ts facts are always facts, and they stand out like
from 1769 to 1774. A storm was gathering at landmarks before our eyes whenever we look
this period, which was soon to burst out in an back at the annals of our past career.” What-
eight years' war and result in the separation of ever he has printed of his ancestor's writings is
the American colonies from the mother country. good, and is characteristic of the writer. The
Although the ablest and most accomplished man interview, of nearly twenty pages, between King
among his contemporaries, no one has been more George III and the Governor, which the latter
berated by American writers than Governor has put into his diary (pp. 157–175), is enter-
Hutchinson. He was on the wrong side of the taining. As the names of prominent men in
contest, and the official representative of all the colony are mentioned, the King inquires
that was stupid, arbitrary, and suicidal, in the who they are:
policy of the British crown and ministry. For
“ K. Who is Mr. Pitts ! H. He is one of the coun-
being a tory instead of a whig, he may have cil — married Mr. Bowdoin's sister. K. I have heard
deserved some of this rank criticism; yet there of Dr. Chauncy and Dr. Cooper ; but who is Dr. Win-
is another side of his public life and personal throp? H. He is not a doctor of divinity, sir, but of
character which it may be well to consider in a
law, a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy
in the college. K. I have heard of one Mr. Adams
more dispassionate manner. The confiscation (Samuel]; but who is the other! H. He is a lawyer,
of his property, the banishment from his native sir, (John). K. Brother of the other! H. No sir, a
relation."
• THE DIARY AND LETTERS OF HIS EXCELLENCY Thomas HUTCH-
INSON, Esq. Compiled from the original documeuts still remain There is a moderation in his political opin-
ing in the possession of his descendants.
ions and an absence of complaint over personal
Hutchinson, one of his great-grandsons. Boston: Houghton,
Mimin & Co.
injuries, in the interview, which is credit-
By Peter Orlando


54
[July,
THE DIAL
able to the Governor. His town residence at where he dispensed a liberal hospitality. When
Boston had been sacked by a mob, and his books holding several other higher offices, he was
and papers, which were his idols, had been asked why he retained that of judge of pro-
thrown into the street and trampled in the bate, which took much of his time and brought
mud; but no mention of this outrage was made upon
him many troublesome details. He said
to the king.
he retained it because it gave him the oppor-
We may drop the descendant's book here, tunity to help widows and orphans, and to give
and consider some of the prominent incidents them the counsel they needed in settling their
in the life of Governor Hutchinson himself. small estates. He said he had rather give up
Unlike his predecessors in the office - Shirley, all his other offices than this.
Pownall, and Bernard, who were Englishmen, At the first session of the General Court
Hutchinson was a native of Massachusetts, which he attended as a representative from
“to the manner born." His ancestors came Boston, he took a decided stand against issuing
over during the first decade of the colony, and
more paper money, and advocated the redemp-
his father and grandfather were, like himself, tion of the depreciated currency which was
prosperous merchants in Boston, and occupied already out, and coming back to specie pay-
prominent positions in public life. He was ment. There was a paper-money craze in the
born in 1711, and when twelve years of age colony at that time – a lunacy similar to what
entered Harvard college, and graduated in we have seen in our day. He based his views,
1727. He then went into his father's counting- he said, “upon a principle very ancient, but too
house, and appreciating that he had not made seldom practiced upon, nil utile quod non hon-
that progress in his studies which he desired, estum.' The "greenbackers” of that time.
he took up the study of the Latin classics defeated him the next year; but in the follow-
afresh, and acquired a knowledge of and relish ing year he was returned, and had the oppor-
for the language which he never lost. With tunity of fighting and defeating the "land
the same spirit, while still engaged in mercan bank," wild-cat institution, which had no
tile pursuits, he took up the study of French, capital, but issued bills of credit on the security
and was a member of a club where all the con of mortgages on real estate. The institution
versation was carried on in French. He then had eight thousand subscribers who hoped to
became interested in history, especially New be borrowers. They were, he said, “ generally
England history. Four stout volumes lying of low condition, of small estates, and many of
before me— three entitled “The History of them insolvent.” The principal merchants and
Massachusetts,” and a yellow, musty volume, men of property refused to receive the bills;
entitled "A Collection of Original Papers rela- but they were taken by the shop-keepers and
tive to the History of the Colony of Massa- small traders, and the scheme was popular with
chusetts Bay,” Boston, 1769, the four most the people at large. In the second volume of
precious books on the colonial history of that his history he has given a full account of this
State — attest his zeal and industry as an his and other early financial schemes. On a peti-
torical student. He married when he was tion sent from Boston, the “land bank” was
twenty-three years of age, and when he was suppressed by an act of Parliament. In the
twenty-six was elected one of the selectmen of controversy out of which grew the Revolution,
the town of Boston, and a representative to the the whigs held as their cardinal doctrine that
General Court. For the next thirty-seven years Parliament had no right to legislate in any
he was constantly in public life, and in a great manner for the colonies.
variety of offices, to which he was elected by Through Mr. Hutchinson's influence, £238,-
the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, until he 964, paid in specie by the British Government
received his later appointments from the British to Massachusetts for expenses and services in
At one time he held the offices of judge the capture of Louisburg, was used for calling
of probate, councillor, chief-justice, and lieu in and cancelling all the depreciated currency
tenant-governor; and until the excitement grow of the province, at the rate of seven and a half
ing out of the stamp-act in 1765, he was the of currency to one of specie, and honest money
most popular man in the colony, as he was con was thus restored to Massachusetts. While the
fessedly the ablest. His wealth and family measure was under discussion, he was so unpop-
connections, his polished manners, affability, ular with the “greenbackers” that a motion
integrity, and industry, his respect for religion was made in the Council to station a guard
of the congregational order, and his sympathy about his country house at Milton, which he
with the distressed and unfortunate, secured desired might not be done. In a year after
for him public confidence and esteem. He lived paper money had been withdrawn, business had
in a style of elegance and luxury, maintaining so revived that the author of the scheme was
a house in the town, and an expensive country as much praised for his courage and wisdom as
house at Milton, eight miles from the town, he had before been condemned.
crown.


1881.]
55
THE DIAL
to Eng-
He was
The office of councillor he held from 1749 to After Governor Hutchinson had gone
1766, and of lieutenant-governor from 1758 land and hostilities had broken out, the State of
to 1771, when his commission as governor Massachusetts confiscated his estates, with his
arrived. As Governor Bernard left the prov- books and papers; and a large and valuable
ince in 1769, the duties of the office had collection of the latter is now in the archives of
devolved upon him for two years.
the State House in Boston. nong them is a
appointed chief-justice in 1760, and although bound volume which is often shown to visitors,
he was not regularly educated for the bar, he containing the manuscript described in the
filled the position with so much intelligence and above extract, discolored by rain and mud, and
impartiality that his decisions gave universal stamped with horses' hoofs and human feet.
satisfaction. He maintained his popularity In the same volume is also the autograph man-
with the masses up to the year 1765, when the uscript which he transcribed, and from which
political controversy with the mother country the volume was printed. As I first detected
burst into a flame by the passage in Parliament the fact, some years ago, that the volume con-
of the stamp-act. The last nine years of his tained two manuscripts, and as I made a care-
official life in Massachusetts were disturbed by ful collation of them, I may say that they are
a constant succession of conflicts with his leg. in many places quite unlike, and that in tran-
islature, and pitched battles with the patriot scribing the author made many changes and
whigs. There were many brilliant men in the omissions, the earlier draft being the fullest
colony who were his bitter political opponents, and most accurate. For the purpose of exhib-
but in ability, tact, and personal accomplish- iting this dissimilarity, I printed, from the first
ments, he outranked them all.
draft, his account of Salem Witchcraft, with
A rumor spread among the people, when news notes, in “The New England Genealogical and
of the passage of the stamp-act was daily Historical Register" for October, 1870 (vol. 24,
expected, that the chief-justice had written p. 381). Governor Hutchinson's style as an
letters to England recommending its passage. historical writer is singularly clear, simple, and
The rumor was unfounded, for he said in the natural. He writes as a gentleman of educa-
preface to the second volume of his history: tion and culture, who has something important
"I had in public and private, in every way and to say, would talk; without any mannerisms, or
manner which appeared to me the most pru- attempt to be eloquent or sensational. His
dent, endeavored to show the inexpediency of style is one which most historical writers can
an act of Parliament of this nature.” On the safely take as a model.
evening of August 26, 1765, when this rumor No sketch of Governor Hutchinson's per-
was current, a mob broke into his town house, sonal and political career can do justice to the
and what they did not destroy they threw into subject, which does not set forth the principles
the street. The outrage was promptly con and details of the controversies in which he was
demned by the Council and the House of Repre- engaged with the Revolutionary leaders. The
sentatives, and a grant of £3,194 was voted to limits of this article forbid so extended a sketch.
him as compensation for his losses. The courts He had principles which his and other conser-
also made a vain show of arresting and pun- vative minds regarded as a full justification of
ishing the mob. The moderation with which his policy. He did not regard a tax of three
Governor Hutchinson on several occasions spoke pence per pound on tea as a sufficient pretext
of this event, was characteristic of his nature. upon which to go into war with Great Britain;
In the preface of the second volume of his and especially when, with this tax, the colonists
History of Massachusetts, he mentioned the were buying their tea cheaper than they ever
fact that the manuscript of the volume was did before. There was then no bond of union
among his papers thrown into the street. He or sympathy between the colonies, and he did
said :
not see where the power of successfully resist-
ing the king and parliament was coming from.
“For several days I had no hope of recovering any To him, an unsuccessful revolution meant de-
considerable part of my history; but by the great care
struction, or a worse condition of the colonies.
and pains of iny good friend and neighbor, the Rever-
end Mr. Eliot, who received into his house all my books
In 1773, Dr. Franklin, then in England as
and papers which were saved, the whole manuscript, agent of the Massachusetts House of Represent-
except eight or ten sheets, were collected together; and atives, procured some letters of Hutchinson and
although it had lain in the street scattered abroad sev-
eral hours in the rain, yet so much of it was legible that
others written to English correspondents sev-
I was able to supply the rest and transcribe it. The
eral years before, and sent them to the Speaker
most valuable materials were lost, some of which I of the House, with instructions that they shonld
designed to have published in the appendix. I pray not be copied or published. These letters were
God to forgive the actors in, and advisors to, this most
savage and inhuman injury, and I hope their posterity" closed doors, and raised a storm of indignation
read in the House of Representatives, with
will read with pleasure and profit what has so narrowly
escaped the outrage of their ancestors."
against the Governor, who took the matter


56
[July,
THE DIAL
coolly, and said there was nothing in the letters and Mallock at the best is regarded as a clever
which he had not officially and repeatedly intellectual athlete. His reasoning, however
expressed to the House and its committees. sound it may be, is not taken as earnest search
The letters were afterwards printed in Boston, after truth, but as the mere exhibition of dia-
and also in London; and a duel was fought in lectic skill. This is a misfortune that espec-
London concerning them, in which one of the ially affects his latest book, “Property and
parties was wounded. A few months later Progress.” The people of England, and also
occurred the destruction of several cargoes of many thoughtful men in this country, are
tea in Boston harbor, a part of which had been thoroughly in earnest in their discussions of
consigned to the sons of the Governor. The socialism. English politics is just now more
excitement of the people against the Governor affected by these discussions than by any other
had now so increased that he and his sons single influence; and it is necessary, if any
found it safe to take refuge for a time at the one would command an attentive hearing on
castle in the harbor. Writing in February, this question, that first of all he be sincere.
1774, to Lord Dartmouth, he said:
If “Property and Progress" were the work of
“I see no prospect, my lord, of the government of a new writer, it would doubtless be received
this province being restored to its former state without without any suspicion of insincerity. There
the intervention of the authority in England. I rather
is nothing in its tone or method to suggest that
think the anarchy will increase until the whole province
It
is in confusion. Despairing of success in any further
the author does not believe what he says.
attempts for His Majesty's service, I had determined to is only Mallock's reputation which casts a
avail myself of the leave given me to go to England; and cloud over the honesty of his argument.
was preparing for my passage with the view of being
“Progress and Poverty” is made up of three
there before the middle of April; but before it would
be possible for me to embark, the Lieutenant-Governor parts, each of which is an essay reprinted
had so declined in his health that I was obliged to put a from the “Quarterly Review." The first of
stop to the provision which was making for my depar- these is a refutation in detail of Henry
ture. If he recruits, I intend, the first opportunity after George's theories. The second is devoted to
that, to resume my preparations.”
the socialist views now popular in England.
He sailed on the 1st of June, never again to The third considers the actual condition of the
see his native country ; nor did he live to know working classes in England, and shows that
the result of the war, in the preliminary the socialist theory of the degenerating ten-
controversies of which he had taken so promi- dency of society is wholly disproved by facts.
nent a part.
W. F. POOLE. The three parts form a logical sequence, and
their effect is to answer at all points the argu-
ments of the socialists. Mr. Mallock is much
MALLOCK ON SOCIALISM.*
more lenient in his treatment of George than
Mr. Mallock has had the misfortune to con-
in his handling of the English socialist Hynd-
vince the reading public that he is not sincere.
man, and the English radical Chamberlain.
His brilliant early writing awakened much
He seems to assume that, being an American,
curiosity concerning him, and many minds of George may be expected to be wild and
a conservative tendency were ready to turn to unsound; but Hyndman and Chamberlain,
him as to a trusted and efficient champion of having been born and educated amidst the
established institutions and time-honored blessings of English society, must be more or
creeds. But as his prolific pen produced
less' vicious and ungrateful in their efforts to
essays and novelettes and even poems in wreck it. Nevertheless, although more cour-
unchecked succession, an unpleasant flavor
teous in his tone towards George, his blows are
became perceptible. The suspicion that he delivered squarely and with crushing effect
was unable to discriminate clearly between upon his main propositions. Against George's
virtue and vice became prevalent; and when theory of wages, his theory of population, and
the “Romance of the Nineteenth Century"
his claim that profits of industry are all
appeared, the conviction became general, and, absorbed in the augmentation of rent, Mallock
it is to be feared, ineradicable, that he is brings to bear the keenest analysis. There is
unsound at the heart. Charles Godfrey
not space here to give even the main points of
Leland punned upon his name with Hamlet's this able dissection. Indeed, no summary could
words,
do it justice. Every stroke does execution,
and hardly a sentence can be omitted without
"Marry, this is miching mallecho, it means mischief,"
and went unrebuked.
detracting from the completeness of the expos-
So it has come about that the hopes excited
There is very little left of Mr. George's
by the “New Republic” have wholly vanished, argument after Mr. Mallock has finished his
work.
* PROPERTY AND PROGRESS ; or, A Brief Inquiry into Contem-
But it is in the second essay, which consid-
porary Social Agitation in England. By W. H. Mallock. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
ers the fundamental theory of socialism, that
ure.


1884.]
57
THE DIAL
66
Mallock makes his most telling point. He wages; and that the wages of the average work-
calls attention to the fact, which has commonly ing-man will now purchase much more of the
escaped attention, that socialism rests on the necessities and comforts of life than ever
proposition: “All wealth is due to labor; there before. Mr. Mallock, in this essay, takes up
fore to the laborer all wealth is due.” This this inquiry and finds no difficulty in reaching
has been called “the great Arch
edian pivot,
a similar nclusion to that of Mr. Giffen, but
from which the modern socialists would turn his manner is a marked contrast to that of the
the world upside down.” Mallock pronounces eminent statistician. The latter is calm and
this one of the most abject sophisms that clear. He makes his arguments judiciously
ever imposed itself on the meanest of human and carefully. His tone is moderate, but his
intellects.” He calls it the fundamental error results are beyond dispute. And when he has
of socialism, and devotes the greater part of established his conclusions, he is contented to
this essay to the practical illustration of some rest his case, and does not indulge in a dance
of the most obvious absurdities to which it of victory over the remains of the vanquished.
leads. He sums up his conclusions by pro- Mallock, on the other hand, allows his swing-
nouncing "what presents itself as the new ing rhetoric full play. He calls the socialist
economic gospel” to be “at once the most picture of modern progress “the fantastic
specious and yet the crudest tissue of fallacies dream of a madman.” He rings the changes
that has ever threatened society or disgraced upon the astonishing ignorance and inaccuracy
any modern thinker.”
of the socialist Hyndman and of the radical
In his third essay, Mr. Mallock examines the Chamberlain, and exults in multiplying exam-
socialists' chief appeal to popular sympathy, ples of their misstatements and perverse rea-
as expressed in the always reiterated statement soning. In fact, he almost turns the sympathy
that society is every year becoming more intol- of his readers in favor of his victims, so severe
erable, because under the present system the and vindictive is his arraignment.
rich are constantly growing richer, and the We cannot avoid the impression that Mal-
poor poorer. It is a curious characteristic of lock is too clever to be entirely sincere. It
human opinion, that sometimes everybody will may be that it is our previous acquaintance
confidently assert and firmly believe what is with him that produces this impression. But
amply disproved by the commonest every day it is a trait of human nature to applaud sin-
facts in everybody's experience. The general cerity even when it is wrong-headed, rather
declaration and discussion lately of the propo than mercenary dexterity even though fighting
sition that the rich are growing richer and the for the truth. Henry George and his fellow
poor poorer, is an illustration of this character socialists have convinced the public of their
istic. Men have repeated it confidently and thorough devotion to the doctrines which they
with heat and rage. For a long while no one
advocate. They are deluded, beyond question;
appeared to question it. Yet there is hardly but they believe that their mission is to enlighten
an individual, in this country at least, whose and benefit their fellow-men. Fanatic error
personal experience during the past twenty has always produced more trouble in the world
years does not contain its refutation. The rich than adroit but conscious knavery. Man-
have grown richer indeed, but the poor have kind are much more easily influenced by earn-
grown richer also. This has been the rule estness than by logic. So it is probable that
everywhere among able-bodied energetic peo- Mallock's work will fail to turn the socialists
ple. Few have fallen back in their means of of England from the error of their ways,
living, while multitudes have gained immensely although it sets forth unanswerable arguments
in their range of consumption. Yet we have against them.
M. L. SCUDDER, JR.
all been deluded into anxious speculations as
to what ought to be done to check the dreadful
tendency of the poor to grow poorer.
We
SHAKESPEARE AS A JURIST.*
might have saved ourselves these gloomy fore-
bodings, if we had taken the trouble to ask It is refreshing, in these times of accumula-
ourselves a few simple questions. But the tion of trifling comments upon Shakespeare's
world was in the mood to worry itself with sad text, to meet with a contribution to the current
anticipations, and not in the mood to make discussion which is both novel and discrimin-
careful inquiries. Mr. Giffen, the President ating. A lawyer in active practice, Mr. Cush-
of the London Statistical Society, finally took man K. Davis (late Governor of Minnesota),
the matter in hand and showed most conclu- has in his leisure moments collected the evi-
sively that in England during the last thirtydences of the great dramatist's familiarity with
years very much the larger part of the increase the law. In the three hundred citations he
of wealth has gone to the poor — that is, to
* THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. By C. K. Davis. St. Paul: West
that portion of the population which work for Publishing Company.


58
[July,
THE DIAL
has made, showing the ready use of terms fect juridical accuracy,” such as he fails to find
which are the current coin of only the bar, he in any of the historians, with all their advan-
has far exceeded the labors of all previous tages of access to abundant authorities. Lord
commentators of this class. Twenty-five years Campbell named fourteen of the dramas in
have elapsed since Lord Campbell, in his which he could " find nothing that fairly bears
“Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements Consid- upon the controversy," in several of which
ered," cited less than one hundred instances of (Henry VIII being one) Mr. Davis finds valua-
the use of law terms, and reached no conclu ble illustrations. Shakespeare was a master in
sion on the question whether the dramatist was the law ; but he was kept out of the courts,
in fact a trained lawyer. The questions pro- and lifted above the drudgery of the profes-
pounded by Mr. Payne Collier, which Lord sion, by that overpowering imagination which
Campbell felt obliged to relegate to the jury, made him the first of poets.
are now argued by Mr. Davis so forcibly that a As might be expected, such researches as
verdict seems attainable. A busy lawyer, who these of Mr. Davis throw light upon the so-
is nevertheless a close student of Shakespeare's called Baconian theory. No earlier commen-
text, has compared with it, more closely than tator, even among those bred to the law, has
any of his predecessors, the black-letter law examined this question more closely than has
learning to which the dramatist may have had he. Perhaps no one of them is less inclined
access, and has brought to the work a delicate than he to take anything for granted, or more
perspicacity, as well as a sympathetic apprecia- ready to demand of every theory its creden-
tion of the characteristics of his favorite author. tials. It may suffice to state here the conclu-
That he writes upon the subject as only a sions he reaches, after a keen professional
lawyer can write, every well-read brother law scrutiny of the evidences found in what is
yer wili admit.
It will be seen, too, that the patent concerning the mental characteristics,
value of his work rests not in the extent of his as well as the published writings, of Shakes-
researches or the number of his citations. Nor peare and Bacon. These two were contempo-
is it found alone in the clearness of his exposi raries in the age which witnessed the memorable
tion of the correctness of Shakespeare's legal struggle for power
and
supremacy between the
nomenclature ; for this Lord Campbell had English systems of law and equity. Shakes-
conceded, saying, “ to Shakespeare's law, lav peare, in all his use of legal terms, his refer-
ishly as he propounds it, there can be neither ences to legal process, his exposition of legal
demurrer, nor bill of exceptions, nor writ of principles, and his employment of what may
error." Mr. Davis has done more. He has be called the lawyer's ideas and forms of
demonstrated that the use of legal terms by his thought, speaks always as a common-law lawyer
great subject was not merely such as might of the strictest school, the school of the sturdy
have distinguished an attorney's clerk, or a Coke. Though writing at the time of the
shrewd and attentive listener to the daily con growth and expansion of the chancery jurisdic-
versations of barristers, or even a sciolist in the tion, when its forms, process and verbiage were
law. He finds Shakespeare in perfect posses becoming familiar, and when the erudite Bacon
sion of the most abstruse peculiarities of the was assisting in formulating its distinguishing
common law, and pressing them with discrim principles, the dramatist is never observed to
ination into 6
a disciplined service.” He finds be the devotee or exponent of the chancery
him using with freedom not only legal terms, system or practice.
James O. PIERCE.
but the ideas and forms of expression which
are peculiar to lawyers, and employing them
in their finer shades of meaning, for occult
THE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA.*
purposes ; taking them “as standards of com-
parison with things which nothing but his own It is less than a year since the present writer
despotic imagination could have brought into had the pleasant duty of calling attention to
relevancy.” In many instances, the delicate the admirable work on “New England Bird-
meanings which Mr. Davis expounds will be Life,” nominally edited, but in reality written,
appreciated most fully by the well-informed by the esteemed ornithologist, Dr. Elliott Coues.
lawyer. Sometimes they will be understood by Again a similar and even more agreeable duty
no one else, unless with elaborate explanation. is imposed by the presentation of the “Key to
Indeed, it will often be necessary for the well-
Containing a Concise
informed lawyer to make an especial study of Account of Every Species of Living and Fossil Bird at Present
the law and the statutes of Shakespeare's time,
Known, from the Continent North of the Mexican and United
if he would enter fully into the intricacy of his
States Boundary, inclusive of Greenland. Second edition. Revised
to date and entirely rewritten. With which are Incorporated Gen-
allusions. In Henry VIII, Mr. Davis finds the eral Ornithology: An Outline of the Structure and Classification
legal features of the trial of the queen and the
of Birds; and Field Ornithology, a Manual of Collecting, Pre-
paring, and Preserving Birds. By Elliott Coues, M.A., M.D., Ph.D.
deposition of Wolsey illustrated with a "per-
* KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.
Illustrated. Boston: Estes & Lauriat.


1884.]
59
THE DIAL
a
North American Birds," from the same fruitful book itself gave him." What further knowl-
hand. The volume is announced on the title edge of the science one would need as
page as a second edition of the "Key" published preparation for a practical and thorough
by Dr. Coues twelve years ago; but it is virtually acquaintance with the bird-fauna of North
a new structure, built on the foundations laid in America, the uninitiated are unable to conjec-
the earlier book. We recognize the ground plan, ture. The amount that is crowded into the
we perceive that the old central idea is retained, book by a compact and systematic arrangement
and we discover the stamp of the master mind excites amazement. The work opens with an
in every part; but it is so enlarged and improved, historical preface which, concisely tracing the
and so wholly re-composed, that to speak of it progress of American Ornithology, is one of the
as a revision or amendment solely is to do it most useful portions of the book and of interest
great injustice. It is a fresh creation, and a to the general reader. Dr. Coues divides the
monument of genius and industry.
period occupied by the growth of this depart-
The more we examine the work the more we ment of knowledge into six epochs. The first
are impressed with the prodigies of labor and of these, the Archaic epoch, comprises the
thought which have been accomplished in its years prior to 1700, during which merely frag-
production. Into it are compressed over twenty mentary notices of the birds of America
years of study - of study of bird-life in every appeared in books published by colonists and
portion of the country, in the mountains, the travellers. The Pre-Linnæan epoch covers the
forests, the fields, in marshes, by the waterside, term between 1700 and 1758, when Lawson,
in the desert and in populous places, in all sea Catesby, and Edwards were making their
sons of the year, all varieties of weather, and important contributions to the natural history
all times of day; of study in the closet with of the new world. In the Post-Linnæan epoch,
specimens and instruments in hand, dissecting, extending from 1758 to 1800, upwards of five
classifying, comparing, and with books and hundred nominal species of birds belonging to
authors treating the same and collateral sub this continent had become known to observers,
jects and chronicling the results of the world's and Pennant and Bartram were the distin-
previous research. And this study has not only guished names among American ornithologists.
been wisely ordered and incessantly pursued, it The publication of Bartram's “ Travels,”
has also been inspired and enlightened by a high freighted with its “unpretending yet almost
degree of talent.
portentous bird-matter," Dr. Coues regards as
There is an order of patient plodders whose the starting-point of a distinctively American
work is of a valuable kind. They burrow school of ornithology. The Wilsonian epoch,
among facts, they gather materials, they make limited to the first quarter of the present cen-
possible the construction of sciences, systems, tury, was illustrated by the genius of the
and theories, and may themselves be effective “Paisely weaver," the “father of American
organizers as well as explorers. There is Ornithology."
another class of enthusiasts and seers, who Strange indeed,” remarks Dr. Coues, “are the
work with an energy which we may call divine,
guises of genius, yet stranger its disguises in the epi-
thets by which we attempt to label and pigeon-hole
it is so fervent and absorbing, and so sustained
that thing which has no name but its own, no place but
and illuminated by an inward faith and cour its own.
Alexander Wilson had genius, and not much
age; and these are the discoverers, the inven of anything else very little learning, scarcely any
tors, who give life, beauty, practicality, and money, not many friends, and a paltry share of the
immortality, to the things they touch, to the
world's regard' while he lived. But genius brings a
message which men must hear, and never tire of hear-
thoughts which occupy their minds. There is
ing; it is the word that comes when the passion that
a third and rarer kind of men who combine conceives is wedded with the patience that achieves."
the dominant traits of the other two, who are The Audubonian epoch carries the century
plodders and systematizers and originators at from 1824 to 1853, in which precious years
the same time. Of this latter sort is Dr. Coues Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, William
a poet-naturalist, at once patient, persistent, Swainson, Thomas Nuttall, and John Audubon,
and exact in investigation, calm in judgment, were extending the acquisitions of American
inexorable in self-restraint, and yet possessed ornithology with unprecedented rapidity. The
of the fine instincts and the impassioned sixth and last epoch, the Bairdian, beginning
impulses belonging to the artistic temperament. with 1853, is still unfinished. It is marked by
His numerous and various writings attest this, the labors of such eminent naturalists as John
and none more emphatically than the treatise Cassin, Dr. T. M. Brewer, Professor Baird of
just published.
the Smithsonian Institution, and a host of
The purpose of the Key is, as Dr. Coues earnest, scholarly students and observers beyond
states it, "to enable one to identify and label the possibility of naming. In reviewing the
his specimens, though he might have no other works and the authors that have given char-
knowledge of ornithology than such as the acter to these several epochs, Dr. Coues has


60
[July,
THE DIAL
been discriminating and generous. His acquain- expressed in the closing sentences of the pre-
tance with the subject surpasses that of any
face :
living naturalist. The bibliography of Amer “I wish the work were better than it is, for my
ican Ornithology, published by him several reader's sake; I wish the author were better than he is,
years ago, is without a rival of its kind, and for my own sake ; above all, I wish that every author
entitled the collator to rank as the highest au-
may rise superior to his best work, to the end that the
man himself be judged above his largest achievements.
thority in the history of his favorite science. It is well to do great things, but better still to be great.”
To enhance the usefulness of the Key, Dr.
Sara A. HUBBARD.
Coues has incorporated in Part I his manual of
“Field Ornithology,” which appeared origin-
ally in 1874. It contains minute instructions GINDELY'S THIRTY YEARS' WAR.*
for collecting, preparing, and preserving birds,
conveyed in a pleasant colloquial style, and
Some twenty years ago it was rather wittily
transfused with the author's intense love of
said of the Schleswig-Holstein question — the
international puzzle of that day
that it was
nature.
thoroughly understood by one man, but unfor-
“For myself," he states casually, “ the time is past, tunately he died without imparting the secret.
happily or not, when every bird was an agreeable sur The ignorance of humanity in regard to the
prise, for dewdrops do not last all day ; but I have
never yet walked in the woods without learning some-
secrets of the Thirty Years' War has been still
thing pleasant that I did not know before. I should more striking; for it is probable that not even
consider a bird new to science ample reward for a one man has thoroughly comprehended the
month's steady work; one bird new to a locality would
significance of its multitudinous horrors. Nor
repay a week's search; a day is happily spent that shows
me any bird that I never saw alive before. How then
is this strange. In the seventeenth century
can you, with so much before you, keep out of the woods
that geographical expression vaguely known as
another minute?”
Germany, so far from being a government, was
scarcely a confederation. It was simply a group
Part II consists of an exhaustive treatise on
the classification and structure of birds, occupy-
of individual powers, several hundred in num-
ing 176 pages. It is made clear to the compre- eign purposes, each governed by a petty and
ber, each practically independent even for for-
hension by simple and explicit language and a
ambitious ruler, each ready to seize upon every
free use of pictorial illustration.
Part III, constituting the main body of the
possible means of pushing its fortunes to a
Key, is given to a systematic synopsis of better condition, and all presided over by an
North American birds. The arrangement of emperor of whose powers everybody was jeal-
ous and whom everybody was therefore predis-
this part is similar to that adopted in the pre-
vious edition, but with great amplification and
posed to antagonize whenever the least provo-
cation offered. By far the majority of states
many amendments. It describes nearly nine
hundred species and sub-species, or more than
were very small ; but a few of them were large
half the number of known birds in the world.
enough to aspire to the honors of royalty. In
The descriptions are more extended than in the
the small states there were the petty animosities
characteristic of little communities; and in the
former work, introducing notes on the habits
of birds which are of great use as clues to their
large ones there were the ambitions that could
be satisfied only by rapidly increasing political
identity. Among other improvements are the
influence and power.
location of the specific together with the gen-
eric name at the head of each description, the
It was into such a political soil as this that
accompanying marks for accent, and account
the dragon's teeth of the Reformation had been
of the derivation and meaning of both terms.
In the course of the century between
The artificial “key to the genera” presented in
the Posting of the Theses and the Throwing
from the Window, every community in Ger-
the old work has been replaced by keys to the
orders and families, which are supplemented
many had come to be divided into two hostile
with analyses of families, sub-families, genera in, and had already brought back into the Cath-
religious camps. The Jesuit reaction had set
and species.
olic fold a considerable number of those who
Altogether, the volume contains about four
had wandered from the original. faith. The
times the matter included in the original edi.
tion, and double the number of illustrations. Inquisition was at work in Spain; the troops
The effort of the author to perfect the work in
of Alva were spreading desolation in the Neth-
erlands; the proud leader of the Protestants
every particular has been cordially seconded by
the publishers, and the result is a treatise * HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. By Anton Gindely,
Professor of German History in the University of Prague. Trans-
which honors the science of American Orni-
lated by Andrew Ten Brook, formerly Professor of Mental Philos-
thology and will be prized as a treasure by ophy in the University of Michigan. With an Introductory and a
In two volumes, with
every bird-lover.
The modest, manly spirit concluding Chapter by the Translator.
twenty-eight illustrations, and two maps.
in which Dr. Coues himself regards the book is
|
SOwn.
1
New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons.


1884.]
61
THE DIAL
in France had abjured his faith and accepted to one of the volumes, he tells his readers that
the mass ; the assassination of William the in its preparation he was obliged to consult
Silent and the massacre of St. Bartholomew not only all published authorities but also
had shown the spirit in which the warfare was between five and six thousand manuscripts
to be carried on; in short, it was year by year never before made use of by the historical
becoming more evident that the new faith was student. In the very nature of the case, such
in great peril, and that it could be saved, if at a work would not satisfy any popular demand.
all, only as the result of a long and a bitter The latest volume of his great work brings the
contest. When to these conditions is added history down only to 1623, when no more than
the fact that in the sixteenth and seventeenth five of the thirty years of the war were past.
centuries there was scarcely more thought of The investigations, however, have been com-
tolerating heresy than there was of tolerating pleted so far as to enable the author to arrive
arson, the true nature of the situation begins at confident conclusions in regard to all of the
to be revealed. In every German city and in more important events of the war. The three
every German village, the religious animos- volumes of which the translation is now given
ities had been fed by the news from Spain, to the public, are a popular presentation of
France, and from Holland. When the war the results of his studies. In the preface the
came on, therefore, all classes were prepared author asks his readers to take many of his
for a life-and-death struggle; and the contest statements on the simple authority of his word,
became one, not simply between individual at the same time giving the promise that the
states or even between geographical sections of proofs will be forthcoming in the larger work.
states, but between opposing factions of the The first volume, he tells us, follows closely in
same town, the same neighborhood, and even the track of his previous publications; the
the same family.
second and third depend chiefly upon investi-
Under these conditions it was but natural gations the results of which he has not pre-
that the war should be largely one of diplo- viously given to the public. That the work
macy. As soon as the contest was made inevit has met with great favor in Germany, is evinced
able, the elements began to crystallize about by the fact that twenty thousand copies have
the various political magnets. The local troops been sold in the brief period since its publi-
were in command of local rulers who often cation.
showed that they were influenced quite as It is difficult to designate the portions of
much by political ambition as by religious zeal. these worthy volumes that will generally be
The army of the Catholic League was inde regarded as the most valuable. The account of
pendent of the Emperor, and the Imperial the complications at the beginning of the war
army was independent of the League. The in Bohemia leaves no doubt that the author is
troops of the Protestant Union were subordinate right in regarding the contest as one of diplo-
to no other than their own commander. The macy. Negotiations of the most delicate nature
real struggle, therefore, was the diplomatic had to be carried on with Savoy, with Hun-
contest which brought the forces into position. gary, and with Saxony, as well as with the
And this is the reason why the war has been larger and indeed the still smaller states. The
so difficult to understand. The considerations moment a war was inevitable, all the furies of
which led to many of the important decisions the age seemed to be set loose. A fraudulent
of the period could only be revealed to a stu- proceeding on the part of the Catholics was
dious inspection of the correspondence of the answered by physical violence on the part
day. When it is remembered that every Ger of the Protestants. A conspiracy, which, as
man state, however petty in itself, has its ar Gindely shows, grew up in the minds of a few
chives, and that every German castle has its Protestant leaders, culminated in the seizing of
muniment room in which the secrets of cen the Imperial Regents and the hurling of them
turies are preserved, the magnitude of the task from a window eighty feet from the ground.
of examination appears in its true light.
Though this deed was at the very beginning of
It is now more than thirty years since Anton the war, and was, as it was designed to be by
Gindely began his preliminary studies of the the Protestant leaders, the occasion of an irre-
early years of the seventeenth century. As concilable break between the two parties, it was
the fruits of these researches, he had already only one of a long succession of violent acts.
published eight volumes, before he yielded to But it is entitled to this distinction. It was a
the persuations of his publishers to prepare deliberate outrage, concocted by the leaders of
the more popular work of which a translation the party in rebellion, and inflicted upon the
is now placed before the reader of English. leaders of the party in power. It would have
The larger work is a book for historians. It been strange indeed if this act, which might be
gives with painstaking minuteness the sources called one of official atrocity, had not stirred
of the author's information. In the preface all the fountains of hatred to the very bottom.


62
[July,
THE DIAL
It was a sowing of the wind that was fol upon baggage wagons, and took part in plun-
lowed by a bounteous harvest of whirlwinds dering the peasants and burghers by the way.
and tornadoes. If in the course of the war At a later day, the number of camp-followers
the Catholics were the most ingenious and the was increased beyond all belief by the mul-
most persistent in their atrocities, the Protest- tiplication of children, so that in the last
ants are entitled to the distinction of being the years of the war the numbers in the camp
originators of the system.
must be placed at three or four times that of
The author makes it clear that in the early the combatants. The cruelties practiced are
negotiations the Catholics were more success thus described:
ful. Their envoys were the more skilful, and “They would unscrew the flint of a pistol and screw
their armies were brought into the field in the up the thumb of the unfortunate victim in its place ;
better condition. After the first important
they would skin the bottom of the foot, sprinkle salt in
the fresh wound, and then make a goat lick the salt off;
battle of the war, the cause of the Protestants
they would pass a horsehair through the tongue, and
seemed hopelessly lost. And as one reads
draw it slowly up and down ; they would bind about the
Gindely's account, one finds it hard to resist forehead a knotted rope, and draw it constantly tighter
the impression that a wise course on the part of
with a lever. If an oven was at hand, they would force
their victim into it, kindle a fire in the front of it, and
the Imperial Government would have brought
com pel him to creep through the fire. They often bored
the war to an immediate close. The Protest holes in the knee-pans of those whom they would tor-
ants were prostrate. A vigorous and firm policy, ment, or poured disgusting fluids down their throats.
inspired by wise statesmanship rather than by
To these thousand-fold torments were added, in the case
of matrons and maidens, the basest outrages. No
religious animosity, would at least have enabled
woman was secure against the beastly violence of the
the government to secure a stronger authority soldier, and nothing but flight or defence could in some
than was ever afterwards possible. But the instances save them. When the robbers had, by tor-
Catholics now made the same mistake that the
ture, compelled the surrender of hidden treasures, when
their lust of plunder was satisfied, and their inhuman
Protestants had made in the “Throwing from
desires quieted, they completed the proof of their van-
the Window.” They put themselves so clearly dalism by destroying that which they could not carry
in the wrong by their violent policy of murder off.”
and rapine that a reaction set in and the whole It was methods of indiscriminate violence
Protestant world was aroused against them. such as these that finally led Catholics as well
The most interesting if not the most valuable as Protestants to demand of the Emperor
parts of these volumes are those relating to the Waldstein's dismissal. But his disgrace car-
careers of Waldstein and Gustavus Adolphus. ried with it the disorganization of his army
The one appears to have been the product of and the consequent peril of the Catholic cause.
the worst elements of the time, the other of the The successes of Gustavus Adolphus soon
best. Waldstein (so Gindely tells us he always forced the Emperor to recall the very com-
spelled his name) at the first was actuated, so mander whom most of all he distrusted and
far as we can perceive, simply by motives of a feared but whom at the same time he could
vulgar avarice. He betrayed no religious zeal, not do without. Waldstein's recall of course
and he showed no exceptional gifts as a com made him more dangerous than ever.
mander. But the estates of his family had Space will not permit any detailed account
become involved, and the turbulent condition of the imperial greatness of the Swedish
of the times gave him the opportunity he cov King. It is perhaps enough to say that no
eted. By a judicious marriage he procured one can read Gindely's pages without seeing
money, and by a judicious use of his money he the evidence of a clearness of perception and
commanded influence and finally power. When a comprehensiveness of grasp that entitle him
he was allowed to enlist his army, he had shown to rank with the greatest statesmen of the
no signs of exceptional military ability; indeed, time. It is doubtful whether there is anything
he had never yet been in command of any force in the careers of either Cromwell or Richelieu
larger than a regiment. But he was a con more worthy of admiration than the skill with
summate master of the low arts of popularity. which Gustavus brought the Protestant forces
In a few months he was at the head of an ill into line after the sack of Magdeburg. Gin-
organized rabble of fifty thousand men. Its dely makes it clear that Magdeburg was
business was primarily plunder, secondarily burned by the Protestants in order that the
The soldiers took with them their wives victorious army of Tilly might find nothing to
and children. Gindely tells us that the num- gratify their desire for plunder; and he skil-
ber of women following a regiment was nearly fully calls attention to the fact that in all the
equal to that of the men in it. The wives of papers of the Swedish King, no charge is
the soldiers washed, cooked, and performed in found that the burning was done by the
general all kinds of service for their husbands, Imperial soldiers. The integrity and the mod-
dragged along in the march their children and eration of the King are in striking contrast
all those utensils which could not be taken / with the customs of the time.
war.


1884.]
63
THE DIAL
It is a pleasure to conclude by saying that represent, in one way and another, a good deal
the outward appearance of these volumes is of attractiveness for the minds of large reading
worthy of their intrinsic merits. As speci- constituencies. Such names as those of Black-
mens of book-making, they are entitled to more and Ouida, to take extreme cases, among
special note; for it is doubtful whether two English novelists, and of Crawford and Julian
handsomer volumes have ever emanated from Hawthorne, of Miss Jewett and Mr. Fawcett,
an American press. Indeed, it would not be among American ones, are familiar to all vaca-
easy to suggest how the form, the paper, the tion idlers; and all these names, as well as
type, the press-work, the covers, could have many others, are to be found upon the title-
been changed for the better. The translation pages of the new books now at hand. The
is excellent. Though the version is generally object of the present article has been to select
very literal, it is not often marred with forms from the large number of novels lately issued
of expression that suggest the German. A those most deserving of mention, and to devote
censorious critic would not find it impossible a few words to the characterization of each.
to discover sentences that might be improved; Mr. Blackmore is probably the best living
but the merits are so many and the faults so writer of English fiction; and a new work
few that one shrinks from uttering any other from his pen, even if it add little to his fame,
words than those of commendation. The has an undoubted right to the first place in
translation of a great historical work from the
our list.
When "Clara Vaughan" appeared
German is a laborious and often a thankless it was clear to all discerning eyes that, in spite
task; but when, as in the handsome volumes of its strongly sensational character, it was
before us, the work is skilfully performed, it is the work of a writer of unusual power. The
entitled to grateful recognition.
impression then made was, of course, greatly
CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS. strengthened when that work was followed by
such others as "Mary Anerley" and "Alice
Lorraine," and the judgment then impelled
RECENT FICTION.*
was confirmed by such masterpieces as “The
Maid of Sker” and “Lorna Doone." The
The summer season has brought with it the latter work became a classic in much less time
regular supply of new novels, and, as far as
than is usually required for the elevation of
numbers and variety can do
so, they
make any work to classic rank; and two or three of
up
for the almost uniform lack of anything note-
the other novels cannot be placed far below it,
worthy or of permanent value. Still, their pro-
if they are not allowed to share the same level.
duction is the best possible evidence of the
The writer of these stories is hard to classify.
demand for them, and the names of their writers
His most obvious quality is that of the humor-
ist, and in this respect he is frequently suggest-
* THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF Sir Thomas UPMORE, BART., ive of Dickens. In his constructive power,
M.P., FORMERLY KNOWN AS TOMMY UPMORE.
New York: Harper & Brothers.
and often in his characterization, he recalls the
THE GIANT'S ROBE. By F. Anstey. New York: D. Apple same novelist. On the other hand, he has
Princess NAPRAXINE ; A Novel. By Ouida. Philadelphia : nothing of the
nothing of the pathos which is quite the
J. B. Lippincott & Co.
divinest quality of that master of human
THE USURPER ; AN EPISODE IN JAPANESE HISTORY. By Judith smiles and tears. He can, if need be, give us
Gautier. Translated from the French, by Abby Langdon Alger.
a chapter of history worthy of Scott, or a
A ROMAN SINGER. By F. Marion Crawford. Boston: Hough dramatic description of the play of natural
ton, Mimin & Co.
forces — of storm and sea,
THE FATE OF MANSFIELD HUMPHREYS ; WITH THE EPISODE OF
of wind and
MR. WASHINGTON ADAMS IN ENGLAND, AND AN APOLOGY. By Rich heaven - equal to anything of similar char-
ard Grant White. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
acter in Black. That which is all his own is
ARCHIBALD MALMAISON. By Julian Hawthorne. New York:
Funk & Wagnalls.
his style, with its inimitable quaintness and its
FORTUNE'S FOOL. By Julian Hawthorne. Boston: James R. rhythmic sonorous surge; with its power to
Osgood & Co.
A COUNTRY DOCTOR. By Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: Hough-adapt itself to the moods of all things ani-
ton, Mifflin & Co.
mate and inanimate; with its instinctive
TINKLING CYMBALS. By Edgar Fawcett. Boston: James R. refinement indicative at once of a widely sym-
Osgood & Co.
STAGE-STRUCK ; OR, SHE WOULD BE AN OPERA-SINGER. By
pathetic and a highly cultured mind. "The
Blanche Roosevelt. New York : Fords, Howard & Hulbert. Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore,
THE SAN ROSARIO RANCH. By Maud Howe.
Bart. M.P., formerly known as Tommy Up-
THE CRIME OF HENRY VANE. By J. S. of Dale. New York: more,” is the most eccentric production of
AN AVERAGE Max. By Robert Grant. Boston : James R. Osgood Tommy Upmore has a singular power, which
Mr. Blackmore's frequently eccentric genius.
THE FORTUNES OF RACHEL. By Edward Everett Hale. New is vulgarly spoken of as the power of flying,
York : Funk & Wagnalls,
but which is rather the power to lift himself
THE LADY, OR THE TIGER! By Frank R. Stockton. New York:
up from the ground under the stimulus of
By R. D. Black-
more,
ton & Co.
Boston : Roberts Brothers.
Boston: Roberts
Brothers,
Charles Scribner's Sons.
& Co.
Oharles Soribner's Sons.


64
[July,
THE DIAL
unusual mental exhilaration or strong indigna- stances of the two stories, this similarity cannot
tion, and to sustain himself in the air as long fail to suggest itself to one acquainted with
as his elation lasts. This power, although dis-
This power, although dis- them both. In execution there is a vast differ-
played on but a few occasions, makes him an ence, the present work being essentially com-
object of wonderment on the part of the ignor- monplace, showing ingenuity without a spark
ant and of great interest on the part of the of genius; while, whatever the faults of Ouida,
scientific world, and in the climax of the narra no one would ever dream of calling her com-
tive enables him, when a member of the House monplace, and few would deny the existence of
of Commons, to perform the extraordinary some slight trace of genius in her composition.
feat of soaring to the roof of the hall of Par The characteristics of Ouida's novels are so
liament, from which position he metaphorically well known, that little instruction can be gained
obtains the floor and sings a patriotic song, from examination or analysis of another of
thereby so influencing the minds of the amazed them. “Princess Napraxine” is like its pred-
legislators who behold him, that they are with ecessors. It has the same great faults -- faults
held from adopting a measure upon which which have become so much of a habit with the
they had become practically decided, and writer as to make it now impossible that she
which they would have felt, in more sober should ever learn to avoid them. It has the
moments, to be a disgrace to themselves and same gorgeous machinery, and handles all phi-
to the country! This book, if far from equal losophies and histories and societies in the same
to Mr. Blackmore's best work, has most of his easy, careless way. The same old recklessness
peculiar qualities; and we can forgive the of expression characterizes it, and the same
absurdity of the fundamental conception on kind of figures stand for men and women in its
account of the charming way in which it is pages. Judged comparatively, it is an inferior
worked out. The chief fault of the book is production. It is hardly than the weak-
the rather unpleasant spirit in which some of est of her earlier novels.
the methods of modern science are satirized, It is refreshing to turn from the wearisome
and the violent antagonism which is exhibited variations upon a few threadbare themes that
towards certain of the most noble results of are alone afforded by most of our new novels,
the spirit of reform in English government. to such a piece of genuine romance as we may
After the success of “Vice-Versa," it was find in “The Usurper.” This is a translation
natural that we should soon hear again from from the French of Mlle. Judith Gautier, who
Mr. Anstey.
His new novel is called “The seems to inherit no little of her father's taste,
Giant's Robe,” and to those who anticipated and perhaps something of his genius. The
something in the original vein of the earlier story is founded upon an episode of Japanese
work, it will be a disappointment. It is a very history from the early part of the seventeenth
commonplace story of a very commonplace century, and deals with the civil war stirred up
villain, the "giant's robe” being a robe of by the Regent, who refuses to resign the power
deception worn by the principal character, who upon the majority of the Shogun. But it is
is an aspirant for literary fame without abilities not of "fierce wars" alone that we read; "faith-
to match the fame he would like to acquire. ful loves” occupy no less a share of our atten-
Failing in securing the publication of his own tion. Altogether, it is delightful reading; and
novels, he represents himself as the author of those who know and love Théophile Gautier
one written by a friend, and confided to his will find in this book many touches that recall
care upon this friend's departure from England. the work of the master-hand that penned “Le
Report comes of the death at sea of the real Roman de la Momie” and “Une Nuit de Cléo-
writer, and his surviving friend represents the patre.” How the artist-soul of that sovereign
manuscript as his own and gets much fame master of beauty would have caught inspiration
thereby. On the strength of this he wins the from such a theme, the reader of those books
love of the woman whom his lost friend had may easily imagine; and to say that the work
loved, and they are married. But the lost of Mlle. Gautier is done in such a way as to be
friend turns up, and the “giant's robe,” which suggestive of her father, is the highest praise
had been hard enough to wear before, becomes that could be given it. For absolute artistic
intolerable. With rare self-abnegation, the in merit, it is probably the most remarkable book
jured man seeks to shield from sorrow the of the season. The translation is but indiffer-
woman he has loved, by keeping secret the perfi-ent; neither very good nor very bad.
dy of her husband; but his efforts are in vain, No other of the American novelists who are
and the wretch stands exposed in all the mean now enjoying a well-deserved popularity has
ness of his nature. There is a certain, although met with such immediate and wide-spread rec-
very general, similarity between the main action ognition as Mr. Crawford. His success in this
of this story and that of Ouida's “Wanda.” respect is doubtless due to the fact that his facile
Different as are all the details and circum-
pen has enabled him to live up to the reputation


1884.]
65
THE DIAL
so quickly gained by his first volume, and to thoughtfully than he has yet chosen to do. A
produce in such rapid succession his three sub “fatal facility” is likely to prove his worst
sequent ones, each of them introducing his enemy.
readers to scenes and situations so different It is so unwonted a thing for Mr. Richard
from those previously made familiar as to do Grant White to assume the rôle of novelist,
much credit to the fertility of his invention. that “The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys” is a
"A Roman Singer,” which is the fourth, and at book to be read with unusual interest. It does
the date of this writing the last, of his novels, not take us by surprise, however, as it has been
is already familiar to that large class of readers previously published in parts, and thus made
who do not scorn the mild satisfaction of perus familiar to the readers of the “ Atlantic
ing a work of fiction in the monthly instal- Monthly.” Moreover, the novel-form turns out
ments by whose means the publishers of a to be a very transparent disguise, beneath which
periodical contrive to secure to that which Mr. White rides one of his favorite hobbies
should properly engage the attention for a few that of the absurdity of many of the distinc-
consecutive hours an interrupted and languid tions popularly made between Americans and
hold upon the mind for six months or a year. Englishmen. The book is made up of discus-
Since a large portion of this story had already sion, with just a thread of narrative, and enough
appeared at the time when “To Leeward” was of sentiment to keep the narrative going. The
published, that novel must be regarded as at following passage will illustrate the key in
least contemporary with the present one; and which this sentiment is pitched: “No strong-
we should be inclined, on the whole, to assign bodied, strong-brained man pines for any
to its conception, if not to its final elaboration, woman.” What there is of a story is told in a
the later date of the two. At all events, “To straightforward, business-like manner. In all
Leoward” contains the best work which Mr. that Mr. White has written upon this subject,
Crawford has yet given us ; it shows more he has evinced a fairness in his judgments of
restraint - of which our writer has much need | American life that is as rare as it is desirable.
and it contains as well the nearest approach It is a better patriotism that is shown by such
to genuine characterization that is to be found honest criticism as this, than by any amount of
in any of his novels. For it must be confessed vaunting assertion, intolerant of rebuke. And,
that, interesting as these stories are, they con what is most important of all, Mr. White does
tain little genuine portrayal of character. not lose sight of the fact that the best part and
Their interest lies rather in their local coloring the best characteristics of our nation are essen-
and descriptive charm, in their terse and sug- tially English, and are always likely to be.
gestive reflections, and, above all, in their pre- The story is furnished with an appendix which
sentation of novel and eccentric persons and is called an “Apology," and which is a discus-
One of the best things in the “Roman sion of criticisms inspired by the chapters of
Singer" is the picture of the Jew, Ahasuerus the book upon their successive appearance, and
Benoni, whose singular individuality has much of notable foreign criticisms upon American
life and vigor surrounded by that atmosphere life. It is always a pleasure to read a book
of mystery with which Mr. Crawford can so written in the English language as used by Mr.
skilfully invest such an image. The other per Richard Grant White.
sons who figure in the story are colorless Mr. Julian Hawthorne, in his capacity as
enough, and yet the narrative is so well framed the son of his father, seems to feel it incum-
that this defect is not as noticeable for the bent upon himself to write an occasional ghost-
moment as it comes to be after reflection. The story, or at least a story in which the myste-
story, as a whole, is a very uneven one ; the rious shall be the chief element, in order to
episode of the baroness, for example, is in the keep up the family tradition. But it cannot
worst possible taste. In assigning to his chief be said that in his affectation of the weird and
character the role of a Joseph, although but unnatural he has followed very closely in the
temporarily, the writer has been anything but footsteps of the elder and infinitely greater
happy. On the other hand, the midnight scene writer of romance to whom he owes both his
in the Pantheon is gracefully conceived and origin and the inspiration of such tales as
executed; the old Count with his German con “ Archibald Malmaison." The person whose
structions is sufficiently amusing; and the gar name forms the title of his latest story has the
rulous but unpedantic professor who plays the singular habit of being “two gentlemen in
part of narrator gives a delightful setting to He continues in one phase of his exist-
the whole. Mr. Crawford can, if he will, do ence for seven years, when he abruptly assumes
better work than any he has yet done; of this, the other, in which he remains for a like period.
detached scenes and special phases furnish He continues thus to alternate between him-
abundant evidence. But to do the best that is self and his other self, for some thirty-five
in him, he must write less rapidly and more years; and, as in the first, third, and fifth of
scenes.
one.


66
[July,
THE DIAL
serves.
some-
these septennial periods he is an idiot, and in youth of the heroine in a way of which the full
the others a person not only sane but of quite charm can only be felt upon such a careful
remarkable intelligence, many unpleasant com and lingering perusal as the book well de-
plications arise, resulting in so much mischief
that it is perhaps fortunate that his career is In striking contrast to such a work as this
no less brief.
is a new story by Edgar Fawcett, a writer in
The story, however, is brief enough
whose work we shall look in vain for instinct-
thing which may not be said of Fortune's | ive refinement. Mr. Fawcett's strong hold is
Fool,” which has just made its appearance and supposed to be his power of depicting New
is by the same author. It is evidently the aim York fashionable society; and we suppose that
of this story to be interesting; and in this it is there is some degree of truth in the picture
successful, but only as stories of a low class which he paints in such firm, hard colors.
and by inuch inferior writers are interesting But in “Tinkling Cymbals," as in his other
to those who care to read them. The accept- extended novel, he expects us to sympathize
ance of the plot and characters of this novel is with the sufferings of the woman for whom so
the severest tax which the writer has yet imposed hateful a phase of life as this with which he
upon the credulity of his readers --- and his acquaints us has paramount attractions,
sins in that direction are not slight. The plot and who, in spite of the elevating influence of
is so intricate that it is useless to attempt to refined associations surrounding her from
make a b.ief statement of it; and those who childhood, can be so fascinated by its baleful
enact the arts are equally beyond concise glare as to prefer it to the better things at
positive characterization. They admit, how hand, and can let her infatuation lead her so
ever, of being negatively characterized in a far that she can only retreat with the best part
very
definite manner. They are what the of her life shattered beyond restoration. We
French call impossible. Such a melodramatic cannot altogether sympathize with one for
tissue of absurd scenes and actors is unworthy whom such vulgar ideals can be so much for
of Mr. Hawthorne. With his real talent for so long. If we pity, we must also condemn;
novel-writing, and his highly developed and and with the condemnation the pity loses much
individual style, he might do valuable work, of its meaning. Mr. Fawcett has, what so
but not at the present rate of production. many of our other novelists have, a fairly good
“A Country Doctor," by Sarah Orne Jewett, style; and with him, as with these others, it
is one of the most satisfactory books of the has to cover a multitude of sins, both in con-
The writer has not attempted to do ception and execution.
more than lay fully within her power; and con In “Stage-Struck, or, She would be
sequently has done most admirably a work for Opera-Singer," by Blanche Roosevelt, we have
which her many studies and sketches of New another novel with a purpose, and a purpose
England provincial life have so well fitted her. of the most obtrusive kind. It is frankly
Upon its own plane and within its own limits stated in the preface and enforced in every
the execution is almost perfect. Here we may one of the five hundred pages of the narra-
find close and accurate observation, delicacy tive. The object of the book is to warn Amer-
of touch, genuine discrimination, firm and ican girls who are ambitious of success upon
sympathetic grasp of character, and instinct- | the lyric stage against the mistake, so often
ive refinement. The story, as we might nat- committed, of rashly rushing to Europe, with-
urally expect from the nature of the writer's out counting the cost or reckoning upon the
previous work, is simplicity itself; but the fas- obstacles, for the purpose of obtaining what
cination of its manner is such as to leave no fashion and prejudice have too much insisted
desire for any greater intricacy of plot. upon as the only adequate instruction and
Indeed, anything more intricate would not be preparation for such a career. The motive of
in harmony either with the style or the type of the book is a praiseworthy one, and the writer
life which it presents. It belongs to the class has shown the difficulties and dangers of such
of novels with a purpose
the purpose in the a course, to say nothing of the petty discom-
present case being to serve as a plea for the forts and disagreeable associations forced upon
adoption of the medical profession by women; the one who adopts it, with an unsparing pen.
and this purpose becomes just a little obtrusive The motive which has impelled the book has
towards the end of the story
been so strong with the writer that her picture
indeed, but enough so to slightly detract from is painted in very dark colors - darker, per-
the value of what would otherwise be fault- haps, than a strict regard for a just presen-
less piece of work. At all events, the choicest tation of the subject will warrant; for such a
part of the book is the earlier half, in which life, with all its trials, has also its compensa-
this purpose is as yet hardly foreshadowed, tions, and these are largely ignored. The
and which portrays the childhood and early story is mixed up with a good deal of clever
season.
an
a very little


1884.]
67
TIE DIAL
The average
satire upon foreign musical instruction and its out of place in a book which is unreal enough
methods, and the musical slang which makes without it. But while such things as this
up so large a portion of the dialogue becomes call for judgments which must be harsh,
very wearisome. It may be questioned if the there is much in this book that
may
be
pro-
writer has done wisely in selecting the novel-ductive of pleasure in the reader. There is
form for her sermon. With her wide and some fresh out-door life, some good description,
accurate knowledge of the kind of life she and considerable of praiseworthy feeling and
writes about, it would seem as if an account refined suggestion. These things do not suf-
of it, not placed under the guise of fiction, fice to make a work of art, but they are good
might have served her purpose equally well; things in themselves for all that.
and such an account would not have been the The author of “Guerndale" is worthy of
offence to art that this book undoubtedly is. respectful attention, whatever he may write;
And it must be added, that the execution of and his latest work, “The Crime of Henry
the work is such as to give no countenance to Vane,” although a slight performance, is a
any claim to literary merit that may be made well-written and in some degree an impressive
for it. The only pretensions which it may story, with a very old theme — that of the dis-
with justice make, must be based upon the appointed lover who takes refuge in self-des-
force with which its warning is given, and the truction; for this is the only crime of which he
earnestness which inspires it.
is guilty. It is to be regretted, however, that
The light of life, reflected from many books it should come after “Guerndale,” for we have
in succession, becomes feeble and of uncertain a right to expect better work of the writer of
quality. Too many novels derive their inspi- that romance than any which is here contained.
ration from books rather than from life itself; The writer of the “Confessions of a Frivo-
and first novels are almost sure to do so. lous Girl” has now come forward with a full-
“The San Rosario Ranch" is a first novel, and fledged novel after the most approved American
is written by Maud Howe. It tells the story school. The story is that of “An Average
of the love of Millicent Almsford and John Man,” and Mr. Grant may perhaps be styled
Graham. Millicent is an heiress who has
an average writer of this school.
lived in Italy all her life, and at the age of reader will consequently be likely to find the
twenty-one comes to pass a few months upon story to his taste, if he has not already read it
a ranch in Southern California. She is an
in fragments, for it is reprinted from "The
agnostic,” with a “strange, white, luminous Century." Mr. Grant writes in a way that is
“Her body was like a screen through suggestive of Mr. James, but he has a more
which shone a flame, at times white and straightforward manner of telling a story than
gentle, again rosy and passionate." John the latter gentleman, and not, on the whole, as
Graham is "exceedingly beautiful;” he is an effective a manner. The present narrative is
artist of great fame, who lives alone in a the merest trifle, as far as any question of per-
romantic tower, and who never calls Millicent manent value is concerned, but it may prove an
“Miss Almsford,” but “nymph” or “maiden interesting companion to one who is in a trifling
from afar.” She saves him from drowning, and mood.
he saves her from rattlesnakes. He wins her Mr. Edward Everett Hale knew how to write
love, and then concludes that this love will excellent stories some years ago, but he seems
interfere with his whole-souled devotion to art. to have lost the art, if we may base our judg-
In her despair, she goes back to Venice, and ment upon “The Fortunes of Rachel,
dies of grief; while he again changes his published in “The Standard Library.” It
mind, just in time to receive the news of her would be difficult to find anything more com-
death. This book is not unpromising, but it monplace, or utterly lacking in attractiveness
has grave faults. It does not come down to of any sort, than this story. Perhaps, how-
the actualities of life, being a product of much ever, it is not intended to be literature at all,
reading rather than of much observation. The but a Sunday-school book. This suspicion
style has an exuberance suggestive of Ouida. receives some countenance from the company
In the rattlesnake episode, there is a ludicrous into which it is thrown in the “library” of
mistake by which we are led to suppose that it which it is an issue.
is the tongue of a serpent that inflicts the A volume including a dozen of Mr. Frank
wound. The one utterly inexcusable thing Stockton's ingeniously absurd stories and
about the book is the attempt to heighten the sketches, contributed at different times to the
mystery of Millicent's personality by ascribing magazines, is published under the title of one
to her absurdly impossible powers of the kind of the best-known of them: “The Lady, or the
invented by a miserable charlatanism to impose Tiger?” For the idlest of idle hours, such
upon the credulous, and called clairvoyant or stories as this, or the “Transferred Ghost"
magnetic powers. Such rubbish is badly I or the “Spectral Mortgage,” furnish delightful
face.”
now


68
[July,
THE DIAL
reading; at any other time, they would hardly the “ Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Next
succeed in compelling attention.
to this brave and independent advocate of woman's
There is a passage in one of the novels of freedom, Mrs. Fawcett awards credit to Sidney Smith,
which mention has just been made, which may impulses which gave the agitation force and progress.
to Shelley, and to John Stuart Mill, for initial
serve as a sort of commentary upon
the
repre-
sentative American fiction of the present day, the subject, to learn from this and the succeeding essays
It will be a surprise to those not specially informed on
It betrays “an ignorance of all that is highest how much more favored is the position of women
in life, a calm, self-satisfied acceptance of a in the United States than in the most enlightened
petty standard.” So long as fiction is felt by portions of Europe. The general fact has been well
a large majority of persons to be nothing more understood, but the particular circumstances on which
than a means of amusement, just so long will the fact rests have never before been so plainly set
it present these as its main characteristics. But forth. It was an English woman who opened to her
surely this art has been ennobled
by so many yet to this day neither Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell nor
sex the doors of the medical schools of America; and
great names, that we have some right to expect any of the capable women who have followed her in
both a better product and a better estimate of
the study of medicine are allowed membership in the
the value of this department of literature. medical societies of Great Britain, nor can a woman
The most approved writing now done in this obtain admission to one of the medical colleges in the
kind in this country makes little approximation kingdom, except that which has been founded and is
to any sort of greatness. It has merits, to be sustained exclusively for women. It is a surprise,
sure, and the great positive merit of style; but too, to meet in different essays the statement that --
it has no largeness of grasp, and even its vision
as Dora D'Istira repeats it --" in the greatest of the
is contracted. It is excellent as a beginning, of rights which she does not yet enjoy in any other
Slavonic states, in Russia, woman has secured a body
but excellent only as such.
Christian nation." Elizabeth Blackwell was the first
WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE.
woman to secure equal privileges with men in the
study of medicine, but Nadiejda Souslova, a native
of Russia, was the second. She passed a brilliant
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
examination at Zurich, and has since built up a large
practice in St. Petersburgh. Russian women, mar-
The chief value of the volume bearing the title of ried or single, may hold property in their own right,
“The Woman Question in Europe" (Putnam) lies and when so doing are qualified as electors, although
in its very complete and authentic presentation, in a their votes are deposited by some male representative,
series of comprehensive essays, of the status of woman and they are at the same time eligible to office in the
from a social, political, legal, educational, industrial, municipal and county assemblies, which are demo-
and moral point of view, in the various nations of cratic institutions administering local government.
Europe at the present moment. It will be at once
All the greater and nearly all the minor Russian
acknowledged that a body of materials containing universities are open to women; still the facilities for
this stock of information, properly arranged and the education of girls are by no means equal to those
digested, must possess no little interest and signifi- afforded in our own country. Mr. Stanton has exer-
The essays have, with one accidental excep cised great care to ensure fulness and accuracy in the
tion, been written at the solicitation of the editor, Mr. matter embodied in his book. A biographical sketch
Theodore Stanton, by women whose intellectual of each collaborator prefaces her contribution, copious
ability and activity have rendered them in a broad foot-notes add to the data contained in the essays,
sense fitting representatives of their sex. The papers and an index affords convenient reference to the entire
are all fresh, having been prepared expressly for contents of the work.
their present use, and are uniformly clear, concise, and
coherent. In the exposition of the subject, sixteen Why should not more people keep a journal and
of the states of Europe are accorded separate chap- note down observations and reflections as well worth
ters; but the little that was to be said of the advance reading as those taken from the diaries of Henry D.
of elevated ideas of womanhood in Turkey, Greece, Thoreau? Somebody has said that the autobiogra-
and Bulgaria, is included in a single final section phy of any person truthfully written out would be
entitled “The Orient.” England occupies relatively full of interest and instruction. There are moment-
the largest amount of space, with five essays treating ous incidents in the life of each human being, expo-
respectively the women's suffrage, educational, and riences which are the turning points of destiny, and,
industrial movements, and women in medicine and as though often giving little or no sign outwardly of
philanthropists. Mrs. Fawcett, the distinguished their tragical influence, decide the soul's destiny per-
writer on political economy, and the wife of the pres- haps forever. Were this evolution of events but
ent postmaster-general of England, furnishes the first delineated simply and sincerely, what edification
of these essays; while her countrywoman and an might it not yield; how much light throw on the
author of equal fame, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, dark problems of existence! It is but to cultivate a
has provided a general Introduction to the volume. habit of walking through the world open-eyed, of
Mrs. Fawcett ascribes the origin of the movement seeing the myriad things by the way, little as well
which is creating and extending so immense a revo as big, that are beautiful and significant, and of
lution in the condition of women, and consequently pausing long enough to take in the full sense of
of the order of society, to the publication in 1792 of their import. It would cost no time; it would merely
that much contemned work by Mary Wollstonecraft, I fill what are now vacant moments; and the profit of
cance.


1884.]
69
THE DIAL
it we are able to perceive when reading such records ciation of America on the part of English people,
as have been given to us from the journals of and therefore impeded the establishment of those
Thoreau. A life could scarcely be more restricted cordial relations which right-minded English people,
or obscure than his. Yet how rich he made it to as well as their American cousins, sincerely wish to
himself and to an ever widening concourse by the see established.” The dignity and delicacy of spirit
thought constantly enlivening and exalting it. It shown by her in discussing this topic are worthy of
was his bent to live alone in himself and in Nature. all praise. Mrs. Bianciardi has dwelt in Rome,
He obeyed the instinct as a law divinely implanted, Florence, and Siena, among other Italian cities,
and thus developed a strong and unique individ spending summers in villas in the country, and mak-
uality, which, without special or great gifts, is attract ing excursions to places of interest. Portions of the
ive and stimulating. The volume entitled “Early experience gained in this manner are related in
Spring in Massachusetts," which was made up of chapters complete in themselves yet cohering by a
extracts from Thoreau's diaries, is followed by another unity of subject.
compiled in a similar manner and referring exclu-
sively to “Summer.” It is the intention of the edi A SERIES of twelve articles contributed originally
tor, Mr. H. G. O. Blake, to prepare a series of these to the Paris “Temps” by M. Philippe Daryl, have
books which shall contain a picture of the successive been reproduced in an English version, under the
seasons as they appeared to Thoreau. They should title of “ Public Life in England” (George Rout-
certainly continue until the journals are exhausted. ledge & Sons). The articles are brilliant studies of
The present volume comprises notes dated in the the national character and the ruling institutions of
month of June and to the 10th of July, in the years
Great Britain, in certain respects more minute and
included between 1838 and 1860. They link fresh correct than though they had been done by an
and vivid sketches of the manifold aspects of Nature,
Englishman. M. Daryl has spent ten years in the
striking reflections and eloquent outbursts of expres-
British Isles, and to a good purpose in acquainting
sion, in an uninterrupted chain. Now they tell of himself with the literature, the laws, the manners and
"the temples of the mountain covered with lichen;" the customs of the people. He has looked at them
now of the bobolink “just touching his theorbo, his
without prejudice or prepossession, as one wholly
glassichord, his water organ, and one or two notes
outside of their life and yet a keen, intelligent, and
globe themselves and fall in liquid bubbles from his
sensible observer of it. He is not the equal of Taine
tuning throat;" and again of the galls on young
in imagination or eloquence, but he has a more sym-
white oaks, which lead to the remark that “Through
pathetic understanding of the nation he is describing.
our temptations, aye, and our falls, our virtues
He seems less of a foreigner, and consequently is
appear.” There is scarcely a dull paragraph in the often a better interpreter of the Anglican spirit and
book or one that does not hold some grain of knowl-
conduct. M. Daryl has quick discernment, unbiased
edge or germ of thought. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) judgment, stores of information, vivid sensibilities,
and mastery of clear and treuchant forms of expres-
sion. In writing of books, the press, the theatre,
A FRESH vein in treatises on foreign countries is philosophy, poetry, and the varied machinery of
struck by Mrs. E. D. R. Bianciardi, in the book government in England, he compares and contrasts
named “At Home in Italy” (Houghton, Mifflin & them constantly with those of his own country, thus
Co.) The author, an American by birth and loyal creating a lively impression of the dominating char-
in every fibre to her native land, has resided in Italy acteristics of both the French and the English. He
for a number of years, and writes of it not as a trav does not hesitate to give credit to England for a
eller retailing hastily-formed and second-hand opin purer literature and periodical press, and to point
ions, but as one intimately acquainted with the out the influence which this regard for dignity and
country and the people through long intercourse decency in print cannot fail to exert on the morals of
with them. The purpose of her book is to help her a nation. His liberality and candor gain our confi-
countrymen to a right understanding of Italian dence and his fund of knowledge and abundance of
habits and customs; hence some of its chapters have personal anecdote ensure us agreeable and profitable
a practical and matter-of-fact character. This does entertainment. England has seldom, if ever, found
not mean that they are dry or commonplace — for a more just and generous historian than in this rep-
Mrs. Bianciardi is a skilful and entertaining narrator resentative of a race obstinately opposed to her for
- but that they deal largely in details regarding a ages from instinct, habit, and tradition.
foreigner's life in Italy, which are not to be found
in guide-books or works of travel, but are of use to MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE, who recently published an
the stranger desiring to sojourn there for a time. entertaining account of “ An American Four-in-Hand
The book strikes one as the product of common in Britain, now presents the record of his travel
sense and cultivated taste. It is evident that the "Round the World" (Scribners). Mr. Carnegie
writer is guided by unerring tact in all the situations was a Scotch lad, with a lean purse, a shrewd mind,
of life, and aims to convey to her readers some of and a large heart. He came to this country and
this fine faculty of adjusting oneself to strange and earned wealth by hard work and judicious invest-
unexpected circumstances. In speaking of the con ments, and now he uses his means royally in dis-
duct of Americans abroad, Mrs. Bianciardi takes a pensing pleasure among his friends and procuring it
position opposed to that assumed by Mr. Henry for himself in fair measure and by rational methods.
James, and gently yet firmly reproves him for his His reflections throughout the journey “ Round the
persistent disparagement of anything American. World” are entertaining, but those with which he
"It is not too much to say,” she remarks, “ that he closes the volume are worth treasuring. They cover
has greatly retarded any true knowledge and appre several pages, but a sentence or two will serve as a


70
[July,
THE DIAL
sample. “The traveller will not see,” he says, “ in training to be acquired in good riding-schools is
all his wanderings so much abject, repulsive misery commended by the writer, it would appear to be
among human beings in the most heathen lands, as superfluous in view of the full and particular inform-
that which startles him in his civilized Christian home, ation her manual affords. Separate sections in it are
for nowhere are the extremes of wealth and poverty given to a discussion of the qualities of a good
so painfully presented. He will learn, too, if he be riding-horse, its paces and accoutrements, to the dress
observant, that very little is required after all to make and equipments of the rider, to seat on horseback,
mankind happy, and that the prizes of life worth con the art of mounting and dismounting, and to the
tending for are, generally speaking, within reach of proper management of her steed in all circumstances
the great mass. There is only one source of true and exigencies. Mrs. Karr's experience in horseman-
blessedness in wealth, and that comes from giving it ship began in her childhood, and has been perfected
away for ends that tend to elevate our brothers and by long practice and by the best continental teach-
enable them to share it with us." Mr. Carnegie is ing. Her book is the first exclusively devoted to the
buoyant in spirits and sagely philosophical; hence instruction of lady riders which has been produced
the affairs of this world look brighter to him than in America, and entitles her to rank as an authority
perhaps to the majority of mankind. His cheerful among her country women. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.)
faith is infectious, and therefore we are grateful to
him.
The science of cookery keeps pace with the advance
THE essay written by Mr. John Morley to accom of all knowledge at the present day. The most cul-
pany the new English edition of Emerson published tivated women are making it a subject of study,
by Macmillan, has been issued in pamphlet form in
while in all our great centres schools exist for the pur-
this country, and is what its authorship would lead pose of imparting its principles and practice to throngs
us to expect - a scholarly piece of literary criti of earnest pupils. It is becoming as fashionable for
cism, rather more valuable, on the whole, than Mr. young ladies to use kitchen utensils as to play the
Arnold's recent essay on the same subject. Mr. | piano; and there is a growing emulation among them
Morley takes what may be called the middle ground to display skill in the management of the cuisine.
in his estimate of the great writer, on the one
In such circumstances it is inevitable that there should
hand avoiding those exaggerations of praise which be progress in the art of preparing and serving food.
disfigure much that has been written on the sub Each new cook-book which follows close upon the
ject, and on the other showing a marked apprecia- heels of its predecessor, shows the development of
tion of the value of Emerson's work and its signifi which the subject is capable. The latest that has
cance with relation to American thought and life. / appeared, Mrs. Lincoln's “ Boston Cook-Book"
It is upon this relative value of that work that Mr. (Roberts Brothers), combines whatever is best in
Morley chiefly insists, although he does not deny those which have gone before, with improvements
it the possession of a large amount of absolute and refinements peculiar to itself. It is so complete
worth in its insight, its sympathies, its “radiant and admirable in its various departments that it
sanity and perfect poise.” A new edition of Emer seems to fill every requirement. How soon it will be
son could not be better heralded than by such a rivalled or superceded, it is unsafe to predict; but for
piece of judicious criticism as this essay affords, and the present we may commend it as in every respect
readers of Emerson cannot but be helped to a unsurpassed.
clearer understanding of his work by its perusal.
MR. Sam T. CLOVER is the author, and M. D.
THE Rev. John Mackenzie's book entitled “Day- volume entitled “Leaves from a Diary : a Tramp
Kimball, Chicago, publisher, of a rather amateurish
Dawn in Dark Places” (Cassell & Company) is a
Around the World." The tramp began at Denver,
history of mission life and work among the wild
with a capital of thirty cents, and ended at Chicago,
tribes in the interior of South Africa. Mr. Macken-
with a surplus of twenty-five dollars; the distance
zie went from England to his remote field of labor in
covered being something like forty thousand miles,
Bechwanaland in 1857, landing at Cape Town, and
and the time about a year and a quarter. A wide
reaching his final destination by means of ox-teams
which carried him and his little party slowly over a
range of experience is implied in such achievements
and conditions; and had Mr. Clover proved as skil.
great stretch of wilderness. In the beginning he
was a co-laborer with Dr. Moffatt and Dr. Living-record shows him to have been with difficulties of
ful in overcoming difficulties of authorship as his
stone, and his record is but a rehearsal of the hard-
travel, his book might have been an overwhelming
ships and privations which these devoted men and
their families endured in order to convey the gospel to
heathen races. The book lacks the qualities de MR. ROBERT BARNWELL ROOSEVELT's book on
manded by the popular taste, appealing, as it does,
Superior Fishing" (Orange Judd Company) con-
almost exclusively to those interested in the annals
tains an account of a fishing excursion in the waters
of missionary work.
of Lake Superior, undertaken by the author with a
representative dude for a companion; a description
The treatise bearing the name of “The American of several species of game fish; directions for fly-
Horsewoman,” by Mrs. Elizabeth Karr, is a model making; and a collection of recipes for camp-cookin
of its kind. Clearly written, methodically arranged, It is superfluous to add of one so well known among
and amply illustrated, it embraces all the instruction sportsmen, that Mr. Roosevelt is eminently qualified
and advice that can be needed by ladies desiring to to speak authoritatively on all matters connected
become accomplished equestrians. Although the with the fisherman's craft.
success.


1884.]
71
THE DIAL
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS.
seventh and eighth volumes of the French edition,
to form the closing volume (IV.) of the English edi-
MR. FROUDE's final volumes of Carlylean biogra- tion, is well advanced in its preparation for the press,
phy are expected in October.
and will be published simultaneously in French and
English.
The Memoirs of the Empress Eugenie up to the
time of the Prince Imperial's death will be ready in
What is known as the Bacon-Shakespeare contro-
the autumn, in both French and English.
versy, which reached a rather inane stage in this
country some time since, has made its way to Ger-
A PORTRAIT of Arthur O'Shaughnessy, the lamented
many, and found congenial soil in the speculative
English poet, with a sympathetic biography by Mrs. German mind. The principal English and American
Moulton, appears in “ The Manhattan " for July.
books on the subject -- Miss Bacon's, Mrs. Pott's,
MACMILLAN & Co. will soon issue “ Alice Lear-
and Appleton Morgan's — have recently been trans-
mont," a fairy story, written by the author of " John
lated into German, and the matter is receiving much
Halifax, Gentleman,” many years ago, and long out
attention in the leading journals. The "Allgemeine
of print.
Zeitung" has given several articles to it, and is happy
in the belief that the subject is now " in full flood,
Miss TINCKER, author of “The Jewel in the
and in a very short time all German men of learning
Lotos," etc., has written a new novel, the opening will awaken to the great interest” of the important
chapters of which will appear in the August number
questions involved. The German men of learning
of "Lippincott's Magazine."
are to be congratulated on their discovery.
MR. HENRY CABOT LODGE will edit a new limited
edition of the works of Alexander Hamilton, to be
THE Lenox Library, in New York, is understood
published by Putnam's Sons. Mr. Lodge wrote the
to be managed in a very peculiar manner, the pur-
Life of Hamilton in the series of “ American States-
pose apparently being to have as few readers as
men."
possible. Access to it is had by writing a letter to
the Librarian ; and in time a card of admission
GENERAL GORDON'S “ Letters from the Crimea, the comes back through the post-office. When a student
Danube, and America," being his private correspond goes there he usually finds the door locked. The
ence during the first part of his military career, will New Yorkers have complained of such management
soon be published in England, and, presumably, also for
years, but get no relief. These protests some-
in America.
times appear in a satirical form. The following
THE “Index," a very creditable educational jour- jeu d'esprit, entitled "A Catechism of the Lenox
nal, of Ann Arbor, Mich., will hereafter be published
Library," we copy from the London “Library
fortnightly instead of monthly, with a somewhat
Chronicle," where it is credited to a New York news-
widened scope. Several leading professors of the
paper. Its humor lies in its close adherence to facts,
University are announced as contributors.
and will no doubt be best appreciated by persons
who have attempted to use the library.
PRANG's series of “Poet cards," introduced last
What is this? This, dear, is the great Lenox Li-
season with subjects chosen from Longfellow, will brary.
be continued this year with a design in honor of What is it for? Nobody knows.
Whittier, executed by Miss L. B. Humphrey, and But I thought you said it was a library? So I did.
representing scenes from “Snow Bound," "Maud Then there must be books in it? Perhaps.
Muller,” and “The Barefoot Boy."
Why is it called the Lenox Library? Because it was
founded and given by Mr. James Lenox.
“HARPER'S ” for July has no less than eleven full Given to whom? To the city of New York.
page illustrations, three of them being portraits.
Oh! then it is a public library? Yes, dear.
That of Bismarck, the result of a special sitting, rep-
How delightful! Why it must be very useful to stu-
dents and the reading public? Very.
resents him with a full beard, which gives a new
But why are the doors locked! To keep the public
effect to the picturesque face of the old Chancellor.
The other portraits are of Webster and Jackson. All
But I thought you said it was a public library? So I
are strikingly good.
did.
The National Educational Association will hold its
Then how can they keep people out? By locking
the doors.
twenty-fourth annual meeting, at Madison, Wis., But why? To keep the pretty books from being
July 10 to 18. Among the subjects to be discussed
spoiled.
are “ Citizenship and Education,” “ Woman's Work Why! Who would spoil the pretty books? The public.
in Education,” Education of the Indian," “ Deaf How! By reading them.
Mute Education," “ The Utah Problem as Related to Gracious! What are those brass things on the roof?
National Education," etc. The attendance promises
Cannon, dear.
to be large, and the session one of uncommon in-
What are they for? To blow the heads off students
who want to get in.
terest.
Why? And see those gallows! Yes, dear.
A STATEMENT having appeared in print, to the And people hanging! Certainly, sweet.
effect that the Comte de Paris had suspended work
Who are they! Students who got in.
on his uncompleted “ History of the Civil War in
But is there no way of getting into the library
America,” Messrs. Porter & Coates, the American
without being shot or hanged ? Yes, sweet.
How? By writing an humble letter to the kind Lord
publishers of the work, desire us to say that- the
High Librarian.
report should not be credited. According to their Well? He will refer you to the Assistant Inspector
understanding with the author, the matter for the of Character.
out.


72
[July,
THE DIAL
And then? It will go to the Third Deputy Examiner
of Morals.
Next? He will pass it on to the Controller of Ways
and Means.
And he? He will, after mature deliberation, send it
to the Commercial Agency.
What for? To get a oper understanding of the
applicant's solvency.
Well? Then it comes back for the monthly meeting of
the Sub-committee on Private Inquiry.
Why? To ascertain if the applicant has any real
necessity for consulting any particular book in the
library.
And suppose he has ? Why, then the paper goes to
the Sub-janitor.
And what does he do? He finds out if the Astor or
Mercantile libraries have the book.
And if they have? He tells the applicant to go there
and consult it.
But if they have it not? Then the application goes
to the Commissioners of Vital Statistics.
For what purpose? To ascertain if the applicant is
still living.
And if he is ! At the next annual meeting of the
Board of Directors, if there be a quorum present,
which sometimes happens, he will get a ticket entitling
him to admission between the hours of two and three
on a specified day.
But if the poor applicant is busy on that day and
that hour? He forfeits his ticket.
But how is the public benefited by this public library?
Ask the Trustees.
London in 1884. Illustrated by Eighteen Bird's-Eye Views
of the principal streets. Also by a map showing its chief
suburbs and environs. By H. Fry. Pp. 247. Paper, London.
Net, 70 cents.
Vacation Cruising in Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. By J.
T. Rothrock, M.D. Pp. 262. $1.50.
A Western Journey with Mr. Emerson. Pp. 141. Paper,
50 cents; cloth, 75 cents.
Leares from a Diary. A Tramp Around the World. By S.
T. Clover. Pp. 188. $1.
Over the Border. Arcadia, the Home of "Evangeline." By
Eliza B. Chase. 4to, Pp. 215. $1.50.
The American Horsewoman. By Mrs. E. Karr. Pp. 324. $2.
"A more orderly, perspicuous, scientific, and exhaustive treatise
on any subject can hardly be found, and its literary style is cer-
tainly very good."--Chicago Journal.
Fly-Fishing in Maine Lakes; or, Camp-Life in the Wilder-
ness. By C. W, Stevens. Illustrated. Pp. 217. $2.
ESSAYS--BELLES LETTRES, ETC.
Prose Writings of William C. Bryant. Edited by Parke
Godwin. 2 vols., 8vo, gilt tops, being Vols. V and VI of "The
Life and Works of w. C. Bryant." $6.
Summer. From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau. Edited by
H. G. O. Blake. Pp. 382. $1.50.
" But there is also the charm which we always find in Thoreau's
writings – the sincerity, the earnestness, the occasional felicity
of expression, the rare outbursts of eloquence."--Critic and Good
Literature.
Practical Essays. By A. Bain, LL.D. Pp. 338. $1.50.
"The papers
are of an eininently practical kind.
Much novelty and originality."'-- Fopular Science Monthly.
Washington Irring. Commemoration of the One Hundredth
Anniversary of his birth by the Washington Irving Associa-
tion. Addresses by Judge Noah Davis, C. D. Warner, D. G.
Mitchell, W. C. Wilkinson, J. Wood, etc. 4to, pp. 57. Por-
traits and Illustrations. (Only 250 copies printed.) Net, $2.50.
Mothers in Council. Pp. 194. 90 cents.
"A treasury of helpful and suggestive thought."- Harper's
Magazine,
Cobwebs of Criticism. A Review of the first Reviewers of
the "Lake," "Satanic," and "Cockney Schools." By T. H.
Crane. 8vo, pp. 266. London. Net, $2.65.
Anglo-Saxon Literature. By John Earle, M.A. Pp. 262.
Net, 75 cents.
Our Birthday Bouquet. Culled from the Shrines of the
Saints, and the Gardens of the Poets. By Eleanor C. Don-
nelly. Pp. 414. $1.
R. W. Emerson. An Essay. By John Morley. Pp. 53. Paper,
20 cents.
The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair. Complete.
By N. Hawthorne. Riverside Literature Series." Paper,
16 cents.
Essays. By R. W. Enuerson. First Series. " The Riverside
Literary Series." Pp. 290. Paper, 15 cents.
*
BOOKS OF THE MONTH.
[The following List includes all New Books, American and Foreign,
received during the month of June, by MESSR8. JANSEN, MC-
CLURG & Co., Chicago.]
.
POETRY.
*
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
History of the Thirty Years' War. From the German of
Anton Gindely, by A. Ten Brook. With an Introductory and
a Concluding Chapter by the Translator. Portraits, &c. 2
Vols. $4.
The Story of the Coup D'Etat. By M. De Maupas. Freely
translated from the Fre with notes, by A. D. Vandam.
Pp. 487. $1.75.
“To see it as Napoleon conceived it and planned it, and as he
executed it, this it is to read the book of M. De Maupas.
Seldom has a hard fact been more mellifluously expressed."-
Literary World.
Landmarks of Recent History. 1770-1883. By C. M.
Yonge. Pp. 279. London. $1.25.
Short History of the Reformation, By J. F. Hurst, D.D.
Pp. 125. Net, 40 cents.
Arminius Vambery. His Life and Adventures. Written by
himself. Portrait and Illustrations. Popular Edition. Pp.
370. $2.50.
A most fascinating work, full of interesting and curious expe-
riences in the most varied countries and conditions of life."
Contemporary Review, London.
Chinese Gordon. A Succinct Record of his Life. By A.
Forbes. Standard Library. Pp. 171. Paper, 15 cents. Cloth,
75 cents.
Life of John Kalb, Major General in the Revolutionary
Army. By F. Kapp. New Edition. Pp. 337. Portrait. $1.75.
The Evolution of a Life. Described in the Memoirs of Major
Seth Eyland. Pp. 336. $1.50.
The Great Composers. By H. Butterworth. Pp. 179. $1.
A Strange Life; or, The Philateical Millionaire ; and how &
fortune was made by one "penny postage stamp." Being the
true Biography of J. W. Palmer, etc. By Nemesis. Paper.
London. Net, 20 cents.
The Poetical Works of John Keats. Edited by W. T. Arnold.
Pp. 349. Vellum. Portrait. London. Net, $4.20.
The Poetical Works of John Keats. Given from his own
editions and other authentic sources, and collated with many
manuscripts. Edited by H. B. Forman. Pp. 597; xxvii. Por-
truit. London, Net, $2.80.
“ From Grare to Gay." Selections from the Complete Poems
of H. Cholmondeley-Pennell. Pp. 170. Etched portrait. $2.
SCIENCE-METAPHYSICS.
Mechanics' and Engineers' Pocket-Book; or, Tables,
Rules, and Formulas Pertaining to Mechanics, Mathematics,
Physics, etc. By C. H. Haswell. Forty-fifth Edition. Revised
and enlarged. Pp. 922. Leather, tucks. H.
A Treatise on Metalliferous Minerals and Mining. By
D. C. Davis, F.G.S. Second Edition, carefully revised. Pp. 438.
London. Net, $4.40.
The Bone Caves of Ojcow, in Poland. By Prof. Dr. F.
Römer. Translated by J. E. Lee, F.G.S., F.S.A. With
numerous plates. Folio. London. Net, $4.40.
Our Iron Roads : Their History, Construction, and Adminis-
tration. By F. S. Williams. With numerous Illustrations,
Fourth Edition. 8vo, pp. 514, gilt edges. London. Net, $4.20.
A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Detached
Lever Escapement for Watches and Time-Pieces. From the
German of M. Grossmann. Pp. 110. With 20 Diagrams. $2.
Botanical Micro-Chemistry, and Introduction to the Study
of Vegetable Histology. Prepared by V. A. Poulsen. Trans-
lated, with the assistance of the Author, and considerably
enlarged, by Prof. W. Trelease. Pp. 118. Net, $1.
Agnosticism of Hume and Huxley. With a Notice of the
Scottish School. By J. McCosh, D.D., LL.D. Paper, 60 cts.
The Coöperative Commonwealth in its Outlines. An Expo-
sition of Modern Socialism. By L. Gronlund. Pp. 278. $1.
TRAVEL AND SPORTING.
Rapid Ramblings in Europe. By W. C. Falkner. Illus-
trated. Pp. 566. $2.
The Tourist's Handbook of Switzerland. By R. Allbut.
Maps, Plans and Illustrations. Pp. 344. Flexible. $1.50.
The Isle of Wight. Its History, Topography, and Antiquities,
etc. Especially adapted to the wants of the tourist and
excursionist. Map and plans. New and revised edition. Pp.
323. Flexible. $1.50.


1884.]
73
THE DIAL
ECONOMICS - POLITICS.
The Future Work of Free Trade in English Legislation.
By C. E. Troup, B.A. "Cobden Prize Essay, 1883." Pp. 115.
London. Net, $1.25.
Taxation in the United States, 1789-1816. By H. C. Adams,
Ph.D. “Johns Hopkins University Studies." Paper. 50 cts.
The American Protectionist's Manual. By G. B. Steb-
bins. Pp. 192. Paper. 25 cents.
Scenes in the Commons. By D. Anderson. Pp. 271. London,
Net, $1.75.
The Abolition of the Presidency. By H. C. Lockwood. 8vo,
pp. 331. $1.50.
RELIGIOUS.
The Great Argument; or, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.
By W. H. Thompson, M.A., M.D. Pp. 471. $2.
"Plain, clear, concise, argumentative, and persuasive."-- Inter-
Ocean
Hours voith the Bible; or, The Scriptures in the Light of
Modern Discovery and Knowledge. By C. Geikie, D.D. Vol.
VI. From the Exile to Malachi, completing the Old Testa-
ment. Pp. 544. $1.50.
The Churchman's Family Bible. The New Testament. The
Commentary by various authors. With numerous Illustrations
and two Maps. Quarto. Pp. 484. Net, $1.80.
The Gospel of Grace. By A. Lindesie. Pp. 164. $1.25.
A Sketch Book of the American Episcopate. 1783-1883. By
the Rev. H. G. Batterson, D.D. Second edition, revised and
enlarged. Pp. 368. $1.
Reflections in Palestine, 1883. By C. G. Gordon. Pp. 124.
90 cents.
Estempore Preaching. By W. Smith. Pp. 170. 75 cents.
Buddhism in China. By the Rev. S. Beal. Pp. 263. Net,
75 cents,
A Hard Heart. From the German of G. Raimund. Pp. 243.
$1.25.
A Palace-Prison; or, The Past and the Present. Pp. 347. $1.
"A thrilling and well told tale."—Washington Post.
Princess Napraxine. By Ouida. Pp. 531. Paper, 40 cents.
Cloth, $1.
Our Base Ball Club, and how it won the Championship. By
N. Brooks. With an Introduction by A. G. Spalding.
8vo,
pp. 202. Illustrated. Boards, $1.50; cloth, $2.25.
There was once a Man. By R. H. Newell (Orpheus C. Kerr).
Pp. 526. $1.50.
"Quaint and Fresh."- Hartford Times.
Stage Struck; or, She would be an Opera-Singer. By Blanche
Roosevelt. Pp. 521. $1.50.
“One of the cleverest, freshest, most original börels, that has
lately appeared."'-- Daily News, London.
Jackanapes. By Juliana H. Ewing. With Illustrations by
R. Caldecott. Pp. 60. Paper, 30 cents.
Idalia. By Ouida. New Edition. Pp. 594. Paper, 40 cents.
Bricks without Straw. By A.W. Tourgee, LL.D. New edition.
Pp. 521. Paper, 60 cents.
A Fool's Errand. By one of the Fools. A Novel. Together
with Part II. The Invisible Empire, an Historical Review of
the Epoch on which the Tale is based. By A. W. Tourgee,
LL.D. Pp. 521. New and Cheaper Edition. Paper, 60 cents.
Clytia. A Romance of the Sixteenth century. From the Ger-
man of George Taylor. Pp. 364. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 90
cents.
The Fortunes of Rachel. By E. E. Hale. Standard Library.
Pp. 221. Paper, 25 cents. Cloth, $1.
Breaking a Butterfly; or, Blanche Ellerslie's Ending. By
the author of “Guy Livingstone." New edition. Pp. 395. $1.
Lady Blake's Lore Letters. The Theme from which Owen
Meredith took his famous Poem of “Lucile." Paper, 25
cents.
Picadilly. A Fragment of Contemporary Biography. By Lau-
rence Oliphant. Paper, 25 cents.
The Widow's Son. A Story of Jewish Life of the Past. By
I. N. Lichtenberg. Pp. 342. Paper, 50 cents.
The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, Bart.,
M. P. Formerly known as “ Tommy Upmore." By R. D.
Blackmore. Pp. 255. Paper, 35 cents. Boards, 50 cents.
Saved-off Sketches; Humorous and Pathetic. By C. B. Lewis.
("M. Quad.") Pp. 324. $1.50.
Mingo and other Sketches in Black and White. By J. C. Harris.
Pp. 273. $1.25.
FRANKLIN SQUARE LIBRARY.
In the West Countrie. By May Crommelin. 20 cents.
A Fair Country Maid. By E. F. Byrrne. 20 cents.
Godfrey Helstone. By Georgiana M. Craik. 20 cents,
My Ducats and My Daughter. 20 cents.
REFERENCE - EDUCATION.
Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engraver8. New
Edition. Thoroughly revised. Edited by R. E. Graves.
Royal 8vo, paper, Parts I-IV now ready. Per part, $1.75.
Outlines of Psychology. With Special Reference to the
Theory of Education. By J. Sully, M.A. 8vo, pp. 711. Lon-
don. Net, $4.20.
The Mother's and Kindergartner's Friend. By H. Car-
penter. Pp. 153. $1.25.
Lessons in Chemistry. By W. H. Green, M.D. Pp. 357.
Net, $1.25.
FICTION -- HUMOROU'S.
The Shadore of the War. A Story of the South in Recon-
struction Times. Pp. 378. $1.25.
"There is power in it, and there is humor and pathos, and there
is not, so far as we have observed, the least political animosity.
* * * Any right-minded Northerner or Southerner might have
written it." - New York Mail and Erpress.
The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys, with the Episode of
Mr. Washington Adams in England, and an Apology. By R.
G. White. Pp. 446. $1.25.
“This is one of the most entertaining of "international”
books, in which the mutual misconceptions and prejudices of
Englishmen and Americans are developed and illustrated."-
Publisher's Announcement.
A Country Doctor. By Sarah O. Jewett. Pp. 351. $1.25.
"The author gives to the heroine a most interesting character,
which, together with a graceful and easy style, makes the book
very pleasant reading." --Chicago Times.
The Giant's Robe. By F. Anstey. Pp. 427. $1.25.
“There has been nothing in serial fiction for many a long day
equal to "The Giant's Robe."--Pall Mall Gazette, London,
Tinkling Cymbals. By Edgar Fawcett. Pp. 332. $1.50.
The San Rosario Ranch, By Maud Howe. Pp. 390. $1.25.
"Belongs to a noble class of novels.
It is a good
warm love story."- Boston Advertiser.
Phæbe. By the author of "Rutledge.” Pp. 332. $1.25.
The Crime of Henry Vane. A Study with a Moral. By J. S.
of Dale, author of "Guerndale." Pp. 206. $1.
A study of American life. It is written with the vivid and
strong simplicity that has been a distinguishing feature of the
author's power."--Publisher's Announcement.
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins. By R. Pal-
tock. With a Preface by A. H. Bullen. 2 vols. Boards.
London. Net, $4.20.
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Ser.
vice of Her Majesty Queen Anne. Written by himself. Edited
by W. M. Thackeray. With Illustrations by G. Du Maurier.
8vo. Vol. VII of "The Standard Edition." $3.
Good Stories. By Chas. Reade. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.
Stories by American Authors.-IV. Pp. 186. 60 cents,
“Each one of the tales 1s a masterpiece."— Boston Traveller.
The Mistress of Ibichstein. From the German of Fr. Henkel.
Pp. 333. Paper, 30 cents ; cloth, $1.
+
NEW FRENCH BOOKS.
Sterne. Voyage Sentimentale. Illustré par Maurice Leloir.
Large 8vo. Paper. Net, $15.
This is by far the most beautiful work issued from the
French press of late years.
Georges Ohnet. Lise Fleuron, par Georges Ohnet, auteur de
“Le Maitre de Forges," etc. Net, $1.05.
Heine. Memoires de Henri Heine. Traduction de J. Bourdeau.
Net, $1.50.
Robida. Le Vrai Sexe Faible. Net, $1.05.
Saulière Auguste. Histoire Conjugales, Nouveaux Contes
lestes. Illustrations de Henry Somm. Net, $1.05.
Delvau Alfred. Les cocottes de mon Grandpere. Net, $1.50.
Saulière, Auguste. Pour une femme. Net, $1.05.
Malot, Hector. Marichette. 2 vols. Net, $1.80.
Halt, Robert. Marianne. Net, 90 cents.
Daudet, Alphonse. Sapho. Net, $1.05.
Catulle Mendes. Jeunes filles. Net, $1.05.
Belot, Adolphe. Lo Pigeon. Net, 90 cents.
Gyp. Le Monde á Coté. Net, $1.05.
Alfred Sirven. “L'enfant d'une Vierge." Paper, $1.05.
Pontserrez. “On va commencer ! Recits Saynetes et mon-
ologues." Paper, $1.05.
Emmanuel Gonzales. “L'Épée de Suzanne." Histoire du
temps de Francois ler. Paper, 40 cents,
Charles Joliet. “La Fornarine," (series “Les Grandes Amou-
reuses.") Paper, 60 cents.
Guy de Maupassant. “Des Verg." Paper, $1.80.
Georges Lorin. “Paris Rose." Illustré par Luigi Loir et Ca-
briol. Paper, $1.50.
Books in this list will be sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of
price, except those marked "net" (which require ten per cent. addi-
tional for postage), by JANSEN, MOCLURG & Co., Chicago.


74
[July,
TIE DIAL
Houghton, Mifflin & Co's
JOHN HOLLAND,
BEST QUALITY GOLD PENS,
MANUFACTURER OF ALL STYLES OF
NEW BOOKS.
Pencil Cases, Novelties in Charm Pencils,
Gold Tooth-Picks, FINE PEN-HOLDERS, ETC.
Our Gold Pens received the Highest Award at the
A COUNTRY DOCTOR. Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, “ For GREAT
ELASTICITY AND GENERAL EXCELLENCE." See Report of
A Novel. By SARAH ORNE JEWETT, author of " Deep- | Judges, published by Lippincott & Co., Phila. For sale
haven," “ The Mate of the Daylight,” etc. 16mo,
by the trade.
MANUFACTORY AND SALESROOM :
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A charming story laid among familiar New England scenes and
people, and picturing life as it is to-day in New England towns. Illustrated Price List Mailed on Application.
A lady physician is the heroine, a noble, true-hearted girl, who
cannot fail to win the hearts of all readers. A delightful story
for summer reading,
Ask Your Bookseller for Mark Twain's Scrap Book,
and Take No Other.
THE FATE OF MANSFIELD
HUMPHREYS.
MARK TWAIN'S
WASHINGTON
Eng-
land, and an Apology. By RICHARD GRANT WHITE.
16mo, $1.25.
This is one of the most interesting of “international” books,
illustrating the mutual misconceptions and prejudices of English-
men and Americans. Aside from the story, Mr. White's intimate
acquaintance with English habits of thought and modes of expres-
sion renders his book exceedingly piquant.
SUMMER
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THE DIAL
2 Monthly Journal of Current Literature
PUBLISHED BY
JANSEN, MCCLURG & CO.
CHICAGO, AUGUST, 1884.
[Vol. V, No. 52.]
TERMS - $1,50 PER YEAR.
CONTENTS.
treating the difficult passages of the Essex trial
FRANCIS BACON. Melville B. Anderson
and of Bacon's fall, not with ingenious casu-
77
PICTURES FROM THE ETERNAL CITY. Horatio N. Powers 79 istry, but according to the canons of every-day
THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Charles morality.
Mills Gayley
80
Even such a book has the accomplished and
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF WORLDS. Augusta Tovell 81
painstaking Dean of St. Paul's given us : nothing
RECENT POETRY. William Morton Payne
83
material, either favorable or unfavorable to
THE RECORDS OF A FAMOUS TRAVELLER
85
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
Bacon, seems omitted save the painful episode of
86
Bain's Practical Essays.-Corning's Brain Exhaustion.-
Peacham, of which, strangely enough, not a word
Townsend is The Entailed Hat.-Hammond's Lal.-Grove's
is said. The book is divided into nine chapters,
Beethoven's Nine Symphonies.---Tracy's Anatomy, Phy entitled respectively : Early Life, Bacon and
siology, and Hygiene.-Clarke's Chemistry.-Thayer's A
Elizabeth, Bacon and James I, Bacon Solicitor-
Western Journey with Emerson.-De Maupas's Story of
the Coup D'Etat.-Ballard's Handbook of the St. Nicholas
General, Bacon Attorney-General and Chancellor,
Agassiz Association.-Savage's Man, Woman, and Child. – Bacon's Fall, Bacon's Last Years, Bacon's Phil-
Pierrepont's Fifth Avenue to Alaska.-Smith's Extempore osophy, Bacon as a Writer. In treating of one
Preaching.--The Letters of William Cowper.-Tapley's
who lived, as did Bacon, a double life
the one
Manual of Amateur Photography.-Mrs. Sherwood's Man-
ners and Social Usages.-Miss Toosey's Mission, and Lad-
that of the somewhat unscrupulous man of affairs,
die.-Mrs. Lang's Dissolving Views.
the shrewd lawyer, the inveterate place-hunter ;
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS -
91 the other, that of the industrious man of letters,
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
91 the curious investigator, the discursive philoso-
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS
93
phical thinker,- it would be unfair to consider
all the questionable doings of his active life
apart from the aims and results of his contem-
FRANCIS BACON.*
plative life. The apparent selfishness and even
A life of Bacon so judicious, candid, impartial, baseness sometimes characterizing his conduct
and yet so sympathetic as this, was well worth can only be understood, not to say excused, by
writing ; but such a book is very difficult to write. one who has ascertained the really lofty and
The lights and shadows of Bacon's character are peremptory nature of the motives prompting him
so iridescent, the phases of his mental activity to spend so much precious time in seeking and
so kaleidoscopic, as to afford an ample oppor administering official trusts, which inferior men
tunity for plausible epigrams like Pope's, or sought more successfully and administered as
clever special pleas like Macaulay's. Essayists well. Accordingly, the double life of Bacon is,
not a few have cried down Bacon's life and cried with great skill, made prominent all through the
up his philosophy, and nowadays there are some narrative portion of the book, so that the reader
who seek to decry both. Laborious biographers is nowhere permitted to forget the immortal
and editors have devoted their lives to the task Bacon who thought and wrote, in his sorrow and
of persuading themselves and the world that indignation over the mortal Bacon who squabbled
Bacon's “civil ends” were not only as “moder in the forum with Coke, took and denied Awbry's
ate” but as pure as his “contemplative ends” bribe, toadied Villiers, assisted at the torture of
were "vast,” and have attempted to inscribe over Peacham, betrayed Essex, and apotheosized
against his name upon the page of history, not James.
only "greatest, wisest,” but “noblest ” of man When Milton said, in the reign of Charles I,
kind. An authoritative book was really needed, that " under such a despotism no free and splen-
which, abstaining equally from epigram, from did wit could flourish," was he thinking of the
invective, and from eulogy, should set forth, as relation of Bacon to Elizabeth and to James ?
clearly and as soberly as might be, the authen. Certainly one need not go a step farther back
tic facts of this memorable life, blanching in history for an impressive exanrple of the
nothing and setting naught down in malice, baneful influence of despotism upon the noblest
minde. Bacon was from the first a suitor for
Bacon. By R. W. Church, Dean of St. Paul's. "English Men
of Letters." New York: Harper & Brothers.
royal patronage. He did not, indeed, clamor


78
[August,
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for a pension, as did his contemporary, Spenser; defects of Bacon's philosophy. The student who
Bacon simply asked the employment for which is puzzled to know precisely what he accom-
he was eminently fitted. There can be little plished and wherein he failed, can hardly do
doubt that, under any liberal system of govern-
better than to read the chapter, and perhaps we
ment, his talents would have received that glad can do our readers no better service than to set
recognition which they received in the House of down succinctly its main conclusions, which are
Commons, where he was a leader. It seems those of the wisest of Verulam's students. His
hard to resist the conviction of Macaulay, that chief limitations as a philosopher may be classified
Elizabeth saw Bacon through the diminishing as follows:
lens which it suited Cecil, Lord Burghley, to 1. Bacon seems to have thought that he had
hold up before her eyes ; while the mind of really discovered the key to the temple of
James was likewise pre-occupied by the jealous knowledge - what he calls "the clue of the
misrepresentations of the younger Cecil, Lord labyrinth,
a kind of 6
open sesame," or Alad-
Salisbury. These astute 'statesmen may both din's lamp, whose efficacy would depend little
have felt in their unemployed kinsman a upon the capacity of the person using it. But
demoniac energy, which would be less dangerous what this instrument is, he has not succeeded in
to the Cecil interest out of office than in. Be giving the most patient and intelligent of his
this as it may, Bacon knew, for twenty years, readers clearly to understand.
"What hell it is in suing long to bide."
2. His account of the doctrine of induction
Essex had exhausted all his interest to procure
is incomplete and unsatisfactory, and the system
for Bacon the Attorney-Generalship at the age
breaks down in his own hands.
6. There is,” says
of thirty-two, but it went to Coke, who perhaps
Dean Church, “a great interval between his
deserved it better. Bacon was fifty-two when
method of experimenting, his 'Hunt of Pan'—the
he attained it, and out of the thirteen years that
three tables of instances, Presence,''Absence,'
remained to him he had several years of absorb-
and Degrees, or Comparisons, leading to a
ing official drudgery before him ere he was to process of sifting and exclusion, and to the First
attain the Chancellorship -- an office the prestige Vintage, or beginnings of theory -- and say, for
of which he felt to be essential to the philosopher instance, Mill's four methods of experimental
whose design was no less than to explode the enquiry : the method of agreement, of differences,
whole learning of the schools and to impose a
of residues, and of concomitant variations.”
new set of opinions upon the thinking portion of
3. There was in Bacon's system of thought
mankind. Bacon had chosen to appear not to
no place for metaphysics.
know that the Cecils were against him, and had,
** With wonderful Hashes of sure intuition or happy
to the last, plied them both with the language
anticipation, his mind was deficient in the powers
which deal with the deeper problems of thought, just as
of affection and flattery. But upon the death of it was deficient in the mathematical faculty. The
Salisbury, Bacon writes of him to the King with
subtlety, the intuition, the penetration, the severe pre-
fierce and vindictive rancor :
cision, even the force of imagination, which make a man
a great thinker on any abstract subject were not his ;
“Had James disclosed something of his dead servant,
the interest of questions, which had interested metaphy-
who left some strange secrets behind him, which showed
sicians, had no interest for him [sic] : he distrusted and
his unsuspected hostility to Bacon ? Except on this undervalued them.”
supposition (but there is nothing to support it), no
4. In scientific knowledge he was in some
exaggeration of the liberty allowed to the language of
compliment is enough to clear Bacon of an insincerity
respects in the rear, even of his own age.
He was
which is almost inconceivable in any but the meanest no mathematician, cared little for mathematics,
tools of power.” (p.92.)
and did not see its necessity. His knowledge
The baneful effects, both upon his character of astronomy was small ; he knew little of what
and upon his philosophy, of all this servile Kepler and Galileo were doing, and that little
“ canvassing" for office, are well stated at the did not command his sympathy. Mr. Ellis, his
beginning of the fifth chapter. There is space loyal editor, remarks that “none of Newton's
here to cite only the close of this admirable astronomical discoveries could have been made,
paragraph.
if astronomers had not continued to render them-
“But his heart was always sound in its allegiance to selves liable to Bacon's censure.” Indeed, none
knowledge ; and if he had been fortunate enough to
of the men who were really applying efficiently
have risen [sic] earlier to the greatness which he aimed
at as a vantage-ground for his true work, or if he had
the principles of induction to nature were in
had self-control to have dispensed [sic] with wealth and touch with Bacon ; Harvey even makes light of
position - if he had escaped the long necessity of being the Novum Organum in the well-known saying:
a persistent and still baffled suitor -- we might have had
“He writes philosophy like a Lord Chancellor."
as a completed whole what we have now only in great
fragments, and we should have been spared the blots Any ingenuous youth who should to-day accept
which mar a career which ought to have been a noble as science the vast masses of alleged facts stored
one.” (p. 96.)
up in Bacon's works, would become the laughing-
In the eighth chapter an exceedingly concise stock of his fellows; and the astounding fact
and lucid account is given of the excellences and that Bacon expected to "store up as in a treasure-


1834.]
79
THE DIAL
way
nature
house” all the phenomena of the universe as the shrines of the Eternal City, after a pleasant
materials for his philosophy, shows how inade experience of some of the churches in Paris,
quately even he conceived the extent of nature with deep reverence and a large receptiveness
and “her infinite variety.” Finally, “in many to all that appeals to the cultivated religious
instances he exemplified in his own work the sensibilities of one who is strongly grounded in
very faults which he charged on the older philos- the Roman Catholic faith. The facts of his-
ophies : haste, carelessness, precipitancy, using tory, in which she is well versed, are so closely
words without thinking them out, assuming to blended in her apprehension with the numerous
know when he ought to have perceived his real legends that have grown up through the centu-
ignorance."
ries respecting persons and things, that she does
“ What, then,” asks our author, “with all not seem to discriminate at all between them;
these mistakes and failures, not always creditable but her spirit is so devout, she takes such fresh
or pardonable, has given Bacon his pre-eminent and inspiriting delight in all that the Roman
place in the history of science ?" The following Church affords the believing pilgrim, she sees
paragraphs contain as fair a summary of his so much and reports what impresses her so well,
answer as can be given here :
that she makes very attractive the about the
1. “What Bacon did, indeed, and what he meant, are holy and venerable places which she describes.
separate matters. He meant an infallible method by Every facility seems to have been afforded her
which man should be fully equipped for a struggle with
to gratify her enthusiasm for sacred spectacles,
But what he did was to persuade men
for the future that the intelligent, patient, persevering relics, ceremonials and worship, and her taste
cross-examination of things, and the thoughts about
for the marvellous and beautiful. She has
them, was the only, and was the successful road to know. interviews with the Pope and with dignitaries
No one had yet done this, and he did it.”
of the church; she is favored with special atten-
2. Not only did Bacon teach men the way to know
nature, he taught them also the inestimable value and
tions from scholars and custodians of antiqui-
dignity of such knowledge. “It is this imaginative yet
ties and relics; she visits the churches, crypts,
serious assertion of the vast range and possibilities of catacombs, the houses of brotherhoods, and
human knowledge which, as M. de Rémusat remarks
historic sanctuaries; she studies the great fres-
the keenest and fairest of Bacon's judges - gives Bacon
the claim to the undefinable but very real character of
coes, the splendid altars, the grand architecture
greatness.”
of the Imperial City, neglecting no spot hal-
3. Bacon's philosophy had the highest of practical lowed by martyrdom or miracle; and notes and
aims : in his own words, “ the glory of God and the
observations of all have place on her glowing
relief of man's estate." Church eloquently clears it of
the reproach of a mean utilitarianism, “ unless it is
pages. One not in sympathy with her religious
utilitarianism to be keenly alive to the needs and pains belief will find much entertainment in her bright
of life, and to be eager and busy to lighten and assuage and flowing narrative and the naiveté with
them.”
which she relates the traditions and legends of
4. Finally, Bacon was no mere philosopher writing the church; while those of kindred faith will
in a technical jargon abstruse speculations for the
esoteric. Though he despised English and preferred
be charmed with her unquestioning credulity,
Latin of which he was a consummate master, he stands her catholic interpretations, and the vigor with
next to Shakespeare, in his own time, in ability to evoke
the slumbering harmonies of his mother-tongue, just that make Rome so fascinating to the devout.
which she reproduces the scenes and objects
as he resembles Shakespeare in his apparent uncon-
sciousness of these powers. It is probably to his easy
There are pictures from Miss Starr's pen of bits
command of the key-board of the English language, of scenery, interiors of sanctuaries, hoary ruins,
to his unrivalled powers of illustration, to the quaint or
graceful play of his imagination, to all those qualities, monial, which we should be glad to transcribe,
gatherings of ecclesiastics, and imposing cere-
in short, which have given him an assured place among
the foremost classics of the English tongue, that he
if there was space in this inadequate notice.
chiefly owes his success in penetrating men with his The Italian churches are famous for their mu-
own boundless faith in the progress and the value of sic, and its entrancing power is not lost upon
human knowledge.
our pilgrim. More than once she dwells upon
MELVILLE B. ANDERSON.
its inspiring influence: “We heard that mass
chanted as for God alone. Its sweetness and
majesty were for him as much as the perfume
PICTURES FROM THE ETERNAL CITY.*
of any wild flower in some inaccessible glen, or
This work, consisting of two handsome vol the grandeur of some lake shut in by inaccessi-
umes, is a record chiefly of visits to the churches ble mountains.” Hearing the superb music of
and sacred places of Rome and its vicinity, and
Monte Cassino, she says: “Those wonderful
is illustrated by numerous etchings of interest stops, and reeds, and keys, gave all the eleva-
ing objects mentioned in the text. The mind of tion of the spiritual life at Monte Cassino; all
the writer is profoundly imbued with ecclesias the grandeur of soul in its founder; all the
tical sentiment and feeling, and she approaches brave tenderness of a Saint Scholastica; all the
storms of the elements, even the trembling of
* PILGRIMS AND SHRINES. Ry Eliza Allen Starr.
umes. Chicago: Union Catholic Publishing Company.
the earthquakes by which it is yet visited, and
In two vol-


80
[August,
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still more the storms from without of discord- to Dr. Fraenkel, Diodorus, Justin (in his
ant human interests and the oppressions of the abridgment of Trogus), and Curtius, draw
powerful. Yet through all the pathos of that their information from Clitarchus, a writer
story, ran the sweetness of one flute-like stop, decidedly not above reproach. But Arrian
and this told how celestial was the hope which gives proof of his superior judgment in choos-
still cheers on the hardy religious of Saint ing as authorities Aristobulus and Ptolemy,
Benedict."
who were close companions of Alexander, and
Of the fifty-three etchings that illustrate the who writing after the hero's death are the more
work, some are slight outlines - bare sugges- probably disinterested. Plutarch, while rely-
tions of a landscape, — others have various ing upon the authorities already mentioned,
degrees of vitality and suggestiveness. We revamps too frequently materials gathered
have views of churches, pillars, arches, episco- from Onesicritus, mighty in romancing, and
pal chairs, courts, fonts, monasteries, glimpses from Chares, who is not so veracious as
of interiors and historic localities, that mate he might be. He also cites the letters of
rially enhance the interest of the publication, Alexander, which are of doubtful authentic-
which was not primarily intended as a work of ity, for Arrian refers to only one of them,
art. A lack of strength is evident in the etch and Strabo attributes the inaccuracy of another
ings as a whole, and yet they are not destitute to falsehood or forgery. Inasmuch, then, as
of a feeling of refinement. With some there is Plutarch endeavors the entertaining and anec-
a delicacy that is attractive even where vigorous dotic, while Diodorus, Curtius, and Justin draw
treatment is lacking; as “Episcopal Chair in upon a corruption of Clitarchus himself cor-
SS. Nereo et Achillio” and “S. Giovanni in rupt, it remains for us to accept Arrian as our
Olio."
Of the more solidly handled plates, guide in the matter of the history of Alex-
there
may be mentioned, “Santa Pudenziana,” ander. Arrian, moreover, is seldom airy, rarely
“Sant' Agenesa,” and “S. Pietro in Vincoli.? vain, never ravening for the marvellous ; but
The Capuchin Monastery and Sant Isidore, in grave, discriminating, and exact, as becomes the
happy treatment, are among the very best of "Younger Xenophon” to be.
the series. Great etching is the accomplish “A reader seldom peruses a book with pleas-
ment of only a few, and requires strong and ure,” says Addison, “till he knows whether the
highly trained intellectual power; but such pro writer of it be a black or fair man, of a mild
ductions as these, which are so honestly done or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor,
and so modestly introduced, are not without with other particulars of the like nature, that
their value as reminiscences of interesting and conduce very much to the right understanding
venerated objects, and as aids to a clearer of an author.” But Arrian vouchsafes us little
apprehension and enjoyment of what the enthu information concerning himself, deeming it
siastic author found so delightful.
unnecessary to elaborate his frank confession
HORATIO N. POWERS. in the Anabasis, that for him, from youth up,
the love of letters had been in the stead of
family, country, and evanescent honors. “For
whoever I may be, this I know about myself.
THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE
that there is no need for me to assert my name;
GREAT.*
nor is it unknown to men." From Photius,
The sources of information concerning the Pliny the Younger, Lucian, Cassius, and oth-
ers, we gather that Flavius Arrianus was born
exploits of Alexander the Great are far to
in Nicomedia, probably, in the reign of Domi-
seek, and muddy when found. To some hun-
tian, and that having there lived for many
dred and fifty writers on the subject uncertain
years a scholarly and philosophical life as
references remain, but only five respectable his-
priest of Ceres and Proserpina, his generally
tories have come down to us. of the fragmen acknowledged worth
was rewarded by the
tary one hundred and fifty, a trustworthy col-
double citizenship of Athens and Rome.
lection has been made by Athenæus. The five
narratives are those of Diodorus, Justin, Cur: philosopher, he held the same relation to Epic-
tetus that Xenophon, the son of Gryllus, had
tius, Arrian, and Plutarch.
Unfortunately, held to Socrates.
As a littérateur, his Ana-
not one of these records is contemporaneous basis of Alexander corresponds to Xenophon's
with Alexander ; and, still more unfortunately, Anabasis of Cyrus; his Bithynica and Parthica
all but one are distorted by wanton exagger- were suggested by Xenophon's Hellenica; while
ation or ridiculous credulity. The one critic
of the host is Flavius Arrianus. According Essay on Hunting.
his Cynegeticus is a sequel to Xenophon's
Arrian had also no meagre
THE ANABASIS OF ALEXANDER. Literally translated, with a political and military ability. He attained the
Commentary, from the Greek of Arrinn the Nicomedian.
consulship at Rome; and, as prefect of Cappa-
E. J. Chinnock, MA., LL.B., (Lond.), Rector of Dumfries Acad.
docia, was signally successful in encounters
As a
By
emy.
London : Hodder & Stoughton.


1884.]
81
THE DIAL
with sundry barbarian tribes. Abundantly, pronunciation of such words as those marked
therefore, as philosopher, as historian, and as Pandósia, Parměnio, Asclepiades! Again, is
warrior, did Arrian merit the proud pseudonym the marking of Līby-Phænician to be ranked in
of Xenophon the Younger. His style, although the same system as that of Ammon? Also, if
it occasionally fails of the Attic purity of his Aithiops, Aristogeiton and Peithagoras are to
model, and once, as in the Indica, assumes the be transliterated wholesale, why are not Aes-
Ionic garb of Herodotus, is simple, clear, and chines and Clitus suffered likewise to retain
vivacious; and he surprises us no less by the the semblance of their Hellenic vesture? But
nobility of his thought and the naïveté of his these flaws may be removed in a second edition
narration than by the admirable discrimination a dignity and success that this much-needed
that characterizes his historical productions. translation of an important work deserves
Few passages in ancient literature can excel speedily to attain.
for elevation of sentiment the conversation be-
CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY.
tween Vespasian and Helvidius Priscus in
Bk. I. of the Dissertations; while for graphic
delicacy of touch one need not look farther
THE LIFE ND DEATH OF WORLDS.*
than the graceful panegyric, in the Cynegeticus,
on Arrian's greyhound, Horme — a piece of
The vast problem of cosmic evolution, with its
description that elevates the subject to an indi-
converse the ultimate destiny of matter, is one
viduality fairly equal to that of Lesbia's spar which Professor Winchell is known to have
row, or Publius's Issa, Arethusa's Glaucis, or made almost a life study; his writings upon it
the little black dog, indecently fat” of Petro- dating back nearly a quarter of a century - to
nius. For critical discrimination, no narrower
a time earlier than the appearance of Herbert
reference can be made than to the Expedition Spencer's essays on “Equilibration” and allied
of Alexander.
themes. The matured results of these studies
Of the Expedition of Alexander, Mr. Chin- by Professor Winchell are all gathered into his
nock's translation is good, literal, and in mas volume entitled “World-Life." It is a work
tery of English as far beyond Rooke's -- the profoundly suggestive and fascinatingly inter-
only other English translation with which we esting. While some parts of it require very close
are acquainted as are Rooke’s presumption attention, and some of the mathematical dem-
and quaint Georgian obsequiousness beyond his onstrations are too intricate for the general
ability for the task he undertook. Rooke's
reader to master, the work is in the main adapted
translation was made in 1814, since which time to any intelligent person who wishes to inves-
the world of philological and archæological tigate the grand doctrine of Evolution in its
research has taken enormous strides.
The
bearings upon the development of suns, plan-
scholarship of Mr. Chinnock, as displayed both
ets, and systems. The scientist will here find
in his faithful translation and in his numerous
the theory of Cosmic Evolution presented with
descriptive notes, would indicate that he is fairly all the arguments in its favor, and the objec-
abreast with the needs and opportunities of the tions that have been urged against it carefully
age.
One or two defects in the work may be enumerated and answered. In the vast regions
briefly noticed. We are surprised that the through which the author leads us, the solar
translator has devoted no space to the construc- system seems but an insignificant speck. There
tion of the Macedonian phalanx under Philip,
are myriads of suns more glorious than ours,
its equipments and array, - considerations nec-
surrounded by far more extended systems of
essary for the proper comprehension of Alexan- planets. These all had their origin in what
der's subsequent remodelings of the army, and Professor Winchell terms cosmical dust. He
of the general conduct of his campaigns. In tells us that much of the dust that infests our
the Index of Proper Names, also, Mr. Chinnock's houses is heavenly dust; and we recall that
marking of the quantities for the aid of the Nordenskjöld accounts for some of the pheno,
English reader” is strangely inadequate and
mena witnessed in the icy regions of the frigid
sometimes inconsistent. The English reader
should be informed of the quantity of the penul- atoms are set in motion by an attractive force.
zone upon the same hypothesis. The cosmic
timate vowel. But the translator has in seven
By contact, heat is evolved, and we have the
cases out of ten marked any vowel but the
fire-mist that curdles into nebulae. These in
penult, or no vowel at all. Now what could
time assume a spheroidal form, and we have
be more abject than the helplessness of the the beginning of a system. The spheroid,
fairly intelligent English reader lured with which is at first in a gaseous state with liquid
out additional aid into an unwary endeavor particles of fire-mist Hoating in its substance,
upon Amphiaraüs or Achæmenids? Or what
more ecstatic than the gratitude with which he
* WORLD-LIFE: OR, COMPARATIVE GEOLOGY. By Alexander Win-
chell, LL.D., Professor of Geology and Palæontology in the Uni-
would elevate himself to a probably incorrect
versity of Michigan. Chicago : S. C. Griggs & Co.
66


82
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1
begins to cool, and is reduced to a liquid state. It is evident from the few hints given of the
The molten sphere, revolving upon its axis, author's exposition of world formation, that
detaches rings, which form into spheroids, to every planet was once a sun shining by its own
repeat the process of the parent spheroid. light, and also that every sun must at some
The
process of cooling is carried on more rap- period become a non-luminous body like our
idly in the smaller bodies; hence planets often earth. Spectroscopic analysis demonstrates to
become frozen to the core while their primaries the astronomer whether a heavenly body is still
are still self-luminous suns. All the various in a gaseous state, or is a molten sphere shining
stages of world-formation may be seen now by by its own light, or a cooled solid shining by
the astronomer with the aid of his powerful reflected light.
telescope and spectroscope. There is life and Having tracked the heavenly body through
death among the heavenly spheres, but their all its various stages up to the highest, the
periods are measured by æons instead of years. author treats of planetary decay.
In course of time, the molten globe cools to “When the work of erosive agencies is accomplished,
such an extent that a thin crust is formed on the sea will be universal, as it was before the nuclear
the surface; this thickens, until the globe and the later conditions of our planet, therefore, present
wrinkles of the continents first emerged. The earlier
ceases to be self-luminous. The shrinking of
it wrapped in a sheet of water. The continental life-
the nucleus caused by its contraction in cooling time is only a temporary emergence of sea bottom
produces the wrinkles in the crust which form accompanying slight movements occasioned by stresses
Our mountain ranges and plateaus. In the early tunity to rest its foot on the unsteady land, it plays its
stages of the hardening process, the sphere is
evanescent rôle, and the continental swell settles back
subjected to all sorts of violent eruptions. into the ancient bed from which it lifted its head only
The heated interior mass frequently bursts for a temporary relief. The ancient ocean still lives;
the tidal wave still rolls ; the sun rises and sets as before ;
through the shallow crust, and its surface
the moon waxes and wanes. The storms in the atmos-
becomes suffused with molten lava. The
phere have died; the sounds of animated nature have
vapor which encircles it in the form of a
perished ; life conceals its perpetuated activities in the
cloudy envelope becomes condensed in cooling, voiceless depths of the all-subduing ocean.”
and falls to the surface in torrents of rain, not The evidences in favor of the habitability of
to fertilize the soil and form streams and the other planets are set forth at length. Our
rivers, but to be converted into vapor again as earth seems to stand midway between those
soon as they have touched the fiery globe, and planets that have passed their habitable stage,
sent back whence they came. The planet is and those that have not yet reached it. The
now passing through its stormy period. Ages sun will in time become a non-luminous body.
have been consumed in bringing it to this As it cools, the vapors of water will condense
state, and ages more must pass away ere it upon its surface, and it will pass through all
shall arrive at completeness.
the stages of its attendant planets.
It is impossible in a brief review to give “Later on in the eternities, this sunless planet this
an outline of the history of planetary exhausted and planetized sun — will have felt the chill
development as our author treats of it, or to
of surrounding space. In the remotest finality which
deductive science can reach, the sun and planets will
touch upon the exhaustive arguments which he have been gathered in one central mass. All fire and
brings forward in support of his theory and light will have been extinguished. No relative motion
the instances he cites as proofs. Much care will survive -- only the dead, cold corse will rotate on
and labor have been expended in treating of
an axis and travel onward in its mysterious, endless,
aimless course through the eternities still to come.”
tidal action and its consequences. Tides, we
The conclusion is that the solar system is
are told, are the prolateness of a sphere caused
by the attractive influence of some other body. finite, but the ultimate precipitation of all the
All the planets are both tide-producers and
matter in it upon the sun does not end the
tide-bearers. Tides have the effect of retarding the activity of one department of the cosmic
existence of matter or of energy. It only ends
the revolution of the tide-bearer upon its axis,
and eventually producing synchronism between
organism.
this and its revolution around its primary. thermally luminous, and at another, dark, there must be
“As every cosmic body is, in one stage of its history,
This has already taken place in the moon.
an era in the lifetime of each dark body when it is
The hardest rocks that compose the crust of passing from the condition of a luminous to that of a
our own planet are as plastic as jelly in the darkened body. There must be many stars at present
in this transitional stage. There must be many more
presence of the mighty forces of the universe.
It has been calculated by Sir William Thomp-have since cooled to a state of darkened invisibility,
which have served as centres of planetary motion, but
son that if the earth were a globe of glass the There is no reason to assume that most stars are lumi-
attractive force of the moon would be sutficient
It is probable that space is strewn with planet-
to raise a tide upon its surface two-thirds as
ized suns as well as planets and satellites. There are as
high as the known rise of the tides, and if there are characteristic of it. There must be many
many stages of evolution beyond the luminous stage as
it were a globe of steel, two-fifths as high. dead moons lying unburied in the broad fields of space.
even
nous,


1884.1
83
THE DIAL
Indeed, we may conceive immensity, like the soil on the way of translations, there is also one of the
which human races tread, to be more densely peopled
“ Cloud Chorus” from Aristophanes, which is
by the dead than by the living. We dwell in a cosmic
cemetery, and the ashes of the worlds once quick with
almost worthy of a place beside Swinburne's
life strew the pathways of the burning and shining matchless translation of the Parabasis of “The
lights.”
Birds." Speaking of this latter, Mr. Lang
Professor Winchell is an enthusiast in sci- gives us an amusing parody in which the birds
ence; being gifted with a fine imagination, of the barbarians - Indians, Scandinavians,
and possessing an easy and graphic style, he Australians, etc., -- bring forward further evi-
makes pictures of his conceptions which delight dence in support of the primal supremacy of
the reader while they render clear and impres- their race. The humor of this may be seen
sive his intended teachings. He is specially gift from the concluding lines:
ed in the power to awaken an interest in scien "Thus on Earth's little ball, to the Birds you owe all, yet your
tific inquiry, and in inspiring others to follow
gratitude 's small for the favors they've done,
And their feathers you pill, and you eat them at will, yes, you
him in the path which to him is evidently one of plunder and kill the bright birds one by one ;
pleasantness. “World-Life,” which is perhaps There's a price on their head, and the Dodo is dead, and the Moa
has fled from the sight of the sun."
his greatest work, cannot fail to be a source of
expanded ideas and lofty thoughts, as well as of
The
poem
called “A Portrait of 1783” is
high enjoyment, to all who will undertake to one of the finest things in this volume.
read it.
AUGUSTA TOVELL.
"The stunted lives from hunger never free,
The crowded towns, the moors where never hoe
Stirs in the fallow soil, where live and grow
The grouse and pheasant where the man should be,
The shiftless, hopeless, long brute misery
RECENT POETRY.*
That gathers like a cloud, rocked to and fro
With lightning discontent- I cannot show,
Mr. Andrew Lang has been well known in I cannot say the dreadful things I see.
England for the past ten years or more as a
And worse I see, more spectral, deathlier far:
Class set from class, each in its separate groove;
writer of essays and as a poet of no mean abil-
Straight on to death, I watched them stiffly move,
ities. To American readers he has been known
None sees the end, but each his separate star,
Too wrapt, should any fall, to reach a hand;
for some time as the author of a poem called
Nor, should one cry, would any understand."
“Helen of Troy," and he now comes forward
With this strong sonnet, a collection of
with a little volume of “Ballads and Verses
Vain” which his friend Mr. Austin Dobson has
poems called “The New Arcadia
is brought
to a close. The writer is a lady whose first
selected as particularly worthy of presentation laurels were won some six years ago, when her
to the American public. Much of the verse is little volume, “A Handful of Honeysuckle,"
of the lighter kind with which Mr. Dobson
was given to the world. So distinct was the
himself has made us so familiar verse which,
while in the main playful, has moments of deep Miss A. Mary F. Robinson, may be sure of
impression made by that volume that the writer,
seriousness, and sometimes a pathos quite irre-
attention, whatever she may have occasion to
sistible. The chief literary inspiration of these
write in future.
verses has been furnished by Homer and the third collection of poems thus far published by
The present volume is the
old French poets. The poems called “Post
her. She is also known as the author of the
Homerica,” and a number of sonnets upon novel “Arden,” and the life of Emily Bronté
Homeric themes, are about the finest things in
in the "Famous Women ”series of biographies.
the volume. The sonnets on “The Odyssey” The poems which constitute “ The New Arca-
and “Homeric Unity
are especially deserv-
dia” are studies of some of the sombre aspects
ing of praise. Among the ballads is an attempt of the life of the poor. They are exceedingly
and after Rossetti's triumphant success, cer-
tainly a daring one- at a new version of Vil quiet and restrained, and in a high degree
artistic. They are unquestionably due to a
lon's Ballade des dames du temps jadis. In strong humanitarian impulse, but this is shown
* BALLADES AND VERSES Vain. By Andrew Lang. New York : only in the two of their number which serve as
Charles Scribners' Sons.
prologue and epilogue to the rest. Their sim-
THE NEW ARCADIA, AND OTHER POEMs. By A. Mary F. Rob-
ple pathos is suggestive of the “Lyrical Bal-
AIRS FROM ARCADY AND ELSEWHERE. By H. C. Bunner. New lads” and the work of the Wordsworthian school
York: Charles Scribners' Sons.
generally There are also in this volume occa-
plete Poems of H. Cholmondeley-Pennell. London : Longmans,
sional suggestions of Rossetti; the sonnet which
we have quoted recalls, at a great distance, that
FLOWER MYTHS AND OTHER POEMs. By William Edward
“On the Refusal of Aid between Nations," and
Vasser. Louisville : Printed for the Author.
PINE NEEDLES. By Héloise Durant. New York: G. P. Put among the miscellaneous poems there are two
nam's Sons.
or three which breathe something of the relig-
THE HOLLANDERS IN NOVA ZEMBLA: AN ARCTIC POEM.
ious mysticism so characteristic of one great
Translated from the Dutch of Hendrik Tollens, by Daniel Van
Pelt, A.M. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons.
phase of Rossetti's art. Restraint is one of
inson. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
FROM GRAVE TO GAY. A Volume of Selections from the Com-
Green & Co.


84
[August,
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Calls us the Cookies."
As an
the prominent features of these poems; the Cook's Tourists gives expression to his feelings
writer attempts only that which she can fully in- of all metres in the world sapphics:
grasp, and the result is a grateful one to the
“All ways we follow him who holds the guide-book;
eyes and ears of the reader. The following
All things we look at, with bedazzled optics ;
Sad are our hearts, because the vulgar rabble
may be quoted as one of the finer flights of her
imagination:
The most amusing thing in the volume is a
As beats the sea against the rocks, you cried,
series of parodistic variations on the theme of
*Against your stubborn will my soul is hurled.'
“Home, Sweet Home,” in the manner of Swin-
You meant the seeming-daunted broken tide
With scattered spray and shattered crests uncurl'd, burne, Bret Harte, Pope, Goldsmith, and Whit-
That, from the shore, we pity or deride ;
man, and also “as Austin Dobson might have
And yet these dying waters, spent and swirl’d,
translated it from Horace, if it had ever oc-
Their stony limits do themselves decide,
And fashion to their will the unconscious world." curred to Horace to write it." Here is one of
the stanzas as done after Swinburne:
“The Conquest of Fairyland” is perhaps the
best of these miscellaneous poems.
[Give me them, and the peace of mind -]
“Give me these things then back, though the giving
Be at cost of earth's garner of gold ;
It is quite a different Arcadia from that of
There is no life without these worth living,
Miss Robinson, to which Mr. H. C. Bunner
No treasure where these are not told.
For the heart give the hope that it knows not,
introduces us in his “Airs from Arcady and
Give the balm for the burn of the breast-
Elsewhere.” This Arcadia is the poet's land
For the soul and the mind that repose not,
of youth and fancy and love which memory
O, give us a rest!"
dimly descries across the lapse of years. It is
It is But, skilfully as the humorous and fanciful
the land where the “ folk all sing”; to which part of these poems is done, their deep notes
no gold or wisdom may pay for entrance, but are their best, and the serious tone is, after all,
which may only be revealed to the mortal eyes the predominant one of the book.
that love has kissed, and only opened to the example of this manner, the following “Fare-
mortal footsteps that love has led thitherward. well to Salvini” will answer:
To him upon whose eyes her seal has thus been
“Although a curtain of the salt sea-mist
set, and who follows the path along which she May fall between the actor and our eyes —
Although he change for dear and softer skies
guides him, although gray-grown and solitary,
These that the sun has yet but coyly kissed -
this Arcadia is no unreal vision; he may joy-
Although the voice to which we love to list
ously sing:
Fail ere the thunder of our plaudits dies -
Although he parts from us in gracious wise,
“Ah, no, not lonely do I fare ;
With grateful memory left his eulogist --
His best is with us still. His perfect art
My true companion 's memory.
With Love he fills the springtime air:
Has held us 'twixt a heart-throb and a tear -
Cheating our souls to passionate belief.
With Love he clothes the Winter tree.
And in his greatness we have now some part -
Oh, past this poor horizon's bound
We have been courtiers of the crownless Lear,
My song goes straight to one who stands -
And partners in Othello's mighty grief."
Her face all gladdening at the sound -
To lead me to the Spring-green lands,
So it may be seen that in whatever manner
To wander with enlacing hands."
Mr. Bunner has chosen to work, he has done
The moods which these poems express are as
his work well. So creditable a volume of verse
varied as those of an April day. From grave by an American writer has not appeared for a
to gay” they shift and change; at one moment considerable time.
we have a bit of the wildest merriment; at
another, a passage of playful fancy with just a “From Grave to Gay” is a volume of selec-
tinge of pathos; at still another, an outburst tions from the complete poems of H. Cholmon-
of deep and tender feeling. A large share of deley-Pennell, a gentleman whose name is more
them come under the somewhat undefinable easily spoken than written. These selections
category of vers de societé, and some of these are made from the three or four previously pub-
are worthy of Austin Dobson.
lished volumes of this writer, of which “Puck
on Pegasus” is the best known.
The present
" She might have known it in the earlier Spring,
That all my heart with vague desire was stirred;
volume is so unusually beautiful a specimen of
And, ere the Summer winds had taken wing,
the book-maker's art that we are prepared to
I told her ; but she smiled and said no word.
expect of the contents much more than is to be
The Autumn's eager hand his red gold grasped,
And she was silent; till from skies grown drear
got. These are almost entirely vers de société
Fell soft one fine, first snow-flake, and she clasped
of a particularly pointless kind, and when con-
My neck and cried, 'Love, we have lost a year !'"
trasted with the work of Austin Dobson, or even
As an example of the humorous verse which of Locker, they seem poor of finish and lacking
is found here and there, we will take a stanza in refinement. The following stanza may be
from a piece called the “Wail of the 'Person- | quoted as an example of the better class of
ally Conducted,'” in which one of a party of work found in this collection:


1884.]
85
THE DIAL
"The white rose decks the breast of May,
the first to land at that spot, was astonished to
The red rose smiles in June,
find the hut of Barents, and its furniture, just
Yet autumn chills and winter kills
And leaves their stems alone;
as it had been left so long before. The story
Ah, swiftly dies the garden's pride
of Barents and of his stay there, which had
Whose sleep no waking knows, -
But my love she is the daisy
been handed down as a tradition, thus received
That all the long year grows."
ample confirmation. Many important relics
The unconscious use of a recently evolved were found and transported to the Hague, and
American idiom in the verse next to the last is upon a subsequent expedition a manuscript
very amusing, since it is evident that the pas- record with the signature of Barents was added
sage was written in all seriousness.
to the collection. Meanwhile, tradition had
A volume called “Flower Myths and Other made this story familiar to the Dutch; and the
Poems,” by William Edward Vasser, comes to
best of the Dutch poets of this century, Hen-
us from Louisville, Kentucky. The writer has drik Tollens (1780–1856), had made it the
been unfortunate in his printer, for the appear subject of one of his most admired works, and
ancé of the book is damning in itself, but what is regarded as the finest piece of descrip-
upon close examination, little can be found tive poetry in the Dutch language. This poem
among the contents which is worthy of a better has now been translated into English by Daniel
dress. One or two of the pieces such as the Van Pelt, and the translation is furnished with
“Serenade” and “The Jacqueminot Rose"
a valuable historical introduction by Samuel
will bear a second reading, but all such books
Richard Van Campen, in which an account of
as this can have no place in literature, not even
the voyages of Barents is given. The original
the humblest niche. Their publication is a
is in iambic hexameter couplets, and blank
matter of interest to the writer and to his circle
verse is the meter chosen for the translation.
of friends, but not to any one else.
While the work can hardly lay claim to be
great poetry in the original, it is possessed of
Héloïse Durant's “Pine Needles, or Sonnets much interest, and the translation, which is a
and Songs,” is a volume of verse which does
faithful and a fairly good one, may be read
not seem to show, upon close examination, any with pleasure, and, to those who do not read
sufficient reason for existence. At hardly any the Dutch language, will prove a welcome
point does it rise above the level of the barest addition to the few translations which we
commonplace, and it is suggestive of the hymn already possess of the masterpieces of the liter-
book and of the literature of the nursery rather ature of the Netherlands.
than of any of the sources of genuine poetic
WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE.
inspiration. The following is an average spec-
imen:
“ Fall, O fleecy flakes of snow !
THE RECORDS OF A FAMOUS TRAVELLER.*
A various interest centres in the autobiography
High above her breast."
of Arminius Vambery. As a man of extra-
But it would be cruel to make any further ordinary natural endowments, as a linguist, a
critical excursions in such a field.
traveller, a philologist, a politician, and a writer,
he has made his name known the world over.
The first party of Europeans who are known To be able to read the story of his life and
to have endured the hardships of a winter in adventures from his own pen is a satisfaction to
the Arctic Circle was that which accompanied those who respect heroic achievements and an
the Dutch explorer, Barents, upon his memor-
honorable and hard-won repute, to those who
1596. Caught by the ice, in the
are curious regarding the condition of the hordes
fall of that year, upon the coasts of Novaya peopling central Asia, and to those who watch
Zemlya a land which he had himself dis-
with intelligent inquiry the circumstances at-
covered in a previous expedition there
nothing for it but to remain there through the tending the domination of England and Russia
over Asiatic territory.
winter. Accordingly, a hut was built on shore,
Vambery is in the ordinary sense of the
stores were brought from the ship, and with much
phrase a self-made man. He was born and
privation and suffering the winter was passed. matured in extreme penury, and at twelve years
Barents himself succumbed to the hardships of age was sent out into the world to shiſt for
of the winter, but most of his companions suc-
himself. He labored, moreover, under the dis-
ceeded in reaching home the following year, ability of lameness, although his health has
In the year 1871, a Norwegian ship landed
ever been firm and robust. He had disclosed a
where the Dutch party had wintered two hun-
dred and seventy-five years before. The com-
His Life and Adventures, written by
mander of this ship, supposing himself to be
& Company.
Shroud the hills and meadows low !
Heed not earth's request.
Pack it,
Stack it
able voyage
was
ARMINIUS VAMBERY.
himself. With Portrait and Illustrations,
New York: Cassell


86
[August,
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Warm
99
remarkable memory during the three years of civilizing the peoples of Asia. He is a
schooling which had been afforded him in partisan of England--and not unaccountably,
childhood, and, when thrown upon his own considering his Jewish descent, the grudge
resources, managed, by giving instruction to which the Magyar bears against Russia for its
others more ignorant than himself, by the help assistance in the subjugation of Hungary, and
of charity, and by the endurance of great priva- the honors accorded him among Englishmen
tions, to continue his studies at St. George and for his prowess as an explorer. Vambery writes
Pressburg - towns not far distant from his fluently in English, only an occasional eccen-
native island of Schutt in the Danube. During tricity of expression betraying that it is not his
the vacations, he indulged an instinctive passion vernacular. The tinge of vanity apparent in
for travelling, starting off at the end of each his recital may be excused in one who has risen
term without a coin in his pocket, “limping from the lowest estate to a position of credit by
but always on foot,” and thus contriving to visit purely personal effort.
one after another the chief cities in the Austrian
dominions. His acquisition of foreign languages
and literatures was amazing, and after mastering
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.
most of those of Europe he turned with avidity
to the treasures locked up in Oriental tongues.
THE “ Practical Essays gathered by Professor
With a little assistance from a kind friend, he Alexander Bain, of the University of Aberdeen, from
ventured on his first journey beyond the bounds the British periodicals in which they were originally
of Austria, landing in Constantinople when just printed, have not been outgrown by the progress of
turned twenty-two, in a penniless condition. A
later thought, although it is some sixteen years since
hopeful disposition, habits of frugality, and his topic, yet are alike in their bearing upon living ques-
the oldest of them were called out. They differ in
linguistic talents, were a mine of wealth, enab-
tions. In the first article, which treats of " Common
ling him to secure immediate friends and facil. Errors on the Mind," Professor Bain assumes that it
ities for subsistence. He remained in Constan-
is a fallacy to prescribe cheerfulness to persons not
tinople six years, continually deepening his naturally so inclined. Buoyancy of feeling he
acquaintance with the Asiatics. He then began, declares to be a matter of temperament, depending
in Persia, Turkestan, and Afghanistan, the upon physical vigor, abundant nourishment, and
absence of care. He takes no account of the influ-
explorations which gave him his early fame.
His travels in Asia were not extensive or pro-
ence of habit or of moral principle applied to the
tracted compared with some accomplished in burdens of life," is the sole condition upon which,
“ Increase the supports and decrease the
recent years, nor were they accompanied with in his belief, a joyous disposition may be promoted.
greater hardships or perils; but they were Again, he combats the theory that men may cultivate
among the earliest in an almost unknown region a taste and find delight in pursuits toward which the
inhabited by the most hostile and barbarous mind is not originally bent. Strong tastes, he argues,
races, and were prosecuted with exceeding are the result of a natural exuberance of feeling and
adroitness and success.
emotion. In his words, “a spare and thin emotional
Vambery left Constantinople for his eastern temperament * can never supply the material
tour in 1802, and returned in 1864. Much of
for fervor or enthusiasm in anything." Here, as
the time of his absence was spent in the cities elsewhere, the author clearly intimates that the forces
or elements of character are constitutional endow-
of Persia, about ten months being consumed in
ments, and that neither education nor persuasion can
the wilderness of Central Asia. He travelled in
go very far to alter them. In short, his doctrine
the guise of a dervish, and though narrowly may be summed up in the phrase that “men are
escaping detection in several instances, was able born, not made.” The articles on “ The Civil Ser-
to maintain his assumed character to the end. vice Examinations” and “ The Classical Controversy”
It was singular that after the accomplishment oppose the teaching of Greek and Latin in the univer-
of this wonderful exploit, and the attainment of sities and high schools to the exclusion or the neglect
of science and the modern languages. The rectorial
all the rewards which accompany a sudden and
wide-spread renown, the traveller should settle ered in 1882, which forms the sixth paper in the col-
address to the students of Aberdeen University, deliv-
down to the quiet and secluded life of a scholar. lection, presents an interesting historical review of
But Vambery was content with the experiences the growth of the universities of Europe, closing
of one tour of exploration in the lands of the with a sketch of the ideal university as cherished in
east, and has since occupied the chair of Ori the mind of the author. The seventh paper, com-
ental Languages in the University of Pesth. prising a chapter omitted from Professor Bain's
He has published a number of volumes relating treatise on “ The Science of Education,” is a valuable
to his travels and special researches, and has
essay on the art of study, embodying the author's
taken an active part in public controversies of books. It abounds in suggestions which are the
views of the best methods of self-education by means
concerning the motives and movements of the product of a wide experience, and are of use to stu-
two great European powers which share the dents of every condition and age. The article enti-
burden and responsibility of conquering and tled " Sectarian Creeds and Subscription to Articles"
case.


1884.]
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87
on
ing and suppressing the free avowal of opine are l "Her dark hair, silky as the cleanest tassels of the
is a claim for the extension of freedom of thought, Such an one is George Alfred Townsend's romance
and especially for the emancipation of teachers and of * The Entailed Hat." The heroine of this fiction
preachers from religious tests. The evils of restrict is Vesta Custis, a girl of twenty, beautiful as an
houri and virtuous as an angel.
the part of the intellectual leaders of mankind, are
discussed in brief but forcible terms. The remain corn, fell as naturally upon her perfect head as her teeth,
ing essays in the book are marked by the same cogent white as the milky corn-rows, moved in the May cher-
reasoning and lucid style which characterize those ries of her lips. The delicate arches of her brows,
particularly mentioned. (D. Appleton & Co.)
shaded by black-birds' wings, enriched the clear sky of
her harmonious eyes, where mercy and nobility kept
It is less than thirty years since the condition of
company, as in heaven."
cerebral exhaustion began to attract the special atten-
Vesta was dressing in her chamber when she
tion of the medical fraternity and excite public dis-
“ heard early wheels upon the morning air,” and
cussion concerning its symptoms and treatment. A
looking out saw " in a back and span" the wearer of
considerable body of literature relative to the subject
the entailed hat-an eccentric man with “resinous
has accumulated meantime, and all thinking persons
brown eyes” whom later she was destined to marry.
have become interested in the facts that have been “Vesta laughed aloud, and began to skip about in
developed. “Brain Exhaustion," as Dr. J. Leonard
her long, slender, worked slippers, whose insteps would
Corning terms it in his latest treatise on intellectual spare a mouse darting under. Isn't he too funny
disorders (D. Appleton & Co.), has become so com-
for anything she exclaimed to her mother. “But,
dear me! he is staring right up at this window. Let us
mon a disease in this country, and is the cause of so
duck.' Vesta's long, ivory-grained arms, divided
much varied and fatal mischief, that it behooves every from her beautiful shoulders only by a spray of lace,
one conscious of possessing a thinking apparatus to pulled her mother down. * Don't be afraid, dear ! he
inquire how it may be preserved in health, or, should can see nothing but the blinds. Perhaps he is looking
its normal action have been impaired, how to restore
for the Judge.' Vesta rose again in her white morn-
this by the wisest and surest means. Through his ing-gown, like a stag rising from a snow-drift. A long,
connection with hospitals for the insane, and his
trembling movement, the result of tittering, passed
down the graceful columns of her back. He sits
extensive facilities for the practical observation of
there like an Indian riding past in a show, mamma!
maladies of the mind, Dr. Corning has acquired a
Did you ever see such a hat?' I think it must be
knowledge of their phases, causes, and remedies, buggy by this time,' said the mother; and both of
which renders any discussion of the theme by him thein shook with laughter again. “Unless,' added Mrs.
instructive. He has addressed the present work to Custis, “the bugs are stoned out.' * Poor, lonely
his co-laborers in the healing art, and has conse-
creature,' said Vesta; "he can only wear such a hat
quently made unstinted use of the technical termin-
from want of understanding.' • His understanding
is good enough, dear. He has the green gaiters on.'
ology common with them, but not understood by the
unscientific reader. Still, those portions of the book They laughed again, and Vesta's hair, shaken down by
her merriment, fell nearly to her slipper, like the skin
calculated to be of popular service are written in the
of some coal-black beast, that had sprung down a pop-
plainest language, and combine a valuable amount lar's trunk.”
of information. Dr. Corning ascribes brain troubles These ladies were accomplished Southern women,
primarily to overwork, worry, and excessive indul ornaments of the cultured society of Baltimore, and
gence in agitating emotions. The effect of these their husband and father, Judge Custis, was
“ the
injurious agencies is, in the first place, to abridge first gentleman in Somerset.” He had possessed
sleep — that state of essential oblivion in which the great wealth, but at the beginning of the story had
cells of the brain that have been disintegrated by spent the last of it in a wild business speculation and
intellection are built up again. So important to the a course of low debauchery. The hero in “ the hack
well-being of the cerebral organs is the insurance of and span" had but just driven by, when the Judge
ample rest, that, according to the author, were ten came home dilapidated by a night's orgy, and under
hours out of every twenty-four spent in perfect physi- the loving ministrations of Vesta disclosed the wreck
ological sleep, " there would be few intellectual he had made of their prosperity. It was a cruel
storms of sufficient potency to cause shipwreck of blow to learn “ that he, the good, the kind, the gen-
the mind.” The climate of the United States pre tleman,” had descended to such depths of degrada-
disposes to the occurrence of functional nervous dis tion, but rallying bravely-
This is particularly the case in the states of She walked over to her father tenderly, and kissed
the Northwest, where the atmosphere is most dry and him, and then, drawing his weaker inclination by hers,
stimulating. Under its intluence, work is rapid and brought him to a sofa, placed a pillow for him, and
protracted, and the wear and tear proportionally made him stretch his once proud form there. Procur-
The observations of Dr. Corning incline ing a bowl of water, she washed his face free of tears
him to the belief that insanity and other brain dis-
with a napkin, and bathed it in cologne. The voluptu-
ous nature of the Judge yielded to the perfume and the
eases are on the increase in this country, and that
easy position, and he sobbed himself to sleep like an
foreigners after a short residence are as liable to
exhausted child. Sitting by the sleeping bankrupt,
their assaults as native Americans. The preventives watching his heart rise and fall, and hearing his coarse
and remedies are alike — an abundance of brain rest snoring, as if fiends within were snarling in rivalry for
and brain nutrition. Advice as to how these are best the possession of him, Vesta felt that the life which
secured' is an important feature of Dr. Corning's
was unconscious there was the fountain of her own,
volume.
and, loving no man else, she felt her heart, like a gold-
fish of that fountain, go around and around it throb-
THERE is occasionally a book which the critic can bingly."
in no way treat so well as to let it speak for itself. These passages, taken from the opening chapters
ease.
66
severe.


88
[August,
THE DIAL
SO
of the romance, will suffice. They are written in all do miss a certain amount of interest and enjoyment
seriousness, and faithfully illustrate the character of that we should have had if it had remained." Of
the book. (Harper & Brothers.)
course the whole story is interesting and character-
istic, and the knowledge of it leads greatly to our
"LAL" is not a significant or an inviting name for enjoyment of the work. But after all, as Beethoven
a novel, but some of Bret Harte's most admired tales
foresaw, our associations with the hero are
have flourished under such curt and vulgar titles as
changed by his subsequent career, that the Napoleon
“ Miggles” and “M’liss." The story of " Lal” Bonaparte celebrated by the composer
- the man
(Appleton) is located in the same rough regions
who “single-handed, had reduced the chaos of the
from which these heroines emerged, it deals with the great Revolution into order and fitness, and had
same class of rascally vagabonds with which they brought back order and prosperity to France," –
were associated, and evolves incidents of a lurid and
this Napoleon Bonaparte was not the Napoleon
exaggerated character like those with which their Bonaparte whom we know, much less “the great
fate was intermixed. The name is therefore in har- Napoleon” of history.
mony with the fiction, and neither are more inferior phony is a matter of curious interest; but to us, as
to the creations of the unique artist who first deline-
well as to the composer, it was the portrait of a real
ated the life in western mining camps than imita- hero, not of the Emperor Napoleon.
tions are apt to be. The name of William A. Ham-
mond has acquired fame in science. It is appended The first issues of a new series of elementary science
to a long list of essays and treatises in which original text-books, to be published by Appleton & Co., are at
discoveries connected with physiology and therapeu- hand, and comprise a volume upon Anatomy,
tics are recorded. It will not gain honor by this Physiology, and Hygiene," by Roger S. Tracy, M.D.,
recent experiment in imaginative literature.
The and one on “
Chemistry” by F. W. Clarke. There
province is too far removed from that in which he is so much competition in text-books at the present
has long and successfully worked. There is lacking time, and so many good ones upon these two sub-
in the dramatis persone of " Lal” that vital quality jects already available, that it is difficult to see
which belongs to living beings; the style is prolix, wherein these new-comers supply any very long or
and the plot is unnatural. The tastes and culture of deeply felt want. The books are both fairly well
the physician are apparent in various points in the written, but do not seem to be the work of experien-
management of the story ; but the lover of fiction ced teachers of these subjects. Take, for example,
would prefer that these should be confined to med- this definition from the first page of the book on
ical theses, and that the novel which he seeks as a Physiology: “A part of the body, which is so small
source of diversion should come from the hand of that when it has been separated from other parts it
one whose chief talent is investing visions with the cannot be further subdivided without the destruction
semblance of reality.
of its organization, is called an anatomical element,
as a cell or a fiber.” Now this is the kind of defini-
The work of Sir George Grove upon “ Beethoven's tion that the child learns by heart, for the simple reason
Nine Symphonies" (George H. Ellis) consists of that it has no meaning to him, however intelligible
"analytical essays," one to each symphony, giving it may have been to the writer; and this definition,
the history of its composition, so far as known, with others equally slipshod, we find at the very out-
the intention of the composer, and an analysis of its
set. The hygienic part is perhaps the best, although,
musical ideas and its structure as a whole. It is with the dishonesty common in such books, we are
illustrated by brief musical passages, which give told without any qualification that alcohol is a poison.
the themes of the several movements, as well as
The illustrations of the volume are generally good.
occasional striking passages which seem to need
The Chemistry, which has as frontispiece a badly-
explanation. As a preparation for hearing these colored plate of spectra, is a somewhat better book
great works, or as an aid to reviewing and refreshing than the other, although it has the same general
one's memory, nothing better could be desired by faults. Further criticism is invited by the introduc-
an amateur ; for it is not as a musician, nor for musi tion of physical topics. Of such matter there is
cians, that the author has written, but for music-lovers either too much or not nearly enough. Chemistry
who desire to understand the underlying thought cannot be intelligibly studied without a thorough
rather than the technicalities of these compositions. knowledge of elementary physics; and the small
The plan of the work must make it welcome to
amount here introduced is of no use at all by itself.
thousands who have desired just such an aid; and The subject of Organic Chemistry should have been
the execution is in every respect worthy of it. On wholly omitted rather than given such meagre treat-
page 32, a familiar anecdote is related in respect ment as it here receives. The experiments do not
to the Heroic Symphony (No.9) — its original dedi seem to be particularly well selected, or the directions
cation to Bonaparte, and the incident of the com for performing them very clearly given. The best
poser's indignantly tearing off the dedicatory page thing about these books is the attractive way in
on hearing of his hero's assumption of the dignity of which they are executed.
Emperor. The author then proceeds to consider
“what would have been the difference, if, instead of As all bits of biographical matter relating to a re-
the general title, “Heroic Symphony,' we had been nowned and beloved author are precious, the modest
accustomed to hear the piece with the knowledge volume recording the notable incidents of “A West-
that it was a portrait of the great Napoleon. ern Journey with Mr. Emerson " has its value. In
There is no doubt that in not having the original the spring of 1871, a party of twelve, including Ralph
title “Napoleon Bonaparte' affixed to the work, we Waldo Emerson, made the tour from Boston to
*


1884.]
89
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66
San Francisco and back as the guests of a munificent the prefecture of police. It is difficult to read
friend. A sketch of the trip, with special notes of without a smile his vindication of the character and
the most honored personage in the company, was
actions of Louis Napoleon, whom he presents as a
prepared as a club article, by Mr. James Bradley disinterested patriot desiring only the best interests
Thayer of Cambridge, and is now given to the public of France. Those who are able to conceive him in
from the press of Little, Brown & Co. Its stock of such a rôle will read the narrative with great satis-
information is slender, yet the admirers of Emerson faction ; while the incredulous will read it with a
will be grateful for the little it yields that is substan- certain curious interest.
tial and new concerning his habits and idiosyncrocies.
It is interesting to know that the great man " found The career of the Agassiz Association is full of
it an excellent time to study his German, in the interest. It was founded in 1875, by Mr. Harlan H.
cars,” and that on his pleasure trip he carried his Ballard, in connection with the Lenox Academy, in
purple satchel laden with books, and the proof- Massachusetts, of which he is the principal. Its
sheets of Parnassus” on which he worked betimes object was the study of natural history, and its
with his daughter. It is a fact worth having, too, work was so profitable and pleasant that in 1880 the
that the idealist had not risen above the New Eng-president published in the "St. Nicholas Magazine'"
land weakness for pie, and enjoyed partaking of this an invitation to the young people all over the United
pabulum at breakfast. But more than all, it is States to form classes or local “Chapters” bearing the
pleasant to receive the testimony that he was the name and having the purpose of the original society.
most agreeable of travelling companions, " always Within three years and a half, six hundred and fifty
accessible, cheerful, sympathetic, considerate, toler branch societies were established in response to his
ant,” ever manifesting the same respectful interest in invitation, and more than seven thousand students,
those with whom he talked, even the humblest, which young and old, were poring over the pages of nature
raised them in their own estimation.” Very impress in accordance with a regular and systematic plan.
ive is the account of Emerson's remarks on immor The “St. Nicholas Magazine” has been the organ of
tality. “I enjoy the passing hour," he said; and in public communication between these societies, and
his manner he seemed to have the sense of a certain has done a great deal to spread the knowledge of the
great amplitude of time and leisure. It was the Association and awaken an interest in it. Should
behavior," writes Mr. Thayer, “of one who really one wish a summary of what has been accomplished
believed in an immortal life, and had adjusted his by this band of students dispersed through the
conduct accordingly; so that, beautiful and grand states and territories, it can be found in a little
as the natural objects were among which our journey “Handbook of the St. Nicholas Agassiz Associa-
lay, they were matched by the sweet elevation of char tion," published by Mr. Ballard at Lenox, The
acter and the spiritual charm of our gracious friend." author of the work deserves the rank and esteem of
Appended to the notes of travel is a sensible reply a public benefactor. By uniting so many thousands
to the criticisms of " Matthew Arnold's Lecture on of young people in one common healthful and ben-
Emerson,” which was originally communicated by eficent occupation, he has set in train a multitude
Mr. Thayer to the “Boston Advertiser."
of saving joyous influences which will affect them
to the end of their lives. Happy are the children
who are enrolled as members of the Agassiz Asso-
M. De Maupas's “Story of the Coup D'Etat"
ciation:
(Appleton) is a contribution of more or less value
to the secret history of France under the administra THE series of twelve essays, or sermons, recently
tion of Louis Napoleon, and, it might be added, to published by the Rev. Minot J. Savage, have a
the biography of the latter enigmatical character. broader scope than their title, “ Man, Woman, and
The revolution of February, 1848, found M. De Child,” immediately indicates. They cover the
Maupas a young sub-prefect at Beaune. He had no relations and duties of the individual to society as
acquaintance or relations with any members of the well as to the limited home circle. They trace the
Bonaparte family, but used his influence in favor of evolution of family institutions; the development of
the election of Louis Napoleon to the chief-magis- the special characteristics of man and woman, and of
tracy of the republic. His acquaintance with the their distinct parts in the work of the world; of the
future president began in November, 1848. The gradual elevation of the idea of marital union from
following January he was made sub-prefect at Bou the promiscuous association of the sexes in the prim-
logne, and in October of the same year was called to itive stages of mankind up to the present high type
the prefecture of the department of the Allier. His of monogamic marriage; the creation of the home;
ability and zeal attracted attention and secured him the organization of society; and, finally, the slow
promotion and the most complete confidence. He was and steady transfiguration of humanity in the past
called to Paris to assist Napoleon in the accomplish- and the promise of its continuous sublimation in the
ment of the Coup D'Etat, which was fixed for Decem future. The subjects discussed by the writer are
ber 2, 1851. He assumed the office of prefect of treated after the scientific method. It is assumed
police, and in that capacity was the principal adviser that the human race has from its origin boon ascend-
and manager of the movement. After the lapse of ing in the scale of being, and that, imperfect as its
more than thirty years he becomes the historian of convictions and practices still remain at the very
this event, narrating with careful detail the successive best, there has been a constant growth which gives
incidents which led up to it, and those which followed ground for the highest hopes of what is yet to be
down to the inauguration of the Second Empire in attained. There is encouragement, together. with
1852. Statistics are given in abundance, with copies instruction, in this way of looking at things. It
of state papers and evidences from the archives of l stimulates aspiration by the prospect of an endless


90
[August,
THE DIAL
manner.
progress
which
may be helped onward and improved THE “Letters of William Cowper" have been
by every personal effort. Mr. Savage's discourses justly pronounced among the most elegant and
have a stamp of freshness and individuality which charming specimens of epistolary writing. Southey
excite attention. This last of many collections he has and Alexander Smith declared them the best in the
put into book form sets trite themes in new lights and English language; and surely while under the spell of
enriches them with many striking reflections. (G. H. their perusal it is impossible to think of any similar
Ellis.)
compositions as equally captivating. Although Cow-
per died in 1800, there is now published for the first
MR. EDWARD PIERREPONT has paid the public a
time a complete collection of his letters. They have
poor compliment by setting before it the stale statis been brought together by the Rev. W. Bentham, and
tics filling up his book entitled “Fifth Avenue to
edited and arranged by him in the most complete
Alaska" (Putnams). He appears to be unaware of
The Introduction furnishes a biographical
the fact that the Americans are a nation of readers,
sketch of the poet, and explanatory notes regarding
and that their daily newspapers keep them well
the various persons who were his correspondents.
instructed in the geography and topography of the
The publishers of the volume (Macmillan & Co.)
country lying along our great routes of internal have put up the letters in a style harmonizing ex-
It is not
transportation. What the newspapers have failed to quisitely with their graceful character.
tell, intelligent and enterprising tourists have iter often that a book is so enticing without and within.
ated and reiterated, until the scenery traversed by
our transcontinental railroads is almost as familiar The manual prepared by Dr. Wallace for the use
as that which we look upon from our home windows. of amateur photographers, which was noticed in the
It is the individuality put into a book describing the last issue of The Dial, is followed by another of
well-known trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific similar size and scope, prepared by D. J. Tapley,
which gives it interest now-a-days; and of this and published by S. W. Green's Sons, New York.
there is uncommonly little in the volume under It does not seem to be written in the interests of any
notice. The author states in the title-page that he
one manufacturer, as it advertises several of them.
is a graduate of Christ College, Oxford, and a The writer has attempted to make his book readable
membre du club Alpin Suisse; and elsewhere he by a jocular way of writing, and expresses himself as
informs us that his father was attorney-general in hoping “that it may, somehow, be the inciting cause
the cabinet of President Grant, and that he has a
of an accretion of shekels to our bank-account.” Much
country-seat on the Hudson besides his residence on of the book is written in this smart and thoroughly
Fifth Avenue. All these advantages of fortune have bad style --- bad in itself, and especially reprehensi-
not put him ahead of the average schoolboy of six ble in a scientific work even of the simplest kind.
teou, who should be able to invest an account of
The technical directions are given clearly enough,
four months of travel, even in familiar regions, with but the book is, on the whole, inferior to that of Dr.
some degree of original character. Mr. Pierrepont Wallace, and much less attractive in appearance.
started on his tour in April, 1883, and, as the com-
panion of his father, enjoyed peculiar honors and THERE is a necessity for treatises on etiquette,
attentions throughout the journey.
especially in this country, where there is constant
change in social circles and a consequent uncertainty
in the forms and ceremonials by which their inter-
In the good old New England days, the clergy-
course is regulated. The newest of these treatises,
man rose to address his congregation with a sense of by Mrs. Sherwood, entitled “Manners and Social
authority. He knew that his audience made no
Usages” (Harpers), was instigated by the thousands
question of the vitality of his cause. He spoke as a
of enquirers seeking instruction through the medium
of “
messenger ; and if among his hearers were some
Harper's Bazar." With great good sense and
classed as unbelievers, these did not deny the truths gentle consideration, the writer has answered these
of religion. The unbelievers were not faithless, but
solicitous querists, and thus produced the material
had not been allowed to yield by reason of the
of a treatise which may be consulted with benefit by
influence of the evil spirit, and were subjects for
most people. In addition to the usual directions
exhortation and persuasion. The task of the minister presented in books of this sort, Mrs. Sherwood has
of those days would seem to have been easier than at
given valuable hints on many tle points often over-
present, when even his authority is challenged, and looked. Her chapters on the treatment of servants,
he must prove the very foundations of religion, in
on the manners of the past, on the optimist, on the
such manner as to attract, entertain, and strengthen. sympathetic, and on the awkward and the shy, are
An unconscious portrayal of the struggles of the
wholesome reading for everybody.
latter-day clergyman is given by the Rev. Wilder
Smith, in his book on Extempore Preaching Two exquisite stories bearing the titles of “Miss
(Brown & Grove). The author says: “Preaching the Toosey's Mission” and “ Laddie” are bound together
Gospel is a difficult art, and aims to point to others in a neat little volume by Roberts Brothers. The
a smoother way.” He regards as essential to success, name of the author is not given, but instinctively we
constant effort. Work, work always, is his theme. ascribe them to a woman and very definitely to a
He gives many and valuable suggestions to co-work skillful writer of English nativity. They portray
ers, derived from experience and observation, and incidents in humble life, and with realistic fidelity.
his volume must prove useful and helpful to the A profound reverence for sacred things runs through
members of the profession for whom it was chiefly them, and a sense of the pathetic which is most
written,
affecting. There is no effort at sensation or brilliant


1884.1
91
THE DIAL
66
writing. So unpretending is the narrative, we might As the Comte de Paris has been reported to have
say the effects are produced more by what is hinted suspended work on his “ History of the Civil War in
than by what is expressed. The account of “Miss America,” Messrs. Porter & Coates, the American
Toosey's Mission” stirs the feelings deeply ; but the publishers of the book, request us to insert the
delineation in “Laddie" of a love which cannot re following extract from a letter recently sent them by
sent or reproach even a death-blow from the loved the author: “ The numerous political duties which
one, pulls at the very heart-strings.
have devolved upon me leave me but very little
leisure. I am devoting every hour I can spare to the
A man drops a woman's book, as if he had taken prosecution of my great work on the American War.
The correction of the proof-sheets of volume seventh
up a jelly-fish.” The above generalization is ob-
viously too ill-considered to cover all cases, but it
is progressing favorably, but this volume will not be
applies well enough to the book from which it is published without the following one, of which only
taken, and which is very aptly styled " Dissolving and eighth of the French edition will make the fourth
less than a third is yet written." Volumes seventh
Views" (Harpers). This unpretentious bit of novel-
volume of the American edition, and will be transla-
writing is the work of Mrs. Andrew Lang, the wife
ted and published in English, by Porter & Coates,
of the well known man of letters whose verses are
noticed elsewhere in this paper. It is a light, inco-
simultaneously with their issue in France.
herent, uninteresting story, whose execution shows
a certain amount of cleverness, but which is hardly
BOOKS OF THE MONTH.
worth the attention required to read it.
[The following List includes all New Books, American and Foreign,
received during the month of July, by MESSRS. JANBEN, MC-
CLURG & Co., Chicago.]
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
An interesting feature of the September " Harper's”
will be an article upon Charles Reade, by Robert
Buchanan, illustrated with an engraving of the oil
portrait bequeathed by Mr. Reade to the Messrs.
Harper.
EARLY in the field with announcements of holiday
publications are Porter and Coates, who will offer, in
small quartos, Bishop Heber's hymn “From Green-
land's Icy Mountains," with twenty-two illustrations
from designs by F. B. Schell, and Tennyson's poem
of “ Lady Clare,” with the same number of illustra-
tions from drawings by Schell
, Church, Fredericks,
Fenn, Perkins, and Garrett.
A new edition of Shakespeare in twenty volumes
of popular form and price, is announced by Harper
& Brothers, to be styled " The Friendly Edition, a
name suggested to Mr. Rolfe by Mrs. Mary Cowden-
Clarke, the venerable widow of the author of
“Shakespeare Characters.” The order of the plays
will be approximately chronological. Mr. Rolfe's
excellent school edition of Shakespeare, in forty small
volumes, recently published by this firm, is to be
made the basis of the new edition.
A CIRCULAR signed by Dr. Eaton and Mr. Sanborn,
President and Secretary of the American Social
Science Association, by Professor Adams of the Uni-
versity of Michigan, Professor Tyler of Cornell, and
Professor H. B. Adams of John Hopkins, announces
that it is proposed to organize, under the auspices of
the American Social Science Association, during its
next annual session at Saratoga, September 8-12,
1884, an American Historical Association, consisting
of professors, teachers, specialists, and others interest-
ed in the advancement of history in this country.
The objects of the proposed association are the ex-
change of ideas and the widening of acquaintance,
the discussion of methods and original papers. Such
an association will certainly prove of great advantage
to American teachers and students who are now more
or less isolated in their fields of work.
The Anabasis of Alexander; or, the History of the Wars and
Conquests of Alexander the Great. Literally translated, with
& Commentary, from the Greek of Arrian the Nicomedian.
By E. J. Chinnock, M.A., L.C.B. Pp. 443. London. Net, $2.65.
The Discoveries of America, to the Year 1525. By A. J.
Weise, M.A. 8vo, pp. 380. $4.50.
Little Arthur's History of England. By Lady Callcott.
New Edition. Illustrated. Pp. 271. $1.25.
Elizabeth Fry. By Mrs. E. R. Pitman, "Famous Women,"
Pp. 269. $1.
GUIDE BOOKS - SPORTING.
Appleton's General Guide to the United States and Canada
for 1884. Revised each year to date of issue. Pp. 552. Leather,
tucks. $2.50.
Appleton's Illustrated Hand-book of American Summer
Resorts for 1884. Paper, 50 cents.
Appleton's Dictionary of New York and Vicinity for 1884.
With Maps. Revised to date of issue. Paper, 30 cents.
The White Mountains ; a Hand-book for Travellers, Fifth
Edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. 436. $1.50.
The Tourist's Guide Book to the United States and Canada
for 1884, with an Appendix of the Shooting and Fishing
Resorts of North America. Illustrated. Pp. 344. Leather,
flexible. $2.50.
Camping and Cruising in Florida. By J. A. Henshall,
M.D. Illustrated. Pp. 248. $1.50.
Hunt-Room Stories, and Yachting Yarns. By the author of
“ Across Country," etc. Illustrated. 8vo, pp. 287. London.
Net, 84.20.
ESSAYS, BELLES-LETTRES, ETC.
Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Esq.,
F.R.S. From his MS. Cypher in the Pepysian Library.
With a Life and Notes by Richard Lord Braybrooke. Deci-
phered, with additional notes, by Rev. M. Bright, M.A.
Edition de Luxe, to be completed in ten vols., 8vo, 4 vols. now
ready. The edition is limited to 15 copies on Japan paper, @
per vol. net $7.50; 150 copies on Holland paper, @ per vol.
net $5.
The Foundation of Death. A Study of the Drink-Question.
By A. Gustafson. Pp. 582. London, Net, $1.75.
Wit, Wisdom, and Philosophy of Jean P. F. Richter.
Edited by G. P. Hawley. “Standard Library." Pp. 225.
Paper, 25 cents; cloth, $1.
Tales, Essays, and Poems. By Jane and Ann Taylor. With
a Memoir by Grace A. Oliver. Pp. 330. $1.,
Man, Woman, and Child. By M. J. Savage. Pp. 211. $1.
On the Origin of Sam Weller, and the real cause of the suc-
cess of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, together
with a facsimile reprint of the Beauties of Pickwick, col-
lected and arranged by Sam Weller, etc. Embellished with a
choice etching of Mr. Samuel Weller composing his love let-
ter. 8vo, paper.
London. Net, $1.
Sunday Under Three Heads. By Timothy Sparks (Charles
Dickens). A Reproduction in exact facsimile of the rare
original. Paper. London. Net, 80 cents.


92
[August,
THE DIAL
POETRY.
The Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. New Edition, uni-
form with the Eversley Kingsley. With new portrait. 7 vols.
London. Vol. I. now ready. Per vol., $1.75.
The Same. Edition de Lure. Printed on
handmade paper,
with proof portrait, and bound in exquisitely designed covers,
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94
[August,
THE DIAL
“IN SUMMERE WHEN THE LEVES
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BE GRENE"
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THE DIAL
A Monthly Journal of Current Literature
PUBLISHED BY
JANSEN, MCCLURG & CO.
CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER, 1884.
(Vol. V, No. 63.)
TERMS - $1.50 PER YEAR.
THE LOST-ATLANTIS
DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA.
THEORY. W. F. Poole
97
HISTORY OF UNITED STATES NOTES.
Frank Gilbert .
- 101
J. B. Roberts
102
JEVONS'S STUDIES
IN CURRENCY
AND FINANCE.
- 104
Hubbard
-
- 106
BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS
. 108
LITERARY NOTES AND NEWS -
- 110
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
113
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS
115
period this division of the human family had taken
CONTENTS.
possession of the islands and continents of the Western
hemisphere, where it founded an empire the most
famous and forinidable of primeval times. Great in
political power, its commercial, agricultural and other
economical interests were commensurably vast and
unparalleled.”
COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION.
If Mr. Weise can substantiate these state-
ments by historical evidence, he is himself
A. L. Chapin
entitled to the honors of a discoverer. It is his
misfortune that he cannot produce those Egyp-
MRS. FRY, AND ENGLISH PRISON REFORM. Sara A.
tian records, or authentic evidence that they
ever existed. There is only a tradition that
Publications of the Maryland Historical Society.-Turge some Egyptian priests, twenty-five hundred
nef's Annouchka, a Tale.-Domett's History of the Bank years ago, said that there were some records in
of New York.-E. J. L.'s Ten Days in the Jungle.--Hare's
their country which told of a great island in
Venice and Florence.-Shaler's First Book of Geology.-
the Atlantic Ocean situated in front of the Pil-
Atkinson's Lectures on History and the Study of History.
-Miss Johnson's The Fainalls of Tipton.-Harte's On
lars of Hercules, now the Straits of Gibraltar,
the Frontier.-Lady Calcott's Little Arthur's History of which was inhabited by a cultivated and war-
England.
like people, and that later this island disap-
peared beneath the ocean.
The origin of the story, which has come down
to us in two dialogues of Plató entitled “Tim-
æus” and “ Critias,” is that Solon, the Athe-
nian law-giver, visited Egypt five hundred and
seventy years before the Christian era, and was
DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. THE LOST-
there told the tale of the “lost Atlantis” by
ATLANTIS THEORY,*
priests who said they took it from their records.
Solon, who was seeking a subject for a histori-
The finding out for the first time what was cal poem, wrote out the narrative and brought
before unknown or unrecognized, is usually
it back to Greece. About two hundred years
regarded as the meaning of the word discovery later the story came by oral tradition to the
In that sense there was but one discovery of knowledge of Plato, and was told by him in his
America. Mr. Weise, however, is of the opin- two dialogues. Critias he makes the narrator,
ion that there were many discoveries of the
who says that Solon told it to Dropidas, his
Western continent, and some of these he dates great-grandfather, who told it to his grand-
back to prehistoric times He startles us in
father; and that his grandfather when ninety
the opening sentence of his preface, by saying : years of age told it to him when a boy ten
“ It is a fact that America in the early ages was
This is the account as it appears in
one of the inhabited parts of the earth. The
“ Timæus." In “Critias” the same narrator
Egyptians furnish the earliest known account tells again how he came by the story, but in a
of the inhabitants of this continent. The sub- different way. He says: “My great-grand-
sequent explorations of the Spaniards confirmed father, Dropidas, had the original writing,
the statements of the Egyptian records." All which is now in my possession, and was care-
this is important, if true. That his view of the fully studied by me when a child.” This man.
subject may be impressed upon our minds at uscript ought to be looked up by Mr. Weise.
the start, he begins his first chapter as follows :
The main features of the tradition, or some-
" The oldest scriptures, sacred and profane, attest the thing even more shadowy, which Mr. Weise
antiquity of the red race. As early as the antediluvian regards as history, are that the city of Athens,
* THE DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA TO THE YEAR 1525. By Arthur
nine thousand years before the story was told
to Solon, conquered a warlike and powerful
years old.
James Weise. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.


98
[Sept.,
THE DIAL
nation which dwelt upon the island Atlantis They are substantially the same as can be read
overrun and ravaged the greater part of Eu- A sudden end, however, came to all this
rope, Asia Minor, and the northern coast of grandeur and blessedness. There were violent
Africa ; and, but for the power and valor of the earthquakes and floods in that region. In a
Athenians, would have conquered the world. single day and night of rain, the whole popula-
Not stopping to look into the chronology of tion dropped into the earth, and in like manner
this statement, which antedates by about six the island of Atlantis sunk into the ocean and
thousand years the chronology of the second disappeared. “And this is the reason,” says
chapter of Genesis, we will allow the original Plato, “why the sea in those parts is impassable
narrator to describe briefly the wealth and mag and impenetrable, because there is such a quan-
nificence of the island Atlantis, and first of its tity of shallow mud in the way; and this was
chief city. The entire circuit of its outer wall, caused by the subsidence of the island.” A
eleven miles in circumference, was covered with noted novelist was asked why he killed his prin-
shining brass; the second wall was coated with cipal hero so early in the story, and replied that
tin, and the inner wall around the citadel he did it in self-defense; for if he had not
flashed with the red light of orichalcum (cop killed his hero, his hero would have killed him.
per). The temple of the principal god, Posei Plato took the safe precaution of putting his
don, was six hundred and six feet long, three island beneath the ocean, where it would tell no
hundred and three feet wide, and of propor tales.
tional height. The outside was covered with Mr. Weise prints many pages of this sort of
silver and the pinnacles with gold. The ceiling description of Atlantis, and seemingly without
was lined with ivory adorned with silver and a suspicion that it is not veritable history.* The
gold. The statues of the temple were of gold. above abstract, however, is taken from Plato's
That of Poseidon was so tall that his head dialogues. Many novel-readers are not aware
touched the ceiling. He was represented as that Plato was one of the most charming of
standing in a chariot, driving with reins six story-tellers.
winged horses. Surrounding the statue were Professor Jowett, the latest translator of
one hundred Nereides riding on dolphins. The Plato, on the other hand, regards the whole nar-
Greeks recognized only fifty of these lovely rative as a myth prophetic or symbolic of the
maiden divinities; and Plato, in order to protect later and real struggle between the Athenians
himself from the charge of mythological ignor-
and the hordes of Persia.
ance, slyly adds, "for the people of that day
“ We may safely conclude," he says, “ that the entire
thought that this was their number.” One narrative is due to the imagination of Plato, who could
curious in these matters might inquire how the easily invent · Egyptians or anything else,' and who has
people of Atlantis, who lived nine thousand
used the name of Solon (of whose poem there is no
trace in antiquity) and the tradition of the Egyptian
years before Homer, ever heard of the Nereides,
priests to give verisimilitude to his story. No one
and were as well up as they seem to have been knew better than Plato how to invent a noble lie.' To
in the details of Grecian mythology.
the Greek, such a tale, like that of earth-born men,
On the outside of the temple were the statues
would have seemed perfectly accordant with the char-
acter of his mythology, and not more marvelous than
of the whole race of the “ten kings” and their
the wonders of the East narrated by Herodotus and
wives, all of gold. There were royal and public others. The fiction has exercised a great influence over
baths of hot and cold water, and separate baths the imagination of later ages. As many atteinpts have
for women. Who shall
been made to find the great island, as to discover the
that women, during
say
country of the lost tribes."
the primeval æons, were not the social equals of
men ? There were massive aqueducts and
Mr. Ignatius Donnelly, in his "Atlantis, the
bridges in Atlantis; gardens and groves, in
Antediluvian World,” has recently undertaken
which were all manner of trees of wonderful to show that Plato's island of fable did actually
height and beauty; gymnasiums, race courses,
exist; that it was the cradle of the human race,
and immense artificial docks filled with triremes
from which the Eastern continent was peopled,
and naval stores. Its canals were three hundred and that it was the pathway by which the West-
feet wide and one hundred feet deep. Why
ern continent was settled in the antediluvian
galleys with three benches of oars, the largest
* He is annoyed, however, at the statement of Plato that the
vessels which are mentioned, should require sea was impassable over the sunken island by reason of the shal-
canals one hundred feet deep, is not explained.
low mud; and his comments on it are amusing. He says:
inference of the priest that the mud of the submerged island
A fosse or ditch of the same width and depth, made the Atlantic impassable, is seemingly an assertion without
and eleven hundred and fifty miles long, was
any basis of fact. Had he said that the submergence of some of
excavated around the great plain on which the
sea-path between the continents of the two hemispheres, this
chief city stood. The political and social sys statement would have strictly accorded with what he had said
tenis in vogue on the island of Atlantis are also
before.” When Mr. Weise finds that lost manuscript of Solon, he
will probably see how Plato misquoted that truthful Egyptian
set forth in minute and fascinating detail.
priest.
"The
the islands west of the Pillars of Hercules obliterated the marked


1884.]
99
THE DIAL
ages. In treating, with much vigor and inge- favor this supposition; but, on the other hand,
nuity, this quaint and improbable hypothesis, he profess to describe its size and give it much
has written an entertaining book; and in run narrower limits.
In “Timæus” he says “it
ning out with much study and diligent research was larger than Libya (the northern coast of
the analogies between the early traditions, Africa west of Egypt] and Asia (Minor] put
mythologies, structures, implements and cus together.” In “Critias” he gives the dimen-
toms of the two continents, has made an sions of the great plain on which the chief city
instructive book. The dissimilarities in these was situated, making it less in size than the
particulars and in the fauna and flora, as they British islands, including England, Wales, and
would not help his theory, he has not treated. Scotland. The whole island had been explored,
One has the feeling in reading his book that and the western and most remote side — that
the author took up the subject as a diversion, “ on the side of the sea” is described. He
and to see what he could make of it, without says:
expecting to convince himself or anybody else
“ The whole country was very lofty and precipitous
that there was truth in his hypothesis. He on the side of the sea ; but the country immediately
seems, however, to have convinced Mr. Weise, about and surrounding the city was a level plain. It
if not himself, that Plato's “noble lie” was a
was smooth and even, but of an oblong shape, extend-
ing in one direction three thousand stadia ( about three
solid geographical and historical fact.
hundred and forty-five miles] and going up the coun-
Accepting, for the moment, as true, all which try from the sea through the center of the island, two
these two writers claim concerning the lost thousand stadia (two hundred and thirty miles). The
Atlantis, what relation has it to the discovery whole region of the island lies towards the south, and
is sheltered from the north. Among the surrounding
of America ? It will certainly not be asserted
mountains there were many wealthy inhabited villages
that the island was any part of America itself, and rivers, and lakes and meadows, supplying food
or the adjacent islands, and that the great enough for every animal, wild or tame, and wood of
armies with which this people overran and con-
various sorts, abundant for every kind of work."
quered nearly the whole of the settled parts of The area of the plain thus described was
Europe, Asia, and Africa, were transported to about 79,000 square miles, while that of the
and fro across the whole or any considerable British islands is 89,644 square miles. Plato
part of a stormy ocean four thousand miles in makes another statement on this matter which
breadth. A single item given by Plato concern brings out about the same result. He says
the
ing the military equipment of one of the ten land was subdivided into lots, each two stadia
subdivisions of this people, will show something square, and ruled by a leader; and that there
of what this problem of ocean transportation were sixty thousand of these lots -- which indi-
was to them. It had ten thousand war-chariots, cates a total area of 78,000 square miles. He
each with a charioteer, two horses and two out-gives no data as to the space covered by the
riders. Besides these there were archers, sling- surrounding mountains except what may be in-
ers, stone-shooters, and javelin-men, seven ferred from the above description.
hundred and twenty thousand in number, and There is, moreover, in the narrative in
the complement of two hundred and forty “Critias” no intimation, no tradition, nor sus-
thousand oarsmen and sailors to man twelve picion even, that there was any continent or
hundred triremes. “Such,” says
Plato, land beyond the island. In “Timæus," how-
the order of war in the royal city. That of ever, a different statement appears
that the
the other nine governments was different and island“ was the way to the other islands, and
would be weary to relate.” What modern from the islands you might pass through the
nation, with steamships and all the improved whole of the opposite continent which sur-
facilities for ocean transportation, could grapple rounded the true ocean.” Plato believed that
with such a problem as this? If a people liv- the earth was a sphere, and that the ocean, of
ing eleven thousand five hundred years ago had whose extent nothing was known, necessarily
the art and means of ocean navigation, some had bounds. In the next sentence he explains
trace or tradition of it would have come down that he means by continent simply land which
to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. They bounds the ocean. He compares the Mediter-
had not the compass, and it does not appear
that ranean sea with the ocean, and says “it seems
they had sailing vessels. The island of Atlan like a lake having a narrow entrance ; but the
tis, therefore, if it existed at all, must have other seems really an ocean, and the land en-
been in very close proximity to the Eastern closing it would in every respect most properly
continent.
be called a continent." While asserting as a
In order to maintain the assertion that Atlan- speculation that there was a passage by means
tis had any part in the discovery and settle- of islands to the opposite continent, which he
ment of America it must be shown that the probably suspected was Asia, he does not state
island was nearly four thousand miles in that a passage to it had ever been made, or
length. The two narratives of Plato do not that anything was known about it. On the
was


100
[Sept.,
THE DIAL
globe of Martin Beheim, 1492, the Atlantic nelly or a Weise may arise who will claim that,
Ocean is depicted filled with small imaginary in the nineteenth century, somebody by the
islands with fanciful names, and bounded on name of Jules Verne made a voyage “From the
the west by the continent of Asia. The Earth to the Moon;" and will prove it, by show-
Canary and Cape Verde islands are the only ing that this person was in the habit of doing
ones with names ever recognized in geography. that strange sort of traveling, inasmuch as he
It might be supposed that Beheim inserted made another voyage of "Twenty-thousand
these numerous islands on the authority of Leagues under the Sea.”
Plato; but he did not. He gave the source of During all the reading, protracted study and
his information by inscribing on the globe this meditation of Columbus before he made his first
legend (in German): "Marco Polo says that voyage, the idea never entered his mind that
the mariners have found in the Indian seas
there was
a continent between Europe and
12,700 islands inhabited and abounding with Asia. His
purpose was to reach Asia, Cathay,
precious stones, pearls, spices, and mountains of India, the land of gold and spices, by sailing
gold."
west. He took with him letters of introduction
If America had been known to, and was from the King and Queen of Spain to the Grand
settled, as is claimed, by people from Atlantis, Khan of Cathay (China); and when he landed
the fact would have come back to the mother at Cuba, he thought he was on the island of
country, and been transmitted with the rest of Japan. He wrote in his journal, October 21,
this delightful romance, to the veracious chron- 1402: "I am determined to proceed to the
iclers of Egypt, and through them to Solon, continent, and visit the city of Guisay (the
Plato, Donnelly, and Weise. No one can be capital of Cathay) where I shall deliver the
so senseless as to think that an island which letters of your Highnesses to the Grand Khan,
sunk beneath the ocean some ten thousand and demand an answer, with which I shall
years ago or more was any part of America, return." He returned to Spain without detect-
which, up to this day, has not met with that ing his mistake. The first account of his dis-
catastrophe. *
coveries appeared in February, 1493, as “A
The fiction of Plato has, as Professor Jowett Letter of Christopher Columbus respecting the
remarks, "exercised a great influence over the Islands of India beyond the Ganges lately dis-
imagination of later ages;" but it never sug.
covered.” He made three later voyages in
gested to any person that there was a con search of the river Ganges and the home of
tinent between Europe and eastern Asia. The the Grand Khan, and did not understand why
alleged prophetic lines of Seneca (in Archbishop he could not find them. He died in 1506, with-
Whately's translation): “There shall come a out having known or suspected that he had dis-
time in later ages when Ocean shall relax his covered a new continent. John and Sebastian
chains and a vast continent appear, and a pilot Cabot saw the continent in the Gulf of St.
shall find new worlds and Thule shall be no Lawrence in 1497, and supposed it was China.
more Earth's bound”.
-was a poet's rhapsody, In the same year Americus Vespucius saw the
the meaning of which, even more in the origi continent of South America, and supposed it
nal than in the translation, is doubtful and was a part of Asia. He also made three later
obscure. Some thousand years hence a Don- voyages, and died without knowing that he had
looked upon a new Hemisphere which now bears
his name.
In 1513, when Vespucius had been
* The fool-killer, however, seems not to have made his round
this year; for a book published in 1884, by Trübner & Co., London, in his grave a year, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa,
entitled "Researches into the Lost Histories of America: by W. S.
from the mountain tops of Panama, first saw
Blacket,” positively asserts (p. 31 ) that the country which the
Egyptians know as Atlantis, was America itself; and he scoffs at the
the Pacific Ocean, and then the fact appeared
assertion of Plato that Atlantis ever sunk in the Ocean, as it was that a new continent had been discovered.
an impossibility. He states also that Ulysses visited America.
After spending a year with Circe, he sailed for “the land of dark-
Every map and chart of America made previ-
ness." "Where was the land of darkness?" He replies: “It was ous to this date assumed the old Asiatic coast
America. Not only did the Hindoos call America the land of
line of Marco Polo as its basis; and students
darkness, but the classic writers did so likewise. The Odyssey
opens with an account of the arrival of Ulysses in that land. Who of American history have often strained their
was Calypso? She was a nymph, an inhabitant of Atlantis; 'her eye-sight and puzzled their brains over the
hollow grot' was located in Central America. After revolving
years' Ulysses returned to Ithaca” (p. 37). Ulysses, therefore,
of Juan de la Cosa, the Cabots, Ptolemy,
maps
made a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean twice, and the Odyssey Peter Martyr, Ruysch, and Schoner, to find the
tells of the people he saw in America! Mr. Blacket further
first delineation of the Coast of Maine, Cape
assures us that "the names, when subjected to the process of
localization, are all found to be American." The ancestors of the Cod, Long Island, Chesapeake Bay, and Flor-
American aborigines, he tells us, were Gorgons, Harpies, and
ida. Their disappointment and vexation have
Faunes, which is apparent from the character of the American
Indians. The Styx was the Gulf of Mexico, Acheron the Missis-
been like that of Columbus when he could not
sippi River, Phlegethon the Missouri River, and Cocytus the Ohio find the Grand Khan and the river Ganges. It
River (p. 57). It is lamentable that such gibberish as this is
is a little singular, however, that the eastern
soberly put forth by reputable publishers in our day as American
history.
coast lines of Asia and North America are so


1884.]
101
THE DIAL
much alike that some of these scholarly seekumbus, John Cabot, and Fernando Magellan.
ers have found what they were looking for. They fall more pleasantly upon English eyes and
The general trend of the coasts, from northeast ears than Cristobal Colon, Giovanni Caboto, and
to southwest, is the same. Kamtschatka will Fernam de Magalhaens. The paper, type and
answer in a rough way for Greenland; the Sea press-work of the book are first-class, and the
of Okhotsk for Baffin's Bay; the Gulf of Tar- index at its close is excellent.
tary for the Gulf of St. Lawrence; the island
W. F. POOLE.
of Yesso for Newfoundland; and out of the
other Japanese islands can be made Nova Sco-
tia, Long Island, and whatever else is wanted.
The conformation of the peninsula of Corea is
HISTORY OF UNITED STATES NOTES.*
like that of Florida; and the Yellow Sea, with No man in this country has had better oppor-
some imagination and a good deal of credulity, tunities than John Jay Knox, perhaps no one
will do for the Gulf of Mexico. It was not else as good, to acquaint himself with the line of
till the return of Magellan's ship Vittoria, in facts constituting the history of United States
1522, which had made a voyage round the notes. For many years the comptroller of the
world, that the extent of the Pacific Ocean and currency, he sustained official relations requir-
the cosmology of the world were known. When ing of him a mastery of the subject in all its
it took so many years to get the conception of a statistical ramifications. In some respects he
western continent into the minds of its explorers, has the necessary qualifications for his present
is it possible to conceive that there was any task. He is accurate and thorough in all that
previous knowledge, tradition, or even suspicion relates to the statistics of the subject. His
on the subject ? Plato's account of the lost style is simple to austerity. But he lacks the
Atlantis was as well known to the educated men rare faculty of breathing life into dry figures.
of four centuries ago as it is to-day, and there The book consists largely of quotations, most-
is no probability that it ever suggested to any ly from public documents and congressional
person that there was a western continent. It speeches; and, what is more to the point, the
will be safe to leave the vexed historical excerpts were evidently selected with a view to
problem of the settlement of America unsolved, sustain what is obviously the central idea in
until, in the absence of direct and reliable evi the author's mind.
dence, some less absurd hypothesis than the In the opinion of Mr. Knox, the emission of
Lost-Atlantis theory is proposed.
paper money is fraught with constant peril
So much space has been given to the consid- peril so great, in fact, as to render it unwise for
eration of the topic suggested in the first chap- the Government to put or keep such money
ter of Mr. Weise's book, that none is left for a afloat except to meet a pressing emergency.
notice of the rest of the volume. Indeed, there If he had been on the Supreme bench, he
is not much in it, as regards novelty or origin- would never have held the Legal-tender Act
ality, which requires a notice. The book is constitutional; at least, he would have justified
made up chiefly of abridged accounts from the it only as a war measure. Without indulging,
writings of the early explorers, including the with any degree of freedom, in censure of the
apocryphal voyages of the Northmen. Coming position taken by the court (only one justice
down to the time of Columbus, the original dissenting), he shows very plainly that the
accounts are fuller and are selected with good real object held in mind in preparing the vol-
judgment. The whole value of the book con-
ume was to foster a public sentiment hostile to
sists in its quotations. The author, either from the decision in question. He hopes that a
timidity, or, what is more probable, from his constitutional amendment may be secured in
lack of familiarity with the subject — which in the interest of hard money. Apparently he
itself is a life-study - seldom, after he is out thinks that a public sentiment may be created
of the first chapter, ventures upon an opinion in favor of his view of the case, by showing
of his own; and hence we have none of those the attitude taken in times past by ihe states-
broad analogies and sharp deductions and wise
men of the country. In this he is likely to be
conclusions which are so suggestive and instruc- disappointed.
tive in the writings of Henry Stevens on the The position held by the court may be briefly
same theme. In writing this notice I have found stated as an explicit and unequivocal declara-
scarcely an idea or a suggestion of the authortion of plenary power in Congress to furnish
which could be used except for criticism; and the country with a legal-tender paper money,
hence I have drawn from other sources and
A history of the various issues of
from some previous study of the subject..
paper money by the Government of the United States. By John
In translating an author it is well to translate Jay Knox. With an Appendix containing the recent decision of
also his proper names, when they are so com-
the Supreme Court of the United States and the dissenting opin-
ion upon the legal-tender question. New York: Charles Scrib-
mon in their English form as Christopher Col-
* UNITED STATES NOTES.
ner's Sons.


102
(Sept.,
THE DIAL
1
unrestricted as to amount. This is not a war finance so important as to be a revolution. This
power, but a constant quantity in the authority money may be classed in official documents, and
of the legislative branch of the government, in historical treatises written from the Knox
the judiciary having no right to interfere with point of view, with previous United States
its exercise. Mr. Knox shows that the most notes; but they bear about the same relation to
ardent friends of the Legal-tender Act when each other that commercial paper does to bank
its passage was under discussion did not go so bills.
far as that, and some eminent Republicans No genius for financiering conceived and
notably Jacob Collamer and Roscoe Conkling, secured for this country what, with all its lia-
-- stoutly denied the right of Congress, even bilities, is incomparably the best monetary sys-
as a war measure, to make anything a legal | tem the world ever saw. It was wrought out
tender for debts except money having intrinsic by the same indirection that nature employs
value. Had Thaddeus Stevens, Mr. Spalding, when, in obedience to a blind necessity, the
or any other ardent advocate of the bill
, been doing of one thing which is an end unto it-
asked if he claimed for Congress the power self proves to be the accomplishment of an-
now conceded to it, he would have felt as did other thing of a radically different character.
the ancient Hebrew who exclaimed, “Is thy An account of the Greenback which should set
servant a dog that he should do this thing?" forth the processes by which this currency was
The truth is that the doctrine of the Supreme evolved would be a very timely contribution to
Court is a remarkable instance of evolution. historical literature. FRANK GILBERT.
The first American issue of paper money dates
back to 1690 in Massachusetts. The other
colonies followed that example from time to
COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION.*
time as the pressure was upon them. The
home government was always opposed to it, It is not to be expected that the principles of
being under the influence of the creditor class. education will ever pass into the domain of the
In colonial days, as in our own times, it was a exact sciences. Mental science is not and can-
question of locality ; Western enterprise being not be fixed and exact. The exceptions to all
on one side and Eastern capital on the other. rules are too numerous and too important to
In the Revolutionary period, paper money was admit of any accurate classification. The art
issued on the same plea of military necessity as of teaching, however, is far less empirical than
it was in our late civil war ; and Mr. Knox has it was a generation ago. The study of the
no word of censure for the subsequent treat human mind, in its growth through all the
ment Continental money received from the transitions from first consciousness to what is
United States. Whatever may be thought of called maturity, has engaged the attention of
the possibilities of future trouble involved in the ablest thinkers and observers from Locke
the right of Congress to increase the volume of down to the present time; and slowly but
paper money at option, it must in all fairness surely there has grown up a body of principles
be conceded that the United States was deeply which has developed into a system of education.
dishonored by the downright rascality which Associations of educators, conventions and in-
repudiated (for that is the right term to use) stitutes have given opportunities for exchange
the money which sustained to the war for Inde of views and experiences in school work, which,
pendence substantially the same relation that by the very opportunity thus afforded, have
the greenback did to the war for the Union. stimulated observation and reflection, until there
It was Suetonius who said, “Let us thank the are few phases of child-life that have not had
Gods that we are better than our fathers." the side-lights of manifold experience thrown
A constitutional amendment restricting and
There is now little excuse for any
regulating the power of Congress in the emis teacher who is following crude and unphilo-
sion of paper money, so as to guard against sophical methods in his work.
such a craze as fiatism, will probably be adopted The book under present consideration is an
sometime, but not until after the sentiment English work, and bears the stamp of its trans-
which pervades this book has disappeared and atlantic origin in many local allusions and
been almost forgotten. The American people illustrations; but it is a summary, and a very
have at last a truly national currency. It has
It has full summary, too, of the prevailing thought of
come out of tribulation, extending over a period the best teachers in both hemispheres. Indeed,
of nearly two centuries ; and it has come to nothing in it would sound strange or out of
stay. Mr. Knox is careful not to use the term place before an American council of educators
“Greenback," and in the lexicon of the Treas -unless it were the article on “Religious In-
ury Department there is no such word ; but it is struction,” and the putting into the foreground
none the less an integral part of our language,
monumental of a new departure in American By James Currie, A.M.
upon them.
* THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF COMMON-School EDUCA-
TION
Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.


1884.]
103
THE DIAL
*
*
of British localities in the article on Geog- is in no way responsible, and the wise educator
raphy, and “home” (i. e. English) events in will lose no time in uselessly going over what
that upon History. The key-note to the entire has already been sufficiently well done, but will
treatise is really, though not formally, expressed take up the work and carry it on consecutively
in this statement:
and persistently. Many young teachers have
“The school has a general, not a special design; it
their high ideals rudely shattered by the appar-
does not consider how much of this subject or that will ent insensibility of some children to moral
be required to fit the pupil for such and such a posi- considerations. It is surprising and even shock-
tion; but how it can best discipline his mind. The
elevation of character implied in the attainment of ing that children should seem to be so destitute
this end will better prepare him for the position he
of a conscience.
may be called on to occupy than any accumulation of
“ The intelligence of the child," says our author, “ is
knowledge presented to him from its apparent exclusive not a sufficient basis for his earliest practice of mor-
adaptation to its requirements.”
ality. It is mischievous, therefore, to aim at making
Character and habit, intellectual, moral, phys- him a law to himself, when the very idea of law is
beyond his comprehension. * The child has
ical, are the ends, and the only ends, to be
but little intelligence, and that little he is not careful
sought in a common-school education; and all
to distinguish from humor or caprice; so that to ground
principles and methods are to keep these con morality upon it is to ground it on the passing feeling
stantly in view. The question before the
of the moment, that is, to give it no solid foundation
at all. Morality is in infancy founded on the authority
teacher's mind is not, what will be the use of
of the parent, acting with the support of habit and
this fact or lesson to the pupil in after years ? | associatio