sale
visit our store when in Chicago, to avail your-
at the Anderson Galleries from April 29 to May 1.
Harper & Brothers announce "How to Sell More
self of the opportunity of looking over the
Goods," by H. J. Barrett; "Gaslight Sonatas," by
books in which you are most interested, or to Fannie Hurst; and “The Panama Plot," by Ar-
call upon us at any time to look after your thur B. Reeve.
book wants.
G. P. Putnam's Sons announce that after May 1
the price of the Loeb Library will be increased to
$1.80 per volume in cloth and $2.25 per volume in
Special Library Service leather.
The New York "Evening Post" has reprinted
We conduct a department devoted entirely
from its columns the texts of the secret treaties as
to the interests of Public Libraries, Schools,
made public by Trotzky. The reprint is in pamphlet
Colleges and Universities. Our Library De-
form and sells at 10 cts.
partment has made a careful study of library
The Revell Co. have recently published “The
Soul of the Soldier," by Chaplain Thomas Tiplady,
requirements, and is equipped to handle all
and “Armenia: A Martyr Nation,” by Dr. M. C.
library orders with accuracy, efficiency and
Gabrielian.
despatch. This department's long experience
Next month the Frederick A. Stokes Co. will
in this special branch of the book business, issue “Surgeon Grow: An American in the Russian
combined with our unsurpassed book stock,
Fighting,” by M. C. Grow, and "Save It for Win-
enable us to offer a library service not excelled ter," by F. F. Rockwell.
elsewhere. We solicit correspondence from Francis J. Hannigan, head of the Periodical
Librarians unacquainted with our facilities. Department of the Boston Public Library, has
compiled “The Standard Index to Short Stories:
1900-1914,” which is published by Small, Maynard
G
A. C. McCLURG & CO. & Co.
Retail Store, 218 to 224 South Wabash Avenue
Library Department and Wholesale Offices:
330 to 352 East Ohio Street
Chicago
The following war books have been published this
month by D. Appleton & Co.: “The A. E. F.:
With Pershing's Army in France," by Heywood
Broun; “A Surgeon in Arms,” by Capt. R. J.
Manion; “Glorious Exploits of the Air," by Edgar
C. Middleton; "From the Front,” by Lieut. C. E.
9)


1918]
415
THE DIAL
“There is the saving of a life-
an American lite-to every line of
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL
PAUL AZAN'S
The Warfare
of Today
9
Andrews; and "The Call to the Colors,” by Charles
T. Jackson.
April publications of Little, Brown & Co. include:
“Mrs. Marden's Ordeal,” by James Hay, Jr.; "A
Soldier Unafraid,” translated from the French by
Theodore Stanton; “The Adventures of Arnold
Adair, American Ace," by Laurence LaTourette
Driggs; and "Caroline King's Cook Book."
Among the more important war books offered by
Grosset & Dunlap in their reprints at 75 cts. are:
“Fighting in Flanders,” by E. Alexander Powell ;
"The First Hundred Thousand,” by Capt. Ian
Hay; "Germany—The Next_Republic?" by Carl
W. Ackerman; “The Great Push” and “The Red
Horizon,” by Patrick MacGill; and “The Battle of
the Somme,” by John Buchan.
The Scribners are preparing "The War Letters
of Edmond Genet,” the great grandson of the first
ambassador from the French Republic to the United
States and the first American to fall in battle after
our declaration of war. Under the title “You No
Longer Count” they are about to publish a trans-
lation of Rene Boylesve's novel "Tu n'es plus
Rien.”
Four books of verse were published by the John
Lane Co. on April 12: “Mid-American Chants,"
by Sherwood Anderson; “The Evening Hours," by
Emile Verhaeren, translated by Charles R. Mur-
phy; "The Day, and Other Poems,” by Henry
Chappell, with an introduction by Sir Herbert
Warren, President of Magdalen College, Oxford;
and “Hay Harvest, and Other Poems,” by Lucy
Buxton.
April issues of the George H. Doran Co. have
included: “Crescent and Iron Cross,” by E. F.
Benson; "Face to Face with Kaiserism,” by James
W. Gerard; “Germany at Bay,” by Major Hal-
dane Macfall; “The Western Front,” being the
first volume of official war drawings by Muirhead
Bone; and three novels, Gilbert Cannan's “The
Stucco House,” E. F. Benson's "An Autumn Sow-
ing,” and John Buchan's “Prester John.”
Among the books announced for this month by
the J. B. Lippincott company are: “Over Here,'
Lieut. Hector MacQuarrie's account of his ex-
periences as British Inspector and lecturer in
America; “Over the Threshold of War,” the early-
war diary of Nevil Monroe Hopkins, of the Amer-
ican Embassy in Paris; "Offensive Fighting,” Maj.
Donald McRae; and “Training for the Street Rail-
way Business,” by C. B. Fairchild, prepared under
the supervision of T. E. Mitten, President of the
Philadelphia Rapid Transit.
The April Macmillan announcements include:
"History of Labor in the United States,” by John
R. Commons, President of the American Economic
Association; "What is National Honor?" by Leo
Perla; “Coöperation, The Hope of the Consumer,"
by Emerson P. Harris, with an introductory note
by John Graham Brooks; "The New Horizon of
State and Church,” by William Herbert Perry
Faunce, President of Brown University; “Historic
Mackinac," by Edwin O. Wood, in two illustrated
volumes; and two books of verse, James Stephens's
“Reincarnations” and Rabindranath Tagore's
"Lover's Gift and Crossing."
“It is a wonderfully clear guide
for fathers on how their boys
fight their way through the perils
of modern warfare... Lieutenant-
Colonel Azan's writings acquire
from new developments, even from
affairs so momentous as the Easter
drive of the Germans, only an addi-
tional wealth of material, illustrat-
ing ever more clearly the principles
which they proclaim, and showing
forth ever more plainly the place
of those principles in the winning
of victory ... There is the saving
of a life- an American life-to
every line of 'The Warfare of
Today.' And there is in the end
the establishment of Allied Vic-
tory.”—Boston Transcript.
9
.
The most completely
illustrated book of
the war
$2.50 net at all bookstores
Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston
New York


416
[April 25
THE DIAL
1
1
F. M. HOLLY Authors' and Publioboro'
Roprolontativo
186 Fifth Avenue, New York (Istablished 1906)
un AD VOLL KFOULATION VILL BD SANT ON WOULD
THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION
Thirty-eighth Year. LETTERS OF CRITICISM, EXPERT
REVISION OF MSS. Advice as to publication. Address
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 424 W. 119th St., New York City
For the Book Lover hans bloks now out
Rare -edi-
of print. Latest C
C. Gerhardt, 25 W. 420 St., New York logue sent on request.
LIBRARY WORK AS A
PROFESSION
Opportunities for advancement in library work are
exceptional for normal school or college graduates
who can take a year of training in a Library School.
Openings, particularly for school librarians, are be-
coming more numerous and more remunerative.
The Library School of the New York
Public Library
offers instruction by experienced teachers, lectures
by leading librarians, access to a large variety of
libraries for purposes of study, inspection and prac-
tice, and the advantages of a year's life in New
York City. Apply for Circular to
E. J. REECE, Principal, 476 Fifth Ave., NEW YORK
LPUTNAMS!
The putnam
Bookstore
2west 45 st Sve. N. Y.
Book Buyers
BOOKS
Just west
who cannot get satisfactory local service, are
urged to establish relations with our bookstore.
We handle every kind of book, wherever
published. Questions about literary matters
answered promptly. We have customers in
nearly every part of the globe. Safe delivery
guaranteed to any address. Our bookselling
experience extends over 80 yoars.
Anthology of Swedish Lyrics
1750 · 1915
COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED
BY CHARLES WHARTON STORK
"It is seldom that so fortunate a combination as a
fine poet like Mr. Stork and a quite unexploited
literature so fine as Swedish lyric poetry occurs in
the history of letters."—N. Y. Times.
Published by
The American Scandinavian Foundation
25 West 45th Street, NEW YORK
PRICE, $1.50
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
[The following list, containing 90 titles, includes
books received by The DIAL since its last issue.]
THE WAR.
The
Warfare of Today. By Lieut.-Colonel Paul Azan.
Translated by Major Julian L. Coolidge. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 352 pages. Houghton Mimin Co.
$2.50.
The Business of War. By Isaac F. Marcosson.
Illustrated, 12mo, 319 pages. John Lane Co.
$1.50.
The Russian Revolution. By Alexander Petrunke-
vitch, Samuel Harper, and Frank A. Golder.
The Jugo-Slav Movement. By Robert J. Kerner.
12mo, 109 pages. Harvard University Press. $1.
"The Dark People", Russia's Crisis. By Ernest
Poole. Illustrated, 12mo, 226 pages. The Mac-
millan Co. $1.50.
Russia's Agony. By Robert Wilton, Illustrated,
8vo, 356 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. $4.80.
Runaway Russia. By Florence MacLeod Harper.
Illustrated, 8vo, 321 pages. The Century Co. $2.
America's Message to the Russian People: Ad-
dresses by the members of the Russian Mission.
8vo, 154 pages. Marshall Jones Co. $1.50.
Surgeon Grow: An American in the Russian Fight-
ing. Illustrated, 12mo, 304 pages. Frederick A.
Stokes Go. $1.50.
“Over There” with the Australianı. By Captain
R. Hugh Knyvett. Illustrated, 12mo, 339 pages.
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.
“Ladies from Hell.” By R. Douglas Pinkerton. Il-
lustrated, 12mo, 254 pages. The Century Co.
$1.50.
The Real Front. By Arthur Hunt Chute. 12mo, 309
pages. Harper & Bros. $1.50.
Nothing of Importance. By Bernard Adams. 12mo,
334 pages. Robert M. McBride Co. $1.50.
The Big Fight. By Capt. David Fallon. Illustrated,
12mo, 301 pages. W. J. Watt & Co. $1.50.
Gunner Depew. By Himself. Illustrated, 12mo, 312
pages. Reilly & Britton Co. $1.50.
The Escape of a Princess Pat. By George Pearson.
Illustrated, 12mo, 227 pages. George H. Doran
Co. $1.40.
Crescent and Iron Cross. By E. F. Benson. 12mo,
240 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25.
The Soul of the Soldier. By Thomas Tiplady. With
frontispiece, 12mo, 208 pages. Fleming H. Revell
Co. $1.25.
Battering the Boche. By Preston Gibson. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 120 pages. The Century Co. $1.
Germanism and the American Crusade. By George
D. Herron. 12mo, 44 pages. Mitchell Kennerley.
War Addresses: 1917. Edited by Barr Ferree. _8vo,
55 pages. The Pennsylvania Society, New York.
Right Above Race. By Otto H. Kahn, With frontis-
piece, 12mo, 182 pages. The Century Co. 75 cts.
Where Do You Stand? By Hermann Hagedorn.
16mo, 126 pages. The Macmillan Co. 50 cts.
Raemaekers's Cartoon History of the War. Vol. I.
Compiled by J. Murray Allison. 8vo, 206 pages.
The Century Co. $1.50.
The Book of Artemas. 12mo, 85 pages. George H.
Doran Co. 50 cts.
Service Record: For “The Boy," the Home Folks,
and the Coming Generations. 12mo. The Pil-
grim Press. 50 cts.
Three Brothers Who Plotted to Own the World. By
M. E. Starr. 16mo, 16 pages. Paper, 10 cts.
FICTION.
The Holy City. (Jerusalem II.) By Selma Lager-
löl. Translated by Velma Swanston Howard.
12mo, 348 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.50.
Mashi, and Other Stories. By Sir Rabindranath
Tagore. 12mo, 222 pages. The Macmillan Co.
$1.50.
The Flying Teuton. By Alice Brown. 12mo, 321
pages. The Macmillan Co. $1.50.
The Boardman Family. By Mary S. Watts. 12mo,
352 pages.
The Macmillan Co. $1.50.
The Unwilling Vestal. By Edward Lucas White.
12mo, 317 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50.
Miss Pim's Camouflage. By Lady Stanley. 12mo,
322 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Čo. $1.50.
The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me. By
William Allen White. Illustrated, 12mo, 338
pages. The Macmillan Co. $1.50.


1918]
417
THE DIAL
Over Here
War Time Rhymes
Edgar A +
Guest
-
Front Lines. By Boyd Cable. 12mo, 358 pages.
E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50.
The House of Intrigue. By Arthur Stringer. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 363 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50.
Over Here. By Ethel M. Kelley. With frontispiece,
12mo, 259 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50.
Pleces of Eight. By Richard Le Gallienne. Illus-
trated, 12mo, 333 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co.
$1.40.
Gaslight Sonatas. By Fannie Hurst. With frontis-
piece, 12mo, 271 pages. Harper & Bros. $1.40.
The Making of George Groton. By Bruce Barton.
Illustrated, 12mo, 331 pages. Doubleday, Page
& Co. $1.40.
The Man Who Lost Himself. By H. De Vere Stac-
poole. 12mo, 300 pages. John Lane Co. $1.40.
Stealthy Terror. By John Ferguson. With frontis- Over Here reflects the love and
piece, 12mo, 312 pages. "John Lane Co. $1.40.
The Foolishness of Lilian. By Jessica Champion. loyalty of the folks at home. In its
12mo, 340 pages. John Lane Co. $1.40.
“Mr. Manley." By G. I. Whitham. 12mo, 304 pages.
John Lane Co. $1.40.
warmly human pages are to be found
When Bearcat Went Dry. By Charles Neville Buck.
Illustrated, 12mo, 311 pages. W. J. Watt & Co. a message of courage and hope and
$1.40.
Prester John. By John Buchan. With frontispiece, good cheer for the gray days ahead-
12mo, 309 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.35.
Branded. By Francis Lynde, With frontispiece, a ringing declaration of faith in the
12mo, 370 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.35.
The
Little Red House in the Hollow. By Amanda high ideals for which our country is
B. Hall. Illustrated, 12mo, 295 pages. George
W. Jacobs Co. $1.35.
fighting
Captain Gault. By William Hope Hodgson. 12mo,
295 pages.
Robert M. McBride & Co. $1.35.
The Rider in Khaki. By Nat Gould. 12mo, 279 Loyal-hearted folk will enjoy Mr.
pages. John Lane Co. $1,25.
Film Folk. By Rob Wagner. Illustrated. 12mo, Guest's wartime verse, with its note of
356 pages. The Century Co. $2.00.
human kindliness and sympathy.
POETRY AND DRAMA.
American Poetry. Edited by Percy H. Boynton.
At All Bookstores. $1.25 net
12mo, 721 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.25.
The Melody of Earth: An Anthology of Garden and Chicago REILLY & BRITTON Publishers
Nature Poems from Present-Day Poets. Selected
by Mrs. Waldo Richards. 12mo, 301 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50.
The Poems of François Villon. Translated by John
Payne. 12mo, 204 pages. John W. Luce & Co.
$1.75.
Evening Hours. By Emile Verhaeren. 12mo, 73
pages. John Lane Co. $1.
My Ireland. By Francis Carlin. 12mo, 195 pages.
Henry Holt & Co. $1.25.
Mid-American
A Prophecy of the War
Chants. By Sherwood Anderson.
12mo, 82 pages. John Lane Co. $1.25.
By LEWIS EINSTEIN. With introduction by Theo-
A Cabinet of Jade. By David O'Neil, 16mo, 106
dore Roosevelt. 12mo, cloth, pp. 94. $1.00 net.
pages. The Four Seas Co. $1.25.
Two essays originally published in the National
Review
Songs and Sea Voices. By James Stewart Double-
of London containing a striking fore-
day. 12mo,
cast of the World War.
106
pages. Washington Square
Book Shop, New York.
Aram and Israel, or the Aramaeans
The Day, and Other Poems. By Henry Chappell.
16mo, 78 pages. John Lane Co. $1.
in Syria and Mesopotamia
Hay Harvest, and Other Poems. By Lucy Buxton. By EMIL G. H. KRAELING, PH.D. 8vo, cloth,
12mo, 47 pages. John Lane Co. $1.
pp. xvi + 155. $1.50 net.
The Shadow-Eater.
A book on
the
By Benjamin De Casseres.
Aramaeans has long been
12mo, 59 pages. Wilmarth Publishing Co.
desideratum for students of Hebrew and Oriental
The World and the Waters. By Edward F. Garesche.
History and this volume supplies the need.
12mo, 110 pages, The Queen's Work Press, St. The Foundations and Nature of
Louis. $1.
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1918]
419
THE DIAL
With the promptness of journalism-
With the insight and sure-footedness of economic research-
With the graphic quality of social exhibits—.
T
HE SURVEY interprets the social background of the week's news. The SURVEY was
the first American journal to bring out the real significance of the British labor offen-
sive. Editorials in the liberal Manchester Guardian and the conservative London
Times bear out Paul U. Kellogg's estimates of the movement of the English workers as a
force for endurance and coherence as well as for democracy in the present crisis. Here is
the greatest and freest organized movement in Europe today supporting the principles which
America stands for and which President Wilson has enunciated—the principles which, in the
words of an English newspaper man, were worth “twelve army corps and a regiment of
angels” to the forces for democracy in western Europe.
G
OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
The Huts
The War-Folk of Picardy
By Arthur Gleason
By Mary Masters Needham
OF THE AMERICAN Y. M. C. A. IN FRANCE
OF THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR DEVASTATED
FRANCE
LEASON has known the war from the out-
set, when he was a stretcher-bearer in
WH
HAT has happened to the sinistres—the
Belgium. He knows the work of the English
people left behind in the "liberated area”
Y. M. C. A. 'He knows American social work
when the Germans fell back last spring? And
as an investigator and journalist. He knows to the emigrés—those who came back? What
our Y. M. C. A. in France and writes with
of the American agencies that worked with
authenticity and discrimination. He was in a them—the Quakers, the Smith College Unit, the
vessel torpedoed off the coast of Ireland and
American Fund for French Wounded (the
lost everything—socks and manuscripts included.
American Committee for Devastated France),
But he has set out again, bringing this story
the American Red Cross and the rest ? Mrs.
with him.
Needham returned recently from Blerancourt,
near the great battleground of the western front,
Twice Devastated
and tells from first-hand experience.
By Mary Ross
Another Article on the British
ATTERIES of camions, loaded with
Labor Movement
blankets, clothing, food and medi-
cine, were made ready in Paris as
By Paul U. Kellogg
early as January by the American
EDITOR OF THE SURVEY
Red Cross to rush to the source
THE ENGLAND THEY ARE FIGHTING
of any fresh stream of refugees
FOR.-An Interpretation of the Domestic Pro-
dispossessed by the great Ger-
gram of the English Labour Party.—The La-
man drive. A story, with
bour Party has stretched its tent-ropes to in-
photographs, of the “twice
Survey
clude workers "with brain" as well as "with
Associates, Inc.
refugees” is on the way
hand." The coöperative movement has en-
120 East 19th St.,
to the SURVEY in re-
tered politics and made common
cause with
New York
sponse to a cable.
the labour party.
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9
When writing to advertisers please mention THE DIAL.


420
[April 25, 1918
THE DIAL
A Square Deal for the
Crippled Soldier
a
When the crippled soldier returns from the front, the govern-
ment will provide for him, in addition to medical care, special
training for self-support.
But whether this will really put him back on his feet depends
on what the public does to help or hinder.
In the
past,
the attitude of the public has been a greater handicap
to the cripple than his physical disability. People have assumed him
to be helpless. Too often, they have persuaded him to become so.
For the disabled soldier there has been “hero-worship;” for the
civilian cripple there has been a futile kind of sympathy. Both do
the cripple more harm than good.
All the cripple needs is the kind of job he is fitted for, and per-
haps a little training in preparation for it. There are hundreds of
seriously crippled men now holding down jobs of importance.
Other cripples can do likewise, if given the chance.
Idleness is the calamity too hard to be borne. Your service to
the crippled man, therefore, is to find for him a good busy job, and
encourage him to tackle it.
Demand of the cripple that he get back in the work of the
world, and
you will find him only too ready to do so.
For the cripple who isoccupied is, in truth, no longer handicapped.
Can the crippled soldier—or the industrial cripple as well-count
on you as a true and sensible friend?
RED CROSS INSTITUTE FOR CRIPPLED AND DISABLED MEN
311 Fourth Avenue
New York City
To those interested in the future or our crippled soldiers the Institute will gladly send, upon request,
booklets describing what is being done in the rebabilitation of disabled men. The cost of this
advertisement is met by a special gift.
PRESS OF THE BLAKELY-OSWALD PRINTING CO., CHICAGO.


THE DIAL
a fortnightly Journal of Criticism and Discussion of Literature and The Arts
Internationalism as the Condition of Allied Success
We have pretty general agreement that House of Commons, pointing to one factor
the aim of the war, as far as America is alone as explaining the success of the Ger-
concerned, is a completer internationalism man drive.
The enemy was "slightly
than we have known in the past—a better inferior in infantry, slightly inferior in
international order by virtue of which the artillery, considerably inferior in cavalry,
world will be made safe. But the general undoubtedly inferior in aircraft." But
attitude to that aim is that it is something there was one thing in which he was
to be established after victory is won, when superior—unity, "In so far as he has
we have time—and power—to carry out triumphed, he has triumphed mainly be-
political ideals and to try experiments. cause of superior unity, and the concen-
Meantime we are likely to feel that it is tration of his strategic plans." And the
better to "get on with the war" and to leave Prime Minister reinforced the point by the
Utopias alone, especially Utopias that have story which had come to him from a re-
any relation to pacifist feeling, which it is liable source, that the Kaiser had said to
well to bury as deep as possible. On the King Constantine, “I shall beat them, for
whole, perhaps, we feel that the less the they have no united command."
public concerns itself in war time with But that, it will be replied, can no
policy at all, the better.
longer be said. We have now a united
It is here suggested that this attitude command, even if it has taken nearly four
may be disastrous, even in its military years of war to get it. Unity of military
consequences; that, indeed, it has already command however will simply be a trap
been so; that the progressive development unless it is based upon unity of political
during the war of internationalist policy purpose: unless forged in certain condi-
and feeling is an indispensable condition tions of public temper and purpose, it will
of the military success of our alliance; that be an instrument that will break in the
the failure sufficiently to recognize this is hand. Of what use would unity of com-
one of the main factors of the greatest mand have been two years ago, if at work
reverses so far suffered by the alliance. behind the lines were all the forces that
It is of course obvious that in the case brought about the misunderstanding of
of a war fought by a large alliance, made the real nature of the revolutionary forces
up of a number of nations different in of Russia and so the defection of Russia;
character and outlook, success depends not the divergence of purpose between Italy
only upon the individual strength of each and Servia and Greece, the alienation of
member, but also upon the capacity of the Southern Slavs? And if in the near
those members to act together for a com- future, or for that matter at the peace
mon purpose. And it will readily be conference after the defeat of the Central
admitted that such capacity of many states Empires, Allied policy is of such a nature
to act together is in theory "international- as to drive, or to allow, Russia to drift
ism." But, it will be retorted, these things into the German orbit and become a Prus-
are truisms, so obvious as to be in no sian asset; as to alienate Japan, to develop
danger of oversight, and certainly need- the elements of revolution in Ireland and
ing no reinforcement from internationalist a divergence of purpose as between the
theory.
American and the British or French democ-
Well, it is just three years and eight racies—if elements of disunity of such a
months after the beginning of the war character develop in our alliance, the
that we find Mr. Lloyd George in the assertion of permanently preponderant


428
[May 9
THE DIAL
a
power over the Prussian may well become to carry one through to safety; but there
impossible. And such a failure would be a are others- -as when someone cries "fire"
failure of policy due to a certain condition in a crowded theatre—when our instinct
of public temper and feeling, a failure to not only will not furnish any sure guide as
evolve a really common aim and to em- to the right thing to do but will beyond
phasize the internationalist element of our doubt destroy us if we obey it. The great
purposes.
need in such circumstances is to “keep our
The conclusion so far might be sum- heads"; there must be a certain moral
marized thus:
discipline. Unless we maintain a certain
The military success of the Allies de- atmosphere of public opinion, a capacity
pends upon certain political factors—as, for sane and sound judgment sufficient to
for instance, upon the unity of the
enable us to differentiate between good and
alliance, the absence of such misunder- bad policy, we make it impossible for the
standing as might well grow up with
soldier to bring us victory, whatever his
Japan, or internal disintegration such as
efficiency and sacrifice.
that which has put Russia out of the war No one will pretend that this relation
-as well as upon the more material ele. between a certain condition of public tem-
ments, both men and munitions, to which
per—the need for a wider realization of
attention is more readily given.
the indispensability of internationalism,
These non-military factors, which are
and our ultimate military success, is gener-
indispensable to military success, depend ally recognized. It is all but universally
upon good management by the civilian ignored. It has taken British and French
rulers—the politicians.
radicalism three years to realize the need
Effective civilian rule depends upon for clarifying and emphasizing the inter-
civilian public opinion; it is civilian
nationalist aims of policy as the means
opinion alone which, for instance, in whereby disruption of the alliance by fur-
Europe deposes one government, like
ther defections like that of Russia may
that of Mr. Asquith, in favor of an-
be avoided. American public opinion so
other, like that of Mr. Lloyd George. little realizes the explanation of that de-
If that change was wise, it must greatly velopment of policy in European democra-
have facilitated the task of the soldier;
cies, that it shows itself on the whole
if unwise, greatly have hindered it. hostile thereto. American public opinion
Now stated in that form, these propo- today seems as little disposed to give due
sitions are almost truisms. Yet they run
weight to certain forces at work in Britain
directly counter to the position so easily and in France as were the European
assumed that the public can have nothing Allies a year ago to give due weight to
to do with policy, or that policy has noth-
certain forces in Russia. The impatient
ing to do with military success.
refusal to consider the nature of these
The grave fact in the history of the war
present forces may be as disastrous to our
is that public opinion in some of the Allied
cause in the future as was the failure of
countries has at some junctures, with the Europe properly to estimate the nature of
best intentions in the world, been largely the Russian revolution.
responsible for errors of policy which I have attempted to summarize the out-
have added enormously to the military standing considerations in the thesis here
difficulties. Internal upheavals, changes broadly indicated by the following ex-
of policies and cabinets, sudden losses of tended proposition: The survival of the
confidence, errors in relations with allies Western Democracies, in so far as that is
have occurred, sometimes, because sin-
a matter of the effective use of their force,
cerely patriotic people have overlooked depends upon their capacity to use it as a
the fact that intensity of feeling and emo-
unit, during the war and after. That
tion—however good of themselves-can- unity we have not attained, even for the
—
not stand for sound political judgment purposes of the war, because we have re-
.
There are situations in life in which sheer fused to recognize its necessary conditions
emotional fervor is the one thing necessary —a kind and degree of internationalism


1918]
429
THE DIAL
to which current political ideas and feel- to abandoning the old national organiza-
ings are hostile, an internationalism which tion of Europe, from sheer lack of habit
is not necessary to the enemy, but is to us. and practice in international coöperation,
For the Grand Alliance of the democra- political, military, or economic, as from the
cies is a heterogeneous collection of na- presence of any active agents of disruption.
tions, not geographically contiguous but The factors of disintegration in the
scattered over the world, and not domi- Grand Alliance are of two kinds: conflict-
nated by one preponderant state able to ing territorial claims by the component
,
give unity of direction to the group: The states (illustrated by the demands of
enemy alliance, on the other hand, is com- Czarist Russia; of Italy, Servia, and other
posed of a group of states, geographically Slav groups; of Roumania, Greece, and,
contiguous, dominated politically and mil. more obscurely, of Japan) and conflict of
itarily by the material power and geo- economic interest and social aspiration
graphical position of one member, able by within the nations (illustrated by the strug-
that fact to impose unity of purpose and gles of the bourgeois and Socialist parties
direction on the whole. If we are to use in Russia, less dramatically by the revolu-
our power successfully against him in such tionary unrest in Italy, and even in France
circumstances-during the war, at the set- and England). These latter factors are
tlement, and afterwards (which may well more dangerous with us than with the
be necessary)—we must achieve a consoli- enemy, because our historical circum-
dation equally effective. But in our case stances have rendered us less disciplined
that consolidation, not being possible by or less docile, less apt in mechanical and
the material predominance of one mem- dehumanized obedience.
ber, must be achieved by a moral factor, The general truth we are here dealing
the voluntary coöperation of equals—a with is of far greater importance to us
a
democratic internationalism, necessarily than to the enemy. He can in some meas-
based on a unity of moral aim. Because ure ignore it. We cannot.
We cannot. His unity, in
this has not been attained, even during the so far as it rests upon moral factors, can
war, disintegration of our alliance has al- be based upon the old nationalist concep-
ready set in—involving enormous military tions; our unity depends upon a revision
cost—and threatens to become still more of them, an enlargement into an interna-
acute at the peace. The enemy group
.
shows no equivalent disintegration.
The kind and degree of international-
No military decision against the unified ism indispensable for the consolidation of
enemy group can be permanent if at the the Western peoples if they are to use their
,
peace table it becomes evident that the
force effectively -
internationalism
Western Democracies are to revert to the
which must take into account the newer
old lack of consolidation, instability of
alliance, covert competition for isolated social and economic forces of Western
power and territory, a national particular-
society—is impossible on the basis of the
ism which makes common action and co-
older statecraft and its political motives.
ordination of power cumbrous, difficult, or
For they assume as inevitable a condition
of the world in which each nation must
impossible. If there is to be a return to
the old disunity of Europe the parties look for its security to its own isolated
which among the enemy favor aggression strength (which must derive from pop-
will realize that however much their pur- ulation, territory, and strategic position),
pose may temporarily be defeated, the thus making the ultimate interests of the
greater material unity of their alliance will nations necessarily rival. The capacity of
enable it sooner or later to overcome states each to feed its population and assure its
which, though superior in the sum of their economic welfare is assumed to depend
power, have shown themselves inferior in upon the extent of its territory. A whole
their capacity to combine that power for a philosophy of “biological
"biological necessity, ”
common purpose.
And that inferiority “struggle for life among nations," "inher-
might arise as much from passive hostility ent pugnacity of mankind," "survival of
an


430
[May 9
THE DIAL
the fit," is invoked on behalf of this old Such references as have been made by
and popular conception of international Allied statesmanship to these projects have
life and politics. Such an outlook inevit- carried the implication that they do not
ably implies an overt or latent rivalry concern the actual waging of the war, or
which must bring even members of the are put forward as an alternative to its
same alliance sooner or later into conflict. 'continuance. And that of itself has suf-
The only possible unifying alternative ficed to prevent any real consideration of
to this disruptive policy is the form of them. Yet the internationalism of which
internationalism outlined by President President Wilson has shown himself to be
Wilson, based on the assumption that the the most consistent advocate is not a sub-
vital interests of all Western nations are stitute for military power, or an alterna-
interdependent and call for some perma- tive to the active prosecution of the war;
nent association of nations by which the it is an essential part of the political means
security of each shall be made to rest upon by which the military power of democra-
the strength of the whole, held together cies, and the actual prosecution of this
by the reciprocal obligation to defend one war, may be made effective. It is not some
another.
remote aim of the future, but the policy
The greatest obstacles to such a system which must be made the basis of our own
are disbelief in its feasibility and our sub- alliance, for the purposes of the war itself,
jection to the traditions of national sov- and for the continued resistance of our
ereignty and independence. Were it gener- group, to the end that we may use our
ally believed in and desired, it would be victory effectively by coming to the peace
not only feasible but inevitable. Our gov- table a united and cohesive league. If
ernments could aid in the modification of this is not already an accomplished fact
old ideas through bold and definite projects when we do come to the settlement, the
of change and a new machinery of inter- disruptive tendencies within the alliance
national representation, compelling pub- may well be intensified and our problems
lic imagination to take stock of its current
of justice and security become insoluble.
conceptions.
NORMAN ANGELL.
Letters to Unknown Women
SAPPHO
To Sappho of Mitylene:
lessly given a husband and a daughter and
a
Like so many notorious characters of as recklessly deprived of them. You have
history you have become an enigma, as been described as a debauched creature
ambiguous as an oracle. So little can be and as a school mistress; you have been
proved, so much surmised about you,
drowned for the sake of a man's love in
tradition is so incoherent and conflicting, the Ægean and buried in an Aeolic grave
that each person makes you a projection by your girl lovers. Swinburne has shown
of what he desires you to be. And if it you as a nerve-tortured fierce thing, cry-
be true that our thoughts of the dead alone ing upon death; and Lyly has made you an
preserve them in the fields of Hades, allegory of the Virgin Queen. Your
then yours must indeed be a soul of many character, Osweet-smiling weaver of
conflicting personalities. The Sappho of wiles, is varied and dubious. You have
Pierre Louys would not be recognized by been described as everything except a
the Sappho of Miss Jane Harrison, and
the Sappho of Ovid would be uneasy with Yet your reputation, O Sappho, is en-
either.
viable; you are, perhaps, the most famous
It has been suggested that you were
of all women.
Those who have never
not one but two. You have been reck- read a word you wrote and those who
woman.


1918]
431
THE DIAL
have studied you to the last syllable are the oaks—who knew like Nossis what
agreed in their estimate of your genius; flowers were the roses of Aphrodite and
while those who have glanced carelessly at who mourned when Atthis left you for
your poetry wonder upon what your repu-
what your repu- Andromeda !
tation rests. Well, it rests upon the mys- No, Sappho, there are some of us so
tery that surrounds you.
unrepentant that we cannot bear to think
That mystery is due to a Hebrew tent of you confined in the straight garb of a
maker who, some five hundred years after blameless life. "To the pure all things
your death, preached with extraordinary
are pure” is of all your fragments that
vigor a dogma of more than Lacedæmo-
most frequently quoted by your moral
nian austerity, with the result that later apologists. They are innocent of irony.
generations in a frenzy of perverted de. We, perhaps, are too delighted by that
structiveness wrecked and burned much quality. In any case we prefer the Sappho
that the genius of Hellas had created- of Nossis and Renée Vivien to the school
your poems among them. All that we have
mistress.
of you are a few tattered, almost unread-
It has been your fortune, O Sappho,
able papyri and such fragments as were
to be loved not only in your lifetime but
quoted by grammarians and critics still
extant. But the fate that destroyed your honey-sweet words of Nossis—she upon
after your death. When we read those
.
work created your reputation. We are
thrilled by those fragments as by no other whose tablets melted the wax-we feel the
poetry in the world, and your fame as the slow thrill of a mortal passion stir within
greatest woman-poet of all time remains us; and though many have loved you since
unchallenged because it cannot be disputed. Nossis, none with so complete an aban-
Therefore, sweet nightingale, herald of donment as that wistful girl from the great
the spring, you prove indeed that unheard waste beyond the pillars of Hercules who
melodies are the sweeter.
died in Hellas because, it seems, our world
To some you are more marvelous as was not fair enough for one who had sur-
lover than as poet. Some are terrified by prised your secret and looked at beauty
the fierceness, the madness of your pas- through your eyes.
sions and will “mistranslate and miscon-
The world claims you, Sappho, the
,
strue" to prove you respectable. I have
world which has lent too ready an ear to
already mentioned the fable which has the Hebrew tent-maker whose works de-
invented two Sapphos, one a matron of stroyed yours; the world of school masters
eminence and purity who produced your
and rich common folk claims you, explains
poetry, and one a courtesan who lived you away, lest in their own time loveliness
your loves! If the shades beyond Acheron should be justified through you. But
can smile I am sure your smile is not un- sometimes, in great loneliness, your voice
tinged with irony. But even this has been
falls upon us as it fell once upon the poet
bettered and you are represented as an
of Anaktoria who loved you so, and you
commonplace person, a cul- become ours, ours only. We—such is our
tured, Ruskin-like school mistress presid- self-esteem—seem for a moment really to
ing in all chastity and severity over vir- understand you, really to be one of those
tuous girls who came to your school to whom you call to the golden cups of the
learn poetry.
Laugh, Sappho, laugh Cyprian. You become a moment in our
among the shadowy asphodels where you lives, a visible embodiment of that abstract
lie with Anaktoria and Erinna that such beauty of Plato. The pride and pathos of
things should be said of you, you who your life are ours also and we know why
from love were paler than sun-dried grass,
you loved evening that brings back all good
who sang to please your girl lovers, whose things the dawn has stolen and why you
limbs were mastered and shaken by bitter- sang of the hyacinth trodden underfoot by
sweet love, whose soul trembled with de-
the careless shepherd.
sire—a wind on the mountain falling on
RICHARD ALDINGTON,
even more
a


432
[May 9
THE DIAL
The True Authority of Science
When we envisage the problems of ties and professional schools that thwarts
higher education in our country nothing the highest professional accomplishment.
seems more desirable than to gain a sane Here, then, are the double claims of the
view of the relations of cultural and utili- History of Science to a large, nay a domi-
tarian studies. It is not yet sufficiently
It is not yet sufficiently nant, position in our college curricula. To
realized that the failure of the classical the general student it renders intelligible
curriculum was even greater on the cul- the most distinctive element of latter-day
tural than on the practical side: the peda- culture, while also it teaches the student
gogues of the old school were, indeed, of science how to be a student of science.
successful in imparting a stock of largely These purposes, naturally enough, cannot
useless information, but they were by the be attained by an uncoördinated accumula-
very nature of their training unfitted to tion of names and dates; their fulfilment
convey that self-knowledge which consti- depends on the accentuation of the socio-
tutes the essence of true culture. On the logical view of science.
specious plea that our modern civilization Precisely because science has come to
rested on a foundation supplied by class- occupy so large a part in modern civiliza-
ical antiquity, they argued that we could tion, its pursuit has been invested with a
only understand ourselves by imbibing the mystifying halo which Huxley trenchantly
spirit of Greece and Rome. Quite apart dispelled by defining science as merely a
from the wholly incongruous machinery sort of etherealized common sense. The
they employed to compass this end, they scientist, too often yielding to the siren
failed to realize that the basis of our cul- voice of his unsophisticated admirer
ture, both economic and industrial, lay far among the laity, postulates an impossible
back of the Hellenic period; and that pre- "scientific man"-as useless an abstraction
cisely what is most characteristic of our as that notorious figment the “econom-
own age—technology and experimental ic man,” which now graces the refuse-
science—is hardly derived at all from heaps of the political philosopher's
classical sources. At the very best, then, laboratory. The truth is that science can
they could have interpreted merely some be understood solely as a sociological phe-
shreds and patches of that mottled fabric nomenon, as the product of coöperative
we now prize as Caucasian civilization. group activity within a larger social group.
But if our classical schoolmasters failed It may not be flattering to the scientist's
of achieving their avowed purpose, our pride to be classed with the members of a
modern institutions of learning, with their guild, a coöperative dairy organization,
stress on technical and vocational training, or a consumers' league; but scientific work
likewise fall short of the mark. The stu- in its nobler and its lesser aspects becomes
dent, take him by and large, learns much comprehensible as soon as it is regarded
of scientific detail; but of the essence of from this angle.
science, of its place in modern life and With mutual benefit societies of the
the conditions fostering or impeding its type described, the informally organized
growth, he remains densely ignorant. but none the less real brotherhood of sci-
These, it might be contended on Grad- entists shares the merging of individual
grind principles, are all very well but have profit in a higher purpose. If the effects
no place in an avowedly utilitarian course. of scientific coöperation sometimes extend
Yet the implied antinomy is false. There far beyond the immediate circle of the
is no inherent conflict between professional workers' guild, this must be accounted a
and cultural work. Pomology itself, to by-product rather than an altruistically
take the bull by the horns, is not without devised result. But membership in an
cultural potentialities. On the other hand, ostensibly altruistic society neither sup-
it is precisely the lack of this cultural ele- presses the instinct of selfishness nor does
ment in our modern American universi- it reduce all participants to a dead level of
a


1918]
433
THE DIAL
equality. In the rural organizations Chafe and fume as he may, he is caught
founded by Raiffeisen the benignant spirit in the vise-like grip of a dread machine.
of their founder proved to be very For social groups have laws more inexor-
unequally distributed among the members; able than those of nature, and no victim
and so in scientific coöperation the quest of
of
escapes without paying toll.
individual glory, as attested by many a A relatively harmless sociological char-
nauseating priority squabble, tends to acteristic of the scientists' group is the
thwart or compromise the common pur- importance of imitation. Ethnologists
pose.
have long been familiar with this factor in
Since scientists form a definite group various domains of culture. A set form
(or more strictly a number of groups) of artistic product or ritualistic perform-
within the state, it is possible for a clash ance springs up and is somehow adopted
of social interests to retard their progress. as a norm, which is reproduced a hundred-
Church and state may interfere to erect fold. Science, too, has its fashions and
obstacles in their path. The friction patterns, and like other fashions they
between research and theology forms the change periodically. Thirty years ago
burden of an oft repeated tale. Legal biologists were
biologists were outlining genealogical
enactments against vivisection and the util- trees; today they are absorbed in the laws
ization of corpses are a grim reminder of heredity. In the seventies and eighties
that the scientist's course is not yet strewn ethnologists were mapping the resem-
with roses. Yet as soon as we assume the blances that obtained between the cultures
sociological point of view the whole mat- of remote tribes; at present their gaze is
ter appears in a new light. It is not a
riveted to historical connections and routes
priori obvious that the scientist must under of diffusion. Such fashions are not dic-
all circumstances have the right of way. tated by pure reason; nor are they purely
Sociologically his ideals represent only one
innocuous. The scientist caught in the
of an indefinitely numerous set of values. maelstrom of a current movement is likely
As the caste of scientists cannot endure the to lose his sense of values: he neglects
over-assertiveness of individual members, what a later period regards as no less sig-
so society at large may legitimately wax nificant than the topic on which he lav-
jealous of the dominance of a caste within ishes his attention. It is the history of
its midst. May not science appear to the his science that alone may bring him to
laity as a harmless pastime like chess, or his senses, that may enable him to get his
stamp collecting? No one would interfere bearings and see his own work in proper
with such pursuits under normal condi- perspective; and it is thus the history of
tions, yet who would yield to them pur- his own subject—and that alone—which
poses of his own? It is here that history can supply his individual need of culture.
must step in to vindicate the ways of sci- Scientific fashions of the kind mentioned
ence and show why the standards of sci-
represent only one phase of the subtle
ence merit absolute primacy over other workings of that social menace which con-
values.
stitutes the arch-foe of science and of prog-
But still more fascinating than the inter- ress—respect for authority. The authority
action of selfish and altruistic motives may be vested in the person of a master;
within the guild of learning, or than the and here history notes the paradox that
conflict of that caste with other castes, is the very personality that rises to ascend-
the influence of the group on the intel- ancy by setting at naught the power of
lectual work of its single members. The precedent, itself becomes a new centre of
individual scientist finds himself in a para- traditionalism, blighting the development
doxical position. Without the guild her- of the disciples' individualities. Yet bane-
itage from the past or the aid of his ful as is the influence of hero-worship,
contemporaries he is powerless. Yet that there are still more insidious agencies
same society which raises him high above lurking in the social environment—so dif-
the level of earliest beginnings arrests his ferent from the fictitious atmosphere of
Aight when he takes wing to soar aloft. pure reason in which the scientist actu-


434
[May 9
THE DIAL
a
ally works. By a law of compensation one grand scale with results of a crushing a
personality will sooner or later be pitted fortiori force. No conditions exist, none
against another and gain a following. But can be conceived, more favorable to the
against impersonal authority there is little dominance of reason in any social body
hope of redress. It is not merely the opin- than those which actually obtain in the
ions of the scholars' caste as such that coöperative labor of scientists. If even
weight down the individual seeker of truth. these conditions are so remote from the
From the very beginning he has borne the ideal, if the forces of precedent and myth
yoke of a divided allegiance; nor does he constantly nullify or minimize progress
,
only individually bear the badge of mem- towards the projected goal, degrading it
bership in other guilds.
to one of those ritualistic processions in
The whole caste of truth-seekers is ever, which every three groping steps in advance
by a dire osmosis, tinged by the current are followed by two backward, then the
conceptions of their age; nay, it is histor- mystic's view of the danger of excessive
ically accurate to say that from the start rationalization of modern culture is gro-
they have been tainted with that larger tesquely false. As Professor Robinson in
human society's original sin of myth-mon- one of the highest flights of historical-
gering. As Professor Mach points out mindedness points out, there is not the
in one of the most illuminating chapters slightest warrant for putting on the brakes
of his "Mechanics,” a Newton himself when going uphill. Mankind will never
will lapse into the folklore bequeathed by be sufficiently radical or sufficiently reason-
the past, "though even on the pages imme- able; and as we can never introduce too
diately preceding his clear intellect shines little reason into our psychologizing, so we
in undiminished splendor." And a mod- can never be too rationalistic in our phi-
ern physicist who purports to give experi- losophy or too radical in our programmes.
mental proof for the atomic theory
theory Herein lies the supreme lesson of the His-
already casts wistful glances into the tory of Science.
ROBERT H. Lowie.
future for some subtler hypothetical cause
of the now verified atomic phenomena.
The vicious circle is thus complete. Sci- .
The Return
ence has demonstrably, as in the case of
chemistry and alchemy, grown out of Lilies white and roses
mythology, and the whole of its progress
Will load the fragrant breeze,
may be represented as the gradual slough- But when the mute throng closes
ing of the folkloristic shell. But that shell
We'll take no note of these.
has infinite powers of regeneration and is
Soft music will be swelling
constantly nurtured from without and
In each attentive ear,
within. Indeed, the more we contemplate
the conditions of research, the more we
Of pride and homage telling-
We shall not heed nor hear.
marvel at the fact that the scientist's quest
has not been an utter failure. He must
There will be talk of slaughter,
guard against the promptings of self-inter-
Of rage
and carnage
hot
est; he must shun the tutorship of his mas- Beyond the pathless water-
ters; he must constantly search his heart
But we shall heed them not.
to cast out the demons of prepossessions
sucked in with the mother's milk and the Around us long-loved faces
With tearful eyelids bright
surrounding medium in which he lives.
Shall take their wonted places
This duty of eternal vigilance is the lesson
Unseen, though full in sight.
he derives from the history of science.
But for the laymen, too, the history of Through tributes fond and loving
science has a message hardly less signifi-
We'll go as if at rest,
cant. The pursuit of knowledge by an
With fast-closed eyes unmoving,
international band of trained workers con-
Hands crossed upon the breast.
stitutes a sociological experiment on a
GUY NEARING.


1918]
435
THE DIAL
m
Our Paris Letter
if Americans are sometimes irritated a trifle by
certain unaccustomed conditions, they never show
Life Paris has been anything but peaceful it. The tact of the men in control of the Ameri-
during the last month. Treason "affairs," air can “bureaux,” and their care to avoid the slight-
raids, long range bombardments—everything has est ruffling of the French susceptibilities, are
been put in the shade by the great battle on beyond all praise.
which attention is now concentrated, for on its At a time like this one sees the people of Paris
issue may depend the fate of Paris and of France. at their best, for only the best elements remain.
Paris is waiting, as it waited during that fort- There has been a tremendous exodus during the
night of September, 1914 when its destiny hung last fortnight, and the population of Paris must
in the balance. When, after those days of acute be temporarily reduced by about one fourth. The
tension, the welcome news came that Paris was railway stations have been an extraordinary sight,
saved, none of us thought that we should ever only to be compared with that which they pre-
have to undergo the same experience again. And sented during the exodus of 1914. No seats can
now after nearly four years of war Paris is once now be reserved and no luggage is registered.
more threatened. The danger, it is true, is not Tickets have to be taken in advance for a specified
so. imminent, but it is there nevertheless. I lived train, and there have been long queues of people
with the people of Paris during that terrible waiting for hours to get them; a few days ago
fortnight and acquired a profound affection and an acquaintance of mine had to wait at the Gare
admiration for them. When I say the people, I d'Orsay from six to eleven in the morning, and
mean what we name in French the peuple as many people have had to wait longer. The pres-
distinct from the bourgeoisie, for the bourgeoisie sure is now reduced, but it is still bad enough. I
for the most part was at Bordeaux or anywhere have always refused to wait in a queue for any-
but in Paris. Only the real Parisians were left, thing, for it is my firm conviction that nothing
and in spite of the anxieties of the moment Paris in life is worth it, and neither air raids, nor bom-
was never so charming. Now as then Paris is bardments, nor even the remote danger of a
left to the Parisians—and the Americans. Not German invasion of Paris will induce me to
those Americans, I may add, who inhabit the change the habits of a lifetime. Besides, when
Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, but the Americans one has Paris “dans le sang,” to desert her in the
whom the war has brought here to teach the hour of danger would seem like deserting one's
Parisians that they must not judge the United mistress. But the wealthy and fashionable quar-
States by its idle rich. Whatever else may come ters of Paris are deserted, and one would imagine,
out of this war, at least it will have enabled the as one walks down the avenues that stretch from
French' to have made the acquaintance of real the Palace de l'Etoile, the Boulevard Malesherbes
Americans. Some Americans, I gather, are a or the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and its abut-
little disillusioned. They had idealized the French ting thoroughfares, that it was the end of August
to such an extent that when they came into contact instead of the beginning of April. Only the
with them and discovered that they were not all tender green of the spring foliage corrects the
heroes of romance, but just human beings with impression given by the long rows of shuttered
the ordinary failings of humanity, they were dis- windows. The well-to-do have been joined in
.
appointed. Especially as the particular failings their exodus by the casual inhabitants of Paris,
of the French-their lack of business habits, for those that have come here from the country to
instance—are not those common, as a rule, in earn a living, especially domestic servants, em-
America. An American is disconcerted in a ployees of dressmakers and milliners, and so on.
country where time does not count, where every- As the press is forbidden to publish any details
body is late for his appointments, and where a about the air raids or the bombardment, gro-
man that calls on you on business will talk for tesquely exaggerated reports about their effects
half an hour on everything except the object of have been circulated in the provinces, and panic-
his visit and be seriously offended if you show stricken families in country towns and villages
signs of impatience. But all that is bound to have implored their relatives in Paris to return
wear off, and when Americans really get to know home at once. But the real Parisian peuple
the French they will put up with their weaknesses remains, as in 1914.
--for every one of us has his own-and appreciate The popular attitude is also the same as in
their great qualities. Meanwhile, I hasten to add, 1914, rather pessimistic and quite philosophical;


436
[May 9
THE DIAL
a
pessimistic, that is to say, in the general and attack; but when it has been repulsed, the time
somewhat inaccurate sense of the term. The will have come to negotiate. That the censor
newspapers preach the duty of blind confidence, should have allowed such an article to appear
but the naturally skeptical Parisian, who has without a word suppressed is in itself significant.
heard this duty preached for nearly four years It is the general opinion that the enemy is making
and has observed that blind confidence has not his last desperate effort, an effort due to internal
been justified by events, turns a deaf ear. With conditions in the Central Empires quite as much
his innate good sense he recognizes too that his as to military considerations; if that effort fails,
feelings about events can have no influence on negotiations will perforce be much more easy.
them. He is inclined to fear the worst, but at Of course there are still people, especially in
the same time he is firmly resolved to make the newspaper offices, who talk about continuing the
best of it. He knows that the French people and war for any number of years that may be neces-
the French soldiers have done their utmost to sary to obtain a military victory, but few of them
secure success and that, if success be not achieved, are to be found among the proletariat or the
“tant pis.” This war has made me doubtful peasants—still fewer, I should suppose, among
about the advantages of education, for all through the men at the front. The old argument that
it the "uneducated classes” have shown that they if peace were made now there would be another
possess much more good sense than their "bet- war ten years hence, no longer has any effect.
ters," and have kept their heads much more The reply is that it would be a less evil to have
successfully. The palm for unreason must cer- another war in ten years than to continue this
tainly be given to the "intellectuals,” who have war for ten years longer. Nobody here expects a
talked more nonsense than any other class. One peace which will establish the millennium or even
rarely hears among the people, for instance, the an ideal peace from the democratic point of
hysterical cant that so many newspapers have view, but again the good sense of the French
published about the air raids and the bombard- man or woman of the people says that one cannot
ment. Some journalists, whom one would never always have what one would like, and besides
have suspected of religious fervor, have denounced there is no guarantee that if the war goes on for
the “sacrilege" involved in bombarding a church, several years longer the millennium will be any
thereby attributing to the Germans the amazing nearer. Peace at any price has very few advo-
feat of taking an exact aim from a distance of cates, in fact none; there is an irreducible mini-
seventy miles. The Parisian public, on the con- mum-Lord Lansdowne defined it in his first
trary, is not disposed to make too much of inci- letter-but all beyond that is considered legiti-
dents which, deplorable as they are, are trifles in mate matter for negotiation.
comparison with what is going on at the front. So thoroughly is this recognized by the peuple
The Parisians do not like being bombed and that certain jusqu'auboutiste pronouncements
bombarded, but they take their risks coolly as cabled to the French press from America have
inevitable consequences of war and feel that there caused a certain uneasiness, although they have
is something indecent in shrieking at the death not destroyed confidence in the policy of Presi-
of a few score civilians in plain clothes at a dent Wilson, with which they hardly accord.
moment when thousands of civilians in uniform Their authors evidently do not yet realize what
are falling at the front. I sympathize with their this war means and, in particular, what it means
attitude, for I have never been able to understand to France. Peace with defeat will, of course,
why the life of a man becomes of no value the never be accepted, but President Wilson's formula
moment he is dressed in blue or khaki.
of "peace without victory” is not regarded wholly
On one point popular opinion in Paris is very with disfavor. If all this sounds somewhat dis-
definite: this must be the last offensive of the couraged to Americans, they must remember what
The traditional good sense of the Parisian the French people have sacrificed in this war.
people tells them that if the German attack is The ordeal through which we are passing here
repulsed it will be more than ever plain that no makes it almost impossible to give one's mind to
military solution is possible. An article by M. anything but the war. But the other night,
Jean Longuet in the “Populaire” of March 30 having been awakened by the alarm of an air
exactly expressed the opinion of the vast majority raid at three in the morning, I began to read a
of the people of Paris and of France. There is, book that had just come from the publishers,
he said, only one immediate duty, to resist the "Le Socialisme contre l'Etat" (Berger-Levrault,
9
war.


1918]
437
THE DIAL
>
Paris), by M. Emile Vandervelde, the distin- Social Democracy that the workers should aim
guished Belgian Socialist and President of the at the conquest of political power, so as to obtain
International Socialist Bureau. The title will control of the state in order to get rid of it.
astonish many people, for it is a common fallacy For the "government of men” Socialism would
that Socialism is identical with "Etatisme"-why substitute the "administration of things.” But
is there no English equivalent for that useful M. Vandervelde shows that the conquest of polit-
word ? M. Vandervelde's purpose is to combat ical power alone will not be sufficient. One of
that fallacy, which, as he admits, is shared by the most interesting parts of his book is that in
many Socialists or persons claiming that title. which he exposes the failure of political democ-
He has no difficulty in showing that the Socialism racy and of the parliamentary system. It is a
of Marx and Engels, for instance, far from wholesome corrective to the notion that if Ger-
being étatiste, was exactly the contrary, for it many would only adopt the system of a govern-
aimed at the abolition of the state as we know it. ment responsible to a parliament, all would be
If they admitted the conversion of certain serv- well. In fact, as M. Vandervelde shows, the
ices or industries, such as the railways, into state people has very little more effective influence on
monopolies, it was only as a measure of transition, the government in the countries called demo-
not as a final aim. And they never supposed that cratic than in the others. Perhaps, as M. Vander-
a state monopoly was Socialism. Many of their velde says, no country in the world is so com-
followers have even opposed all state monopolies pletely dominated by the financial interests as
as dangerous to the proletariat, on the ground France, which has, in form, the institutions most
that they paralyze the action of the working class nearly democratic of all the great nations, not
and strengthen the bourgeoisie. M. Vandervelde excepting the United States. It is much to be
admits the danger if, for instance, the employees hoped that this book will be translated into
of the state are prevented from organizing them- English, for it is quite the most valuable work
selves and are deprived of the right to strike. The of the kind that has appeared for a long time.
notion that Socialism can be brought about by the It would be impossible to give in so small a
gradual absorption of production by the state or compass, for the book is quite short, a clearer
the municipalities—that, for instance, the munici- exposition of what Socialism means and does not
palization of the gas or water is a step toward
M. Vandervelde has an admirable style
State Socialism-is a delusion. A bureaucratic and makes his subject interesting to the least
State Socialism such as is conceived by some of specialist of readers; the book is essentially a
the leading members of the English Fabian popular one. Incidentally it should do much to
Society would produce a servile community, in reconcile with the Socialists those revolutionaries,
which the worker would be the "wage-slave” of or “radicals” as I believe you call them in Amer-
a state official instead of a capitalist. To this ica, who rightly dread the restriction of individual
conception, that of the organization of labor by liberty that would result from a system of state
the state, Socialism properly so-called opposes monopoly. The difference between Socialists and
that of the organization of labor by the workers Syndicalists in France is chiefly one of method,
themselves, grouped in vast associations independ- and there is every sign of a rapprochement be-
ent of government.
tween them due to the disgust of the younger
State control of industry has been so enor- Socialists with Parliamentarism and with the
mously extended by the war that this book is étatiste tendencies of some of their leaders, who
very opportune. That extension has been hailed are much nearer to the Italian “Reformists" and
by many Socialists as a triumph for their ideas the English Fabians than to the International
and is feared by many opponents of Socialism for Socialist party. A scission between these bour-
the same reason. It was necessary to demonstrate geois Socialists and the adherents of revolutionary
that these hopes and fears are alike mistaken, and
Socialism seems sooner or later inevitable. In
M. Vandervelde's demonstration is convincing. any case, revolutionary Socialism is likely to be
In fact state control of industry has greatly stronger than ever after the war and, whether
diminished the liberty of the workmen and ham- one agrees or not with its principles and aims, it
pered their collective action and it might easily
is desirable to know what they are. That knowl-
be used to reduce them to complete subserviency edge can be obtained without difficulty from M.
Vandervelde's book.
and to make efforts at economic emancipation
ROBERT Dell.
more difficult than ever. It is a maxim of Paris, April 9, 1918.
mean.
>


438
[May 9
THE DIAL
of men
ance.
The Determinants of Culture
two different civilizations? If race is to account
for it, how is it that a race as different from the
CULTURE AND ETHNOLOGY. By Robert H. Lowie. white as is the Japanese has shown itself capable
Douglas C. McMurtrie, New York; $1.25.
of taking over all the civilization of the white
There was a time within the
memory
man and improving on much of it? Or how
still living when the barely discovered presence
account for the fact that the white race itself,
of “primitive man" was made the occasion for the although biologically the same for the last two
most elaborate theories of racial differences, of thousand years, has shown such wide and enor-
social evolution and social reform. The slender-
mous changes in civilization? To speak of devel-
est factual basis was made to carry the most
opment or evolution in this connection is verbiage.
imposing superstructures of speculation, in which
What, then, does determine culture? Dr.
patriotism of skin, hair, and language, tribal Lowie realizes the difficulties in the way of any
bias, and the desire to gain or maintain certain
attempt at an analysis of the determinants of
economic advantages were blended in the most civilization, and his conclusions are given cau-
fantastic manner with half-baked and half-
tiously. He brings forth in explanation what
digested data of cephalic indices, of skull sutures, might be called the principle of cumulative incre-
of brain weights, and of cultural stages. These
ments. A very slight advantage of speed or
were the days when Gobineau flourished, when originality or alertness or elasticity, given the
Chamberlain, Woltmann, and Wirth burned
complicated set of factors on which it has to
incense before an idol of their own making work, will result in a very imposing structure.
called the Aryan, and when a sanctimonious
Given a certain group which possesses an indi-
hypocrisy insisted on taking upon itself "the vidual who, by accident or by design, happens to
white man's burden”—at so much per cent.
have produced a better tool than was ever pro-
By its own weight and impetus the thing duced before, that tool used by other individuals,
became, in the course of time, a frightful nuis-
with whatever additions they may have to make,
Honest and reputable ethnologists were
will in the course of time result in a tool of
as afraid of a generalization as of leprosy. Prof.
greater versatility and effectiveness. It follows
Franz Boas, for example, than whom there is
that the more people there are using such a tool
none greater in the field of ethnology, after a
the greater will be the additions made to it, the
lifetime of research has ventured to put forth
more it will be perfected, the more it will accom-
generalizations covering less than three hundred plish, the greater the control it will give to its
scanty pages. Yet while scientific ethnologists
owner, and the greater are his possibilities of
were chary of generalizations, others with the producing more and better tools.
. And civiliza-
meagerest ethnological information came forth
tion is chiefly a question of tools. It is easy to
and presented to an expectant world the awful
see now how all the other factors, which up till
spectacle of the passing of the great race, or
now were made singly to carry the responsibility
put to us the terrible query: race or mongrel? of causing civilization, can find their place in
Unbiased thinkers will therefore be more than
such an explanation. If race has anything to do
grateful to Dr. Lowie for having come out
with civilization, it probably works in the manner
bravely and stated in popular language the exact
suggested by McDougal in the investigation car-
limits within which any generalizations in ethnol-
ried on by the Cambridge Expedition on the
ogy can safely be made, given the present state of
Torres Straits natives; namely, that "primitive"
our knowledge concerning primitive man.
communities produced fewer great men than civ-
Dr. Lowie briefly discusses three of the ilized communities. The main body of the people
unilateral interpretations of culture—the psycho- remains the same in both, except that at the upper
logical, the racial, and the environmental—and end of the civilized scale there are more "geniuses."
comes to the sound conclusion that culture or to get things started and furnish those small
civilization cannot be interpreted in terms other increments which, when piled up over a large
than itself. Neither the geographical environ- period and by many people, give us civilization.
ment, nor the biological structure of the race, A closer look into the matter however will show
nor the fundamental and general characteristics us that it is not necessary to assume racial differ-
of the mental processes can account for the rise ences to bring forth such a proposition. "Primi-
and continuation of civilization. If geographical tive" communities are much smaller in numbers
environment is to account for it, how is it that than civilized communities; hence they will neces-
the same geographical environment gives rise to sarily furnish, on the one hand, a smaller per-
>
>


1918]
439
THE DIAL
a
centage of unusual variations of great men—and
Sense and Nonsense
on the other, the work of whatever great man
there be has a smaller area on which to work and THE REBUILDING OF EUROPE. By David Jayne
the results will necessarily be more meager.
Hill. Century; $1.50.
So also with the physical environment. A very
AMERICA AFTER THE WAR. By "An American
Jurist." Century; $1.
small difference in rainfall and water supply, in
Although the war has started an avalanche of
sunshine, in accessibility, in soil productivity, in historical apologia and special pleading of one
mineral deposits may make or mar a civilization
sort or another, discussion about the functions
at a time when the tribe is absolutely dependent and purpose of the state has been amazingly
on any of these factors. All it needs is a push, infertile. Practically all that has been written
and the logic of events will do the rest. And
on political theory in the United States, for
finally, if mental processes should get the slightest example, has been a fairly dispassionate analysis
kink in them, due to one accident or another, and
of the German theory of the state, which has
prevent the meeting of an important situation, or
trailed off, usually, into a splutter of invectives
the utilization of certain resources, the group is that successfully becloud thought. The attempt
doomed; while another group with no such kink
at any really honest intellectual examination of
will go on and establish a civilization. It is
first principles has been mere lip service;
perfectly evident, then, how overwhelming a rôle
it has been much easier to reflect the emotional
is played by accident in the origin of civilizations.
warmth of partisan anger.
That excuse was
The single factors which determine them are too
tempting, for no discipline is more formidable
vast, the combinations too numerous, not to give than that involved in thinking out conceptions of
hostages to chance.
the state.
What is called political science is
The trouble with the unilateral explanations of largely mythology. Nearly every other science
culture is that they are too naïve, too elementary. has to a great extent emancipated itself from
They do not see far enough; they get lost in the
its primitive vagueness by sharply limiting its
contemplation of the foundations. Hence they field of application and by devising its own
never explain civilization; they never get that far.
method and its own set of terms, each of which
They are like the scientist who would explain a
has a constant and clearly defined meaning. But
Greek temple as so many nomadic ions and elec- political science is still in the nebulous stage
trons, or a man engaged in the beef-packing indus-
where sociology, legal history, and quaint bits of
try as so much protoplasm and so many chromo- metaphysical jargon jostle in splendid confusion.
somes. Neither explanation tells us what a Greek
The reason why the Prussian theory of the state is
temple is, or why the man is engaged in the
so clearly articulated is that it is not, in reality,
business of beef-packing rather than that of drying
a theory of the state at all. It is nothing but an
prunes. And it is not electrons and chromo-
appendage to philosophical and historical, and
somes which make one civilization different from
even religious, theories which often are mere
another, but temples and dried prunes.
ingenious and intricate systems devised to justify
As a sort of an "aside" for those too much
an already existing exploitation.
wedded to the notion of racial superiorities and
It is gratifying, then, to find Mr. Hill writing
inferiorities, Dr. Lowie gives a lengthy chapter about first principles with such admirable clarity
on primitive family nomenclature. This is an
and good temper. "The Rebuilding of Europe"
ironical comment on those who maintain the
is an honest attempt to paint two conflicting con-
simplicity of the mental processes of primitive ceptions of the state against a genuine, rather
man. Latin syntax or modern “classical” political than a partisanly selected, historical background.
economy cannot compete with the complicated
And the gist of his argument is simplicity itself:
machinery of savage relationships. I do not know
his book is a long and detailed attack on the
whether Dr. Lowie intended this chapter to be
theory of absolute sovereignty. He shows how
viewed in this light, but it could not help but
the early Roman Empire was in one aspect an
occur to me while I was reading his book.
attempt to form a society of nations wherein the
People who live under the influence of racial
members had certain obligations to the union as
antipathies do not read books on ethnology, no
a whole. This conception ran directly counter to
matter how good they are. And so, unfortunately, dynastic ambition, and when medieval Europe
Dr. Lowie is writing for a packed audience, which emerged, it emerged as a congeries of independent
a
will not fail to give him hearty applause.
nations free to attack each other at their own
Max SYLVIUS HANDMAN. pleasure. The Holy Alliance was the attempt-


440
[May 9
THE DIAL
in many ways successful—to preserve the unlim- none of it in Russia, little of it in England or
ited right of princes to subdue and control their America or even in France, where the national-
own people, and to hurl their nation as a whole istic spirit is probably stronger than in any other
against any other nation whenever they might country in the world. It is principally in Ger-
think the pastime worth while. This childish many that public men still talk as if they were
conception of absolute sovereignty is far from living in the dark ages. Yet the irony of events
being a mere relic of medievalism, nor would it is mocking their words. For all their braggadocio,
be fair to say that only Germany clung to it. even the Germans have come to see that a first-
What, as Mr. Hill points out, was Rousseau's class power can no longer be self-sufficing. At
“la volonté generale” but the old medieval theory, the very moment when they announce that their
with the people instead of the prince playing the unlimited right to act as a sovereign state cannot
rôle of hero? In 1914 even democracies accepted even be discussed, they dream of an alliance with
the absolute sovereignty theory, although they other states which they call “Middle Europe.”
were never so blatant in their profession of it as And at the very moment their Junkers are loudly
Germany. It was considered painfully archaic proclaiming that international law no longer
to say that the king could do no wrong, but it exists, they are berating Prince Lichnowsky
was not even questioned that the state could do no because he had the indiscretion to point out that
wrong. National interests had inalienable rights; Germany had not been overscrupulous in observ-
they were limited only by opposing rights—which ing it. It is an impossible game. Some day
might or might not be stronger. Only war could Germany will realize that she cannot have it
determine. This anarchy Mr. Hill calls Europe's both ways, just as the nations opposed to her
heritage of evil, although he might as truly have have already begun to realize that there is no
called it the world's heritage of evil. But the security for any nation except common interna-
bitter experiences of four years of coöperative tional security. Future historians will say that
warfare have made the theory of limited sov- Germany was the worst sufferer from her own
ereignty extremely popular with democracies. The doctrines. Mr. Hill's sensible argument is well
necessity for common action has revived the summed up in this quotation:
ancient concept of public right, so cheerfully flung In its dynastic sense the word must be eliminated
overboard by the Realpolitiker. Under the pres-
from the vocabulary of international politics. For
democracies the word sovereignty in its absolute sense
sure of events it is coming to have some of its
has no meaning. What remains of it and all to which
ancient validity. In fact, one of the deepest constitutional states can lay claim is merely the right
meanings in this conflict is, shall the idea of abso- of a free and independent nation to exist, to legislate
for itself, to defend itself, and to enter into relations
lute sovereignty survive? The whole possibility
with other similar states on the basis of juristic
of any future league of nations goes to ruin unless equality, under principles of international law which
this idea of absolute sovereignty be destroyed.
respect its inherent rights as free constitutions respect
the rights of the individual persons who live under
When Germany, either by military defeat, by them.
revolution, or by a real change of heart due to Now to turn from Mr. Hill's sound argument,
the disillusion of this war, agrees to limit her which has vision but which avoids being just
sovereignty in those respects where it clashes with visionary, to the little volume by "An American
public international policy, the war will have Jurist" is to experience a shock. It is so pathet-
been won. And Mr. Hill is fair enough to admit ically and ridiculously reactionary and stupid
that the Germans do not cling as pertinaciously that at first one is inclined to believe it a bur-
to the theory of absolute sovereignty as they did lesque. For example: “The alliance, or, if
four years ago. The voice of reason is not silent preferred, the present coördination, of America
even in Central Europe. But it seems to be pretty with the Entente powers, is entirely fortuitous ;
effectively muffled. Even at this late date the
it is pursuant to no treaty, or even international
Imperial Chancellor can calmly announce to the conversation. . . All such alliances are at best but
world that the relations between Russia and Ger- temporary.” Again: “To enforce Belgian neu-
many are a purely private affair between those trality is not the primary reason why America
two. The accredited spokesmen of Germany can engaged in the war against Germany, nor is the
still talk as if everybody's business is nobody's violation of the spirit of American democracy the
business—but their own. It must be admitted real reason.” And later, so that the point won't
that this cheerful defense of international anarchy be missed: "It is to be feared that the American
comes today chiefly from Germany. We hear proclamation of democracy as a universal prin-


1918]
441
THE DIAL
ciple of government is disquieting to those of our A Statesman Sacrificed
own allies whose régime is aristocratical, if not
absolutely monarchical. It takes no note of the real The Life OF SIR CHARLES Dilke. By Stephen
strength of European aristocracies at the present
Gwynn and Gertrude M. Tuckwell. Macmillan;
$10.
time. Lord Northcliffe has evidently detected
“The Life of Sir Charles Dilke" comes as a
this danger, for he has announced that America
reminiscence of one of the keenest personal trag-
is not now fighting for democracy. . . In order to
edies of the nineteenth century. The case of that
abolish monarchy in Europe it will be necessary
unfortunate statesman belongs among those Falls
to uproot the whole social order of all European
of Princes by which the medieval imagination
states except Switzerland. An American propa-
was taken captive, or the human documents on
ganda for democracy outside of America is there-
which Meredith based his novels. The clearest
fore inexpedient, as it tends to shock and alienate
intellect, the widest intelligence, the greatest
the aristocratic classes in the various countries of
political imagination among the ministers of
the European allies of America. . . Americans
Gladstone's government of 1880-5, sharing with
should bear in mind that it is not absolutely impos- Chamberlain the hope of the party and recog-
sible that in some circumstances France may yet
nized as almost certainly the successor of Glad-
become a monarchy and join some future league of
stone in its leadership, on the eve of supplement-
the kings.” Incredible, you say. But there is more
to come. “Whether the future Government of ing his great personal force by marriage to the
most brilliant woman in England, Sir Charles
Russia, as it shall be ultimately reorganized, may
Dilke stumbled into one of the pitfalls which
not take exception and umbrage to the speedy society maintains as evidence of its good inten-
recognition by America of the Revolution remains
tions. He was named as corespondent in a
to be seen.” And after the war? Well, “the
divorce case, sued for damages by the husband,
real test" will come "when politicians begin their
and though the suit was dismissed in his favor,
mischievous appeals for total disarmament and found no remedy in English judicial procedure.
for the neglect of our war defensive with the
The only verdict that he could obtain from the
hope of capturing a discontented and impover-
courts was a "not proved," and meanwhile public
ished people. If democracy passes through the opinion had found him guilty. The forces which
ordeal safely, proves conservative, and continues
united against him are perfectly comprehensible
to exhibit an intelligent and elevated political in Victorian England-royal domesticity, official
outlook, discarding the coming socialistic program
clericalism, bourgeois puritanism, journalistic sen-
of extreme political demagogues, the republic will
sationalism; the Queen, the government, the
be safe for a long, a conservative, and an interest-
church, the press made a phalanx which no man
ing future.” There is really no need of quoting could withstand. Against them he had only the
further; unless one saw it in black and white, it loyalty of a few friends, of a constituency of
; ,
a
would seem utterly impossible that such senile
workingmen, and of the woman who married
stupidity could be published and read seriously him in the face of popular clamor-Mrs. Mark
today. Yet it is probably true that the author-
Pattison, whose youthful portrait George Eliot
who ought some day to be glad that he remained
drew in Dorothea Brooke. Thenceforth he was
anonymous—considered that he was writing a
relegated to the outer circles of public life, a
shrewd and well balanced argument against the phenomenon in Parliament like Charles Brad-
tender-minded shibboleths of our time: democ-
laugh, the man who came back, or who like
racy, the league of nations, socialism, the elimina-
Bacon refused "to go out in a snuff.” “The Life
tion of war, progressive disarmament, free trade,
of Sir Charles Dilke" is a monument to the
and so on. That is the pity of it. It is a joke, strength of character which carried him through
.
of course, but a rather sorry joke for the millions
a quarter century of failure without diminution
of young men who are going through the ordeal
of personal dignity, or active will to service, or
by fire so that a somewhat different and somewhat
generous interest in life, or sweetness of mind.
more rational international system may emerge. It is also a record of public waste of precious
They are hardly fighting to make the world safe
resources that makes the true tragedy of Sir
for this kind of international anarchy, which Charles Dilke a national one.
seems so agreeable to the prejudices and unyield-
For Dilke was one of the few men in the
ing perversity of unteachable old men.
governing aristocracy of Britain who took their
HAROLD STEARNS. function seriously. He was able and willing to
.


442
[May 9
THE DIAL
.
give himself the arduous training necessary for ognition of trades unions, and direct taxation.
such as are to bear authority in a modern com- On his election to Parliament, a year later, he
monwealth. To the ordinary political education broadened this platform to include practically the
of an English university, with its forum for dis- whole programme of political radicalism for
cussion of public affairs, he added a personal in- the next half century. It gives one a sense
spection of the British Empire which bore fruit of his extraordinary prescience merely to enumer-
in the book which first made him known, ate the causes of which he was an early, some-
“Greater Britain.” He supplemented this grand times the earliest, champion. In 1870 he insisted
tour with journeys to other countries, and made on complete freedom of national education from
it a prime object to meet and study the men religious influence, and resigned the chairman-
who held the reins of government in them. He ship of the London Branch of the Education
even overcame the Englishman's prejudice against League because he would not accept the govern-
knowing a language other than his own. ment's compromise on this point. In the same
Besides this he studied ceaselessly every sub- year he replied to the stock objection to equal
ject of importance that came before Parliament suffrage—that most women are against it-"You
in his many years of service: foreign af- will always find that in the case of any class
fairs were his specialty, but in addition he was which has been despotically governed
an expert in imperial defence both by land the great majority of that class are content with
and sea; in local government and parliamentary the system under which they live.” At the first
procedure; in trades-unionism, housing, industrial meeting of the Land Tenure Association in 1870
insurance, and land tenure; and no mean critic he declared in favor of taxing the unearned in-
of the government of the difficult dependencies crement. In the same year he presided at the
Ireland, India, and South Africa. He got up meeting of the Aborigines Protection Society. He
every one of these subjects with an immense was in favor of a large measure of local self-
accumulation of facts and yet contrived to keep government, and so was ready to vote for Irish
his general grasp firm and his view lucid. His Home Rule as early as 1874. As to coercion of
speeches in Parliament and to his constituents that unhappy country, he could not understand
were compact of information, authoritative state- "how those who shuddered at arbitrary arrests in
ments. His pleasures were true recreations and Poland, and who ridiculed the gagging of the
subordinate to the great end of keeping himself press in France, could permit the passing of a law
fit for his work. The usual avocations of the for Ireland which gave absolute powers of arrest
aristocratic governing class, the barbarians, he put and of suppression of newspapers to the Lord-
by without a regret. There is a scarcely tolerant Lieutenant.” In 1867 he proposed to extend the
smile behind the passage in his diary in which he factory acts to all employment, and year after
records the efforts to make his chief, Lord Gran- year discussed this subject so that Mr. Sidney
ville, Foreign Secretary in the cabinet of 1880-5, Webb declared, “We can trust no one but Sir
attend to business:
Charles Dilke in Parliament to understand the
Late on Tuesday afternoon, May 23rd, Lord Gran- principles of factory legislation." He saw with
ville was in such a hurry to adjourn the House of
satisfaction the birth of the Labor Party after
Lords, and bolt out of town for Whitsuntide, that he
let the French send off our Identic Note to the
the Taff Vale decision against the trades unions,
Powers in a form in which it would do much harm, and rejoiced that "the difficulty of upsetting the
although this was afterwards slightly altered. On the
next day, Wednesday, the 24th, Mr. Gladstone brought judgment
will nurture, develop, and
Lord Granville up to town again, and stopped his fortify it (the party) in the future.” Although
going to the Derby, and at 1:30 p. m. they decided to
he became a master of parliamentary procedure,
call for immediate Turkish intervention in Egypt.
Sir Charles Dilke began public life in 1867,
he confessed: “I was never favorable to the
offering himself as candidate for Parliament from
Parliamentary, and I was even hostile to the
Chelsea. He wrote to his father on this occasion: Party system,” preferring the direct intervention
“Though I should immensely like to be in Par-
of the people through the referendum.
liament, still I should feel terribly hampered In foreign affairs, as in domestic, Sir Charles
there if I went in as anything except a Radical.” Dilke maintained consistently the attitude which
In this speech he foreshadowed his future atti- was characteristic of his radicalism. He was a
tude, favoring reform in electoral machinery and sincere friend to small nationalities, the street
distribution of representation, payment of Mem- named for him in Athens bearing witness to the
bers of Parliament, universal suffrage, legal rec- gratitude of at least one of them. He was a
a
.


1918]
443
THE DIAL
a
member of Mr. Gladstone's government which in them. Yet his words, those of a statesman whom
1882 intervened in Egypt to suppress the nation- his countrymen elected in their puritan pride to
alistic movement headed by Arabi Pasha, but he dishonor, have the pathetic ring of Cassandra
wrote: "I thought and still think that anarchy prophecy. In 1876 he had noted in Parliament
could have been put down and a fairly stable state one great difficulty in the way of fair dealing
of things set up without any necessity for a British among nations—secret diplomacy. “This Europe
occupation.” He was opposed to the Boer War, is probably mined beneath our feet with secret
though holding that "when the country was
treaties." In 1908 he noted another—the press:
seized by the war fever interposition was useless." We are so confident in our own profound knowledge
In the war of 1870 between France and Ger- of our wish for European peace that we hardly realize
the extreme danger for the future which is caused by
many, he would have had England take the first
all suggestion that we have succeeded in isolating
step in the war against war:
Germany, or are striving to bring about that result.
The London articles written in violent support of a
If Gladstone had been a great man, this war would
supposed alliance did the harm; and to anyone who
never have broken out, for he would have nobly taken
keeps touch for himself of Continental opinion the
upon himself the responsibility of declaring that the
harm was undoubted, and tended to produce several
English Navy should actively aid whichever of the
undesirable results.
two Powers was attacked by the other. This would
have been the beginning of the international justice
One scarcely wonders at finding Sir Charles
we are calling for. I do not blame Gladstone for not Dilke devoting much of his time in his last years
daring to do it, for it requires a morally braver man
than any of our statesmen to run this kind of risk.
to problems of imperial defence.
The quotations given above serve to identify
To him, in common with most Englishmen, it
Sir Charles Dilke as a radical in the full force
appeared that France and not Germany was the
which the term could bear in the years of his
attacking power, and the sentence in "Greater
active life. Indeed some of his utterances ring
Britain"_"If the English race has a mission in
like those of Mr. Sidney Webb or Mr. Arthur
the world, it is surely this, to prevent peace on
Henderson in 1918. It is difficult therefore to
earth from depending on the verdict of a single
man"—was written against Louis Napoleon. But
recognize Sir Charles Dilke as an aristocrat of
the aristocrats. In his athletic tastes, his fencing,
later he would have changed its application.
"Poor German Liberals," he wrote, "who aban-
his rowing, his riding; in his artistic preferences
doned all their principles when they consented to
for fine prints, paintings, porcelains; above all in
his fastidious selection of books and society his
tear Alsace and Lorraine. from France, and who
now find themselves powerless against the war
essential quality appears. Personally he had little
party, who say 'What the sword has won the
in common with the Victorian Liberalism with
sword shall keep.'” And he quoted the words
which he was associated in politics. His diaries
have been edited with much discretion, but one
of an Alsatian deputy in the Reichstag in 1874:
divines a certain scorn for all its leaders, includ-
"Had you spared us you would have won the
admiration of the world, and war had become impos-
ing Gladstone, with the exception of Chamber-
sible between us and you. As it is, you go on arming,
lain. Of the literary-social quality of his age,
and you force all Europe to arm also. Instead of
of that tolerant gregariousness which Viscount
opening an age of peace, you have inaugurated an era
of war; and now you await fresh campaigns, fresh Morley details so delightfully in his “Recollec-
lists of killed and wounded, containing the names of tions," Dilke had nothing.
your brothers and your sons."
In truth, Sir Charles Dilke was little of a
He added: “The view of this Alsatian deputy Victorian Liberal. The opposition between him
is my view. I do not believe that might makes
and his age went deeper than the circumstances
right.” In 1887 he wrote a brilliant survey of
which set him under its ban. He had standards
the relations of the six great powers which
in matters other than sexual morals—in art, in
appeared first anonymously in "The Fortnightly living, in government. It is said that the finest
“
Review” and later in book form as “The Present
portrait of him was that of his ancestor, Sir
Position of European Politics." He traced the
Thomas Wentworth, who died in 1551. This
beginning of the "reign of force" in Europe to
reversion to type was not merely physical: in
the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, but
mind and taste Sir Charles Dilke was a man of
he showed how that system was developed with the Renaissance. He was a belated product,
England's connivance by the Treaty of Berlin in fashioned after the model drawn by Sir Thomas
1878. He believed that the cup which the rulers Elyot in his "The Book named the Governour,"
of the nations were even then holding to the lips written in 1531 for the education of such as
of their crucified peoples might still pass from should bear authority in a "weale publike.”
a


444
[May 9
THE DIAL
Especially does this Renaissance quality appear Stockholm, and negotiations at Brest-Litovsk.
in Dilke's mastery of the field which interested Capitalists, in whose supernational selfishness we
him intensely, that of foreign affairs. The Euro- had so much relied, hold secret parleys at Zurich;
pean situation at the close of the nineteenth cen- but to distrust of the foreigner is added the
tury was a reproduction of the Italian at the close mutual distrust of classes at home, and such
of the fifteenth, in both a delicate balance of abortive efforts toward peace end in misunder-
power depending on an infinite number of details standing, repudiation, and prohibition. The
social, political, personal. Sir Charles Dilke was tragic fact of the world today is that the nations
the only Englishman of his time who learned this have lost contact with each other and are fighting
situation, as Lorenzo dei Medici learned his who like blind men in the dark. No wonder that
took pains to know all the facts, and who refused Lord Lansdowne remembers that diplomacy was
to guess at the answer. One can imagine what a gentleman's game, and urges plausibly that
he suffered from the spectacle of the intricate gentlemen be called back, to retrieve at the
European machine mishandled by such men as council table the errors which they made there.
England appointed to this service—from the indo- It was against such errors that Sir Charles
lence of Lord Granville, the frothy ineptitude of Dilke warned his countrymen. As we have tried
Gladstone, the cynical stupidity of Lord Salis- to show, he was preëminently a statesman of the
bury. He saw England renounce her ideals at transition,
the Congress of Berlin, drift through sheer blun- Wandering between two worlds, one dead,
dering into the greatest and least excusable preda- The other powerless to be born.
tory act of modern political history in Egypt, and The old world of aristocratic privilege he tried
then fling away her only means of safety in such his best to bury, beginning with the civil list of
a mode of life by the cession of Heligoland to the royal family. The new world of democracy
Germany. Not only did Dilke know the facts of he tried to assist into being by every means which
his world; he took pains to learn the personal the radical midwifery of the time afforded. He
factors of the problem. Like a chess player he
realized that the internal democratic upheaval in
studied his opponents' faces and minds, and saw every country constituted one strong temptation
their characters reflected in their play. He was
to dying autocracy to save itself by throwing the
the intimate friend of Gambetta; Herbert Bis- world backward a century or two. His peculiar
marck was often his guest; he visited the old value lay in the fact that by the use of all the
Chancellor. His account of a visit to Russia in resources of the old diplomacy, the transition
1870 reads like the notebook of a Florentine might have been accomplished without the terrific
ambassador of the Medici in its swift appraisal catastrophe of universal war. The freedom of
of the men in the game.
communication with the governing classes of the
In this control of the personal element of
world which he possessed as an aristocrat, the
diplomacy Sir Charles Dilke had the enormous
trust in the people which he held as a democrat,
advantage of his birth and training. Professor supremely fitted him for this task-a democrat
—
Veblen in his recent book on “The Nature of with training and discipline and standards, an
Peace" takes not a little delight in pointing out
aristocrat whose only defence of privilege was
how the affairs of the world in the present crisis
noblesse oblige. To a discerning spectator in the
have fallen into the hands of the “underbred House of Commons during the years from 1890
common run” who have efficiency and force. He to 1909 the destiny of the nation and indeed
points out that this is "not a gentleman's war." of the world was represented, not by the front
True. The “underbred common run” fight the benches of government and opposition, not
war with a technical thoroughness beyond any- by Gladstone and Campbell-Bannerman and
thing the aristocrat has conceived. Apparently Asquith and Lloyd George, nor by Balfour and
they cannot make peace. With an undoubted
Chamberlain and the Cecils, nor yet by Redmond
will to peace the democracies of the world can
and Dillon, Keir Hardy and John Burns, but
only assert their efficiency by making war. They
by the quiet white-haired figure, in his seat below
have no means of sure communication with each
the gangway, always present, always ready,
other, no system of guarantees by which the first
always powerless. There is the tragedy of Sir
steps toward peace can be taken in mutual confi-
Charles Dilke's career, the tragedy of his country
dence. Proletarians and Labor Parties make
and of the democratic world—the triumph of the
tentative approaches toward each other through
unfit.
proclamations from Nottingham, conferences at
ROBERT MORSS LOVETT.


1918]
445
THE DIAL
Ireland's New Writer of Fiction
dramatist. "The Lady of the Glassy Palace"
"
and “Vanity,” for example, treat of death in a
A MUNSTER TWILIGHT.
manner which was described as “brutality" in
THE THRESHOLD OF QUIET. By Daniel Corkery. Synge, but is in reality a manifestation of revolt
Stokes; $1. and $1.50.
in both authors against the conventionally lach-
It seems as if the circumstances of Irish life
rymose pathos of the “pleasant" playwrights and
were not favorable to the development of the
story-tellers. “The Wake” also may be com-
novel. Ireland has failed so far to produce a
mended to those who desire something more
novelist worthy to rank with the best of her
true than the jocosities of Lover, or the Dick-
poets and dramatists, and we know that the great
ensian variations upon deathbed themes which
novels of the world's literature have been written
are accepted by so many people as the only possible
out of conditions very different from those which
alternative. Mr. Corkery can evoke the grim
prevail here. To explain the process of literary
humor, as well as the pathos, of this hackneyed
evolution which has resulted in success in the most
situation by the simple but difficult process of
difficult and exacting forms of literature, and
being perfectly honest. This story of the indis-
relative failure in the easiest and most amorphous
cretion produced by whiskey in a mourner who
—there is a task for our critics and historians.
refers to the composure of a non-existent corpse,
The short story, open or disguised, is the invari-
the wake being for a son who has died in
ably successful medium of Irish fiction, and it is
America-well, one thinks with a shudder of the
noteworthy that Mr. James Stephens, our great-
pleasantries which the older novelists would have
est living writer of fiction, has not yet essayed
perpetrated. It is hard to say what is the more
the novel proper. “The Crock of Gold” and
admirable, the restraint of Mr. Corkery, or his
“The Demi-Gods” are masterly elaborations of
skill in pathetic observation.
the method of connecting a series of unrelated
The most conventional (though admittedly in
incidents with a group of central figures. The
the new Irish convention) of Mr. Corkery's
episodes are in themselves independent of the
stories is the first, “The Ploughing of Leaca-na-
narrative as a whole, although the genius of the
Naomh,” which has been most favorably men-
author raises them high above the level of the
tioned by the reviewers, captured, as usual, by
commonplace stories of conventional humor and
what they deem "awfully Celtic.” It is just
sentiment, which are the stock in trade of so
such a story as Dermot O'Byrne might have told,
many popular Irish story-tellers.
in his enthusiasm for the quality of mysticism and
Mr. Daniel Corkery was known only by his
highly colored imagination which fascinated and
occasional contributions to Irish periodicals until
impressed him in Gaelic Ireland. But Mr.
1917, when he published his first book, "A
Corkery has opportunities and powers denied to
Munster Twilight." This interesting collection
the outside observer, and in every other chapter
of short stories at once showed that the author
of this book he shows that he can
use them.
was entitled to more serious attention than is
“The Return” is as grotesque and weird as any-
accorded to the average Irish story-teller. Writ-
thing in Lord Dunsany's "A Dreamer's Tales,"
ing on the subject of “The Peasant in Literature,"
Mr. Corkery has defined the bulk of our popular
but is at the same time informed by an element
of Irish humanity which has consistently escaped
Irish peasant literature as “real in the non-essen-
the latter writer. So long as he preserves this
tials and very untrue in the essentials.” In his
faculty Mr. Corkery will not be in danger of
"Munster Twilight" he fulfills the conditions
implied by that judgment upon his predecessors.
risking his talent in such sterilities as mar the
later work of Lord Dunsany.
The book must be classed with Padraic Colum's
"The Child Saint" and "The Breath of Life"
“Wild Earth” and Synge's “Riders to the Sea,”
two works excepted by Mr. Corkery from the
are well written, but do not come up to the high
criticism quoted. Mr. Corkery is as close to the
level of the volume as a whole, the level which
spirit of "The Shadow of the Glen" and of “The marks it off from its companions, where we expect
Playboy of the Western World” as an identical to find such things. Not since "The Land" was
feeling and intuition can bring him. He knows published has the relation of the peasant to the
his Cork and Kerry as Synge knew the hills of
soil been so finely expressed in prose as in
Wicklow and West Kerry and the Aran Islands, that almost inarticulately emotional story, “Joy,"
and he reveals the people with the same harsh which recounts the return to a rich farm of an
humor that gives its savor to the writing of the old man who had been forced off the poor land


446
[May 9
THE DIAL
he loved into the city. “The Spanceled” is “a good story.” The substance of his novel is
another notable chapter, which inevitably suggests as tenuous as anything in the later works of
Synge in its challenging tragedy, developed with Henry James; his manner is as garrulous and
the directness and economy of means shared by expansive as that of Dostoevsky. But his sen-
both writers. On the other hand "The Cry" tences have not the corresponding subtlety which
could have been conceived only by Mr. Corkery, makes or mars Henry James, according to one's
who shows himself capable, indeed, of interpret- fancy. “Swathed in relative clauses as an invalid
ing “the peasant in literature." In the end we in shawls," is not the description that can be
come, as the author himself designed, to the half- aptly applied to them.
aptly applied to them. Mr. Corkery writes a
dozen episodes related in “The Cobbler's Den.” clear and forceful prose as devoid of mannerism
In a sense these brief comedies and tragedies of as it is free from cliché; his style is as fresh and
the people are the most striking pages in “A personal as his conception of character.
Munster Twilight.” Since we learned to know Reference has been made to the tendency of
the Old Philosopher in “The Crock of Gold," Irish fiction to resolve itself into a connected or
and Patsy McCann in "The Demi-Gods," no unrelated series of episodes or incidents. The
more delightful group of human beings has lived purveyors of humorous and sentimental novels
in Irish fiction than Maggie Maw, the Blind for the libraries alone profess to tell a homogene-
Man, and John Ahern, in whose cobbler's shop ous story, and they are rewarded by a popularity
they congregate for argument and gossip. The denied either to the nouvelle, as such, or to the
effect of that incredible instrument the "con- prose work of James Stephens. Although Mr.
nopium” on Maggie Maw's hearers and upon the Corkery has shown in “A Munster Twilight"
reader alike will suffice to prepare for the equal his ability to visualize the dramatic or humorous
pleasure of the succeeding stories. The "con- episode, his novel is innocent of all such effects.
nopium” lingers in the mind like the lumps in So completely has he emancipated himself from
the porridge of the Old Philosopher. Fortunately the common practice that one can easily imagine
it occurs in the first of a series of charming inci- the impatient admirer of Katharine Tynan, Jane
dents, thereby gaining by priority where the Barlow, George Birmingham, or Seumas Mac-
advent of successive pleasures might have obscured Manus turning aside from "The Threshold of
it in the memory of the hasty reader.
Quiet," with a complaint that it lacks incident,
Now Mr. Corkery has given us a novel which as it lacks a plot. It tells no story like "Spanish
critics and public agree in accepting as the most Gold”; it relates no scenes of country life, in the
noteworthy work of fiction produced in Ireland comic or sentimental manner of Jane Barlow and
for many years. “The Threshold of Quiet" was Seumas MacManus; it eschews the amiable ideal-
written before "A Munster Twilight," but the izations of Katharine Tynan. If a recent parallel
author was wise to offer the slighter work to the be sought it will be found, strange to say, in
public first, even at the risk of being expected to “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.”
repeat himself in what will be regarded by the Not that the morbid retrospection and analysis
majority of readers as his second book. To count of Mr. James Joyce have their counterpart in the
upon any resemblance between the two is to pre- work of Mr. Corkery; •but both writers have
pare for a disappointment, but few intelligent given their books the inchoate form to which the
readers will refuse the author the careful atten- Russian novelists have reconciled us. The former
tion which his previous volume entitled him to has written a savage and, to some minds, a
expect. Having gained the ear of the public by shocking indictment of Dublin; the latter has
the direct charm and appeal of that work, he gently drawn aside the curtain, and softly illumi-
now proceeds to unfold a leisured narrative, in nated the quiet and obscure corners of Cork.
the confident belief that we are sympathetically One thinks of Chekhov and Dostoevsky while
inclined to allow ourselves to be immersed in the reading "The Threshold of Quiet,” for only in
quiet stream of provincial life so near and so Russian literature does one find the portrayal of
dear to him. Connoisseurs of the picturesque such secluded and uneventful lives as drift
phrase, the cultivators of literary plots-not plot- through these pages, as they drift through "The
holders, but held by plots—will be rebuffed by Cherry Orchard" or "Uncle Vanya." The mys-
Mr. Corkery's disconcerting indifference to the terious death of Frank Bresnan broods over
demand for the dialectics of dialect, and for the whole book; but it occurs at the beginning,
a


1918]
447
THE DIAL
a
and is the occasion of no greater suspense in the
The Two Magics
reader than was Raskolnikov's crime in Dostoev-
sky's masterpiece, for all Mr. Corkery's skill in TOWARDS THE GULF. By Edgar Lee Masters.
allowing the truth of suicide to crystallize slowly
Macmillan; $1.50.
and shyly in the minds of the circle whose exist-
Mr. Masters is a welcome, though perplexing,
ence is described. As in the case of "Crime and figure in contemporary American poetry. Wel-
Punishment," there is no attempt to exploit out-
come, because along with Mr. Frost, and perhaps
ward circumstance, and the story is almost purely
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Sandburg, he is a realist,
cerebral, so carefully does the author restrict its
and because a vigorous strain of realism is so pro-
movement to what is passing in the minds of his
foundly needed in our literature today—as indeed
characters. When the book is closed all one has
it has always been needed. Perplexing, because
seen happening is the departure of Finnbarr his relative importance, as posterity will see it, is
Bresnan for America, after a hesitation as to so extraordinarily difficult to gage. Of his
whether he had not a vocation for the priesthood;
welcome there can be no question. There has
the tragic ending to the story of Stevie Galvin
been a disposition among poets and critics of
and his brother; the crossing of the "threshold poetry during the last three years to assume that
of quiet” by Lily Bresnan when she finally feels
the most important changes, or revolutions, taking
free to enter Kilvirra Convent, renouncing life place in American poetry at present are those that
and the love of Martin Cloyne. Even these few regard form. The Imagists and other free verse
dramatic moments are not developed, but just writers have found their encomiasts, and to them
cause a slight stir of the deep waters of con-
the renewed vitality of American poetry has in
sciousness in which these lives are submerged. consequence been a little too freely ascribed. No
Yet only the most hasty reader will fail to one will deny that the current changes in poetic
succumb to the appeal of the book, which cap-
form—the earlier blind revolt, the later effort to
tures the mind by its simplicity and sincerity,
mint new forms which shall be organic-have
its absence of factitious interest. Mr. Corkery their value. But we should not forget that of
plunges us at once into the slow current of these
equal and possibly greater importance has been
lonely lives, whose struggle for peace and happi-
the attempt of our realists to alter not merely
ness is no less intense and moving because it
the form of poetry but also its content. What
takes place on a plane only discernible to the
Mr. Masefield and Mr. Gibson did in England,
intimate comprehension of a writer whose eyes
it remained for Mr. Masters and Mr. Frost to
are fixed on the truth nearest to his own heart.
do in America. The influence of the “Spoon
The high lights of grand tragedy and the crude
River Anthology” and “North of Boston" can
glare of melodrama do not light up these pages,
hardly yet be estimated. That the Imagists did
.
steeped in tender and alluring half tones. As a
not share in this influence was perhaps merely
genre picture of provincial society in Ireland,
an accident. There was nothing in the Imagist
"The Threshold of Quiet” is unique in its serious platform to prevent it. It simply happened that
the Imagists were without exception lyric poets,
realism, from which the ugliness of naturalism
has been eliminated without detriment to its fidel-
or more specifically, poets in the decorative or
coloristic tradition. While they were still ex-
ity. With a skill that amounts to genius Mr.
Corkery avoids the falsity and mawkishness of perimenting with new rhythms as the vehicle of
expression for a gamut of perceptions and sensa-
the popular idealizations, while preserving the
tions which differed from the traditional percep-
purity at which they aim. A great deal of careful
tions and sensations of poetry only by being a
pruning has gone to the creation of the mood
trifle subtler and more objective, Mr. Masters
in which it is possible by the merest hints and
and Mr. Frost, without so much as a preliminary
suggestions to obtain effects which his contem-
blast of the trumpet, suddenly incorporated into
poraries have labored and spoiled. The religious their poetry a new world—the world of the indi-
note is particularly delicate and beautiful, spon-
vidual consciousness in its complex entirety. At
taneous and reserved, eloquent but never didactic.
the moment, this was a new conception of the
It is a remarkable first novel, and gives promise
nature of poetry. A poem was not to be a
for the future work of Mr. Corkery, when he
single jewel of colorful phrases, but the jewel in
finds a theme worthy of his great powers of char-
its matrix. Of such poetry, it is readily seen,
acterization and analysis.
ERNEST A. BOYD. the appeal would be not merely æsthetic, but


448
[May 9
THE DIAL
intellectual and emotional also in the richest for while this might explain the quality of vivid-
sense, human. The distinction between the poetic ness which is common to both, it appears to have
and the non-poetic vocabulary was broken down, no bearing on the fact that each sort of vividness
a condition which has obtained conspicuously only affects the reader in a specifically different man-
in two preceding poetic eras, the Chaucerian and ner. The first, or Shelley-Becquer type of magic,
Elizabethan. The opportunity for a transfusion appeals to what is indefinitely called the sense of
of vitality from our tremendously increased prose beauty; the second, or Masters-Frost type, appeals
vocabulary to the comparatively small and static perhaps to the sense of reality. These terms are
poetic vocabulary was unparalleled. New devel- deplorably vague. Our enjoyment of art is con-
opments of form were involved perhaps, but while sequent upon the satisfaction of two kinds of
the immediate effects of these were more obvious, hunger: hunger for beauty and hunger for knowl-
it is to be questioned whether they were as far- edge. Let what the Freudians call an emotional
reaching. It is safe to say that no poet now complex be formed early in life upon the frus-
writing in this country has escaped the influence. trated first of these hungers, and we get a lyric
In its healthily acrid presence it has been increas- or colorist type of artist; upon the other, and we
ingly difficult for the prettifiers, the airy treaders
get a realist.
of preciosity, the disciples of sweetness and senti- Mr. Masters is of the latter type, though there
ment, to go their mincing ways. Most of them are traces in him of the former as well. The
have felt a compulsion either to change tone or curious thing is that while he frequently mani-
to be silent.
fests a vivid desire to employ the lyric kind of
In view of the importance of this influence, magic, he nearly always fails at it; his average
therefore, it is interesting to speculate on the of success with the realistic magic is consistently
nature and function of realistic poetry; and the very much higher. He is essentially a digger-
work of Mr. Masters furnishes an excellent out of facts, particularly of those facts which
opportunity. To say that such work as this regard the mechanism of human character. In
.
delights us, at its best, because it is human, is the presence of richly human material—the suf-
after all somewhat superficial. In a broad sense, ferings, the despairs, the foolish illusions, the
even the most treble of dawn-twitters is human. amazing overweenings of the individual man or
But clearly the pleasure it affords us is a different woman-he has the cold hunger of the micro-
sort of pleasure from that afforded, say, by a scope. Curiosity is his compelling motive, not
lyric of Becquer or Shelley. It has, when it is the desire for beauty. He is insatiable for facts
good, a clearly recognizable magic; but this magic and events, for the secrets of human behavior.
is not quite of the same character as that we Consequently it is as a narrator that he does his
associate with “Kubla Khan" or "The Ode to a best work. He is essentially a psychological story-
Grecian Urn.” Matthew Arnold in his essay on teller, one who has chosen for his medium not
poetry was apparently insensible to this distinc- prose but verse, a tumbling and jostling and over-
tion, for at least one of his famous touchstone crowded sort of verse, which, to be sure, fre-
lines belongs rather to the realistic than to the quently becomes prose. Was Mr. Masters wise
lyric category of magic. The line of Words- in making this choice? He is by nature extremely
worth, “And never lifted up a single stone,” loquacious and discursive—it appears to be painful
tainly does not appeal, in any clear way, to the for him to cut down to mere essentials and prose
—
sense of beauty; its felicity is of a different sort. would seem to be a more natural medium for
What precisely constitutes this second sort of such a mind. But while he almost always fails
verbal magic is in the present state of psychology to compress his material to the point where it
perhaps impossible to analyze. At most we can becomes singly powerful, it is only the fact that
perceive certain relations and distinctions. On one he uses a verse form which compels him to com-
plane, the mechanism of the two is identical: both press at all; and it is also clear that at his
depend for their effect on the choice of so sharply moments of keenest pleasure in dissective narra-
characteristic a single detail that a powerful tion he can only experience satisfaction in a verse
motor reaction will ensue and complete the of sharply accentuated ictus. It is at these
sensory pattern in its entirety. This is known moments that his work takes on the quality of
as Pavlov's law. But here begins the divergence, realistic magic, the magic of vivid action, dra-
cer-


1918]
449
THE DIAL
>
matic truthfulness, muscular reality. We are is indeed, as an artist, careless to the point of
made to feel powerfully the thrust and fecundity recklessness. It is as if a steam dredge should
of human life, particularly its animalism; we are become pearl diver: he occasionally finds an
also made to feel its struggle to be, or to believe oyster, sometimes a pearl; but he drags up also
itself, something more. It is in the perception an amazing amount of mud. His felicities and
and expression of this something more that Mr. monstrosities are alike the accidents of tempera-
Masters chiefly fails, not because he is not aware ment, not the designs of art. Hasty composition
of it (he repeatedly makes it clear that he is,
is repeatedly manifest. Six months more of reflec-
though not of course in the guise of sentimental- tion would perhaps have eliminated such poems
ity) but because at this point his power and as "The Canticle of the Race" (Mr. Masters is
felicity of expression abandon him. What emo-
often in the hands of demons when he uses
tional compulsion he has towards self-expression rhyme), "The Awakening,” “In the Garden at
lies in the other direction. His temperament the Dawn Hour," "Dear Old Dick," "Towards
might be compared not inexactly to that of the Gulf," and two or three others; would have
Hogarth, the Hogarth of "Marriage à la Mode" indicated the need for cutting and compression
and “The Rake's Progress" rather than of the in most of the remainder; and would have dis-
caricatures. It is in the Hogarthian type of magic closed such verbal errors as "disregardless” and
that he is most proficient.
"forgerer”-trifles, indeed, but symptomatic.
Is it certain however that this proficiency is
And yet on the whole one is more optimistic
sufficient to make his work enduring? There is
as to the future of Mr. Masters after reading
no other poet in America today whose work is so
his book than at any time since the appearance
amazingly uneven, whose sense of values is
of "Spoon River Anthology." Bad and good are
so disconcertingly uncertain. While in some
still confounded, but in more encouraging pro-
respects Mr. Masters's intellectual equipment is
portions. From "Widow LaRue," "Front the
richer than that of any of his rivals, it has about
Ages with a Smile," "Tomorrow is my Birth-
it also something of the nouveau riche. Much
day," "Saint Deseret" one gets an almost unmixed
of his erudition seems only half digested, much
pleasure. In these one feels the magic of reality.
of it is inaccurate, much of it smells of quackery These poems, like “Arabel” and “In the Cage,”
or the woman's page of the morning paper.
are synthesized; and it is in this vein that one
Much of it too is dragged in by the heels and is
would like to see Mr. Masters continue, avoiding
very dull reading. Moreover, this uncertainty-
the pitfalls of the historical, the philosophical, the
one might almost say unripeness-besets Mr.
pseudo-scientific. Will he yet learn to employ,
Masters on the æsthetic plane quite as clearly as
as an artist, the selection and compression which
on the intellectual. To put it synæsthetically, in the "Spoon River Anthology" were forced
he appears not to know a yellow word from a
upon him by the exigencies of the case? Will
purple one. He goes from a passage of great he continue at the same time to develop in psycho-
power to a passage of bathos, from the vividly logical richness and in his sense of the music of
true to the blatantly false, from the incisive to
sound and the balance of form? Whether
the dull, without the least awareness. In "Songs
he does or not, we already have reason to be
and Satires" one passed, in bewilderment, from
profoundly grateful to him. His influence has
"Arabel," remarkably sustained in atmosphere,
been widespread and wholesome. We are badly
vivid in its portraiture, skilful in its use of
in need of poets who are unafraid to call a spade
suspense, to the ludicrous ineffectuality of the
a damned shovel. And a good many of us are
Launcelot poem, in which many solemn events
too ready to forget that realistic magic is quite
were unintentionally comic. In the new book,
as legitimate in poetry as lyric magic, and quite
"Towards the Gulf,” one passes, with the same
as clearly in the English tradition. If art is the
astonishment, from the utter falseness and pre-
effort of man to understand himself by means of
posterous anticlimax of the “Dialogue at Perko's"
self-expression, then surely it should not be all
to the intensity and magic of "The Widow
ghosts and cobwebs and soul-stuff. . . Mr.
LaRue.” This means of course that Mr. Mas-
Masters reminds us that we are both complex and
ters is not in the thorough sense an artist. He
mortal.
does not know the effect of what he is doing. He
CONRAD AIKEN.


450
[May 9
THE DIAL
a
Reënter Literary Burlesque esties, now justly forgotten. Within our day,
however, the stage has seen more frequent revivals
THE HARLEQUINADE: An Excursion. By Dion of the real burlesque spirit, as when Mr. Shaw
Clayton Calthrop and Granville Barker. Little,
tilted at the Shakespeare halo in "The Dark Lady
Brown; $1.25.
The five "episodes" in Messrs. Calthrop and
of the Sonnets” and pilloried the critics in
Barker's engaging fantasy are five glimpses into an
“Fanny's First Play,” or when Mr. Barrie
alleged history of the Harlequin tradition. First
reduced the problem formula to absurdity in
"A Slice of Life." Our revues mostly incline to
we see Mercury, Momus, and Charon crossing
the Styx (“the most interesting place in spiritual laugh away the worst excesses of the dance craze,
the easier course of parody; yet they have helped
geography”) and setting out to find runaway
the "Follies" once burlesqued themselves and the
Psyche—beginning on an Olympian Saturday
"the longest week-end on record." For the second
movies together, and one will not soon forget
Bert Williams's version of "Androcles and the
scene proves to be a fifteenth-century Italian pan-
Lion.” There is health in an art that can laugh
tomime, in which the gods, having had some two
at itself. And there must be some justification
thousand years to acquire histrionic proficiency,
for Drama League enthusiasm in a period whose
reappear respectively as Harlequin, Clown, and
commercial theatre indulges literary burlesque.
Pantaloon, with Psyche long since found and
The best stage burlesque satisfies two demands,
now turned into Columbine. Skipping Pierrot
and Mr. Rich his Harlequins, the gods are next
which easily become contradictory: it must estab-
playing valet, rustic squire, and lawyer in an
lish intimate relations with the audience, and it
eighteenth-century English comedy of manners,
must never betray any consciousness of its own
which Psyche, as a chambermaid fresh from the
humor. “The Harlequinade” achieves intimacy
country, deflects into reality-or romance, accord-
with a running commentary on its action by an
ing to your view. Finally (westward the stars
announcer, the ingenuous fifteen-year-old Alice,
of drama!) the down-at-heels divinities, reduced
who is very much in earnest about the whole mat-
to begging for stray rôles, come to the "old"
ter and who is continually interrupted, checked,
or corrected from the other side of the proscenium
Ninety-Ninth Street Theatre, New York-more
exactly, "Number 2613 of the five thousand
by her fond Uncle Edward. Between them they
score some shrewd hits on the fashionable audi-
Attraction Houses controlled by the Hustle Trust
Circuit of Automatic Drama"-only to watch
ence that arrives late ("Some of 'em always late,"
Uncle Edward tells Alice. "It's their dinner."),
a rehearsal from which gramophones labeled
“Arthur” and “Grace” have quite banished the
that improves the intermission (during which
buskins. It is too much for Clown, who sets his
Uncle Edward himself sends out for a pint), and
troupe atumbling in the good old way and with
that has certain pronounced tastes ("Uncle, the
that magic dissolves the automatic theatre in red
rest of it isn't a very nice story. Will they
fire. Then we are back at the Styx: it is Monday
mind?" "They? They'll like it all the better."
morning on Olympus.
Or again: "And don't gabble. This ain't the
All of which, of course, makes no very schol-
metaphysics, which they can't abear. This is
arly contribution to the literature about the
facts. They respect facts.") But at no time
Harlequin tradition. Had it been meant to, for
does either of these slip out of character or appear
that matter, it would doubtless have been elab-
as other than an anxious, businesslike manager.
orated as a pageant like “Caliban."
And the players themselves keep properly
But there is another, and if more slender a
within the frame thus set up. The skeptical
finer, tradition of the English stage to which
philosopher who refuses to credit his senses when
consciously or unconsciously "The Harlequinade"
he comes to the Styx, the archaic mummery of
makes a very genuine contribution—the burlesque
the pantomime, the preposterous point of honor
of literary fashions and technical means. From
in the high comedy, even the extravaganza of the
Bottom the Weaver and “The Knight of the
automatic rehearsal—all are veriest reality to the
Burning Pestle" to the Deputy Sub-Inspector of actors. When the Sub-Inspector says to Clown,
the New York and New Jersey Division of the "Young man, if this were a performance, you would
Hustle Trust Circuit may seem
a far cry.
be dealt with by our ästhetic policewoman. Vulgar
comments made in public upon works of art are now
And the landmarks between are rare enough, an indictable offence,"
a few more than "The Rehearsal" and "The Clown's interruptions have not been vulgar; they
Critic" before Victorian taste mistook parody for have been tragic. And it is not horseplay but
burlesque and encouraged countless punning trav- tragic necessity for Harlequin to leap upon the


1918]
451
THE DIAL
verse.
pink, croaking gramophones on their green stands. what the author is trying to do. Her idiom
This rehearsal scene, which is really a play within suddenly seems familiar, and the novel slant at
a play within a play, is quite in the Villiers- which she looks on life captures your imagination
Sheridan tradition.
as a genuine artistic creation, and not as that
It is also entirely in tradition that the rehearsed trick which it might have seemed.
piece itself should be less funny than the dia- The particular idiom and vision of this writer
logue of the onlookers. “Love: a Disease" are the same as those of the makers of imagist
(author—“Number Two Factory of Automatic
Miriam, the girl, sees the world as a
Dramaturgy; Plunkville, Tennessee") is much stream of sensed pictures, in hard clear outlines,
thinner stuff than "A Slice of Life" and might where the form is more significant than the con-
in fact have come from the racing pen of Mr. tent. In "Honeycomb" she is the governess in
Stephen Leacock. There is more sting in the the English country house of a commonplace
gossip about Theodor B. Kedger, who had "made middle-class family. Nothing happens, outside of
good” manipulating "wood-pulp potatoes, syn-
the children's lessons and a trip or two to town,
thetic bread, and real estate" before he purchased except the arrival of quasi-smart people for a
all the theatres ("both of the Variety and of the week-end. This is not, however, what happens
.
Monotonous kind”), bought up all the drama- to Miriam's vivid feeling. People, house, and
tists "with their copyrights present and future,” furnishings dissolve together and then flow back
paid all the actors to stop acting (“which was in to her in intense forms and colors, exciting or
some cases a needless expenditure of money"), depressing the reflections of her brain. The story
annexed all the Cinema and talking-machine inter- is of her quick impressions and the racing stream
ests, and began to experiment "in the scientific of her inner thoughts, her puzzles and desires.
manufacture and blending of drama." Finally Her contact with people, with social forms, with
no less than twenty-three factories dot the grassy everything around her are contacts with some-
meads of America. The work is done by clerks em- thing alive, hurting her, doing something to her.
ployed at moderate salaries for eight hours a dav.
It is not the objective facts that make up her life,
For the cerebration of whatever new ideas may be
needed, several French literary men are kept in chains but these intensely felt pictures of what goes on
in the backyard, being fed exclusively on absinthe and
around her, and her own wondering mind, jump-
caviare sandwiches during their periods of creative
activity. No less than forty different brands of drama
ing from idea to idea as, restless and rebellious,
are turned out, each with its description stamped it tries to burrow its way out of its squirrel-cage
clearly on the can.
into reality. No
Nothing could be more uncannily
"Do the public like the stuff?" asks Clown.
real than these quick chains of thought which run
“They've got to like it,” replies the Deputy through Miriam's mind. Once you have accli-
Sub-Inspector. “They get nothing else.”
mated yourself, you find in this flow between
CLARENCE BRITTEN. sensed outer picture and inner reflection the very
quality of experience, caught with a precision that
makes you marvel. At least, it is the very fibre
An Imagist Novel
of sensitive youth, with its despair of happiness
and its scorn of the grubbing world.
HONEYCOMB. “Pilgrimage,” III. By Dorothy M. She toiled along feeling dreadfully tired; the sounds
Richardson. Knopf; $1.50.
of her boot soles on the firm, sand-powdered road
mocked her, telling her she must go on.
What happy intuition told the author of
victoria came along and in it a delicate old gentleman
"Pilgrimage' to issue the book in these short who had a large empty house with deep quiet rooms
installments? The process, you find as you read and a large sunny garden with high walls, and wanted
some one to be singing and happy till he died, she
this volume, the third of the series, has been
would go.
They would share the great secret,
almost exactly timed to your capacity of assimila- dying of happiness. People ought to be able to die of
tion. The sweetish-sour style and the strange,
happiness if they were able to admit how happy they
If they admitted it aloud they would pass
sensitive representations of a young English girl's straight out of their bodies, alive; unhappiness was
impressions of her life are an acquired taste. the same as death, not suffering; but letting suffering
"Pointed Roofs," with its flickering scenes of the
make you unhappy-curse God and die, curse life, that
was letting life beat you: letting God beat you. God
German school where the girl goes as governess, did not want that. No one admitted it.
No one
was too insubstantial to stir the mind. “Back- seemed to know anything about it. People just went
on fussing.
water" might even have repelled you with its
And a "sensed picture" or two:
close sultry prison of the home to which she
Her eyes caught the clear brow and smooth inno-
returns. But "Honeycomb” suddenly clarifies
cently sleeked dark hair of a man at the other end of
If a
.
were.
a


452
[May 9
THE DIAL
I am
sun-
the table-under the fine level brows was a loudly
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
talking, busily eating face all the noise of the world,
and the brooding grieving unconscious brow above it. THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY. 5 vols., Vol.
All the other forms were standing or moving in the
III. With an English translation by W. R.
gloom; standing watchful and silent, the gleaming
stems of their cues held in rest, shifting and moving
Paton. The Loeb Classical Library. Put-
and strolling with uncolliding ordered movements and
nam; $1.50.
little murmurs of commentary after the little drama-
This third volume of the Greek anthology
the sudden snap of the stroke breaking the stillness,
the faint, thundering roll of the single ball, the click
contains "the declamatory and descriptive epi-
of the concussion, the gentle angular explosion of grams” of Book IX, and seems to be richer in
pieces into a new relation and the breaking of the the former. But if anything were needed to
varying triangle as a ball rolled to its hidden destina-
tion held by all the eyes in the room until its rumbling
prove that even at their most rhetorical moments
pilgrimage ended out of sight in a soft thud.
the Greeks had the poetic evocative word, this
It must have been passages like this that caused
collection declares it. Even the epigrams from
Wells to refer to Dorothy Richardson's novel
the "Stephanus” of Philippus, which were writ-
as futuristic. Certain passages, like Miriam's
ten in the rhetorical period, are rich in forceful
clarity. And the inscriptions for cups, paintings,
walk on Regent Street, are pure imagism, exactly
bas-reliefs, and baths, with which the volume
as the poets write it:
concludes, are especially pregnant. Such is the
Flags of pavement flowing along-smooth clean gray nameless lyric line: “The Graces bathed here,
squares and oblongs, faintly polished, shaping and and to reward the bath they gave to the water
drawing away-sliding into each other.
part of the dense smooth clean paving stone
the brightness of their limbs." Mr. Paton's
lit; gleaming under dark winter rain; shining under translation is a happy one; and while it might
warm sunlit rain, sending up a fresh stony smell be desirable to have such a volume as this show
always there . dark and light .
dawn, steal-
more evidences of scholarly interest, this simple
ing.
But "Honeycomb” is not verse masquerading able addition to the classical library.
and lovely presentment of the epigrams is a valu-
as a novel. It is an honest narrative, searching,
living-fantastic only to those who cannot feel There Is No Death. By Richard Dennys.
these very modern ways of looking at the world. Lane; $1.25.
The author has simply had the audacity to tell
The ancient superstition which forbids speak-
her story of this sensitive girl, neither child nor ing ill of the dead is a most ungenerous handicap
woman, from the attitude and with the values for critics who face the vast output of posthum-
that those gifted young poets feel who have made
Moreover, the friends who fondly
us recognize in their naïve, cool vision of beauty, publish these pale lyrics are wont to confuse a
and in their sense of flowing life, new vistas of
man's character with his literary attainments.
our own. And she has had the genius to make
The present volume is no exception. It is pre-
out of her few materials a book of beauty and
ceded by a preface that reads like a funeral
truth. It is not only the very essence of quivering
eulogy. The man there presented seems to have
been an interesting person, if only because he was
youth, but of youthful femininity. “Sex" there
privileged to work with Gordon Craig in Flor-
is none. To Miriam men are scarcely more than
ence. But the verse itself shows neither the
a distant earthquake registered on the seismo- ensitive artist nor the keen philosopher. It has
graph of her wonder and perfect uncomprehend- a kind of stereotyped sweetness, but little music,
ingness. It is women who are real to her and
and it is quite barren of the startling phrase that
intrigue her—the shimmering loveliness of the is the true poet's lightning. “It was ... the
fair German girls, the marrying sisters at home, world with its duties and conventions that mainly
Mrs. Corrie and her gay friends from London. vexed his spiritual nature," writes the author of
Yet Miriam is saturated with the vague, hidden the prefatory note. “People offended; people
sense of unawakened virginity. There is the requiring answers to their letters ." The
tense shrinking from life and yet the ardor for verse does not betray a spiritual nature so lightly
life, the air of standing, half-contemptuously but scratched, but that may be because it seems to be
stirred, before a closed door, on the other side of quite lacking in any spiritual quality. It is such
which is an obscure, not even imagined happiness.
verse as might easily be written by any young man
This writer knows the cruelty of life as well as
whose education and comfortable living permitted
the high, clear, clean, fresh, fair things, for which
him to appreciate his pleasant hours. It is mark-
her Miriam has so intense a love. I wonder if so
edly the production of youth, for it echoes youth's
completely feminine a novel as "Pilgrimage" has
sweet melancholy, plays smilingly with despair.
The dignity of death cannot of itself be expected
ever been written.
RANDOLPH BOURNE. to enhance the simple artifice of the amateur.
ous verse.
a


1918]
453
THE DIAL
A SHORT HISTORY OF DISCOVERY: From beyond. A mere summary of the research of the
the Earliest Times to the Founding of Colo- last half century in this field is badly needed.
nies on the American Continent. By Hendrik But Miss Scudder has given us far more than a
Willem van Loon. McKay; $1.50.
mere summary. She has given us insight into the
Dr. van Loon has written and drawn that meaning of Malory's redaction, both as a social
rare thing—a real book about real events for real
document and as a work of art. And in tracing
children. Both in the prose, which is at once
Malory's complex sources she presents a fresh
simple and rich, and in the posterish drawings,
and significant revelation of the whole life of the
done in colored inks with a match, there is style,
Middle Ages. Miss Scudder possesses a method
spirit, charm, and a genuine and unobtrusive
and point of view which have been all too little
humor. The book is nowhere tainted with the represented in the past generation of American
self-conscious sophisticating patronage which has
scholarship. But there are signs of a speedy
infected so much of contemporary juvenile litera-
return, at least in aim if not at once in accom-
ture, and only once or twice does it stray
plishment, to this method, which is so character-
into the palpably "improving." Yet it contains
istic of French criticism. Miss Scudder's book
much accurate and interesting information which
is, then, not only a fascinating guide for the
the child will not find in his school histories, general reader; it is a model for a more enlight-
presented with a running commentary of wise
ened and humane scholarship.
observation and seasoned reflection. The author
meets his reader easily, as man to man, and tells
The President's CONTROL OF FOREIGN
his story so naturally that he communicates his RELATIONS. By Edward S. Corwin. Prince-
own enthusiasm for the muse of history, whom
ton University Press; $1.50.
his colleagues of the textbooks are smothering in The prominence assumed by questions of for-
documents. He concludes with a gentle satirical eign policy since Woodrow Wilson went to
a
dig at the Puritans and their college, where “by Washington has prompted one of the professors
attending lectures, with great patience and indus- of politics at Princeton to bring together in a
try I gradually learned to draw pictures with a small volume the main historical incidents illus-
fair amount of success.” One closes the book trating the powers of the President in the diplo-
wishing he had continued his narrative into recent matic field, together with the most instructive
times and shown us the romance of polar explora- discussions which these incidents have aroused.
tion; one desires his picture of Andree's balloon, Of the three parts into which the book is di-
his comment on Dr. Cook.
vided, one reproduces the historic debate of
In a foreword “to all grown-ups" (in which “Pacificus” (Hamilton) and "Helvidius” (Mad-
all children will take delight) Dr. van Loon ison) in 1793, and another an almost equally
offers his book as “an historical appetizer.” important discussion by Senators Spooner and
Happy that adult who refreshes a jaded palate Bacon in 1906; in the third the author considers
with this cocktail: he may be tempted to let the at some length the agencies of diplomatic inter-
subsequent repast include the author's more ambi- course, the making of treaties and executive
tious efforts in Dutch history and navigation. agreements, and the President's powers in rela-
tion to war-making. The problems discussed are
Le MORTE DARTHUR OF SIR THOMAS mainly such as have arisen from (a) the insuffi-
MALORY AND ITS SOURCES. By Vida D. ciency of the provisions of the Constitution,
Scudder. Dutton ; $3.50.
without construction, to afford the national gov-
The title might well indicate a typical erudite
ernment its putative complete sovereignty in the
product of research, heavily weighted with foot handling of foreign affairs, and (b) the fre-
notes and intended for a few special students.
quent overlapping of the powers bestowed by
But from the nature of the author's previous the Constitution upon Congress, the Senate, and
work we are not surprised to find that the book
the President. "The gaps . in the con-
"makes no claim to explore new territory, but
stitutional delegation of powers to the national
it hopes to fill the modest function of guide to a
government, affecting foreign relations, have been
lovely country which is too rarely visited except
filled in by the theory that the control of foreign
by pioneers.” After the years of minute research
relations is in its nature an executive function
by many scholars “it would seem,” says Miss
and one, therefore, which belongs to the Presi-
Scudder, “that the time is ripe for interpretive
dent in the absence of specific constitutional pro-
study.” To the general reader who knows King vision to the contrary.” The difficulty arising
Arthur and his Table Round only through Ten- from overlapping of powers has been met by
nyson and perhaps through occasional ventures attributing to the respective holders of such
into Malory himself, this study will prove a gate- powers full constitutional discretion in their dis-
way to the vast and fascinating territory that lies charge—in other words, by converting a legal
a


454
[May 9,
THE DIAL
complication into a question of practical states- making clear the various phases of that evolution
manship, to be solved by negotiation and com- which culminated in the most superb temples to
promise. The author's analysis of the constitu- a Living God the world has ever seen. The fact
tional restrictions upon the President's control of that the theatre of this evolution—what Mr.
our foreign policy, notwithstanding the enormous Cram calls "Heart of Europe"-is today the
growth of that control since 1789, is especially place of Armageddon, and that the finest of these
worthy of mention. The treatise is so heavily masterpieces, Rheims and Amiens, are under fire
documented as to become practically a commen- by German cannon, gives a particular poignancy
tary on a series of texts-presidential messages, to the reading of this part of the book.
congressional debates, judicial decisions, and dip- One looks with especial interest to the résumé
lomatic correspondence. Its form is therefore and appraisement of American architecture; here
hardly such as to appeal to the general reader. the critical faculty is fatally apt to betray its
Yet one may venture the hope that our awakened limitations of vision, for a mist of familiarity
interest in foreign affairs and foreign policy will renders the present far more obscure than any
bring books of this character into hands that in past which has left recoverable images. This
other days would hardly have been open to re- chapter, the work of Mr. Kimball, begins very
ceive them.
properly with the Maya architecture of Yucatan.
The author discusses the Toltec and Aztec
A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE. By Fiske remains in Mexico and devotes a paragraph to
Kimball and G. H. Edgell. Harpers; $3.50. Peru, with its magnificent and mysterious ter-
This is the first of a series of handbooks on raced strongholds of a vanished and voiceless
the fine arts prepared, in the words of the pub-
civilization. The widely different phases of
lishers' announcement, "with reference to class Colonial architecture are well described, traced
use in the higher institutions of learning, and each to its source, and their characteristics intel-
they also provide authoritative, comprehensive, ligently differentiated. The Classic Revival
and interesting histories for the general reader."
receives in turn some attention, while the
Their raison d'être dwells largely in the fact remainder of the essay is given over to the
that by reason of archæological researches during discussion of our later and latest architectural
the past twenty years, and the changed temper phases from Richardson to Frank Lloyd Wright.
of criticism toward the fine arts in their relation
One rejoices in a view of the Woolworth Build-
to the evolution of civilization, most existing ing from an unusual angle, though that beautiful
textbooks on these subjects are now relatively obelisk would be represented as a matter of
obsolete. An examinaation of this history of
But it warms the critical heart to find
architecture would appear to justify the claims justice done to Sullivan, in a very true and
made for it by the publishers. It is a work of penetrating analysis of his unique contribution
scholarship free from tediousness, pedantry, or to an architecture of democracy; and it was both
special pleading, full of detailed information, yet just and gracious to include in even this brief
with perspective values kept well in hand. The history of American architecture the name of
index, glossary, and bibliographical notes are full Harvey Ellis, who although he wrote his name
and specific; the periods are well summarized and scarcely at all in stone and iron, aroused to
their chronology tabulated; the text illustrations thought and to endeavor so many young men in
are numerous and well selected, including a grati-
the Middle West. It may be said that the author
fyingly large number of clearly rendered cross
acquits himself with credit in this essay, and brief
sections and plans.
as it is there is no better résumé of American
Because the book deals with architecture in all
architecture extant.
its important manifestations from prehistoric
ChilD WELFARE IN OKLAHOMA. An
times to the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred
and eighteen, the necessity for compression, and
Inquiry by the National Child Labor Com-
even for repression, was imposed; but the authors
mittee for the University of Oklahoma.
have performed their task so well that the sense
Direction of Edward N. Clopper. Pub-
of this is seldom apparent, and never painfully so.
lished by the Committee, New York; 75 cts.
Like all skilled performers they do their difficult This inquiry proves to apply not only to local
feats smiling. The book must have been a hard conditions in the state of Oklahoma, but to
one to write, but it is easy to read.
problems of current national importance. In
The portion of the book which deals with the this country the great mass of laws governing
Middle Ages (Chapters VI-IX) is the work of the welfare and protection of children is practi-
Mr. Edgell. It embraces a survey of Christian cally uncorrelated, is full of discrepancies and
architecture from early Byzantine to the dawn loopholes, is about as unstandardized, in fact, as
of the Renaissance. The author succeeds in any group of laws that you will find. There
course.


1918]
455
THE DIAL
is a growing feeling among those concerned with from many quarters, and the extent and charac-
progressive legislation that specialization must ter of the German efforts to prepare the world
cease and coöperation begin, and that to be effect- for German dominance have been a continual
ive the laws of each state should be brought source of astonishment. In his "Peaceful Pene-
together in a children's code. Four states have tration" Mr. McLaren, an Australian who lived
already done this, but without sufficient previous for many years in Berlin, gives a very good,
study of existing conditions and administration. although admittedly but partial, account of these
In Oklahoma, however, a state-wide survey has efforts. He tells us that his book would have
been made of all the conditions governing child been written had there been no war, because he
welfare, and the reports of the investigators are had long been studying, in Australia and else-
now published in one volume. They cover the where, the workings of the German propagandist
fields of public health, recreation, education, child machine; the war, he says, revealed to him and
labor, agriculture, juvenile courts and probation, other observers a good many things, but con-
institutional care of children, home finding, poor
firmed more. After a crisp discussion of what
relief, parentage and property rights; and a peaceful penetration is and means, he writes in
chapter is added on the administration of the an interesting way of the “sleuth-hounds"
existing laws. Among the most interesting recent employed in the Imperial espionage, and espe-
findings are those dealing with the problem of cially of the founder of the modern German secret
farm tenancy. But the really interesting feature service, Stieber.
service, Stieber. He describes the actual work-
of the book is that it constitutes the first state- ings of the German agents in the British domin-
wide survey of the kind that has been made in ions and elsewhere, and gives an extended, and
this country, and thereby sets a notable precedent unfavorable, estimate of the German as a colo-
for action in other states.
nist. In a brief chapter he tells what Germany's
"pressing to the East” means for Australia. The
PEACEFUL PENETRATION. By A. D. Mc- book cannot be characterized as profound; in
Laren. Dutton; $1.50.
some aspects it is decidedly superficial. Yet it
Long before 1914 the world was aware of
is commendably temperate and it states in an
a well planned and cleverly directed campaign interesting way many facts of great moment
for the extension of German influence in both which, if not new, are at least unfamiliar to a
European and non-European countries. Mer- large part of the reading public.
chants, commercial travelers, bank employees,
journalists, missionaries, travelers, teachers,
The SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROTESTANT
clerks, waiters—these were but some of the
REFORMATION. By Lynn H. Hough. The
agents employed in the grand propaganda of
Abingdon Press; 50 cts.
Deutschtum. An immediate object was the PROTESTANTISM IN GERMANY. By Kerr
expansion of industry and trade, especially
D. MacMillan. Princeton University Press;
through the stimulation of a taste and a demand $1.50.
for German-made goods. But there were other Both books contain series of lectures delivered
and deeper purposes. German "Kultur" was to
during 1917, a four-hundredth anniversary year
be planted throughout the world; minor states
in Lutheran annals. The first, a sketchy, brochure-
and peoples were to be drawn into the orbit of like book of four chapters, is an easy-flowing
Germany; the national life of great countries narrative of overdrawn generalities about the
like England and the United States was to be
Reformation, spending its space to show that the
honeycombed with alien influences; commercial
sixteenth century opened with the individual sub-
and cultural penetration was to be made to pre-
merged because of the prevailing ecclesiastical
pare the way for political influence. The scheme
attitude and closed with the individual having
was largely the work of the Pan-Germans. But
emerged to assert his "place in the sun"-Luther's
the Kaiser himself was behind it. “Thousands achievement. The second, the L. P. Stone
of your fellow countrymen," he declared to his
Foundation lectures at Princeton, in its introduc-
people on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anni-
tion makes the modest claim to be the only work
versary of the founding of the Empire, “are liv- in English covering the development of the
ing in all parts of the world; German wares, territorial system of Lutheran Church govern-
German knowledge, German business energy ment. This development from the Reformation
traverse the ocean. The earnest duty, then, ideal of the universal priesthood of believers to
devolves upon you to form a strong link with the conviction that it was the duty of the layman
this Greater Empire, binding it to the Empire to receive religion, like sanitation, from above,
at home.” Since the outbreak of the present war is intelligently and interestingly traced, first in
the insidiousness of the work of the advance Luther's own thought, then more fully in the
agents of the Wilhelmstrasse has been revealed thought of the leaders of the following centuries.


456
[May 9
THE DIAL
The entering wedge for this development was shown this natural impulse toward indiscrimi-
Luther's belief that individual Christians did not nate giving to be “always futile and usually
have equal rights in the conduct of church affairs, demoralizing," and a few general principles as
but differing rights according to the estate in to methods of procedure have been adopted: the
which God placed them. Of course God had unit of relief is the family; relief should be pro-
placed the prince at the top!
portioned to need, not to loss; close coöperation
The author of this book however fails in
with the family and the community is necessary
appreciation of the social factors that interplay for the restoration of normal living conditions as
in all religious movements—as, for instance, his soon as possible. The repetition in successive
undervaluation of the social significance of the chapters of the principles which apply to all situa-
Peasants' War, in which Luther directed con- tions demanding relief, although for the general
cerning the Peasants, "Stab, beat, and strangle reader it detracts somewhat from the interest of
them, whoever can. Likewise, his conclusion the book, probably justifies itself to the profes-
that had the German states taken the superior sional, who may thus refer quickly to a specific
Calvinistic system of church government, abso- chapter in a given emergency.
lute monarchy could not have developed, reveals Under cover of a rather misleading title Miss
a strange lack of consideration for the social Nesbitt in "Household Management" offers us a
milieu that led to the divergent characteristics glimpse into the housekeeping difficulties of the
of Lutheranism and Calvinism. His derogatory poorer families, largely foreign born, in our big-
statement that “most modern German theology ger cities. To give any acceptable help to the
is not theology but psychology," bespeaks his struggling homeworker in her effort to make
dearth of interest in the psychosociological as a inadequate funds yield the maximum of health
force in religious and historical development. and happiness to her family, the visiting social
worker must be equipped with resourcefulness
DISASTERS: and the American Red Cross based on wide experience, with unlimited tact,
in Disaster Relief. By J. Byron Deacon. and with a friendly willingness to distinguish
Household MANAGEMENT. By Florence
between essential standards in home-making and
Nesbitt. Russell Sage Foundation; 75 cts. comparatively unimportant details. The chapters
each.
devoted to dietary standards and choice of foods
These two titles in the "Social Work Series" will be especially useful to workers who find
published by the Russell Sage Foundation will
their dietetic training unequal to the present-day
be of hardly less interest to the socially-minded
demands for conservation.
public than to professional workers. Mr. Dea-
con's account of Red Cross methods in disaster THE WAR AND THE BAGDAD RAILWAY.
relief was fortunately just ready for printing
By Morris Jastrow, Jr. Lippincott; $1.50.
when news came of the Halifax accident, and This is much more than just an admirable
its proof sheets, which were sent to the Canadian economic and historical study, for it gives a
Commission in charge of the rehabilitation of that genuine orientation in the present political welter
city, had immediate occasion to prove their use- of cross purposes.
Most economic and his-
fulness. Having followed one of the policies torical studies, even when as carefully docu-
advocated in the book—that of a permanent mented and as engagingly written this
committee of emergency relief, with preparations book of Professor Jastrow's, are mere studies
made in advance—the Boston Chapter was able in vacuo. Too often the sincere student's timid-
to have supplies and experts on the way to Hali- ity before generalization, out of fear of losing
fax within a few hours after the catastrophe his objective and authoritative tone, prevents
occurred. That the Red Cross organization has him from drawing the wider conclusions. Pro-
fairly won its recognized position of leadership fessor Jastrow, although he marshals his bibliog-
in relief work is largely due to its further policy of raphies with care and gives the full historical
never assuming more authority than is freely background that clusters around the story of the
granted by the local agencies, and to its success in great highway from the East to the West, does
consolidating and coördinating the various relief not hesitate to draw the moral. Historically,
forces which spring up spontaneously in any the Bagdad Railway represents "the last act in
emergency. A frequent situation which requires the process of reopening the direct way to the
tactful handling is caused by independent com- East which became closed to the West by the
mittees of well-intentioned people "characterized fall of Constantinople in 1453.” And the in-
by their simple, abiding faith in the efficacy of stinctive reaction of all the Western powers
cash and food and clothes to meet all human against its control's passing into the hands of any
needs whatsoever.” Extended experience has one power—as Germany, who never seems to
as


1918]
457
THE DIAL
a
learn the significant lessons of history, planned Of Andrew Johnson and his policy of healing
that it should—was a legitimate reaction. It the nation's wounds there is also much that chal-
was based on sound historical tradition. For lenges interest. We are made to see what a dif-
the whole lesson from the past of Asia Minor is ference of temper in men placed high in authority
simply that the highway must be kept open-to may do for a people. Johnson endeavored to do
all nations. And that history "voices a warning exactly what Lincoln was beginning to do
to the West that the reopening of the highway when the assassin removed him from his task.
must not be used for domination over the East Everybody, both then and since, praises Lincoln;
but for coöperation with it; not for exploiting the while few in 1866 and not many in later years
East, but for a union with it." In a word, one had any but words of bitter condemnation for
more irrefutable argument is presented for that Johnson. The difference lay largely in their
kind of internationalization which only an effec- manner of doing things, though one must not
tive league of nations can make possible. And, forget that the people themselves changed their
incidentally, one more irrefutable argument for position after Lincoln's death and before John-
the defeat of Germany's medieval ambitions. son had time to develop his policies.
“The War and the Bagdad Railway" is an illu- Perhaps the author has failed somewhat in his
minating, invaluable book, a product of the best treatment of Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, or
type of humanistic scholarship.
it may be that he has reserved these interesting
figures for the succeeding volume. At any rate it
A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES SINCE would have been well in this first installment to
The Civil War. By Ellis Paxson Ober- show what the real purposes of those bitterest
holtzer. Vol. I. Macmillan ; $3.50.
of enemies of the "accidental president" were. It
The remarkable revolutions, social and eco-
was the conflict of political and social purposes
nomic, through which the people of this country
which led to the disastrous experiences of the
have passed since Lee surrendered at Appomat- spring of 1868—which permeated economic life
tox justify such a work as this proposes to be — and party organizations. The distressing cor-
a history of our country in recent times. Notruption of public life, of business organizations,
only the importance of the subject attracts both and even of the courts of justice is sadly
writer and reader, but the absence of critical described. But all this does not stand out in
work in this field of history calls for research
ugly proportions as in Rhodes's work. It is
and constructive study. Five volumes will prove
rather the inventive genius, the rich commercial
rather a small canvas for such a subject.
life, and the buoyant optimism of a people who
In this first installment Dr. Oberholtzer
have just spent nearly a million lives and a third
undertakes to describe the circumstances and con-
of their total wealth in a fight over the idea of
ditions of American life at the beginning of the
national unity, that interests Mr. Oberholtzer.
period. Here he has competitors in Rhodes's two Nor may the reviewer quarrel with the author
thick volumes on the Reconstruction period and about this. Undoubtedly it is the constructive,
in Emerson Fite's “Industrial Conditions during the imaginative, and the forward-looking men
the Civil War”; but neither of these competitors that require attention from the historian.
has presented the facts in quite so impressive and The method of this work is that of descrip-
satisfactory a manner as the present author. The tion. Analysis and close scrutiny of men and
portrayal of the prostrate South at the end of the movements are not conspicuous. The reader is
war is certainly unequaled in the literature of brought into touch with American life through
the subject.
quotations from newspapers, addresses of public
At the same time the story of the complex, men, speeches in Congress, and resolutions of
extravagant, and wildly competitive economic labor organizations; or, where quotations fail,
life of the North is adequately treated. Rail- indirect discourse is resorted to. The idea of
road building across the Western prairies, pros- the author is to write the history of the time as
pecting for oil in the Pennsylvania coal region, nearly as possible in the language and thought
emigration to the mining states and territories, of the men of the time. The reader might well
the effects of constantly falling prices on agri- imagine himself listening to the contemporaries
culture, and the hustle and hurry of life in the of Johnson and Sumner as they discussed public
cities of the East all receive due attention. The measures or quarreled about the Southern prob-
far West of 1866, the Oregon and California lem. Deliberate judgments of the merits of
problems, the Chinese question, and the ruthless questions, of the right or wrong in the conduct of
conduct of a new class of frontiersmen are men, seldom appear in these pages. It is not
brought under critical observation if not under the purpose of the author to explain things, but
critical analysis.
simply to narrate events.


458
[May 9
THE DIAL
.
CASUAL COMMENT
Washington, but he practices it at home"; Mr.
Creel “has abused the Constitution, and the
THE DEMOCRATIZING OF KNOWLEDGE DE-
fathers who wrote it”; A. C. Townley, who is
mands first of all that the sources of knowledge described as having been "taken up” by the
be made as accessible as possible. Important Administration, "in reality represents pro-German
sources continue to elude the public collectors influence"; Louis F. Post, Assistant Secretary
of books and manuscripts, and to owe their of Labor, is a single-taxer, and "it would serve
belated discovery to the initiative of private col- his purpose if all the millionaires were destroyed
lectors. It is therefore encouraging that private and nothing but the vagrant and the proletariat
collectors appear more and more to feel them-
remained.” One can only hope that the Repub-
selves under an obligation in this matter—that
lican Party leaders are embarrassed by this kind
they increasingly recognize themselves rather as
of incredibly petty "spell-binding." Senator
trustees than as irresponsible owners. A recent
Lodge can still attack with dignity and adroit-
instance was that of a private collection of
ness the policies he does not admire. In fact
rare first editions, chiefly in the field of English
is it not true to say that the Administration is
literature, whose inheritor is reported to have
strengthened rather than hindered by the kind
sacrificed something like a hundred thousand
of opposition represented by Senator Sherman?
dollars rather than dispose of it through the
commercial channels, accepting instead an offer
made on behalf of the University of Texas. ORDINARILY PUBLIC OPINION WOULD IGNORE
Although there are more accessible shelves than this partisan childishness as just a depressing sur-
those of a university library in Austin, at least vival of bad taste and that small-minded orator-
the collection is not to be scattered, absorbed by ical demagoguery which since the war has some-
other private collectors, and for another genera- how lost its ancient appeal. But the reason it
tion withheld from students. In the same direc- cannot be ignored is that, for all its absurd
tion lies the decision lately made by the St. Louis flamboyance, it is symptomatic. Fissures have
Academy of Science, which has now deposited its already begun to appear in our "sacred union
valuable collection of some 25,000 volumes in of political parties—and there is a fall campaign
the St. Louis Public Library. Private societies, coming. Consequently it is the duty of all those
it is true, have usually been less selfish than indi- who sincerely support the liberal international
viduals with their accumulations, as well as more policies of President Wilson to do all in their
competent to make profitable use of them; yet power to clarify the opposition and make it
too frequently the value of such libraries is more definite. That opposition has two legitimate
potential than real—the value of an "uncut” sides, both of which have little to do with ordi-
book. Learned societies early recognized that the nary partisan politics of Democrat versus Repub-
results of scholarship are public property; the lican, as we understand partisan politics in
next step is to recognize that the sources of schol- America. Unfortunately there is danger that these
arship should be available to all.
two aspects of legitimate opposition will be hope-
lessly confused. In so far as the opposition con-
cerns itself with criticism of the conduct of the
A VIGOROUS OPPOSITION HAS OFTEN BEEN war-shipping, aeroplane production, munitions,
called the soul of an efficient government. But and so on—it is, when it is honest and gives no aid
a vigorous opposition does not mean a merely to the enemy, to be encouraged. A wise govern-
noisy opposition, and still less a merely petulant ment welcomes all sincere criticism which aids it
one. Senator Sherman, who has recently been towards ever greater efficiency. But this kind of
making himself ridiculous by his speeches attack- criticism should not be confused with the attack
ing the Administration, has apparently reached on President Wilson's distinctive international
that point in intellectual development where he purposes a league of nations, progressive dis-
believes that a combination of Billy Sunday slang, armament if possible, removal of the economic
cheap vulgarity, and the employment of a few barriers and jealousies between nations, a genuine
catch-words like “Socialism," "the reds," and democratic peace, issues that cut right across all
“anarchy' will impress the public as great states- conventional party lines. Here, again, the oppo-
manship. "It is a bunch of economic fakers, sition has a perfect right to express its views
howling dervishes, firebrands and pestilent fiends -however distressing such expression may be for
of sedition that he [the President) has around the more liberal element among our cobelliger-
him.” And then he goes on to particularize: ents—and to try to win public opinion to what it
Secretary Baker is "a half pacifist"; Postmaster believes should be the national policy. Only
General Burleson is "a State Socialist," as is thus can it be fought in the open, and (we trust)
also Secretary Wilson (of Labor); John H. defeated in fair battle. What will be intolerable
Walker, a member of the President's Mediation however will be a confusion in which we „shall
Commission "does not preach direct action in have to listen to speeches of this sort: “The


1918]
459
THE DIAL
Administration has fallen down on its job of receive such favorable mention. Alas! that pleas-
conducting the war, and therefore after the urable emotion was short-lived. For the "final”
war we must have a high tariff to protect our edition firmly took away with the left editorial
workingmen," which, of course, is precisely like hand what had been so generously bestowed with
saying, “The sum of the squares of two sides the right.
the right. No longer was Mr. Bourne the wise
of a right-angled triangle is equal to the square and shrewd commentator on current literary
of the hypotenuse, and therefore red is preferable tendencies. On the contrary, so remarkable was
to green as a color.” Yet it is just this vicious the metamorphosis between the crowded study
kind of confusion which seems already to be fore- hours of twelve and three that he was now
shadowed. Right now the duty of the liberal pictured as an intellectual minnow swimming in
supporters of President Wilson is to help clarify a shallow pool. The illumination of those three
the opposition so that the contest between those hours of ratiocination went even further, and
who believe in a new international order and we are awed at the mighty editorial conferences
those who cynically cling to the old may be a which must have taken place during them. No
contest which has some vital relation to our longer must great art of the present be "an
everyday politics. This is not a question of mere expression of the fulness of life today.” The
party lines at all. It is a contest between those mellow philosophy of the "final" edition expressed
who believe that President Wilson's high demo- it differently: “It isn't true that the great art
cratic purposes are possible of attainment, and of the past has been an expression of life, if by
those who think that this war is like all other fulness is meant completeness of revelation and
wars and that after it is over the old international absence of convention Convention has always
anarchy of jealous and competitive states will be ruled. The definition of taboo has changed, but
restored.
not the fact of taboo.” This would have been
confusing enough, in view of the earlier amiabil-
A DELIGHTFUL EXAMPLE OF THAT FLEXIBIL- ity of the "Globe," if the following rather bitter
ity of mind which is one of the principal charms
remark left no doubt that the newspaper had
of our contemporary press was recently given by undergone a change of conviction great as it
the New York "Globe" in its comments on Mr. was sudden: "The creative spirit of our times
Randolph Bourne's article "Traps for the Un- functions feebly largely because it is pestered and
wary,” published in these pages on March 28. discouraged by gadAies developed out of filth
Now to change one's mind is of course no longer who think parasitism is all there is to life.” We
considered a mark of intellectual instability. We confess we should be glad to answer the
have successfully learned Emerson's lesson about "Globe," except that, unfortunately, these light-
that "hobgoblin of little minds,” and in a chang- ning changes of editorial opinion make the task
ing world changing opinions are an indication of seem one of supererogation. Can we be sure
vigor. But we must confess that the intellectual that by the time our reply is written the “Globe”
world in which the “Globe” appears to have its will not once more have changed its mind? We
being changes with a bewildering rapidity which admit that we have not the "Globe's" technique
is somewhat difficult to follow. Clinging to of celerity in evolving new literary philosophies—
literary standards with a dogmatic stubbornness that we sometimes cling to our opinions for a
is not exactly an amiable trait, yet what are we whole day. Evidently newspapers are not bound
to believe when a newspaper throws over all by any such conventional demands for consistency.
its standards between twelve o'clock and three Certainly it is a convenient freedom. We should
o'clock of the same day? Mere provocative be indeed sorry to learn that there was anything
caprice? Perhaps, but surely the demands upon
so ordinary as mere difference of editorial
the intellectual agility of that newspaper's readers opinion in the office of the “Globe," for we
are somewhat seyere. In its early “news extra"
should then be forced to abandon our admiration
edition of April 5 the “Globe” said editorially, for that newspaper's intellectual versatility.
"Mr. Bourne contrasts much of the work here
[in America), literary and dramatic, with the THE AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION
craftsmanship displayed in M. Copeau's season will hold their annual convention May 14, 15, and
of French dramatic art in the Théâtre du Vieux 16. They have postponed accepting an invitation
Colombier. It is a legitimate contrast, and one to Boston, on the ground that Boston offers
that cannot be too forcibly drawn for our writers. too many "distractions" for a gathering intent
We must get over defending and attacking the upon complying with the government's require-
artificial and dry-rotted conventions of passing ment that conventions in war time serve a useful
society, as they are mirrored in the 'genteel,' and purpose. Therefore—New York! Will Father
ignore it. Then the open road will lie before Knickerbocker now amend his estimate of Boston
our artists and writers.” Naturally on reading as “a state of mind” to read “a distracted state
this we were gratified that our contributor should of mind”?
a


460
[May 9
THE DIAL
>
arms.
BRIEFER MENTION
tion of the school paper as a laboratory—a confisca-
tion demanding some delicacy and perhaps not worth
From Franklin and Woolman, through the while, for the American pupil usually resents any
journalizing New Englanders, to William Dean
invasion of his precious "activities” and there seems
Howells, our literature has been fortunate in the to be a growing doubt among teachers of journalism
readiness with which its makers have discoursed as to whether the laboratory method is valuable
about themselves. Few have been so charmingly enough to justify the hard work it enforces from
loquacious as Mr. Howells. His latest work of the instructor. Meanwhile Mr. Dillon's plea for
this kind, “Years of My Youth,” originally pub- making elementary English instruction vital through
lished two years ago, has recently appeared in an contacts with the everyday demands upon written
illustrated edition uniform with his other books expression is a sound one; and the teacher expected
(Harpers; $2.50). The illustrations are valuable to provide such instruction will find in this book
even for American readers, picturing as they do a some very useful material, doubly useful for its
workaday section of America, southern Ohio, that practical hints if he be called upon to create or
has been alien ground to most novel readers. Espe- maintain a school paper. He should not let it be
cially alien is that drab democratic individualistic forgotten however that the language has nobler
Ohio River country of a time that was warming to uses than those of journalism.
the bloody solution of the slavery problem. Mr. Mrs. R. Clipston Sturgis has a very jolly way of
Howells presents a faithful picture fully and vividly, reflecting grandmotherhood in her “Random Reflec-
so fully and vividly that the professional historian tions of a Grandmother" (Houghton Mifflin; $1.).
will value his account. The slavery struggle at No sit-by-the-fire-and-knit ancestress is she, but a
least once came to the very heart of the family modern of the moderns, and gifted with a very
circle:
charming way of writing about her houseful of
"These uncles had grown up in a slave state, and they three generations. She is in many ways however a
thought, without thinking, that slavery must be right; but
once when an abolition lecturer was denied public hearing
most baffling modern grandmother. Her sense of
at Martin's Ferry, they said he should speak in their mother's humor is delightfully apparent, and yet she actually
house; and there, much unaware, I heard my first and last
abolition lecture, barely escaping with my life, for one of
says in sober seriousness that Boston "is really the
the objections urged by the mob outside was a stone hurled only place outside England in which any one of
through the window, where my mother sat with me in her
intelligence would be willing to live, and I am not
In the new dispensation following the war, the
unmindful of my privileges.' Now the question is,
federal principle, as developed in American history,
was she trying to take us in? Literature very
will doubtless play an important part.
For this
rarely presents so clearly the point of view of
contracted cosmopolitanism for which the author
reason the thinking American, who is not perhaps
stands. She is completely, unconsciously, delight-
very easy to find, will wish to know more about
the growth of the federal principle than he presum-
fully of her class and of its standards. Her outlook
ably knows now; and for this reason he may care
is a completed product, almost a work of art.
Trust problems have been reviewed from various
to browse in a new life of Calhoun—“The Life of
angles, including in their range the wise and the
John Caldwell Calhoun," by William M. Meigs
(Neale; boxed, $10.). Only the professional his-
foolish, not to mention the hysterical.
torian will care to read every word of this two-
ing mass of literature on the subject testifies to the
volume, 934-page book. Mr. Meigs's point of view,
general interest in the problem. The present work,
in dealing with so delicate a subject, is happily that
"The Trust Problem," by J. W. Jenks and W. E.
of a man who, entering sympathetically into an idea
Clark (Doubleday, Page; $2.), is a thorough revision
in his eager youth, now sees its inadequacy. We
and enlargement of an earlier book, and as it is
based on first-hand investigation, with all its facts
are therefore assured both sympathy and judgment.
reëxamined to
It is the first "full-length" portrait of Calhoun, who
square them with contemporary
is revealed as an interesting figure and a great man
changes, the volume has special value in this new
with clearly defined limitations. It is also, inci-
Cavalry, except on the far fringes of the war, has
dentally, a history of battles long ago that should
been robbed of its historic and picturesque utility.
be vividly present to the intelligent American patriot.
But the horse and pony and mule have played no
"Journalism for High Schools," by Charles Dillon
inconsiderable part in that desperate economy that
(Lloyd Adams Noble; $1.), is a generously illus-
trated and "documented" handbook that seems a
has made modern warfare possible. It is, however,
little uncertain 'whether it is addressed to teachers
of the place that the small horse occupies in our
or to pupils. The point is important because the
normal, domestic economy, where his latest cham-
pion maintains that he may easily become a rival
pages which urge the adoption of some journalistic
instruction in the high school contain several argu-
to the horse, and in the increasing use of this
breed in our sports and out-door recreation, that
ments calculated to make the student feel that the
Frank Townend Barton has written with such
whole project is only a cunning device to promote
knowledge and enthusiasm in "Ponies and All
discipline and protect thin-skinned teachers from
About Them” (Dutton; $3.). Moreover, with
anonymous “roasts.” A disproportionate emphasis
the decline of racing on these shores and the se-
upon censorship unfits the book for the use of
questration of polo in our society as a game to be
pupils. On the other hand, it contains much that indulged in only by the rich, the chief appeal of
is too elementary to be of value to any teacher such a painstaking volume will be to the American
intelligent enough to be entrusted with so exacting breeder and horse-lover. Yet it is a volume that
a subject. The author presupposes the expropria- should be in the library of all animal-friends, serv-
a
>
The grow-
form.


1918]
461
THE DIAL
2
ing a practical as well as an educative purpose. a housewife and the other a practical teacher-is a
While the time is still distant when “the game of well chosen collection of recipes, at the same time
kings" will become widely indigenous (the polo simple in the making and inexpensive. “Savings
pony, as in India, drawing the family dog-cart be- and Savoury Dishes” (Macmillan; 65 cts.), which
tween games), still there is a need for wider in- was originally published by the Patriotic Food
terest than is now bestowed on this attractive breed. League of Scotland to meet the needs of small house-
How many of American riders acquired the rudi- holders on war-reduced incomes, contains many old-
ments of a good seat and hands on the pony of country recipes and customs worthy of emulation
their childhood! As for the Shetland, because of here. Although such provocative names as Toad-in-
his docility and endurance he is and will continue the-Hole, Pot Haggis, and Cornflour Shape disguise
to be par excellence the child's mount. An enthu- dishes more or less familiar to us, the book contains
siastic veterinarian like Mr. Barton takes stock much we can learn and more we can practice in the
of all the characteristic and ideal points of the way of economies neglected during our fat years.
small horse, imparts valuable hints regarding con- "War-Time Bread and Cakes,” by Amy L. Handy
formation of the different types that will be ap- (Houghton Mifflin; 75 cts.), is made up of recipes
preciated by breeders, and includes indispensable for combining various kinds of flour that may be
chapters on anatomy, care and management, and substituted for white flour. The recipes have been
diseases. The illustrations, especially of famous carefully worked out in the author's kitchen and
perfect types of the various breeds, are well should be welcomed by the housewife who has
chosen. Needless to say, a book of this definitive lately been tending toward the use of baker's bread
nature, in these parlous times, could only have because of the difficulty of making a satisfactory
found an author and a publisher across the Atlantic. loaf from war-time flours. The recipes in the
"The Human Side of Birds” (Stokes; $1.60) is “Economy Cook Book,” by Maria McIlvaine Gill-
the latest member of a series of books by Royal more (Dutton; $1.), are designed to carry out the
Dixon designed to demonstrate the remarkable intel- plans of the Food Administration by reducing the
ligence of plants and animals, the older volumes use of wheat, meats, sweets, and fats. The book
being “The Human Side of Plants” and “The includes much of our new-found wisdom in con-
Human Side of Trees." As the titles suggest, the servation and will prove a useful kitchen handbook.
books are popular in treatment; the author has The present condition of the food supply is treated
simply collected from his own observation and all simply and readably in Mary S. Rose's "Everyday
manner of other sources the facts that point in Foods in War Time" (Macmillan; 80 cts.), which
the desired direction. Many excellent photographic explains the nutritive values of our common foods
illustrations help out the text. The author tells and makes suggestions for adapting them to the
of "feathered artists," "policemen of the air," household menu. Dora Morrell Hughes gossips
"dancers," "feathered athletes," "scavengers and about “Thrift in the Household” (Lothrop, Lee &
street cleaners," "courts of justice," "bird actors and Shepard; $1.25) in very practical fashion and man-
their theatres” and other winged people, emphasiz- ages to include a surprising number of suggestions
ing the human element so vigorously that one fears for economy and better management that will be
at times that he finds it where it isn't. Alice E. new to many housewives.
Ball's book, "A Year with the Birds” (Dodd, A less specialized book, which is destined to super-
Mead; $3.), is a very different kind of thing-a sede many of the standard old cook books as a
long series of pictures illustrated with verses, chiefly household favorite, is “Caroline King's Cook Book”
by “A. E. B." Like the plates in Chapman's “Bird (Little, Brown; $1.50). The author reduces the
Life,” the plates of the present book are excellent whole subject matter of cookery to a few funda-
sketches so skilfully drawn and colored that they mental processes and basic formulæ, which can be
are more useful for identification than any other elaborated at will to emulate the most complicated
kind of illustration-more useful, even, than bird lists of recipes. It is a method of treatment that
skins would be. With scarcely any exceptions, the will prove illuminating to the experienced house-
plates are either as good as any others or better. keeper and reassuring to the beginner.
Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson rightly remarks, “I should In “Diabetic Cookery" (Dutton; $2.) Rebecca W.
like to see the book in the hands of every Junior Oppenheimer presents a valuable handbook of recipes
Audubon Society member and every school-child in successfully used in the treatments at Carlsbad and
America.” It has all the requisites of a gift book, Neuenahr, with diet tables and a list of places
even unto the price, which is three dollars.
where specially prepared foods may be secured. The
Among the indirect gains resulting from the war volume is fully supplied with information to make it
will be a largely increased variety in our repertoire practical for use in the home, and it should be
of menus and a more intelligent interest in the value valuable to anyone who has to solve the problem of
of food. Housewives and teachers of cookery who a diabetic dietary.
for years have been trying to interest their circles in “The Child's Food Garden," by Van Evrie Kil-
attractive recipes to relieve the monotony of the con- patrick (World Book Co.; 48 cts.), is a useful
ventional American combinations, and have been little book which can be put direct into the hands
meeting with but half-hearted encouragement, are of children in the grammar grades to teach them
now fortified by the conservation campaign. The how to start a garden and how to take care of it.
result is a vigorous crop of cookery books. “Wheat- The instructions are simple and definite enough to
less and Meatless Days" (Appleton; $1.25) by be of use to adult amateurs who have forgotten, if
Pauline D. Partridge and Hester M. Conklin-one they ever knew, how to help things grow.
(


462
[May 9
THE DIAL
NOTES AND NEWS
An Important Book on the Russian
Revolution
Russia's Agony
By ROBERT WILTON
8vo. With illustrations and maps. $4.80 net.
"Mr. Wilton was The Times correspondent at Petro-
grad, and he has here given us what is probably
the best account yet written in English of the Rus-
sian Government and army immediately before the
revolution, of that amazing event itself, and of the
outlook in Russia as it appeared to him at the end
of last year."--The Times (London).
"This elaborate, informing, and thoroughly reliable
contribution to recent Russian history is welcome
now."-Spectator.
Norman Angell, who has written on “Internation-
alism as the Condition of Allied Success" for this
issue of The Dial, is an English publicist whose
contributions to the discussion of universal peace
have won him a world-wide reputation. His more
important books are: “The Great Illusion,” 1910;
"War and the Essential Realities,” 1913; “The
Foundations of International Polity,” 1914; “The
World's Highway,” 1915; “America and the New
World State,” 1915; "Why Freedom Matters,”
1916. Mr. Angell's residence is in London, but he
is at present lecturing in this country.
Robert H. Lowie, who contributes a plea for the
study of the history of science, is the author of
“Culture and Ethnology,” which is reviewed in this
issue. For some years Dr. Lowie, who is now at
the University of California, was one of the cura-
tors of the American Museum of Natural History,
New York, and he has edited various scientific
journals. His earlier books were chiefly devoted
to the social life of the American Indian,
Guy Nearing was graduated from the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania in 1911 and published a volume
of verse, "The Far Away" (Putnam), last year.
He is now in the United States Army.
The other contributors to this number have previ-
ously written for The DIAL.
A Russian Schoolboy
By SERGE AKSAKOFF. Translated from the Rus-
sian by J. D. Duff, Fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge.
8vo. $2.40 net.
This is the third and last section of Aksakoff's
memoirs, the two earlier volumes being-
A RUSSIAN GENTLEMAN. $2.40 net.
YEARS OF CHILDHOOD.' $3.40 net.
"As a piece of literature it is a sheer delight;
as a document revealing the Russian spirit it is of
singular value at the present time."-Daily Graphic.
Leaves from an Officer's
Notebook
By CAPT. ELIOT CRAWSHAY-WILLIAMS
Author of "Across Persia,"
With 8 illustrations. 8vo. $3.40 net.
"One of the most original, wise, and at times
amusing books of soldiers' confessions."—Daily News.
1)
The Wheat Problem
Based on Romark. Made in the Presidential
Address to the British Association at Bristol
in 1898.
Revised, with an answer to various critics, by SIR
WILLIAM CROOKES, O.M., F.R.S. Third Edition.
With Preface and Additional Chapter, bringing the
Statistical Information Up to Date, and a Chapter on
Future Wheat Supplies by Sir R. Henry Rew, K.C.B.,
and an Introduction by Lord Rhondda.
Crown 8vo. $1.25 net.
A warning by Professor Crookes issued in 1898,
that England was in danger from a shortening of
her wheat supply is reproduced in this book, together
with a review of conditions in 1916, showing how it
has been justified. It presents not only an English
problem but treats of the world problem.
Ralph D. Paine's “With the Fighting Fleets” is
soon to be published by the Houghton Mifflin Co.
Little, Brown & Co. have postponed issuing “The
Cradle of the War,” a book about the Balkans by
H. Charles Woods, until later in the year.
“Britain after the Peace: Revolution or Recon-
struction,” by Brougham Villiers, is announced by
T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., of London.
The Four Seas Co. have taken over Conrad
Aiken's “Earth Triumphant,” originally published
by the Macmillan Co.
Henry Holt & Co. announce "Alsace-Lorraine
under German Rule," by Charles Downer Hazen,
author of "Europe Since 1815.”
The Christopher Publishing House, Boston, an-
nounce a book dealing with the continuity of life,
"Insight," by Mrs. Emma C. Cushman.
Isaac Pitman & Sons, 2 West 45th Street, New
York, have assumed the American agency for the
scientific and technical books issued by Whittaker
& Co. of London.
Alfred A. Knopf announces "Prophets of Dis-
sent,” a volume of essays on Tolstoi, Strindberg,
Nietzsche, and Maeterlinck by Professor Otto
Heller, of Washington University, St. Louis.
Longmans, Green & Co. have nearly ready J. E.
Hutton's "Welfare and Housing: A Practical Rec-
ord of War-Time Management” and John Clarke's
"The School and Other Educators."
Robert H. Dodd announces the early publication
of a new and enlarged edition of Benjamin F.
Thompson's "History of Long Island,” of which
there has not been a new edition since 1843.
Forthcoming volumes under the John Lane im-
print include: “Illusions and Realities of War,"
by Francis Grierson; "Memorials of a Yorkshire
Last Lectures of
Wilfrid Ward
Being the Lowell Lectures, 1914, and Three Lectures
Delivered at the Royal Institution, 1915.
Edited with an introductory study, by MRS. WIL-
FRID WARD.
With portrait. 8vo. $4.00 net
“These final chapters from his pen bring before
us again a strong. sane, and lovable man in whom
religion was as real and important as in Newman
himself."-Glasgow Herald.
Longmans, Green & Co., Publishers
Fourth Avenue and Thirtieth Street, NEW YORK


1918]
463
THE DIAL
"
C
Parish," by J. S. Fletcher; "Angl